Oh ho! Now the reviews are coming in. I glanced through them, noting the comments on the exposition. Too much info, they said. I have a very different take - too rushed.

Simply too many time-transitions crammed into a tiny space make all the background info seem to rush together. And as well it should because I sense you want to move past the opening salvo to the good stuff.

An example...

Dune chapter 2 wrote:

Paul Atreides starts at four and rushes through his Bene Gesserit training plus explanation of the Machine Crusade / Bulterian Jihad. Irulan. 2 years older, grooms to be Imperial consort plus explanation of the origins of the human Imperium - Paul likes to fight Harkonnens, hey Paul is sixteen and Irulan is getting married - end of chapter.

See? Too much for one chapter. It's not the info dump that would be the issue - rather there are so many major events going on that all the info has to get packed in there with it.

PS Rhiannon, if you're following, this is my comment about your chapter with the forest - hot sex - disguise - surprise - unsurprise - surprise cage - cage on a wagon - escape - I'm on a boat chapter. It's not the events - it's that they're too close together.

Some more examples...

-The Rowan in Anne McCaffrey's story takes 60 pages t go from age 2 to 16 and even that felt rushed.

-It took [J e n n a] seven chapters to explain her initial story. And that was for one character... so 14 for two. Kim needed only one paragraph, but her story is Conan-simple in comparison to yours. "Where are you going?" "That way" "Ok. I'm going with you"

all things said, I was okay with the info dumps. Yikes! Understand that to remove them will drastically repace the rest of the story.

'The admiral's presence spat venom

That doesn't work for me, any more than "The thought of President Trump spat"

Thoughts and presences can't spit. It's an affront to spitting.

Anyway,  usually pass on chapter 2's but I'll make an exception

I did. There are too many "radiate"s in that one chapter (try exhude or shone or squared-danced). Tie-in is good. Death to all prologues. You kids need to get off my lawn.

979

(87 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

I like njc's approach....

Note the lines in original don't pull my eyes in a consistent direction...
http://kwan.skyfire.ca/images/tnbw/SoM1.jpg
(lines drawn across the eyes of the background shapes)

njc's is a bit more organized, albeit centered on the lower back instead of the upper back
http://kwan.skyfire.ca/images/tnbw/SoM2.jpg
(the curvature he puts in the ground works well againstthe staff)

if you go with njc's approach, might I suggest you rearrange the title text to improve the line work?
http://kwan.skyfire.ca/images/tnbw/SoM3.jpg

980

(87 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Books is your central theme... your main character's main power. Imagine a Harry Potter cover but he's holding a sword instead of a wand.

981

(87 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

I like the color scheme but I think it's missing a"book" element

982

(87 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

The repercussions for his past decisions are not over -> far from over
(signed the not-police)

983

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Written by Sir James Knowles. It's pretty good when he's got a recognizable character on the scene (eg Sir Lancelot)... but that round table has to be seating 40-50 knights and he's not scared to name them all during a 10-page window which makes his scenes more like a revolving door.

984

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

*throes

985

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

I'm in the opening throws on Colourless. I'm also still slogging through the Arthurian Tales but it's been several months on that and I must concede I'm lost and might not finish

986

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Looked interesting. Not enough context to dig in or comment, so I'll leave it at that

987

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

I got voice from Rogers and data from wind. Best of both worlds - great voice reception and unlimited data. Only drawback lugging around the extra device

Hey Janet

Check your Email re backup/archive site.

tap water counts as running water. Blocks certain powers in our mythology including vampirism (and including telepathy in my world)

We will vigorously defend our coastline like our long-running war against the Danes for Hans Island (a war we are winning right now).

Think I'm kidding?
http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/hans … flict.html

After letting it roll around in the back of my head for a few weeks, I wish to nominate "glop" as the count noun for gillis.

Bob poked his boot into the puddle of gillis.
Jill hid in the cave and watched four glops of gillis slosh by.

This word is sorta comprehensible and is something the characters could believably coin on the spot.

@Bill K: Spoiler: Lady K is the best character ever. Waaaaay better than Dr Ess or Queen Aussie

"Mentally ill" is a polite word you're used to hearing used as a weapon against you if you suffer from any a mental health problem. I would recommend saving such a word for character speech. Used in the right place, it will really colour your principals. Used while I'm making a buying decision, it will worry me.

I wasn't going for short, I was going for "glue the most interesting stuff together". Don't think of it like me snipping words to death but of pruning filler to bring out the flavour of the meat.

Also, I tried to stay true to the original, otherwise "destiny" would have been gone entirely (when a writer tells me "X is destined to do Y" what they mean is go ahead and skip to the final chapter because (i) X will succeed at Y or (ii) X will fail at Y and you're read this whole story for nothing)

deity vs entity:
Bob met with Joe and the followers of the Bing deity
Bob met with Joe and the followers of the Bing entity
If you can't see a subtle nuance in the second sentence that makes Bing realer, I will back away from this one

"Mentally ill"
is a very strong word. I mean very very strong. Not quite as offensive as some of the other words. recommend "Mentally challenged" or "mental disorder". I'm not saying don't use ill... just saying that if you put tomatoes on your sandwich, you must be prepared to get tomato flavour in every bite.

Overall, I find it approaches the concept of the story and what I presume to be the central theme. Don't let me bully you out of it

highlighting were my eyes rested...

Joseph and Apollo are teenagers living in the 41st century who grow up worlds apart but share a common bond — both are visited by a being who calls himself God. God takes each of them on an incredible journey to fulfill their destinies. With God’s help, Apollo, heir to Earth’s grand Imperium Romanum, leads a holy crusade to conquer a perilously divided galaxy. At the same time, God helps Joseph, the deeply religious crown prince of the strategic world New Bethlehem, found a radical new religion to steer humanity away from the Apocalypse. Ultimately, the teens' destinies will collide, something neither may survive. But is God a real deity, or the imagination of two mentally ill boys?

Some of the words I've deliberately overlooked (so you can see my thought process):
living > that they're alive is implied
grow up > implied they're growing at least a little unless they both die in chapter 1 paragraph 1
common bond > implied by them being mentioned together
incredible journey > superlative / advertising speakum
deeply > I realze you meant deeply with respect to Apollo but it reads out of phase here
religion > appears a lot in this little paragraph if we shall equate God / holy / religion / crusade
(destiny appears a lot too)
I dropped Imperium Romanum for reasons I'll make a separate post about
didn't like perilously because a) adjective b) it's not that "divided" when it's 3 parties but kept for now

And then taking what you wrote and joining all the blue parts:

Jospeph and Apollo, 41st century teenagers, are visited each by a being who calls himself God. Apollo, heir to Earth's human Empire, leads a crusade against a perilously divided galaxy.  Joseph, crown prince of the strategic world New Bethlehem, founds a radical religion to steer humanity from the brink of Apocalypse. Destiny calls, and each teen has help from God. Bit is this God entity real or imagination of the mentally ill?

Other notes:
a) I tried to shave off words wherever I could by joining / grouping concepts.
b) tried to get religion fown to 3 mentions (crusade / religion / Apocalypse)
c) Made God realer by asserting he's an entity (as written that last line forces him to be imaginary in the head of a believer)

She also does things that will horrify Joseph.

Such as shooting helpless opponents?

yes, I'm accusing njc of erudition

I hate holodecks

yes

1,000

(1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

I recommend not italicizing new words... especially if the word is not new to the characters and not stressed in any way. That would make for a very bumpy read