Search options (Page 88 of 151)

Does that mean that all those old resurrected Lances were restored immediately, or has this particular thing happened before?

I owe many interesting corners of my vocabulary to writers better educated and more literate than I.  I'm not sure about limiting `caterwauling` to the mating call, but I'm reluctant to assume that a reader doesn't know a word, especially when it is an especially suitable word.

No, you don't need to give us the whole (back)story.  But you need to have that mapped out, including how his attitudes change, so that when he does tell us things he's telling us things from a consistent story, and so that you have specific things he can tell us, even if he's vague and cagey.

I'm rewriting (at an agonizing pace) the Erevain episode because having a generic tinfoil hat type didn't work for me.  So now Erevain's mentor has tumbled onto some nasty secrets.  I haven't got every one of them nailed down, but there are two secrets under the Academy that I have nailed down.  One I've hinted at and it links to backstory that I've given.  The other I haven't hinted at yet, but one of my reviewers (was it you?) wondered about economies based on gold.  No, they're not turning lead into gold.  I do hope the reveal will give people skin-and-bones nightmares, but that's at least five books off, and I have to get the first one out of where it's stuck in the mud.  I also hope to use the reveal event to trigger avalanches through several books.  After I get Erevain out of the mud, get the Book 1 timelines nailed down, rewrite the training sequences ... you get the idea.

So what is Anthony's backstory, external as well as internal?  How does he remember it?  How does that memory change with his new understanding?  How does he describe the process?

FWIW, I think the external part of the backstory you've given is brilliant for the job it has to do.  Of course, how Anthony remembers it and how Catherine remembers it will differ, at least in what the events meant to each, just as they did for Catherine and Matthew.

Have you seen Trouble With The Curve?  It didn't get great praise from the critics, but it ought to be a classic date movie.  Anyhow, at one point Clint Eastwood's character tells his daughter that he wanted her to have more in life than spending it all "sitting in the cheap seats" and she replies, "You call that the cheap seats.  To me those were the best years of my life."

Okay, review is done and it's a MONSTER.  I light into you on Anthony's self-exposition, and I ramble on at great length afterwards about it.  I hope it's clear, and I hope some if it is of use.

They've never read Old Possum, or seen the musical Cats?  Of the Jellicles: "And pleasant to hear when they ... caterwaul."

Dog food.

Take the cure

crack-pot-shot

The story starts with Earthwound.  Why was Jaylene Lance'd?  Why did The Defiler attack the Wolves there?  So it's both Kha's story and Jaylene's  And was it Pure Luck that Kha got the Summer of Centrillium?  Can you say that this is the sort of luck that happened when the Wolves are together?  Can you use the trip to let Kha give us a little backstory?

The outstanding problem I see with Mandates is the opening.   Earthwound, Kha's half-healing, Kha's trip to Aerie (with the stop for Centrillium).

IMO, the strongest episode in the whole work is Kha and Dragon Sil.  Whatever the other problems, the character reveal and the action that does it are very, very powerful.

Let's wait until the known problem (the containment jar sequence) is addressed, and them we can see if there is sill a problem.

Meanwhile, why is this thread sticky?

So you want a simple, Marvel Comics story?  Actually, even the Marvel comics stories generaly have two cycles of danger-resolution (after the good guys finish fighting among themselves).

I think if the containment-jar portion gets its due, you'll see Alina as just one problem of many.  Really, she's only in the foreground for a few chapters.  I agree, she's a delightful villian, but she's far too small to be the big bad and you should see that she's just one landing in the staircase.

I'm surprised that the Zyrtec-hunt didn't put your interest in high gear again.  It held my interest, big-time.