Reviewer: Natch Signed
Date: April 15 2008
Title: Chapter 1: Chapter 1
This is the best I have ever read ever on this site, period. This is going to be a bit of a long review, but you deserve it, for the sheer length of this story.
I first looked at this story when I looked at the little sidebar to the left showing the 3 most recent stories. I picked the one with the R rating, just because I was in that sort of mood. I decided to see if you had any other stories, and came across this one.
I gasped when I read the word count was nearing 150,000 words. That is very hefty for a fan fiction. The most recent book I read was around 220,000 words (Stranger in a Strange Land, if you care to know), and this was pretty damn close in my book. Then I saw the number of reviews. 11. I felt this doesn't do something of this length any justice at all, considering you put so much work into it. I decided to read it a bit, to see if it was because your writing style was poor. I read some of intro, and concluded this was clearly not the case, and that people have just too small of an attention span.
I made the decision to read your novel (yes, it's a novel) in its entirety, partly because it was good enough to keep me interested, and partly do it justice. You put much effort into this, I can tell, just by the sheer number of words it contains. So often, I see great stories written by people that never end of getting completed. But you completed this one. And that made it worthy of reading. So no more than 8 hours ago, I bit into it. 5 hours later, I'm at the part shortly after he comes back after "running away". I felt the suspense at what was going to happen next, true and utter suspense, not some of idle curiosity about what's coming, but real suspense. Then I did a double-check. You got me caring about this character to the point where I am sweating my balls off wondering just what in the devil's unholy and god damned name is going to happen to him at one of the many climaxes of this story. And that statement is true in more than one way har har har.
This basically chiseled into the stone tablet of my brain that you, my friend, write a very mean story. Thus, I decided to review this grand tale. After finishing it, I sat back and am typing the review you now see before you. This story has been long, and I honestly can say I did not want it to end. Seriously. I would like to see a sequel, possibly starting it off sometime around the Christmas vacation in which he gets to see Suzy, but I'm not sure. Anyways, the point is this is a great story, and deserves great praise. You my friend have a resolve I have rarely seen before, and were it not for the content of this story (GTS in general) I would fully urge you to try and get it published. Hell, try to anyways; you might have a shot at landing in the "alternative literature" section of the bookstore.
So there you have it. A long winded review. I babbled a lot, but I just felt I had to say so much about this novel. Yes, by definition of length, it is a novel. I will read all your work from here on out, and will graciously review any story you write. You my good sir are a great writer.
Author's Response: Thanks, Natch! I appreciate the thoughtful review and the high praise. I don\'t think I\'ll ever actually submit it (I wrote it between chapters of a \"real\" novel whenever I wanted to cut loose and blow off some steam). I know it meanders considerably at times and tends to be repetitive (one of the dangers of publishing a chapter at a time), but I\'m still quite proud of how it turned out.\r\n\r\nI\'m planning on a sequel that will tie HOMUNCULUS and THE SUMMER JOB together. Of course, the rate I write these things, I may die of old age before I get started ;-)\r\n\r\nThanks again!