[Report This]Date: July 02 2019 2:32 AM Title: Tessa's, Fireworks, Juggling, At the Oak
What are the consequences of what he’s doing?! Why won’t you tell me?
This was quite the explanatory installment, and I got far more background about Mike and Molly. I love the way they interacted, Mike being nonchalantly tiny, and Molly being casually huge, which can sometimes be so much better than showing off or being intentionally giantess-ey.
The way she helped Mike was lovely, and juggling boulders? That was such fun to read!
Author's Response:
Suspense is good for the soul. Or so I've been told. ^^ Glad you're still enjoying it!
[Report This]Date: June 23 2019 5:12 AM Title: Disclaimer, Arrival, Fly By
Wow. What a wonderful surprise to see a followup to Maze; even though the original has been around a long time, I first read it just a couple months ago and it left a strong impression.
I'll write some thoughts on Maze first. What I really enjoyed about it was the titular maze and Molly and Mike's (M&M's?) cooperation in getting through it. There are a few stories out there featuring large and small people having to work together to get through some kind of deadly obstacle course like this, but Maze does it better than any other I've read. It helps a lot that they are already comrades who are used to working together instead of strangers, and that there's a larger context where they're grounded and on the run. I liked the tossing scene, and I see that made its way into the follow-up, too. I also liked when she's tied up and he has to cut her free.
I also liked how Molly's scale was given out indirectly at the beginning. If I remember right, the first indication was a sentence that matter-of-factly gave the caliber of her handgun, and it was a figure you'd expect to see on an artillery piece or a battleship deck gun.
What I liked less was what came later. Molly's rampage on the bad-guy aliens felt too contrived and out-of-character, and wasn't really the kind of destruction I like. It was also hard to take the bad guys seriously since they were given no background (was the name "Dabesi" created by taking an anagram of "baddies" and subtracting one 'd'?) and were slaughtered so easily.
The ending with the portal felt drawn-out and confusing. There was a lot of description of the spatial layout, but I never really understood it. I had a similar problem with the space elevator construction site in the follow-up.
On to Hollowed Ground. I liked almost everything about it. In particular, everything Molly does in the flashbacks is great (picking at a tree "like it was a daisy", unexpectedly picking Mike up from the bottom of the ravine, etc). The amount of exposition seemed just right to me, and the pacing felt just right, too. The scenes all had enough room to breath, but also none of them overstayed their welcome.
I liked the illustrations, too. In particular the one of Rihanna in the old city was great.
I will say I was a bit disappointed by the ending. The sudden revelation that Mike has such one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable value that he can get anything he wants out of the government(s), plus a faction of independent AIs personally loyal to him, feels like a cop-out. And I would have liked to have seen Molly's point of view at the end; the ending leaves her ultimate feelings about Rihanna and Mike's past (and how much about it she learns or doesn't) unclear.
Date: June 23 2019 2:21 AM Title: Discovery, Pictures, Memories, Rampage
I once spent almost a whole story on a chase scene. There's something about them that appeals to me on all kinds of levels. JATO is what is says, but I'll be honest, I took the idea from the novel Logan's Run (a good read, highly recommended), and miniaturized it a bit more.
Date: June 23 2019 2:18 AM Title: Fly By 2, Landing
When I do human/mech interactions it's usually the case the the mech has a focused and simpler view of the world, not exactly child-like, but definitely uncluttered. The humans come with endless baggage. There's opportunity for character exploration on both sides in that sort of thing.
[Report This]Date: June 22 2019 7:12 PM Title: Disclaimer, Arrival, Fly By
Wow that was a roller coaster of a read.
I consider myself a huge fan of the original story Maze. One of my favorite aspects of that story and what made it endure for me was the relationship of Mike and Molly to see how they playfully but efficiently worked together in a way that actually made sense for how a military unit might incorporate a Giantess/tiny pairing.
Thus, when I realized they had been split up this story it was like a punch in the heart. It wasn't super clear at first but it appears that this story takes place long after Maze while at the same time revealing the early bits of how M&M first met. I think you did a tremendous job further building the world and describing how this strange divided world between sizes functions in this space age universe.
It seems Mike and Molly didn't want to be broken up and are now both forced to deal with their feelings of the past and move forward. Personally it wasn't at all the direction I wanted to see this story go, especially after Molly's big “I love you” confession at the end of Maze, but I understand its your story to tell and I think you did a good job introducing more depth to the story.
On a personal bias level however I much more enjoyed both Mike and Molly's personalities in the original and more preferred the adventure and simple battle story that was told in that one. I guess it makes sense since that story is 20 years old to have the characters be much older and changed as well, but it doesn't change the painful feeling of nostalgia I feel seemingly along with Mike and Molly.
So while this wasn't a very happy read I can at least appreciate how you've brought these characters back and introduced some drama I guess it wouldn't be as dramatic to just see the 2 of them happy together overcoming another obstacle and having Molly rampage again. I do hope this isn't the last we see of these 2.
More on this story, the Molly Rihanna relationship sort of felt like it came out of nowhere and it might have been a bit less shocking to see Molly with someone else if we got a bit of how they met in this story as well. I thought this was a prequel so seeing them together and then realizing it was after Maze was tough. I'll have to let this breath a bit and re-read to absorb a bit more of her character and the new lore with the Matriarchy since much of my focus on this initial read was on the Mike/Molly Dynamic. Is it still cannon that Mike and Molly are from a different dimension than this one as they went through that portal at the end of Maze? The references to the matriarchy in the flashbacks were super confusing because I didn't' remember any of that from Maze just that they worked for the Combined Terran Forces.
Hope I wasn't too much of a downer as I do thin this was a well done story for sure and It seems like these are some special characters to you.
Author's Response:
Thanks for the feedback! Actually, this entire story comes in the timeline well before Maze, and is a reboot in every sense of the word. ^^
I wrote "Signing Up" where Molly convinces Mike to get back into the service (after Hollowed Ground), but that'll need to be rewritten. "Maze" will need a rewrite too, the Maze will still feature heavily in the story, but the void in Mike will too. "Quality Time" feels very out of place now. I'm half-tempted to either call it non-canon or maybe attribute it to Rihanna.
[Report This]Date: June 22 2019 3:08 PM Title: Discovery, Pictures, Memories, Rampage
When I read "Rampage" I was expecting a more demonstrative execution of the definition rather than boxing the ears of a couple of buildings and starting a controlled? fire, but I'll take it. The action and reaction between the pursuer and the target more than filled the pages with heart-pounding action. That was really fun to read.
I'm going to make another assumption here and think that JATO means the same as what it means here and now on this Earth, given its function.
I can't wait to see where this goes!
[Report This]Date: June 22 2019 2:50 PM Title: Fly By 2, Landing
One of my favorite things to read is interaction and dialogue that establishes a meaningful relationship between man and machine. Assuming Mike is strictly a man, and Ship is a machine. I see no indication that this story is concerned with revealing anything about that, so I'll go with that assumption. Gripping, interesting chapter!
[Report This]Date: June 22 2019 2:27 PM Title: Disclaimer, Arrival, Fly By
Well, considering I don't know what the hell is going on, I was thoroughly entertained. I don't know these characters from any previous stories, but well done on engaging this reader with basically nothing but a talking ship and a tree. On to the next chapter.
Author's Response:
I've always believed in hurling a reader into the action, and let the exposition sort itself out. But I gotta admit, I pushed that notion to the hilt with this story. And yeah, while these two do already exist in other tales I'm hoping (hoping hoping hoping) none of that is needed for this story.