Subject: [C&C/Commentary] Escape From Nerima & Ice Age
From: "Mike W. Loader" <mloader@scs.unr.edu>
Date: 12/13/1996, 11:49 PM
To: fanfic@fanfic.com

   Matt Trotter doesn't post often. He doesn't put out many 
comments, and his stories have huge, maddening gaps of time 
in between them. So it's all the more enjoyable when one does 
arrive. And when _two_ arrive in a short period....rapture.

    Escape From Nerima, Trotter's latest (well, next to latest) 
is the latest in his excellent series of Ranma fanfics. The 
series can be put in the "resolving the manga" catagory, though 
Mr. Trotter often likes to replace old dilemnas with new...

   The fic is a bit of a contradiction. It has Trotter's worst and 
best in it.

   The worst includes his Bobawful grammar. Matt Trotter can't 
spell. He's every Junior High English teacher's worst 
nightmare. Kuno's first name is spelled as "Tetewaki" 
throughout the fic, even though his earlier works contained the 
correct spelling. "Clothes" comes out as "Cloths". Hemingway 
Syndrome runs rampant in many places.

   Sadly, this has probably caused many people to read only a 
short way in before hitting the D key. Which is a real pity, 
because while Matt can't spell, he can certainly write.

   The fic's quality dips and rises sharply. The Ranma/Ryoga 
Ranma/Akane interplay is funny and skillfully done, the 
Nabiki/Kuno scenes are touching (even to a sceptic like me, 
who sees the Kuno/Nabs thing as baseless), Kodachi is 
alternately funny and tragic in turns, and Happosai thankfully 
doesn't get much screen time.

   On the other hand, the fic's opening is a bit strained, 
Morphine seems a bit two-dimensional (a pity, since he's been 
wonderfully sardonic in many scenes) and the Gods get played 
for emotion instead of laughs (which doesn't suit them very 
well). And the "stole a bit of your soul" plot device seemed to 
suffer from poor staging.

   On the whole...the fic isn't quite as good as Old Friend (IMHO 
Trotter's meisterwerk), but is a worthy addition to the series. 
The end is appropriatly climactic, and leads into the next story 
nicely.

   And the Akane/Kodachi bit, which I find hilarious, is 
continued but not overdone. :)

   Which leads us into the Ice Age fic.

   Arrrrrrrrrrgh.

   Reading the first part hurts. The imagery is perfect. The 
spelling errors are either gone, or the power of the story 
drowns em out. DON'T read this unless you've got something 
funny to read afterwards, cuz it's a tearjerker. No humor. None. 
Abandon all hope, etc.

   It's right up there with Nightelf's "Man I'll Never Be" and 
Kevin Eav's "Shattered Dreams" for sheer emotional 
depression power, and I find myself worrying about the 
author's state of mind at the time he wrote it.

   The second part isn't as intense. It's a good bit, but coming 
on the heels of the aforementioned double-barreled hell makes 
it seem less than it is.

   The third part has an interesting twist, offers a possible 
resolution of one or two problems, and ends the series.

   If you haven't read the series, give it a try. Should this not 
be enough to convice you, check out the Institut Rats' critique 
located at:

   http://www.tfs.net/~tbutler/FFC/FFCindex.html 

- Mike Loader
===/\=====+==================================================================
  /  \    l  "For, look you, there is humour in all things, and the truest
 / () \   l   philosophy is that which teaches us to find it and make the
/      \  l   most of it." - Jack Point, _The Yeomen of the Guard_
--------  l                    mloader@scs.unr.edu
==========+==================================================================
Fnord.