Elsa Bibat writes:
Title: Apotheosis
Chapter: 2: Dancing With Myself
Review:
I remember when I first read Reid Carson. If I remember correctly, it
was a Ranma 1/2/Dunsany-esque tale and it was also his first fic.
Requiem for a ... damn, forgot ! Anyway, Reid send that one over
along with all your other fics. The Archives were wiped out awhile
back and I forgot the names of the people I had to contact.
(Elegy for a Golden Youth.) No problem, consider it done.
This fic, well, to best put it I once tried to read the entire Wold-Newton
universe. Entirely. Every book and every story. Well, every one that I
could get a hold of, of course. This is the Philippines where I live in. I
had to go to the second-hand bookstore capital of the country to get
half of the stuff I wanted to read. Heck, I'm not even finished.
The feeling I got when I was about 1/100th through my current stockpile,
is the same feeling I'm getting now. I'm gonna be in for a really long wild
ride.
(Grin.) You're not kidding. I'm just getting warmed up. I've been trying
to ease into it gradually.
Anyway, the fic is what I've come to expect from Mr. Carson. Very
detailed, very talky and filled with quite a lot of ideas. If I didn't know any
better, I'd say you were Alan Harnum's long lost brother with this
writing style. But as far as I know, you don't have a wild dog fetish.
More of a cat person, myself. (Worriedly) It does come across as
pretty talky, doesn't it? It's hard to avoid when you've got 65 million
years of background story and a century of story time to cover during
the course of the series.
Keep it up and you better add a few more exposition since you'll be
using worlds that the young 'uns don't know about. I'm familiar with
the Shadow pulps and the Avenger pulps but, man, Ruby and
Inverness ?! The kids'll freak.
I admit that's something I'm concerned about. I'm trying to bring
in the disparate elements in digestible chunks. In this story, I tie
in Sailor Moon with Escaflowne and "The Face in the Abyss". "The Fourth
Tower of Inverness" is used for the Atlantean connection and the setting.
Next story I'll tie in Sailor Moon and Ranma with the Shadow, the Avenger,
and Buckaroo Banzai (with a brief nod to "Big Trouble in Little China"
and A. Merritt's "The Black Wheel"). It's not easy to know how much
extra background to include. I didn't include much of Inverness other
than what was relevant for the story, because too much of it, introducing
Dr. Mazoola or Chief Wampum Stompum, say, would be extraneous and
distracting, I think.
I'm trying to walk a thin line here. I'm explaining the things I
think are necessary, while not going into certain other bits. If the reader
isn't familiar with Sumerian mythology or Inanna's descent into the
Underworld, or hasn't read George Meredith's "Photogen and Nycteris",
he (or she) may not get some of the things that were in my mind when I
wrote this last story, but she (or he) won't be missing anything
essential to understanding and appreciating the story. I hope. If you
find it otherwise, let me know.
And damn, someone finally beat me to The Shadow/SM crossover.
Oh, I think there's room for a few more, especially if you take
a different tack than I do.
And wasn't that Corum Jhaelin Irsei in the dream sequence ?
Heh. Wondered if someone would notice that. That image of a possible
future Ranma, although it actually developed from Corum's roots in
Irish mythology, was influenced by Moorcock's description.
Thanks a lot!
Reid Carson
rcarson@rcarson.com