Warpath Discussion Thread (major, major spoilers)

[David Mack]

historypeats said:
*I liked the various opponents of the Cardassian woman, and the Nausicaan was a particular favorite - I was sad to see him bite the dust!

I know what you mean -- Savonigar was fun character to create, because he played against the accepted stereotype for the Nausicaan species.

*...as much as I like Vaughn and Tenmei on their own merits, I'm so tired of them causing each other pain needlessly (and for pages and pages in every book!) that ... I've started WANTING them to die so that the characters can finally move on instead of repeating the same old cycle. David, I hope you've put the capper on the twists and turns of that relationship for good - you mentioned that they've been given a "new beginning," and I'm going to take you at your word until proven otherwise.

Well, it'll be up to Marco and the next writer to decide how solidly their new bond endures, but it was my opinion going into Warpath that Vaughn and Tenmei, though they had taken their first steps toward reconciliation in Unity, were far from reconciled. My plan was to fast-track them, by means of a life-and-death struggle and a moment of shared sacrifice, to their new beginning. In essence, at the end of the novel, what they both have hard evidence of is the fact that they are both willing to die for the other.

*Also happy that no new romantic relationships developed over the course of the story.

Well, the whole story happens in less than a day, so there wasn't really much time for that -- but methinks you missed the sparks between Dr. Aylam Edeen and the still-clueless Dr. Simon Tarses. She is definitely nursing a crush on him; I'd expect that to come back around...

*Was glad to see the annotations explaining the Etana business, because I was getting really confused...

Yes, apparently so were we.

*David, this is actually the first work of yours that I've read, although you apparently co-wrote two of my favorite DS9 episodes. I liked your prose style - spare and simple but not simplistic, efficient without lacking grace.

Muchas gracias. I hope you'll check out some of my previous work, then -- in particular, my "A Time to..." duology, A Time to Kill and A Time to Heal, and Star Trek Vanguard: Harbinger, which is the first book in a new Treklit series I co-created with editor Marco Palmieri. And if you're ever in the mood to dive into the S.C.E. series, I'll be keen to know what you think of Wildfire, which was my first solo turn at prose writing.

Thanks for all your comments and kudos, historypeats!

JeremyW wrote:
I re-read "Warpath", and it made a whole lot of sense to me now before stumbling on this, and what triggered it was a line in "Ties of Blood And Water" that Kira was telling Tekeny that there was no sight, no word on Illiana and that if she were 'still on Bajor, she'd been working underground for 'x' years'. And NOW, I'm inclined to go back to my review and alter it slightly to really thank Dave for solidifying my position on Gul Dukat: he is a BASTARD, and the epitome of EVIL.

Yup, that was pretty much the idea. It was Marco who actually noticed the potential of the Iliana storyline and seeded it into the DS9 post-finale saga. He'd carefully orchestrated the clues so that, by the time I was ready to write Warpath, he'd misdirected a lot of the readership into thinking that Intendant Kira was the prime antagonist. I played to that supposition by featuring her, so that I would twist it at the end. But I have Marco to thank for that bit of guidance, and for the painstaking setup he engineered for more than a year beforehand.

Thanks again for all your comments, JeremyW!

~ Dave

 

[DS9Continuing]

Yes, I can just imagine Marco's glee and hilarity when we all fell for it after Fragments and Omens. And the fact that it didn't flat out say it was the Intendant made us believe all the more that it must be.

And I did think at first "Why is he putting the Intendant out there straight away? Doesn't that completely ruin the surprise reveal when they finally confirm that the baddy from F&O was her?" Sneaky bastards, the lot of you.

 

[historypeats]

^ David: Hah, no, I didn't miss it - in my defense, I was posting at five in the morning. However, I did like that the scene was written with some restraint, although I was a little surprised at how emotionally subdued Tarses seemed throughout the book. This squares with his onscreen portrayal, but I thought the post-DS9 books showed him to have a little more emotion.

As for checking out your previous work, now that I've finished the post-DS9 books, my next projects are the A Time To... books (I'm fifty pages into A Time to Sow, having finished Vornholt's novels a few months back) and the String Theory trilogy. However, I already own all of the titles you mention, including the S.C.E. reprints and Harbinger; I'll be reading the latter this June, so it'll be fresh in my mind when I pick up Summon the Thunder.

One more thing: I was 99.9% sure that Kira was the woman J. Noah Kym wrote about in the Hovath chapters of "Fragments and Omens." What I didn't see (and was right in front of me) was that it would have been a figure from the MU, let alone Ghemor. [I was guessing it was an Evil Kira Clone (TM), which I can only blame on the influence of "Nemesis." ]

KRAD - Ask and ye shall receive; I'll post a thread later this weekend on the post-DS9 novels.

 

[Christopher]

historypeats said:
One more thing: I was 99.9% sure that Kira was the woman J. Noah Kym wrote about in the Hovath chapters of "Fragments and Omens." What I didn't see (and was right in front of me) was that it would have been a figure from the MU, let alone Ghemor. [I was guessing it was an Evil Kira Clone (TM), which I can only blame on the influence of "Nemesis." ]

But it isn't the Iliana Ghemor from the MU. It's apparently the one from our universe, the Obsidian Order operative who was transformed to look like Kira but who disappeared. And the Cardassian Woman is apparently the MU version of Iliana, who wasn't surgically altered to look Bajoran.

 

[Lookingglassman]

It was a pretty good book.

 

[ronny]

I know it's a year a way and there are lots of good books between now and then but has it been announced who's writing the next book?

 

[KRAD]

^ It has not been announced, no.

 

[JeremyW]

And something else that really poppsed out of my head today while at work (yeah, I'm thinking about 'Warpath' at work...I must have been REALLY bored) I re-read the back cover description for 'Warpath' and saw something I missed before. It relates to the line about what would happen if a Jem'Hadar were free of its servitude....

And I find some GREAT parallels between Illiana Ghemor and Taran'atar. The Mirror Illiana put it best: the op went bad, betrayed from within, and all control was lost. Illiana was set loose, able to be her own master, thanks in part to the treachery of Gul Dukat.

And now here's Taran'atar. Odo sent him on a mission to live among the Solids, free from the control that is the ketracel white, and after Ananke Alpha, he's unsure. The female Founder in an essence broke her link to him, and in her, she represented the Dominion as a whole. So Taran'atar is 'free', Illiana is free, yet manipulates Taran'atar, who lets it happen to him, yet hates Illiana completely. So Dave, when you said Marco saw the value of the Illiana storyline, I do too. And now this......good mother of mercy. This is AWESOME. Thanks to all!!!!!

 

[David Mack]

^ Thank you, Jeremy. I'm glad to know that my work adding "layers" to the story was not wasted . . . at least, not for you.

Best,
DM

 

[JeremyW]

^Dave,

A good story is NEVER wasted. And for me, no it was not wasted whatsoever. I'll acknowledge that superficially, it's a very simplistic story, much like "A Time To Kill". Yet, gettting into all the intricacies of the story, of asking the questions, "What motivates these people", or "What grand story is being told here?" From being in this community, I get that each story is supposed to advance the plot a certain way, and then stop, leaving the next writer to continue the process. I get there's a grand story arc being created and stuff...yet the experience I had of your book, and this one in particular was that every word that was put on page was MEANT to be there. There was an intention behind every word, and the novel couldn't be complete without putting them all in. In a course I'm taking, I have to generate a document that is the cornerstone of my entire program. So I found myself actually generating key scenes in "Warpath" out loud. Maybe just to understand them, but when I generated it, the experience I had was that I could actually picture Harkoum, or I could picture Bowers and Vaughn, or picture Kira and Jamin at Idran. And I was actually IN that moment, BEING those people. Dave, it was truly remarkable. I get what's intended to be communicated.

I'm working on my own project right now, and it's frustrating not being able to share it, but I have to say that it's been going through your works, in particular 'A Time To Kill', 'A Time To Heal', and 'Warpath' that have allowed me to see things that I know are missing out of my own story, so thank you for contributing to a work you know nothing about, and I acknowledge you for just being you, and I eagerly await to see what you come up with next.

P.S: Marco, I really think Dave should do "Fearful Symmetry". In my world, it'd be giving him a chance to complete something he started.

 

[David Mack]

^ First of all . . . wow. And, um, thanks.

Second, what I "came up with next" after writing Warpath was my Wolverine novel Road of Bones, which I turned in to Marco back in March. Currently, I'm working on my Mirror Universe book, The Sorrows of Empire, and when that's done I have a pet project to work on for a few short weeks before I begin my next Trek project.

Third, Marco already has an author working on Fearful Symmetry.

Last, I did not, in fact, "start" anything in Warpath, I merely continued what many talented authors before me had already set in motion. In particular, I carried on from where David R. George III had brought us at the end of Olympus Descending, and I also picked up some bits from J. Noah Kym's Fragments and Omens, Heather Jarman's Paradigm, Keith R.A. DeCandido's Satisfaction is Not Guaranteed and "Horn and Ivory," and S.D. Perry's Unity. I'm just a middle runner in a very long relay race; I carried the baton for my sprint, and now I've handed it off to the next runner. And the race goes on.

 

[JeremyW]

Well, this next post has a little bit for everybody: it includes a complete revision of my "Warpath" review as promised, and a good parody at the end, inspired by "Warpath"


***************************************

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE – WARPATH

A novel by David Mack
Reviewed by Jeremy W. Woolward


So, we all hailed the return of “Mack The Knife” in this latest instalment of the post-finale Star Trek: Deep Space Nine literary line. We all knew ‘what we were left behind’ with in Olympus Descending, and we all had huge expectations about how this book would turn out. So, enough with the prologue…did the novel live up to everybody’s expectations? To be straight, no, it did not. It’s my experience when people have expectations they’re usually disappointed with the final result. So, let’s ask another question: did the novel live up to David’s style of writing, his sense of prose of character, his ability to slice and dice people at will, and just a plain outright entertaining story? Absolutely. Warpath continued the Deep Space Nine story and presented another new beginning for the saga itself.

From the beginning, you get a sense of the flow of the story. Very akin to Mack’s previous work, A Time To Kill, Warpath flowed in a very limited timeline. You get the severity and direness of the situation. Kira and Ro are beamed to the infirmary, and for Bashir, it’s a race against the clock to save their lives, especially Kira’s, where she’s been impaled with Taran’atar’s knife in her heart. As well, Taran’atar has hijacked the runabout USS Euphrates with a hostage: Ensign Prynn Tenmei, and it’s up to Commander Elias Vaughn and the crew of the USS Defiant to catch up. Time is not on anybody’s side, and throughout the course of the novel, this becomes all too apparent.

Warpath has very interesting and complex sub-plots, all of which could be novels all to themselves. Several of them deal with the ongoing relationships with Vaughn and Prynn, another with Quark and Ro, another with Taran’atar himself, but the one that really stood out was that of Kira Nerys. Comatose, lying with her life on the line, Kira’s story really gives this novel another dynamic that at times goes unacknowledged, or clichéd. The working title of this novel was The Hunt for Taran’atar (never meant to be the final title), but the other war story is one that’s been foreshadowed since the release of Rising Son, and continued through in Unity, Fragments and Omens, and lately, Olympus Descending: the story relating to the Eav’oq, the Prophets, Bajor and the mysterious Ascendants. This story was presented to Kira in a vision from the Prophets similar to the story told in Horn and Ivory. Whereas in Horn and Ivory solidified Kira’s resolve as the station’s new commanding officer, this vision solidified that Kira was going to be on the front lines in a coming war of faith, and that standing alone will bring nothing but destruction. It must be said that personally, this storyline and the way it was presented is one of the shining gems of Warpath. I loved it, and as many have said, it had almost a Lord of the Rings feel to it. Myself, I pictured the Battle of Helm’s Deep and could hear Howard Shore’s score in the background. As well, I couldn’t help but also picture the Arena Battle of Geonosis from Attack Of The Clones.


The hunt for Taran’atar was intense, action driven, and had us asking more questions than we had answers for. Instead of the chase being very linear, very one-dimensioned, this chase had substance and layers to it. The more intriguing parts of it were Taran’atar’s inner struggles, attempting to cope with what he learned from the Female Founder in Olympus Descending, what he was assigned to do by Odo, and the calling of his ‘new god’. As well, it was interesting to see a Jem’Hadar show restraint, telling Ensign Prynn Tenmei that he’d only kill her if he had no choice. True, she was used as leverage as Taran’atar knew that Vaughn would be sent to hunt him down, but still, if anything, the restraint was unbecoming of a Jem’Hadar. We really see more of Taran’atar here than we ever could of thought. Nicely done.

Can’t say much about Commander Vaughn, except that I was glad to see that Vaughn’s starting to realize his own brooding and whatnot is coming to kick him straight in the rear, especially when he thought he killed Prynn. Brooding or not, there was a duty to perform, and Vaughn performed it with the demeanour of a Starfleet Officer. Personally, had Prynn died, I would have loved to see where Vaughn would have gone with it. As well, kudos to bringing more of Vaughn’s past into his present with the scene he had with Lorgh of Klingon I.I. I loved reading Art Of The Impossible, and this was a nice tip of the hat to that work.

Really cool to see Sisko in this book, although it’s a little weird to see him in his non-Starfleet role, yet everybody referring to him as ‘Captain Sisko’. And, who could have missed the nice plug for the episode Starship Down, and Sisko sitting over Kira’s bed, reciting the same story Kira told Sisko on the bridge of the Defiant in the aforementioned episode. Very touching, and the interaction with Sisko when Kira comes out of her coma was appropriate, funny, yet serious. The relationship Sisko and Kira had over the course of seven years in Deep Space Nine was magic, and that relationship continues to thrive in Warpath, and beyond.

Now, we get to the ending of the book. All I have to say is WTF?! That ending was, to quote a certain obese man from Quahog, Rhode Island, “Freakin’ sweet!” So, we have Captain Kira Nerys, Intendant Kira Nerys, and now a THIRD Kira Nerys! We can’t just get enough of her, now can we? And where this is going to go is beyond me. I have my own theories, but I’m finding if you OVERANALYZE it, you’re going to confuse yourself. And then when we learn the identity of the ‘Cardassian Woman’ as Iliana Ghemor, that’s just another can of worms. As well, curious to WHY they mention an alternate Gul Dukat…One Dukat was bad enough, but to find there’s ANOTHER one, who’s just as devious as ours is something that’s totally creepy, yet intriguing. It’ll be a nice year-long wait to find out how THIS plays out in Fearful Symmetry, the next novel in the Deep Space Nine literature. Adding the Mirror Universe into this story was definitely welcomed, and totally awesome. Thanks for bringing us back to it, Mr. Mack.

Overall, Warpath was a very awesome read, and will be re-reading the book several times to get ready for Fearful Symmetry. The last thing I need to say, and it’s more about the author’s style, and this could apply to most of the current Trek writers is that they pool from each other, and allow contribution to occur in their stories. It’s really a great leap forward where partnership becomes the dominant force, and awesome how most of the authors support each other, and plug each other’s books endlessly. So, kudos to all. I loved this book. It met all MY expectations and more. Kudos should go to Marco Palmieri as well for demanding nothing but the best in these novels and for also taking on responsibility when things happen to show up that shouldn’t be there. It’s a sign of maturity, and also a demonstration that we’re all human and mistakes happen from time to time. Personally, it didn’t detract from the reading of the book for me whatsoever.

REVIEWER’S POST-REVIEW COMMENTS:

So, I took on re-reading Warpath, and now am more in love with this book than I ever was before. The book’s layers thick, with every word in the text having an intention, a purpose, and a sense of unity from beginning to middle to end. To equivocate the series in which this book was written into, clearly the hands of the Prophets are at work here. Some of the things that really impacted me in the right here and now were:

1. Iliana Ghemor. Let’s get this grounded, shall we? Iliana Ghemor as ‘The Cardassian Woman’ is the Mirror Universe duplicate. The THIRD Kira Nerys I was so hyped about before IS in fact Iliana Ghemor of OUR universe. I can see people’s eyes starting to bulge right now. So, my comments about Gul Dukat must be re-evaluated as well: there is NO alternate Gul Dukat…yet, but regardless, Dave solidified my position on the man: he’s a bastard, and the epitome of evil. Even in death, Dukat manages to pull strings, and impact the lives of our characters in the here and now, doesn’t he? But, what does that leave us with at the end of the novel? We have Kira Nerys, Captain of Deep Space Nine recovering from surgery, one Iliana Ghemor alterted to look like Captain Kira Nerys, and the Mirror Iliana Ghemor, who’s out to warn Kira about her life being in mortal danger. The end result: Tekeny Ghemor’s legitimate daughter vs. Tekeny Ghemor’s adopted daughter with a third Iliana to fill the triangle. That’s awesome! I can only start to imagine what the cover for Fearful Symmetry would look like, and if I had a say, it’d be featuring Kira on the cover, with a split down the middle: Captain Kira on one side, Iliana on the other, with the wormhole as the background. I can see that now, and it looks REALLY good, people.


2. Taran’atar: This Jem’Hadar is one of the most unique I’ve ever read or experienced before. His real agony, I believe, has yet to be revealed. And, it’s interesting that of all things, there are some real interesting parallels between Iliana and Taran’atar: both were slaves of their environment, something happened to both of them, and they became free of their constraints that the past said they had, and both free to experience life in itself. Iliana became rogue and savage, yet Taran’atar longed for something else: he longed for control. He longed for something or someone to believe in. And with the encounter at Ananke Alpha depicted in Olympus Descending, everything Taran’atar believed in was lost. Being controlled at the time by Iliana surely didn’t help anything, but this shift in who he was I started to see in Unity itself. There are, however, some ironies that I feel should be mentioned: it’s ironic that Taran’atar views Iliana Ghemor as his ‘new god’, yet the description about how Iliana shows up for Taran’atar has it summarized as the good Honoured Elder wanting to break her neck where she stood, but didn’t, and at the same time, whether or not anybody likes it, Taran’atar is still obeying what Odo instructed him to do: obey Kira Nerys. What’s funny is Odo never mentioned which Kira Nerys to obey. And I’m pretty sure that now that I’ve seen this, it’s going to come up as some form of “Well Marco had this thing planned for ‘x’ months now and such…” I can almost BE Jake Sisko right now in Rising Son after listening to Opaka talk about the will of the Prophets….can be downright irritating at times, but I digress. And it’s all good.

So, I invite those of you who have not had a chance to pick up this novel to do so.
Go beyond the surface of the book, and I can assert powerfully that you will start to see why this is one of the best novels created in the Star Trek universe.



Respectfully submitted,
Jeremy W. Woolward

******************************************

And now, sung to "The Point Of No Return" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom Of The Opera"

KIRA 1. (Iliana)

You have come here
In pursuit of a hidden urge
Yet not so hidden that I can
See it before you. Before you.

This world's not big enough
For you and me to co-exist
And my plans to conquer the universe
Require you to fall, to die, to vanish
And leave me to reap the benefits of
Your disappearance
Disappearance.

Past the point of no return
The glass is broken
Our shattered mirror has at last revealed

You, my wonderful doppelganger
You stole my father!
I was his but in the end he chose you!

So what did you leave me to do?
Sweep the rug out from under you
And use your Dominion slave to kill you

Past the point of no return
The Temple's threshold
Is where I'll begin to conquer every world!
Past the point of no return.

KIRA 2. (Captain Kira Nerys)

You're a psycho!
Don't you see what Dukat has done?
He has twisted you to become an agent of evil
Evil.

You can choose here!
You can choose to return home!
You can choose to live your own life now
I bequeath the title of Tekeny's daughter
Back to you, no second thoughts.
I give it freely...freely

Past the point of no return
Armageddon's not an option
The slaughter of the Sidau was not required

You stole the fragmented Orb
And corrupted Taran'atar
Why screw around when your beef's always been with me?

Do you think you can really win
When I'm the Emissary's hand
You have no idea who you're about to mess with

BOTH KIRAS

Past the point of no return
No going back now
We walk the path our gods have set for us!
And this is where "Fearful Symmetry" starts.


Enjoy all!

 

[David Mack]

^ I don't know what to say.

 

[Rosalind]

Jeremy, love the review, and once again you've done a wonderful job with a song. :thumbsup:

 

[mug]

Inasmuch as I don't quite how to follow Warpath: The Musical...

I've finished reading (I tried to slow myself down a bit, knowing that the next book will be a year in coming -- not particularly easy to do when reading David Mack, natch) and my conclusion is that this is one of those instances when the end of the book totally shifts your perspective on everything that went before.

While I was reading the book, I had several complaints about the plot. I wasn't thrilled to see Intendant Kira again (though I knew we'd be seeing eventually her based on talk on these boards) -- she was fun the first few times but I'm kind of sick of her now. Of course, she's dead now, and even though a doppelganger's taking her place, that's more than enough of a twist to keep me interested in the Intendant's world. The multiple Kiras thing was more than a little mind-blowing at first, but now that I've had a bit of time to think and read through this thread, I'm really excited to see what comes next in the story!

Like many others who have posted in this thread, I too was highly skeptical about Taran'atar being reprogrammed. At times I too thought it was a cop-out, but by the end of the book I saw that plot "device" (which has usually been used to cliche effect in the less stellar parts of the ST universe, i.e. Voyager) was working toward a far different end, here (as explained far more eloquently by other posters, i.e. Christopher).

I love ancient Bajor stuff, and so I was thrilled to see that world again. And as a massive Captain Kira fan, I am thrilled by the prospect of future books where she will continue to kick ass. I also look forward to rereading this book after future installments of the series have come out and understanding all the groundwork that was laid in those chapters.

I'm also a Prynn Tenmei fan, so I thoroughly enjoyed her page-time. I liked how she had a nice mix of fallibility and cunning.

As David said:

Not to nitpick, but . . . if you don't mind my asking, how did you know -- not "think," not "suspect," not "believe," but actually know -- that Prynn was not dead? Did you read the end of the book first or something? Because if there's one thing I am renowned for, it's putting characters into their graves.

I, for one, did believe it. I'm always aware that my favourite characters could be snatched away! (Also, I've read books by David Mack before.) And Vaughn had no reason to believe that Taran'atar would keep Tenmei alive longer than necessary.

Sci said:

Christopher said:

naf9sd said:
Yeah, you are probably right. But I think the problem is that from the reader's point of view, we know (or at least we think we know) that neither Kira nor Ro will die, and that Prynn is alive. And maybe this "knowledge" somehow overruled Vaughn's reasoning.

I take it you've never read a David Mack novel before. If anything, it was a surprise that these characters didn't die.

I was pretty shocked that neither Ro nor Kira nor Prynn nor Vaughn bought the farm myself. Hell, the only canonical character who kicked the bucket was Mirror Kira!

Seconded. All these folks who "know" who will live or die -- have they been reading the same series? I don't take anything for granted with these books at this point!

I did recognize the anagrams in the ancient Bajor chapters, but I did not guess the identity of the Cardassian Woman. I kept trying to think of Cardassian women we'd seen before, and no viable suspects came to mind -- not Illiana, and not even Palandine. But it's really cool to see the Illiana Ghemor loose thread tied up (or, begin to be tied up).

In the end, I wasn't let down at all by Mr. Mack's incredible skill as a writer. He can write fast-paced but layered books with a great deal of style, and it's always a pleasure to read.

 

[JeremyW]

1. Dave, the parody was meant in fun. The review...100% serious and authetnic. It was meant in good taste.

2. Rosalind, I just have to say this: I LOVE the fact that you enjoy these parodies. Now all we need is someone to commission a paperback "Star Trek's funniest moments", and I'd 100% be in with all these parodies of mine.

3. Mug: You can't follow "Warpath: The Musical". (I kid. Anybody can. And the moment that ALW or someone finds out what I've been up to, someone's ass is going to be fried for it. LOL)

Your insights into your thoughts of "Warpath" are awesome. You know, I didn't think of what happened with Taran'atar to be clichéd at all, but I could see how it'd be plausible for someone else to have it occur that way for them. The Cardassian Woman...when it was revealed to be Iliana, I was as shocked as you just in the simple fact that I thought that angle was one that was just going to be left 'incomplete'. That Ol'Palmieri...he be a wise one to bring that to fruition, and to include the elements of "The Storyteller" into it all...Hedrikspool, the Sidau, etc. I saw "The Storyteller" recently, and found I loved the episode a whole lot more since I know what's going to happen with it. Pretty freakin' amazing.

No. The writing was top notch in the book. So go back and re-read "Warpath" again, and I assert you'll find something else that will jump out at you and take your love of the book to the next level.

 

[David Mack]

Thanks, Mug and Jeremy, for all your kind words. I am glad that you enjoyed it enough, Jeremy, to feel that it warrants repeat readings, and that you are able to appreciate different aspects of it on subsequent readings.

If I were a coloring-book character, I might be labeled "Color Me Flattered."

As for what color that might be, look for something in a blushed red.

Best,
Dave

 

[JeremyW]

^ Dave, you're welcome. I'm glad that the comments that I left behind landed as something with an empowering context. I don't know if it's just because I'm working on a project myself, or if I've come to relate myself to the character Joseph Gillis from "Sunset Boulevard", but I've developed an affinity for all writers, and at times, I feel as if you're all not given enough credit where credit's due.

I don't know much about X-Men whatsoever, but I see myself picking up your "Road Of Bones". And I eagerly await "Sorrows Of Empire".

 

[BrotherBenny]

I'll keep my review short and sweet Dave:

FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC

And I'll leave it at that, sums it up nicely.

Marco, am I right in saying that Fearful Symmetry will feature the first verse of William Blake's "Tyger" as the poetic bit?:

"Tyger, tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night.
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry."

And someone find a time machine quick, i volunteer to go to April next year and bring as many copies as i can possibly carry back with me!

 

[BrotherBenny]

*Tumbleweed rolls past*

I guess perhaps not, anyway, where is everybody?