I liked it. Not the greatest SOS story (for awesome goodness, I still have a special place in my heart for S1M6: Hunted Rose), but like most of S5, quick, and just a lead-up to something that is likely to be wicked good.

My critical comments,

(1) Damn, that was a quick read. I'm not sure why it was; I knocked it out in about, um, 15 minutes, but upon trying to print it found it about 97 pages long. So whoa. I can't tell if it was a quick read because (a) it was fairly linear, (b) the number of new mysteries/characters/plot arcs were relatively low, or (c) it felt like a big lead up to something else, and I hurried on hoping to get to that something.

(2) Writing was fabulous. Great job of working us through the mechanisms of the wedding, making the fiddly details interesting, and also making the romance between Utena and Corwin so _them_. (as a side note, Chiho Saito owes you guys; you so saved his characters from the depths of amine hell) Some of dialogue seemed a little clunky, but some of the exchanges were perfect. Utena as dead on, as was the brief cameo of Kozue(!!). The droid/Luke Skywalker..sorry, robot/Corwin Ravenhair scenes were precious. I liked how you subtly reminded us of how _different_ these heroes are, esp. through the use of character behavior. I love how Corwin shrugs off his use of coding language without even mentioning his God of Mecha status; and how Utena takes control to the space force without hesitation. Having read too many stories were we are introduced again, and again to the characters, its nice to read someones who are confident in their writing and trust in the story to carry itself.

(3) That said, I wasn't as thrilled with the supporting cast. Sure Cage continues to be the id of the writers (and the readers - confusion to the enemy!), so he was fun. Janice has her mayhem on but I couldn't tell - was she saying that her relationship with whats-his-name is over? The duelists' reactions were nice, but, well, very predictable. Susan Ivanova was underused. Freja's beef with Corwin was interesting, and sure, it forwarded the plot, but um, damn did it come out of no where. Wasn't it Frey who used to get all medieval on Corwin's ass? And why in the names of the gods would she risk the wrath of the Norns? She's had a good working relationship with them (at least it seemed that way during Twilight), but now its gone down hill because of Corwin? As well, Akio was strangely out of character. Since when does he show his emotions on his face? He was clearly irritated the wedding wasn't taking place (or rather, occurring as he planned) and sent Nanami to do something (perhaps to intercept Corwin, perhaps not). He's not the type to make slips, and so something about his characterization seemed off. Thoughts on this?

(4) and no offense, Matrix Dragon, but the whole Sivar god-of-war thing didn't seem very, um, useful. Or topical. I'm all for advancing Chad's character and giving us his back story (you've got to add the Sheep Incident to the UF homepage), but I really, really didn't get why Tyr had to step in to get him to not do something. Chad buying it so easily didn't make sense to me either - so I will hold the faith and wait on events (or more backstory - please!).

(5) That said, cliffhanger - argh! So frustrating and now I'm grumpy (yeah, I know you can't please everyone all the time). Which, I grant you, is odd, since we know from Infamy what the ultimate ending is to the Tau Ceti situation. I guess, its just that most Movements have been self-contained, and here is the second Movement in S5 that isn't. My expectations were slightly off, and so I am a bit disappointed that it ended where it did. Ah, well, good writing is like that - leaves you panting for more.

OK, that said, let me respond to a couple points:

> Right now, I'm
>actually wondering if the events of Day of Infamy still happen,
>watching as everything dialed up to a war footing, as it shifted into
>fast paced, tense reading despite a lack of action scenes.

Actually, I think this was a perfect lead up to Infamy. We still haven't had the big Federation disaster, right? So the "distraction" at Tau Ceti works well, with the 2 year time line. I think.

>The moment with Frigg was utterly brilliant, especially her comments
>of the Monolith, and then the cliffhanger.

Um, she was nice, but such a deus ex machina <grin>. Nice quest item btw. Doesn't the girl have enough toys?

>Symphony is back. And it is GOOD.

amen, brother.
t.

Trigger Argee
trigger_argee@hotmail.com
Manon, Maccadon, Orado, etc.
Denton, never leave home without it.

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." - HST