Before I start with the review though, I want to talk about the "cliffie". Is Dan going to kill of dad? Seems that way - Dan is always evil.
QUOTE (dkstories @ April 22 2005, 02:10 PM)
Okay, all the chapters are written that this poll could possibly affect, I know where I'm taking Davey's Dad character-wise, but I just HAVE to know what y'all are thinking.
That was the first giveaway that something is amiss. April 22... Dan was like writing Chapter 21 by then... meaning that the next 5 chapters deal with Davey's dad? Way too much in my book to write about a dead guy....
Couple that with:
QUOTE (Chat with Dan)
Dan Kirk: Here is the first paragraph of Chapter 16, which will be on the web Tuesday. This is especially nice because you get to see the changes made by Emoe to my original wording.
Dan Kirk: “How was the funeral?” President Reagan asked me as we sat on our horses, looking over the mountain vista. The fact that we were here, just like in the last time line after a funeral, was a subtle irony of both the similarities and differences in time lines. We were both dressed in jeans, western-style shirts and cowboy boots. He was wearing one of his cowboy hats while I was bare-headed.
Dan Kirk: In the distance, the sun was setting on a February day that had been rough for me.
Dan Kirk: ACtually, that's the original wording.
Danny: davys dad dies?
Dan Kirk: You guys have two days to debate that.
Dan Kirk: “How was the funeral?” President Reagan asked me as we sat on our horses, looking over the mountain vista. The fact that we were here, just like in the last time line after a funeral, was a subtle irony of both the similarities and differences in time lines. We were both dressed in jeans, western-style shirts and cowboy boots. He was wearing one of his cowboy hats while I was bare-headed.
Dan Kirk: In the distance, the sun was setting on a February day that had been rough for me.
Dan Kirk: ACtually, that's the original wording.
Danny: davys dad dies?
Dan Kirk: You guys have two days to debate that.
and it becomes obvious that dad didn't die. Dan, being evil was purely taunting his readership. The fact that he was pointing towards a supposed death seems to imply the opposite was true.
QUOTE (Dan in his blog)
Yes, Novelty, you probably saw the end of the second page coming with the man sitting on the porch, I'm sure.
Nope, didn't forsee a porch, but as I said it doesn't really affect me if he dies or not. See, death is normally a powerful plot element in a story. HOWEVER, dan has reduce the importance of death in the sequel. Why? Well, people don't really die. There's always the possibility of another Do Over and then all these people are alive again. So, what is death? Nothing but a cheap plot twist, it seems. Shame on Dan for trying to capitalise on it though.
Also, that's the second time in a row that my name has been mentioned with a chapter release Blog. I must be doing something right, I guess.
And on to the review.
Firstly it's comforting to see that the Reagan of this story is back to being what I remember him to be from the last story. Whether that reflects as to how the real Reagan is, I have no idea. I do enjoy reading about it though.
I'm not going to mention about Davey's mom in this review. The jury is still out on her.
Is it me or is Jenny defined only by her love for horses in this chapter? Really though, reinforcing a point is fine with me, but hammering it home chapter after chapter seems to give Jenny a one-dimension appearance.
Notice two issues got mentioned in passing quickly there. One - Davey is going to be a rich man because of all the patents he'd be earning money from - there was some debate about it in the forums about it and well, dan handled it rather well - it was in context and didn't detract from the story. Dan also use that incident to develop dad (i.e. Davey's dad... for the rest of this review, I'll just call him dad).
The other issue is one that I've been ranting about for a while, and this one I think was put in to deliberately taunt me (Dan is evil!). OK, probably not. Still Dan has been dropping hints about the Battle of Taiwan in every chapter hoping that he'd build up a full story of that war. He knows I've been clamouring for that story - I'll even settle for a short story - but no, all I'm going to get is hints dropped in the sequel about it. Bah! Humbug!
The other plot to note is that George Bush Sr. is probably being replaced in 84. That's an interesting direction to take the story, if and when it does happen. Is Dan removing the Bush dynasty this time around? We know he dethroned Bush II in the last timeline. It'll be interesting where this leads.
It was interesting to note that Dan gave Davey a bikini brief preference in this sequel. Dan himself has admitted to being a boxer briefs type of guy (as evidenced in this thread and edit in this post), so one has to wonder why Davey received a bikini briefs preference since Davey is suppposedly based on Dan...
QUOTE (Dan in a blog comment)
I had to do some reading on Margaret Thatcher before I wrote this chapter, just to get a feel for her speaking style and to make sure I didn't too many big boo-boos with her as a character.
Erm... I know Maggie was a greengrocer's daughter and all, but her speech pattern has always been one that I've come to refer to as "upper class" Oxbridge English (and yes, I have lived in Cambridge, so I know that accent only too well). IMO, "lower class" english vocabulary like the words "jaunt" just feels out of place from her. The few statements seems a bit too... American to be coming from her mouth. For example, "get away from everything", although fine in this context would be rather uncommon for a Brit of her education and age - "get away from it all" would be closer to something she would say. But then I'm nitpicking here.
On a final note (no, I'm not discussing the Falklands war, etc.), it's interesting to note that the description of Nevada as given in this chapter is a lot better than what was given in the first drive to Nevada way back in around Chapter 5. I guess my comments in the reviews about descriptions must have been kicking in right about now. That's good to see. And yes, I'm self-inflating my ego.
And while I'm promoting myself, there is a draft copy of the first chapter of the story that I'm writing. It's off to my editor (thanks Kit), and I'll replace it with the edited version once I've got that back.
