Novelty

Hope you have a day to Chill out! Have a great day.

You can or you can't? Oh and Benji, what do you mean by "weird"?

What will we do without Myr? I have no clue. What can we do for Myr? To quote a line from my favourite broadway musical: "I know, I'll get him a boyfriend!"

aka Brandon in DO and DOR. He's bi though in the stories...

This is dedicated to the lolo on these forums. Him and his wooden horse. I had to challenge myself to find one good thing about this chapter to write about. Well, that's not because there aren't any in the chapter, there is a whole load that I could have chosen from. I find myself strangely drawn to the bad points in the chapter, like a moth to a flame... First off though, the chapter picks off where it left off in 19 - about Sean. Although the break-off point here is not as abrupt as the one between 18 and 19, it nevertheless seems a little bit awkward to me. Perhaps it's the price of the unwieldy break between 18 and 19. I had thought for a long time that Dan has been incapable of surprising me in this storyline. Chapter 19 proved me wrong when Dan brought back Sean into this time line. This allows Dan a lot more flexibility than he would otherwise have in the plotline. Now that we know that there aren't just one, but three Dark horses in the storyline, things can get interesing, and hopefully unpredictable. One of the few things I enjoy reading about are Davey's conversation with Reagan, with the exception of the earlier few chapters (I think they were 4 and 6?), where Reagan was rather stiff towards Davey. This one here though was no different. In fact, it demonstrates the growth of the relationship between Davey and Reagan in this time line. Compare this conversation to the one in 13? (or was it 14?) where they talked about the AIDS detention centres. That was clearly a conversation between superior and subordinate. This was one between close friends who respect each other. I wondered though why the scene between Davey and his father was included in this Chapter. If feels a bit out of place to me, almost like a filler. Don't get me wrong, the interaction and the conversation was priceless, but in the overall scheme of things would it matter? Wouldn't this be better with the "Battle of Taiwan" treatment? I don't know, I guess I'll have to read future chapters to determine the answer to those questions. If you were hoping for more meteorological phenomena/metaphor in this review, you're going to be disappointed. There's none. I'm also not going to say anything about the scenes with the Modesto families until after I've read the next chapter, so expect that in the review for 21.

I was wondering where in France was "Ancien", since there is an "Amiens" and then I realised you meant "Ancient". Doh, I'm slow. And I had to read your tongue in cheek comments about 5 times before I finally got the joke! BTW, I only quoted part of the two articles I found. You might want to read the full articles before you pass judgement on them. (I found a lot more, but those two are from respected - by me at least - sites).

I was teasing you vic. Same way I always tease you about how you can't be a true Danimal because you're a Domophile (eventhough we both know that is bull). Chill man. And I have no idea why this is in a thread but not a PM...

Well, I googled for this and got the following pages: From The Straight Dope: From Ask Yahoo: What is "brioche"? I asked my friend who is ethnic French and is currently living in Paris, and he confirms that brioche isn't cake. Cake is g

I would say that's up to the poster and the author concerned. I'm very brazen in that I post up what many would consider very harsh reviews of Dan's DOR stories. I have my reasons for doing those though and one of them is to facilitate discussion of the topics/issues from the story. My personal guideline is this: Do I want the whole world to see what I'm writing? If yes, I post in the forums. The moderators can always delete it if they deemed it inappropriate. If no, I use the Private Message function of the forums to contact the author directly. It's as simple as that for me.

Not directly you mean, vic? I still remember the day the Trojan horse showed up at Danopolis.

Hope you had a good nights sleep last night GhostRyder, and I hope the lawnmowers didn't wake you this morning Have a good one and here's to many more birthdays for you!

The review can be found after the spoiler. Skip over the spoiler if you're only interested in the review. DOR Review - Chapter 19 I had originally intended for this review to be done as part of the review of Chapter 18, since both chapters are, realistically one long chapter. However, after reading Chapter 19, I realised that there were too many things in Chapter 19 that needs to be reviewed on their own merits and not lumped together with Chapter 18, hence the separate review. I'm half tempted to copy some of the reviews out there, after all, why do the hard work when others have already done it before? The chapter has three parts - the continuation of the interaction with the Eureka families, the scene (in more than one sense of the word) with Susan (aka Sandy) in the corridor and finally Sean to close the chapter. Personally, I was rather dissatisfied about how Chapter 18 ended. Dan seems to be going for a cliffhanger again and to me it failed big time. Not only did I not look forward to Brian in Chapter 19, because we've been told by Dan that Brian only shows up in 20, but the ending was very abrupt. The chapter ended in the middle of a scene. I don't think that's a good place to end the chapter. However, having said that, Chapters 18 and 19 together would have made an extra long chapter and that is unfavourable as well. I hope that Dan would not attempt to create cliffhangers in future because they only break the flow of the narration. Cliffhangers, in my opinion, should be organic, very much the way the product of the structure and plotline of the story (which Dom takes advantage of and uses to a devastatingly good effect). I used a meteorogical metaphor in the review of Chapter 18 and I'll use one here as well. It is little known that the monsoon rains affect northern Australia (not to be confused with Australia's Northern Territories - northern Australia extends from the area around Broome in Western Australia to the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, and includes the northern portion of the Northern Territories, including the Arnhem Land/Peninsula). During "The Wet" as the locals term it, one could literally feel the rains building up in the atmosphere as the humidity reaches saturation point and the air seems tense and charged up, ready for a lightning discharge. Likewise, the situation between Davey and his mother has been building up for a long while now. Reading through the chapters, one could literally feel the tension building up, until this point in chapter 19 where "all hell broke lose", or to use my metaphor, the lightning bolt discharged. But will it be as deadly as a lightning bolt? We shall have to see. I'll include the review for the third part of the story with Chapter 20, to ensure that the Sean storyline gets a integrated review. One final thing I'd like to mention in this review though. Usually, if the writing is good, the reader can often "see through the eyes" of the story-teller, and by that I mean to experience the story almost as a participant - to be able to see, hear, smell, taste and touch - almost as if the experience was an interactive one. That's one of the reason why the shower-room fight with the bully was one of my favourites, or the blindfolded scene with the CIA thugs. The past few chapters though, exciting as the plotline seems to be, seems to me to almost be like the scenery flashing through the window of a train - yes, one can see the beauty, but sight is the only sense that is evoked. The other senses are detached and muted and perhaps even denied in the storyline and although visually it might be stunning and impelling, I walk away after reading in a state almost akin to awaking after an intense dream - I know I dreamt of something, but the memory of which escapes me. Was the last few chapters surreal? To me, definately. Were they forgettable? I am surprised to find that my answer is an affirmative on that. Character development, plotline and good writing are all essential to any form of creative writing, but at the end of the day, if there's no emotional connection with the reader, the story might as well been a daydream. PS. I know how hard it is to be a writer and this is by no means an attempt to diss Dan. Dan, as always, if and when my reviews stop being useful and starts getting on your nerves, let me know publicly or privately, but unambigiously please, and I'll stop writing the reviews.

I wonder who was it who wrote:

I hope you're talking about GWB, because I'm nowhere near North America. Besides, I've been told that the famous English translation of "Let them eat cake" contains a translation deficiency from the original French words that were uttered. Remember history is written by the victors, or in this case, some ignorant dweeb who can't even translate the original French properly into English. Or was the mistake deliberate so as to cast a bad light at Marie-Antoinette? Oh and remember when you wrote:

I got into a discussion with Vic about his age. Here's a poll just for the fun of it.

Heh, enjoy your date this Saturday

Heh, strangersagain challenged me to describe Hillary Clinton in the chatroom so... Not a true story.

Oh, I mentioned Dom in my latest DOR review. Somehow I thought the people who read this thread might like it

Flattery will get you everywhere Get on with the program, PWS. This is the review for 18. I haven't done 19 yet. And the idea of the reviews, well, one of them anyways, is to, more than anything else is to provide some feedback to Dan so that he can be a better writer. When I first started doing reviews, nobody did them. Now, I see reviews by everyone, which is IMO good. Next: Write reviews for Myr's stories... Just kidding

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this review are my own. This review contains spoilers for the Chapter concerned. You have been warned. I was initially going to play by ear and see if I could combine the reviews for 18 together with 19. After reading through 19 though, I decided 19 required its own review, which means 18 will be getting a review on its own. When I finished reading Chapter 18, the word that immediately sprang to mind to describe the chapter was "anti-climax". After all the excitement of Chapter 17, the "dig in and wait" mentality of Chapter 18 seemed rather anti-climatic. Almost before that thought had finished, I realised that it was not so. It's not so much an anti-climax, but instead was more of "eye of the storm" sort of situation. For those who are unfamiliar with Typhoons and Cyclones, there is an area of calm inside such a tropical depression called the "eye". It is usually right in the centre of the storm system. I'm not a weatherman, so you'll have to excuse me for not being able to give a better description. As the storm transverses over land, one first experiences the "front" part of it - with high winds, heavy rain and strong waves near the coast. After enduring hours of hellish weather in the tropical storm, when the "eye" passes overhear, the wind dies down and the sun may even appear for a while. However the false calm is soon shattered as the "other side" of the storm moves in. Likewise Chapter 18 is the eye the storm, and the beginning of Chapter 19 continues this period although the winds pick up speed near the end of Chapter 19. Writing wise, it was mediocre at best. There were significant improvements in the way Dan mentioned the descriptive parts - at the point were they were talking about the checkpoints and the roadblocks around Eureka, I can actually picture where they were setting everything up. Then again, I had the advantage of having a Yahoo map of the area handy. Overall, the plot was good. I could feel the tension building up as the story progressed. The tense atmosphere was built up as the story progressed and climaxed (no pun intended) when we learnt about the torturing and killing of Davey's relatives. One thing that seems out of place a little for this chapter though were the scenes that was written to make the reader laugh in the latter part of the Chapter. I know I have said that death has lost its drama value in Do Over, since after all, another Do Over can always be performed and everyone is alive again. However, Davey hss just been told that his grandparents - all 4 of them - as well as possibly a few other family members were dead. The geniality this causes the reader to experience destroys the sand and sombre mood that the deaths were suppose to convey. Personally, because of the hilarity factor of some of these statements, I could not emphatize with the fact that Davey had just lost some of the people that he loved. I'm sure the average Danimal will lap up this Chapter and proclaim it good. Don't get me wrong. It probably is. But perhaps one thing Dan could learn from Dom (Luka, his co-Writer on Serviced) is how Dom builds up the atmosphere in his stories every chapter without fail, and then gets it to climax near or at the end, thus creating a very effective cliffhanger.

Wow, read 19. Review will be out soon? Or maybe not...

For being gobsmacked, you sure have a lot of things to say. "Let them eat Cake." Attributed to Queen Marie-Antoinette when she heard about the French Revolution, or something stupid like that. Edit: And the review for Chapter 18 is at here.

Heh, everyone has to dies at some point There are only two constants in life... and death is one of them. Who knows when and where the grim reaper will strike next? And who knows when Dan will drop nuclear warheads on poor ol' Davey?

If you want to read norwegian, head over to http://www.nyheter.no That's my online Norwegian newspaper of choice. Ha det!

Wow, Vic hasn't posted anything for... a long while now. Has there been a funeral or a vow of silence that I know nothing about? Oh and Happy Birthday Michael