Nice!

I like the introduction! It's a good introduction. :)

Heya!

I read the last chapter and had no comments. :) Nice work.

So did you actually go back and re-edit the whole thing? How'd it go? (Or, how is it still going?) And aren't re-writes ever so much fun... UGH.

Anyhow, give a holler if you're still writing it and want critiques. I'll try not to vanish on you again.

Take care,
Ruatha

Heya!

1.) "The guards opened fire straight away but by staying low, using the benches the slaves sat on and the boxes for cover and always moving in erratic directions, they avoided nothing worse than a few light grazes." -- Wait a second! Okay, so the guards SAW them coming (and thus shot at the ship). Then Trif and Fal get off a small ship, where a dozen guards are pointing, and they don't get hit? Really, I find that hard to believe. I mean, in order for the ship to get in there and drop them off, there must be a fairly large open spot -- which means that they would make easy targets. I find this unreasonable. :( Is there a way to make them enter a little more stealthily, so the guards aren't prepared to shoot until AFTER Trif and Fal are on the ground?

2.) "Falnec brought the skimmer down in a sharp dive." -- Whoa. Wait... Trif and Fal get the Meyen, then get back in the ship?!??!? Why? And okay, so they get back in... and then where does Fox fly them to? I'd assumed they were flying away, but then you write this, which suggests they're back at the camp? But... if they were coming right back, why bother getting back on the ship at all? Why not just do it all at once? I'm confused...

3.) "Five guards made it down the staircase..." -- Staircase?!?!? What staircase? Where are they? Really, this needs more clarification. I think this is the first time your story has actually confused me. Just one or two more sentences will probably clear it up.

4.) "From above, they could hear the sound of a full-on fire fight as Falnec kept the guards too occupied to use any of the three staircases." -- So... Trifmara just built a shield of bodies that she put between herself and Fal? This is a GOOD idea? What does Fox think of cutting off his backup?

5.) "I need you to blow up all the buildings in the camp." --Err... If they have the ability to do that, why didn't they do it right away?

6.) "she saw General Ben Karàlüpiàth standing over her now unconscious assailant with a metal rod in his hands" -- Cool, Ben's free. So where are all the other slaves, then?

7.) I'd still like to know what they actually accused Ben of, and how they proved it. You never really said. I mean, you said "treason", but that's not very specific.

8.) " his voice resuming the uneasiness that Ben hadn’t even noticed it drop." -- This is awkward. Can you rephrase?

9.) Doesn't Fox want to send a message to... ugh, I can't recall the name, but the scientist guy on him home planet, who keeps fixing him up and giving him shiny electronic toys? And really, wouldn't he be a lot of help in this war? Why don't they think about bringing him along? I bet he wants to go home, anyhow.

10.) "You sure those were the right cords" -- Do you mean co-ords?

Huh. Well, I guess after 4-5 chapters with effectively no comments, it was time for my red e-pen to get some exercise, huh? :) Sorry 'bout that. Hopefully it helps you out, though!

--Ruatha

1.) You know, prior to the last chapter with Trifmara, I never got the impression that she was THAT attached to her little flier. I mean, she left it behind without a thought when she went on the mission to get the disk and again to drop off the disk. So while I can imagine her being angry and a little sad that her flier was destroyed, it's really hard to believe that she's THIS upset. If you want her to be, then can you go back and add in something earlier so we know how attached she is to the pod?

2.) "“Yeah, it is,” Fox said in a shocked tone. “Wow.”" -- Wait a sec! When Fox was here before, he talked to Ben, but didn't recognize him, didn't he? I assumed he just didn't know what Ben looked like, but this counters that. Also on that topic, it seems like no one ELSE on Mey knows who he is, which seems a bit odd to me.

3.) Trifmara's attitude in this chapter came on really strong and really suddenly. Frankly, I don't quite understand it. It's the suddenness that makes it seem so strange. For the whole rest of the story, so far, you've SAID that she usually tries to stay out of politics and the big stuff, but you haven't demonstrated that. Instead, Trifmara's been up to her neck in Big Stuff since this story started -- and besides a little good-natured growling, she hasn't seemed to mind much. Now she's getting all whiney and hate-filled, and I don't really understand why. What has changed that made her change her mind so suddenly? Can you make that more clear?

Thanks,
Ruatha

Hello!

1.) "The women had ordered her squadrons well" -- I think you mean "woman".

No other corrections here. That's an interesting weapon you've given Nakem. I have to wonder how many others have similar mental abilities, or otherwise how he got them!

Take care!
--Ruatha

Hi again!

1.) "while many people, themselves included, class the ‘mercenaries’ here as proper mercenaries," -- Who are "themselves"? The only thing that makes sense grammatically is for "themselves to refer to "many people" -- but that doesn't make sense in this sentence. Can you clarify this?

Well, that's a surprise ending! I mean, of course we expected an attack, but not quite this soon! Kudos on surprising me!

--Ruatha

AHA! And finally a new chapter that I can comment on. ;) I re-read the rest of it yesterday. Sorry for vanishing on your for so long -- I got distracted by life. (Silly life!) Anyhow, I'm back now and am going to try to finish this. I hope you're still writing it and haven't given up!!

1.) You know, I bet I said this earlier, but if you could use some of those horizontal dividing lines to separate sections when you post, it would really help out. It usually takes me a good paragraph to realize we've switched scenes!

:) I remember why I liked this story. No grammatical problems or anything else that I saw. It's nice to see three of our main characters brought together, finally! Thanks, and I hope you keep writing this!
--Ruatha

Ooh intrigue! The prologue is a good hook, makes you want to read on. I really liked how the first part captured the voice of an older, slightly pompous lecturer rousing the crowd, and the cheers were a nice touch.

I think a few sentences could be tidied up for the sake of clarity, for example: "Viewed in the skies of Earth they appear to form a close-knit belt" seems over-written. "Viewed from Earth etc" is clearer and shorter and makes the point better, I think.

Loved the reference to Neil Armstrong, which really solidified the text and made it feel more 'real'.

"but success crept into our work and it is now that I can announce the fruits of our labour." - again, this feels slightly over-written and could easily be shortened and clarified. I think it could be divided into two sentences for purposes of clarity e.g. "[...]we eventually began to achieve successes in our work. I can now announce etc".

"Our neighbours, Venus and Mars, are no longer enemies to our frail bodies" - it's difficult to understand at first read because of the complex semantics. "Our bodies are no longer victim to the hostile climates of Venus and Mars" is basically what you mean, I think, but it's not been expressed very clearly.

I love the idea of the non-space drive and its disadvantages - original and with huge potential for conflict.

"when the terrible affects of the weapons of mass destruction have passed" - I think it's "terrible effects", though I'm not 100% sure

Naiad is a beautiful name. Very poetic. All in all, I want to see what happens next...

Interesting story and it just keeps getting better! I found nothing wrong with the last few chapters.

I like the historic excerpts at the beginning of each chapter. Very Dune-esque and spiff.
You have a thing for guys with white hair, don't you? First Casey, now Fox...
"Give me pen." Cute.

"He still dimly recalled the days of the great greenhouses with their artificial climates for farming, but that was before Van Tonder. Now the planet needed shipments to feed only some of its population." This is a bit confusing, especially the second sentence. Maybe it's just me.

James again...suspicious.

When fox takes off and sees the plume "numbers" is used in the same sentence twice and then a third right after. FYI

You REALLY like guys with white hair. Even though Beltino's older...

Fox is funny.

Sorry for reviewing every chapter, but it's easier on me.

"Sanrio"? ...Did you name it after the Hello Kitty coporation on purpose? I only noticed halfway through the chapter and whatever your intentions, I find the name amusing now.

1st paragraph: "the warm sun above kept her warm"

Clever voice idea. I imagine it would get tiring, though.

Somewhere near the songflier intro: "Making" is used in close repition.

Introduction to the guy-on-screen: "Carreneid language with a mixture of Carreneid and Krak’vi " I understand what you're trying to say but it feels choppy.

James seems fishey...hm. Sorry I'm a little nit-pickey but I don't want to overstep any boundaries. Hope you take no offense to my review ^-^;

Due to the recommindations by Arej and Ice, I've been meaning to read this for awhile. I plan to review after every session of reading to mark my place in your story.

THe introduction is wonderful; it hooks the reader's intrest immediatly. I don't see anything particularly wrong with this part...this is more of a congrats for a good start. Silly me.

Can't wait to read the rest.

Now, I do a lot of weird things on this site- most notably I tend to shy away from giving R&R on stories that have already got some decent feedback, and I'm also famous for taking goddamn months to read anything.

Anyway. Breaking from tradition, this is basically my way of saying that Painted Angels is worth a read, and also to remind past readers to give this another look: there's been a very interesting rewrite in the meantime! This is going to be a long review, but this is in praise of quality rather than touching on the plot. For once no one can call me a spoiler, heh...

As with any project this size I felt I could actually see the author's quality of writing increasing as the chapters went on- to the point that any early slip-ups became forgiveable and then later forgettable. As with real people, the characters grow on you no matter what part of the sci-fi sector you first think they've been pulled from. They act realistically and absorbingly, and despite any initial misgivings on their personalities you soon find out that each one is a fresh and original property and that they're as worthy of your time as any classical literary figure. With the added bonus that none of their dialogue is wannabe-Shakespearian angst-tripe. Woo!

And as for the villains... jeez. Their actions are described vividly enough that you find yourself sitting in their victim's place (or the disturbingly attractive position of the villians themselves, for that matter). And of course the whole idea of a villian is debatable considering how fleshed out each and every presence has been...

Bluntly, IDoC was started up because of pieces like this: stories that touch on expected (and accepted) "standards" of science-fiction, but go on to do weird and wonderful things with those staples of the genre. And it's annoying whenever someone decides that a name or setting is cliche and that it's not worthy of their time. In response to some guy's review on another of Alankria's pieces: the names "Trifmara" and "Fox" aren't remotely cliche in my eyes because I know 14 John Smiths and one Hamarijia Tolomnte. You could throw real words/random characters at a screen and get a name that a real person has for goodness sake. And the characters themselves are hardly cliche, so stop focusing on the goddamn names, people!

Ahem. The only, *only* criticism I could level at PA is that, just ocassionally, it takes a while to get to the next part of the plot. But when it does make the move you feel so rewarded that, to be honest, you couldn't give a flying profanity. The setting is epic (and I mean *real* epic, as in vast and absorbing and breathtaking) and the characters, as mentioned, don't feel like they've been stolen from the latest overrated bestseller. Considering everything that's going on, it's amazing that the cast's antics aren't clunkier- the pacing is impressively good.

...so yeah. Basically, give this a read, guys! You won't regret it!

Now I just need to *ahem* remind myself of the last few chapters...

Well, that was certainly unexpected. I do like the fact that Trifmara wasn't the only survivor...even if she was the only conscious one, the survival of others makes it more realistic. Now, if she'd been the only survivor period, and conscious at that, it would have created an aura of incredulity that you managed to bypass by creating three other survivors.

It wasn't very intelligent of her to leave the Roc at all...and less intelligent to have wandered so far away, but her restlessness and reasoning do make perfect sense. Having her fall was a nice twist...although I wonder. She fell through the ice, yes? As in, into something else? It really isn't clear if she fell through and into something or not...after all, earlier you mentioned that the snow was frozen before it could create deep banks, which implies that there are layers of ice. Which makes her fall suspicious, as if she fell into a hidden area underground or something. If not, you might want to make it clear.

The battle was realistic...not a lot of resistance description, but it was alright, because it wasn't the sort of attack where I would expect to read about a titanic struggle to reach the amplifier. Although...it might be me, but I feel like the amplifier wasn't really well guarded. If I were in charge of those soldiers on Mimas defending said amplifier, I'd certainly have stationed a large amount of soldiers in and just outside the room the amplifier was in. Even if I didn't expect an attack. Just food for thought, really...but it came across as if there was resistance in the hallways and then nothing when they reached the amplifier. Surely some soldiers would have realized what they were after...

I like the intrigue with Ben and why he wants to go rescue Trifmara. It adds a question to the story - a friendly one, or in the minds of those more paranoid, a less than friendly one. Meaning, I'm betting that if I let myself, I could be sitting here wondering if Ben wants to assure himself that Trifmara really is dead...or go and kill her to be sure that she is.

Now, I know better - at least, I hope that I'm right in believing better of him than that - but the fact remains that it adds a question to his motives. Adds a depth to his character (not that he's lacking) that also adds a depth to the story as well.

I do like that Fox was willing - if uncomfortable - to leave, instead of pulling the 'no man left behind' attitude that a lot of protgonists are crafted with. It makes him human, makes him realistic. Not that that's been much of an issue either, in my eyes...but it does it all the same.

And especially nice is that Fox and Ben are going to rescue Trifmara. One half of me questions the necessity of this...it would certainly be a surprising twist if they left her there. But the other half is cheering for them doing the right thing.

Alright! Alright alright, I think you infused me with the drive to write! Woo! I have too much energy now...anyway! I'll bother you later about other stuff. Yeah. So, I'll go now.

BB- Arej