This first chapter is really amazing; I was totally blown away with just about everything. :D Saying such, I can't give much in criticism--the majority of this review will probably be a lot of "Oh my gosh, this was so awesome!". I found the descriptions incredible, particularly, and loved how strong it started and stayed throughout. It just really sucked me in, and I'm a sucker for really good writing with really good plot/story (I know you mentioned that this "chunk of text doesn't begin to cover the overall plot of the story," but judging by this first chapter, it's going to be really good).

I like how you just plunged right into the story with little background on, say, the countries or world this revolves around, only giving small doses of knowledge when necessary. It makes me want to know so much about them, but the lack of information doesn't detract from the story in the least, which is quite impressive.

The characters fascinate me greatly; they're really interesting. I am dying to see what Celest and Thade do next, though I think that's the point. xD

I felt the dialogue was done phenomenally. The lack of contractions made the conversations formal and really real. Even the sentence structure, the vocabulary--all of it was just wow. :D Don't worry about the dialogue; it's just as great as the rest of the writing.

My only gripe would probably be the overuse of the word "hissed." In certain sections, I noticed it appear more often than other words. Still, that's a really minor complaint and not that big of a deal.

Basically, I really adore this story so far, and I really admire your writing. I look forward to updates, and, judging by your author's note, this is going to be a really long story/novel. So far, I'm thoroughly impressed and really excited. However, I'm typically unable to stay with stories for very long (usually due to a heavy workload) and therefore was very hesitant to review this story to begin with. I had actually read this story last night but then wavered to today. In the end, I gave in and, as you see now, reviewed--I found this story too good to not say something.

Congrats on digging me out of lurking. :D It's only momentarily, though, of course. I'll try to keep up with this story, but I'm not guaranteeing anything (but just because you don't hear from me in the next couple of eons doesn't mean I don't enjoy this story).

I'm sorry if this review seems a bit scattered. The original had gotten killed by my internet for some reason (my browser just decided to randomly refresh the page and destroy the entire review), and I don't know if I covered as much as I did in the first one (yes, I liked your story so much that I wrote it up all over again. :D ). Either way, it should be just about.

Thank you for sharing such amazing work. Keep at it.

~Rayne Boe