Holy crap. This is AWESOME. *shudder* WHOA! not expecting that.

And of course i would read this on a dark and stormy night...

:) CD

Hello, Monsieur.

This was rather interesting. I have so much to say, I don't even know where to begin. Let's deal with the confusing/technical stuff first.

-First, you seem to mention Gwydion as a "he" in many parts of the story; for example, "Gwydion…Gwydion had been a magician. He’d…he’d made a maiden out of flowers." This did not make much sense to me, as I thought that *her* name was Gwydion, and that she once bore "flowers down on this world." Confused!

-“You will meet a terrible end before help, if any is on its way, and I can almost guarantee that it is not, can reach you.”--This sentenced annoyed me a little. I think a more natural way to say this sentence would be "You will meet a terrible end before help can reach you, if any is on its way--and I can almost guarantee that it is not." This also puts more of an emphasis on the last parts of the sentence.

Okay, I think that's basically it for the technical stuff. Now for the plot and writing.

The writing is really awesome. I love, love your descriptions and I'm so envious. As you said in the review you left, my writing tends to read like a script. Yours, on the other hand, reads beautifully. It flows in just the right way, and there's just the right amount of detail. You don't overdo it (thank Bob).

I was very intrigued by this post-apocalyptic world. As a fan of dystopian fiction, I was really excited to read this. I was disappointed with the fact that so many questions were left unanswered. For example, what happened? Why have things changed? Most importantly, why has she survived when others have not? I suppose the answers to these questions are not significant.

Another question: Does she really wish for the purity that once was? She can barely remember her name--how can she remember her purity? Her beauty? Was it that important to her in her past life?

And the guy in the end. Ugh, if you would've made this into a series (which, why don't you, damn it?), I could totally imagine these two trying to survive together a la 28 Days Later. But he is sort of the anti-hero of the story, killing the men who were going to attack the her and giving her the option to die instead of living on in an impure, ugly world. After I read the ending, I wondered...maybe she had already died. Maybe she didn't survive those attacks by those three men after all, and this was her hell. Blah. I'm over-analyzing. I'd really love to hear your interpretation. Get online!

Overall, wonderful writing. I'm so glad you're back. Now finish Adept or I'll kick your **!

Toodles,

-McQuinn