Reviews for Shanghaied!
Amy B. R. Mead chapter 8 . 1/16/2013
[His stomach growled quiet loudly] I believe you mean "quite" loudly.

[Zach wanted to rip something's throat out, just to make it stop.] I know this is dragon instinct, but shouldn't Zach be horrified by wanting to do this? You said that he's a pacifist in the last chapter, and I'm not going to let that go! :P

[He was a pure carnivore now; however much it might have bothered him, he could only eat flesh and blood.] Good, good, a hint of unease with these killer thoughts, but I'm not quite satisfied. Was Zach a vegetarian, by the way? I never got that sense, but here he seems bothered in a carnivore's body.

[Driven wild will the overbearing scent] I think you mean "with the overbearing scent."

Mognanonn amuses me. "Purple is a stupid color" XD Purple is my favorite color, so I'm a little insulted, but he's funny.

[As a human, Zach had always thought that liver tasted a little icky] Okay, not a vegetarian.

The dragons' fight is quite impressively-written, and I love Siyana and her "-sigh- not again" attitude XD

[Its bared-door was open] "Its barred door"

[With that being so, Zach,] You need a quotation mark at the beginning of this paragraph.

I like this chapter, though I have some issues with it. For instance, why is Zach not freaking out about having killed someone?!
Amy B. R. Mead chapter 7 . 1/16/2013
[horns sprouting out—strait, but twisted] "straight". Other than that, I absolutely LOVE this passage about Zach seeing his reflection. I like how vivid the description is, as well as the emotion that Zach is feeling at this moment.

[Zach plunged the lower half of his snout into the water—nose, mouth and all] I'm assuming that dragons can close their nostrils while drinking? I don't know if you make that clearer later, but it might be prudent to explain it here.

The description of Zach's finally-successful takeoff is gorgeous. It's so exciting, and the previous failures have us rooting for him. AWESOME job here.

I must ask, does Jaynem have a SINGLE redeeming quality? I've yet to notice one XD

[open in a long, gash.] You don't need a comma after "long".

I love the combination of fire and magic, but I will be disappointed if Zach is not horrified by having killed someone, as you've just said that he is a pacifist. Maybe you should put in something about that now.

[archer's corpse fell on its back, crashing dead to the flame-charred earth] You don't need to emphasize that the corpse is dead - it's a bit redundant. You can just say "crashing to the flame-charred earth."

My favorite chapter yet. I can only hope that it continues to get better and better!
Hashmalum chapter 7 . 1/15/2013
I have read everything up to this point, and since for some reason Fictionpress doesn't want me to see Chapter 8, I will wait to continue instead of skipping to Chapter 9. On account of not having read everything, I'll just post my current rambling thoughts before they escape me.

The Prince has got to be one the most unlikable, evil, insecure, irreverent, selfish, dysfunctional, and otherwise not-very-nice human beings I have ever seen or read about. Off the top of my head I can only think of one character that can surpass him in horribleness: the villain from '13 Assassins', and considering that guy chopped off all of a woman's limbs to keep her as a sex slave, Prince Jaynem is definitely aiming high. He is like Eric Cartman with power; that type of dysfunctional sociopath that survives only because the laws of fiction allow him to, and the audience loves to hate him.

Maybe this comes up later, but I think it would be cool if Zach's knowledge from his own world could be used to his advantage; like if he knows calculus or something. Calculus and germ theory alone would magic in their own right in a middle ages setting. Then again, that angle may have been played too straight in 'Flight of Dragons", so you might want to stay away from it.

Zach's combination firebreath and magic attack was the boss. I totally saw it coming, and that only made me all the more hyped. I wonder, though, how the Prince can be so arrogant and continue to be so cruel, when Zach could potentially insta-fry him. Maybe he knows Zach is just too nice a guy to use deadly force outside of life and death situations.

When Fictionpress decides to cooperate and let me read Chapter 8, I will post my thoughts on the later ones, too.
Deserthawk chapter 9 . 1/15/2013
Oh dang, what what-DREAM INTERPRETATION TIME
So clearly (muddily) this has something to do with Zach's transformation... maybe with the reason he transformed/was transformed. A super-trippy explanation would be that this WAS what actually happened...eh, it's probably more metaphoric/symbolic. Especially the 'eating' part (that was real screwed up, BTW). The part with the not-parents/gods was especially interesting (disturbing). It seems that the gods of this world want Zach to serve some purpose. Perhaps Zach's (real) parents are more than he thinks they are? Maybe Zach is a reincarnation of someone? That would explain why he was chosen, out of the billions of people on Earth... I'm guessing 'the purpose' is to save the world/kill the brat. The jury's still out on the significance of the ellipses... imperfect circlereflection of Zach's mind/soul blah blah... or maybe you're just fucking with us.
"Still, something about the dream disturbed Zach." This made me laugh. Uh-yeah? You expoded into a dragon? You got EATEN? I've never had a dream that fu... actually, scratch that.
I noticed a few typos. I think you wrote 'mare' instead of 'more' once.
PS. Nice transformation! Although why do I keep imagining Spyro? *bangs head*
Der Adler Des Mondes chapter 9 . 1/15/2013
Could this be a subconscious message that his parents were part of it all? Who knows :P But the math bit is exactly how I feel with any fancy pants description of any math!

I just love little thinking expositions, what could it mean?...hmm

I am glad you updated so I await your next update!
Amy B. R. Mead chapter 6 . 1/14/2013
[black as the ashes of a dead fire on a moonless night] This is a gorgeous image and I love it. This whole passage also makes me very curious about Gazann, who is probably my favorite character at the moment. He seems pretty awesome :3

[the building's gray, grey stone] I'm not sure if you mean two different shades of grey or not. If you're just emphasizing the fact that it's grey, I'd suggest picking one spelling.

[of his—of this predicament] I think that switching the order of this would work better. "Of this - of his predicament" feels stronger to me.

[Even now, as Samirol led him to learn to a place where he would learn some of those very things] I don't think you need "to learn" there in the beginning, as you say that he will be learning later in the sentence.

[Sclatcle] What? XD I have no idea how to pronounce this or what noise it is supposed to represent.

I'm running out of chapters! D:
Amy B. R. Mead chapter 5 . 1/14/2013
{M-magic… it's gotta be magic…} You need a period after the second ellipsis.

[Jaynem said, pronouncing the name "Zach" like it rhymed with the word "Zach."] What? This is a confusing sentence.

[«My nameis Zach, Jaynem,»] "name is"

[with his Zach little brand humorless humor] Again, I'm not sure what you mean here. Honestly can't tell what you were trying to say.

[His had black tights for pants] I think you mean "He had black tights for pants."

Can't wait to see dragon training :3
Amy B. R. Mead chapter 4 . 1/14/2013
[barely restrained emotion] Should be "barely-restrained".

[{So if that brings them in, then…}] You want a period after the ellipsis.

[And, he'd been too agitated] You don't need a comma after "And".

[{Sleep little one,}] Here, you DO want a comma after "Sleep".

[misfire in vain] This is redundant. It would sound better just to say "pray to your gods that Alrusha's spell did not misfire."

But yet again, I must say that this is highly entertaining and I really enjoy it .
Amy B. R. Mead chapter 3 . 1/14/2013
[Then, just as he had imagined doing so many, many times during his younger years, Jaynem pulled a golden pin out of the badge—the royal insignia—affixed to the sash strapped diagonally across his chest; the blood-purple color of the royal sash stood out like dark lightning against the flawless white of the Prince's full military regalia—his casual attire.] This sentence goes on too long, and feels a bit awkward. I would suggest breaking it up somehow.

[his jaw-boned bruised] Should be "jaw-bone".

This just keeps getting better! I'm really enjoying this story, and shall continue to read :3
Amy B. R. Mead chapter 2 . 1/14/2013
You use "the teen" very often to refer to Zach near the beginning, and I think you should try to limit the use of epithets. It feels less professional than using his name more often.

Other than that, I prefer this chapter to the previous one, because I think it took a bit too long saying that Zach was confused and didn't know what was going on.

One thing that was jarring in this chapter was that Zach didn't make note of the fact that he was stuck on all fours from the beginning. You would think that he would have been confused by that.
Amy B. R. Mead chapter 1 . 1/14/2013
I like this so far. I remember reading it earlier, not sure why I didn't review.

I'm confused as to why your characters' thoughts are in brackets, rather than simply italicized. Also, how does Zach switch from thinking to actually talking with his mind? I don't really understand that.

I'm not sure why, but the term "egg-fluid" doesn't seem to fit with the rest of your word choice. Anyway, I'll keep reading :)
FreedominExpression chapter 2 . 1/11/2013
For me, your opening was a little contradictory. Even though you say that Zach did not realize that he had passed the milestones, in my opinion, he would have noticed when he passed from unconsciousness, etc. However, I enjoyed your ending. It clearly depicts that Zach doesn't know exactly what is happening. I would loe if you would describe the setting more. As a small note, if you were the size of an infant, even "normal" sized objects would look huge. Overall, I enjoyed this scene. There was never a boring moment.
FreedominExpression chapter 1 . 1/11/2013
I think this was really great, writing wise. I think that your word choice was spot-on for this scene, and you really portrayed the fear that Zach was feeling. The only criticism I have is that, in my opinion, it is more professional to just italicize thoughts.
LuckycoolHawk9 chapter 4 . 1/10/2013
(Freebie)I liked how Zach makes lists to occupy his time and organize its thought because it shows that he still has a human quality in him even though he is a dragon far away. I also liked how Zach told someone the truth and they didn't believe him because it shows the views of the dragons are like the humans there, they are oblivious to the truth.
nightfuries chapter 3 . 1/10/2013
"It would have been far more bearable if the day had had an interesting activity or two—preferably a public beheading"

This line made me laugh, which in hindsight, doesn't necessarily say good things about my sense of humour :) I don't know, I just thought it was really funny.

Anyways, I found this chapter quite interesting, though all it did was just raise more questions :) So I'm guessing there's a fantasy realm co-existent with ours? Or another planet, or something, 'cause I don't think this 'Prince' guy lives anywhere on Earth. I kind of like him though, despite his superior attitude and everything; he's just funny to read about :) I'm almost getting a Bartimaeus trilogy vibe from this story, if Zach were more sarcastic and the Prince was a little less crazy with power. But you've probably never read the series I'm referencing, so moving on :)

And the stable guy returns! With a name! Poor Hezo, I have a feeling it's gonna be his head that rolls. The servants always get it. But I'm crossing my fingers he ends up fine. I really want to go back to Zach's POV now, and see what he thinks of everything that's going on, and hopefully some of my questions will be answered. Like how he ended up as a dragon in the first place :)

Now for the nitpicky stuff:

"...of the foolish designs of that part of the blabbering throng that actually thought that it deserved something"
- Might just be me, but I found this sentence awkward due to the repeat of "that". It's like my phobia, I never use "that" in a sentence unless there's no other way to make things clear.

"A tall, serious-looking, teen with hair red like dragons' fire—Jaynem's every motion was filled with quiet superiority"
- Unnecessary comma after "serious-looking"

"For a moment Jaynem's famously icy demeanor melted away into genuine surprise; the boy's eyes glimmered with honest excitement; his jaw slack, and his brow raised in disbelief that the time had finally, finally come."
- Generally you only ever use one semicolon in a sentence, unless you're listing something. You could change that second semicolon to a comma and still have the same effect

"The other guard assisted his partner in getting the dragon into an immobilizing full-body-hold dragon."
- You don't need the word "dragon" to be repeated a second time. Just leave it at "full-body hold"

"They looked down at Hezo's trembling , bleeding form..."
- Extra space between "trembling" and the comma

"...wanting to return to the familiar tundra of his crystal clear thoughts normal Jaynem turned his thoughts away from his wounded pride..."
- This sentence confused me a bit. I don't think "normal" is supposed to be there

"{Yes,} the Crown Prince thought, as felt more of the dragon's power coursing through his veins"
- You need the word "he" between "as" and "felt"

But otherwise, great job!
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