Drawn to Disaster by Lily Gee - first 6 chapters

[Grantaire]

My mom half killed me for spending like 6-8 hours on the computer, but it was worth it. I definitely enjoyed the story, despite some gripes I might have with a few parts of it.

[~Shockwave~]

I'm going to have a good 4-5 hours to read this weekend, most, if not all on this book. after that I will write an insanely comprehensive review for you.Yeah, I take my reading way too seriously sometimes.

[GaliGee]

LewaLew, yes, the answer to life, the universe, and everything... Take heart, M4M will have a lot of new characters that weren't in the Makuta stories, and the plot takes a completely new direction, so hopefully you won't be bored. If repetition of my old stuff is all that disappointed you, I'm thrilled! Most of the population won't have that problem. The Gorast/Teridax idea is really funny. There's no one on Morgoz's power level, though, aside from his brother.Zarayna, tell your mom I'm sorry for being a bad influence. It's great that you liked it enough to stay awake, though! Tell me your gripes, I'm a big girl. You might help me improve the sequel. (One of my early beta readers told me my working title stank, and it prompted me to discover the play on words that now graces the cover.) Did you like the narrator's name? <shockwave>, I hope you have a nice, comfy chair and good lighting, so you'll be in a great mood when you write the review. :PThanks again to LewaLew and Wraith for their terrific reviews on Smashwords. I don't know if it was one of y'all, but someone named Kal Bluetooth just posted a great review on Amazon. The funny thing is, he mentioned the Hades and Persephone myth, which I never mentioned in D2D but plan to in M4M. Awesome!Thanks for stopping by,

Edited November 5, 2012 by GaliGee

[~Shockwave~]

as luck would have it, my Kindle decided to malfunction.... (This is why I hate machines!) So I am not near the point I would like to be at. But, marching band season just ended, and I need something to fill that spare time.at this point it appears you will get a good review, as I am quite enjoying it. and if I weren't, I probably wouldn't have made it this far. but it will be in depth.BTW, is there a princess bride reference somewhere in chapter ten? I feel like that's not a coincidence...

Edited November 6, 2012 by <shockwave>

[light Laser]

I stayed up to some where around four in the morning a few nights ago ( I'm not sure when I started so I'm not sure how long I was actually reading it for), my mother was not there so I had no near death experience, but I'm a slow reader and not finished yet.So far I have found it most enjoyable, and unlike some books I have read it seems to move along quite quickly.There are some bad things I could say, but not now, maybe when I'm finished.

Edited November 12, 2012 by light Laser

[GaliGee]

<shockwave>, sorry about your Kindle. Hope you got things straightened out. You can re-download it in any format, now that you've 'bought' it. A Princess Bride reference? Not deliberately, but I definitely see the poisoned-goblet similarity. (Twisted minds think alike.)light Laser, thanks for hanging with it! I look forward to hearing what you think (good and bad). :DAnd... I just finished the PROMO VIDEO! Check it out on my website, www.lilygee.com/video, and tell me about it in this topic.Thanks for stopping by,

[~Shockwave~]

I got it figured out. It stopped freaking out. mostly.unfortunately I haven't finished yet. but fortunately, it makes math a bearable class.Well. I finished. A little while ago. I'll try to write a review over the break.

Edited December 10, 2012 by <shockwave>

[GaliGee]

<shockwave>, I hope you got a passing grade in your math class. I look forward to the review.

 

Well, thanks to some great feedback from y'all in my video topic, I was motivated to update the trailer. Check out the new video, now with 300% more original art, and a better Zarena voice recording! (Yeah,in the beta version I relied a little too heavily on recycled cover art, and now Zarena is more how I imagine her, too.) Find it here: http://lilygeefiction.wordpress.com/video/ Or just search for it on YouKnowWhere.

 

And... to celebrate me getting old (hey, it beats the alternative), I've posted a coupon code for those of you who didn't get a free ebook the first time. See my sig.

 

Thanks for the love!

[~Shockwave~]

Alright, here goes. (Heavy plot/ending spoilers will follow, read at your own risk. maybe later I'll do one for those of you who have not read the book.)

(and don't bother reading to get a coherent description on the plotline. believe me, it is anything but coherent.)

 

 

 

 

Errors, etc:

I didn't notice very many, and, due to the nature of the nature of the world they where in, most of the ones I did notice where easily forgivable. but one that still bugs me is that Zarena was zooming into a screen to get a better look at something. I can wholeheartedly say that I know that you cannot do that.

 

Plotline coherency:

The plot was fairly easy to understand and made sense, and again, due to being in a comic book world, anything that did not make sense is easy to forgive. needless to say, there where some things that didn't make sense in the beginning, such as having american books and such in the library, but that was cleared up. (not at all the way I thought it would be, but that was just me.) I think this was pretty much nailed.

 

Plotline pace:

For the most part, this was pretty good. there where some places where it wouldn't have hurt to have it moving a bit faster. Like, say, the whole Island section, that probably could have been a bit faster. But other than that, and a few other parts, It was pretty good.

 

Characters:

Oddly enough, original is not best here. Never thought I'd say (or type) that. And I think this is probably the best part, the characters where written in very nicely, and the ones that where referencing something made it clear what they where referencing. Though it seems some of the less prominent characters suffered a bit from lack of characterization, but it's hard to say, as you can only spend so much time on them.

 

Additional notes:

Another thing I didn't particularly enjoy was the the names and that whole situations, but that's a minor nitpick.

And, I must add that I enjoyed the shocking twist in the middle, I have to admit that I should have seen it coming, but I did not.

 

 

 

Alright, not nearly as extensive as I would have liked, and I'm sorry it isn't sooner. nut there you go. And I'm looking forward to the next one!

[GaliGee]

Shockwave, thanks so much for reading and reviewing! It's really good to hear that you didn't find any major plot holes. (That's one of my biggest fears.) I'm flattered that you liked the characters. I think the story is driven about equally between the plot and the characters, actually. The big plot twist is turning out to be the readers' favorite part. In the early planning stages, I considered making it an open secret, where the reader knows from the beginning even though Zarena doesn't, but it seems to work better this way. As for your specific objection, maybe I can explain it better:

When Zarena 'zooms in' using the vision-enhancing headband, it's not on a screen, it's her vision itself becoming magnified, as if she slipped on a pair of glasses. Except it comes from direct input to her nervous system instead of a lens, like digital zoom on a camera.

Does that make sense? I agree, the time on the island could have gone a bit faster. What didn't you like about the names? I'm stuck with the major ones for the sequel, but I'm still making up names for the new characters. Your feedback may help me improve Muse for Mayhem!

 

In fact, I invite any of y'all who have read D2D to please tell me what you'd like to see in the sequel. What do you want to see more of--and less of? Any particular outcome? I welcome your brainstorms!

 

Also, I would love any feedback on the updated video trailer, with more original pictures and a better Zarena voice. www.lilygee.com/video

 

Thanks for popping in, people. Happy new year!

Edited January 5, 2013 by GaliGee

[~Shockwave~]

Hm... I meant to type something else there... the names aren't bothering me... But I can't put my finger on it at the moment....

 

If you want to discuss further you can send me a message either here or on.... that other site.... that I can't mention.