groobie,
As I said in an earlier part FDK, I remembered when Terry asked for betas for this fic. At that time he indicated major WHAMS and that writing it made him sad. I mean he could have substantially changed the story during the beta process but I have it on pretty good authority that he is not generally open to that. I am unsure why he changed the warning for the actual posting of the story but maybe he will touch on that later in the story towards the end.
Terry is probably lucky that Nan Smith is not reading the boards much any longer or she would probably be going off on him like a 12 gauge shotgun about now due to her actual detesting deathfics. Not avoiding, actual detesting.
That said, I suspect that Lois is really dead due to the chapter's coverage of all of the possible 'fixes' that Bernie and Burt had evaluated earlier and none worked. I mean Herb could swoop in with the time machine and fix everything but that does not tend to be Terry's way.
I did not like the fact that Lois died in this part but I suspect we will see where Terry is heading and why he did it in future parts. As you said Terry is an excellent story teller. While I don't always (actually mostly) don't like the stories he tells but he is an excellent spinner of tales so I have confidence in that ability. He also claims it will get better later, his statement at the opening of this FDK "We're in the valley now. Just remember that no valley is forever".
I guess I agree with you about the warning for the archive, however the story is not complete and I am willing to wait to see where he goes to see if the warning was appropriate. He hinted a couple of times that the reason he considered it a soft WHAM was because it was telegraphed for a pretty good period of time both in the story and in the chapters. While I can't say I agree with his assessment of what soft vs hard WHAMs are, it is what it is. I expect the remainder of the story to be focused on the lasting impact of Lois' life on her family and friends. Maybe even Clark finding someone else as that desire was pushed very hard by Lois on her deathbed. If you want to read something along those lines that but much more upbeat and more detailed on that subject see Pam Jernigan's The Last Goodbye.
We will see...
Mike
Last edited by Mike M; 01/14/15 10:25 PM. Reason: add Nan comment
