That's the trouble with spring break being over. I don't get to post until long after everyone else has pointed out all my favorite parts. And then when I nit-pick it looks like I didn't like it . . .
So let me say first that I keep being amazed by how much better this keeps getting, because it started out so great that just staying at that level would have kept me hooked! Instead, it just keeps reeling me in! (Which is why I want longer parts. I read
Masques -- 123 pages don't faze me!
)
Silas is wonderful -- especially the Lois-babble! -- if a tad more clueless than I'm finding easy to believe. If he knows about Tempus' manipulations of time and L&C, he should have a
tiny doubt by now -- not a big one, I buy that the occasional imitator does so good a job they convince themselves -- but a teeny little one?
“What’s an answering machine?” he asked her, leaning in, as well. “Is that new? Something they have where you’re from?”
“Yes,” Clark said carefully, trying hard not to convey his deep impatience with the topic change. “When you can’t get in touch with someone, you leave them a message. It gets recorded and they play it later.”
“Why wouldn’t you be able to get in touch with someone?” Silas asked, looking genuinely intrigued now. “Zip-com’s are universally issued and solar powered. So... why...?”
NO ONE EVER TURNS THEIRS OFF?!?
NEVER? OMG, Utopia IS hell, and Tempus is right. Not to sleep? Relax? Make love? What about for religious reasons?
I love my cell phone, but sure as sure I let it go to voicemail sometimes. And for 25 hours every week, I don't answer any phones!
Any society where not answering the phone is unheard of has taken "nice" to pathological levels. (Not that I feel strongly about this, or anything.
)
(*whisper* And, grammar fascist that I am, I object to the apostrophe in "zip-coms."
)
The Tempus/Madge/Petal scene is absolutely MAGIC. And I've commented before that your view of Andrus is a bit more vitriolic than mine, and you have thoroughly established him as incompetent. And I get that unless things are about to be solved a little too neatly, Tempus can't just give everything away -- Petal or no. But . . . I
like Andrus! And some part of me rebels at the notion of his being THAT much of a bumbling idiot, and then THAT oblivious to what he has done.
He's not of sub-normal intelligence, right? Did he never taste one of the tarts? Does he not have eyes or ears? Messing up I can believe (although it does bother me, but I can accept that your vision of the character is markedly different than my own); but complete obliviousness to his own inadequacies? I'm having trouble with that, even in Utopia (where I imagine the "self-esteem" movement has gotten its second wind).
Maybe it's just me -- won't be the first time.
And one more thing:
“Actually, we’ve decided this is the best place for you,” Madge said sweetly. “I know the winter will be hard, but you’re quite inventive, so I’m not too worried you’ll survive it nicely.”
