Planetfurry BBS

[StefanH-UK]

I'd just like to say how much I am enjoying reading the first act of Identity Crisis. Not that I intended to find myself having spent over an hour sat in front of my PC reading a story, rather I should have been doing something productive. C'est la vie

At this point (having just taken a 5 minute break to browse the rest of the website) I find myself thinking 'this should be on paper, surely?'. With a little bit of tidying, why could this not be in hardback?

I read quite a lot of SF (Peter F. Hamilton, Stephen Baxter, Pratchett, plus others) and I would compare Identity Crisis with a book that (in a not-too-far off parallel universe) could have been a collaborative work by Philip Pullman and Peter F. Hamilton (with Philip developing the characters and Hamilton providing the raw narrative).

It's rare that I find this kind of talent displayed on the internet for all to see. I guess it's pretty rare to see any real talent on the internet these days

I cannot wait to see what develops, not just within Identity Crisis, but with any (and please, let there be many) future works.

Many, many thanks.

Stefan Holmes ( [email protected] )
(UK)

[hikaru]

[Henry_Hound]

He might have it all read by monday if he keeps at it. It took me about 10 hours to read all of act I and chaper 1 of act II. And yes I stayed up all night reading that part. In total it took me a little less than three days to catch up to chapter 46 or 47 in act III. Plus I was still checking my e-mail, groups I'm in and online comics that I read, so If he doesn't have anything else to do he could be caught up before noon tomorrow easily.
And the writing at the first part of act I does not suck. It's better than me at my current state of writing, and I think I'm fairly good at it.

[hikaru]

[Henry_Hound]

You know what they say, rules are meant to be broken. I don't follow most of the rules becuase they get in my way. The only ones I follow are spelling, parragraph separation and partialy on having charactors talk. I still get the point across and the stories are easy to understand. Now if I could just beat my muse into submission I might be able to finish the stories I've started.

[webkilla]

One thing I just have to add:

Hikaru, If you wanted to get this stuff published you should never have put it out on the web at all... I mean, u can DL ya stories from the Raccons bookshelf in PDF, so its all out there...

No publisher will wanna touch something out on the web already - or at least you'll have a hard time finding one that'll see any profit in it...

[StefanH-UK]

I did stay up quite late reading, after I transferred the PDF's to my laptop. I managed to drain the battery from a full charge and then promptly fall asleep.

Best night's sleep I have had in a long time. Who knew a good story would be therapeautic?!


@webkilla: Any publisher worth their salt would see a good meaty story and a starved audience. How easy is it to read a PDF in the bath (my preferred environment for such an activity)? I (briefly) considered reformatting the HTML and printing it out, but then I realised that was a tad implausible and then felt silly about coming up with the idea.

@Henry_Hound: The Lord of the Rings breaks just about every rule in the book. Good point

@Hikaru: I'm sure Mr Schwartz would grant you license. Still, I understand how difficult it would be. Perhaps one day it will seem worth a try though It would not be beyond the realm of imagination for there to be a series of stories based in the same environment. Maybe not Discworld proportions, but it makes me smile to think about it.

[webkilla]

I know - but look at it this way:

If a publisher was smart, then he'd say that Hikaru was to write out all of act 4, but only have it sold, not given away for free on teh net...

[Henry_Hound]

Or they could say if he gets so many orders then they'll do it but it would all have to be pre-ordered and they may be generous enough to print out a few extra copies if there's enough orders.