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"Six-Month Turnaround" by Bill Morgan (romance).
JayBird: 10, 8, 10
"Six-Month Turnaround" by Bill Morgan (morg105829@hotmail.com). Guest review by Jay Bird (j_bird3@hotmail.com). {Note: I don't often post re-reviews by second guest reviewers. However, this one seemed to be unusually well written and deserved to be posted. - Celeste} I'd just like to voice a dissenting opinion with regard to the review of Bill Morgan's "Six-Month Turnaround" that was posted in Celestial Review #303. In that post, Vance, a guest reviewer, gave this story an 8/3/3 rating on Celeste's Athena/Venus/"Vance" scale. I think this is much lower than this story deserves, and I would encourage folks not to let this review keep them from reading a good story. I found very few "Athena" flaws in this story. You might quibble with the business practices and philosophy espoused in the story, but I generally think of Celeste's "Athena" category as regards grammar, spelling, format, etc. And, especially given the length of this story, I found few mistakes indeed of this nature. I would have given it an Athena of "10" without thinking twice. The "Venus" scale is supposed to represent plot and character. Now, if this is supposed to be erotic plot, I can see how "Turnaround" might rate a fairly low score, since, as the author mentions in the headers of his posts, and Vance also mentions in his reviews, there's not a lot of sex here. But the characters are well-developed and consistent, if maybe a little idyllic. Yeah, real people running a real company would make mistakes, something that Cliff and Sandra don't seem to do. Some readers might find the plot too idealistic to feel real, and this might turn them off. It didn't do that to me at all. I found the characters engaging and interesting, even if they had too few flaws, and the plot was complex, varied, and interesting enough that I eagerly awaited the next chapters. That's a good sign, IMO. My review would have given "Turnaround" at least an "8" for Venus, but I probably would have given it a "10" and noted the lack of sexual heat and the unrealistic flawlessness of the main characters. I can't quibble with Vance's "Vance" rating, because it's supposed to be "Appeal to reviewer", and is therefore totally subjective. My rating would have been a 9 or a 10, again with a cautionary note about the non-sexual nature of the story. Kudos to Bill for writing a piece of fiction that breaks the mold. It is encouraging to see Bill and other authors posting stories here that are good stories first, and erotica second. Other folks may read these newsgroups for the stroke stories and their own sexual gratification. I read them to be entertained first. "Turnaround", while not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, is a very good story, and I was well entertained.. It is well written, has a complex and interesting plot, and characters I cared about. It deserves a better fate than to be relegated to second class status by a harsh review. Ratings for "Six-Month Turnaround" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Vance (appeal to reviewer): 10 |