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					out of sarajevo by poto http://www.xenafan.com/fiction/content3/outofsarajevopoto.html SYNOPSIS: A photojournalist on assignment in Sarajevo meets an Army officer during the cleanup of the latest bomb attack. The two become involved in a dangerous mission to expose human rights abuses deep in war-torn Bosnia. NANCY: OK. We all saw One Against an Army? You thought Xena against 500 Spartans stretched the believability index a bit didn't you? EWOK: Believability? In the Xenaverse? Oh, and that was Xena doing the work of 300 Spartans against the Persians. NANCY: *raspberry* EWOK: Alex Ryan seems like a tough cookie - I actually felt she might really be able to accomplish the (admittedly-sometimes-superhuman) tasks Poto calls upon her to do. No wishy-washy sopstress, this. Even if she isn't such a "freight train" as uberGabby-photojournalist Taylor! Both the characters HAD real character, which is unfortunately rarer than a Xenafic reader might hope. NANCY: Try this one then. This is two against an entire camp full of armed soldiers with tanks and high-powered weapons (all described in meticulous detail). You wouldn't believe the havoc these gals can create with a few hand grenades, a small fire and a convenient - obviously very light - laptop that Alex (the Uber-X character) can carry around for hundreds of miles (along with numerous weapons - this is one tough chick!) which can broadcast satellite signals around the world. Oh yeah, and pigs fly. Add the compulsory "we might die tomorrow so let's get naked" sex scene - YAWN - EWOK: Jealous much? NANCY: ... and you have a pretty incredulous, obvious piece designed to pull as many heart strings as possible but ultimately falling down into a puddle of its own mush. To top it all off, it could probably have been about ten pages shorter had the writer decided not to be so self-indulgent with her descriptions. There's only so many ways we need to have described that there is soot floating around in the air or that a building is burning down before you feel like crying out ENOUGH ALREADY! EWOK: It's called scene-setting, Nancy dear. And for someone who professes in her disclaimer to having never visited Sarajevo, Poto does a fine job of establishing the ragged feel of a war-torn European city. EWOK: If Poto didn't have such a penchant for long and convoluted sentences, I might have given this a 9. As is, I'll give it 8.5. Nancy? NANCY: I can go as high as a 7, but anything more and I have to check my sap-o-meter.