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					tropical storm by Melissa Good http://www.merwolf.com/tropical1.html SYNOPSIS: Come on! Nothing we can say in a two-sentence synopsis is going to make you run out and read this novel if you haven't already. Dar and Kerry, the two most talked about characters (besides Xena and Gabrielle and Janice and Mel that is!) in the history of Xenaverse fanfic, have A Long Adventure. Emphasis on the long. NANCY: Only Sharon Bowers has a better command of dialogue in the Xenaverse than Missy Good displays in Tropical Storm. It's just the stuff in between that bugs me. She should've been a playwright. I found myself, especially after about chapter 7, skimming through any passages that weren't eighty percent dialogue, because I knew the cleverest things were to be found whenever her characters spoke. What a tragedy it is to create such brilliant characters, give them such incredibly witty, intelligent and forthright banter, and then surround them with inanity and a plot that makes it seem like the Days of Our Lives of fanfic. It doesn't make sense! The exception to this is her attention to business and technical detail. I wanted to see more boardroom bitch Dar Roberts! These bits were very smart, and well paced for a writer whose main weakness is the obvious difficulty she has with being concise. Ewok? Do you think I'd get hunted down and killed by Merpups for publishing a review like that of Missy Good in a public forum? EWOK: Depends. Does this command of dialogue only hold for her uber, or are you likewise going to praise her Xena-Gabrielle fiction? NANCY: Are you trying to get me killed? Ummm ... no comment, we only review uber on this page. EWOK: I do think you've nailed it, though. I kept thinking it was the description that was weighing it down, then of course she'd redeem it with some of the technical detail, which was complex and active without sounding like Star Trek tech stuff: "Kerry, can you align the transpositronic oscillators for me? Thanks, sweetheart." Good thing we've got someone observant like you on staff, Nancy... NANCY: Ahhh, but such praise is only to be expected from my faithful sidekick, even if she is an overachieving one. I just realised something. Did you notice that between Tropical Storm and Lucifer Rising you have a fairly comprehensive Restaurant guide to the Miami area? They EAT so MUCH! EWOK: It must be the heat. NANCY: And I'm a little worried about how close they got so fast. How long have these chicks known each other? I think they've known each other for less time than it took me to read the damned story. EWOK: Why Nancy, you're becoming cynical. <aghast> NANCY: <innocent look> Who, me? <raspberry> It's all this schmaltz. I'm going off to read some Conqueror stuff. EWOK: I'm giving Tropical Storm 8 out of 10. I didn't pull an all-nighter reading it, but I have to confess I was hanging out for the next instalment whenever I hopped on line. NANCY: Parts 1-8 of Tropical Storm get a 9 out of 10 from me (go bitch Dar, yeah!) and the rest, including the Christmas stuff later which really doesn't need a separate review, gets a 6.5 out of 10. I think Missy ran out of steam as soon as she started introducing any allusions to Xena and Gabrielle. Keeping the uber completely separate, and steering well clear of jet planes and mental hospitals, would have worked better. We'd better stop, before our review gets as long as Tropical Storm!