that was great! it was really well written. i especially liked the last paragraph. it was perfect. and it totally described life. from a gloomy point of you of course. thanks for writing it. xo vnr

Beautiful. Gorgeous. God, wow.

i loved the writting. good work really =)

That was beautiful. The latin sprinklings were a nice touch. I do wish there were more darker Sirius fics out there.

LD. x

It's simply beautiful. No, not simply, inexplicably. I wanted there to be more at the end, but it wouldn't have been the same. Thanks for writing it.

That was indefinately one of the greatest works of art I have ever read on this site--more so, in my life.

Raine.

I can't say eloquently enough how much I love your writing. This piece is wonderful, the kind that I'm going to have to come back and read again to fully appreciate. Absolutely wonderful.

Also, I read it on your lj because of what you said about the formatting, but I thought it would be better to review here.

I love the bit about Marlene McKinnon's funeral, how her life is the "glorious overriding truth" despite the inadequacy of the funeral (and how that perhaps it only is because they want it to be). I also love Sirius's thoughts at the end, with "maybe we shouldn't exist."

The very last line, as well, is dangerous. It's beauty and doom, and very nicely done.

I have to say, I love your imagery, but I feel that you take everything and put it into "image" form until the reader feels like they are watching rather than experiencing. I've felt that with some of your other work as well. Though I dearly love the way you manipulate the commonplace--have you studied Zen at all? The notion of "sabi" seems to fit here, as does that of "yu" (forgive me if that's not the correct term)--I feel as if you're leaving your readers with a mere ghost of the emotion that they should take from this. It feels carefully rattled-off, performed rather than played for the music itself, and it is only at the end that I really feel connected to anything you have written. Perhaps let your readers know via your writing that you are relating these descriptions (such as the one of London in the morning) to the human detachment from the reality of war (for example). I certainly loved the last paragraph, and I congratulate you on a well-crafted writing style that can convey wondrous things when it is not performing.

Best,

~Folk

Reading your work is like finding chocolate cake after a bad day-- priceless.

I'm not sure why I clicked, because Sirius is not one of my favourite characters, but oh, you wrote him so beautifully that I was persuaded otherwise. There was a very Eliot-ish quality to parts (though that might be because I've just been on an Eliot binge and I read it again after the last quote). The description of Marlene McKinnon was wonderful - so much life and character in that paragraph. The letters and the quotes were a great touch, particularly the varying tones in the letters.

Disillusioned Sirius really was wonderful to read about. I particularly loved the bits about his being reduced to a silhouette, considering what happens later. The way it all resonates with the actions of the Order and the Ministry in the next war is painfully sad.

My absolute favourite paragraph was the last, though. It was heart-breaking, and such a lovely end, with all the inevitabilities. I wish I was more coherent, but every time I look back at the fic, I find another beautiful phrase of yours, and my coherency vanishes.
(hopefully you don't get spammed or anything; this is the third time I've tried to post this!)