Why has nobody noticed that the River Isis is flowing in the *wrong direction* in the Henley part of this chapter? :)

Gosh, what with one thing and another, and pretending to do college work and such like taking up all my time, it turns out I'd never read Time and Peter Joyce. Anyway, I have now (in one sitting, when I'm MEANT to be getting an early night, damn you) and would like to say, rather lamely: marvellous!

'Return to Numenor', snigger; 'Lyra/Peter', coo-ey; 'Unexpected author cameo', jolly good.

All round good show. Doesn't help me undersand what's going on in The Clockmaker's Girl, though. Should it? Probably.

Ta-ra.

Wow. Just... wow. It's about time somebody wrote a quality story on . (No offense to anybody else, including myself...) That's... Well, it's worthy of publication, but I think you obviously know that.

That was incredible. Awesome job.

Hi Ceres,

I intended to write a review full of remarks, comments and questions, a long review. That's the reason I have waited so long but in the end everything that I could have written seemed to have evaporated: the questions I had were answered in your afterword, the remarks were made by others (generally I agree with Enitharmon and SkywaterBlue).

Remain the comments.

My preferred chapter was easily _Conversations_. It told us so much about the characters, so much more in fact than there had been told all along your stories (which does not mean they were badly written - but before the characters were always described from Peter's point of view, not yours). I loved that Jane's dæmon had finally turned up.

About Elias there isn't much to say, at least not for me; others might think the contrary but to me Elias is even more disgusting and loathsome than he was before. And it's obviously not because of his queer likings.

Perhaps it's because he is so self-centred that he has not the slightest idea which harm his alter ego in another reality has caused. Or his constant suspicion towards his interviewer who is kind to him all the time.

Generally, I love it how you as the author have to explain yourself to the characters, how you have to justify what has happened to them. I imagine if that could be comparable to questioning God. I guess it would. After all, you created them. Another aspect that I loved was how the characters searched for a cause. How Carrie suspected that you had had Jim killed because they were sinners. Or how Peter thought you had taken his arm and leg because he had betrayed Lyra. This is just so _human_. Not many humans would accept that things actually happen with no reason at all or with a reason much too subtle for them to ever understand.

Finally, I have but one question: for what reason did Ceres turn up in this reality? Why did you walk around questioning people? Curiosity? As I understood you came to see Jane even before she had known of the “accident” at Carrie's.

And um, there's another question: why did you ask Peter to tell what happened to him? Was it important that it was Peter Joyce who told the story and not you? You knew it anyway.

As I wrote you before in the e-mail, I very much enjoyed the idea of time-ghosts. I can't even say why, but in their way they're more meaningful than the “real” characters. I also liked the references to and quotes from other novels. I'm not only speaking of the obvious scenes through which Peter floats (Harry Potter etc.) but single phrases (e.g. the quote from _Alice in Wonderland_ when you spoke to Carrie, as well as all the others).

Then there are these little details that I love to discuss: I have recently watched the film _From Hell_ featuring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham. In the film it says grapes were something very special in 19th century England. Are they in Peter's reality? You let Elias bring Peter “a bunch of grapes”. Is there a special meaning behind that gesture?

Well, I hope that's enough for the moment or else I'd have to re-read the whole story.

Greetings, Konrad -

post scriptum: as you can see I have finally got myself an account here to write signed reviews - and maybe publish something, too.

post scriptum to Enitharmon (just to clarify things): this is Hester from the forum.

Ah...with all the setbacks and discouragements left behind, the journey is ended-you must've had a long, hard journey, though I can just imagine you starting another within the week, involving Peter somewhere, like as not!

That interveiws chapter worked, no question, things like that remind you why Fanfic was invented. Something Completely Different-that convinces you it was the only way things could be done. The characters were superlatively evoked, and Elias really deserved it.

I did end that chapter thinking how rotten we can be to our characters sometimes (And where you get deamon names from), but i'll have to take that back after the conclusion, a great happy ending. The story improved in some ways as it went along, i'm sure you know its a mixed bag, but consistantly, the writing carried you along-there's a ton of long stories under Harry Potter, I think I saw one with 100 chapters, that are just too imposing even if they happen to be good-with this one at its best you want it to be neverending. And Peter is good at emotion, hits just about every note right.

OOh! Very clever! You are John Fowles and I claim my five pounds ;)

1.) Harry Potter

2.) LotR

3.) Narnia series

4.) ?

5.) ?

6.) ?

The first three are easy, of course, but the other three? I have no clue.

Is it a dream, or is it a visit to the land of the dead? It certainly isn't real, although the bits with Lyra as Eve amuse me. I shall wait and see.

Not a second oppertunity on this earth...comes to mind throughout this text, not least in the context of where this is going-I hope desperately that you know, because this is so good, it has has to be true...so delicately beautiful it might vanish with the wind.

I heard somewhere that Joyce 'Didn't give a sh*t about the reader' by the time he wrote Finnegan's wake-it wouldn't have worked as his first novel, but stories like that must take ignorance, confidence, or bravery.

This story has changed in tone dramatically since i last reveiwed-you've got quite enough excellent writing to keep the story moving at its own pace. I really hope Enitharmon isn't right about this being the end. I was suprised how much of Peter's character could survive intercision intact, but that's just me. Elizabeth was really hateable, excellent lines there.

What next...

Oh my! Touching, sensuous, sexy, surreal! A little bit of real magic to finish with, and so unexpected!

Well done.

This is good, tense, compelling writing and I feel really involved in it now. Looking forward very much to the next install ment. Hitchens! Which of the egregious brothers would this be, I wonder!

No smut! Damn, and I thought you were finally becoming a 'respectable' fanauthor: you know 'fic, eventually, it's all about the smut...

I chide. But now that we know how the timelines diverge, what next?

You are clearly the most diabolic writer alive. Both of those in one chapter? It is pure evil.

But I do want to know what comes next.

We don't call them time-ghosts in our universe, of course, but in a universe that's not yet got the VCR or another recording device, I suppose that'll do.

So, Peter's not in synch with his universe anymore? What this calls for is a transporter, and the proper application of Heisenburg compensators! It goes without saying that I am eager to see where this leads.

Steptoe's, I ask you! Almost as bad as the University of Harrogate! This is a most absorbing tale, and becoming creepier and creepier! We've come a long way now from HDM and into a fascinating world that stands in its own right. And you as a writer have come a long way from 'Threads' Slow-moving, and perhaps with a few too many digressions (although these may become important later?), but the build-up of tension works very effectively and now I'm on edge waiting to see how it all falls out. This is good stuff.

Oh happy universe that has had Cole Porter in it!

Oh dear. :( At the same time, it makes perfect sense for the people in Lyra's world to consider children born without a visable daemon (I'm assuming that the intention was that these children do have souls, they are just born inside, like ours are) to be considered a thing of evil and destroyed. I think it's quite a neat idea, even if I do hurt for the Mistress.