Reviewer: Jsmith20 Signed
Date: August 04 2022
Title: Chapter 13: Aces and Eights
Well you have once again proven that not only do you have writing chops, you have the damn tenderloins of writing.
Dear goodness man, did you marry the muse? You're unreal.
If I spent the time writing everything I liked about the story so far, I wouldn't be able to go to sleep tonight. So I'll try to be brief(relatively).
Love all the side characters, they are truly awesome. The small part with the ship that we never saw again with the Zetan male, was great.
Jolene, rawr, she's one hell of a lady. I'd be interested in getting punished by her.
Princess Nea has had a fantastic character arc. I was wondering how I would end up rooting for her. The best thing about her is that it's clear she was always misguided, never truly evil.
Question, and it's cool if the answer is as the story requires, but I'm a bit unclear on how durable someone is when shrunken. Is it something that requires powerful stomping(with armor or something) at a couple of inches. Is it also that Zetans are just more durable all around. Lots of people died from getting squished, but Kurt was in between Nea's toes(lucky guy) getting squeezed by them(again lucky guy).
Was Kurt at all inspired by Captain James Tiberius Kirk who also has escapades with green women.
That scene with Smith at the top of this chapter gave me a funny mental image. Kurt decides to not only be a complete Earthling, but a complete American. So instead of whatever royal consort attire he should wear, he shows up to the big celebration in a black leather jacket, tight black jeans, fingerless black gloves, a bandanna just for the hell of it(maybe even stripes painted on his face too) dressed straight out of the 80s just to have fun with the Zetan expectations.
Author's Response: I spent a lot of time plotting this one out and coming up with the supporting cast, so it's good to see they work. I really wanted to use the side characters to give a more complete look at the world, let the reader see how the main characters actions impacted everyone.
As for durability when shrunken it goes up a little bit, it would be difficult to crush someone on a soft surface with a bare foot, on a hard surface or with shoes? Yeah it's very easy for full sized people to crush shrunken ones. Kurt is relatively safe in Nea's sandals (or other footwear) and most of the time when she's squeezing him with her toes she's not trying to seriously hurt him.
Between the green women and the Iowan main characters yeah there is definitely a star trek influence here, among other sci-fi franchises.
I imagine that the Empress's consort will probably help Smith pick out clothing that, while Zetan, has an "earth flair."