[Report This]Date: December 03 2021 5:48 AM Title: Chapter 1
The writing quality is spectacular, like a professional novel, far and away unusually good for this genre, and the sci-fi "what if" is executed very thoughtfully. I practically fell in love with Jessica myself. It makes me wonder if the author is writes IRL for a living.
So Kudos all the way. The use of giantess situations actually felt elevated to the kind of interplay of power, even to dystopian levels, seen in other drama, in a way that makes the reader feel more drawn into the story. I hope there's a sequel, but one where Jessica and Harrison, rather than suffer, are given more opportunities to enjoy and control (within limits) their inter-size experience. [Report This]Date: June 04 2021 5:46 AM Title: Chapter 32
This was a great series to read through. You did a good job describing the size differences and getting the audience invested in the characters's plight. Hope to see you write more stories in the future. Stuff far shorter than this would still be great!
Date: June 03 2021 7:45 AM Title: Chapter 1
I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your story. I'm usually just a lurker and I don't talk much, but this has been such a great story to follow. I loved the world and characters you created. Thank you so much for writing this!
Date: June 03 2021 7:45 AM Title: Chapter 1
I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your story. I'm usually just a lurker and I don't talk much, but this has been such a great story to follow. I loved the world and characters you created. Thank you so much for writing this!
Date: June 02 2021 5:44 AM Title: Chapter 1
I think the saddest part about it being over is you didn't give us a big teaser for a sequel lol. But at least the possiblity exists!
When I started this, I didn't know what to expect. Became on of my favorites here on the site tho.
Great job man.
Author's Response:
Thanks for the love!
As far as a sequel goes... the possibility certainly exists. The final chapter scene between Versa and Kat was not actually a part of the original draft of the story, I only added it in recently to provide more closure and open up an eventual plot line for a potential sequel. But don't hold your breath for a continuation, I really just don't have the time to currently write anything on the scale of this story.
I will say though, I've thought a bit about a sequel, and if it is ever written one of these years it will certainly be about the team that goes back into VERSA to find out what happened to Kat. As far as I am concerned, Harrison and Jessica (and Rich for that matter) would almost certainly not be included, as I feel like their plot arcs finished nicely. But Kat and VERSA's AI certainly have more to offer.
I might publish some unrelated short stories here in the future, so keep an eye out in case that happens. Again, thank you for your appreciation! It's been my pleasure to write for the communtiy that has offered me so much in the past.
Date: June 02 2021 3:27 AM Title: Chapter 1
Say add this story is over instant classic do you do giant couples stories? If not OL hope to see more of your writing your a genius great story building anticipation
[Report This]Date: June 01 2021 10:52 PM Title: Chapter 1
Loved the plot and the way you went around with it and breathed life into the scenes with excellent details.
Top notch writing, all in all.
[Report This]Date: May 18 2021 8:20 PM Title: Chapter 26
Chapter 17: "was considerable hotter with rage"
Chapter 18: "I don't to have to worry"
Chapter 26: "Thought it meant"
(And from Ch 14 - you meant to say "inured the"? I've heard "inured to X" and "inured Y to X"; "inured, the" might also be interpretable here. But I've never heard "inured X". Counting the number of hits when searching similar phrases using Google (and going to later pages to delete duplicate hits) seems to agree. But if the people in your community use this phrasing I'd like to know what community that is.)
I saw another review saying there was foreshadowing that they were already in a sim at the beginning, pointing out the eggs and forgetting the date. Funny enough, I think I was a bit suspicious of this sort of thing at the time, but the detail of the eggs tasting weird[ch3] was what convinced me that this probably wasn't the case! I thought eggs tasting weird had no reason to happen in the sim more often than not in the sim (and perhaps should happen less often), unless simulating taste is hard or taste is simulated intentionally wrong for eg vore purposes. (At this point, if the latter is true, I'm surprised Claire didn't mention that when suggesting she eat Harrison, so I now think the latter isn't true.) The other foreshadowing events (specifically cell reception[ch2]; probably forgetting the date[ch3] works here too, though in this case the difference in probability of forgetting the date between being in the sim vs not in the sim feels tiny, since I wouldn't expect the average person to immediately recall the date anyway) make sense though.
(Also, super thanks for putting up the dates on which you post each chapter so I can avoid spoiling myself by reading future reviews)
Ch 20-21: I think the reason Harrison, Rich, and Jessica woke up in VERSA-B was that Versa was holding up her end of the deal with Kat keep everyone safe by killing them in VERSA and turning off the kill switch; as far as I can tell, Kat never turned the kill switch off, and didn't know it was turned off. But for this explanation to make sense, it feels like Versa wouldn't have let them go before finding out about VERSA-B, so probably Versa knew about VERSA-B before Kat told her, and was convinced she[Versa] could convince Kat to bring her[Versa] to VERSA-B, but then didn't want Rich, Harrison, and Jessica to escape VERSA-B so she had to kill them first before Kat could lift them out of VERSA-B? If Versa knew about VERSA-B from the start, I feel like we're getting into risky "I made this huge plan all along" (referenced in an earlier review) territory, but in reality I think I'm just missing some backstory to be revealed.
Ch 20: Is the shell code based on a real programming language? (And is HRD supposed to be something I recognize from earlier in the story?)
Ch 25: I don't see any indication that Versa lied to Claire about how powerful she was, or gave Claire any other reason to be surprised at her abilities. (I don't mean to say Versa doesn't lie about her capabilities - I think she might have lied to Harrison when she locked him in the grey room and told him that she was surprised at how resourceful they were. Not sure about that one. But at any rate it just feels true in general: incentives for truth-telling in general are much more complicated than the incentives for lying (especially without a notion of society, as I mentioned in an earlier review), unless Versa (or perhaps VERSA, if you want to suggest that this might cause Versa to inherit that) was specifically programmed to tell the truth, which I find unlikely because Claire didn't know that Versa had a human form.) And then she goes on to talk about how dumb the thing she lost to was.
More and more characters are starting to suggest that Versa wants to become human. However, I don't think Versa has done anything to suggest that she actually wants to become human. That being said, I can understand Jessica saying this as rationalizing her rape. Maybe I can understand Claire saying this (referring to "She acts like she wants to be human, but [she's bad at that]") if Claire is just the type of person who thinks everything negative about the people she loses to (which is consistent with my previous paragraph). And then maybe Harrison just trusts Claire, since she owns the place. Still, seems like a coincidence that Jessica and Claire came to similar conclusions. But I also don't think Versa intended to convince everyone that she wanted to become human - Versa would have to know about this trope (maybe one of the pilots had the preconception pretty strongly going in, but it would have to be somewhat strong since I don't think Versa reads and interprets the full backstory of all the pilots - I think Versa would at least have a hard time interpreting what was meant by AI in this trope), and then think that falling into this trope would be helpful.
Author's Response:
Hey thanks again for the edits, really appreciate them. And a huge mea culpa on the “inured” bit; you're right. Honestly it was a typo from the beginning but I must have reread the injured sentence in a daze and somehow determined nothing was wrong. At this point, my mind goes foggy when I try sifting through everything I've written. I wrote this entire thing on a bootleg version of Word that is no help in identifying typos and incorrect grammar, so I literally have to do all my edits with my eyes.
[SPOILERS BELOW]
Ch. 20-21: Basically Versa had no idea they built a sim around her sim. I always wrote with the assumption that she was testing the different pilots to see how helpful they could be to her goal of escaping, and she eventually settled on Kat. The death/ejections of the other pilots were coincidental or random, but helped me as an author keep my characters in roughly the same place.
Ch. 20: Ah, no, the shell code is something I invented very loosely based on various languages I used to teach. In this case “HRD” is just a reference to VERSA's hard drive, or main system. I wouldn't put too much thought into deducing the code, because I certainly didn't.
Ch. 25: I think it all comes down to Versa's capabilities as she grows into the new sim, VERSA-B. Kat speculated that when she copied the AI over, it would have to fully rebuild itself and relearn all its own tricks, but has no idea how long that could take. Claire might have assumed something similar. There's a part of Versa and Claire's conversation that isn't included in the story, so it's somewhat unclear how much Claire is either told about Versa's powers. I think either way she is caught off-guard when she can't disconnect, and surprised to find out first hand how powerful the AI truly is. I wrote it so that Versa is unlikely to boast about what she is capable of.
I agree with you that I don't think Versa wants to become human, per se. I wrote it to imply that the AI was built in a way that mimicking is intrinsic to its behavior. It's how she learned to build all her worlds, after watching the programmers go in before her and show her how the blocks fit together. A very “monkey see, monkey do” sort of thing. I think as she evolves to the stage of building simulated people, she becomes much more interested in learning about real people. And of course, as she grows a conscious identity, her avatar is an extension of that. Despite her omnipotence, I always wrote her with the idea that she's bounded by this drive to learn, which she does through aping. But stay tuned, this is spoken more to in the final chapter!
[Report This]Date: May 04 2021 3:58 AM Title: Chapter 15
Typos: Ch. 11: "Unlike last night night when"
Ch. 13: "without trying to think about it anyone"; "Enjoying you stay?" (I think this latter one is a typo, anyway)
Ch. 14: "she eventually became inured the stinging sensations"
OK, actual review time: I like how the door at the end of chapter 14 was grey - it makes the trope "I[, the woman in black,] planned for you to do this all along" believable. (I don't have an example where the trope was intended to be serious but wasn't believable, but I guess my stereotype for this is HISHE Sherlock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poDaiYKJFlo) I'm not sure why it makes it feel more believable - maybe the idea is that if the door weren't grey then the woman in black would also have to predict whether Harrison would think that it was created by her, but because she made the door grey she can be pretty certain that Harrison thinks the door was created by her and use that to influence a future plan. This still doesn't feel very concrete to me, though - I'm not sure what sort of plan you can make that would require Harrison to think the woman in black created that door. Maybe she's trying to set a general tone?
Starting in chapter 13, the story is starting to give me Sam Hughes (of qntm.org; e.g. There Is No Antimemetics Division. The point is that in some of these stories, the characters have to reason about reasoning, which I like) vibes: VERSA might know what they think about inside the simulation. If VERSA does know, then if two people want to communicate inside the sim but not let VERSA know, then they have to communicate in a way that they can act in the correct way without thinking about it while inside the sim.
What made me think of the previous paragraph was the line in chapter 15, "You want to share everything you know?" said by Rich. I think the woman in black definitely knows everything that is said inside VERSA (perhaps not side space), but unclear if she knows everything that is thought by the characters. I think she can sense feelings/lying, based on her interaction with Harrison in the grey room.
Author's Response:
I got to say, I don't know what I did to deserve a chapter-by-chapter copy editor like you, but I say this non-facetiously: thank you! My mind has gone numb the countless times I've read through my chapters looking for all my little typos, and I always immediately fix what you find (though that Ch. 14 one you noted is actually the way that sentence was intended to be read).
As for your comments on the story itself... I'm glad you're enjoying it and finding the chapters thought-provoking. I think you figured it out in that this part of the story really centers on the woman in black, namely, what she is, what drives her, and what she's capable of. The characters are trying to figure out these answers for themselves, but it also seems like the woman in black is learning from them by toying with them throughout their time in the sim. Most of these things are eventually answered in later chapters, but the woman in black's sentience and (possible?) humanity are central to one of the themes I sought to illuminate throughout the story. I mean, the story is called Mirror for a reason, right? :P
Anyways, I hope it continues to entertain you. The smut also starts really kicking up after the point you're currently at.
[Report This]Date: May 02 2021 10:01 AM Title: Chapter 10
(Minor typo in Ch. 9: "He didn't want to let her know that he stated his own appetite")
Regarding your Ch. 10 Author notes about not being the typical story: In case you haven't read it, Neverquest (and apparently, other books in Adelais series, though I haven't read them) by Cassadria https://www.giantessworld.net/viewuser.php?uid=1643 seem somewhat similar in being plot-driven (somewhat explicitly - see the Author's respnse to plzBgentle's review at https://www.giantessworld.net/reviews.php?type=ST&item=3265). Though even that story has obvious giantess stuff early on... funny enough, the story with the highest proportion of time without explicit giantess content on this site I can remember might be Choose your Own Dish https://www.giantessworld.net/viewstory.php?sid=3910 . (To be clear: I *like* how this story is plot-driven, and my guess is that is because I like this particular story-universe.)
Personality traits of the characters seem a bit strange at points in this chapter - while it's believable that Harrison would try to attack the woman with a chair out of anger or something after being trapped in the room, or that the woman would act the way she did when asking Harrison what death is, they didn't feel like how I guessed they would act based on their previous actions (I guess that Harrison is intended to be a generally impulsive character, but deciding to attack the thing that just effectively created a room to trap him in and regrew him feels more impulsive than anything he did before). I guess the woman's actions here might make sense if the point is that she doesn't have "a personality" yet, but rather just has emotions mostly tied to the current situation, (mostly) independent of the previous situation.
[Report This]Date: May 01 2021 11:24 AM Title: Chapter 8
I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that a door "closes inwards/outwards", but I can guess what it means.
I like the bit about signs not having correct grammar! Previously, the idea that creating comprehensible signs might be harder than creating people that can communicate with the pilots was completely out of my realm of thought (and I think pseudo-Vanessa said enough to convince me that her words couldn't have been hard-coded), but now that I think about it, it sounds plausible, at least because signs require some notion of "society" (actually, this is the only explanation I can think of, but it sounds possibly compelling to me).
My guess is that programmers have the ability to "reset" a world to a previous state (and not just the original state) independently of other worlds, seeing as I guess the notebook change-key was placed there by a programmer who observed that one would be needed to use the door, but the building would have already been destroyed if they weren't able to revert the world state back to some time after the notebook was placed there but before the door was opened for the first time. (Either that, or they reset the world to original independently of other worlds and replace the notebook after using the door each time, which isn't implausible if they only explore the edge rarely but sounds expensive if they explore many worlds in one expedition.)
Author's Response:
Jesus I can't even catch my typos even in my responses!
Anyways, as per your comment on the worlds "resetting," there are things like that throughout the story I don't bother explaining, though I feel they're too minor to really count as plot holes. I did put some thought into this though, and I figured that most of the worlds would eventually time-out and reset to a pre-determined state when there were no pilots present in them. Considering the amount of destruction that occurs in some worlds, it's the only real explanation that makes sense.
As far as the notebooks go (or "change-keys" as the characters call them), I also figured they were either programmed in or scripted to spawn randomly near the green doors that connect all the worlds to each other. They're not supposed to be wholy random, as evidenced by Sujay's shock in Chapter 5 when Jessica explains how she gre bigger unexpectedly in Chapter 4.
[Report This]Date: May 01 2021 10:01 AM Title: Chapter 7
Typo: "You don't my world anymore?"
I'm getting Star Trek VOY 2x23 "The Thaw" vibes from the person who looks like Vanessa. Quoting the transcript (http://www.chakoteya.net/Voyager/219.htm):
KOHL WOMAN: The system was designed to be adaptive, to observe and respond to our thoughts, and adjust the environment to our wishes.
TORRES: Who wished him up?
VIORSA: It happened over months without our even realising it. All of us had fears about survival, recovery. We never anticipated the computer would manifest those fears into him.
Too early for me to guess who has the giantess fetish (if any) though.
Author's Response:
Thank you for chatching my typos! You wouldn't belive how many hours of editing I've put into this whole thing and still things slip through the cracks. I'm never writing a story this long again, it's been a headache!
[Report This]Date: May 01 2021 9:28 AM Title: Chapter 5
Character behavior at the end of this chapter to decide to go back into VERSA feels unrelatable to me after being angry shortly before (both in the lab and when Kat told them Kevin died). Up to this point it felt like at least Rich/Harrison were intentionally one-dimensional. I think I'm supposed to be able to understand Harrison and Rich's behavior based on the way this has been written so far...
That being said, I don't think the situation is impossible - I can construct mental states for Rich/Harrison/Jessica and/or rational arguments of Kat that would convince Rich/Harrison/Jessica to agree that going back in is the "right" thing to do, but when I read this for the first time, those mental states/arguments were not the ones I had in mind. So I would have suggested more details here.
Would be hilarious if Kevin didn't actually die and Kat was just trying to get Rich/Harrison/Jessica to believe VERSA could kill them so Kat could play giantess games with them inside VERSA while Rich/Harrison/Jessica believed they could actually die.
Author's Response:
Yeah I get that. Because Chapter 5 is the set-up chapter for basically the rest of the story, the characters sort of have to decide to go out on a limb for the sake of plot. I tried to make them seem reluctant but ultimately seduced by the sheer wonderment of VERSA, especially in regards to these government agents hoping to do a little corporate espionage. Oh but don't worry, they definitely come to regret their decision.
[Report This]Date: May 01 2021 9:19 AM Title: Chapter 4
I like the worldbuilding so far - in particular, I like how the numbers suggest a much larger world.
Although I think most readers wouldn't know that the average person can break an apple into pieces using bare hands.
Date: April 22 2021 10:59 AM Title: Chapter 24
24 is AMAZING
Date: April 11 2021 7:44 AM Title: Chapter 1
I am just over halfway of what has been published so far - but already this story deserves all the accolades it can get and more. The introduction from the author says it all: don't read this as a quick bite-sized (no pun intended!) story, but copy it to something like Instapaper (tip!) and read it like a novel. You won't be dissapointed!
[Report This]Date: April 08 2021 11:13 PM Title: Chapter 1
This piece of art is simply the best form of written fetish entertainment that I have ever had the luck to stumble upon. No, this is description is not doing this ambitious story full of intricate storytelling, huge plot points, great character work and creative descriptions justice in the slightest! "Mirror" deserves so much praise and love, and even much more attention! From the first chapter, I could already tell that the author knows what they are doing. The story is well thought-out. It's ment to go somewhere and hits all the plot points it wants to hit. All the surroundings make sense, the different worlds are creatively built and described. Both the plot focused parts and the sections more focused on the fetish are executed wonderfully <3! It takes a few chapters to really get going with the size changing stuff, but it is absolutely worth waiting for it. And, in fact, the story is easily captivating enough so that I wouldn't have mindeed reading ten more chapters before encountering the first size changes. Also, the whole size changing aspect isn't burnt and wasted like many stories tend to, but first teased and then slowly built, incorporating all kinds of nuances of the fetish. Everyone will find something for themselves. The main characters ooze charm and personality and play off each other well. The moments of tension can get indeed very tense and downright chilling or creepy. Yes, there are horror elements inside this story and most of them totally hit. This story struck me, it overwhelmed me with its quality writing and I couldn't stop reading. I can't wait to read the next chapter, now that the story seems to build up to the grand finale. The story takes great elements or inspirations from stories like Inception, Matrix, Alice in Wonderland, and has characters that, from time to time, remind me of some of my favorite anime characters in the best way possible. I could gush about this story all night, but I wanna conclude this review with a big thank you to the author. You definitely have a knack for long, thought-out stories, you know how to accentuate the erotic parts, the lightharted humor and the thrilling horror of this surreal world you created, and I can't wait to read more from you <3!
Author's Response:
I can't be anything but humbled by your effulgent praise. I'm glad there is so much you've found to enjoy from the story. It certainly validates all the time I put into crafting it.
I can't remember how long I thought about the idea for this story before I actually started writing it, but it was a very long time. I certainly never would have found the time to write it if the pandemic hadn't turned the world upside down in 2020. It took me nearly all of last year to write all 32 chapters (and that doesn't even include the editing, which has been ongoing now for five months), and I must admit there were times I didn't feel like ever finishing. I came close to completely abandoning this project multiple times. But what eventually motivated me was the hope that somewhere out there, someone would read it one day and find it worth their time.
I wish I could write a lengthier response to all your points because they are so well thought out, but for the sake of brevity I will only say thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
...well, now the pressure is on, I hope you like how the story ends! :/
Date: March 17 2021 8:50 AM Title: Chapter 16
This is awesome! I wish there was a character bio. Sadly concussed so remembering all characters is a bit difficult but I love the story is picking up!
Author's Response:
I'm glad you're enjoying the story, sorry about the concussion though!! Hopefully reading isn't making it any worse.
I don't generally prefer to include character biographies when I write, it's not really the aesthetic I'm looking for and I think they're difficult to make meaningful without spoiling some of the plot. But hey, if you're having trouble keeping everything straight, send me an email and I can write up a character cheat-sheet for you. Get well soon!
[Report This]Date: March 15 2021 10:39 PM Title: Chapter 16
This is a great story. I wish I'd started reading it earlier.
[Report This]Date: March 05 2021 3:44 PM Title: Chapter 1
THis story is fantasic. It really goes beyond a mere-fetish work, and becomes something unique on it's own. That greater plot and depth means it takes a bit longer to get 'into' the story, but trust me, it's worth it!