Date: September 19 2015 7:50 AM Title: PROLOGUE
Kelly on her way to the President, her plan to rule is clear now but I am surprised Lisa snapped that way but losing her husband and daughter ought to do that. I am hoping they prove to be alive because you could do a Side Effects 4 where the daughter inherited her mother's growth powers and finds her huge and now has to deal with that part of her past.
Author's Response:
I usually do not reveal what's going to happen, so I'm not going to say anything about Lisa's husband and daughter. I'll just say that whatever happened at the FSD wil lbe explained in more detail in a future chapter.
As for a continuation... Side Effects is a trilogy. This volume (which will be long) will close the series. Does this mean that this wil be the last story in the Side Effects world? I don't know. But, if there are, the story arcs will be brand new, not a continuation of the current series.
As usual, thanks for the feedback. I hope you are enjoying the story.
Cheers!
Date: September 19 2015 7:18 AM Title: PROLOGUE
Tell me, is there a reason that you're making the President so irrational? Aside from the obvious crap of super-sized strippers, he's only thinking of direct attacks. At least tell me he'll have the sense to stay far away from the battlefield.
I do like Casey returning to Henford to get revenge though. That makes sense.
And how Lisa now wants to kill Kelly more than anyone else, even Casey, who was initially her worst enemy. The change in goals and Lisa's realization that Kelly is no longer the same person she was, is excellent.
Also the part where she almost gets a 'growth' boost. Makes me wonder if she'll come on top, not Casey.
Author's Response:
Don't worry, the President is going to stay in Air Force One as long as there is a threat. As for the reason for him being irrational... the truth is I had some doubts about how it would received. I've watched many shows and read some books where a "not so great" President is not up to the task in hard moments (e.g. even if it's not the greatest book of all times and the author the greatest writer ever, I have to admit that I kind of enjoyed "The sum of all fears" from Tom Clancy). Having someone in the crisis team being blunt while other people, more rational and able to keep their calm pulled some strings on the back to follow the right course was a feasible enough possibility that will explain the development I have in mind for the story. I'm afraid you'll have to wait almost until the end to tell me if you liked the way I handled it or not...
In any case, the figure of a President completely overwhelmed by the situation, seeing thousands of his people being killed and unable to do anything for hours is not so unrealistic. And the fact that someone is so much in rage (and at the same time, so concerned by the reaction of the citizens in front of him doing nothing) to react in a way that looks irratonal is human enough. Also, it has to be considered that within the confusion generated by the situation, without proper scientific advice, it must be hard for a President to believe that there is nothing his armed forces, the most powerful in the world, can do to stop her.
Moving on to the next comments.
- Casey is back to Henford to get the formula that she believes will make her grow even more. Seeing her old town and thinking on the people she knows there makes her think on both revenge and indulgement. I will put some focus in this in the coming chapters.
- The change in Lisa's target and, more importantly, giving her purpose in the story, was something that I had to do. Otherwise, her character would have become too irrelevant, and I alredy feel too guilty that I have not use it well enough along the series (she has got less attention than Casey and Kelly). I'm happy that you liked the way I handled it.
As for what will happen to her... you'll have to wait :)
Cheers!
Date: September 18 2015 5:57 AM Title: PROLOGUE
I gotta say, while I have been more interested in this series any other, I disagree with you associating Casey with the Joker of all people.
She does not, by any stretch of the imgaination, come even close to comparing. The only thing she has in common is the fact that's she's a pschyo and a murderer. But that applies to many other villains, Massacre, Deadshot, Ultimate Bruce Banner, Electro, Ultimate Green Goblin, Lex Luthor, and so on.
The Joker is not only crazy but extremely brilliant and completely unpredictable. See, he's not afraid to die, and will even be willing to if he can kill Batman. He also once tricked Mxyzptlk into giving up his power to him, and became 'Emperor Joker' ruler of the universe.
Casey is not afraid, simply because she think's she can't die. And while you try your best to make her seem unpredictable, I'm afraid it doesn't work. Casey's mindset iss rather simple: get bigger, kill Kelly, trample and torture little people along the way.
Crazy or not, she has an agenda, something the Joker never has. That's why he's so unpredictable that even the Batman can't figure him out.
Casey is at best, Giganta on steroids. Not that that's a bad thing, but not the Joker.
Then there's Kelly using electricity to increase her size. Now it may not be the same as the way it happened in "Honey, I Blew Up The Kid" but did you watch that movie?And now that Kelly is seemingly unable to feeel pain, can she still use that method?
Finally, have the scientists actually found anything meaningful from their findings that they put together? If not... well then this story has already suffered. But I won't judge 'cause you're not there yet.
Cheers!
Author's Response:
You know what? I agree. I'm not sure how I put it exactly, when I mentioned the Joker. I was actually quoting a critique I received in GiantessCity and that I found especially well structured and written (and incredibly insightful). I'm actually still writing a worthy enough answer to post, after having thanked the author privately. If you are interested it's here: https://giantesscity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=117424&p=1169470#p1169470
The person writing it was trying to explain character types from the point of view of how they fit in a story, and there he classified the role of Casey in Side Effects as an agent of chaos, like the Joker. I don't think that he meant to compare her directly to the Joker in terms of behavior. As you, I don't think they are similar (I kind of agree with what you are saying).
I think that she is more unpredictable what you credit her for, though. She was in Volume 1, then, Volume 2 did not really let her show it, but I believe that she will surprise you at least a little in some points of Volume 3. It's true that she has an agenda now, because there is someone more powerful that she needs to get rid of, but once she does, her agenda is over. Anyway, let's talk about this again in a few chapters :)
As for Kelly's growth... I've seen "Honey I blew up the Kid". I'd like to think that Side Effects is "a little" more elaborate than that... she used electricity but, in the end, what she did was to kill herself, which is a little different than the movie :P
As for whether she can use the same method: probably not with electricity but the way the formula works in Kelly now is that anything that brings her near to death will make her grow. It's true that, at her size, bringing her near to death takes quite a lot. I won't say too much more ;)
AND, finally... even if it has been a few weeks in terms of publication time, in reality it has been about a couple hours in the Side Effects World since Kelly became massive. Ron is not even back in a lab. He will be, soon, and I will describe it in detail. The scientists, especially Ron, are very important. I'll get there. It will take a few chapters.
Hope that you will continue enjoying until then!
Cheers!
Date: September 15 2015 3:49 PM Title: PROLOGUE
Okay read all of it and you're planning definitely shows,the characters and stories are much better. Particularly Kelly who to me seems the most well developed because she wants to rule as giantess but wants to avoid the carnage of Casey although right now, it seems like she is slipping into that, in part thanks to her size.
She is also much smarter, discovering that pain triggers the growth and therefore electrocuted herself to achieve her new divine form.
Author's Response:
Yes, knowing where the characters were going helped me develop them much better. The character where this shows better is Kelly, since she is also the one that goes through the biggest evolution through the story. The last couple of chapters of Volume 2 and the first Chapters of Volume 3 are especially focused on that and on what goes on in Kelly's mind as she tries to rationalize the death and destruction she is now causing both by accident and on purpose.
I hope that you will enjoy Volume 3. If anything, I still tried to polish my writing a little more from Volume 2. Hopefully it shows (although the difference should not be as noticeable as with Volume 1).
Thanks for your continued feedback. I hope that you'll continue letting me know what you think as you keep reading.
Cheers!
Date: September 14 2015 6:41 PM Title: PROLOGUE
You definitely improved in the second story, not totally done yet but I think Casey and Kelly are pretty awesome giantesses.
Author's Response:
Thanks! The first Side Effects was written more as inspiration came. It was originally longer, but at some point I decided that in order to wrap the story up in a way that made sense and leave room for a series based on the same characters to evolve I had to get rid of some content and drive the story to an ending. Volumes 2 was planned from the beginning, so I could focus my writing on developping the characters and trying to improve my descriptions of the scenes. While the first story in a series always has a special place, Ive always felt significantly prouder of Volume 2.
I'm glad that you are enjoying the series, in any case. I tried to put care in describing Kelly and Casey and their evolution as characters, so I'm glad that you liked how they came out. Please, let me know what you think as you keep reading.
Cheers!
Date: September 13 2015 6:27 PM Title: PROLOGUE
I read the first one, enjoyed it and now I'm reading the second to learn more about the characters.
Author's Response:
I've always thought that in Volume 2 I managed to improve my storytelling quite a lot, so I hope that you'll enjoy it even more. Please, let me know what you think as you go.
Cheers!
Date: September 13 2015 1:25 PM Title: PROLOGUE
Is kelly still 1700ft tall in this story?
Author's Response:
Yes, she is still 1700 fett tall. Volume 3 picks up right after the end of Volume 2, so the three girls are exactly the same sizes they were.
Date: September 13 2015 8:07 AM Title: PROLOGUE
Loved what've you done so far, keep it up!
Author's Response:
Thank you very much! I'm glad that you are enjoying it. I hope that you will like what's coming. Please, keep letting me know what you think.
Cheers!
[Report This]Date: September 12 2015 3:50 PM Title: PROLOGUE
Wish I got here sooner, Kelly's descent into complete delusionality (making up words) is easily the best part. I'll stress again how too often in these truly giantess based stories how the subject instantly lose her humanity. The psychology of Kelly's character as her size increased and dwindling regard for human life has been masterfully handled. The god complex of her character is sensible, because unlike shrinking where a character only appears like God compared to the person shrunk, Kelly has transcended human limitations in terms of her size and strength on all levels. The disturbing part is that there's a nugget of truth in Kelly's madness in the fact that her killing hundreds of people unintentionally is inevitable now, so it's almost benign to be all that concerned about.
The true treat though is not the fact that she doesn't care (which deep down she doesn't) and not the fact she causes destruction because she enjoys it ( which she does), but the extent she goes to justify her behavior and make herself believe that she is in the right. Made even worse by the fact, that she doesn't realize the extent of her power, which when she shocks herself to how powerful she is gets enticed further.
All of this being a byproduct in her brain to prevent guilt because she knows she can't avoid killing people anymore whether she wants to or not. Essentially, on the surface she wants to have her cake and eat it too. Wanting to indulge in her power and superiority in the fullest, but at the same time not be recognized as a monster. Thus making her the same as Casey. Sadly though, Kelly doesn't want to face the truth that she is already Casey or at best VERY close to being her, arguably worse since she's larger, capable of more destruction, and hypocritical on a moral level.
Only thing seperating there mindsets now being that Casey is self-aware that she does what she does, simply because she likes to, not caring what resistance comes her way or opinions of her behavior. While Kelly ironically wants (for now) vindication from the very people she is slaughtering ( both advertently and inadvertently), to accept her power that can and will kill them in mass, but at the same time not be considered a monster. I think Kelly is going to realize soon that she can't have it both ways.
Bravo.
Author's Response:
Thank you very much for the positive and very encouraging feedback! I'm happy that you are enjoying the story so far.
One of the most interesting aspects of writing Side Effects (and probably what has been able to keep the story going for as much as it has) was the very noticeable differences between the three main characters. Differences that were only hinted when they were "normal sized" but that were stressed in a big way once the women grew.
In this set up, Lisa and Casey's cards are very soon on the table: Casey is a clear antagonist, a villain, an agent of chaos... whatever you want to call her. She was bad to start with and becomes worse as the story goes, turning into a sadist that enjoys using her power to cause death and destruction. Lisa, on the other hand, shows her good heart pretty much from the start, even if I'm afraid that she came out a little shallow as a character.
Kelly has been the wild card for a long time. She was the grayer character of the three and she has been continuously evolving through Volume 2. This evolution in her attitude has been especially abrupt after her growth at the end of Vol. 2 and her actions at the beginning of Vol. 3. For an author, this type of characters are definitely the most interesting to write, and I'd say that Kelly's evolution is probably one of the areas I paid more attention to when writing the story. So, it made me very happy to read that you thought I had managed to achieve my objective.
In general, I'm very much in agreement with your analysis. Kelly has a God complex since her last growth spurt that, in her case, does not entirely lack foundation, since she has actually become the most powerful person in the world and she knows it. The combination of this complex and her profigious size will end up having significantly worse consequences than anything Casey has done so far, which could lead to argue that she is actually worse than Casey, as you pointed out.
Of course, Kelly does not see it like this. Be it a defense mechanism of her brain or be it delusional behavior, Kelly is constantly making an effort to rationalize any act of destruction and mass killing she commits. her mind is always able to find justification for them and, in the end, Kelly always ends up convinced that what she did was right or, at least, not condemnable. The truth, though, is that in order to rationalize her acts Kelly is making up her morals as she goes, in a way where her morals adapt to her actions rather than the other way around.
How long is this sustainable? Will her mentality evolve even further? Well, you'll see it in the coming chapters :) Hopefully I did a good enough job to explain this. I hope you will continue to enjoy them.
Thank you again for your kind feedback. This type of comments and analyses are what encourages me to write.
Cheers!
PD: I recently got some very thorough reviews, especially this one from zen4life: https://giantesscity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=117424&p=1169470#p1169470, discussing the characters on the story in length. I found myself agreeing with the majority of what was said. Maybe you'll find it interesting.
Date: September 12 2015 9:54 AM Title: PROLOGUE
Agghh! There you again with that fantasy 'bull' and complete lack of scientific reasoning. There's no way a woman even at 17'000 ft feet could travel faster than the speed of sound, what with the pendulum-like momentum her legs move at.
And when she jumped she should have gone through the crust of the Earth, with her force and her mass being far greater than they should be. I HATE PARADOXES!
I thought we'd been through this already. Well, nothing's perfect. Ignore my rants and keep writing!
"Cheers!"
Author's Response:
Well, I knew this would come when this chapter was posted...
Look, I know about the pendulum-like momentum of the walking movement. And while I did not bother on researching what should have been the exact effects of her mass/force on the ground as she jumped, I'm quite sure that I did not guess them right. In my favor, you'll admit that I got the relative scale of the earthquake pretty nailed down :P (the Giantess Converter definitely came in handy).
In the end, I'm being consistent with what I already did at the end of Volume 2 and that you did not like it already... I was not going to change the way the world works from one Volume to the next. So, having been through this already (as you say), I guess that the only thing I can do is to approach some of these elements with suspension fo disbelief. At least, you'll admit that even if this is not sci-fi but fantasy, I did try to make quite a lot of elements as realisting according to the laws of physics as possible. In any case, since a giant women would never be possible according to these same laws of physics, I don't have so much of a problem if I need to skip them from time to time for other things...
And don't worry, I'm writing like crazy :P
Have fun! (I thought I'd change the "Cheers!" just this time... :P)
Date: September 06 2015 5:46 AM Title: PROLOGUE
Just read your latest chapter and I have to say, if you're trying to make Casey more hateful than ever, you couldn't have done a better job.
Reminds me why she's currently Lisa's top priority.
Seems like that was simply a workout for her. Letting off steam, taking it out on the "Lilliputians" because she's not ready to fight Kelly yet. Probably gonna go through a lot more small towns before she is.
I AM somewhat surprise by the fact that the town was not evacuated. Didn't the whole world hear the news? BTW, think you could mention a couple guys trying to catch a plane heading for Antarctica or Russia? (Just a thought...)
Good story, so far. No idea what'll happen next!
Author's Response:
Thank you. I'm glad that you don't know what's going to happen. While this story will definitely go through many giantess cliches given its nature, I did not want it to become just a predictable sequence of giantess action scenes.
Let's go to Casey: while she is not the most dangerous giantess around right now, she is by far the most hateable. She is a sociopath that needs no reason to kill. As a matter of fact, she just kills and destroys because she enjoys it. In a recent very well done critique that was posted in another site, someone said that, using a Batman analogy, she was a Joker type of character. I could not agree more. Of course, I cannot fool myself thinking that I will ever be able to write a character which is 10% as good as the Joker, but if I had to fit her in a category, I think that would be hers. As such, it's impossible to like her as a person.
I will not elaborate much more on what Casey will do in the coming chapters. But I can say this: she is mentally unstable, but she is smart and she has a plan.
Regarding your comment on evacuations: there is more about it in coming chapters. There is an evacuation ongoing. But in the end, Side Effects Vol. 2 happened in the course of a little more than half a day, and since the government and the army did not take the threat seriously enough until it became painfully evident that they had been mistaken, everything started very late. This, together with the fact that the women can move very quickly when they set their mind to it, made this town, along with many others, to be unprepared for Casey suddenly emerging on its beach.
I hope you will continue enjoying the rest.
Cheers!
Date: August 27 2015 8:02 AM Title: PROLOGUE
Oh and another thing. Redundancy. You spoiled the prologue and mentioned that "she was heading for Washington" two paragraphs before the last.
Author's Response:
Very true! Thanks for pointing out. I cannot undertand how I missed it (I typically proof read the chapters more than once...). The truth is that the prologue is probably one of the chapters in the story that went through less iterations, since I added it after most of the story was written and I reused some content that I actually had further down in the story.
Anyway, I fixed it. New readers will not have the last two paragraph spoiled.
Cheers!
Date: August 27 2015 7:58 AM Title: PROLOGUE
Hi. Remember me?
Just wanted to get several things cleared up so I'm not constantly waiting for the next chapter.
First, did POTUS get airborne before Kelly even arrived? And if so, where's he headed?
Secondly, about Ms Hanson's quest. Do you plan to focus several chapters solely on her intentionally/unintentionally flattening houses and helpless victims to demonstrate her increased inhumanity? That might be an interesting point to bring up. She may not even think of humans as lifeforms any more.
Thirdly, does Casey want revenge on Kelly for humiliating her? Assuming she finds a way to increase her size, will she intend to eliminate Kelly so she doesn't threaten her position as number one?
Fourthly, what about Lisa? Is she more focused on stopping Casey or Kelly? Granted Casey is more unstable and unpredictable, but with Kelly's new power, she might be a greater threat to the human race. Does Lisa have any plan what to do with Kelly if she stops her. Would she be willing to kill her? Perhaps that be an internal conflict.
Fifthly, what about Ron and Dr Mendel? Have they found anything useful through the analysis of Kelly's blood or whatever? Any progress on a permanent antidote or explanation for their near-invulnerability? I'd like to know about their status every now and then.
Lastly, and most importantly, do you have a fixed ending for this story? Or are you going to change things based on reviews? You already know how I feel about this story but do you have in mind.
Thank you for taking your time to read this exhausting reply. Answer only if you see fit.
Oh... and are you posting two chapters a week? Or just one?
Author's Response:
Of course I remember you :)
One thing I can tell you: your reviews are the most original ones. As I believe I told you in some of my previous replies, I really enjoy them. And I think that I improved some things in Volume 3 based on them. I can also tell you that I don't expect you will like everything, but I think that you already expected that as well :P
Anyway, I hope that you continue letting me know what you think regularly. I will try to give you my most candid answers; as always, though, without spoilers.
Now, going to your questions and comments:
1. POTUS got airborne when things in Hollner got out of control (after Kelly grew the second time). The Secret Service decided to move him out of security then. He is not heading anywhere in the short term, but you will see in future chapters that at some point the government has decided that the West Coast is probably the best destination for evacuations
2. I intend to have many chapters focused on Kelly at her new size. And if I did a decent job to have my intentions well represented, these chapters should clearly show Kelly's evolution and also how her view of the world and its people keeps on changing
3. Yes, Casey is really mad at Kelly. Not being the one on top and having been humiliated by Kelly was very frustrating for her. In the coming chapters you will see that her intentions in case she can increase her size will not be gentle towards Kelly.
4. Lisa is incredibly concerned both about Kelly and Casey. Your definition on why both of them should worry someone with a gentle heart like Lisa is accurate. The problem for Lisa is that she does not really know what to do about any of the two. A second problem is that Lisa is gentle but she is not incredibly smart and she is not very imaginative. I won't be able to answer your questions in detail since I would be spoiling some of the very next chapters, but let me tell you that Lisa will follow the "easy obvious path" and that her reactions from then onwards will be driven by what she finds in the way.
5. I will definitely cover what Ron and Mendel are up to. However, I'm afraid that you will need to wait several chapters for that. The flash of Ron and Mendel in the epilogue of Vol. 2 won't happen for a while. Timing wise, in the prologue of Vol. 3 Kelly has left Hollner less than an hour ago and has just destroyed the FSD. So, Ron is still trapped in the tower where she put him and Mendel has just been evacuated from the FSD. They will need some time to get to a new research location and get back to work. Once they do, I will try to explain what they do and what they find out (and hopefully the pseudo-scientific story I've made up will make some sense :P)
6. I have a fixed ending for the story. The entire story is written already. What I do every week is proof read and polish the chapters a little before posting. I will not change anything significant about the storyline based on reviews (but I definitely use the feedback for future stories)
I posted two chapters last week because it was basically a full chapter and the prologue. But I will post a single chapter every week from now on. They are not going to be short chapters, in any case. Using the complete draft I have right now, the story is 113K long, the shortest chapter is 4K words and there are a couple of chapters that are almost 9K long.
As I said, I'd appreciate your reviews and I would appreciate it it you keep letting me know what you think.
Cheers!
[Report This]Date: August 22 2015 9:07 PM Title: PROLOGUE
Yay so glad this story is back!
Author's Response:
Thank you! I hope that the story will not disappoint you!
Cheers!