[Report This]Date: 24 Nov 2007 06:09 AM Title: Chapter 1
An enjoyable little sneak-and-destroy action story that kept me entertained throughout. Then I had a think about it, and realised that the story very sneakily delivers a creep factor: I was so amused by little 494's teasing and irreverant attitude and his game of freak-the-ordinary that I was totally distracted from the sheer ooky horror of pre-adolescents in combat. How cool is that? *Shivers.*
Andrews is a beautiful creation: competent, good-humoured, and pragmatically flappable. I enjoyed the image of the kids hauling him around. Nice, not-so-simple intro to the kinds of headgames Lydecker plays in this series -- and boy am I glad 494 is there to think them through for me. Exposition of 494's apart-ness is particularly well done: briefly stated, then proven again and again in word and deed. I loved him stepping up at the crux, and the way that shook down through the other kids.