I've read a number of the Whately Universe stories. I'm not a big fan of the Team Kimba stories, feeling like they work best as background characters, but some of the sidestories are excellent. The one I am reviewing is The Braeburn report at http://www.crystalhall.org/braeburn.html by Babs Yerunkle. Basic synopsis, two MCO researchers discover some disturbing truths behind some of the aspects of the series such as the large number of m2f transformations and the astounding amount of guilt-free sex the characters participate in. It's fascinating reading at several points. And then it drops into a storyline that made glance towards to end to see if it was supposed to be an in-universe pairing fanfic.
What do I mean by this? Well, spoilers ahead, one of the researchers has a fetish for the idea of teaching an m2f mutant how to become female, explicitly noted in the story to be an Eliza Doolitlle kind of thing to him. The other researcher conveniently becomes a mutant who exactly fits the first researcher's ideals and needs someone to "help him understand what it is to be a woman". Cue the soft lighting and Barry White as they proceed to do just that. And right when I'm expecting a scene cut and Researcher B vowing to never look up what Researcher A posted on fanfiction.net ever again, they drop back to the serious plotline about humanity's extinction through gender-bias and lots and lots of sex.
It's a bit of a see-saw but honestly, it was a good read. The characters are interesting. The grammar and spelling are almost perfect (only homophone I caught was a confusion between "kneed" and "knead"). I recommend the reading of it. Just... be ready to emit some nervous giggle around that one scene. To borrow from a joke on XKCD, there's some Strunk/White in the middle of the Strunk&White writing.
Review of The Braeburn Report
I've read a number of the Whately Universe stories. I'm not a big fan of the Team Kimba stories, feeling like they work best as background characters, but some of the sidestories are excellent. The one I am reviewing is The Braeburn report at http://www.crystalhall.org/braeburn.html
by Babs Yerunkle. Basic synopsis, two MCO researchers discover some disturbing truths behind some of the aspects of the series such as the large number of m2f transformations and the astounding amount of guilt-free sex the characters participate in. It's fascinating reading at several points. And then it drops into a storyline that made glance towards to end to see if it was supposed to be an in-universe pairing fanfic.
What do I mean by this? Well, spoilers ahead, one of the researchers has a fetish for the idea of teaching an m2f mutant how to become female, explicitly noted in the story to be an Eliza Doolitlle kind of thing to him. The other researcher conveniently becomes a mutant who exactly fits the first researcher's ideals and needs someone to "help him understand what it is to be a woman". Cue the soft lighting and Barry White as they proceed to do just that. And right when I'm expecting a scene cut and Researcher B vowing to never look up what Researcher A posted on fanfiction.net ever again, they drop back to the serious plotline about humanity's extinction through gender-bias and lots and lots of sex.
It's a bit of a see-saw but honestly, it was a good read. The characters are interesting. The grammar and spelling are almost perfect (only homophone I caught was a confusion between "kneed" and "knead"). I recommend the reading of it. Just... be ready to emit some nervous giggle around that one scene. To borrow from a joke on XKCD, there's some Strunk/White in the middle of the Strunk&White writing.