From postmaster@awenet.com Sun Aug 6 19:36:56 1995 Received: from vuse.vuse.vanderbilt.edu by marimba.cellbio.duke.edu via SMTP (920330.SGI/920502.SGI) for merlin id AA11484; Sun, 6 Aug 95 19:36:56 -0400 Received: from awenet.com by vuse.vanderbilt.edu (8.6.12/SMI-4.1/VUSE-1.15) id SAA11059; Sun, 6 Aug 1995 18:36:46 -0500 Received: from pegasus.cc.ucf.edu (132.170.243.2) by awenet.com with SMTP (Apple Internet Mail Server 1.0); Sun, 6 Aug 1995 16:29:14 -0700 Received: by pegasus.cc.ucf.edu (Smail3.1.29.1 #7) id m0sfF6E-0001yzC; Sun, 6 Aug 95 19:27 EDT Message-Id: Date: Sun, 6 Aug 95 19:27 EDT X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Version 2.0.3 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: superchat@awenet.com (Superchat Digest) Reply-To: superchat@awenet.com (Superchat Digest) Errors-To: postmaster@awenet.com Precedence: bulk From: ind00597@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu (Matthew Gerber) Subject: 000REVIEWS: Sentries #3 to Jackson Six #1 Cc: DEscutia@aol.com (Mike Escutia's AOL Account) Status: RO Spoilers for: Sentries #3 Bob City Chronicles #5 Teen Team #28 Preteen Patrol #13 Team Cynical #37 Sentries #4 Synapse #15 Task Force Aurora #7 The Mind's Construction #1 Jackson Six #1 The "review crew" consists of myself, Mason Kramer, Jon Lennox and Rick Rechowicz. Mason and Rick do not review episodes they're affiliated with and anyone can choose to abstain from any review. I still write the capsules. Story type scale: 1: Full-tilt wacko 2: Generally humorous with serious elements 3: Equal balance of seriousness and humor 4: Generally serious with humorous elements 5: Lethal serious, perhaps with flashes of humor Rating scale: 0: Abysmal (As bad as it gets.) 1: Very Bad (Thoroughly wretched, few life signs.) 2: Bad (Still thoroughly bad, but less so.) 3: Very Poor (Might have potential, but needs a lot of work.) 4: Poor (_Does_ have potential, but needs work.) 5: Mediocre ("Eh." Okay, not bad, but not good either.) 6: Good (Genuinely good read. Basic Superguyage.) 7: Very Good (High basic Superguyage. The difference between 6 and 7 is fairly slim.) 8: Excellent (Very high quality writing.) 9: Exceptional (Really excellent, even for Superguy. Can have no serious flaws.) 10: Perfect (The kind of thing that leaves you sitting there in front of the screen going "whoa...." for a while. These are VERY, VERY RARE.) /// SENTRIES #3 (Jon Robertson) /// Things are finally starting to become more comprehensible. There's not a lot of action in this short issue, but this series is turning out to be fairly good on characterization. It seems to be right on the edge of becoming actually good rather than merely adequate. Looking forward to more. Sentries #3: Type 4, 5.00 failed attempts to find transportation Matt: 5 Mason: 6 Rick: 5 Jon: 4 /// BOB CITY CHRONICLES #5 (Ben Brown) /// The Nun On The Road meets The Punk With A Gun meets the regular Bob City cast, with hilarious results and an absolutely beautiful opening song. I _really_ wish Ben Brown would write more. My only complaint is that it could have been longer, maybe even spread out over 2 episodes. Bob City Chronicles #5: Type 2, 8.25 degrees to starboard Matt: 8 Mason: 8 Rick: 8 Jon: 9 /// TEEN TEAM #28 (Mason Kramer) /// Random Encounters is a strange concept for a villain, but he's being pulled off well. Nice solid action sequence, decent characterization. All in all, another good episode. Teem Tean #28: Type 2, 7d1 dice Matt: 7 Rick: 7 Jon: 7 /// PRETEEN PATROL #13 (Greg Fishbone) /// An absolutely hilarious episode, and one that engenders curiosity about just who or what the heck Ammy _is_. Characterization is excellent and situations are amusing as usual. Preteen Patrol #13: Type 2, 7.75 garbage cans Matt: 8 Mason: 8 Rick: 7 Jon: 8 /// TEAM CYNICAL #37 (Bill Dickson) /// "SNUCCI's back and there's gonna be trouble, hey na hey, hey na hey...." And it looks like the resident ghost may actually turn out to be useful. Terrific as always. Team Cynical #37: Type 3, 8.00 possessed Powerbooks Matt: 8 Mason: 8 Rick: 8 Jon: 8 /// SENTRIES #4 (Jon Robertson) /// It's getting much, much easier to tell what's going on, and it's nice to see a superteam not just falling blind into the bad guys' trap for once. Characterization is getting better, and quality is just generally improving. Sentries #4: Type 4, 5.50 telepathic links Matt: 6 Mason: 6 Rick: 5 Jon: 5 /// SYNAPSE AND THE GUARDIANS OF RECTITUDE #15 (Louise Freeman) /// Another excellent episode from an excellent new series. Characterization, situations, and dialogue are right on the mark as usual, and it looks more and more like Cory's lineage is going to be a _very_ interesting revelation.... Synapse #15: Type 4, 7.50 panicking preschoolers Matt: 8 Mason: 8 Rick: 7 Jon: 7 /// TASK FORCE AURORA #7 (Chris Angelini) /// An absolutely hilarious battle between artificial intelligencia as the plot advances. Not much to say about this one, other than that it's another great episode. Task Force Aurora #7: Type 3, 7.50 copies of Network Spectre(tm) Matt: 8 Mason: 7 Rick: 7 Jon: 8 /// THE MIND'S CONSTRUCTION #1 (Rob Furr) /// I am very, very glad Rob Furr's writing again. It isn't so much the situations that make his stories memorable, although they're solid. It isn't the characterization, although there's certainly nothing wrong with that. Rob simply does things with the English language on a regular basis that you don't see very often even in novels. This isn't the most spectacular example of his facility with it (read the conclusion to _Hard Times_ or the two episodes of _Manchu's Gold_), but it's still extremely memorable. Not to mention the fact that we're going to get to see the inside of Intercontinental Salvage.... The Mind's Construction #1: Type 4, 8.75 layers of grey fog Matt: 9 Mason: 9 Rick: 9 Jon: 8 /// JACKSON SIX #1 (Roger Christman) /// This should be a genuinely interesting series. Characterization of the main character is decent (although no one else is particularly well drawn), and it's a genuinely _different_ concept. The only complaint would be that it needs more humor; at this point, it reads more like generic superhero fanfic than a Superguy episode. However, it's _good_ generic superhero fanfic, and hopefully, this Author will stay around for awhile. __ Jackson Six #1: Type 5, 6.33 electrolyte pills Matt: 7 Mason: 6 Jon: 6 -- Matthew Gerber ind00597@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ind00597/