Freak-o-meter: well, I stopped in chapter 3, shortly after the medic gets grabbed. If it gets better, I may go back and read it after all.
First one: Saving Connor: Quite well-written. Very long. The first few years worth were interesting and well worth the read (though alt-uni on *many* different levels). It started to develop some "shape of the world" inconsistencies that I think must have come from a lack of understanding of certain mindsets from the writer's POV. (ie, if these three things were all true, you would see a group of people doing *this* - which would break the world.) It also eventually grew some power imbalance/Sue issues (balanced by ever more daunting tasks). The major problem, though, was that the character of Harry was interesting enough and complex enough (and written with enough emotional impact) that I was doing a fair bit of default channeling to understand his viewpoint better - which was strong enough for some reverse character bleed to kick in. Having my brain try to force itself into a sexuality strongly not my own? That was unpleasant. Paranoid fantasies where I imagined that my parents were trying to take over my mind? Yeah, that was worse.
First one: Saving Connor: Quite well-written. Very long. The first few years worth were interesting and well worth the read (though alt-uni on *many* different levels). It started to develop some "shape of the world" inconsistencies that I think must have come from a lack of understanding of certain mindsets from the writer's POV. (ie, if these three things were all true, you would see a group of people doing *this* - which would break the world.) It also eventually grew some power imbalance/Sue issues (balanced by ever more daunting tasks). The major problem, though, was that the character of Harry was interesting enough and complex enough (and written with enough emotional impact) that I was doing a fair bit of default channeling to understand his viewpoint better - which was strong enough for some reverse character bleed to kick in. Having my brain try to force itself into a sexuality strongly not my own? That was unpleasant. Paranoid fantasies where I imagined that my parents were trying to take over my mind? Yeah, that was worse.