Reichenbach Falls by McCamy Taylor

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Lester Curtis
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Reichenbach Falls by McCamy Taylor

Post by Lester Curtis »

Well, McCamy, I hate to say it, but you've done a no-no.

To wit . . . a reader's full comprehension of this story (this reader's, at least) requires their familiarity with a referenced piece of work that they may or may not have read (in my case, not -- I had to go find a synopsis), thus rendering it inaccessible to a potential group of readers.

I'll just add in here that I don't consider myself particularly well-read in general literature.

I was able in this instance to remedy the problem rather easily, at least to a superficial extent. This may not be the case for all readers, though, and some may not be willing to do the necessary homework. As well, I found it distracting.

I know, a lot of writers reference other works, but . . . it's a somewhat risky practice. There are always those who, when confronted with an unfamiliar reference, will just stop reading.

All of my own stories are self-contained. This is partly because I don't know a lot of outside work to reference (see above), but also in part because I try to imagine myself as some stranger who can't see into my mind; I keep the story self-contained and complete as a service to the reader.

I have another, lesser criticism regarding this particular story: I didn't see any explanation of the means by which Mycroft communicated to Susan's mind . . . how did he upload himself into her -- and how did he do it without her noticing?

Maybe these are minor niggles . . . and otherwise, it was a good story.
I was raised by humans. What's your excuse?
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