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I think you need to tighten up the ancient stuff a little - I can't think of a mythic tradition that makes Procrustes an innkeeper. Pausanias describes him as a brigand and Apollodorus as offering hospitality (and being called Damastes), which is a different thing. Also, Ap. describes him as having not one bed but two - tall men got the short bed, short men the long - and he made short people fit by flattening them out with a cudgel. Nor are "the Kindly Ones" fairies - they are furies, cthonic rather than airy spirits, and the idea that the flattering title was apotropaic is open to question; I'd thionk maybe the Sidhe would be a better reference point... Mind you, I'm probably still rocking on my heels from Wales and Cornwall.
I very much enjoyed this one, although I hope there's more to it; one of the best bits of "Top Ten" for me was the downbeat and interpersonal narratives of the cop narrative banging up against the ridiculous, brightly-coloured superhero world, and there isn't the same obvious opportunity for contrast here - Smax and Robyn are already falling into roles, which I can see is a narratalogical device and a way to demonstrate the genericising tendencies of Smax's world, but might get a bit wearing. Good stuff so far, though - I just hope that Smax isn't turned into a monosyllabic boob again - his portrayal in the closing episodes of T10 seems to be unfolding his character a bit..
Another thing I like about this is that it can be enjoyed without knowing any of the geek culture in-jokes (the Myst and Riven stuff flew right over my head); you don't as was said, even need to good a handle on the main characters - my copy was read by a friend who reads few comics and had never read Top Ten (and, I can say with absolute confidence, would not recognise the Fantasticar if it parked on her), who enjoyed it immensely. |
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