This one took me somewhat by surprise. I’d heard that it was scheduled for release on 29 November, and then, last Thursday, Loki exclaims at me that this was some seriously good stuff. I, naturally, become flabbergasted, run home from downtown Trondheim (I was shopping for Christmas and November-Me presents when I got his message), and start to frantically search for a download. (Relax; I subscribe to it, too.) Which has become something of a nuisance, after the CRIA got Demonoid closed down. Luckily, I found a torrent at Mininova, which downloaded in about twenty minutes.

I read it, and became so excited, I forgot to come here and tell you all about how awesome it was. (Yeah, that’s right: This is my story, and I’m stickin’ to it. You can’t beat me, copper! But I can beat you. Into pretty, shiny, decorative and useful little platters, in fact. Or is that brass? Anyhoo…)

And, if you’re of the kind that cares, here’s where the spoilers begin…

It was too short to really give me a feel of what it was like, but the feeling that I actually managed to get in the time it took me to read it, was extremely good. The basic premise felt like a typical Whedon-without-a-limiting-budget one, with demon dinosaurs running through the streets, metropolises in Inferno, and just about everything happening on a much more macro-level scale than in the TV shows. And, as with Fray, this is where just about my only real issue with this lies. Because, you see, I enjoy character-related stuff. I love Whedon’s character interaction, I love the development, and just about everything of those kinds of things. And occasionally, I feel like the almost over-the-top scale of things get in the way for character stuff. Of course, it’s way too early to say anything about this yet, but this is what I fear. But these were also my fears for Buffy Season 8, and look how extraordinarily neat that turned out to be.

I remain skeptical, however; I remember Aliens 4, and I am still not entirely certain if I believe the stories about his relative lack of guilt in the development of that one…

Then. On to the good, and much more clear, relevant and real stuff. I mean, things that aren’t simply products of my fears and imagination…

First off, the premise. Los Angeles, been sucked down to Hell by the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart? Wow, do those guys carry a grudge! Also, much good the heroic “last stand” did. Anyway, the premise has in it a lot of promise, of course, as both the current situation (a major population centre in the middle, or possibly on the outskirts of Hell) and the likely development (the relocating of the said major population centre from the middle of (or, again, the outskirts of) Hell, back to its original geographical position) carries in them a lot of plot potential.

As a part of this, but at the same time separate from it, the characters have changed a decent bit, and subsequently so have the relationships between them. Gunn being a vampire, but seemingly one not too keen on staying in Hell (and seriously, why should he; it’s not like vamps and demons are the best of friends), aught to provide us with a lot of entertainment and also a bit of woe. Perhaps enough to pick at with a hoe. Unless he has lost his shoe. Ehem. Yeah, characters, that’s what I was talking about…

My evaluations of the rest of the crew are pretty much the same as Loki’s. As mentioned, the character developments facilitate a lot of new, interesting and painful conflicts; with Wes’ one perhaps as the most fascinating one, in a close competition with Gunn’s. Connor wasn’t really exposed enough for me to say anything about it, except that it’s fun to see that he continues his habit of picking up his father’s women. Will be fun to see where they go with that one. Not to mention how they explain it. And that’s one of the things I look forward to the most: to be shown the roads the characters have travelled since “Not Fade Away”. Obviously, to see where they’ll be going in the future isn’t far behind in this respect, if it’s even behind at all. In fact, I believe they’re fairly equal…

In short, I giggled, I gasped, I raged at the ending for coming too soon, and I screamed at time for moving too slow.