Wendy Richards
See Also: WMR
Faux Pas (Lois & Clark)
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 24th June 2002 (4)
Tags: Novel
(832K)
The summary says "Clark offers his new colleague Lois Lane a bed
for the night after she's mugged. It was supposed to be all above board,
but one thing leads to another.... What will she think of him in the
morning?" As you can tell from that, this story is definitely rated M,
and also, IMHO, the premise is out of character, particularly for Clark
(but also for Lois). However, once one gets past that, the
characterisation is really good, showing both Lois and Clark to be
human; frail and brave, hurt and hurting, misunderstanding and
insightful, despairing and encouraging. What is even better is watching
the character growth.
The introduction starts: "This story is set directly after
'Neverending Battle,' and in some respects is an early Season 1 rewrite;
the A-plots of several episodes form the background for some of the
story." Even though I'm not all that familiar with Lois & Clark, it was
interesting to see how some of the things turned out differently;
and I like that the originally-existing things were worked in, because
sometimes in an AU story (in any fandom), the writer not only changes
one thing, but then sort of forgets that even if the characters have
been diverted away from the following episodes, the background that led
to those events, things outside their control, are still there.
This story (novel!) has more emphasis on the character stuff, but that
doesn't mean that there isn't any action. For one thing, it's the
action which often brings the interaction. This was an absorbing read,
hard to put down (even when my eyelids were drooping).
Penfriend
(1) The Penfriend (Lois & Clark)
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 24th June 2002 (5)
Tags: Novella
(136K)
This is an Alternative Universe alternative revelation story --
"You've Got Mail" Lois & Clark style. In the point in time when Lois is
having difficulties with Clark because she's engaged to Lex, who does
she turn to for advice but her longtime pen-pal... whose identity she
doesn't know. Since I really liked "You've Got Mail" it's not
surprising that I liked this -- especially since it was insightful and
caring without being soppy. Well, not too soppy. There's definitely
an "awwww" moment at the end.
(2) The History (Lois & Clark)
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 7th May 2003 (5)
Tags: Short Story
(38K)
This is basically a sequel to the AU story The Penfriend, which
shows a portion of the earlier correspondence of Scribe and Tornado.
This keeps up the character "voices" of the earlier story, but I think
it is really only of interest to people who actually read and liked "The
Penfriend" (like me); it really doesn't stand on its own. Nevertheless,
it won the "Best Early Years/Super Futures Story" category in the 2003
Kerth Awards, so maybe I'm wrong.