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Jeannine's avatar

The children at the end certainly humanize this piece. I was beginning to wonder where the noncombatants were hiding - answer, they weren't. What a bloody (literally and figuratively) mess.

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Tom Schecter's avatar

Yeah, my main concern when I wrote this chapter was trying to do it in a way that didn’t feel like a bad video game sequence.

Have you ever seen Band of Brothers on HBO? Really intense house-to-house fighting scenes all through it. Nightmarish stuff. Especially their depiction of Market-Garden. And having the families huddling in corners or basements throughout makes it all the more difficult to stomach.

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Jeannine's avatar

This is a genre I usually avoid. I'm a peace lover. But your writing and realistic descriptions and most of all the fact that we are never allowed to forget that these characters are PEOPLE, not just chess pieces, drew me in. You did a great job of describing the SNAFU elements of warfare. No good guys, no bad guys, just lots of dead guys. 😥 (and of course I lump both men and women into "guys" there)

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Tom Schecter's avatar

💜 thank you so much.

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Pancho Escobar's avatar

Good shat bruh 😎

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Tom Schecter's avatar

Thankee. Doing the best I can.

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Garen Marie's avatar

No monsters, eh? Well-done action sequence. I've crafted a few of them on a *much, much* smaller scale, and it's super difficult to write them well. Major kudos for that! As one of the other commenters mentioned, there's no clear good or bad guy, which is an interesting device. And as I was reading through, I was asking myself, whose side am I on? Rebel or loyalist? Be prepared: I'm going to ask you to pick a side on Tuesday if you haven't already.

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Tom Schecter's avatar

Tuesday?

…what’s happening Tuesday, Garen?

🤭

Should we tell ‘em?

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Zivah Avraham's avatar

Kudos to you, Tom, for writing such a relentless action scene and doing to so well. My wife asked me why I was holding my breath at one point - I had no idea I was doing so! You mentioned Band of Brothers, and it also made me think of the opening of Saving Private Ryan. To this day, that gives me the shivers.

I’ve got feet in all camps on this one. So looking forward to the next chapter!

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Tom Schecter's avatar

You’re amazing. Thank you so much. I am so incredibly fortunate to have the privilege of hearing from readers like you and Lyndsey and Jeannine and Garen—speaking of whom, we’re going Live at 6p Big Ben on Tuesday! Hope you’re around.

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Zivah Avraham's avatar

You’re so welcome!

Ah, sadly I’m away visiting family next week. Will still be dipping into the ‘stack but can’t commit to any specific time as the week’s schedule isn’t in my hands.

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Tom Schecter's avatar

Yeah, that’s probably dinner time too. Enjoy your family time!

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Keith Long's avatar

Superb.

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Tom Schecter's avatar

🖤

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Leanne Shawler's avatar

Woah. Like … I am out of breath reading that! That has put me behind schedule for the day, but I’m not mad.

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Tom Schecter's avatar

🖤 well shit haha thank you so much! I really appreciate you coming along for the ride on this story.

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