Review: "The Body Snatcher" by Alara Rogers

reviewed by Chris Delaney (cdelaney@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca)

Hello Everybody,



	As you all probably know by now, Alara Rogers has written a very
hard edged piece of fiction called "The Body Snatcher".  In Chapter I (The
Fall of the Tower) Alara sets the scene for what is clearly going to be a
lengthy work (I get a length of 272 K for the first chapter which is long
for many fan-fiction series!).  Clearly this is an ambitious work, but
this is Alara so I have great confidence in her ability to get away with
it.    

	So let me see what I can say without giving too much of the plot
away . . . well, I'm going to have to spoil a bit to comment BUT I'll keep
it to a mimimum.  Still, if this greatly bothers you, you know not to read
further!  I should also mention that this story contains scenes of graphic
violence and explicit sexual situations.  They are introduced mindfully
(as opposed to gratitously) but be warned if this stuff greatly bothers
you. 

	Well, the first thing that I can say is that it was a vcery
brutually impacting story.  Alara plumbs the depths of psychological
torture in a very graphic manner and so I can see why she has hesitated
about putting it up on a general distribution list.  Some of the scenes
are shocking, some are degrading and the overall impact is to make you
really dislike the antagonist (Lisa -- the Body Snatcher).  

	The writing itself is of very high caliber.  The sentence
structure, grammer and spelling are all good enough that I didn't notice
any errors the first time through.  The highlight of Alara's style is her
attention to detail.  Her ability to bring the small details to life tends
to drag the reader deep into the story and make the horror of the
situation all the more visceral -- especially considering how things begin
on such a mundane note.  Even small points, like gender pronouns, become
weapons that she uses to drive home just how strange, unsettling and just
plain evil the situation is.      

	The other very strong point is how Alara has clearly thought out
Mangeto's continiuty very clearly.  She takes a great deal of care to
recouncile episodes in his (admittedly fractured) continiuty with the
reactions that Magneto shows to this loathsome situation.  She creates a
picture of a tough and proud Magneto who still hasn't forgotten how to
survive in a death camp -- an aspect of his character that is rarely
explored and thus gives her much fertile ground to define him.  

	Throughout the story, the reader is compelled to share Magneto's
growing desperation with his situation and to realize just how unendurable
the situation is.  Despite his slow breaking, one is compelled to ask if
anyone could have done better under the circumstances.  The inspiring
thing, though, is that Magneto never entirely gives into despair and
eventually brains and cleverness win out.  Of course, the dileema posed by
not wanting to kill his own body does seriouly work against Magneto and it
is interesting to watch him try to deal with the situation in a way that
doesn't result in killing his own body.    

	I had a very minor nitpick early on (about Magneto's tampering
with a circuit threatening to electrocute people -- which seems impossible
given what we know about power grids and what we know about his powers).
But it's a measure of just how good the story is that I have to include
this sort of thing as my downside of the story.   

	The Body Snatcher is a truely loathsome individual -- the sort
that should never be allowed anywhere near power.  There are some attempts
to define just what created this twisted psyche and one can only hope that
there are more clues coming in later episodes.  The character does play
strongly against type for an X-Men story as there are very few shades of
grey painted here.  A difficult life does not justify what Lisa has chosen
to do with her powers or make her sadism acceptable.  

	To be honest, it is a thoughtful and compelling character study
and it delves deeply into questions of identity and limits (at what point
does a person crack?).  I am VERY MUCH looking forward to seeing the
second chapter of this story.  

Overall Rating: A+