Alternate/Other Places :a discussion

[Ronald Dukarski]

OK, just finished the three books, my wife informs me I have a life outside of books, and like it or not, I have to live it. So just finished.

I really liked Alternate Places, even more than Other Places. The story line, the characters, the scope, and dialog seemed more adult. It felt like the characters were dealing with life experiences and coming to grips with reality. Other Places seemed more of a coming of age story line, deferring to a younger audience. I enjoyed it a great deal, but was more engaged with Alternate Places.

It's easy to recognise the cast of characters as they transitioned from one series to the other. How individually they kept or lost certain characteristics. How some were combined or were lost in the process. One individual stands out in that, if I have it right, was lost altogether and became the star of his own series. I'm pretty sure Cavevdish became Brian of the infected series.

If I had it in my power, I'd convince Dale to continue Alternate Places as several branches of a serial. Kate needs more exposure (pun intended). Loved her character! All the others are screaming for a book or short story of their own. But only if Dale can recapture the original adult style of Alternate Places. Not to downplay the success of Other Places, but the style of Alternate Places is much more mature and, in my opinion, more "mainstream novel".

[David]

I would agree that the character development and depth were better in alternate places. Secondary characters were more lifelike, mostly because of alternate Zack having the ability to see to the truth in things.

In other places Zack wasnt as aware and kind of clueless, so we never really found out where people stood and what they were actually like outside of their direct actions. And of course those were skewed for him because he was the line walker.

I'm not sure the mature part is true though, other Zack actually had worse things done to him. Perhaps it was less graphic, but it was implied well enough to get it. The only major change here for more adult is you know, a harem he actually gets to have sex with in Alternate as opposed to just thinking about it in Other.

World building I am going to give to Other. It was well done for the core stuff in alternate, but a lot of things were left a little vague. Other was a lot more clear cut that way. The enemies were also better in Other, greater demons are more understandable than some powerful entity locked in a place that doesnt exist that you are not sure what its capabilities are.

I liked both, and for different reasons as stated above. I would be happy to get another book in either series. After all I've read other places at least four times and I'm on my second run of alternate right now.

[Ronald Dukarski]

By mature, I was inferring mostly to the dialogue and thought process of the characters... A.P. seemed to bring to mind a more mature nature, where as O.P. would resonate better with a late teen early twenty crowd. Both Places (A or O ) contain about equal amounts of sex/violence with Other being a bit less explict. Alternate being more straight forward. The aggregate of all the violence that happened to several of the characters in Alternate was just dumped on Zack in Other while Xenses kidnapped and tortured him in the void.(Noticed we had a Xen in both novels - too cool to not use the name)

[wrightl]

I love the cover. I just started the book so I can't say much about that yet, but I think that the cover is my favorite you have ever done.

[Kat]

I'm rereading both atm and...well, I am actually not really sure.

I mean, the connection kate/tiera (or at least I think there's this connection, possibly also to impulse - but, really, I'm probably wrong with most of my possible connections theories) comes out in alternate places, but not so much in other places.

On the other hand, Other places plays in a generally much more dangerous world, so there is more excitement and a few difficult choices. In alternate character development takes a more prominent place, the difference between black and white is more clear cut where other places is kind of...grey.

So...I don't think either one is better...each has some advantage over the other in some ways.

[willallen]

I loved the Alternate Places trilogy and I can only hope for more. The plot is really fast paced and I agree, the characters are very mature in their way. I would love to see more Cavendish and this universe's Katie is intriguing. I hope Dale revisits this series as we are left with a wide open ending.

[Kat]

I'm beginning to wonder...now that the whole thing with vamps and mages and shifters and such is out...will more people notice when Zack just kind of walks into people's gardens, disappears and then reappears a couple hours later?

Btw I'm beginning to wonder how the situation with Zack and Keeley and the Angels has developed after the hints in Eve's series. Also, Zack has mentioned that he has no real problem remembering Angels, plus he's obviously convinced that space itself and therefore a pretty big chunk of what we call reality is not real - in other places towards the end at least - which is pretty different from what other demons see and think judging by the Keeley books. Sure he's insane, but that sounds more like he stumbled over something a bit different. Plus, Eve is turning herself into a demon.

Unlike Alternate Places I am therefore honestly going to say that I don't have the faintest idea just where Other Places is going and absolutely can't wait to find out.

[RyanM]

[Kat]

[Ronald Dukarski]

I'm kind of thinking that Keeley' s storyline is closed. Not to say we won't see her any more, but I think the focus will shift to Zack' s Other Places story, maybe we'll have to see Eve there as well. I'm not sure what Dale has in mind, but I thought I remembered he opined that Demon Bait ended Keeley' s Arc. And Eve was getting just the trilogy for her story. It may be that a new arc opens up like in Y.A. But Dale hasn't said anything about that, as far as I know.