Haywire

"Haywire" is a short hypertext-choice story in which we are a street magician whose tricks rely on our ability to play with people's minds rather than on sleight-of-hand. We're cold and we're lonely, but at the moment, we're primarily hungry, so off we go to get something to eat....

There are two main branches here, once we've got our food: one in which we face down a serial killer, and one in which we're recruited to Fight Crime as a costumed superhero. The first branch seems all right, but the second seems extremely rushed. There's a whole story's worth of establishing trust that should come in between "Hi, I know your secret" and "Okay, I will follow you." It almost feels as though the superhero branch was never really meant to happen, but that the author felt that something had to be done with the person who inexplicably knows our secret. In both cases, too, I rather felt as though the story ended just as it was getting started.

Where the story hasn't been rushed, it's pretty decently written. One wishes for a bit more consistency, that the author could have developed the story and taken it further. If this were breakfast, it might be two rashers of nicely crisped bacon and a very runny fried egg. We know the cook is capable of much, much better.