Though The Lifting of the Veil begins slowly, and has many characters that need to be remembered, it’s a worthy time investment. It soon picks up pace, and no time is wasted as many questions and mysteries are raised.
The characters themselves are well written and unique enough that you don’t get confused, and it helps that each has their own very different location and events. The President, for instance, exudes a sort of Clancy-ish feel, with the use of complex terminology and acronyms.
Unfortunately, there are a few quibbles. The tense changes a few times, and some chapters could do with better spacing between paragraphs. In the end, however, these issues are minor and will probably be dealt with soon.
In the end, the story and characters are interesting enough to warrant reading, despite some minor problems.
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. . . Currently, ‘Lifting the Veil’ still feels very much like a story in its introductory phase; we are still getting to know the characters, and they are still desperately trying to comprehend the chaos into which their world has been thrust. Since the cast is quite large, getting a grip on every character is initially a little difficult- things are made easier by the fact that most of the main characters are segregated into separate patches of geography, either wandering alone or in small groups.
The nature of the cataclysm presented is intriguing, and could go one of two ways- fresh and interesting or hackneyed Alien Invasion Plot. I’m hoping for the former, and one of the later chapters does indeed tend to suggest something unusual is going on . . . but I won’t spoil.
Worth a mention is the site’s impressive artwork, an example of which prefixes each chapter- although that said, much of the artwork does not seem to have a direct connection to the text as yet. This isn’t particularly bothersome; it still looks cool.
There are problems- at one point in an early chapter, I felt like I was drowning in acronyms; though this might be a necessary evil when dealing with government bodies. At times, the tenses switch alarmingly, tripping the reader over the text- though this is apparently being seen to.
Early installments are framed by a countdown, and the author’s abilities were clearly being ramped as zero-hour approached. The post-crises landscape is well described, representing a leap up from previously solid writing. There are a couple of slightly cheesy Big "Nooooooooo(h)s" and one character seems inexplicably determined to nominate himself up as Rural Farmer Stereotype Of The Year ("Ayup.") But other than that, the dialogue is good and the characters are drawing themselves well. All in all, time will tell whether ‘Veil,’ avoids the Just-Another-Alien-Holocaust trap but, from the evidence available, I am optimistic for the story’s future. . . . if not necessarily that of the world it describes.
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