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AngstGoddess003 Says: I’m a little biased in regards to both this story and the author. It’s no secret. Angel is my fluffy gushy bitchfaced BFF. Then again, we always have the policy of speaking up when one or the other writes something that’s shit. So when I say that Daedalus in Exile is awesome, you can be confident that I truly believe so, from the view of a reader foremost.
Angel first mentioned this premise back when Creature of Habit was only a wee work in progress. This means that she’s given it plenty of time to stew and fester and grow into a well-developed story in her cute, scary, hilarious, moody, perverted imagination. I know some may be concerned that this AU, from reading the summary, may seem a little close to her previous AU, CoH, but it’s not.
DiE is a dark alternate universe, a la Midnight Sun. Edward leaves that first day encountering Bella and goes to Alaska. The point where it deviates is the defining moment for Edward in this story. He enters a convenience store and sees a woman, similar to Bella in appearance, cut her finger.
In any other case, Edward’s control might have saved the woman, but he’s in a fragile state of mind and soul and is incapable of containing his urges. Upon doing so, he finds that killing people, particularly woman who bear a resemblance to one Bella Swan, is really quite fulfilling.
After I killed the cashier, I had changed. I was no longer the soft-spoken boy who excelled in his classes and was polite to his teachers.I had turned into a cold-blooded killer, unhinged and looking for his next victim. Initially, my tracking abilities were limited. But as time passed, and my need for a specific type of target increased, I became better. Then, once I exiled myself here, surrounded by acres and acres of wilderness, I honed my abilities on animals, learning their patterns and behaviors.
EDWARD ISN’T EVIL!
I mean, sure… you gobble down a few chicks, and suddenly, BAM! You’re a monster. And maybe that’s true in some regard, but you have to see it from Edward’s perspective. He has this haunting memory of a scent so divine that it literally gnaws at his thirst and conscience every second of every day. He’s going a little batshit. He’s thirsty. He’s been forced to abandon his family. He’s had to spend God knows how
long in that house with Tanya with all of her obscene fantasies running through his head. All because of the purest, nummiest, most scrumpdillyumptious blood he’s ever smelled.
And… now they want him to go nom down this yucky elk.
The very structure of his sanity has been fractured. But don’t worry. Edward will eventually see the light, so to speak. When the story begins, Edward’s in a sort of recovery, locked away in exile in the dense wilderness of North Carolina. He’s been clean for three years.
Five years.Two years spent hunting, running, tracking and killing. Murdering. Two years spent attempting to fill the hollowness inside.Three years.Three years recovering. Withdrawing. Relearning. Three years putting it all back together again, just to feel partially whole.Five years since that fateful day in Forks when Isabella Swan and I crossed paths.
But then Bella Swan shows up hiking through the woods while he’s hunting.
CAN’T A MOFO CATCH A BREAK?!
We don’t know why Bella’s there, why fate has so cruelly put her once again in his path (well, I do, but I’m special ~sticks out tongue~), but Edward is having a serious FML moment.
I almost leapt in celebration, although I had no idea what I was celebrating. Her life? My dinner?
We see his extreme conflict when Bella becomes injured, unconscious. To eat or not to eat? He’s already gone through a massive internal debate while tracking her. So when he saves her, neither Edward nor
the reader, is really certain for what purpose.
I needed her away from me, out of my hands, her flesh and blood needed to get away from me.I needed her with me.
Angel does a magnificent job depicting the contrast between Edward’s dual desires; the desire for her blood, and the desire for something else–one that he doesn’t quite understand. He either wants to kill her, take her somewhere far away and leave her, dress her up and put her beneath glass to worship, or take a nice long slurping lick of her head wound. Jury’s still out.
I’m going to cease summarizing there because I don’t want to ruin it, but things get interesting when Edward must aid Bella, completely isolated from civilization, conscience, and sanity.
In my opinion, the real gem in the first 4 chapters thus far is the history with his family. The dynamic between him and Carlisle has clearly shifted, not so unlike that of a father disappointed in his heroin-addicted son.
“The urges…” He wondered aloud, ashamed to fully ask.“Are under control,” I stated. My hands had paused on the paddle, and I thought about how this was part of my penitence, that no matter how much time went by, trust would always be an issue.
There are definite trust issues, Carlisle not so convinced that Edward’s urges are under wraps. I believe that in the process of telling Bella and Edward’s journey, Angel will manage to weave in a rather intriguing depiction of family dynamics, broken bonds, insecurity, mistrust, and longings for forgiveness.Reasons to Get Yo’ DiE on:
- Edward gets naked by Chapter 3. True fact.
- Its acronym is DIE. I mean… come on…
- Edward undresses Bella by Chapter 4.
- Edward does the cutest thing where he’s all crazy and talking to her, even though she’s like… totally not even awake.
- Bella hasn’t had one line of dialog yet.
- Edward. Naked. Chapter 3.
- Shiny bottles and cement and a secret “project.”
- Edward Googles. That naughty, naughty boy.
- Because the awkwardness of Bella waking up will be so win.
- Edward gets naked. BY CHAPTER FREAKING THREE.
I rest my case.
Kassiah says: *Fist Pump* I wanted to come here and tell you all about how awesome this fic is, how much I love it, how Edward is naked, how he is all …amazing and fucktabulous, and how there is
an amazing plot. Seems like AngstGoddess003 and Shan said everything I wanted to, only immensely better and far more motivating than I could be. I just want to say, read this. Read it. 
mozzer0906 says: One of the things that I find Angel excels at is writing suspense. She turns me into some sort of fic addict needing that next chapter to find out what happens next. She slowly doles out new information in each chapter, but leaves out just enough that you are dying to know what happens next.
In this Twilight AU, we find out what could have happened if Edward wasn’t the controlled vampire, if he slipped and drank human blood. In a cruel twist of fate the object of his bloodlust finds herself lost and alone in the woods where Edward has now exiled himself and thus we are treated to Edward’s internal torture of should I kill her or save her? Or save her then kill her? The way Angel writes Edward’s struggle is fantastic.
As with all of her fics, the little references to canon are present, but taken in a different direction or way. The way she bent the canon characters of the Cullen family to deal with Edward’s slip I think was fantastic. Carlilse is still unwilling to abandon his son; Alice is unable to let her brother go without a fight. It shows the true passion that Angel has for the series that she can maintain parts of the canon characters and yet still make them her own.
And yeah, Edward is naked and undressing Bella early on.
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