Daniel Schinhofen‘s Aether’s Revival series has been floating around my Amazon recommendations page for years now. While nothing about the description seemed like a deal-killer, nor did anything in particular stand out. And so it sat there… until just recently.
The first five books are essentially groundwork for what comes later and mostly consist of training, tournaments, and harem building. Apart from the re-occurring subfocus on ‘slowly eating aether-infused foods’, which is torturous, this part of the series is perfectly enjoyable despite its relatively slow pace. Events then pick up quite nicely in the sixth and seventh books only for the narrative to kind of stall in the eighth and (most of the) ninth. The last quarter or so of the ninth is very good, but I’m extremely concerned about how many more books are going to focus on that assistant ambassador post.
And while I mentioned there being a harem, it’s more like an orgy. All the girls are as attracted to each other as they are to the protagonist and there’s quite a bit of sexual content. While most is simple ‘and then sex happened’ or merely implied, every now and again a fully detailed scene will pop up. So that’s something to be aware of.