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  • The Irregular at Magic High School #12-16

    The transition from the end of Raihousha-hen to Book 12 of the source material is unfortunately not particularly seamless.

    There’s some notable overlap between events, namely Minami’s and the Saegusa and Yotsuba twins’ introductions. The skyscraper opening ceremony there meanwhile is actually a near-total alteration of a welcome-home party in the book. An understandable change, seeing as how the original version introduced a bunch of new characters (some of whom are never seen again) and they probably wanted to end the series with a bang.

    What really sticks out though is the density of the text, which shouldn’t have been a surprise considering how wordy the Anime series is. It takes some time to get used to the conversational style, which frequently skips between similarly named characters and occasionally has a rather odd syntax. I wonder if they used multiple editors? When/if you acclimate yourself to the oddities though the general experience is not unlike watching the show, featuring a similar mix of dialog, action, and comedy.

    At least for the 12th through 15th books.

    The 16th however, which (perhaps not incidentally) is the shortest of this bunch, throws a couple pretty severe curve balls which seem completely out of character. Frankly, the way the page count had been steadily decreasing since the 12th book already had me on edge… but then to go and devote what little space they had to such highly questionable developments on top of that has me feeling that there’s no need to continue following the franchise.


  • So I’m a Spider, So What? #6-11

    Despite heavy misgivings, as I have a mixed history regarding young adult novels (and LNs are simply the Japanese equivalent of such), I decided to pick this series up at the point the related Anime ended.

    To my great surprise the transition from episode 24 over there to book 6 over here ended up nearly seamless. The only notable inconsistency is that the protagonist has more parallel minds, a minor issue which ends up resolved anyway by the time the 7th book starts. That 7th book however is a problem. While on paper it sort of works, if it were to be animated it would provoke reactions similar to ones War of the Underworld‘s ending got.

    For the most part this isn’t an issue because nothing important to the main plotline occurs for like 90% of the novel… but that last 10% covers the protagonist getting her human body. An event that can’t really happen without all the otherwise unrelated lead-up. So a hypothetical Anime continuation would have to shoot itself in the foot animating it faithfully, or come up with an Anime-original method for her evolution. It’s a no-win situation.

    The next three books return to the style of the 6th and are solidly entertaining. The 11th however….

    This book is another problem child, but notably more-so than the 7th: 95% of its content is focused on Julius. You remember Julius right? Shun’s idolized older brother who died. That’s right, nearly an entire book given to a character that lost all relevance something like six books back. What was the purpose of this? The only thing that comes to mind is that it’s meant to foreshadow some sort of development with the Hero’s Sword… but that was just one scene. You didn’t need to devote the whole damn thing to a dead character.

    The remaining content is some brief Sophia interludes in which she sounds exactly like the protagonist (who sounds exactly like the author). Being generous this curious personality shift could be attributed to the Envy skill… but considering the book is focused on Julius of all people I suspect the actual reason is that the author simply got lazy/lost sight of her character.

    Regardless, while there were some hiccups, overall I’d have to call this experiment a success. I’m definitely looking forward to the 12th book (the translated version of which will be released later this month) and in the meantime may check out some other Anime-related series that are unlikely to get an animated continuation any time soon.


  • OATHBRINGER & RHYTHM of WAR

    The third of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive novels benefits greatly from having read both Edgedancer and Warbreaker (which I thought I talked about before but apparently haven’t) beforehand.

    Sadly I’m not sure it’s really worth the investment; a good 90% of the book is essentially treading water with events and characterizations repeatedly progressing one step forward and then one step back (Shallan’s sections in particular become painful to read). Only the very last section is truly engaging… but it’s engaging in a manner that echoes a cliffhanger, coming across as deliberately manipulative (which of course it is) rather than feeling natural.

    The follow-up picks up after a 1-year time skip and starts off much better. Unfortunately it seems Sanderson can’t help himself here and once again reverts to character (Kaladin this time, though Shallan hasn’t improved) and event regression to pad out the novel’s length. Its finale isn’t anywhere near as satisfying as the prequel’s either, partly because yet another artificial extension has been introduced (related to Odium this time).

    All that combined with Rhythm‘s foreword stating that the series is intended to be ten books long has me thinking I should just cut my losses now rather than continue to plod through thousands of pages of circular developments for just a couple hundred filled with excitement.


  • Shadows of Self & The Bands of Mourning

    Shadows of Self is the fifth book in Brandon Sanderson‘s Mistborn series. Fortunately, as I remember nothing at all about the prequel, reading it does not require all that much familiarity with the setting or previous events; having read Secret History will be enough (though having read the entire series will of course enhance the experience). It’s solidly entertaining from start to finish.

    Bands of Mourning continues from where that left off, but has a distinctively different atmosphere. It’s more of an ensemble story with most scenes involving three or more members of the now core group of Wax, Wayne, Marasi, Steris, and MeLann. While the cast expansion works however, the setting and scope expansion does not. The new city ends up a vestigial speedbump, the airship and related ‘lost civilization’ are badly integrated, and the ‘evil ancient god’ subplot comes across as extraordinarily arbitrary. It does finally resolve the issue of Wax’s uncle (which is nice I guess)… but I just can’t see his replacement as an improvement.

    Apparently there’s going to be one more book to conclude this segment of the series (it was supposed to have been released by now but allegedly got delayed by the creation of an unrelated YA series), but honestly I’m not all that interested in it if it’s just going to effectively be retreading ground the early Mistborn novels already covered.


  • The Way of Kings & Words of Radiance

    The first novel in Brandon Sanderson‘s Stormlight Archive series reminds me of R. Scott Bakker’s Aspect-Emperor series. Mostly in structure and length, but also slightly in content (it’s nowhere near as dark/gritty or philosophy-laden though… which could go either way depending on your personal tastes).

    It starts out pretty boring while laying the groundwork, picks up markedly by the halfway point, and becomes downright exciting toward the end. Aside from the questionable beginning, the only real issue I had with it were Kaladin and Shallan both acting pretty stupid much of the time. With a book the size of this one you wouldn’t think a mere two characters’ actions could drag it down, but they both end up central to the story it wants to tell. The intermittent flashbacks to Kaladin’s past aren’t particularly interesting either.

    The second novel, Words of Radiance, pretty much entirely redeems Shallan… but Kaladin relapses for a while. I’m also still not fond of the flashback segments (this time focusing on Shallan) and the random character resurrection at the end seems, well, random and ill thought out. That said, overall it’s notably more consistent than the prequel and I’m definitely invested in seeing how the story develops from here.


  • Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection

    This collection of short fiction spans Brandon Sanderson’s various existing Cosmere series along with two currently stand-alone ones.

    The first two take place on the world of Elantris, with The Emperor’s Soul effectively being stand-alone with no need to have read anything else (though having read the first two Stormlight Archive books will help conceptually). The Hope of Elantris meanwhile is heavily dependent on having recently read Elantris proper, but honestly isn’t very good at all and would probably be best skipped.

    The next three stories focus on the Mistborn world. The Eleventh Metal is a prequel that’s basically a chapter-length interlude which would’ve worked better placed as a flashback in the first book instead of having been released separately. Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania on the other hand jumps ahead to the Alloy of Law half of the series setting-wise and essentially ends up its own separate thing. This section is then wrapped up with Mistborn: Secret History which is quite long and reveals what was going on behind the scenes during the 2nd and 3rd Mistborn novels. You can read it without being familiar with the series proper (I had forgotten nearly everything about it by this time), but it will likely have more impact if read shortly after finishing those.

    The remaining stories are each from a different world:

    • White Sand is an excerpt from a graphic novel project of the same name, with both the actual comic pages and a plain-text version being included. The plain text version is far better.
    • Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell has a pretty interesting setting combined with pretty annoying character behavior.
    • Sixth of the Dusk is a bit heavy-handed with its messaging and relationship development, but the setting is original enough to forgive it.
    • Edgedancer takes place between the 2nd and 3rd Stormlight Archive novels and should most definitely be read at that point.

    The entire work also features an outside observer framing device which gives a brief introductory overview of each setting along with a glimpse into how they’re connected to one another (these parts probably won’t make much sense if you haven’t read at least the first two Stormlight Archive books). It’s an impressive display and worth the price of admission if you’re a fan of Sanderson’s worldbuilding.


  • Hidden Legacy: Books 1-5

    When I first saw this series announced, I pretty much immediately dismissed it as the authors slumming with a stab at generic paranormal romance.

    Now having read it on whim I see I was right about that (at least for the the first 3-4 books). What I was not expecting however was that it’s also Kate Daniels fanfiction. Who does that? What kind of author makes fanfiction of their own successful work and then tries to pass it off as a new work that required ‘belief’ to get it off the ground? Your editor “believed in the story”? No shit they did; you already wrote it years ago!

    The funniest thing about this is that’s not even the full extent of the reuse. It also splices in the setting from Kinsmen… another of the authors’ series, albeit an apparently less successful one. The audacity of the entire project is just staggering.


  • Cast In Wisdom & A Killing Frost

    Back in Cast In Oblivion you may remember that the protagonist finally decided to learn more about how to use her powers. Well, the 15th book (not including Cast In Moonlight) in Michelle Sagara‘s Chronicles of Elantra series take the necessary step of introducing a new location filled with characters who can advance that goal. It ends up one of the better installments (despite a continued lack of weight to the action scenes) thanks to both not getting bogged down in metaphysics and Kaylin’s continuing maturation as a character; for those saying she never changes you really need to read the first book (Cast In Shadow) again and then realize that less than 2 years have passed since then.

    Seanan McGuire’s A Killing Frost, the 14th October Daye entry, also advances its goal… far more than I thought it would after the meandering prequel. Not only is the titular ‘Search for Simon’ subplot resolved, but one of the series’ major overarching plotlines gets spontaneously resolved as well. Perhaps a bit too spontaneously. Presumably that event will be examined in more detail in the future, put aside here as it was in favor of wrapping up Simon’s arc, and I hope the author can come up with a believable enough justification for it.

    As for the bonus novella included within: It’s a perfectly fine prequel focusing on the Lordens’ relationship with Simon, which adds some useful context to Killing Frost‘s developments.


  • Indexing: Reflections & Wayward Children

    The second entry in Seanan McGuire’s Indexing series does not appear to have any reason to exist. Oh sure, the foreword says something about people asking “What came next” and that this was the answer… but basically nothing is resolved here, a few additional things are now unresolved, and it ends in pretty much the exact same place the first book did. Just skip it until/unless a third entry is ever written.

    Speaking of things that should be skipped: Wayward Children.

    I know better than to buy something just because I liked some of the creator’s other works. I know better. Worse, I even have a long history of bad experiences with young adult works by authors normally known for writing standard novels. And yet, I still bought the first four of these books and forced myself through them. There are so many negative things I could list about them, ranging from their physical length to their themes to their structure, but ultimately it’s probably best to keep it as succinct as possible and just say “They are young adult novels through and through”.


  • Sparrow Hill Road & Laughter at the Academy

    The first of Seanan McGuire’s Ghost Roads novels is a collection of related stories/songs which were repurposed into four ‘books’. Book 1 is very good, the follow-up is not. Book 3 fluctuates a bit, while the conclusion is abrupt/lacking. It’s interesting… but ends up too uneven to really care about whatever the sequel might contain.

    Laughter at the Academy is somewhat similar in that it’s a collection of stories, but here they’re all quite independent and run the gamut from Wayward Children to Newsflesh. You can see shades of those series, October Daye, the above mentioned Ghost Roads, Indexing, The Deep, and even Middlegame in the large assortment of mostly chapter-sized tales arrayed here.

    Being anthology bait as many of them are don’t expect a consistency of quality, ’cause there isn’t any, but they succeed quite brilliantly in showcasing the range of topics/foci found in the author’s full-sized works. Interestingly, pretty much all of them are ‘dark’ in some manner and one of the stories (The Tolling of Pavlov’s Bells) may as well have been written specifically for the current viral crisis. My only complaint would be that the intermittent/inconsistent introductory trigger warnings lifted from the fanfic community are aggravating to read.