Shaping up to be a top shelf series in the genre.
I am so impressed by the first two books in this series. The characters draw you in subtly and seemingly effortlessly by the author. It’s clear that he is a talented writer as well as a fan of the genre. He is also perceptive to what separates the trash from the good from the great in this genre and is using that experience to craft the framework of a strong series.
I went into more detail about the pillars of this genre in my last review. I use this method try to quantity my reviews and add some consistency and fairness to the equation, as much as possible for a subjective review. You can read my prior review for my thoughts on those and how well the author manages them so far. My opinion hasn’t changed after Book 2.
I will speak to being happy with the author’s choices to push the story forward even if these choices evoke sadness. Sometimes it can be tempting to settle into the idyllic world you narrate for your audience, become overly attached to the characters, unwilling to risk taking the steps needed to advance the story, and of course enhance its quality.
The author advances the story in two powerful ways in this book. Both of them saddened me greatly, and that’s a nod to the author’s ability to endear me to the characters he’s created and do so in different ways and to do so impressively succinctly. There’s really not a lot of bloat in this series so far.
As I mentioned in my last review, there’s some tendency to get into the detailed minutiae of magic, but it’s not as complicated as it got in the first book. I think this strikes a good balance between healthy lore-building for the series as a whole without seeming like page stuffing.
I think he’s done a fantastic job with the characterization of the main character. The author, through telling us the story of MCs childhood, is building the context for who the MC will become. That’s so much better than the majority of series where the MC is some form of righteous chosen one with endless determination, no quit in them, etc. There’s rarely any real context to these traits in those series. They often seem to contradict the narrative the author shapes for them before they Isekai or the system event or whatever happens. And as fun as those series can still be, this is a flaw. Those characters usually boil down to being some sort of idealized version of the authors who create them. The author of this series has seen that flaw so common in this genre and is doing a fantastic job of taking progression to a higher level of writing.
If you’re looking for a MC who’s OP, righteous, sure of themselves, and always saves the day. I’m sorry, that amount of escapism says a lot about you that’s kind of sad. But this series isn’t for you.
If you’re looking for escapism where the good guys always win, nothing really bad ever happens to them, they always overcome adversity, no one we like ever dies, and everyone who’s bad gets what they deserve, I understand that maybe a little more than the other one. But still, this series isn’t for you.
This series is an investment in knowing what makes this genre tick, and taking it to another level. So glad this series was recommended to me. Book three in a week!