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Re:Apotheosis #1
Re:Apotheosis
For over a century, fictional characters have been falling out of their stories into our world. Some, like mech pilot Atria Silversword and isekai protagonist Daiki Yamato, want to go home. Some, like JRPG non-player character Princess Stellaria, want a new life. Some, like superhero Captain Infinite and devil king The Destroyer, want to meet their creators. Some, like monster hunter Jenny Calhoun and super-assassin Jack Death, want justice for their suffering.
And one will fight a bloody war to liberate them all.
With a new afterword by the author.
And one will fight a bloody war to liberate them all.
With a new afterword by the author.
252 pages, Paperback
Published November 21, 2022
1 person is currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Robert B. Marks
29 books1 followerRobert B. Marks is an author, editor, researcher, and publisher. He is the author of Diablo: Demonsbane, the e-book that launched the entire Blizzard fiction line back in 2000, as well as The EverQuest Companion, the Garwulf's Corner pop culture columns, and he is the co-author of The Eternity Quartet with Ed Greenwood.
As a non-fiction author and historian he is the co-author of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Agora: Ancient Greek and Roman Humour, with R. Drew Griffith, as well as the translator of Grandmaison's Training of the Infantry for Offensive Combat, the French doctrine of 1913, and Moltke the Younger's Memories, Letters and Documents.
Put another way, he wears many hats. One is a Stetson, and the other a Tilly. He lives in the area of Kingston, Ontario, with his wife and children.
As a non-fiction author and historian he is the co-author of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Agora: Ancient Greek and Roman Humour, with R. Drew Griffith, as well as the translator of Grandmaison's Training of the Infantry for Offensive Combat, the French doctrine of 1913, and Moltke the Younger's Memories, Letters and Documents.
Put another way, he wears many hats. One is a Stetson, and the other a Tilly. He lives in the area of Kingston, Ontario, with his wife and children.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 21, 2022
Thanks to the author for sending me an ARC!
Re: Apotheosis is a fun popcorn read that delivers on its premise of bringing Japanese and western media characters to life and having them meet their creators, with varied reactions - leading to an intense "us vs them" battle. The beginning is a little slow, and the characters' reactions to finding out they're fictional often feel a bit unrealistic, but once you get past the setup the pace picks up quite quickly and the novel is engaging with excellent action scenes and lovable (or love-to-hate-them) protagonists.
Set primarily in Tokyo, Re: Apotheosis will be better understood if you have some familiarity with Japanese media - for example, terms like "light novels" are used without explanation - but if you're unsure, you shouldn't have any problem googling anything that's unfamiliar. About half of the fictional characters come from Japanese media, and the others will likely be be recognizable to you as excellent parodies of their Western counterparts.
What this novel does best is its characters. While their reactions to learning they're fictional might not be the most realistic, which honestly is understandable given length constraints and the sheer number of characters who must confront the exact same realization during the novel's scope, each character embodies their inspiration perfectly, and it's fantastic. My personal favorite was Jack Death, though Jenny Calhoun was a close second, and really all of them are excellent.
Overall I gave Re: Apotheosis a 3.5/5. It's an enjoyable, quick read, nothing deep; you can read it in a couple hours if you read relatively fast, and you'll have a good time with it. That said, I think the plot focus on having the characters meet their creators without significant emotional depth emanate from those interactions was a bit of a disconnect for me, knocking a bit off my rating. Given how quickly it reads, though, I think it's certainly worth its time if only for the characters, which are all a joy to experience.
Re: Apotheosis is a fun popcorn read that delivers on its premise of bringing Japanese and western media characters to life and having them meet their creators, with varied reactions - leading to an intense "us vs them" battle. The beginning is a little slow, and the characters' reactions to finding out they're fictional often feel a bit unrealistic, but once you get past the setup the pace picks up quite quickly and the novel is engaging with excellent action scenes and lovable (or love-to-hate-them) protagonists.
Set primarily in Tokyo, Re: Apotheosis will be better understood if you have some familiarity with Japanese media - for example, terms like "light novels" are used without explanation - but if you're unsure, you shouldn't have any problem googling anything that's unfamiliar. About half of the fictional characters come from Japanese media, and the others will likely be be recognizable to you as excellent parodies of their Western counterparts.
What this novel does best is its characters. While their reactions to learning they're fictional might not be the most realistic, which honestly is understandable given length constraints and the sheer number of characters who must confront the exact same realization during the novel's scope, each character embodies their inspiration perfectly, and it's fantastic. My personal favorite was Jack Death, though Jenny Calhoun was a close second, and really all of them are excellent.
Overall I gave Re: Apotheosis a 3.5/5. It's an enjoyable, quick read, nothing deep; you can read it in a couple hours if you read relatively fast, and you'll have a good time with it. That said, I think the plot focus on having the characters meet their creators without significant emotional depth emanate from those interactions was a bit of a disconnect for me, knocking a bit off my rating. Given how quickly it reads, though, I think it's certainly worth its time if only for the characters, which are all a joy to experience.
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January 18, 2023I was given an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. I will try to explain who may enjoy this book and who may not.
This novel will be mainly for people interested in Anime, Isekai, and/or the specific story "Re: Creators," of which this story is meant to be a spiritual successor. As I am not familiar with any of those things, the story itself didn't do much for me.
The story, especially at the beginning, had quick plotting. If you enjoy things clipping along at a rapid pace, this novel may be for you. On the flip side, that made a lot of the characters feel more two dimensional, as they weren't given the time to become fully fleshed out. Huge things were happening, emotionally and physically, and characters just moved on quickly.
Similarly, relationships and cameraderie developed quite quickly. If you're someone who wants to get to the action, that will interest you. However, it did leave the relationships feeling false and unearned as the plot forced them to keep going.
One critique I have is of the dialogue. A lot of it was stilted and/or uncalled for. I think this is something that could be improved with time.
I also hope that the author went over the ARC a few more times, as I found numerous grammatical/language errors throughout, including a character's name being switched to some other random name within the first few pages. But, that just takes a little more editing.
This novel will be mainly for people interested in Anime, Isekai, and/or the specific story "Re: Creators," of which this story is meant to be a spiritual successor. As I am not familiar with any of those things, the story itself didn't do much for me.
The story, especially at the beginning, had quick plotting. If you enjoy things clipping along at a rapid pace, this novel may be for you. On the flip side, that made a lot of the characters feel more two dimensional, as they weren't given the time to become fully fleshed out. Huge things were happening, emotionally and physically, and characters just moved on quickly.
Similarly, relationships and cameraderie developed quite quickly. If you're someone who wants to get to the action, that will interest you. However, it did leave the relationships feeling false and unearned as the plot forced them to keep going.
One critique I have is of the dialogue. A lot of it was stilted and/or uncalled for. I think this is something that could be improved with time.
I also hope that the author went over the ARC a few more times, as I found numerous grammatical/language errors throughout, including a character's name being switched to some other random name within the first few pages. But, that just takes a little more editing.
November 23, 2022
Re: Apotheosis is a light novel that is intended to be a spiritual successor to Re: Creators, written by Robert B. Marks. In the best style of Japanese light novels, we get into a reverse isekai story, where fictional characters were transported to our world, being from different parts of the evil-good spectrum.
Set in Tokyo, we are going to read an ode to the classic Japanese manga stories that take for granted that we know certain aspects of the culture, that won't be explained. The beginning is a little bit slow, being too heavy in exposition parts that try to introduce the characters to us; being the pace of this part not my cup of tea.
Once we got out of this part, actually the story becomes really engaging, featuring several action scenes, and also with the characters acting as if they were real, especially when they met with their creator. Probably this is the strongest part of the novel, which works especially well in this regard.
Personally, I think this is a good novel and a good story that can serve as a fast read, and will be enjoyed especially if you are a fan of isekai genre, and want to see the inverse situation. It's entertaining, and as a homage to Re: Creators, do a great job, of bringing to words what in the Japanese culture is expressed by manga.
Set in Tokyo, we are going to read an ode to the classic Japanese manga stories that take for granted that we know certain aspects of the culture, that won't be explained. The beginning is a little bit slow, being too heavy in exposition parts that try to introduce the characters to us; being the pace of this part not my cup of tea.
Once we got out of this part, actually the story becomes really engaging, featuring several action scenes, and also with the characters acting as if they were real, especially when they met with their creator. Probably this is the strongest part of the novel, which works especially well in this regard.
Personally, I think this is a good novel and a good story that can serve as a fast read, and will be enjoyed especially if you are a fan of isekai genre, and want to see the inverse situation. It's entertaining, and as a homage to Re: Creators, do a great job, of bringing to words what in the Japanese culture is expressed by manga.
May 2, 2023
After seeing recreators on amazon I thought this book might be good. It is very similar to the anime. I enjoyed seeing the paralles with cahracters that I know and love. Having them altogether in the same universe was really fun. I would have thought that all the characters would have some beef with their creators.
I only have one complaint and that is the writing style for the first big fight scene which is not replicated in the rest of the book. If it had been then I would have accepted the stylistic choice but as it only happened in this one fight scene it seemed an odd choice and really took you out of the action. This was head hopping and going back to re-run a section of narrative several times.
All in all I really enjoyed this book and will check out the other book that this author has written. I wonder which character I would like to meet in real life. Perhaps Ayukawa from KOR.
I only have one complaint and that is the writing style for the first big fight scene which is not replicated in the rest of the book. If it had been then I would have accepted the stylistic choice but as it only happened in this one fight scene it seemed an odd choice and really took you out of the action. This was head hopping and going back to re-run a section of narrative several times.
All in all I really enjoyed this book and will check out the other book that this author has written. I wonder which character I would like to meet in real life. Perhaps Ayukawa from KOR.
March 6, 2023
A great entry into the isekei genre. Openly taking inspiration from the anime 'Re-Creators', Marks takes the idea further, exploring how each of the different fictional characters responds to the awakening knowledge of their situation. Some want revenge on their creators for all the pain they have suffered, others are more at peace with the idea of settling in a world where they are not constantly being attacked.
A page-turner that still manages to address deep and important issues of what it means to create and indeed what it means to live.
A page-turner that still manages to address deep and important issues of what it means to create and indeed what it means to live.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews