JasperKazai > Recent Status Updates

(I have no idea how far I actually am in this, percentage is a meaningless guess)
This has been great. This is my first time seeing what the Cognitive Realm looks like somewhere besides Roshar/Shadesmar. Been wondering about that. They still have the inverted land/water thing, but only sort of. The land was still solid. And it doesn't have the beads of object souls or whatever.

Yep, Allomancer Jak was exactly what I expected. I was fine with them in the little snippets included in Mistborn Era 2 (the broadsheet interludes), but I didn't need to read a full story of it.
Anyways, next is Secret History. Which is the main reason I'm reading this collection. One of the most important novellas, and I haven't read it yet. Whoops. Excited for this.

Yeah, exactly what I expected. Pulpy nonsense. Fun, but nonsense.

Eleventh Metal was more nothing. Next up is the Allomancer Jak story. I'm not looking forward to this, because I think it's going to be purposefully campy and over-the-top.

Kelsier might be new to being Mistborn in this story, but he isn't new to the world. He was an accomplished thief. I feel like he would already know not to wear clothing with metal on it. But as the postscript says, this was written for an RPG system as a primer for the world, so I guess he had to include that detail, even if it's a bit silly in full context.

Hope of Elantris was a little nothing story. Time for Scadrial, which I'm looking forward to. Eleventh Metal next up. Another short one, it looks like.

It was a little nothing story. Got a bit confused about when it was taking place.
In the postscript Brandon writes about the inspiration for the story being one of his wife's student's book reports on Elantris. He says that the girl 'didn't know her teacher was involved with her favorite author.' Maybe cool your jets there, Sando. You only had like 2 books published in 06. Favorite is giving yourself a lot of credit

The Emperor's Soul was alright. Not great, but not my least favorite Cosmere story. Next up is The Hope of Elantris, which looks like it's very short.

Well, that was alright. Not terribly interested in soulstamping, TBH. Too weird. I don't really like Soulcasting, either, and it's basically the same Art but on a different Cosmere planet.
I should reread bits of Mistborn 7 now that I know who Shai is. Honestly, been thinking about rereading most of Mistborn. But the idea of having to read book 2 again... very unappealing.

I guess 'a southern ambassador in red priest's armor' was a reference to Fjorden from the Elantris novel.
Sel is a bit of a weird planet in the Cosmere in that there's obviously a lot going on here, with multiple known Invested Arts. It feels like it should have its own series on par with Stormlight Archive or Mistborn. But it doesn't.

Kinda glad this is a short story, because it's a bit boring. Not terrible, just kind of meh. But now I know where the specific Invested Art from Mistborn 7 came from. Yet another thing I should've known before reading that book, lol.

Realized I'm going to have the problem of progress tracking not being accurate, due to this being in a collection. For this first one, page count should be good enough, but that won't work for the rest.
This whole discussion about disgust with Forgery seems slightly more poignant with the advent and rise of AI slop art.

I always assumed I'd get around to this eventually, but never added it to my list for some reason. Been talking with a friend about his Cosmere reading and it made me want to read more myself. The only things I have left are these short stories. At least 1 of them is QUITE important, supposed to read before a certain book, yet I never read it. Whoops!
First up is The Emperor's Soul. I'll add them separately as well.

Well, that was fine. I guess it's somewhat notable that the author lets Nate struggle against foes or situations, rather than just being OP and instantly defeating or solving anything. Nothing like the Demon Accords protag who can kill a room of 30 people in 17 seconds or whatever nonsense that was. The stakes feel more believable here.
Mordred being killed from a distance in the epilogue was kind of lame though

Why would the entrance to a stairwell be disguised as an office if they're on a floor that requires top level clearance to access? That doesn't maky any sense. There would be no need for subterfuge if only people with proper clearance can access the floor to begin with.
Now that Nate has his memory back, he's acting very edgy. I guess that's not surprising for this type of novel.

Lol, he wrote 'less I see something' instead of 'lest I see.' Embarrassing to have that published in a work. It's a real doggie dog world out there, for all intensive purposes.
Someone claims the initial job to steal The Iliad copy started this whole thing. But that's not true. That job was not connected to anything that happened afterwards, at least as far as the characters knew at the time. Bit of a snafu

Lee being involved somehow is completely unsurprising, seeing as he was set up as a ridiculously over-the-top asshole from the beginning. But Lee's mom giving Nate permission to torture Lee for information and then also agreeing with Nate's death threat and telling Lee (her own son!) to get out of the country in 24 hours is fucking ridiculous. Really pathetic macho writing in that part.

(nice)
Ok, so the building where he hid the research was not the same building that the doctor conducted experiments in, but the building where the doctor was hiding and eventually killed by Nate. I didn't know those weren't one in the same; it was confusing. Still, I contend the research would've been found within these 10 years. That building would be high up on the list of places to check. Still dumb!

So let me get this straight... Right now, the plot hinges on Nate finding the research that he took from an evil doctor he killed over 10 years ago, that the bad guys want. It turns out he hid that research in the exact same building that the doctor had been conducting experiments in. That's... utterly idiotic. The sole defense of the hidden info was a claymore mine. They would've found it by now!

Apparently, everyone in the UK has ready access to combat boots. Even the 16 year-old girl who had to flee her home and is currently staying in an abandoned Underground station owned by a vampire has combat boots ready to wear. Lol
Clearly, this author really likes those kinds of boots. He has a bit of a fixation on them. Bit weird, innit.

This story is on the cusp of being genuinely pretty good. But it's not quite there. Some aspects feel underbaked, silly, or just not great. Like the whole memory loss thing. He's now up against people who know who he is, but they all refuse to tell him anything because 'it would be a waste of time' or whatever. That's such a lame excuse, only serving to prolong the mystery. But not for a good reason.

Ok, the chance meeting with the woman was actually a purposeful trap. Fine. Still silly.
Media often sets strict time limits and then wildly overshoots them. But this is doing the opposite. He gets woken up, told he has 10 minutes, and then the lady keeps ticking down the time way too fast. After 3 sentences she says 7 and a half minutes left. It doesn't take 2 and a half minutes to exchange 3 sentences!

Nate is casing an office building, and as security starts to take notice of him, he approaches a random nearby woman as cover and she agrees to go on an immediate impromptu date with him. Because that's totally realistic, lmao. Ridiculous. As a lie he said he's a Hollywood consultant, and had fun 'making a film.' You're not making anything as a consultant. You consult.

Yeah, this is basically what I assumed it would be. Power fantasy wish fulfillment with a strong (possibly OP) protagonist, and seems like women are going to be falling for him left and right. (Only has happened once thus far, but seems like it'll be a thing.) It's fine. It's what I was looking for, more or less. The writing is also competent on a mechanical level, much better than God Touched. Which is a major plus.

'I was under the impression that virginal women no longer exist.' Lmao, ok then. Can't say that's completely incorrect. And it gives me an idea of what to expect from this novel.

This seemed like it might be vaguely similar to the Demon Accords series. It would be great to find something like that, that is also better written. Hoping for the best.

Once the 'relationships' started, they felt juvenile as hell. Felix is that classic standoffish 'well of course no one likes me' type, so the girls have to beat him over the head about it. And then he's just like aw shucks and acts like a shy teenager. It's so lame.
Then the action scenes were dumb, because basically half of the named characters get killed then Felix resses them. Yeah. This book sucked ass. Shame.

Felix and co. have now been attacked... four times, I think? And it's always a surprise ambush by unknown assailants. This is so fucking rote and boring. It's just a management sim in text form, broken up by bad action scenes. And the protagonist is characterized horribly. He's supposed to be aloof and unsociable, but he just comes across as disinterested in everything always. There are no relationships here.

This dude literally owns slaves, is buying more slaves, executes people who break into his store, feeds those dead people into a woodchipper that turns them into sausages, feeds those sausages to his slaves... and yet he refuses to have sex with his slaves, because 'that would be rape.' Ok dude. THAT'S where you draw the line? Even if they're willing? Really? My god, this is so shit.

I have officially entered skim mode. I don't want to drop another book, but this is boring as fuck. It reminds me of the Daniel Black series a bit - that author was obsessed with Daniel playing magical city builder, to an autistic degree. This book has Felix managing his stable of superhero slaves and running a pawn shop. It's so fucking dry and there is ZERO emphasis on the so-called 'harem.' Not what I want.