D
Stayed up all night with all of astolat's Witcher fics last weekend. And I don't play Witcher, nor have I read the books, so I had absolutely no idea who was who doing what. But it was pretty easy to get the hang of it.
What this fantasy world is about or at least what stole my attention completely, is a schemer king Emperor who conquers all the land and plays chess, sorry, shah, with people instead with figures. Combined with the straightforward Witcher who is mage-slash-hunter who reluctantly follows the Emperor's orders and sees through his machinations and has a head for strategy and gives rational advice and . You see where I'm going with this. :D One of my favourite tropes ever in new shining form.
Add in a biological daughter of one of them who is an adoptive daughter and student of the other and has both the nature and nurture to be a force to be reckoned with and I'm utterly, utterly smitten.
Actually, Misethere was the third story (of four!!! of this OTP in existence. on ao3. all of them by astolat. go read them.) I read. I started with Cursed and its tongue in cheek hilarity as well as the trope allowed me a great introduction into this fabulous world. Then I read Incomplete for the Outsider POV and met Dandelion first in his own head because of the first person POV. Also fabulous. Then Misethere which left me with too many feelings which Blooded Crown somehow didn't soothe. And then all that was left was to reread and watch youtube videos of the game. And stalk astolat's lj for news, haha.
Apologies if the characters' names are spelled wrong, I read both this and the first book in Bulgarian, and names in summaries or reviews don't stick with me.
I have some sympathy for Jardir but I also despise him something fierce. I wish I hadn't read his parts so thoroughly.
Liked Arlen's backwards journey home. It was kind of the best.
I'm a fan of Sheela even if I don't always agree with her. A bit of a fan of Elevira too.
Trigger warning for rape. So much rape.
Buddy read with Loederkoningin, or shall I say, buddy DNF. I read the first twelve chapters and then the last three.
Thoughts on Jamie: we're told repeatedly that he's a very special snowflake but all I see is a whiny, immature man I never really warmed up to.
On that ending with Ben's newly acquired habit of "casually" answering James's phone on his behalf: No. Just no. Not cute. That's what made the second star of my 2-star rating go poof.
And thus the cravings I've been having for Megan Derr's writing were satisfied. Partially: I need more. But I have some catching up to do so that's all right.
Who cares about plot holes, scenes cluttered with an impossible number of characters, or TSTL stuff? They're acknowledged but dismissed as unimportant because I like these characters, I've missed them, and I was happy to meet them again.
I'm really hoping Devlin and Chris will meet eventually. I've been thinking about it ever since I read Midnight.
Also, whatever happened to Ceadda and his Alucard? Asking for a friend. :D
Holy.....
This was quite the story.
I felt bad for Stiles because she was in over her head but with the playing field leveled out? I'm expecting a ton of mind games she has a fair chance of winning.
I like every version of Peter being fascinated by Stiles, every one, this one too. These Peter and Stiles can be creepy serial killers together forever and I'd like to read all their adventures, of murder and sex and mind games. They're a match made in hell .
I'd really love reading about them playing Kate. Pretty please.
Twenty minutes later, Stiles almost wishes he'd let Peter jabber on about his possible super power. The guy's far too interested in fashion. Like, he is seriously invested in finding Stiles the perfect suit. Stiles thinks Peter might be planning to kill and bury him in it.“Don't be ridiculous,” Peter tells Stiles when he voices this particular concern. “That would be so wasteful.”Stiles doesn't ask whether he's referring to the suit or Stiles himself.
