Aaron
Dumb characters, poorly thought out world building, and a plot that doesn't make sense. The low end of mediocre for GameLit.
I tried to be patient with the author using words incorrectly, but it just keeps getting worse. I give up on this series.
Disappointing. The characters are good, but the plot and pacing feel rushed. Challenges are built up as impossible only to be overcome easily, without real effort or sacrifice.
The thing that will keep me from continuing the series, though, is the main character. Her tough side and her soft side seem like characters that should be in different books. Complex characters are interesting, but Brex feels bipolar. Sometimes she's a strong warrior that fits perfectly in an action packed adventure and other times she's a blushing damsel that belongs in a romance novel. A kick-butt fighter that has a vulnerable spot when it comes to romance is absolutely a character I would read about, but when it comes to the (kinda cringey) romance, the transformation feels rough and jarring.
Four chapters in and his parents have been murdered, his dog has been murdered, his wife has been gang raped and murdered, and his 4-year-old daughter has been brutally murdered.
I knew it wouldn't be like the Disney movie, but I was hoping it would be as good, if not better. The second chapter was enjoyable and by far my favorite, but the rest of the book was not what I was expecting. Mary Poppins is quarrelsome and extremely vain. In fact, vanity seemed to be her defining characteristic. The children were nothing but bland observers through the whole thing. Somewhat less of an issue, but still disappointing, was the lack of a coherent story arc; it's just a series of unconnected vignettes.
We're back to a fun, light action adventure. Big, stompy robots and weird aliens. Well, less of the stompy robots, but still enough to keep me interested. I'll almost definitely get around to reading the next book.
There are definitely some rough edges, but I found myself engaged with the story and looking forward to the next chapter. I'll be picking up the next book for sure.
I like the GameLit elements in this book and always looked forward to those parts. The only down side for me was that all of the characters, but especially the main character, would become furious or melancholy for no reason. I don't mind drama, but if the feelings or actions of the character don't make any sense, it's not enjoyable. It's especially frustrating because often times even one, short line of explanation would have made a big difference. For instance:
Mild-ish spoiler below...
The first books ends with something that leaves you wondering why it wasn't explained earlier. Surely this book will explain why it wasn't, right? It does not. The characters all seem to assume that it's perfectly obvious why things happened the way that they did, but it didn't make any sense. In fact, it's completely unreasonable. Even a half-hearted explanation would have made it more palatable, but as it is it left a bad taste throughout this book for me.
I love the dark fantasy setting taken from the video games, but the stunt system is probably this system's greatest asset and liability. The idea of getting to do cool stuff when you roll doubles is interesting, but in practice it never seems like you get to do the cool stuff you want to do when you want to do it.
I wish they had this setting with the system from the FFG Star Wars RPG.
This one is a change. More intrigue and politics, less shooting ugly aliens. I might not continue the series.
I liked this much better than the first book. Better pacing and a lot more character development.
Having read book 2, the first book almost feels like a prologue and in that context I like it better.
This is a romp through purple prose. The author seems to revel in it to the point that I feel like the whole thing was knowingly done tongue in cheek. There is a manly, handsome, wealthy protagonist and a beautiful woman in need of his help that he falls instantly in love with. There is a villain with no hands that stubbornly refuses to finish off our hero, even when said hero is bound and helpless. On multiple occasions. There's a stack of books that seems to hold the key to solving the whole mess hidden somewhere in their pages. There are gangsters, guns that never manage to get fired, burglary, ghosts, hypnotism, and a valet that seems to be more comfortable with violence than, er, valeting. Of course, it is a product of its time and it wouldn't be complete without a little casual racism. This threatens to ruin the enjoyment of what is ultimately some cheesy fun, but it's a very small part of the story.
Still great, but there is a rapid timeline acceleration that's not clearly shown and it threw me off.
I'm still loving this series, the characters and story are as amazing as ever, but this last story arc (The Tale of Four Seasons chapters) are happening at a much faster time scale than everything previous. This volume starts at the beginning of their 2nd year of high school and by the end of the volume they're already in their 3rd year. This isn't necessarily bad, but it never clearly states that so much time has passed. In the next volume it finally says explicitly that they're in their 3rd year and it was very jarring. I thought I had missed something.
Starting with the good:
The narration was great. The GameLit parts were sparse, but I liked what was there. The adventure elements of the story were a lot of fun.
However, on the negative side, the romance was particularly, painfully adolescent. But the thing that was truly off-putting was that the morality was sometimes... disturbing. If there's another brutal rapist character in the next book, I won't be reading it.
I don't normally get too excited for short stories, but this one was a great read. Quick pacing and interesting characters, many of whom were imaginary, made this fun.
Some plot holes, but still my favorite Game-Lit book. (Although, it's not Game-Lit in the strictest sense.)
Not as bad as Hammered, but the big ending battle was over even more quickly and made less sense.
While the ending was disappointing, I enjoyed most of the book and look forward to the next one.
This author has no idea how to write an intelligent woman and is constantly throwing out weak reasons why the character HAS to be evil, so it's ok.