Aaron

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.

The climax felt rushed and didn't have the impact of the previous books, but this was still a fun read.

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 loved the anime and I really wanted to love the books, but this volume finally broke me. And I'm going to start checking reviews for all the volumes before I read another light novel series.

The Shepherdess and the Black Knight is the only story I haven't enjoyed in this 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.

Even though I'm not fond of villain stories, I really liked this book. That's mostly because the main character villains aren't particularly villainous. They participate in illegal activities, like theft, but still follow a moral code. I also liked that there were some pretty unusual super powers, but it never felt silly.

It's longer than an average novel, but the length feels right and the living is good.

I'm really looking forward to the next book in the series.

Overly long and drawn out; mostly boring. Way too much time was spent on the world building. The premise is interesting, maybe now that the story has gotten to the point, book two will be better.

edit: reviews of book two say no.

The Geriatric Expanse didn't quite work for me. It was still a fun adventure, but one throw away line about “anti-aging pills” didn't make the 30 year gap go away.

A change of pace, but unlike the previous book in the series, it's an enjoyable one. The new characters don't live up to the first two books, but they're not a bore to read. The scary alien stuff is back to being scary. I'm looking forward to the next book.

This was a bit of a let down. It doesn't really match the tone of the other books and I don't like the new characters.

Beyond the thrill of learning something new, I feel like I've learned something important. It's more than the easy promise of a quick fix (which this book does not give); I feel like I now have real and powerful tools to take control of the habits in my life.

The whole “I have to do this because a future version of me does it” just doesn't hold up. Otherwise, a really fun read.

The ending was disappointing, it didn't make sense. Why didn't they just Spoileruse Prometheus on the Imperial fleet attacking Earth?

AAAA Wizardry
Even Hand
Curses
Bombshells
Day One
Zoo Day

Another solid entry in the series, though not a lot really happened or changed.

I really wanted to like this book more than I do. The concept is awesome and the action was fun, but unanswered questions and abrupt shifts in random directions kept pulling me out of the story. If you're less prone to falling into plot holes than I am, I still recommend the book.

I'm sure I would have liked the Black Ocean series if I had read it like I normally do, but listening to it performed by Mikael Naramore made me fall in love with it. It doesn't really feel like Firefly to me, but that's OK because I think I actually like it better. It's definitely worth picking up if it sounds even vaguely interesting to you and I absolutely recommend the audiobook.

The narrator was phenomenal. I was a little confused and frustrated that the middle four stories were not about good old Jeeves, but followed completely different characters. I think I would have liked those stories better if I'd known to expect them.

Two disparate stories come together. Creepy aliens. Cool space ships.

The writing on this is amazing.

It took a few chapters to get into the story, but it was a fun read just like the rest of the series.
Plus one star for you, Taylor.

The narrator of the audiobook was good, but didn't fit the young, brash protagonist, he also had an unfortunately strong love of the Shatner pause.
The story was overall interesting, but the first chapter was the best and the rest was almost entirely tell instead of show with a lot of summaries of things that happened. There was a whole heck of a lot of info dumps of world building, very little of it relevant. I like world building as much as the next person, but it has to be interesting for me to be, well, interested.

I didn't realize this is based on a mobile game until after I finished reading it.

The first couple of chapters I was confused and frustrated by the seeming inconsistencies in the story, but by the end it all worked out.

Not without its flaws, but a lot of fun to read.

Vollun-told is my new favorite word.

Some plot holes, but still my favorite Game-Lit book. (Although, it's not Game-Lit in the strictest sense.)