Various Thoughts

Isabel Campbell‘s The First Witch-Mage is, on the surface, a perfectly fine urban fantasy novel. It’s got action, comedy, character development, and hints of future romantic developments… but there’s just something about the character interactions that does not work for me.

Beneath the Dragoneye Moons is a series I skipped over in the past due to, if I recall correctly, the first novel’s excessively irreverent description. Turns out that while there are some issues in that direction (namely the mango obsession) for the most part it features some pretty serious storytelling and philosophy. The ratio of drama to comedy to action is remarkably well balanced and my only real complaint in the genre department is in regards to the game mechanic coverage.

Some of the novels are just absolutely bloated with tons of class descriptions, build theorizing, and stat blocks, with the 8th and 9th books (an academy arc, because of course) being some of the worst offenders. Other things to note would be an abundance of puns, a healer protagonist who actually focuses on healing above all else, and that the romance elements don’t really come into play until the ninth book.

All in all a pretty damn entertaining series whose only significant flaw is (perhaps ironically since the protagonist seems to have a mild form of ADHD) an occasional lack of focus.