IDEWORLD CHRONICLES: The art magE
- An interesting urban fantasy series with a sizable yet not overwhelming amount of abstraction and philosophical musings. While my only complaint regarding the first book is that it seems far too convenient for a seer to just fall into her lap that way, there were a bunch of minor annoyances in the second which ultimately made me drop it after it took what felt like an exceptionally arbitrary turn in regards to her thief mentor.
- Very similar to the author’s Low-Fantasy Occultist series, this one initially doesn’t have the same pacing problems. Unfortunately however, it seems to have developed them in a recent big town arc that bears a certain resemblance to the mage tower arc concurrently published in Occultist. Ended up having to drop it during the vampire embassy visit.
- A story reminiscent of From Londoner to Lord and Rise of the Frontier Lord. Readable enough for the most part if you like power fantasies (though low on believability), but I had to skip through most of the crafting and ‘trial’ segments and wasn’t fond of the protagonist’s catchphrase. Eventually had to drop it near the end of the third novel when my suspension of disbelief finally gave out.
- I’m not fond of the cultivation genre at the best of times, but was hoping the ‘time travel isekai’ aspects would be enough to counteract that. Unfortunately, only six chapters in and the protagonist had already made enough questionable decisions to fully extinguish any desire to press on.
- Starts out quite good, but after the big reveal it’s just one unbelievable occurrence after another. Really had to force myself to get to the end of the first book, and it definitely was not worth it.
- Only got a few chapters into this before losing interest. The abstract mystery style of the presentation just doesn’t work for me.