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Various thoughts on a variety of topics.

Various Thoughts

Various thoughts on a variety of topics.

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  • Tag Archives Urban Fantasy
  • Heroine on Strike #2 & Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint

    Posted on July 31, 2025 11:12 am by Offkorn Comment

    It recently occurred to me that since the Choejong Boss’eui series was back on Amazon, Yeojuingong’eun Pa’eob Jung might be as well. That turned out to indeed be the case and I quickly grabbed the second novel… which was a mistake. I have no idea what was going through the author’s head but this is no longer a romance series, instead somehow going completely off the rails to center on some kind of transmigrator shadow war. Just completely nonsensical.

    The first Jeonjijeok Dokja Sijeom novel is certainly something, dropping you almost directly into a blood-soaked post-apocalyptic survival game with little idea of what to expect. While for the most part the scenario and setting details quickly become clear, there are two questionable aspects; the main protagonist’s abnormally detached behavior and the in-universe protagonist being a two-time regressor. Where exactly was the main protagonist during the first two timelines? Perhaps those issues are connected and will be explained later. Regardless, if you like coldly analytical overpowered protagonists then you should give this a shot.

    Related posts:

    1. I’m not the final Boss’s Lover #1-4 & Heroine on Strike The most notable thing about Choejong Boss’eui Aein’irani Ohaeibnida is...
    2. The City of Brass & THE WORLD’S FINEST Assassin #5 S. A. Chakraborty‘s first Daevabad novel, The City of Brass,...
    3. Banished from the HERO’s PARTY #6 & That Time I Got Reincarnated as a SLIME #14 The sixth Shin no Nakama novel continues from where the...
    4. My INSTANT DEATH ABILITY IS SO OVERPOWERED, NO ONE IN THIS OTHER WORLD STANDS A CHANCE AGAINST ME! #1-13 This is a series that resembles Hatarakitakunai Dungeon Master in...
    5. The World’s Fastest Level Up #1-2 & The Magician Who Rose From Failure #5 The only way I can describe Sekai Saisoku no Level...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Fantasy Jeonjijeok Dokja Sijeom Romance Sharino singNsong Urban Fantasy Yeojuingong'eun Pa'eob Jung Young Adult Novel
  • Web Novels, Vol. 13

    Posted on July 27, 2025 12:46 pm by Offkorn Comment

    RED

      You might wonder if the description is a lie after starting this short story, but it turns out it’s somewhat accurate; you just don’t meet the covergirl until the very end of the second chapter and she’s one of three protagonists. The story has both a similar writing style and gritty fantasy setting as the author’s New Dark Lord series, but specifically focuses on a variety of downtrodden characters trying to pull off something akin to a heist.

    RE:CURSED

      A story from the author of Kin of Jörmungandr with a similarly large focus on internal observations, this is a regressor revenge fantasy with a setting resembling Hellpoint‘s which opens up far more quickly.

    GOBLIN TEETH

      A grimdark story focused on a group of monster outcasts (eventually) forming an adventuring party. It’s very well written but also occasionally gets quite brutal… although it does feature an appreciable amount of comic relief. Think along the lines of Goblin Slayer (minus the sexual aspects) told from the monsters’ point of view.

    I Woke Up as the Villainess’s Friend. I Don’t Want to Be the Next Dark Queen

      A ‘transmigrated into an otome game’ story with the twist that by happinstance the protagonist ends up filling the role of aspiring dark lord while also being presented as a heroine. It reminds me a bit of Tori Transmigrated and initially only really suffers from far too long dungeon expeditions. This game world supposedly puts little focus on combat, so it’s weird the author decided to spend so much time dragging battles out with constantly escalating encounters.

    REND: Prior Cycle

      It took a little while, but eventually I saw what the author meant when they said they were writing by the seat of their pants rather than properly planning things out. On the one hand the spontaneity is interesting, but on the other events don’t really feel connected and quite a few loose ends begin to accumulate by the end of the second arc. Another thing is that rather than a psychopath the protagonist comes across more like an autist; namely her obsession with completely arbitrary rules and hatred of being touched. Hopefully the rewrite ends up better.

    GAMER GIRL ISEKAI

      From the same author as RED above, I’m pretty sure this is supposed to be some kind of murderhobo asshole-protagonist parody (it starts off with notable KonoSuba vibes). The problem with parody though is that it’s very easy to actually become the thing you’re supposed to be mocking.

    Sins of the Healer

      Developed an instant dislike of the protagonist. No interest whatsoever in following her second attempt at fulfilling her destiny.

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    3. The Shop of Souls #1-2 & techromancy SCROLLS •••ADEPT••• The Shop of Souls is a rather unconventional series. The...
    4. ARIFURETA #13 & Arifureta After I-V The last of the main Arifureta novels starts out much...
    5. Recent Books Normally I do these three at a time… but, well…...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged AngelDraconious Fantasy Gamer Girl Isekai Goblin Teeth I Woke Up as the Villainess's Friend JimQuill Joroboros Kyshies Of Rantings and Ramblings Paranormal Romance Re:Cursed Red Rend Science Fiction Sins of the Healer Temple Urban Fantasy Web Novel
  • Building & All Roads Lead to the Phoenix Princess: Rebirth as a Wind Cultivator

    Posted on June 26, 2025 5:04 am by Offkorn Comment

    The eighteenth Lich Returnee novella features a several year time skip and mostly focuses on the expansion of the protagonist’s domain to cover a chunk of the Pacific ocean, opening the door for future conflict on a slightly more macro county-wide level.

    All Roads Lead to the Phoenix Princess is your standard ‘transmigrated to a game world’ sort of story which does not happen to feature any actual game mechanics, instead going with more organic cultivation systems and their related tropes. Despite my general dislike of cultivation, that this story is fairly self-aware of those tropes works in its favor to create an engaging enough narrative that moves along at a brisk pace. The only real oddity at this point is the subtitle singling out wind when the protagonist explicitly takes an omni-element path.

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    1. The Eminence in Shadow #4 & Sword Saint Adel’s Second Chance #2 Against my better judgement, I went and picked up the...
    2. Miss Savage Fang #2 & My Magical Career at Court #4 The second Savage Fang Ojousama novel is 90% school life...
    3. Mystic Knight: Emergence & the one who eats MONSTERS Ryan Jackson‘s first Mystic Knight novel is a pretty standard...
    4. Katalepsis & MOB Sorcery #4 Hazel Young‘s Katalepsis novel strongly brings Otherside Picnic to mind....
    5. Recent Books Normally I do these three at a time… but, well…...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged All Roads Lead to the Phoenix Princess Erios909 Fantasy Lich Returnee Novella Stuart Grosse Urban Fantasy
  • ARIFURETA #14 & Mercedes and the Waning Moon #2

    Posted on June 19, 2025 6:09 am by Offkorn Comment

    The fourteenth Arifueta novel is the first composed of nothing but Afterstory chapters. While for the most part they remain unchanged from when they were first published online, they have been sorted chronologically and enhanced in mostly minor ways (the first chapter being a notable exception that was totally overhauled). Note that this only covers up to the first post-return Christmas, so there’s no real combat and we don’t get to see any of the alternate worlds quite yet.

    The second Kaketa Tsuki no Mercedes book retains the spirit of the first while focusing mainly on an academy arc. While I’m certainly no fan of school-life segments, this one was handled well enough and didn’t overstay its welcome… so I’m cautiously optimistic about future developments.

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    1. ARIFURETA #13 & Arifureta After I-V The last of the main Arifureta novels starts out much...
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    3. ARIFURETA: FROM COMMONPLACE TO WORLD’S STRONGEST #5-11 Although this franchise is getting a second Anime adaptation relatively...
    4. Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter #5-8 Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi‘s second arc differs from the first...
    5. ARIFURETA: FROM COMMONPLACE TO WORLD’S STRONGEST #1-4 Originally, I had not bothered to read these since the...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Arifureta Fantasy Fire head Kaketa Tsuki no Mercedes Paranormal Romance Ryo Shirakome Urban Fantasy Young Adult Novel
  • FIENDS FOR HIRE -CURSE- & Returner’s Defiance IV

    Posted on June 18, 2025 1:40 pm by Offkorn Comment

    This first Fiends for Hire novel starts out a little shaky only to pick up quite nicely once the two protagonists join up. It even manages to stay engaging through the addition of a third fiend. The fourth though… the acquisition of the fourth fiend and the events that follow unfortunately do not work at all.

    Bruce Sentar‘s fourth Returner’s Defiance novel charts the initial moves of the demon lord’s invasion and the protagonist’s struggles to keep up with an ever-increasing number of timeline deviations. For the most part it’s solid enough, but the way it ends has me fearing there’s going to be a repeat of the Vault sequence.

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    1. Returner’s Defiance #1-3 & The Grand Imperial Prince #1-2 I picked up Bruce Sentar‘s Returner’s Defiance series expecting a...
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    5. The Adventures of a Xeno-Archaeologist & Metaworld Chronicles Jenny Schwartz‘s Adventures of a Xeno-Archaeologist series ends up a...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Bruce Sentar Drim Fiends For Hire Paranormal Romance Returner's Defiance Urban Fantasy
  • ULTIMATE TRUTHS & MAGICAL GIRL: RENDING NIGHTMARE

    Posted on April 16, 2025 1:17 pm by Offkorn Comment

    Coming as something of a shock after the disappointment of the sixth novel, Shawn Wilson‘s seventh Ultimate Level 1 novel is quite good. He somehow managed to sidestep the issues caused by the protagonist’s sudden exponential growth relative to his teammates while expanding the scope of the main plotline.

    Crystal Genocide turned out to indeed be the start of a new series, and RavensDagger‘s follow-up draws heavily on the setting for the Stalker video games. So heavily that I’m kind of amazed it was able to be published… though I suppose it could be argued that it’s actually Roadside Picnic‘s setting. Regardless, if you liked that first novel this one’s quite similar in structure and character behavior.

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    5. WIEDERGEBURT #1-5 & Privateer’s Commission Another series that’s been floating around my recommendations page for...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Fantasy Paranormal Romance RavensDagger Shawn Wilson The Shattered Earth Ultimate Level 1 Urban Fantasy
  • Aftermath & BULDOUN’S BLUNDER

    Posted on April 3, 2025 1:35 pm by Offkorn Comment

    Stuart Grosse‘s follow-up to the conclusion of Lich Returnee‘s ‘unlocking the seals’ plotline returns mostly to the style of the early novellas while wrapping up a few dangling plot threads. Sort of a mix between the second and fourth entries.

    The tenth Aether’s Revival novel pretty much just confirmed my earlier concerns about the author dragging this current arc out far too long. There’s still no end in sight and I’m not thrilled by the thought of a centuries-spanning story being doled out in months-long segments.

    Related posts:

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    2. AETHER’S REVIVAL Daniel Schinhofen‘s Aether’s Revival series has been floating around my...
    3. The Witch With No Name, The Great Ordeal, & The Unholy Consult The concluding novel in Kim Harrison‘s Hollows series makes it...
    4. ARIFURETA #13 & Arifureta After I-V The last of the main Arifureta novels starts out much...
    5. Mystic Knight: Emergence & the one who eats MONSTERS Ryan Jackson‘s first Mystic Knight novel is a pretty standard...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Aether's Revival Daniel Schinhofen Fantasy Lich Returnee Novella Paranormal Romance Stuart Grosse Urban Fantasy
  • Katalepsis & MOB Sorcery #4

    Posted on March 29, 2025 4:06 pm by Offkorn Comment

    Hazel Young‘s Katalepsis novel strongly brings Otherside Picnic to mind. They’re certainly not identical… but do share a certain atmosphere and character resemblance. Personally, my problem with this book ended up being how the protagonists keep having their strengths talked up or developing nasty abilities only to somehow continuously end up struggling on the back foot.

    The fourth of K.D. Robertson‘s Mob Sorcery novels starts out and ends decent enough, but the entire assault on the vault (and in particular the monologue bonanza that caps it off) is pretty bad. The protagonist is all kinds of awkward with his abilities and power-level all over the place and the expository deluge is just insane. The post-job recovery at the end aside, that it went as low as it did is a bad enough sign that I’m leaning toward dropping the series here.

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Hazel Young K.D. Robertson Katalepsis Mob Sorcery Paranormal Romance Urban Fantasy
  • Mystic Knight: Emergence & the one who eats MONSTERS

    Posted on March 17, 2025 11:03 pm by Offkorn Comment

    Ryan Jackson‘s first Mystic Knight novel is a pretty standard harem-building paranormal romance which mainly stands out for two things. The first is the segregated sex scenes (like how Corsairs & Cataclysms does it), and the second is the emotional instability of the protagonist and human love interest. The latter combined with my general lack of fondness for school settings means I probably won’t be following this series any further.

    It’s a shame the author of The One Who Eats Monsters appears to have abandoned writing since the book has a rather unique feel to it. While there certainly are some problems, like the talk about her both going to high school and getting a GED (the two are mutually exclusive), overall it does a fantastic job of mixing elements of graphic violence, personal discovery, and romantic development.

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Casey Matthews Fantasy Paranormal Romance Ryan Jackson The Mystic Knight Urban Fantasy Wind and Shadow
  • The WITCH who TRADES with DEATH & BIOSHIFTER

    Posted on March 14, 2025 10:58 am by Offkorn Comment

    The Witch who Trades with Death is an engaging stand-alone story from C.M. Alongi which only really has two oddities. The first is how the entire book is summarized in the Foreword (which would only have made sense if there weren’t a flashback to the pre-village time period), and the second is the witch vs. witch fights. They are extremely awkward.

    Natalie Maher‘s Bioshifter series feels like a refined, urban-fantasy version of Vigor Mortis with a heavier focus on sexual abuse. Though you can also see the bones of what becomes the central conflict of Magical Girl Mechanical Heart as well.

    All three books are solid with perhaps my only complaint being that the confrontation with the US Government shows up far too late to really have any notable impact. Like, the story’s conclusion and epilogue happen immediately after. Kind-of undermines the whole ‘I’m not going to teach you magic’ moral stand.

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Bioshifter C.M. Alongi Fantasy Natalie Maher Paranormal Romance Urban Fantasy

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