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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
  • BUSINESS DRAGON #1-2 & CALAMITY

    Posted on March 10, 2025 11:55 pm by Offkorn Comment

    I was expecting a CEO type of thing going into Logan Jacobs‘ Business Dragon series, but it turns out to be a far more ground-level kind of deal (he starts up a construction contractor business). In any case, it’s a pretty straight-forward guilty pleasure series that suffers in the believability department. Neither the business creation nor the humans’ easy acceptance of all the supernatural things suddenly going on feel natural in the slightest.

    Rachel Ní Chuirc‘s first Knights of Eternity novel has an interesting setting filled with a mostly engaging and well-developed cast of characters, so it’s unfortunate (for me) that the protagonist is far, far too soft for my taste. I’m not particularly fond of how that mole-shifter reactionary was just allowed to do almost whatever he wanted either; either you have a ‘might makes right’ society or you don’t.

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    3. Primer for the Apocalypse & Awakening The first of Braided Sky‘s Primer for the Apocalypse books...
    4. WHEN SORROWS COME & That Time I Got Reincarnated as a SLIME #12 Seanan McGuire‘s fifteenth October Daye novel is completely centered on...
    5. Cast In Oblivion & Guild Hunter #6-11 The fourteenth entry in Michelle Sagara‘s Elantra series resolves the...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Business Dragon Fantasy Knights of Eternity Logan Jacobs Paranormal Romance Rachel Ní Chuirc Urban Fantasy
  • ARE YOU EVEN HUMAN & FEEDBACK

    Posted on March 10, 2025 7:28 am by Offkorn Comment

    Natalie Maher‘s Are You Even Human is a difficult book to categorize. While it certainly starts out as post-apocalyptic survival, it’s also on a character-driven journey to answer the question of the title and shifts into a completely different genre once the military takes center stage. Closer to an agency thriller maybe? There are lots of different directions it could go at this point, so it’ll be interesting to see how things progress.

    Feedback, the fourth novel in Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire‘s Newsflesh series is mostly an outside look at the events of Feed that goes rather off the rails in its second half. That first half is quite good even if some of the events feel like retcons, but the second half just… isn’t. The CDC doesn’t get a focus until Deadline, and so having them hit as hard as they do here just doesn’t gel with previous events. And then that whole raider abduction thing? What even is that?

    So I’m left with pretty mixed feelings on the novel as a whole and can’t really recommend it.

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    5. Sparrow Hill Road & Laughter at the Academy The first of Seanan McGuire’s Ghost Roads novels is a...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Are You Even Human Mira Grant Natalie Maher Newsflesh Paranormal Romance Romance Science Fiction Seanan McGuire Urban Fantasy
  • MAGICAL GIRL MECHANICAL HEART & A LITTLE VICE

    Posted on March 7, 2025 3:12 pm by Offkorn Comment

    A dark magical girl story in the vein of Madoka, Natalie Maher‘s first Magical Girl Mechanical Heart novel explores expressions of slavery (both mental and physical), PTSD, clinical depression, mania, disassociation, and self-delusion. It is, to re-iterate, quite dark. Ultimately though most of its characters strive to rise above their issues, which results in there being a distinctive string of hope threaded throughout.

    Lighter, but by no means light (more akin to PreCure I guess), is Erin Elkin‘s A Little Vice. This magical girl story focuses almost entirely on one particularly messy journey of self-discovery with some abusive parenting thrown in on the side. It’s extremely bittersweet with some mixed messaging alongside a questionable ending, and the structure is odd enough that I’m unsure whether or not it’s supposed to be a stand-alone work.

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    1. BUSINESS DRAGON #1-2 & CALAMITY I was expecting a CEO type of thing going into...
    2. ARE YOU EVEN HUMAN & FEEDBACK Natalie Maher‘s Are You Even Human is a difficult book...
    3. The WITCH who TRADES with DEATH & BIOSHIFTER The Witch who Trades with Death is an engaging stand-alone...
    4. WHEN SORROWS COME & That Time I Got Reincarnated as a SLIME #12 Seanan McGuire‘s fifteenth October Daye novel is completely centered on...
    5. The Eminence in Shadow #4 & Sword Saint Adel’s Second Chance #2 Against my better judgement, I went and picked up the...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Erin E. Elkin Magical Girl Mechanical Heart Natalie Maher Paranormal Romance Urban Fantasy
  • Returner’s Defiance #1-3 & The Grand Imperial Prince #1-2

    Posted on February 23, 2025 1:22 pm by Offkorn Comment

    I picked up Bruce Sentar‘s Returner’s Defiance series expecting a situation like Heretic Spellblade‘s only to end up with something more like Solo Leveling crossed with Mob Sorcery (although it does happen to feature a specific group of women completely obsessed with the protagonist). The harem development so far has been kind of forced, but the characters and events have been entertaining enough.

    Speaking of books that feature groups of women being obsessed with the protagonist, Kingsley Khan‘s The Grand Imperial Prince series takes that scenario and dials it up to eleven. To be honest I’m not really sure what I was expecting when I picked it up, but the first two novels in the series absolutely live up to their titles. These books are porn first and story second… but there is a story there (one featuring some surprisingly fitting eldritch horror elements). What stands out most to me though is the way the author starts off with the depravity cranked up high enough that when the protagonist takes over his actions almost manage to come off as restrained in comparison.

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    5. Baba & DEAD TIRED III I had some rather high expectations going into Baba, the...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Bruce Sentar Fantasy Kingsley Khan Paranormal Romance Returner's Defiance The Grand Imperial Prince Urban Fantasy
  • Incubus Inc. #1-3 & Corsairs & Cataclysms #5

    Posted on February 20, 2025 5:33 am by Offkorn Comment

    While the atmosphere of Randi Darren‘s Incubus Inc. series is somewhat similar to Privateer’s Commission‘s, it starts out a very different series. At the beginning it stands apart for having the protagonist take a backseat in most roles while featuring sex scenes like a Japanese LN would food porn. This works surprisingly well and the first two books end up enjoyable.

    The third however shakes things up in highly questionable ways following a time-skip. Suddenly the protagonist here starts acting like the protagonist of Privateer and all sorts of highly questionable event developments occur one after another. I had to drop it a little over a third of the way through.

    Although the conclusion to Devan Drake‘s Corsairs & Cataclysms series does end up a little on the fast-paced side of things, it manages to avoid feeling rushed while wrapping up all the major outstanding plot threads. Honestly it’s incredibly impressive. The only annoying aspect being how it seems like the author has a bit of a fixation on Raven not being part of the harem.

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Corsairs & Cataclysms Devan Drake Incubus Inc Paranormal Romance Randi Darren Urban Fantasy
  • For Whom the belle Tolls & The Mirror

    Posted on February 11, 2025 1:40 pm by Offkorn Comment

    Jaysea Lynn‘s For Whom the Belle Tolls is a shockingly good paranormal romance with a fitting blend of comedy and drama (along with a small bit of action and a number of detailed sex scenes in the second half). My only complaints are how the counterpart to ‘people can change for the better’ is never addressed and how the reincarnation issue is ultimately handled.

    The initial resolution was perfect, not least because it didn’t come across as a trite ass-pull. So to suddenly change that at the last moment comes across as nothing but a… trite ass-pull. One made worse due to how the epilogue makes clear that there ended up being no functional difference between the two. That’s a very minor issue though and isn’t anywhere near enough to ruin the story.

    I wasn’t thrilled with how the first book in Nora Roberts‘ Lost Bride trilogy ended, and so had put off reading the second until now. Turns out the trip was just a brief arbitrary thing… presumably to force that cliffhanger ending. Nothing actually changes regarding the daily life routine or character dynamics, which for the most part is a positive. The only thing that really sticks out negatively is the somewhat high level of repetition in both conversations and certain events.

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Jaysea Lynn Lost Bride Trilogy Nora Roberts Paranormal Romance Romance Urban Fantasy
  • Baba & DEAD TIRED III

    Posted on January 26, 2025 1:27 am by Offkorn Comment

    I had some rather high expectations going into Baba, the first of a new series of stand-alone stories, after having greatly enjoyed the authors‘ White Mage series. And shockingly enough it fully delivered; the book is a fantastic combination of unrestrained vengeful brutality and assorted emotional developments.

    The third of RavensDagger‘s Dead Tired books focuses mainly on visiting/conquering the various settlements in the Ashen Wastes with a subfocus on the limpet’s rise to a leadership position. It’s much like the prequels, so if you got this far there’s no reason not to continue on through this one as well.

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Argus Philo Dead Tired Fangs and Feelings Fantasy Montgomery Quinn Paranormal Romance RavensDagger Urban Fantasy
  • My INSTANT DEATH ability is so OVERPOWERED: After Story & Sword Saint Adel’s Second Chance #3

    Posted on January 8, 2025 3:29 pm by Offkorn Comment

    Sokushi Cheat ga Saikyou sugite‘s Atoshimatsu-hen installment, oddly, starts off by detailing the healer’s first isekai adventure which occurred before the series proper began. Why? Who would ever care about that? From there it moves on to briefly address the other classmates before focusing on the one beastkin guy and the ninja duo. Little time is spent with the assorted Dannoura’s, and the protagonist barely appears.

    The third Kenseijo Adel no Yarinaoshi novel is basically a mess. It starts out with far too much unicorn/pegasus fanservice and then ends with a ludicrously forced boss fight. Just the most hamfisted resolution possible.

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Fantasy Hayaken Kenseijo Adel no Yarinaoshi Paranormal Romance Sokushi Cheat ga Saikyou sugite Tsuyoshi Fujitaka Urban Fantasy Young Adult Novel
  • Web Novels, Vol. 11

    Posted on January 7, 2025 11:02 am by Offkorn Comment

    THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION

      This, now this, is basically everything I’m looking for in an overpowered protagonist and/or kingdom-building series. It’s practically perfect. The only black marks against it are that the entire orc leadership sidequest reads like it was ripped from a battle shounen and that the author is one of those who refuses to fix mistakes pointed out in the comments (the rarity of those mistakes makes it all the more glaring).

    Dragonlord

      I’ve come to find that I’m rather fond of ‘time travel isekai’ and this series is no exception. While there are some believability issues, and the early academy arc in particular is rather forced, the character interactions are fun and the setting’s mythology is interesting.

    URBAN KNIGHT: Return of Legends

      Also (apparently) a time travel isekai, this series goes in an urban fantasy direction. While I certainly enjoyed it at first, after about twenty or so chapters I had to conclude that the level of sentimentality (e.g. ‘warm gazes’) was just too high for my taste.

    Fallen Magic

      An urban fantasy, coming of age, magic academy series which aims for realism over spectacle (it’s also got a dark undercurrent that may or may not become more prominent later on). It ended up more enjoyable than expected, mainly due to the character interactions, but I had to drop it a little over 20 chapters in after it went far too hard on the ‘mercy for a traitor’ subplot.

    The Legend of the Luminaires

      Reads a lot like a western young adult novel, and those are not something I generally enjoy reading. Also has a weird font.

    An Angel’s Road to Hell

      The conversation style didn’t work for me.

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged An Angel’s Road to Hell Dragonlord Fallen Magic Fantasy Magius Swiftscale Persimmon Praybird Sieghiro silmaril89 Snowblaze The Glorious Revolution The Legend of the Luminaires Urban Fantasy Urban Knight Web Novel
  • MOB Sorcery #1-3 & The OP Lich IS A RETURNEE #16

    Posted on January 5, 2025 12:17 pm by Offkorn Comment

    K.D. Robertson‘s Mob Sorcery series is an urban fantasy harem-flavored paranormal romance that’s rather notable for not rushing into the establishment of said harem. As a result the relationship with the main love interest ends up fairly well done. The other girls are more mixed though, with the secondary love interest in particular just feeling completely arbitrary; her characterization is all over the place and they have basically nothing in common. He has far better chemistry with her sister.

    The third love interest ~works but I feel it would’ve been better off for them to remain friends and have her get closer to the police enforcer instead. Then in the realm of harem candidates, the evolving relationship with the harpy so far has been perfectly fine while the foxgirl’s infatuation comes across as rather forced and the unicorn is just completely random. Definitely plan to keep following it for now but may drop depending on how overly complicated it ends up getting.

    The sixteenth of Stuart Grosse‘s Lich Returnee novellas covers the last of the broken magic seals, presumably wrapping up this somewhat extended arc. It’s pretty relaxed, with no combat or any particular complications.

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged K.D. Robertson Lich Returnee Mob Sorcery Novella Paranormal Romance Stuart Grosse Urban Fantasy

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