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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
  • My INSTANT DEATH ABILITY IS SO OVERPOWERED, NO ONE IN THIS OTHER WORLD STANDS A CHANCE AGAINST ME! #1-13

    Posted on March 16, 2023 5:07 am by Offkorn Comment

    This is a series that resembles Hatarakitakunai Dungeon Master in both its dark comedy aspects and having a main character whose ‘weakness’ is often wanting to sleep. Key differences would be a far lesser amount of fanservice (with no weird or creepy fetish focus) and much more haphazard/arbitrary event developments.

    What’s somewhat interesting about it is that the protagonist does not gain his powers from being summoned, but rather he’s the very concept of entropy in human form who just so happens to get caught up in a mass summoning event. So while structurally an isekai, it’s more about how all these ridiculously powerful beings in this fantasy world (who have all let their power corrupt them into malicious assholes) just get instantly deleted when they offhandedly try to kill him.

    You can’t really get much variety from that setup though, so the author compensates by spending a great deal of time focusing on the actions of those soon-to-be-dead enemies and side characters. As such you’ll get the story of so-and-so which builds up to them encountering the protagonist and summarily dropping dead (sometimes however it focuses on completely unrelated characters; the hero that fails to kill Lain toward the beginning stands out in particular for never showing up again). Which works for the most part.

    The main issue is the previously mentioned haphazard nature of the event development, to the point where the author even inserted a New Game+ type of ‘it was all a dream’ reset in the eleventh volume. Apparently this was done because he was told to stretch the story out longer… which does not do it any favors, especially if the upcoming fourteenth novel truly does end up being the series’ conclusion. I just don’t see how all the random subplots introduced by that reset can be resolved with only book left.

    Related posts:

    1. My INSTANT DEATH ability is so OVERPOWERED: After Story & Sword Saint Adel’s Second Chance #3 Sokushi Cheat ga Saikyou sugite‘s Atoshimatsu-hen installment, oddly, starts off...
    2. PRISON LIFE is EASY for a Villainess & Grimgar #3 The two-book series Konyaku Haki kara Hajimaru Akuyaku Reijou no...
    3. In the Land of Leadale #7 & Reborn to Master the Blade #7 I can no longer chalk up the consistently disjointed character...
    4. 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...
    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 Sokushi Cheat ga Saikyou sugite Tsuyoshi Fujitaka Urban Fantasy Young Adult Novel
  • Green Gryphon & Obsidian Queen #4-5

    Posted on March 13, 2023 1:52 pm by Offkorn Comment

    The first book in JS Kennedy‘s Mackenzie Green series shares some remarkable similarities with Ilona Andrews‘ first Kate Daniels novel. A key difference which prevents me from wanting to follow it any further though is that (what appears to be) the main love interest is arrogant in all the worst ways.

    Shari L. Tapscott‘s last two Obsidian Queen novels (Creatures of Midnight & Queen of Aparia) manage to both resolve the love triangle, albeit in a rather overly convenient manner, and pretty much wrap up every loose end from earlier… also in a rather overly convenient manner. Not sure what I was expecting really, but to have basically everyone instantly accept the new status quo doesn’t feel quite right. Kind of anticlimactic with a somewhat rushed epilogue.

    Related posts:

    1. More Caitlín R. Kiernan This next set of Kiernan‘s books is somewhat different from...
    2. GATE OF MYTH AND POWER #1-2 & Obsidian Queen #1-3 The King’s Captive and The King’s Shadow are the first...
    3. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a SLIME #6-11 Despite there being an Anime adaptation of this franchise currently...
    4. The IDEAL SPONGER LIFE #9-12 My earlier misgivings turned out to be unfounded as very...
    5. Frost Burned, Touch of the Demon, & The Infernal Devices Frost Burned is the seventh novel in Patricia Briggs’ Mercy...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged JS Kennedy Mackenzie Green Obsidian Queen Paranormal Romance Shari L. Tapscott Urban Fantasy
  • GATE OF MYTH AND POWER #1-2 & Obsidian Queen #1-3

    Posted on February 24, 2023 4:37 am by Offkorn Comment

    The King’s Captive and The King’s Shadow are the first two books in K. M. Shea‘s Gate of Myth and Power trilogy, a part of her larger Magiford Supernatural City universe. They remind me of a cross between the Hollows series and Fukushuu o Chikatta Shironeko wa Ryuuou no Hiza no Ue de Damin o Musaboru.

    Fortunately, even not having read any of her previous books in the setting, these are easy to follow despite including quite a number of references to those earlier works. The characters are fun, the developments are entertaining enough, and the romance surprisingly does not come across as forced. Definitely interested in seeing how the trilogy concludes… but I’m not sure I’ll bother with any of the related trilogies.

    Shari L. Tapscott‘s first three Obsidian Queen novels (Guild of Secrets, Princess of Shadows, & Knights of Obsidian) are interesting primarily due to the protagonist’s personality.

    Generally in urban fantasy and/or paranormal romance the lead is either a scrappy underdog or ‘boringly’ average; these books however feature a high society heiress-type. The romantic (and other) developments are what you’d expect for the genre though, so if the novelty of a non-standard protagonist doesn’t grab you there won’t be much point in reading past the first entry.

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    1. The Mythical Hero’s Otherworld Chronicles #2-3 & Mushoku Tensei #7-22 Despite my earlier misgivings I decided to roll the dice...
    2. The Hero Laughs While Walking the Path of Vengeance a Second Time #1-5 & The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary #8 Nidome no Yuusha wa Fukushuu no Michi o Warai Ayumu...
    3. Frost Burned, Touch of the Demon, & The Infernal Devices Frost Burned is the seventh novel in Patricia Briggs’ Mercy...
    4. Green Gryphon & Obsidian Queen #4-5 The first book in JS Kennedy‘s Mackenzie Green series shares...
    5. The KING’S QUEEN & The Elves of Lessa The conclusion to K. M. Shea‘s Gate of Myth and...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged K. M. Shea Magiford Supernatural City Obsidian Queen Paranormal Romance Shari L. Tapscott Urban Fantasy
  • CAST IN ETERNITY & Solo Leveling #6

    Posted on December 14, 2022 12:28 am by Offkorn Comment

    Michelle Sagara‘s follow-up to Cast in Conflict decides to greatly expand the backstory on a previously minor side character. While initially this seems like a baffling decision, it eventually pays off with the introduction of several new ancient entities. As a plus, the level of metaphysical technobabble manages to stay on the restrained side of things.

    The sixth Na Honjaman Level-Up novel picks up right from where the last left off and centers itself around combat. Both with magical beasts and even some hunters. Basically, this book appears to mark the turning point between focusing on dungeons and focusing on particularly strong individual enemies.

    Related posts:

    1. Recent Books Normally I do these three at a time… but, well…...
    2. Cast In Oblivion & Guild Hunter #6-11 The fourteenth entry in Michelle Sagara‘s Elantra series resolves the...
    3. Cast In Wisdom & A Killing Frost Back in Cast In Oblivion you may remember that the...
    4. Solo Leveling #7 & Banished from the HERO’s PARTY #8 There’s a great deal going on in the seventh Na...
    5. Chronicles of Elantra #10-13 Michelle Sagara’s Chronicles of Elantra series is a bit different...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Chronicles of Elantra Chugong Fantasy Michelle Sagara Na Honjaman Level-Up Urban Fantasy
  • The World’s Fastest Level Up #1-2 & The Magician Who Rose From Failure #5

    Posted on December 5, 2022 10:52 am by Offkorn Comment

    The only way I can describe Sekai Saisoku no Level Up is: A knockoff Na Honjaman Level-Up. Just about every aspect of these first two books is done better in that series. The only exceptions being that this has more fanservice and they both have equally ill-defined power levels.

    Seriously, just go read (or re-read) that instead.

    In other news, the fifth Shikkaku kara Hajimeru Nariagari Madoushidou! novel is something of an intermission. It mostly concerns itself with cleaning up the aftermath of Book 4‘s insurrection and positioning the protagonist to receive far more notoriety than he may be able to handle from various other countries which may or may not get explored in more detail down the line.

    So it basically stays the course.

    Related posts:

    1. I Surrendered My Sword for a New Life as a Mage #2 & The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind! #1-7 The second Moto Saikyou no Kenshi wa Isekai Mahou ni...
    2. A Bunch of LNs The Watashi wa Teki ni Narimasen! series ends up a...
    3. Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint #2 & Who Killed the Hero?: Tale of the Prophecy The second Jeonjijeok Dokja Sijeom novel is a notable step...
    4. Free Life Fantasy: Online -IMMORTAL PRINCESS- & The Magician Who Rose From Failure: Tales of War and Magic #1-4 Free Life Fantasy Online turned out to be quite similar...
    5. Solo Leveling #7 & Banished from the HERO’s PARTY #8 There’s a great deal going on in the seventh Na...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Fantasy Gamei Hitsuji NAGATO YAMATA Romance Sekai Saisoku no Level Up Shikkaku kara Hajimeru Nariagari Madoushidou! Urban Fantasy Young Adult Novel
  • Drink Deep & The Broken Lands

    Posted on October 20, 2022 9:50 am by Offkorn Comment

    Whatever it was I liked about Chloe Neill‘s Chicagoland Vampires series enough to read through the first four books, it does not appear to be present in the fifth. This book is infuriating practically from beginning to end with pretty much nothing to recommended it. Character interactions, plot developments, setting… it’s all bad.

    T.A. White‘s Broken Lands series meanwhile is, perhaps unsurprisingly, much like the Firebird Chronicles in many ways. The general setup and character personalities are quite familiar while the setting is completely different; post-apocalyptic fantasy rather than sci-fi.

    The first three novels (Pathfinder’s Way, Mist’s Edge, and Wayfarer’s Keep) are something of a trilogy, with The Wind’s Call (and presumably its follow-up) featuring a different protagonist. That said, the new protagonist and her love interest are much like the previous ones… who still happen to be present. The end result being far too many characters with the same personality crowding about one another. So choosing whether or not to follow this series beyond the third book will heavily depend on your tolerance for repetition.

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    1. Blood Heir & So I’m a Spider, So What? #12 I actually read Ilona Andrews‘ Blood Heir way back at...
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    3. The Eminence in Shadow #4 & Sword Saint Adel’s Second Chance #2 Against my better judgement, I went and picked up the...
    4. Hidden Legacy: Books 1-5 When I first saw this series announced, I pretty much...
    5. ~A JOURNEY OF~ BLACK and RED & The Calamitous ~Bob~ Despite the ‘this was originally a web serial’ warnings in...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Chicagoland Vampires Chloe Neill Fantasy Paranormal Romance T.A. White The Broken Lands Urban Fantasy
  • Solo Leveling #1-5

    Posted on September 18, 2022 11:36 am by Offkorn Comment

    Another series I picked up on Amazon’s recommendation, Chugong’s Na Honjaman Level-Up turned out to be an amazingly top-tier power fantasy.

    That’s not to say it’s without issue though, as there are a few notable ones. Well, only one serious one; the protagonist is occasionally extraordinarily dumb. This is more of an issue in the first book before he comes into his power, but even later on he’ll occasionally slip into a caricature of a teenage gambling fanatic.

    Lesser issues, the first of which I perhaps should have expected considering the title, are the Progress Quest-levels of obsession regarding ‘making number go up’, haphazard method of introducing (and discarding) potential love interests, and visual similarity between some of the key characters’ names.

    So far at least it has both lived up to its title while steadily expanding a background mythology that brings to mind Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari‘s. So I’m definitely interested in seeing how events develop in its second half despite being a bit worried about how totally the power level structure has collapsed.

    Related posts:

    1. Hunted & Solo Leveling #8 It came as something of a surprise that Hunted was...
    2. Solo Leveling #7 & Banished from the HERO’s PARTY #8 There’s a great deal going on in the seventh Na...
    3. CAST IN ETERNITY & Solo Leveling #6 Michelle Sagara‘s follow-up to Cast in Conflict decides to greatly...
    4. BE the SERPENT & Ruby Fever After the previous October Daye entry, things were looking up...
    5. Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint #2 & Who Killed the Hero?: Tale of the Prophecy The second Jeonjijeok Dokja Sijeom novel is a notable step...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Chugong Na Honjaman Level-Up Urban Fantasy
  • BE the SERPENT & Ruby Fever

    Posted on September 4, 2022 6:04 am by Offkorn Comment

    After the previous October Daye entry, things were looking up for the protagonist. So I suppose it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that McGuire’s follow-up is particularly brutal. There is definitely more lost than gained here, and ending on a cliffhanger (which I don’t recall any of the previous novels doing) does it absolutely no favors. Even the short story at the end is pretty downbeat, covering as it does exactly how the sea witch ended up bound.

    The sixth Hidden Legacy novel meanwhile continues the trend of the previous in no longer feeling like Kate Daniels fanfiction. It’s legitimately come into its own at this point… albeit as a fairly standard (if perhaps a bit action-heavy) paranormal romance series. This one marks the end of Catalina’s stint as protagonist, and if the hints at the end are any indication the youngest sister will be the focus of the next book.

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    1. Magic Triumphs, The Brightest Fell, & Night and Silence The long-running plotline regarding Kate’s father is brought to something...
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    5. WHEN SORROWS COME & That Time I Got Reincarnated as a SLIME #12 Seanan McGuire‘s fifteenth October Daye novel is completely centered on...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Hidden Legacy Ilona Andrews October Daye Paranormal Romance Seanan McGuire Urban Fantasy
  • The City of Brass & THE WORLD’S FINEST Assassin #5

    Posted on June 25, 2022 11:24 am by Offkorn Comment

    S. A. Chakraborty‘s first Daevabad novel, The City of Brass, is rather strange. Pretty much all of the factions involved are terrible in some manner, while the faction the book seems to want to get you to sympathize with by the end (the Daeva) is arguably worst of them all. Character-wise it isn’t much better: The protagonist flip-flops between being highly intelligent/cunning and self-destructively moronic seemingly at random, while the primary love interest is an emotionally erratic, violent bigot.

    If it were a little more consistent in its characterizations or a little less uniformly terrible with its faction behavior I’d say it’d be worth checking out for paranormal romance fans. As it is though it’s just too uneven to recommended continuing the series.

    Something else that can’t be recommended is the 5th Ansatsu Kizoku light novel. I thought the third was bad (it is) but this one blows it out of the water. Just horrific event progression all-around to the point I’ll be dropping this series as well.

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    2. THE WORLD’S FINEST Assassin: Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat #2-3 Decided to check out this series after the Anime adaptation...
    3. Banished from the HERO’S PARTY #5 & THE WORLD’S FINEST Assassin #4 The 5th Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no...
    4. Solo Leveling #7 & Banished from the HERO’s PARTY #8 There’s a great deal going on in the seventh Na...
    5. Blood Heir & So I’m a Spider, So What? #12 I actually read Ilona Andrews‘ Blood Heir way back at...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Ansatsu Kizoku Daevabad Fantasy History Paranormal Romance Romance Rui Tsukiyo S. A. Chakraborty Urban Fantasy Young Adult Novel
  • The Batman & Zack Snyder’s Justice League

    Posted on May 16, 2022 3:33 am by Offkorn Comment

    Not sure why I decided to watch this most recent movie reboot of the titular Batman character since I’m not a big fan of DC comics or superhero movies in general. Think I was just bored… a state of affairs the movie did little to alleviate. While there’s no problem with the various actors (beside Pattinson looking a bit too much like a punk rock frontman with all that eyeliner maybe), the pacing is pretty damn slow and it ends up feeling more like an endless miniseries than a movie.

    The Snyder Cut of the Justice League movie on the other hand has been on my ‘to watch’ list for some time now, ever since I found out the original release had been heavily modified by Joss Whedon (which handily explained the Avengers resemblance). Anyway, while this extended version no longer feels like a poor knockoff of that movie, I still wouldn’t go out of my way to call it worth watching unless you’re already a fan of the material. Basically it’s a pretty standard superhero movie through and through that you’ll probably like if you can’t get enough of that genre.

    No related posts.


    This entry was posted in Movie & TV Related and tagged Action Batman DC Comics Drama Movie Science Fiction Televised Urban Fantasy

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