Various Thoughts

Garrett Byers‘ first Limitless Path novel reminds me of Primer for the Apocalypse. I like how most people are pretty chill about the whole system integration thing and both the characters and their interactions are entertaining. The main issues would be that the high level of acceptance isn’t actually all that believable, the romance comes out of nowhere and advances at a blistering pace, and it’s extremely strange that none of these girls appear to have any friends.

Still, I greatly enjoyed it and continued on to the web novel version only to find that the author promptly squandered all their forward momentum with thirty or so chapters, roughly half a book’s worth, of training and inexplicable crafting segments. Almost worse is that they’re followed up by the protagonist immediately going out to solo-clear dungeons again instead of letting her sisters or girlfriend fully catch up. This isn’t Na Honjaman Level-Up where there’s no one she can trust, nor Ultimate Level 1 where she’s on a deadline with a god hunting her; there’s no excuse to justify that action (especially considering the baffling decision to spend weeks learning blacksmithing).

Chad Maske‘s first Rise of the Bloodmoon Witch novel is shockingly good… although perhaps it would’ve been less so if I hadn’t been avoiding their Ashes of My Many Lives series. Regardless, it’s quite good with a complex setting, and a flawed, struggling, yet still technically overpowered protagonist. It’s particularly interesting that the roommate actually looks like she’ll remain a roommate instead of becoming a love interest in the way this kind of paranormal romance story usually likes to go.