Various Thoughts

I first heard of Macronomicon‘s Legend of William Oh series at the conclusion of their Industrial Strength Magic webnovel. Initially dismissing it because the description didn’t seem like something I’d like, tower climbing not being fundamentally different from dungeon diving, eventually I decided to give it a chance when the second published novel appeared in my recommendations.

The main thing that stood out is that it has a very similar atmosphere to that earlier series, with the key differences being the setting and a greater level of quippy-ness in exchange for barely-there romantic elements that pretty much never rise above a tertiary focus. The character interactions are what carry it and they do so through that second novel well enough that I continued straight on to the web novel version. Unfortunately it didn’t take all that long to hit a snag; the zombie apocalypse floor is absolutely terrible. After that point it also introduces an incredibly dumb paladin nemesis, and I had to drop it after the protagonist somehow gets knocked out in battle against him despite being exponentially more powerful than the first time they fought.

I’ve been leery of Ilona Andrews‘ novels after the massive disappointment of their ‘last’ Kate Daniels entry and so initially didn’t give their newer Breach Wars series much thought. As it turns out, the first novel is something of a riff on Na Honjaman Level-Up (minus the System aspects) with a touch of Kate Daniels flair. It’s pretty damn good all things considered… although I’m not sure why it tries to incorporate images almost like a Japanese light novel would.