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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
  • 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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    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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    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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    4. Magic Triumphs, The Brightest Fell, & Night and Silence The long-running plotline regarding Kate’s father is brought to something...
    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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    3. ALL I GOT IS THIS STAT MENU & MAGICAL GIRL: CRYSTAL GENOCIDE The All I Got is This Stat Menu series, by...
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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.

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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...
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    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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    5. Hidden Legacy: Books 1-5 When I first saw this series announced, I pretty much...

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

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