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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
  • The First Witch-Mage & BENEATH THE DRAGONEYE MOONS

    Posted on January 10, 2024 1:24 pm by Offkorn Comment

    Isabel Campbell‘s The First Witch-Mage is, on the surface, a perfectly fine urban fantasy novel. It’s got action, comedy, character development, and hints of future romantic developments… but there’s just something about the character interactions that does not work for me.

    Beneath the Dragoneye Moons is a series I skipped over in the past due to, if I recall correctly, the first novel’s excessively irreverent description. Turns out that while there are some issues in that direction (namely the mango obsession) for the most part it features some pretty serious storytelling and philosophy. The ratio of drama to comedy to action is remarkably well balanced and my only real complaint in the genre department is in regards to the game mechanic coverage.

    Some of the novels are just absolutely bloated with tons of class descriptions, build theorizing, and stat blocks, with the 8th and 9th books (an academy arc, because of course) being some of the worst offenders. Other things to note would be an abundance of puns, a healer protagonist who actually focuses on healing above all else, and that the romance elements don’t really come into play until the ninth book.

    All in all a pretty damn entertaining series whose only significant flaw is (perhaps ironically since the protagonist seems to have a mild form of ADHD) an occasional lack of focus.

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    3. The Mythical Hero’s Otherworld Chronicles #6 & I KEPT PRESSING THE 100-Million-Year Button AND CAME OUT ON TOP The sixth Shinwa Densetsu no Eiyuu no Isekaitan novel curiously...
    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. Phoenix Peaks & by Blood Oath Bound Despite the title, the twelfth Beneath the Dragoneye Moons novel...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Beneath the Dragoneye Moons Chronicles of the Witchborn Fantasy Isabel Campbell Paranormal Romance Selkie Myth Urban Fantasy
  • Inheritance & A Matter of Secrets and Spies

    Posted on December 24, 2023 9:19 am by Offkorn Comment

    The first book of an intended trilogy, Nora Roberts‘ Inheritance is an urban fantasy mystery/romance with occasional horror/suspense elements which starts off quite good and stays that way for the most part. The main issue being the fantasy elements, which become more pronounced as the novel progresses up the point of complete saturation at the (cliffhanger) ending. They work best here when used subtly rather than boldly out in the open.

    Honor Raconteur‘s tenth Henri Davenforth novel is basically more of the same as far as character interactions go. What’s different is the 3-part open-ended structure. You basically have three separate cases that all end up both related and incomplete, which in turn makes the book itself feel incomplete. I think it would’ve been better if the vacation segment stayed a simple vacation instead of trying to squeeze in a criminal element.

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    1. The Case Files of Henri Davenforth A curious combination of police procedural and isekai (which eventually...
    2. Possession, Twisted, & Exposed Possession is the eighth installment in Kat Richardson’s Greywalker series....
    3. The Brilliant Healer’s New Life #3 & Rebuild World IV The third Yami Healer novel starts off with a summer...
    4. The Eminence in Shadow #4 & Sword Saint Adel’s Second Chance #2 Against my better judgement, I went and picked up the...
    5. Iron and Magic, The Ripper Affair, & The Chemist Iron and Magic is the first of a new trilogy...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Case Files of Henri Davenforth Honor Raconteur Lost Bride Trilogy Nora Roberts Paranormal Romance Romance Urban Fantasy
  • The SAGA of TANYA THE EVIL #12 & The Hero Laughs While Walking the Path of Vengeance #6

    Posted on September 20, 2023 12:30 am by Offkorn Comment

    While waiting for the twelfth Youjo Senki novel to get translated I happened to notice that there was a rather massive gap between it’s Japanese release date and a potential continuation. Fortunately the thirteenth finally showed up last month so it looks like an indefinite hiatus has been avoided.

    Regardless, this one is fairly self-contained and takes place almost entirely in Ildoa. To be honest there doesn’t seem to be much point to it as the action seems set to return right back to the Eastern front. Conquest for conquest’s sake which… may actually have been the point. Not sure if I’m going to jump right into the follow-up when/if it’s translated or wait several years until the next arc is complete before grabbing all of them at once.

    I’d previously had misgivings about the direction the sixth Nidome no Yuusha book was heading. Fortunately, for the most part, it manages to pull the gamble off. There are certainly some issues with the sci-fi elements and I’m not thrilled by the sibling complex but all-in-all it ends up a solid continuation.

    I find myself morbidly fascinated about where exactly a harem composed entirely of yanderes will end up. I certainly don’t see any sort of happy ending in the cards.

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    3. I’m in Love with the Villainess #1-2 & Chillin’ in Another World #8 The Watashi no Oshi wa Akuyaku Reijou. -Revolution- series starts...
    4. Blood Heir & So I’m a Spider, So What? #12 I actually read Ilona Andrews‘ Blood Heir way back at...
    5. 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...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Carlo Zen Fantasy Nero Kizuka Nidome no Yuusha wa Fukushuu no Michi o Warai Ayumu Paranormal Romance Science Fiction Urban Fantasy Youjo Senki Young Adult Novel
  • MODERN Villainess #1-3 & Free Life Fantasy: Online -IMMORTAL PRINCESS- #4

    Posted on September 7, 2023 12:50 pm by Offkorn Comment

    The Gendai Shakai de Otome Game no Akuyaku Reijou o Suru no wa Chotto Taihen series (English subtitle: It’s Not Easy Building a Corporate Empire Before the Crash) is primarily economics porn. You’ll see the phrase “bad debt” quite often and be subjected to seemingly unending financial mechanics and fake newspaper articles. Secondary to that are the school life elements, which are horrid (a grown woman pretending to be a kindergartener is just…), with the otome game aspects coming in far last.

    While superficially about the protagonist’s efforts to prevent her future ruination, it’s really more about how ‘no good deed goes unpunished’ with every action she takes to try to save the economy getting opposed by various levels of opposing greed, incompetence, or just flat-out patronization. Which is to say she’s more of a hero than a villain.

    Covering the first half of a ‘survival’ arc, the fourth Free Life Fantasy novel is basically identical to previous entries. Ending halfway through the event doesn’t even end up a negative since the storyline, such as it is, has always been tertiary.

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    3. ROLL OVER AND DIE #1-4 & Free Life Fantasy: Online -IMMORTAL PRINCESS- #2 The “Omae Gotoki ga Maou ni Kateru to Omouna” to...
    4. ALL I GOT IS THIS STAT MENU & MAGICAL GIRL: CRYSTAL GENOCIDE The All I Got is This Stat Menu series, by...
    5. Free Life Fantasy: Online -IMMORTAL PRINCESS- #6 & My Magical Career at Court #3 Free Life Fantasy remains perplexingly readable despite its sixth installment...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Akisuzu Nenohi Fantasy Free Life Fantasy Online Gendai Shakai History Science Fiction Tofuro Futsukaichi Urban Fantasy Young Adult Novel
  • Deadline & The Shadow of GLORY

    Posted on September 3, 2023 8:53 am by Offkorn Comment

    I actually read Jennifer Blackstream‘s Deadline way back around the same time as Hunted… but kind of forgot about it. Anyway, its main issue is how inconsistent the protagonist’s ability level is presented as. Is she a centuries-old power trained by Baba Yaga herself… or a weak nobody just starting out? You can’t really have it both ways.

    Putting aside a couple alarming statements found in the Fore/Afterword sections, there’s not much to complain about with D.C. Haenlien‘s third Adelheid novel. Main issue right now is that the technological advancement is getting a bit out of hand: The food empire was questionable but believable enough, the concrete is pushing things, and the train is right out of bounds.

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    3. The Mythical Hero’s Otherworld Chronicles & Adelheid #1-2 The Shinwa Densetsu no Eiyuu no Isekaitan series apparently spans...
    4. Hollow Regalia & The Strange Adventure of a Broke MERCENARY #7 The Utsuro naru Regalia series is apparently written by the...
    5. The City of Brass & THE WORLD’S FINEST Assassin #5 S. A. Chakraborty‘s first Daevabad novel, The City of Brass,...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Adelheid Blood Trails D.C. Haenlien Fantasy Jennifer Blackstream Urban Fantasy
  • Hollow Regalia #2 & Let This Grieving Soul Retire! #1-2

    Posted on August 31, 2023 10:56 am by Offkorn Comment

    Looks like I’ll be dropping Utsuro naru Regalia with this second entry. I’ve had my fill of naïve bleeding heart ‘heroes of justice’ who can’t understand the consequences of their actions… and certainly don’t want to read about one as the main heroine.

    Nageki no Bourei wa Intai shitai ~Saijaku Hunter ni Yoru Saikyou Party Ikuseijutsu~ is a series in the same vein as Kage no Jitsuryokusha, with key differences being that the protagonist is relatively weak instead of overpowered and highly values his party members and clanmates instead of constantly dismissing them. My only complaint so far is regarding the rather frequent “I want to barf” statements, which thankfully fall off a bit in the second novel.

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Fantasy Gakuto Mikumo Nageki no Bourei wa Intai shitai Paranormal Romance Tsukikage Urban Fantasy Utsuro naru Regalia Young Adult Novel
  • Hunted & Solo Leveling #8

    Posted on July 24, 2023 10:18 am by Offkorn Comment

    It came as something of a surprise that Hunted was not the conclusion of Vanessa Nelson‘s Grey Gates series. No idea why I thought it was going to be a trilogy, but I did.

    It’s pretty much as far from a conclusion as you can get, opening up the world in some questionable directions and leaning into the earlier hinted romance. Honestly it feels a bit like a stopgap, a stalling measure, as nothing is really resolved and only more questions are raised. It also stops sort of abruptly in an odd place. End result being that this is probably where I get off.

    In a reverse of the above situation, the eighth Na Honjaman Level-Up novel shockingly appears to be the series’ conclusion despite the wiki listing thirteen novels.

    Weirdly enough the central conflict is resolved in the first few chapters with the rest devoted to an assortment of epilogue stories. It’s very strangely structured, sort of like they just lifted it wholesale from piecemeal webnovel form without any editing, but yet still somehow works for the most part. Assuming this actually is the end I’d classify the work as a pretty solid overpowered protagonist series with a slightly weak endgame.

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    3. BRIMSTONE BOUND, Outcast, & Called The first of Helen Harper‘s Firebrand novels does not inspire...
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    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 Chugong Grey Gates Na Honjaman Level-Up Paranormal Romance Urban Fantasy Vanessa Nelson
  • So I’m a Spider, So What? #15-16

    Posted on July 20, 2023 12:30 am by Offkorn Comment

    The last two Kumodesuga books were originally released a mere month apart, a release schedule the English translations unfortunately did not share.

    The fifteenth and penultimate novel is mostly exposition to set the stage and get the reincarnations up to speed… so I can certainly see why the author didn’t want to have a months-long wait between it and the series’ conclusion. Taken together both novels wrap everything up well enough without much in the way to complain about besides a rather arbitrary ending to the climatic battle and some fairly half-hearted character epilogues.

    When all is said and done I think the best part of this series ends up being the middle segment, after the Spider and Demon Lord start traveling together and before they launch the war against humanity. Which is to say, roughly, volumes 6 through 10.

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    5. 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...

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Fantasy Kumodesuga Okina Baba Science Fiction Urban Fantasy Young Adult Novel
  • FINAL FANTASY VII: REMAKE

    Posted on June 14, 2023 1:27 pm by Offkorn Comment

    Originally I had wanted to play this game when it first came out, but it was console-exclusive for a while and I haven’t played on one of those since the PS2 era. Then I sort of forgot about it while waiting for the PC port until suddenly remembering it last month.

    The game starts out quite good but somewhat quickly runs into a rather severe issue: Fate Ghosts. They’re terrible. They accomplish nothing beyond degrading the story and character behavior, so I guess the devs just really wanted a big set-piece endgame fight to go out on and couldn’t think of a better way to implement it.

    I wasn’t particularly thrilled by the combat system either. If you’re going to do real-time battles you should not force people to switch between characters during those battles in order to hit enemies’ weaknesses (or force you to use abilities for multiple characters concurrently for that matter). It’s just a giant pain in the ass and I was already tired of it by the fourth chapter.

    Normally this would be where I’d say that I won’t bother playing the next game in the series… but since the ghosts will presumably be absent it may just end up tolerable. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

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    This entry was posted in PC Video Game Related and tagged Action RPG Final Fantasy RPG Science Fiction Third Person Perspective Urban Fantasy
  • BRIMSTONE BOUND, Outcast, & Called

    Posted on June 11, 2023 6:56 am by Offkorn Comment

    The first of Helen Harper‘s Firebrand novels does not inspire any desire to follow the series, suffering as it does from the crippling issue of having a garbage protagonist.

    The main issue here is that despite being a trainee, she acts as if she’s a veteran detective with complete and total authority over anyone she meets. No one questions this and anyone who provides any notable pushback is framed as being in the wrong (she also lies through her teeth to someone presented as a caring and supportive boyfriend). The worst part is all the author had to do was start her out as an experienced detective to avoid most of these issues. Why make her a trainee when all it does is undermine the story?

    A lesser issue would be that no one on this fantasy-infused Earth has ever heard of a demon or phoenix before. Seriously? No one has any suspicions of what she could be despite resurrecting in flames? Just bizarre.

    The first two books in Vanessa Nelson‘s Grey Gates series (Outcast and Called) are more grounded with a strong Kate Daniels energy to them. While there are some notable similarities with the Order organization for the most part this series very much does its own thing, which works well for it more often than not.

    While I’m not completely sold on the demon angle it will be interesting to see whether the protagonist ever ends up getting revenge on the people who set her up in the past… and the fuel protests were a nice touch.

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    This entry was posted in Book Related and tagged Firebrand Grey Gates Helen Harper Urban Fantasy Vanessa Nelson

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