Various Thoughts

Austin Beck‘s first Mend or Smite novel comes across much like a slightly grittier White Mage (minus the genderswap elements), with the protagonist’s particular brand of reserved stoicism doing wonders to compliment the somewhat excessive forwardness of the various love interests. One thing to note though is that the cover is a bit of false advertising: The main love interest is a rabbitgirl. The wolfgirl doesn’t show up until the last third, doesn’t dress like that, and her relationship with the protagonist doesn’t go beyond a statement of intent.

The first of Randi Darren‘s Fostering Faust novels contains a couple unfortunate surprises, one of which is that the protagonist is a purestrain sociopath with no personal goals beyond doing what’s expected of him. In his previous life that meant climbing the corporate ladder and making as much money as possible, while in this new one it means fulfilling his deal quota as efficiently as possible. The desire for efficiency then leads into the far more unpleasant second surprise: Rather than focusing on making Faustian bargains with people who have more to lose than they think, the novel instead revolves around training a bunch of financially compromised women as sex slaves.