Mastodawn

13xforever Jan 6, 2023

I have finally finished my re-read of the trilogy, now in original English.

I think this is the weakest novelization of the bunch. Half of the book is a very bland scene setup, and in the second half we have like three glimpses of the alien, with only two major action/confrontation attempts. The plot is barely hanging, the characters are barely fleshed out before being removed from the scene. Even alien feels like a deus ex machina whose only role is to appear at the most convenient moment to grab one of the pawns off the table.

Thank whoever was responsible for the franchise decided to wrap everything up neatly with the third film and never touch it again.

Anyway, the writing and what character interaction there is, as well as the background for this story is fine enough to keep you entertained until the end, so if you love Alien films, it's still worth picking up. Kobo edition from Titan Books is serviceable, though it has pretty mediocre formatting, as do all books in this series (I haven't read any other ebooks from that imprint).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5193010121

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13xforever Jan 7, 2023

I picked up #TheEminenceInShadow on a whim, after watching a random five second clip of anime.

Going into this blind was confusing. The prologue almost made me drop it instantly, I just do not appreciate the line it tries to walk between comedy and serious, but it's really just a short and hastily thrown together setup for the main narrative.

And it's great. I couldn't put it down until I read the first volume from start to end in basically one sitting. The plot and pacing are on point and keep this series above the average baseline, as far as #isekai genre goes. English translation and editing are also very good, flowing naturally and without annoying typos and missed edits.

Now, unfortunately it's not perfect. The world building is almost nonexistent, the author gives the barest of minimums to the character and setting backgrounds. The fanservice can be excessive (the whole chapter of girls shopping for panties, with quite detailed descriptions; there are two harems). The basic humor of physical gags and oblivious protagonist trope are not doing it for me.

All in all, I think I'll stick with it for now, there's only five volumes published as of this moment, with four of them being already available in English from Yen Press. Kobo edition is of expected good quality, with the usual minor issues when reading in dark mode.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5202915132

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13xforever Jan 8, 2023

This whole series is weird. The second volume improves somewhat on the first entry, but then the second half is basically an overblown side story that could've taken half a chapter.

There's been way less fanservice, and more action with actual worldbuilding in the first half. Harems are starting to merge too. A bunch of new characters are introduced, but nothing happens. I really hope it's just a long setup for the follow-up novels.

The story is still fun and gripping, but the schtick of main protagonist of foiling the grand schemes by doing random stuff out of boredom is starting to get stale. But I think it can hold on for another two volumes, so I might actually stick with it.

For some inexplicable reason, the bonus short story in Kobo edition of Vol. 2 is two JPEGs instead of actual text (with no alt text, as per usual).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5202917906

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13xforever Jan 9, 2023

The whole bunch of new characters introduced in Vol. 2 never makes a comeback. Instead, we get a new batch of characters, who promptly come and go. Except for the nine-tail fox lady.

We get two stories in one again, but this time they're somewhat connected and at least push forward the overarching Cult plot and flesh out some of the secondary characters. Oh, and the harem grows.

The deus ex plot convergence is less annoying as the author tries somewhat make the main protagonist a bit more competent than plain rock.

Unfortunately, one bit I didn't quite like is how the "cleverness" and "mysterious" vagueness that masks MC's lack of comprehension of events, comes out as simple cruelty towards Alpha at one point.

Kobo edition once again has bonus story as a bunch of JPEGs for no good reason.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5202924185

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13xforever Jan 13, 2023

The two stories in one volume is certainly a thing with this series at this point.

And for once we get some global plot being pushed forward, with some loose ends being tied. I did not particularly like how the Oriana Kingdom issues were resolved, but at the end of the day, it was entertaining and that's what matters.

The second half of the volume was once again, a short side adventure set in MC's previous world. And once again, lots of new characters were introduced, there's been absolutely minimal required world building to set up the scene, and then it all was discarded just like that. Except for a girl. You know, harem must grow. Priorities must be considered.

Kobo edition is once again featuring JPEGs for the bonus story for no reason, and I don't think Yen On will change it in the future.

Vol. 5 was released at the very end of 2022, so I wouldn't expect English version before June 2023, so I guess that's it for now.

Overall, I'm glad the series managed to keep up the pacing and story progression as well as it did, it certainly exceeded my expectation (albeit it was quite low to begin with).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5202928410

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13xforever Jan 18, 2023

In vol. 5 the party is finally tackling the S-rank dungeon on Baukis, as planned. Which is a big improvement on the story over the boring war movements of vol. 4.

But first there's a slight detour to the MC's homeland to catch up with the families, and some miscellaneous shenanigans.

Unfortunately, it's obvious that the author had trouble producing this book, as it's padded quite a lot in the beginning, and the whopping 27% at the end is short bonus stories, with mostly no real substance. So, we got at most half the book focusing on the main event, and then it got cut short in the middle of the dungeon progress. And on top of that, the dungeon exploring itself is described quite sparsely. Compared to vol. 2 dungeon diving, this volume is definitely lacking.

On the bright side, it seems like the author finally gave up on listing every minutia detail of character sheets every chapter, there's been a noticeable decline in wasted pages on that front.

I'm still interested in where this'll go, but I feel like the quality of the series is starting to decline. Hopefully, it'll stick the landing.

Kobo edition is great as always, though some bonus chapters had wrong titles in the table of contents.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5165984674

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13xforever Jan 25, 2023

This was probably the worst light novel I tried to read. The premise might be promising, but the actual narrative and execution on plot is terrible.

Where to begin with this. My first violent reaction was on all the misplaced physical gags and a slather of sexual harassment passed as a joke, that's not funny, nor even all that fan-servicy, so I really have no idea why 90% of all this cruft is even there.

Then there are boring overdetailed descriptions of the most mundane things and inner character dialogs that water down the main points in meandering triviality. And yes, sometimes you can bring out the details, set up the mood, and do lots of other things with the flowery language, but in this case there's none of that. It's all drab and at best brings very pale undertones, which are not subtlety, but a simple lack of expressiveness. Do note however, that it's 100% not a localization fault. For all intents and purposes, the translation went above and beyond what the source material deserves.

And all this sad and boring attempt at comedy lasts for ⅔ to ¾ of the book. It's a chore to slough through it. Only the very last two chapters have anything engaging (albeit without any plot twists, you can see the revelation coming exceedingly early on).

Overall, I really don't understand how it got up to nine volumes, and has manga and anime adaptation.

As with translation, the kobo edition is particularly good, with good editing and fancy chapter title art (although without proper alt text).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4677677748

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13xforever Jan 29, 2023

The concept of reincarnation of a male MC to female body isn't new, but also isn't very common. In this specific case I feel like it wouldn't've relevant much except it gives the author an option to pad the narrative a bit with the musings and the commentary on what it feels like to be an old man in a young girl's body. Oh, and to provide an occasional fan service (bless all the thirsty people expecting this to have some meaningful yuri content, it's quite firmly focused on combat antics).

The novel is focused on battle action, and the world in this series has some interesting ideas, but overall is quite generic medieval fantasy with bits of retrofuturism (?) (we get to see some ornithopters powered by magic). The aether/mana dual system is interesting, but the concept isn't really explored in the first volume, so I expect some planned narrative for a couple first volumes to build up the setting.

In the end though, it didn't left any lasting impression (but it wasn't terrible either), a prime example of easy meaningless reading for a few evenings if you crave some sword and sorcery action.

Kobo edition is neat and tidy, as is standard for J-Novel releases.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4084747195

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13xforever Feb 4, 2023

This series is one of the most rated light novels around, with promises of a solid setting and story, with a sprinkle of good humor bits on top.

In actuality, as is common, the most unique and interesting part of this book was the whole premise summed up in the title. Other than that, it's a banal fantasy world with nothing unique about it. The characters beside MC/Fran duo are all very cliché and do not have much in-depth characterization. Hopefully, it all improves as the series goes on, but the first volume was quite weak.

However, if you're going in without much expectation, it is a solid fantasy novel with good pacing and few action scenes that are not offensive to read (as in, they're competently written).

Kobo edition for those interested.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4077409450

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13xforever Feb 10, 2023

So, this volume is interesting. This is basically a 2-in-1, with twice the length of the first volume, featuring two major stories in both halves.

It starts with a spider dungeon raid still in Alessa, where we finally get to know Amanda, if only briefly. Overall, it's more of the same generic adventure from the first volume. And I guess we got a pet direwolf in the process.

The second half is a super lengthy and super boring undead dungeon raid. Which had such a great promise: floating island! an eccentric friendly necromancer! hint of exciting new skills! But unfortunately, despite being 30+ pages per chapter, there's surprisingly little of anything happening. All the encounters, and in fact, any development is described in passing and without much detail.

The dungeon master fight is a bit more exciting, but it can't salvage the volume as a whole. It was painful to read, and I'm good leaving this series on a pause for at least few months now.

Oh, and we got the sentient power ala Great Sage/Raphael from the Slime.

Kobo edition if you really want it.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4077409431

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That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Light Novel Series by Fuse

Associated Names:転生したらスライムだった件关于我转生后成为史莱姆的那件事简介關於我轉生變成史萊姆這檔事О моём перерождении в слизьTensei Shitara Slime Datta KenRegarding Reincarnated to Slim...

13xforever Feb 17, 2023

Interesting premise, and quite atypical isekai. Plus yuri, what more can ask for, right?

Well, let's start with the good parts. I like the characters: the ever-moving ball of joy that is princess, the more analytical and relatable Euphie, very distinct cast of supporting characters with nicely developed backgrounds.

Neat magic system that builds on familiar tropes but does enough tweaks to make it feel unique. Plus, MC is incapable of using the magic, which is refreshing to see. She must work hard to get the magic work for her.

And sure, the introductory volume is spent mostly on establishing the world and character relationships, with only a bit of action at the very end, but it's paced well enough, and isn't boring overall.

Now, there are some things that undermine it a fair bit. First of all, there's a lot of exposition dumps, with frequently repeated information, which is dull and not crucial enough to justify the allotted space.

And then there's the weird choice to narrate everything from the first-person perspective of multiple characters, often jumping between them in the same chapter. For me personally, this breaks the immersion, and is often confusing when the perspective switches, but the character isn't even specified a few paragraphs in. Sure, as you get to know them better, you start to guess correctly who it is this time, but at the beginning it can be very off-putting.

In conclusion, this series has potential, but I really hope the writer's skills will improve fast, because right now it's the main weakness. Or maybe just watch the anime adaptation.

Oh, and there's apparently a magical drug use if you're concerned about this kind of stuff.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4678952033

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13xforever Mar 6, 2023

So, this is a story about two teen girls who hate each other, coming together to solve the mystery locked house puzzle with necromantic powers to become immortals.

Variouos synopses and promotional blurbs try to sell this as a lesbian necromancers in space thing, but it's honestly misleading. This is a somewhat classic and straightforward whodunit in a decrepit castle sitting in the middle of the ocean.

While yes, there are spaceships and queer characters, it's just a background information in the same vein as the nebulous concept of the King Undying ruling the universe.

Now, back to the important part. The plot, and pacing are starting very slow. The whole first act is a drag. But after act two, it's all thrilling downhill ride to the very end. Things happen all the time, and somehow the stakes keep escalating.

There are puzzles, there are murders, there are unexpected plot twists.

The main centerpiece of this novel are main characters from all the houses, working together and against each other. Their mutual growth throughout the pages. The magic system is kinda rudimentary, and general world building is very light and only mentioned as needed with bare minimum of details.

However, this was planned as a duology or trilogy from the beginning, and the ending of this book goes straight to the plot of the second, where the more broad exploration of this universe is expected as part of course, in case you're interested enough to stick with it.

As a bonus, there's a free short story published by Tor that is technically set long before the events of Gideon the Ninth, but as a remembrance from one of the characters after the events. There is a spoiler in that, but I've read it first to get the sense of the setting (which actually prompted me to get the full series), and you will miss the connection unless you go straight from it to the main book.

Anyway, you can get official ePub, mobi, and pdf downloads for offline reading.

I would recommend revisiting it after reading the first book, just because you'll have much more context for all the in-universe mumbo-jumbo terms, and will have deeper knowledge of anatomy and characters.

Unfortunately, the worldwide version of Kobo edition got removed at some point, so here's the US version.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4347153011
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4347159245

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The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex

Each of the Empire’s houses keeps secrets, even from themselves. For the bookish academics of the Sixth, every secret is a mystery, and every mystery is a puzzle to be solved or a paper to be…

Tor.com

13xforever Mar 21, 2023

Just like the first volume, this is a laid back slow life adventures of two girls. There's some countryside exploration, a bit of a trade caravan trip, but most of the time is spent in the dungeon city.

There's no particularly exciting narrative, not a lot of action in general, the "big" revelation of the whereabouts of the Wasteland of Nothingness was obvious early on in the first book anyway.

As before, this is for people wanting some comfort reading about banal stuff of cute girls doing cute things. The epilogue showcasing re-visit of the same places 17 years later is a nice touch, and at this point I suspect this is a running thing in the series.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5377003338

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13xforever Mar 22, 2023

This series has been on a rollercoaster of high and low in the few recent volumes, and it peaked up again in this one.

There's not a lot of action per se, but a lot of story plot points finally moved on across the board. A good chunk of world building and character development too. And a huge cliffhanger at the end (several even!).

Overall, this is still my personal favorite isekai series so far, and despite this volume setting up the next one as a decisive culmination, Japanese release has three more volumes right now, so I pray it will keep holding the bar high enough.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5401675946

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Elfed in New York is a self-published small urban fantasy series about a regular human girl who suddenly found herself being an elf.

There's a heavily cliched story line with mystery murders by shadowy government agency and a wannabe rookie journalist.

There's a rough writing with lots of typos, misspellings, and general grammar murders that never saw a pass by any kind of editor.

But the characters are fun, and have genuine personalities with believable interactions. There are some funny and touching moments. It's just a short cozy read.

Kobo edition is alright, but the styles did not translate well, so formatting is messy (but still readable).

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5398990820

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13xforever May 9, 2023

Second book in the series follows the same formula of light slice of life / romance / detective mix with the same caveats of simplistic mystery and generally weak writing. But this time the book received an editor pass, so at least it's not painful on the eyes.

There's some relationship progress between Killishia and Tana, but just barely. And the ending has a sudden cliff-hanger similar to the first book, which most people will probably see coming as the narrative structure is quite formulaic.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5398997866

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13xforever May 29, 2023

This is supposed to be another sci-fi crossover with magic. The premise is simple: a mysterious student enrolls in a magic academy, shenanigans ensued.

The writing is inoffensive, but the author had a list of all the fetishes he wanted to mention for sure. There are some fan service scenes with breasts descriptions and frequent sex scenes (mostly not detailed).

The biggest issue in my opinion is the narrative structure. The book is actually a bunch of self-contained short stories separated by a good chunk of time from each other. And the stories themselves are quite banal and straightforward in execution, so there's little to no guessing of how things will progress.

So, once again, it's a perfectly serviceable bedtime reading to pass some time, but it won't blow your socks off.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3546165042

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13xforever Jun 8, 2023

I have never read 007 novels previously, in any language, so this was a blind experience with '50s British literature. And it shows.

I think it should feature a warning page with notice of this being a product of its time, with blatant sexism, racism, and a bunch of other topics mentioned here and there (like rape being some exciting promise in intimate relationship, or torture scene). I've heard there are plans for newer editions having an edit pass to tone these down for new prints, but I have an old kindle that's delisted at this point.

Now, this out of the way, I have to say that the first novel is quite disappointing on several levels.

First, the core of the expected spy action is resolved by the middle of the book. There are no gadgets, no clever deductions, no battle of wits nor strength. It's all quite normal human interactions and a boorish play of cards in a casino. There are some action moments, like an attempted terror attack with explosions, and the night car chase, but even these are quite mundane by modern standards.

Then the second half of the book is quite an impotent attempt to construct some love tale between two agents, which is more annoying to read than anything. There's no swift writing, no colorful depiction of character interaction, or heck, not even love scenes (the one point where it's explicit, it's just a fade to black screen, metaphorically speaking).

And then in the last few pages there's a grand revelation that just falls flat. It leaves the aftertaste of quite rigid railroading of the story where most elements were forcefully bent to resolve in this way.

In conclusion, I find this story quite grey and lacking any notability. It's not bad, but it also doesn't leave anything behind. Like a glass of water.

What's impressive is how Hollywood managed to produce such a successful movie franchise out of this.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4705665726

#ReadingCorner #ReadsOfMastodon #007

Ilya's review of Casino Royale (James Bond, #1)

2/5:

13xforever Jun 16, 2023

Like all good isekai novels, the first one or two volumes are the most fun and diverse reads out there, when they introduce you to the new world, main characters, and establishing basic systems.

In that regard, this book is no exception. The twist on reincarnation target, and the skill system is interesting and helps the narrative to move smoothly.

My only complaint is the very last part with the prolonged fight that really put some breaks on the pacing. I really hope it's not the sign that the author ran out of ideas already, and future volumes won't have such dilluted fillers.

Oh yes, if you've seen manga or anime, the book spider is not so cute, and is described to be more realistic-looking. At least for now.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4077432337

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13xforever Jun 19, 2023

Thankfully, the second volume picked up the pace. There's still a climactic battle at the end as you might expect, but it's much more dynamic, and doesn't drag on like in the first volume.

There are convenient new monsters in ascending power levels introduced throughout the journey, but overall, there's less variety of situations, or skill applications. But it doesn't quite degrade to being boring, thankfully.

The end also leaves MC on the same stratum, so I can only hope it won't be the same endless magma for the third volume as well.

Kobo edition is generally the same, but for once I have complaints. Mild spoilers, but once MC unlocks the Parallel Brains skill, original author starts to delineate various inner brain communications in different parenthesis (which are more varied in Japanese than in English). Yen On decided to reuse the same characters, but didn't bother to embed custom font with these characters to preserve maximum compatibility with super old devices, oh no. Instead, they opted to inline them as low-res images, which are super jarring on modern displays. And even my ancient Kobo Aura has no issues displaying 〘〙 and 〈〉 without any embedded fonts at all.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4077432310

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13xforever Jun 23, 2023

So, this is when the narrative pacing is finally hitting the stride. No more monotonous aimless wandering in one locale. Splitting the chapters among multiple points of view helps with variety, and the protagonist is finally hitting that overpowered trope levels.

My biggest issue with the storytelling so far is how the author moves the time line between chapters without warning. Like you think it's happening at the same time frame as the previous chapter, but then there's a casual mention that one of the reincarnation has just been born. It's often hard to pinpoint exactly what is happening when.

The skill tables are getting out of hand, so it's at this point where I started to automatically skip them (as per usual with this genre).

Kobo edition is once again using low-res images as punctuation that's already in common Unicode code points, so I had to fix epub myself (same goes for Vol. 4, but then it seemingly stops after that). Also fun fact, apparently first edition of Vol. 1 was tagged as French all throughout the book, which is funny.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4077432286

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13xforever Jun 27, 2023

The fourth volume is finally seeing the pacing running full steam ahead. Things are happening all the time now, lots of revelations, and even a major plot twist in the middle.

We are finally getting some info on administrators, and we finally meet the demon lord (chronologically). And the spider is almost ready to evolve into arachne.

There's not much time jumping, so that's nice. But the author is still actively hiding the identity of the mc in previous life. And even when by the end it's easy to put 1 and 1 together, it's not as straightforward as it seems. And it really bugs me, so I hope this inconsitency/deliberate misleading/whatever will be resolved without some kind of deus ex machina pulled out of author's ass.

Kobo edition as were previous two volumes, still has some punctuation done with the low-res images. Ugh. Thankfully, it stops here, and I haven't seen anything suspicious in Vol. 5.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4077432254

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13xforever Jul 5, 2023

So, this is a penultimate intro volume where current and past narrative threads are finally coming together. All the reincarnations are introduced and explicitly mentioned. All of them meet in one place, and clear up their stance with each other in this new world.

Now we can finally start the adventure and story lines that move the actual plot point forward, instead of jumping all around trying to flesh out the world and character motivations.

Our spider MC finally achieves the evolutionary goal she set for herself early on, and it would be interesting to see what's her current development would look like.

All in all, I find it a sweet spot to stop for a break.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4077432234

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13xforever Aug 19, 2023

This was a rather chill slice-of-life adventure focused on Sophia's background and current party relationship development. We also get some world building with more formal introduction of current world powers, as well as some MC-related issues being resolved.

Vol. 5 was a clean break from the running story arc, and this volume is a clear dangling bit in-between, or maybe a weakly connected start of a new arc. It wasn't bad, but it's certainly a bit weaker on the pacing and story progression.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4077432210

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13xforever Aug 19, 2023

I was always curious about the Wild Cards series, ever since I got some random volumes with tor.com launch giveaway many years ago. They were rather new volumes at the time I believe, but who starts with Vol. 20-something? So, I just kept them at the back of the to-read list all this time.

Then a few years ago Tor started to publish the series with updated covers, and this included markets other than US, so I got a few volumes, but they were still rather low on my priority. But then after finishing Gideon the Ninth back in March, I thought to maybe sticking to the regular western novels for a bit instead of returning back to light novels, so I randomly decided to try Wild Cards.

And boy, did it take some time to finish.

So, first things first, this is a series of anthologies, each volume is a collection of short stories written by different authors to push the overarching narrative forward under the editor oversight. And the editor of this series for the longest time was George R.R. Martin (which, I admit, was the main reason I got interested in this series to begin with).

Themes, focus of the story, characters, time, writing style, everything is changing at a rapid pace here. Sometimes it's a thrill ride on the edge of your seat, sometimes it's a boring snorefest, but everyone will find something of an interest for them, as well as something they can't give two shits about.

Also, this book as a whole should have a loooong list of content warnings it touches upon. Everything from all forms of abuse to graphic gore, to a number of phobias, to drugs, to racism and other forms of discrimination.

At times, it's a lot to take in. I had to take a break for a couple of months somewhere in the middle and was tempted to can it right there. But then it got much better for a while.

Is it about people with super-powers? Yes and no. Yes, there are clear winners in this universe (so-called Aces, who got powers without changing much in their physical appearance), but most people here are ostracized monstrosities (so-called Jokers), and the main focus is about various societal and psychological problems relevant to modern world, painted over this fictional minority with avid intensity. It is meant to be a distorting mirror spotlighting real problems in a literary form masquerading as a superhero pop culture fun read.

Is it entertaining? Sometimes. Is it for everyone? Heck no. Do I want to keep reading the series? Maybe? I'm not sure what I expected it to be, but I got a lot more than I bargained for, that's for sure.

Kobo edition from Tor has old formatting with new cover (they still use images for some symbols instead of bundling a font for older devices), but after quick ePub edits it was rather neat.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5391323735

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13xforever Aug 25, 2023

It feels like Vol. 7 and 8 were once one single book that author split in half to pad out the series.

Technically, a lot of things happen in this volume, both on the MC side of things, and on the class 2-B side of things. But like with Vol. 6, most of the chapter time is spent on describing one melee action, and as such, the variety suffers a lot.

And by the end of it, the main plot points are barely moved forward.

So, now we wait for the next volume in hopes that the narrative pacing will be back. One can only hope.

Kobo edition is once again has disgusting formatting with wild new lines, spaces mid-word, often with extra hyphen thrown in as well.

#ReadingCorner #ReadsOfMastodon #FailureFrame

13xforever Aug 25, 2023

So, this one is weird and interesting, but also kinda boring at the same time.

The core concept of the Maiden's Bookshelf is to present contemporary and modern classic as a kinda mix of illustrated and art books. The text and artwork are split roughly half and half, similar to children's picture books, sometimes taking a full spread. But unlike the illustrated editions, these are simply inspired by the literature work, and not necessarily there to highlight the events described.

On the technical side of things, these are produced as fixed layout ePubs, which are super rare (Apple Books even open them in the PDF viewer/layout instead of the regular book layout).

The stories are a mixed bag, so I wouldn't go collecting everything (especially considering that the original JP series is up to 32 books at this point). And just to mix things up even more, the western release is going in random order compared to JP one. Why? Who knows!

The illustrations are pretty and detailed. But at one short story per book (60-80 pages), the price is kinda steep.

Kobo editions:
Hell in a Bottle
The Moon Over the Mountain
The Surgery Room
The Girl Who Became a Fish

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Maiden's Bookshelf

A beautiful book that can be enjoyed both as a short story and an artbook. The first in a series combining gorgeous contemporary artwork with literary classics of the early 20th century, bringing classic Japanese literature to a new audience.

Kodansha

13xforever Sep 12, 2023

This is a collection of short stories, completely independent, without any overarching story line or unified setting other than being dystopian in nature.

Despite being hailed as the progenitor for the Sprawl series of classic cyberpunk novels, not all the stories in Burning Chrome are cyberpunk. There's quite a number which is more traditional sci-fi.

Themes, narrative, and writing quality vary quite a bit too, so on average it comes out quite meh, even when there are very solid entries with engaging stories and distinct characters.

Even though I started this for Johnny Mnemonic story, the real highlight for me was the penultimate Burning Chrome, which undoubtedly served as a foundation for many cyberpunk stories that came afterwards. All the underpinnings of what we consider a cyberpunk now, were right there, painted with thick neon colors: the nonsensical yet plausible computer jargon, virtual reality visualization of cyberspace, the ICE firewalls, the cybernetic implants, the broken lives.

Kobo edition is alright but has some annoying formatting issues like zero margins between sections and weird headers.

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13xforever Sep 29, 2023

So, the premise of this series may sound interesting, but the execution is…lacking. This is very clearly written by an amateur writer, with lots of small issues from narrative structure to lack of expression.

The cover goes hard on fan service, and you might've expected some in the book, but the illustrations are very generic and not interesting in any way, and the few instances of attempts at female anatomy descriptions are once again very blunt and dull, with no details. Like, the author felt the need to put them there for the marketing checkmark to bump the sales.

What's particularly grinding my gears is how the narration has no concept of foreshadowing at all. There are no clues to how the events would transpire, the author builds the suspense in a very direct way, by asking the reader how the MC could overcome the supposedly impossible situations. And every time the resolution feels like it was pulled out of thin air.

The character development is lacking to being nonexistent. The in-universe rules are barely explained, but somehow feel contradictory at the same time.

All in all, I feel at least the first volume sits very firmly in the mediocre spectrum.

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13xforever Oct 29, 2023

This is a standalone/prequel to the main Jumper series that was recommended to me in a random conversation. You may have seen the movie adaptation.

As a mindless action flick, it works well. The narrative is brisk and doesn't linger. Details are often sharp and vivid, which helps to ground the scene.

The mix of English accents, Spanish and French is a neat touch, but can be an issue for some people (especially considering the relevant parts are not tagged with appropriate language metadata).

Unfortunately, as a standalone book it's lacking in world building. It assumes you know enough about the universe already. None of the main plot mysteries are resolved. Time scale is also quite fuzzy and does not impress enough on the movement across months and years, so at times you may be surprised with callbacks' time frames.

Overall, it left a mixed impression. But most recommendations were for the first two books in the series, so I'm hopeful for a better experience next time.

Kobo edition has some Spanish typos in the later parts (i instead of ¡ and similar issues with italics). (Outside US there's only an omnibus edition with all the books).

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Jumper Series by Steven Gould

Jumper is the story of David, a teenager who escapes an abusive household using his ability to teleport. As he tries to make his way in the world, he sea...

13xforever Nov 12, 2023

This one was weird. It's a very clichéd isekai with nothing particularly special to stand out. It doesn't even have an explanation for the "jobless" part of the title in the first volume (unless it refers to the MC's occupation in the very beginning, or to be more precise, to the lack of).

The plot hook, the world, the magic system, it's all very standard so far. One twist on the formula (if you can call it that) is the absolutely unhinged random blurbs about perverted urges of MC (stealing underwear, ogling his own mother's breasts, dreams of grooming a childhood friend etc.)

At least the pacing seems to be good, and it's a smooth reading from beginning to the end, even if it lacks any substance.

Kobo edition is fine, though you can see weird line breaks in the middle of the sentences quite often.

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13xforever Nov 13, 2023

The first volume was solid, if not remarkable. The second volume is, incredibly, takes a nosedive on all accounts.

The story is once again, a very clichéd "the taming of a wild animal", which in this case is a second cousine of Rudeus, Eris Greyrat. There's very little in actual story development, world building, or general progression except for occasional infodumps and quick author descriptions of fast-forwarded time lapses.

Unfortunately, it seems the perverted side of MC will be the main gimmick of this series. In this volume it progressed to several musings of rape of the minors, with one particular scene at the end where the authors skims the very edge of acceptable with fondling and almost-having-sex between a 10 and a 12 year old children, barely cancelled at the last moment.

One can only hope this is as worst as it gets.

On a storytelling front, one interesting note is that author tries to cleanly separate events in each volume with a drastic even, which makes them largely self-contained stories with minimal backreferences or even relying on info provided earlier for narrative hooks. I do wonder how long it will last.

Kobo edition is quite clean this time around, no weird formatting with errant line breaks.

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13xforever Nov 18, 2023

Third volume is where the story goes somewhat more original. Or at least different enough to stand out a bit in the pit of all isekai novels.

The premise may be banal (traveling, registering in the Adventurer's Guild, doing jobs). But the few monsters and jobs that got featured were interesting enough.

Unfortunately, with slight increase in world building and scene details came pacing issues. This volume feels bloated as a result, and at times I felt bored. The positive (?) side effect of this is that author forgot to shove in the fan service bits until the very end, so you get triple dose of degeneracy in the bonus chapter.

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13xforever Nov 21, 2023

Remember how the last volume was almost devoid of "fan service" bits? And then author tried to compensate at the end?

Well, as it turns out, the author is obsessed, because we got one full chapter of Rudeus contemplating if he should fondle and possibly violate Eris while she's too sick and powerless.

And then another half a chapter of Rudeus getting horny from looking at the naked beastfolk children. Not to mention a thick spread of Rudeus replaying the same thoughts in later chapters as well. With sprinkles of bestiality jokes on top.

And all of this just to distract from the lack of narrative progression. There's one whole chapter where author tried to construct a gag of Roxy passing by Rudeus in the same town, but it was so sloppy and boiled down to "it worked so because I said so", it's not even funny. Like, the author literally contradicted himself on the character motivations on two adjacent pages.

Somehow, the further into the series you go, the more unlikeable the characters become. I might give another volume or two a go, but it's kinda getting tiring to suspend the disbelief.

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13xforever Nov 28, 2023

This volume actually made some good progress on plot points. Rudeus meets Paul and Norn.

Character interactions are still incredibly jarring and unbelievable. As well as character motivations. It just reeks of authors dragging the narrative the way he intends it to play out, but with no skill to make it work in a natural way.

Almost no icky "fanservice" inserts, though there's one particular translation point where you just know the person behind it couldn't resist to insert their own opinion on the meaning of lolicon. Which was weird, but in another way than usual.

Honestly though, I'm not sure I want to continue reading the series. At least not for a while. The disgust for the main cast just has to subside a bit.

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jnkrtech Nov 12, 2023

@13xforever My wife and I started watching the anime, after being given the explanation “it’s about an incel learning how to treat women as people”. I’m not sure if the latter part eventually occurs or if we’ll ever get that far because the guy is really hard to watch.

13xforever Nov 13, 2023

@jnkrtech I know the story pick up some later, but it might take several volumes, which is a lot for most people to invest (in both, time and money).