- #1
I try to review works without spoiling anything in an objective manner focusing on style, pacing, technique and what is appropriate for each work, so here goes!This work is quite an experience, the focus on the premise seems counterintuitive at first, but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing, the author goes to great lengths to make the story enjoyable and fun while still retaining a certain degree of somberness and mystery through the whole ordeal, the dialog is great! everyone has a great personality and they are all interesting and enjoyable to read, the only drawback I see here is that there is barely any character growth, although the characterizations are amazing, some character quirks stay the same from beginning to the end which is kind of unrealistic, but this is part of the course with this kinds of works... so I can't really complain, it's part of the style... I personally dislike "one quirk" characters but I have to make emphasis here, they aren't monotone, they just have a very clear and distinct personality that never changes.The story is split right down the middle focusing on two different POVs, ML and FL (father and daughter) which gives the author plenty of leeway to portray each one and characterize their struggles and adventures separately, I was overjoyed by the fact that there doesn't seem to be any "romance" (in*est) shoved into the story, it's a doting father and a spoiled daughter and that's what it had to be from the start to actually work.This splitting of the arches until they converge again is refreshing and exiting, you really look forward towards when and how things are going to converge, and I find it greatly enjoyable that while one is focusing on adventure and advancing the "plot", the other is focusing on deepening the character and exploring their personality further.Regarding worldbuilding... the world is small, veeeery small, but what has being shown and explained is what matters and I don't think this lack of focus is a drawback, you're left wondering about the mysteries of the world and when things start to get explained a bit more it doesn't feel like an exposition dump, the author has being very good at the golden rule of "show, don't tell".The fight sequences are very well portrayed and you can clearly see the actions and the events unfold as they are being acted, what I found most enjoyable is how you can basically "see" the distinct fighting styles of each character, it's not just "swing swong he ded" the way the sequence is portrayed could very well be the script for an animated sequence.The only reason why I don't give this work 5 stars is because the pacing is kind of wonky, although it's supposed to jump between POVs, sometimes I feel like this works against the work because suddenly you have to keep track of two separate cliffhangers that aren't going to be resolved on the next couple of chapters, perhaps if the timing was adjusted a bit it would work better but the synchronization of the plot devices appearing mostly at the same time on both POVs left me thinking that maybe, if he had just waited one more chapter to give the reader a bit of a breathing space, it would have being better.That being said, I would have given this work 4.5 stars if the rating allowed for it.Thank you for reading!!!
