- #1
I read this because I loved the author's other figure skating novel, and thought this might be just as good. MTL is pretty understandable, but I had to give up a little over halfway through because this novel is just... eek.The summary makes it clear the MC goes back in time a hundred years to the beginning of the Winter Olympics and decides to compete with the others. I thought I knew what I would read, but I didn't realize how I would feel while reading this. The MC is from a time period where competitive figure skaters are full-time athletes with full-time coaches, nutritional guidance, intense physical training, with techniques and skills built on the backs of countless innovative athletes... going to compete with people from 100 years ago where the athletes were basically part-time due to having jobs and the sport was just starting out. It just felt really uncomfortable to read, him introducing/teaching new "skills" and getting credit for his ingenuity when it was all invented by others in history, having everyone from the time period just concede that the MC was a super-genius they could never defeat, not knowing how much of an unfair advantage he really had.Maybe it was my elevated expectations from the author's other figure skating novel, which I gave 5 stars and truly loved, but this novel really disappointed me. All the things that make the author's other novel truly wonderful was missing from this novel: love of figure skating as a sport, respect for the athletes, sportsmanship. None of that is in this novel, it's just basically MC being OP due to time travel and the difference is very jarring.Maybe if you read this novel as a standalone, it would be fine. But if you came over from the other figure skating novel and expect the same themes, forget it.