• Rottcodd@ani.socialEnglish
    2·
    8 hours ago

    <Agents of the Four Seasons> Vol. 1&2 - It took me entirely too long to wade through the first volume, but the second one went much faster.

    They were… okay.

    I started reading them in the first place because I was watching the anime, and it was intriguing but unfulfilling - it felt like there should be more there. But though there was more detail and more context in the novels, they still failed to entirely come together.

    The problem is that the author tried to meld two distinct genres that just didn’t work well together. The story is part action thriller and part weepy melodrama, so it kept shifting back and forth between car chases and shootouts and such, and teary-eyed, deeply emotional conversations and longing recollections.

    Beyond the mood whiplash, the two different genres are paced entirely differently. It was sort of like riding one of those slow, romantic amusement park swan boat rides - drifting lazily along and enjoying the scenery - then it turns a corner and suddenly becomes a log flume, hurtling down a steep slope and whipping around a corner into… a slow, lazy swan boat ride. So pretty much just the time that I was entirely into the story and the pacing, it would change, then just about the time I had shifted to that, it would change back.

    The two halves were both pretty good in their own right - the action/thriller parts were engaging and interesting, and the melodrama was thoughtful and included some really impressive revelations and insights. But all in all, it felt like what that meant is that there was potential there for two entirely different but more or less equally good duologies, instead of one that was only okay. I enjoyed the books all in all, but that was in spite of their flaws.

    Then I went back to where I’d left off to read these, and finished <Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table> Vol. 5, which was quite good, and ended on a really striking cliffhanger, which leaves me looking forward to the sixth volume, due to be released in English in a bit less than three months.

    And I think I’m going to dive into <So I’m a Spider, So What?>. I loved the anime, and it was obvious that it only scratched the surface of a much larger story, so…

  • NineSwords@ani.socialMEnglish
    3·
    18 hours ago

    <Proud to Be the Villainess> Volume > by Kuga Huna - ★☆☆☆☆, 144 MynePages™ - This was the most egregiously nonsensical novel I’ve ever read.

    <Her Royal Highness Seems to Be Angry> Vol. 1: The Reincarnated Princess and an Ancient Power by Kou Yatsuhashi - ★★★☆☆, 133 MynePages™ - Likable MC that’s only really registers things that are of interest to her. Like “what, people trying to bully me? Who cares, look over there is something interesting”. The prose is very readable.

    Her Royal Highness Seems to Be Angry Vol. 2: The Spirit King’s Visit by Kou Yatsuhashi - ★★★☆☆, 169 MynePages™ - They invented a new word here: “Knightlings” for children of knight families. That’s hilarious, and I don’t know why I haven’t heard that before.

    Her Royal Highness seems to be angry Vol. 3 – The Spirit King´s Visit by Kou Yatsuhashi - ★★★☆☆, 153 MynePages™ - I wonder when the Royal Highness will finally get angry? I hope it will be epic. In this volume, there is one instance where she gets a bit annoyed, but no anger yet.