Dec 08, 2021
The world-building is absolutely phenomenal. The war, it's after effects, the Estvalians, the dragons, budget Skypia all feel real and lived in. The only thing I feel weirdly about is the elves bit. It's like 'hey they exist, don't mind them' which knowing you is probably set up for some kinda storyline where that's a main focus, but if it isn't then that was a really unnecessary thing to drop in. Elly's story could have just as easily been told if she was just a kid who was always bullied for other reasons.
The fight scenes were really interesting. The best one I'd say is the chess fight with the twins, I'd say Eve vs Reed was the worst one. Reed explaining the illusion magic felt really forced. Perhaps it could've made more sense being. The magic system itself really reminds me of Black Clover. Limitless possibilities and affinities, but it's not really the same because anyone can learn it. A mixture of Naruto's and Black Clover's. I liked the system itself, but as I said earlier sometimes the explanations felt forced.
Plot..... Well, the plot itself didn't have any holes and no real flaws. It just.... lacked direction. If I were to pick up a Hunger games book, or a Harry potter book, the first chapters set up clearly the purpose of the rest of it "survive the games", "I like school and friends". Honing in on Harry Potter, while structurally both that and HOTD seem similar, they simply aren't. Harry himself is the focal point of the books so the story is focused and at all times you know what the story is trying to do. But with this, the inclusion of a ginormous cast and like 5 pov characters I was sometimes wondering what the point was. Estval was the most interesting to me, Blake was the least, Eve was just..... there, Damien was a unique one I appreciated and Elly was really cool too. But all of them together... split the focus and none really interacted until the end so it felt like separate stories and that there was too much for one novel.
Plot structure aside. As I have said earlier, the plot itself was really interesting. Eve's side in theory easily could've been really bad. I mean what does one do with "make friends", but I feel it really paid off, having the seven deadly sins queens was a really interesting idea and by far the best way of introducing the illusion for the end without making it feel forced. A lot of Blake's parts were the same, but in different scenario's which really helped flesh him out. How despite his anger issues it only really gets worse during the Chess games because he's spent the last few weeks or whatever alienating himself from friends. Highlights his character conflict nicely. Elly's was just a really well-executed feel good kinda thing, her progression is something the reader really gets invested in. Damien, not much to say, just an interesting guy. Trevan.... You said earlier how people thought it was the worse part, I think it's kinda my favourite. One issue I had with it though, Trevan at the end of his first POV section resolves to sneak out if neccessary, not only does that not happen (which is fine really) but when his friend says 'hey let's go out' he says 'but, but, danger!' when he himself on multiple occasions said and thought to himself that he was going to disregard it, other than that. I felt not having his pov during the raid was a lost opportunity, but that's fine, since all of it was really good even otherwise.
