May 26, 2024
At long last, I've arrived at the end. Once again, I have greatly enjoyed my time among the inhabitants of Aangapea, both foreign and native. And of course the delightfully devilish puppeteer, Eris herself is wonderful as always.
At first glance I assumed there would be too many characters to keep track of and I was right. I mean, in that final fight when you listed off the heroes of Guy's team, I went, "Who?"
Now, this could be because I took month long breaks between a big batch of chapters, but I think this is a good feature. Not everyone is cut out to be a protagonist after all and Eris even said 29 of the 30 heroes don't matter. Although I did have trouble remembering who Elysa was and that probably wasn't intentional.
For the kind of book this is, the prose works well. It's short and to the point seemingly to compliment the fact that you were pumping out giant chapters every week. Too many descriptions and superfluous words would likely bog down Year 2 as a whole.
That said, I do feel the prose was a tad lacking when it came to things like specific characters. I don't have any good examples for clarification and a severe lack of words to help explain. (I am very tired right now.) But essentially it was difficult to connect with the characters when I felt I should have and (I think) it's because the moments were sped over when they should have been given some extra attention.
Sorry, I'm not certain I can explain better than that.
Either way, the characters were done very well. Even without some dialogue markers, it was clear who was speaking in almost all conversations. The generals, obviously sadistic and brutal in their own ways. The heroes feel like a bunch of teenaged friends, from various parts of the world. Almost as if they were designed that way. All character developments felt natural. Very nice.
The action, of course, is done well. Although it seems like everyone likes throwing each other through stone walls.
As for my final point. It really took this long for David to make a move on Eris? At this point it goes without saying, but as soon as she flirted the first time, I'd be shooting back. That guy's got all the women in the world and still no game. Maybe he'll get there one day after he's slain the foolish heroes.
I look forward to the continuation of the Children of Eris with great zeal. All hail the Demon Emperor! May the dark goddess be forever entertained!
