Cast in Moonlight, Cast in Shadow, Cast in Courtlight by Michelle Sagara

[lightreads]

Cast in Moonlight, Cast in Shadow, Cast in Courtlight

3/5. First three in many many fantasies about a woman in the division of a sort of city watch in a multi-species city. A lot of stuff I like – complicated worldbuilding, lots of arcane secrets, mysterious greater powers, blah blah – and yet I could never read one of these without feeling fundamentally annoyed. I can't put my finger on exactly what is so irritating about these books, except that it's 100% the main character, which is, you know, a real problem. Partly it's that she's supposed to be flawed, right, to make her relatable or whatever. So she's impulsive and blunt (and not very bright a lot of the time, though I'm not sure that part is intentional). But it's all very much like that guy in a job interview who says, "oh, I just care too much" when you ask him about his weaknesses. That vibe, but in character design. It's pretending to be flaws but it's really just more ways to be extra special.

IDK I just found these nails-on-a-chalkboard annoying and that's part of why, but not all of it.

Comments

[go_gentle]

My problem with these, especially as the series progresses, is that they’re increasingly about politics but the main character is never interested in politics, so every book is full of other characters explaining to her why she should care about the plot. Which certainly doesn’t make me very interested in the plot!

(I’ve read uh all of them but in my defense the last several have involved lots of skimming because I mostly want to find out if that soulbond with nightshade ever goes anywhere)

[lightreads]

Oh my God, twenty-whatever books later and that soul bond is still not resolved? WTAF?