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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.
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.
