i feel like my stomach is full of drunk bees.
we are going to have such high times, him and i - a shadow magic review
(Selected twitter updates while I was reading to put this in perspective- )
- These bros have a door bt their room. Like i dont know what this means
Oooh somebody learned about SCAP at Barnard.. gross
I CAN'T EVEN CONCENTRATE ON JAIDA AND DANI'S CAMPY DRAGON BOOK WHICH BTW /CONTAINS NO DRAGONS/
clearly the one girl in this book is sleeping w this general. Their girl characters either die or fuck someone. how progressive, jaida+dani.
Caius' outings w to Alcibiades are a couple cooing remarks from a compensation date. Al will either kill him or buy him a mink stole.
I'm gonna start this off by saying I have serious problems with the book that, while I had a fun time reading it, left me feeling the same dissatisfaction from Havemercy. I guess I shouldn't expect the series to be vastly improved- it has been only about 9 months.
fjhskd So this was a much more of a direct sequel than I expected, and maybe I would have benefited from a reread of Havemercy, but lemme break it down for you; In the last book's about 5 pages of climatic action, the fraternity brothers defeat Ke-Han. In Shadow Magic an assortment of diplomatic charges are sent to the Ke-Han to negotiate peace, although it appears two of them (or at least the two whose pov were are party to) have no idea what is expected of them there. No idea about settling land disputes, reparations, length of occupation.. But don't worry! The exceptionally vague diplomatic talks that could certainly be very interesting or help set a richer backdrop for the international conflict, are never directly mentioned. There's always a play to see or a scandal to uncover and isn't it a good idea you chose to kidnap the diplomats since you never had any issues to discuss, emperor!
I enjoyed watching Al and Caius interact, mostly because I was under the mistaken idea they were gonna kiss. Maybe next book. Regardless, theirs and Josette's (Who i pronounced "Yo-sette unwittingly) dynamic was cute whenever the situation with the prince and his cardboard manservant got boring. I'm still not sure why the esar sent Caius "the Mind-taker" Gaylace, but it was fun while it lasted.
I still don't understand the complete lack of construction behind why the prince was banished. (The prince, of course, named Mamoru HO HO HO JUST A LITTLE INJOKE FOR US JAPANESE MAJORS) Apparently his bro wanted him killed for speaking Volcan with the diplomats. Right, because the whole idea of these peace talks isn't to- you know- talk to one another. I get it, though, you want to establish the Emperor is crazy. However, maybe Jaida+Dani could've brainstormed a little longer on this, made Mamoru (hahha) commit a bigger foul? Because right now it just reads to me like when I was a kid, banishing my fairy princess Barbie from her Dreamhouse kingdom. Why? Because she was TOO PRETTY! quick lets get onto the more fun parts of the book!!
Did I say fun? I meant the tedious On The Road bits where we establish two things
1) commoners in mock shogun Japan are extremely well aware and interested in court preceedings
2) despite a huge war having just been lost, none of the countryside seems to have been affected (just that one broken magician tower in the city. makes you wonder what Rook and co were attacking every night)
Barring the above inconsistencies and issues I have with the plot, the book should be able to survive on character development alone. But I also have to disagree that Jaida and Dani are writing character driven stories in an action driven genre. These characters, while entertaining, are not deep or engaging. Caius is fun and camp, but nowhere in the almost 400 pgs do we see more than a line in passing that he might have deeper character traits, or explanations why he's so ridiculous. Alcibiades is loveable but equally flat, Kouje isn't even likeable whilst being one-dimensional. Mamoru, while not my favorite character, has more of a range of character traits than anybody else- but he jumps between them like a bouncing ball. And it's never even explained why do the people love him more than his brother; Just because h was banished? Because he's hot? If the characters are truly the thing "driving" Jaida and Dani's novels, it's no wonder why the book never gets anywhere.
I didn't like this book. Would I have liked it more if somebody dicked Caius? Probably, but my claims above still stand! You can cry about it if you want, but I paid $25 for the thing and I like to read, problems or not. The rest shouldn't matter.
SERIOUSLY WHERE IS THE KINK MEME i would like to see some caius/al..... and caius/ke-han army