4. Smoke and Shadow, part 1 (AtLA comics) -- OK, this one actually sort of begins to redeem the Ursa storyline that so disappointed me in The Search. ( Spoilers! )
I'm reading Saga in a really stupid order, so I've read, like, the middle 2/5th of it, but even with this limitation I can say, it is SO GOOD!
Captive Prince... I enjoyed the series, but I also know several people who bounced off it rather emphatically. I think it is one of those books that is very tuned to the id -- lots of tropes, lots of things that are basically fanservice. Which, if the specific tropes happen to match up with tropes one loves, it's great! And if they don't, not so great. For me, the tropes in book 2 are a great match, so that was a book I had a blast with. Books 1 and 3 were less tuned to me specifically, so while I read them quickly, I definitely didn't like them to the same degree as book 2. Just something to keep in mind, I think -- basically, YMMV applies to this one more than a lot of series, I think.
I don't know the full story, but it definitely started life as an online thing, coming out of fannish circles as original fic. And then I guess self-published? Before being picked up by a publisher and re-released.
So, yeah, it has every reason to be tropey and fanservicey! But those kinds of things tend to be more hit-or-miss, especially without the aid of AO3 tags to know what you're getting into up front :P
Yep, it started as an online novel published as original fic, and then was picked up directly off the online format (so never self-published) by Penguin. And then released agonizingly slowly in every language known to man over 4 years while book three was (as far as I know) completed. Drove me batshit.
I thought there were self-published paperbacks between the ebooks and the Penguin publications, but I was relying on some online source for that info, or maybe I'm thinking of something else. I'm definitely glad I had to wait only a couple of months for book 3 rather than YEARS, as for a lot of people.
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Captive Prince... I enjoyed the series, but I also know several people who bounced off it rather emphatically. I think it is one of those books that is very tuned to the id -- lots of tropes, lots of things that are basically fanservice. Which, if the specific tropes happen to match up with tropes one loves, it's great! And if they don't, not so great. For me, the tropes in book 2 are a great match, so that was a book I had a blast with. Books 1 and 3 were less tuned to me specifically, so while I read them quickly, I definitely didn't like them to the same degree as book 2. Just something to keep in mind, I think -- basically, YMMV applies to this one more than a lot of series, I think.
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So, yeah, it has every reason to be tropey and fanservicey! But those kinds of things tend to be more hit-or-miss, especially without the aid of AO3 tags to know what you're getting into up front :P
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No, but seriously, it is SO GOOD and I'm excited that it sounds like I'll get to read it from the beginning soon, courtesy of a friend :)
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