Reviewings
Le Chevalier d'Eon is an anime series I started watched probably years ago now, but didn't really get into. I picked that back up and watched it through to the (fairly tragic, I must say) ending.
It's a spin on a historical figure of France - a knight and spy who dressed and lived as a woman some of the time. Of course, being a manga-turned-anime series, a lot more importance is put upon things and the story is wrapped together with some heavy supernatural elements (among the least of which being d'Eon being possessed by his sister Lia).
It generally looks good, and there's a neat Musketeer-ish vibe to the adventure. On the other hand, character motivations are opaque a lot of the time and the supernatural stuff doesn't piece together very well for me, all told. And the end is, as mentioned, pretty tragic for most of the characters involved - plus leading into the French Revolution, so... there's that.
Interesting, but I don't know that I would widely recommend it.
I also took my time reading Nevernight recently - another of what I think of as "rogue fantasy" novels, as it centers on shadow-empowered girl working to join an order of assassins as a means to get revenge upon the political figures who destroyed her family.
There's a lot of familiarity/overlap there considering I've done a fair bit of roleplaying with rogue/assassin characters and those connected with shadow - so much so, I've had to buy the book for Kyn, too.
I do have a couple little quibbles about the writing itself. For one, establishing a setting of a three-sunned world that seems to have "turns" describing days or so, and seven-turn weeks, it throws me off to see nevernight (the time all three suns are down) only happens once very two-and-a-half years. It makes more sense in my mind for years to be based on that, and raises questions about orbital physics that are distracting. Additionally, the book begins by cutting back and forth between a couple scenes in a manner that is disorienting. Thankfully, that settles down.
Otherwise, the book is pretty good in writing and story. There are all sorts of moral issues if you scrutinize characters like this, but the adventure works pretty well. And it's clearly setting up sequels, so I think I'll follow this presumed-trilogy, and possibly look at some of the other books from this author.
It's a spin on a historical figure of France - a knight and spy who dressed and lived as a woman some of the time. Of course, being a manga-turned-anime series, a lot more importance is put upon things and the story is wrapped together with some heavy supernatural elements (among the least of which being d'Eon being possessed by his sister Lia).
It generally looks good, and there's a neat Musketeer-ish vibe to the adventure. On the other hand, character motivations are opaque a lot of the time and the supernatural stuff doesn't piece together very well for me, all told. And the end is, as mentioned, pretty tragic for most of the characters involved - plus leading into the French Revolution, so... there's that.
Interesting, but I don't know that I would widely recommend it.
I also took my time reading Nevernight recently - another of what I think of as "rogue fantasy" novels, as it centers on shadow-empowered girl working to join an order of assassins as a means to get revenge upon the political figures who destroyed her family.
There's a lot of familiarity/overlap there considering I've done a fair bit of roleplaying with rogue/assassin characters and those connected with shadow - so much so, I've had to buy the book for Kyn, too.
I do have a couple little quibbles about the writing itself. For one, establishing a setting of a three-sunned world that seems to have "turns" describing days or so, and seven-turn weeks, it throws me off to see nevernight (the time all three suns are down) only happens once very two-and-a-half years. It makes more sense in my mind for years to be based on that, and raises questions about orbital physics that are distracting. Additionally, the book begins by cutting back and forth between a couple scenes in a manner that is disorienting. Thankfully, that settles down.
Otherwise, the book is pretty good in writing and story. There are all sorts of moral issues if you scrutinize characters like this, but the adventure works pretty well. And it's clearly setting up sequels, so I think I'll follow this presumed-trilogy, and possibly look at some of the other books from this author.