Blightbane

I really want to like this more than I do.  I like the characters.   The world building is great.   The mystery and magic is cool.  The style of the writing is very well done.

But it's the most frustrating book I've read in ages. The constant,  constant non stop pov switching is a continual drag.   Every time I start to get into the flow of a scene,  it stops dead and dumps me into something else.  And then by the time it circles back around,  I've lost any sort of investment in it.  Many of the switches happen after only one rather short chapter.

The book also falls into the trap of engaging in vagueness as mystery,  cutting out chunks of dialog, leaving threads of thought unfinished,  insinuating deeper things constantly.  This can be a decent way to start,  but as one goes along,  it starts to feel more a crutch than anything.

If this is a style you can deal with,  it really is a promising book.   But for me... I'm dropping it with regret.

This review applies up to Coalescence: Log 5.

INTRODUCTION:

Aside from a rough beginning, this story delivers on several levels for a fantasy nerd like myself.

STYLE:

The prose is unobtrusive and flows smoothly, without much awkward phrasing. There's not much wrong with it, so I don't have much to comment on.

GRAMMAR:

Quite good. I didn't notice many mistakes. It's on the more polished end for a web serial. Again, not much to say here.

STORY:

While much of the larger, overarching hasn't yet presented itself, and the opening chapters seem to be focused on the setup of world and characters, I haven't felt bored. The deep lore on display is quite gripping, and it's clear that the author has spent serious effort on it. Many excellent details, such as a fleshed-out pantheon of gods and a magic system with unexpected appications, like creating a city in days or making a recording headset, really helped propel my interest.

The "Coalescence" entries were also a welcome addition, one I've personally never seen before, adding some insight into the world. I can imagine this would prove quite useful to readers wanting to brush up on a certain topic as the story moves along.

CHARACTER:

The first chapter didn't really wow me in terms of the MCs, but as the story goes along, they get increasingly more interesting. Again, the author has clearly put in effort here, as the characters all have their own traits that are expanded on throughout the story, such as Caim's curiosity and aloofness or Alice's enthusiasm and determination. Caim and Alice make an especially good pair, their differing personalities complementing each other nicely.

OVERALL:

Blightbane throws you in the deep end, with more than a few confusing concepts to grapple with, but gets increasingly enjoyable as you go in terms of writing quality, character interaction, and the reader's own comprehension of the lore. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a classic fantasy story with an original twist.

The writing, characters, magic system, world, and way we learn along with the main characters is simply captivating. The supporting characters seem to change their opinion of the MC a bit quickly later on, but... tl;dr I binged the whole thing and eagerly await the next chapter- what more do you need to know?

You can tell a great deal of thought has gone into the creation of this world and the peoples who inhabit it. I can't help but want to keep reading. 

Ignoring everything else in this fiction for a quck second, I need to mention those tables. Just how were they made in that way? It's so neat to look at in both dark and light mode. Really brought immersion and new experiences to a hundred for me.

Fangirling out on tables aside, however, I have nothing against this piece of class. While the rating might be a little lower than I personally see it as I do recommend it for everybody interested. There's nothing I could point at as being inherently bad, making me wonder just how it fell. Maybe bad grammar that's been fixed? 5/5 from me.

sooo, i have not read long,  but admit , i'm giving this novel a chance for caim (cool name), and the being called vera, so far , i have seen little of the latter, but i have no doubt , it (she) will appear sooner or later.

anyway so far there has been action in a magi/tech setting, the world building seem well pretty cool, the author has obviously put alot of though behind it.

despite the subjective(for me) flaws that  there are :

multiple leads

to much pov chage

intentional confusionary,

i'm pretty sure it's going to pretty entertaining.

usually though i wouldn't give it 5 star, probably like 4, but since this novel seems victim of 0 scores (without explaination), i increased my rate.

good luck author.

edit: ehmm i literally have speed read or skipped some inis pov, no offense author, vera is much moreee interesting.

new edit: yep too much characters being introduced.and new povs..