Harrow the Ninth expands events into a larger scale without lessening the interpersonal frictions, and I cannot explain how the book does it while being partially presented in the second person <spoiler> Kinda </spoiler>. It does second person voice so well that I eventually smoothed over the structure in my brain, not even clocking it as anything other than standard writing format, until the structure itself turned out to be part and parcel to the twisting reveal of the novel.
Read MoreBeyond the excitement of the Danganronpa story structure (lots of talented people show up to solve puzzles and probably get unalived) and the quirky writing style that trusts the reader to follow its wobbles, the plot is not “hero leaves small town and goes on grand adventure.” I mean, it is, but the town was a planet and the grand adventure is a rousing game of Among Us.
Read MoreWhen there were only forty or so pages left of Darker Shade and little prospect of a satisfying resolution, I braced myself for the “Book One Cliffhanger Ending,” where the immediate threat has ended yet a larger horror rises in the distance. But it comes together in an altogether pleasing, albeit alacritous, way. Things—life, culture, people—won’t return to their pre-adventure status, nor will they maintain the heightened stress of all-consuming plot-based action. If there was never another book, things would be okay.
Read MoreThe Wheel of Time, the High Fantasy series equivalent of Moby Dick at least in terms of wordcount, has popped up enough times for me lately for me to give it a serious look: “One thing we can do. We can try. What seems like chance is often the Pattern. Three threads have come together here, each giving a warning: the Eye. It cannot be chance; it is the Pattern.” And so I’ll start this journey, for the second time. I’ve read up until at least book six—possibly eight, because I at least recognized that cover—of the fourteen novels. The first book, The Eye of the World, still does as good a job setting everyone up, building out a world, and having as silly a climactic battle as it did when I was sixteen.
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