Readin' Robbie @Alamantus@wandering.shop

I've had this account for a while, but since I'm repurposing it and will actually use it, an #introduction seems in order!

I'm Robbie (@Alamantus), and I like #fantasy and #scifi stories. Brandon Sanderson is my current favorite author, and I'm always trying to find new stories to enjoy. I mostly read via audiobook or text-to-speech, so if I misspell a character or place name, that's what I'll blame it on. This account will mainly be for #reading and #book-related posts. はじめまして！

#introductions

Hey, I haven't finished it yet, but everyone needs to read So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. I'm listening to the audiobook version, which is read by Bahni Turpin, who also narrated for Binti and Children of Blood and Bone, and she's great and the book is very important!

Nnnnnooooooooooo!!!!! A cliffhanger!!!!!!!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I just finished the Legend of #Zelda: Ocarina of Time #manga! Wonderful and beautiful. I love the fact that they gave Link a voice, and I love the voice and personality they gave him!

Also, while many of the sequences from the game were somewhat rushed, I really liked how they gave Link a companion for each one. Also, some of the supplementary stories were very welcome and added some interesting perspective on the story!

#review

So the best advice in this "friend wrote a book" situation seems to be this:

Don't read your friend's book,
and if you do, don't review it,
and if you do, don't give your honest opinion,
and if you do, only focus on the things you liked,
and if you can't, find something (anything) you can like about it so you can.

This will help keep feelings from being hurt, friendships from being damaged, and ambitions from being shattered.

Do/have any of your friends ever write a book and you feel obligated to read it? I've got a friend who's the author of 2 books with more on the way, and they're good but not really /gripping/. They're fantasy with lots of borrowed tropes like fantasy races and whatnot, but the characters and world are unique and interesting. I don't know. I just wish I enjoyed them more... is that bad? I can't pinpoint why I don't like them as much beyond "I'd rather play a D&D campaign of this than read it."

(The Japanese there was just because I was running out of characters for the post and it was a more letter-efficient way to say "nice to meet you!" Sorry for any confusion lol)

I've had this account for a while, but since I'm repurposing it and will actually use it, an #introduction seems in order!

I'm Robbie (@Alamantus), and I like #fantasy and #scifi stories. Brandon Sanderson is my current favorite author, and I'm always trying to find new stories to enjoy. I mostly read via audiobook or text-to-speech, so if I misspell a character or place name, that's what I'll blame it on. This account will mainly be for #reading and #book-related posts. はじめまして！

#introductions

Next, fuck the random toxic jealousy plotline. Instead give her a reason to be jealous by making other people in the village interested in the main character romantically. Then when they're actually in a relationship (instead of just having met), it would make any amount of sense for her to be jealous of him dreaming of another woman.

Among other things. All I'm saying is that it could be so much better than it is if the only goal wasn't just allegory.

Specifically, I would enhance the relationship between the main character and the love interest by having him spend more time in the other world because he keeps eating the rambutan with his meals without knowing it stops him from waking up in the real world, only returning randomly when he happens to not eat it. He only finds out about the rambutan's effect later and makes the connection at that point. This gives more time to build a relationship.

I don't want to get into spoilers, so I'll leave it at that, but suffice it to say that this could have been a much better story if more time was put into building out the world and giving more time to the characters in it. After all, the time flow between worlds is split—why rush things so much in the other world?

If I had the time, skill, and inspiration, I would love to make a fan rewrite of the story that improves these things. I have some ideas of how to do it, but no real reason to write.

I couldn't stop thinking about why exactly I didn't like this book as much, and it turns out, it's really NOT just because of the lazy allegory work. It's because the parts in the other world are just not very good! It tries to do too much in too short a time and with minimal explanation; it pushes a dangerous stereotype of love and jealousy that doesn't make any sense; and the outcome of a mistake doesn't make any sense, among other problems.

Also, in a culture that values pursuing and rescuing your mate in reference to how their god loves them, Elyon does a shit job rescuing the people he claims to love so much when they get in trouble!

That's the main problem with the story. It has this amazing idea and some stellar storytelling for the thriller part, but the ham-handed allegory from an Evangeical Christian idealist point of view just makes the whole thing less good. If the other world was just a regular fantasy world with a well-developed world, then most of the things that happen could be perfectly acceptable in terms of that constructed world's culture, but it's not, and that makes all the difference.