Reviews with content warning for Death - Critical Role: The Mighty Nein — The Nine Eyes of Lucien

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Critical Role: The Mighty Nein — The Nine Eyes of Lucien by Madeleine Roux

10 reviews

nisha13's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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redvelveting's review

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adventurous dark slow-paced

2.75

I imagine I would’ve enjoyed this more had I been more familiar with the original campaign and material, but I suppose that’s the risk of IP writing.

For me, this book started off very slow. There were definitely intriguing points, but for the most part, the first half wasn’t much of a page turner. Things started to pick up in the second half, but by then I wasn’t too invested in the story.

Additionally, Roux’s prose is artistic but I found it made it harder to follow the story (combined with or perhaps contributing to my stunted interest).

I liked the use of fonts and different sizes to represent different voices and conversations

, but the actual wording itself I found to be too long-winded. I think it would’ve been a lot more enjoyable for me had I listened to the story its in original form as a campaign or even if I had listened to the audio book—I could imagine that her writing style would be lovely to listen to

(especially because the narrator is Robbie Daymond)

.

All in all, while I found certain plot points interesting and can appreciate the writing style, I definitely can’t say I enjoyed it as much as a real Critical Role fan or anyone else familiar with the IP would’ve.

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queenofthefae's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense

5.0

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marslotus's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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perleerose's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book is definitely not designed for anyone who isn’t already familiar with the story of the mighty nein. There’s so much context that is missing for a person outside of the CR fandom to understand this book.
However, with context this book is fucking beautiful. The final fight is what really made the whole book for me. Seeing the common traits and wit shared by Lucien and Molly is super cool too. It’s great to learn so much about a character that we barely get to know in the campaign.

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lanid's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense

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asporkthief's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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madisenelizabeth's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Critical Role fans unite, because this book is amazing. I HIGHLY recommend the audiobook, narrated by Robbie Daymond and the original cast. This was easily one of the best audiobooks I have every listened to. This story, based from the second campaign of a DND stream, held so much nostalgia and excitement for me, and it completely lived-up to every bit of it. This will lead me to read more of Madeleine Roux’s works, because she absolutely nailed this.

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modernathos's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

"I want to thank Matt Mercer and Taliesin Jaffe [...] for allowing me the space to get weird." - Madeleine Roux, acknowledgements.

That quote is the only way I can possibly describe this book in one sentence.

I have to be honest and say that I nearly DNF'd this book several times over in the first 120 or so pages. The world-building felt lacking to me, the time jumps were weird and I would have loved for certain events that were only mentioned - like how exactly Lucien and Cree joined the Claret Orders - to have been explained instead of skipped over. However, when the first patterns of Nine/nein started to drop, the stakes started to get bigger and Vess DeRogna was introduced, the pace and plot got going and it was absolute madness until the very end in all the best ways.

The Nine Eyes of Lucien gives quite a wonderful insight in Lucien's life before he became the Nonagon, and how becoming the Nonagon and his connection with the Somnovem changed and ultimately destroyed him.

Roux's writing style is unique in a way that is perfect for a world like Exandria, and the way certain (lore-heavy) chapters are formatted pulls the reader further into the story.

For example, in the "in-between" chapters, in which Lucien is dead but not yet Mollymauk or Kingsley, the reader is suddenly addressed as "you", and so is essentially placed in Lucien's body and mind in a way that is more intense than a first person perspective.

I can't say that I personally recommend this book to those who are not familiar with the on-stream events that the story is based off, as I think the lore and world-building might be too confusing and don't think I could have followed the first +-150 pages had I not been familiar with the story. However, I have read reviews of plenty of people who read the book and were not familiar with Critical Role, but could follow it perfectly. So, by all means, if this book intrigues you, pick it up!

Long may he reign.

Rep: genderfluid MC, bi-/pansexual MC, non-binary character (all pronouns), lesbian characters, gay characters.
January 2nd, 2023 - January 15th, 2023.

"But life is never like dreams, is it?" - Lucien Tavelle, chapter 10.

"Pain and pain and pain. A dear price for a man,
A pittance to a King,
And nothing to a God, cosmically ordained."
"Am I God or King?" he asked.
"Long may you reign." - chapter 22.

"Perhaps fourth time's the charm." - unknown, chapter 41.

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btorsi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is a standalone but I wouldn't know what is going on if I didn't know campaign 2 of critical role like that back of my hand. That said, it was super fun to read about Lucien and it made it even more tragic what happened to Cree and the other Tombtakers. It added a new layer to the story. I thought I would be counting down pages to the M9's appearance but I actually preferred the first half. The pacing felt weird in the second half. The ending was good as a fan of CR but it felt a little bit unsatisfying from a story standpoint.

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