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scarfin_and_barfin's review
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
4.0
A fascinating piece of outsider art and a truly unique experience.
naleagdeco's review
One of those books where the best reviews are the articles about it, I suspect. Anyone who hasn't read articles about this book should really do so.
I'm not going to rehash the premise (sonic? fanfic-esque neuro-atypical author fantasy proxy saves the world which runs in JRPG physics) or the method (the book transcends text to actually go into the physics and mechanisms of the world in the most literal of ways) more than I have to; while it's not a enjoyable book in a conventional fiction sense (which is the _point_, the fascinating with this book is that it's its outsider art by a non-writer in the traditional sense, a particular personality who has conveyed his values into a complete work with integrity to his vision and values. And I don't mean this as a dog-whistle for some kind of unsavoury content: this book is a perfectly viable young adult fantasy novel with good people winning over villains, albeit one written by someone who is a particular kind of neuro-atypical and optimized for that particular kind of neuro-atypical.
And in that sense, the book fulfills what it sets out to do. It's not one I can personally connect with, but if someone said they really connected with it on their mental wavelength, I'd believe them, and I'd be glad this book existed for them.
I'm not going to rehash the premise (sonic? fanfic-esque neuro-atypical author fantasy proxy saves the world which runs in JRPG physics) or the method (the book transcends text to actually go into the physics and mechanisms of the world in the most literal of ways) more than I have to; while it's not a enjoyable book in a conventional fiction sense (which is the _point_, the fascinating with this book is that it's its outsider art by a non-writer in the traditional sense, a particular personality who has conveyed his values into a complete work with integrity to his vision and values. And I don't mean this as a dog-whistle for some kind of unsavoury content: this book is a perfectly viable young adult fantasy novel with good people winning over villains, albeit one written by someone who is a particular kind of neuro-atypical and optimized for that particular kind of neuro-atypical.
And in that sense, the book fulfills what it sets out to do. It's not one I can personally connect with, but if someone said they really connected with it on their mental wavelength, I'd believe them, and I'd be glad this book existed for them.
schumacher's review
4.0
Absurd Pantagruelian adventures and obsessive far-beyond-Robbe-Grilletian physical descriptions filtered through a Final Fantasy-themed lucid fever dream.
Completely sui generis.
Completely sui generis.
podanotherjessi's review
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
This book is honestly just not good.
The characters were all incredibly flat (I honestly don't know why three of them were even there). The writing style may work for some, but I found getting such precise detail more confusing than helpful. And the plot just kind of happens. The conflict is a flimsy "I feel something bad coming," and the characters were led around by "ope! looks like there's something going on over here!"
To give this book some credit, the fight scenes were actually super interesting once I got through the writing style to understand what was happening. It felt pretty solidly like turn based combat in an RPG (I had some great pokemon battle scenes in my head), which was fun.
Then again... the story had next to no tension because the main character could do just about anything. A plane engine blew up? Magically repair it. A character dies? Just revive them. Get hit with a massive attack? Just get healed for the damage instead! The stakes could not have been lower.
The characters were all incredibly flat (I honestly don't know why three of them were even there). The writing style may work for some, but I found getting such precise detail more confusing than helpful. And the plot just kind of happens. The conflict is a flimsy "I feel something bad coming," and the characters were led around by "ope! looks like there's something going on over here!"
To give this book some credit, the fight scenes were actually super interesting once I got through the writing style to understand what was happening. It felt pretty solidly like turn based combat in an RPG (I had some great pokemon battle scenes in my head), which was fun.
Then again... the story had next to no tension because the main character could do just about anything. A plane engine blew up? Magically repair it. A character dies? Just revive them. Get hit with a massive attack? Just get healed for the damage instead! The stakes could not have been lower.
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