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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Out of the two Critical Role novelizations I've read so far, this one was by far the weaker one. The Nine Eyes of Lucien was a fun time, but this one was just sort of a generic bore through most of it. There were flashbacks to the twins' childhood, and those were honestly the best part of the entire book that I wished we got a full novelization of that and not this uninteresting adventure that had a plot twist I pegged almost immediately.
Maybe Vex and Vax need the balance of the rest of Vox Machina to really carry a story, I don't know. I was sorely missing the banter characters like Scanlan and Grog would have brought to the plotline. It likely would have made it more interesting even if the plot itself was still lame, as none of these one-off side characters were all that appealing.
This book is skippable to me, even if you're a Critical Role fan. Hopefully, the Laudna one is better.
Maybe Vex and Vax need the balance of the rest of Vox Machina to really carry a story, I don't know. I was sorely missing the banter characters like Scanlan and Grog would have brought to the plotline. It likely would have made it more interesting even if the plot itself was still lame, as none of these one-off side characters were all that appealing.
This book is skippable to me, even if you're a Critical Role fan. Hopefully, the Laudna one is better.
Bro the twins are my roman empire okay this was just SO dull to me
I never liked audio books until listening to this one! Absolutely fantastic! And the story was so fun and wonderful. It was great to see these characters is even more ways!
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Okay where to start? Maybe with the stuff I liked. The story overall was good and more twins content is always amazing. But omg the pacing. The pacing is so slow. So it was about 260 pages of 10% plot, 90% angst. It got better towards the end but it was really hard to push through the boring bits.
I just realized I never got around to writing a review for this the first time I read it. We're a year and some change later, and I've just finished my reread (which I sorely needed after finishing season two of The Legend of Vox Machina).
This isn't the best fantasy book out there, and I'd be hard-pressed to believe this offers anything for those who aren't already fans of Critical Role/Vox Machina/the Vessar twins coming into this. But it offers so much for those people who are fans - a chance to experience a part of Vex and Vax's past, a more slow meandering through Exandria than the D&D sessions or the animated show, a feeling of closeness.
Vex is my favorite character from campaign one, and I'd spend millions of words with her if I could.
Nijkamp knows the characters and the setting extremely well. It's the most important aspect of the story to me, because as said previously, the rest leaves a little to be desired - which is why it's not a five star read for me.
This isn't the best fantasy book out there, and I'd be hard-pressed to believe this offers anything for those who aren't already fans of Critical Role/Vox Machina/the Vessar twins coming into this. But it offers so much for those people who are fans - a chance to experience a part of Vex and Vax's past, a more slow meandering through Exandria than the D&D sessions or the animated show, a feeling of closeness.
Vex is my favorite character from campaign one, and I'd spend millions of words with her if I could.
Nijkamp knows the characters and the setting extremely well. It's the most important aspect of the story to me, because as said previously, the rest leaves a little to be desired - which is why it's not a five star read for me.
adventurous
funny
inspiring
fast-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:
No
I enjoyed it as a critical role fan but as a novel it’s just average.
A great story that places the reader back into the Vox Machina narrative. My heart lit up hearing Liam and Laura voice the twins, and Robbie Damond as the narrator displayed an impressive range of voices that gave life to each character. The plot goes beyond the tropes of "we're not so different, you and I" with some twists and turns at the end. Definitely leans at times more into the gore than the funny ha ha side of Critical Role, but the heart and soul is still there. A good read for any fan of the show or just a fan of fantasy, mystery and intrigue.
I’m an admittedly very casual fan of Critical Role. I followed Vox Machina semi-regularly in high school and I’ve listened to smatterings of the subsequent campaigns in podcast form. So while I’m not as intensely into it as some, I’d say I have a good idea of what to expect going into the brand’s forays.
It’s…fine. It’s serviceable. It’s not bad, just not very interesting. The writing is bland, though the voices of Vex and Vax are well captured. Critical Role caught lightning in a bottle with the main cast’s chemistry and enthusiasm which is not captured here at all. The story is played totally straight, resulting in a novel that’s generic fantasy, severely lacking in both cheek and charm. Both aspects I think are, well, critical.
There’s also some incredibly odd structural choices that I would find less egregious if the actual content was more compelling. Additionally, integrating flashbacks is an incredibly difficult thing to do in a satisfying way. Each flashback should feel as though it is adding context to the present day story, be it for character’s actions or behaviours, context in the historical sense or even just some good old parallels and symbolism. Here, they seemed random and irrelevant to the main action though for reasons I can’t put my finger on they did engage me significantly more than the main plot (which itself is spread thin).
I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Robbie Daymond with Laura Bailey and Liam O’Brien returning as Vex and Vax which certainly improved my enjoyment. If I wasn’t listening to the audio I doubt I would have finished this book. Robbie is a fantastic narrator. If you’re a Critical Role fan wanting to read this book, I highly recommend listening to the audio version.
I definitely sound very (haha) critical but I’ll reiterate: I thought it was fine. Painfully average. It just didn’t feel like Critical Role to me.
It’s…fine. It’s serviceable. It’s not bad, just not very interesting. The writing is bland, though the voices of Vex and Vax are well captured. Critical Role caught lightning in a bottle with the main cast’s chemistry and enthusiasm which is not captured here at all. The story is played totally straight, resulting in a novel that’s generic fantasy, severely lacking in both cheek and charm. Both aspects I think are, well, critical.
There’s also some incredibly odd structural choices that I would find less egregious if the actual content was more compelling. Additionally, integrating flashbacks is an incredibly difficult thing to do in a satisfying way. Each flashback should feel as though it is adding context to the present day story, be it for character’s actions or behaviours, context in the historical sense or even just some good old parallels and symbolism. Here, they seemed random and irrelevant to the main action though for reasons I can’t put my finger on they did engage me significantly more than the main plot (which itself is spread thin).
I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Robbie Daymond with Laura Bailey and Liam O’Brien returning as Vex and Vax which certainly improved my enjoyment. If I wasn’t listening to the audio I doubt I would have finished this book. Robbie is a fantastic narrator. If you’re a Critical Role fan wanting to read this book, I highly recommend listening to the audio version.
I definitely sound very (haha) critical but I’ll reiterate: I thought it was fine. Painfully average. It just didn’t feel like Critical Role to me.