The Deer King, Vol. 1: Survivors - Interesting world building and the prose reads more like a “regular” fantasy novel in the way it is written in a way that needs more attention to follow along than your typical LN. The pro of this is that it’s missing all the usual LN tropes. The series is divided by two separate protagonists and switching their POVs every chapter. And quite frankly, I was completely uninterested by one of the protagonists and towards the end I just started to only skim his chapters. So for me there was only part of the book worth reading and that part was even a lot smaller than the second POV. - 2/10.
Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools Volume 8 - What the series does really well in the latest few volumes (and Lucia) is telling a emotional story about side characters. Dahlia and Volf take a step back and become story vehicles for the people around them. In this volume it’s an elderly veteran captain of the Beast Hunter Order that gets a magical prosthetic made by Dahlia and how this changes his life. The author is very good at making one care for a side character in a short time. This veteran for example wasn’t introduced until this volume but by the end I felt tear up (in a good way) by his story. I like this step back from the main couple approach the series has shifted to. It will probably be a hard balancing act going forward to not forget to advance Dahlia’s relationship as well, but I’m happy with how it turned out so far. - 8/10
The Deer King, Vol. 1: Survivors - Interesting world building and the prose reads more like a “regular” fantasy novel in the way it is written in a way that needs more attention to follow along than your typical LN. The pro of this is that it’s missing all the usual LN tropes. The series is divided by two separate protagonists and switching their POVs every chapter. And quite frankly, I was completely uninterested by one of the protagonists and towards the end I just started to only skim his chapters. So for me there was only part of the book worth reading and that part was even a lot smaller than the second POV. - 2/10.
Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools Volume 8 - What the series does really well in the latest few volumes (and Lucia) is telling a emotional story about side characters. Dahlia and Volf take a step back and become story vehicles for the people around them. In this volume it’s an elderly veteran captain of the Beast Hunter Order that gets a magical prosthetic made by Dahlia and how this changes his life. The author is very good at making one care for a side character in a short time. This veteran for example wasn’t introduced until this volume but by the end I felt tear up (in a good way) by his story. I like this step back from the main couple approach the series has shifted to. It will probably be a hard balancing act going forward to not forget to advance Dahlia’s relationship as well, but I’m happy with how it turned out so far. - 8/10