also still no gay sex by the way. whatever though 🚬🚬🚬🚬
seen from India
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Canada
seen from China
seen from Cambodia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Switzerland
seen from Switzerland
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Serbia
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seen from Romania
seen from Switzerland
also still no gay sex by the way. whatever though 🚬🚬🚬🚬
this book has become enjoyable again because of the sheer ridiculous scale of its world building. this entire fantasy world is a result of a god descending upon the modern world and transforming all sinful technology into magic which made supercomputers into dragons who could take the form of humans. one of these dragon supercomputers is currently trying to kill god to restore the world to its former glory and he is hiding out with the main character in an underwater theme park because that is one of the last places that god cannot reach and so technology still functions. the theme park is also piled with the corpses of the people who were trapped there when the world transformed. the elf villain is seeking out the help of a half dragon slash supercomputer half elf who performs magical sex changes regularly to find the main character. and no it is still not written well at all but i have to admire the chutzpah of doing something this nonsensical so that i can tell my friends about it. and it's only a little bit boring now, which is kind of impressive that it's managed to be boring at all considering all of this crazy shit but oh well i am still chugging along
the elf villain is canonically transphobic
i understand that there are more roastable things about this book but how many of its haters have actually read it because people absolutely need to know that a huge part of the lore of this world is that it is implied to be a future version of our world in which some many tentacled god created all magic and persuaded its followers to abandon all modern technology and the church worshipping that god enforces keeping everything in the state of a classic fantasy setting and destroys things like microwaves and books about physics. what a strange and grand story to put into a book like this
i was actually on board with things for maybe 30 or 40 pages when it felt like we were actually experiencing a natural dynamic shift in these characters, their interactions with each other and the world were meaningfully changing them in ways that tracked with who we knew them to be and it was fun! but it was lost all too easily....
i think a really core issue is that the story is struggling to form a really strong connection between the fantasy plot and the romance plot, we keep sort of dropping the thing that ties the two together before picking it back up later but it's slightly different now. it makes it difficult to feel grounded in what's happening. also the characters are flat as hell and especially the two biggest characters besides the mc seem to randomly change their motivations whenever the plot requires it
every moment in this book that's supposed to be important happens twice in a row it's actually infuriating. the first 75 pages were just the main guy almost dying because of his friend and fleeing to the sorcerer's castle then he goes back to find his friend and almost dies because of her so he flees to the sorcerer's castle. then he gets "turned into a woman" and tries to seduce the sorcerer which is at first met with annoyance but then it works. after that he tries to seduce the sorcerer again but the sorcerer just gets annoyed until you guessed it. it works. so after that when he gets changed back to his old body they get in a fight and the sorcerer tells him to leave but he decides he doesn't want to so he confronts the sorcerer and gets told to leave but he decides he doesn't want to. i am losing my fucking mind
like. okay. this character is supposed to be a shallow idiot to be fair. this absolutely was not supposed to be Commentary on Womanhood or whatever. but the fact of the matter is is that a significant portion of this book has somebody magically changing their "bodily sex" and the purpose of this seems to be 1) to create humor out of noting multiple times how huge and fun to play with his boobs are, 2) to sort of softlaunch the love interest's attraction to him, which is just unnecessary, people picking up this book are probably looking for gay sex and/or romance and this isn't like. strong character development. it's just him wanting to fuck the main guy as a woman. which means nothing to me. and 3) to create a humorous moment where the guy gawks at how crazy and gross periods are. and it's fine to talk about the undesirable parts about it obviously it does suck for a lot of people but combined with the other stuff it's just like but did we have to. especially in the context of a character who is both a man and has never experienced this before being like ewwwwwwwww i don't want to be a woman anymore :(((( it does not come across as just a silly moment combined with everything else