The shock-value with Firefly and the multi-gambit-pileup was a bit too telegraphed in my opinion, and the Aventurine's backstory was a touch too emotionally on-the-nose for my liking, but the execution was still good (as seen by the amount of people simping for Firefly, getting shocked by what happened to her, or how many people's impression did a 180 on Aventurine)
I agree with you on the Firefly. I don't really get the hype for her and her "death" was a bit underwhelming for me to the point I just laughed at that scene. As for Aventurine, well, I already liked him since his first appearance, so the 2.1 quest was such a blessing to me.
To be fair, all the HSR characters are hyped like crazy by the community. Acheron was hyped even before she was officially announced, and as for Firefly... well, she's specifically designed to be a "waifu" archetype, and quickly build affection with the players for the sucker punch and the twist. It would've been stranger if people didn't get attached to her.
As for Aventurine, I've been holding my judgement on him from the beginning, because I clearly saw that the writers were "doing a thing" with him, so I was expecting him to be more layered than initially shown. I found his background and story in 2.1 a bit too melodramatic, but it *was* effective, so I can't complain.
In terms of "drastic change", you are right before the part where the supernatural elements of the setting get to the forefront. As for the pacing, The Simulacrum is mainly a slice-of-life story with occasional hot-spots of action, usually near the end of the volumes, so on average the pacing is going to stay on the slow side.
umm... can you please spoil on who'll snowy end up with, i'm ready for it(i can't read properly if the question keeps getting in my head)... i'm definitely not going to scream on my pillow if you say it's gonna be josh... so, SPOILZ
Hey bro, is there gonna be some, like, romance about 'our' mc? Or is Josh getting all the girls, or is romance even important, maybe in the next few chapters the world will break and all the characters will be gone... Yeah, so. Is there gonna be romance?
I just finished up the third buffer chapter and uploaded it to Patreon today. The twelve hour shifts are really burning me out, but unless they decide to revamp our shift rotation again, I should be getting a whole week off after next Wednesday. That should give me some time to finish things up and return to the usual schedule.
Oh, right... I haven't wrote an announcement here yet, only on Royal Road.
In short, I'm on an indefinite hiatus until I manage to build up enough of a backlog. I only planned for it to last for a month at most, but then I got pneumonia, so you know, that was fun.
I just started working again yesterday, but then my workplace shifted into an emergency shift-rotation system due to the whole coronavirus hubbub, which means 12 hour work days and 6 workday weeks until further notice. So yeah, life's being kind of a pain in the neck right now.
I'm trying to write as much as possible even under the circumstances, but it's not easy. There are already two full chapters on Patreon, and once I have two more to meet the quota I set, I plan on resuming the public releases, with those four chappies serving as a buffer.
Is this Jim butcher under a pseudonym or are you just a big fan of the Dresden files? Your writing strikes me as very similar. If not check them out. Super good regular book series.
No on the first one, yes on the second. :)
I am also a fan of his Codex Alera series, though I find it to be a story of amazing highs and disappointing lows.