Wonders never cease, this is actually a novel with a protagonist that is neither an idiot (in fact, he's actually incredibly clever) nor keeps it constantly outside his pants. The MC keeps to his character setting of a trickster type of combatant without bullsh*tting his way through power-up after power-up. He has interesting/fun responses to the situations he's either being tossed or tossing himself into. There is a fascinating plot rife with questions waiting to be answered as the MC slowly opens his eyes and experiences this new world of his— gotta love that worldbuilding. The side characters have yet to disappoint, with personalities and backstories that aren't so flimsy you can cut it open with a puff of air. So far, I would say the point of contention is that the villains feel a bit more heavy-handed compared to the quality of the rest of the story.

Spoiler

Honestly speaking, this is more directed towards Gis the dark priest, and maybe Basgar (he could just be a one-off character we don't need to know a whole lot about, but it doesn't seem like that so far). Gis felt a little flat in terms of personality, but what do I know? He could just be an enormous douchebag, nothing complicated. Another thing was that the MC, for how clever he is, never seemed to even think that Lena could be a spy until she told him herself, and instead decided to trust that she has a life at the Keep, and nothing else is apparently needed. Slightly annoyed because I was literally screaming It's so obviously her!

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Speaking of quality, there aren't really any grammar/spelling errors either—bonus!

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Glenn-Glass

Status: 4.15 – into noviel

Jun 26, 2022

Trickster's Song is a solid story. I think I put off reading it due to the Boy's Love tag, but (so far) that isn't really relevant to the story. Think of the tamest of horny bards in a given DnD session except he just flirts with guys instead. It doesn't really come up often.

Tom as an author has decided to play hard mode as far as online serialization goes by choosing to hinge the story heavily on the Clever Protagonist theme. Most conflicts are resolved through trickery rather than brute force murder hoboing and I think the story delivers splendidly for the first three arcs. I say this is hard mode because as soon as the audience thinks the MC is no longer being clever they're taken out of the story. Because the MC in their head would never make that decision. I hit this point in arc four where I kept repeatedly wondering why the MC made certain decisions.

But I soldier on because the writing skills are leagues above a vast majority of stories on here. When the MC's only major form of attack is arcane-infused insults and the writer can back them up, then it's just plain good fun. I mean, c'mon, where else are you going to read such excellent similes as "like a cyborg climaxing after electronically edging for a full powercycle".

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unlimitedpower

Status: 4.1-into noviel

Jan 6, 2022

Very fun novel to read. The main character is a fun character and he has a fun class to go with that. The side characters feel alive and luckily the romance isn't a big deal so far. No grammar issues that I could spot so that's a plus. Go read it, it's good.

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