By AhraManyu
Rakna was not normal. No, unmistakably not. Whether it was his appearance, his personality, his abilities, his identity, nothing about him had ever been banal. Was it his choice? No. He was merely but a tormented soul doing its utmost to live the
A really good foundation and clearly good abilities, but awkward and simplistic execution. Feels a lot like a partially filled in outline rather than a fleshed out story.
Let me be clear about my criticisms: I give them as I think this author has a ton of potential! I'm harsh because I'm disappointed that this story which has all the parts nessicary to be great, doesn't quite make it.
The writing is mostly there. Some weird word choice here and there and a tendency to choose complex words rather than their simpler equivalents. The author also uses a bit too many adj and adv.
The setting is very vague, there are cars and guns, but there is very little explanation or questioning of the rest of the world so it's unclear to me if the rest is medieval or more modern. It seems like it's just medieval world with guns and cars randomly since there has been no mention of other electric appliances, phones, lights, etc.
The plot seems like it was planned out fully from the start. Unfortunately it is rushed and much of it is forced. One of the first chapters has the MC make quite a few decisions that seem to have no reason behind them.
Characters are thin, but that's OK. I am disappointed by the MC and his summoner's relationship though. She pulled him into this world forcefully and he has been following her with no explanation as to why he doesn't just go off on his own, nothing has been shown about the function of the familiar contract as he doesn't seem to be her slave but just a person with his mark on his hand for all we've seen. She acts as if he owes her and he accepts it despite having no reason to.
An other issue I have is that very early on the mc's background is revealed and we are told that people have certain expectations for his growth. Personally I find this kind of development, just like prophesies, heavily detracts from the joy in seeing the MC get stronger since we already know he is expected to easily grow to pinnacle, whether he works for it or not.
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