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ariadHavemercy
I finished reading Havemercy. EXCELLENT BOOK.
1. LOVE THE CHARACTERIZATION. Royston is pretty emotionally healthy, but he still has that hiding behind words thing going on. Rook is a rat bastard, and I love him for it. Hal seems to be the least developed of the bunch, but he's still amusing. Thom is, in my head, a bit like Simon from Firefly, but that might also be me trying to make him and Hal not the same person, which they are absolutely not, Thom being much more vindictive (but still not very vindictive at all, but Hal is like :3 so), but, um, they're intelligent, therefore.
2. I'm a bit disappointed that after having finished the book, I remember nothing about Ivory, Evariste, or Jeannot, although I feel like I read Jeannot's name a lot. Most of the Dragon Corps are pretty minor, undeveloped characters, but they usually have a thing, like leaving boots in the doorway or giggling a lot. And everything I remember about Luvander has to do with the ending.
3. Plot came in a bit late—about 200 pages late. But the first 200 pages of setup were a joy to read, so the only downsides are that it makes the book a bit less cohesive, and for the first 200 pages, I didn't know what it was actually about.
4. The book is not about Havemercy, nor is it about "Royston, Hal, Thom, and Rook." Instead, it's separately about "Royston and Hal" and "Thom and Rook." Havemercy is a nice title, but Havemercy wasn't really the point. She never had anything to do with Royston or Hal except in the most indirect sense. But I don't know what else you'd call it, and I don't much care for the title of the sequel, Shadow Magic.
5. I wish we had been provided more insight into the motivations of Dragon Corps at the end. I have some theories, involving an odd sense of honor and purpose, but you don't just do that without having something enormously important to fight for, and with them cut off from society as they were (which actually may have contributed to their actions; see: purpose or imminent lack thereof), I don't think they could have been fighting for the usual, obvious motivations like patriotism, saving lives, etc. Rook's motivations were revealed, and they didn't fall in line well with my honor and purpose theories, but for the others, that's what makes the most sense to me.
6. OH GOD THE END WAS SO SAD. AND YET. SO HAPPY. AND I LOVE ROOK'S MUTABILITY/IMMUTABILITY.
7. Hal was awfully convenient.
8. Royston used his Talent once, if I'm not mistaken. Just once. Hm.
9. PERFECT FIRST PERSON. Magnificent mixture of introspection and action, asdfggghhhh.
10. I actually understand most of the politics. Astounding.
Final Fantasy VIII
I finally defeated Diablos. It's a bit sad, really, considering the Garden's already going crazy and all my other GFs, save for Brothers, are at least level 20. But I tried and tried and could not beat Diablos until yesterday, when I stole all of my non-party members' magic and beefed up my party's stats like whoa. I also had plenty of Cura this time around instead of lowly Cure. Even then, Diablos nearly owned me with two Gravijas in a row, and Rinoa KO'd twice. He also knocked Quezacotl out, even though birdy boy has the most HP out of all my GFs.
I've been thinking about how the GF system in FFVIII is so much better than the Summon system in FFVII. In VIII, you actually give a shit who has what because the GFs directly affect stats and abilities. Plus, you actually use them because you don't have to conserve MP, so conservative as I am about magic, I have no qualms about using Shiva against a T-Rexaur six times in one battle. GFs take a long time to summon, but they deal enough damage that it's worth it, and the Boost system makes the player actually appreciate longer summoning times.
GOOD GAME, THIS ONE. But when NORG's followers started unleashing Grats on me, I had to wonder if they were serious.
I finished reading Havemercy. EXCELLENT BOOK.
1. LOVE THE CHARACTERIZATION. Royston is pretty emotionally healthy, but he still has that hiding behind words thing going on. Rook is a rat bastard, and I love him for it. Hal seems to be the least developed of the bunch, but he's still amusing. Thom is, in my head, a bit like Simon from Firefly, but that might also be me trying to make him and Hal not the same person, which they are absolutely not, Thom being much more vindictive (but still not very vindictive at all, but Hal is like :3 so), but, um, they're intelligent, therefore.
2. I'm a bit disappointed that after having finished the book, I remember nothing about Ivory, Evariste, or Jeannot, although I feel like I read Jeannot's name a lot. Most of the Dragon Corps are pretty minor, undeveloped characters, but they usually have a thing, like leaving boots in the doorway or giggling a lot. And everything I remember about Luvander has to do with the ending.
3. Plot came in a bit late—about 200 pages late. But the first 200 pages of setup were a joy to read, so the only downsides are that it makes the book a bit less cohesive, and for the first 200 pages, I didn't know what it was actually about.
4. The book is not about Havemercy, nor is it about "Royston, Hal, Thom, and Rook." Instead, it's separately about "Royston and Hal" and "Thom and Rook." Havemercy is a nice title, but Havemercy wasn't really the point. She never had anything to do with Royston or Hal except in the most indirect sense. But I don't know what else you'd call it, and I don't much care for the title of the sequel, Shadow Magic.
5. I wish we had been provided more insight into the motivations of Dragon Corps at the end. I have some theories, involving an odd sense of honor and purpose, but you don't just do that without having something enormously important to fight for, and with them cut off from society as they were (which actually may have contributed to their actions; see: purpose or imminent lack thereof), I don't think they could have been fighting for the usual, obvious motivations like patriotism, saving lives, etc. Rook's motivations were revealed, and they didn't fall in line well with my honor and purpose theories, but for the others, that's what makes the most sense to me.
6. OH GOD THE END WAS SO SAD. AND YET. SO HAPPY. AND I LOVE ROOK'S MUTABILITY/IMMUTABILITY.
7. Hal was awfully convenient.
8. Royston used his Talent once, if I'm not mistaken. Just once. Hm.
9. PERFECT FIRST PERSON. Magnificent mixture of introspection and action, asdfggghhhh.
10. I actually understand most of the politics. Astounding.
Final Fantasy VIII
I finally defeated Diablos. It's a bit sad, really, considering the Garden's already going crazy and all my other GFs, save for Brothers, are at least level 20. But I tried and tried and could not beat Diablos until yesterday, when I stole all of my non-party members' magic and beefed up my party's stats like whoa. I also had plenty of Cura this time around instead of lowly Cure. Even then, Diablos nearly owned me with two Gravijas in a row, and Rinoa KO'd twice. He also knocked Quezacotl out, even though birdy boy has the most HP out of all my GFs.
I've been thinking about how the GF system in FFVIII is so much better than the Summon system in FFVII. In VIII, you actually give a shit who has what because the GFs directly affect stats and abilities. Plus, you actually use them because you don't have to conserve MP, so conservative as I am about magic, I have no qualms about using Shiva against a T-Rexaur six times in one battle. GFs take a long time to summon, but they deal enough damage that it's worth it, and the Boost system makes the player actually appreciate longer summoning times.
GOOD GAME, THIS ONE. But when NORG's followers started unleashing Grats on me, I had to wonder if they were serious.
