The first thing to catch my eye in this book was how there is artwork of the characters.
Is it weird to say that having maps and lists of important characters is too commonplace now? Oftentimes when starting a book, I tend to move past these without looking too much into them, figuring I'll just get the information when I read the actual story.
But not many books have character art within the first few pages, and I really enjoyed how Strike The Zither included this.
This story seems to be about a woman named Zephyr who is too full of self-importance for her own good and works as the strategist for this rebellion against the empire's regent. I think this shows my first problem with this work, as even though I enjoy political fantasy, I'm not as big on military fantasy. Zephyr being a strategist means she would often be involved in the planning for a large group of people, and that's just not something I'm really into.
But the biggest problem I had with this first look is that I didn't see any reason to care for these characters. Just because they were there doesn't mean that a reader is going to latch onto them, and this book gave no insight into who they are as people within the first two chapters for readers to make an informed decision on which characters to like. Why should we cheer for Ren over Miasma when we have no knowledge on who they are? Why should the betrayal shown in the second chapter matter to us when we don't understand how hard it hits the characters?
I could, in the future, end up picking up this book again and absolutely enjoying the full story. However, from this first look alone, I find no real reason to care for this book.
Is it weird to say that having maps and lists of important characters is too commonplace now? Oftentimes when starting a book, I tend to move past these without looking too much into them, figuring I'll just get the information when I read the actual story.
But not many books have character art within the first few pages, and I really enjoyed how Strike The Zither included this.
This story seems to be about a woman named Zephyr who is too full of self-importance for her own good and works as the strategist for this rebellion against the empire's regent. I think this shows my first problem with this work, as even though I enjoy political fantasy, I'm not as big on military fantasy. Zephyr being a strategist means she would often be involved in the planning for a large group of people, and that's just not something I'm really into.
But the biggest problem I had with this first look is that I didn't see any reason to care for these characters. Just because they were there doesn't mean that a reader is going to latch onto them, and this book gave no insight into who they are as people within the first two chapters for readers to make an informed decision on which characters to like. Why should we cheer for Ren over Miasma when we have no knowledge on who they are? Why should the betrayal shown in the second chapter matter to us when we don't understand how hard it hits the characters?
I could, in the future, end up picking up this book again and absolutely enjoying the full story. However, from this first look alone, I find no real reason to care for this book.