Range Anxiety

Spoilers:

Range Anxiety is an apt metaphor that best sums up the MC. He is either running out of time (due to illness) or running out of energy (due to plot mechanics) or running out of lifespan later on when he gets fixed.He is constantly running on empty. He is rarely full, he is kept partially charged by rarely writing in enough food or rest for the guy. So, while he is probably the most powerful gilded, he is the most nerfed gilded. I understand why mechanics like this might be put in place, I find it an annoying tool that leads to far too many monologues about his low energy and and how he is worried about running out. Range Anxiety.

The narration. Everyone is kind of sounding the same at this point. The girls sound like a slightly feminized MC. Sooo it kind of takes you out of the moment.

The aww-shucks voicing of the main character is tiring. The author tells you the MC is angry, upset and/or sad, but the Narrator never actually imparts those emotions into voicing. The MC somehow sounds like a mix between 2000’s stylized nerd and an old man. It’s just so hard to take the MC seriously. I’m not trying to be hard on the narrator, but this many books in, I mean…it’s not me. Literally all of the men get voiced more manly somehow than the MC. The narrators voice goes up and down and doesn’t sound monotone, but after a few books you realize there are other forms of monotone, like when the narrator never emotes according to any of the characters feelings or descriptors of state of mind. Instead the MC gets more “aww-shucks” sounding.

The series definitely suffers from “tell not do”, you spend so much time in MC monologue land that there is no time for actual doing. Instead it’s the main character telling you what’s happening or what has happened and rarely is the reader/listener put into perspective where they feel they are in the moment with the characters. When it does happen the author pulls it off well. I’d love to see things from some of the other characters tees perspectives. The lack of that serves only to make the characters seem flat, less real and far less relatable.

I’m still listening to this series so there is plenty to enjoy, but it has some real flaws. Still, it’s worth a read/listen and has some great moments. I think being stuck in monologue zone and the aww-shucks voicing of the MC has finally worn me down, and the seeming lack of image curiosity written into this character that has Jedi like powers, but rarely seems to push himself to learn. It’s always in the moment, no joy of discovery is shared with the reader as details are glossed over or new things happen but in the heat of battle. The MC is self reflective but to a fault and this undermines rhetoric coolness of rhetoric MC. And finally, why is the timing always so bad. MC always interrupted from meals or could get self powering sigal marks but of course a bad guy shows up. The timing on the part of the enemy, by luck or preplanned is so impeccable that it’s almost laughable. Instead of cool training montages we get self deprecating feels sessions or some other device that doesn’t do more than just propel the scenery.

You should download the book. It’s worth it. Lots of good moments except all seem through one set of eyes mostly.

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