kintsugi
the warmth of summer in the songs you write
- Joined
- May 9, 2013
- Messages
- 1,971
- Reaction score
- 1,064
Belated post-awards review + rushed because of tropical storm; sorry!
Plot
This ended up being an interesting mix of genres -- there's some slice of life, some contest stuff, and as of late a central thrust into some detective shenanigans. The pacing of the plot itself feels a little off: we get tons of motivations for our characters to do things surprisingly early on, but we don't really have any actions for them to do until much later.
That being said, getting this much character development over plot was refreshing, and I don't think that the slow-moving plot in favor of worldbuilding/characters was remotely a bad idea.
Setting
The setting felt rich and well-thought out, not just because of the physical setting -- which was great in itself. There's cool nods to culture, lots of feeling that there's a whole globe stretching on beyond what the characters show us, cool new fakemons, and so forth. What impressed me the most were how real the one-off side characters felt, and how much they were able to add to the story: the tea trolley lady on the train, for example, feels like a real and moving part of the setting rather than a device to serve tea.
Characters
Easily some of the best third-tier/supporting characters I've seen in a fic so far.
The interactions between Andrea and the second-tier cast are also great. Kimberly is interesting, Dr. Reiland has a surprising amount of depth, and overall everyone is pretty interesting. It's early on that there's nothing ground-shaking here, but given that the plot doesn't feel like the main focus most of the time, these are some pretty cool characters.
Style/Grammar
It's clean. It works. I like the descriptions and this is probably the first time I've been really happy to read series of contest appeals in a row and enjoyed it.
Grammar checks out. A few typos, but nothing that I can even remember at this point, so all good.
Overall
This was a delightful read, and I'm a little sad that I waited this long to sink my teeth into it. I do wish there was more of a central thrust to the story, but so far there's been a lush setting, tons of interesting characters, and overall a very well-written story.
Plot
This ended up being an interesting mix of genres -- there's some slice of life, some contest stuff, and as of late a central thrust into some detective shenanigans. The pacing of the plot itself feels a little off: we get tons of motivations for our characters to do things surprisingly early on, but we don't really have any actions for them to do until much later.
That being said, getting this much character development over plot was refreshing, and I don't think that the slow-moving plot in favor of worldbuilding/characters was remotely a bad idea.
Setting
The setting felt rich and well-thought out, not just because of the physical setting -- which was great in itself. There's cool nods to culture, lots of feeling that there's a whole globe stretching on beyond what the characters show us, cool new fakemons, and so forth. What impressed me the most were how real the one-off side characters felt, and how much they were able to add to the story: the tea trolley lady on the train, for example, feels like a real and moving part of the setting rather than a device to serve tea.
Characters
Easily some of the best third-tier/supporting characters I've seen in a fic so far.
The interactions between Andrea and the second-tier cast are also great. Kimberly is interesting, Dr. Reiland has a surprising amount of depth, and overall everyone is pretty interesting. It's early on that there's nothing ground-shaking here, but given that the plot doesn't feel like the main focus most of the time, these are some pretty cool characters.
Style/Grammar
It's clean. It works. I like the descriptions and this is probably the first time I've been really happy to read series of contest appeals in a row and enjoyed it.
Grammar checks out. A few typos, but nothing that I can even remember at this point, so all good.
Overall
This was a delightful read, and I'm a little sad that I waited this long to sink my teeth into it. I do wish there was more of a central thrust to the story, but so far there's been a lush setting, tons of interesting characters, and overall a very well-written story.