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PaperclipPerfector  18hr ago (text post)   397 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 18, 2026

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I get what the author was trying to do with these two books, and while I'm doubtful he has the skills to actually pull it off,

Worth noting that the author has a previous book series about time travel that does some very elegant and intricate stuff, while the writing has some issues the managing the complex plot is not one of them.

I haven't read the Licanus trilogy, but its at least comforting to hear he can keep a complex plot going. However there are a pretty constant set of signposts that have me worried. (Minor spoilers)

  • In WotM whenever the main character runs into a challenge he magically repeats a mantra like this: "Well back home I had the best tutors in the world, they taught me how to take the best, most perfect poop in any toilet. Little does this enemy know that I am very experienced at taking a dump...", then he proceeds to win. Rinse and repeat for every situation in the book.
  • The 2nd book adds 2 extra worlds, we meet a new cast of companions and enemies in each of the new worlds. There is legitimately not enough pages in the book for these characters to be anything more than cardboard cut outs. This book could have used some beta readers or an editor telling him to add 200 pages or split this into 2-3 shorter books
  • The one character other than the main character that got character development was killed off at the middle of arc 3 in a way that will be a stretch for any resurrection shenanigans. I don't really mind character deaths but this feels inefficient from a plot perspective as at least 50 pages was invested in this character in an already extremely tight book. There was a lot of tell-not-show in #2, if a death was required to motivate the MC then killing one of those characters would have been more efficient.
  • Lastly, Book #1 introduced, and book #2 continue to have these devices that are essentially infinite negative utility torture devices. They chain you to one and it makes you comatose and sucks the life out of you over a decade, while making you a magical battery for someone else. In world it's extremely horrific, people in them do anything they can to get out. They seemingly have thousands of them, despite them being rare. It's a massive plot hole that they don't just put anyone who is even a little inconvenient into one, or threaten anyone who does do what they want with being put in one. Infinite use, zero-cost, passive torture devices solve a lot of problems.

None of these are explicitly plot-based problems (besides #4), they are almost to a T, character-based problems. But they are so bad as to be crippling, in my opinion, to a well oiled plot.

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