I was interested in these books for some time (although I was disappointed that there weren't more female Masters/ Servants) as from what I heard they seemed to address many of the problems I had with Fate Stay Night, namely how it mostly ignored its concept of the War for the sake of metaphysical babble.
The first volume won't win anyone over. While not bad, it's all pretty much just setup. Expect to think Get On With It Already a few times, especially with how many viewpoints the author tries to cover. Speaking of him (or them), it is a bit hard to adjust to his/their writing style.
But as the book goes on, it becomes more intriguing and its characters better fleshed-out and likable, even if they're apparently not going to be sticking around for much longer, and the climax of this first part was well-done, if feeling a bit too crowded.
One character who does not become more likable however is main character Kiritsugu (and by extension Maiya). True, he's not really meant to be the 'likable' sort, and I can understand and accept that, but there should at least be something that makes me root for him, and this is coming from someone who's read the Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant. With Saber, Waver/ Rider, Kariya and even Kirei I can like them, feel sorry for them or at least be interested about them (strangely Saber's probably a better character here than she was in Fate Stay Night), but with Kiritsugu it's just hard to even care, which is sad as he was one character I was looking forward to. Thankfully not much of the book is spent from his perspective, despite him being the protagonist.
All the artwork is well-drawn and nice to look at, no complaints whatsoever in this area.
It's a hard start, what with the writing style (or maybe that's just Baka Tsuki's translation), Kiritsugu and how it takes a while to really get anywhere, but it seems like it'll be finally picking up with the next volume. Needless to say this book series could actually end up being quite good, and I don't really have many problems with most cynical series. Shame I'm not so optimistic about the main character.
Book 1: A rough start, but it does show promise
I was interested in these books for some time (although I was disappointed that there weren't more female Masters/ Servants) as from what I heard they seemed to address many of the problems I had with Fate Stay Night, namely how it mostly ignored its concept of the War for the sake of metaphysical babble.
The first volume won't win anyone over. While not bad, it's all pretty much just setup. Expect to think Get On With It Already a few times, especially with how many viewpoints the author tries to cover. Speaking of him (or them), it is a bit hard to adjust to his/their writing style.
But as the book goes on, it becomes more intriguing and its characters better fleshed-out and likable, even if they're apparently not going to be sticking around for much longer, and the climax of this first part was well-done, if feeling a bit too crowded.
One character who does not become more likable however is main character Kiritsugu (and by extension Maiya). True, he's not really meant to be the 'likable' sort, and I can understand and accept that, but there should at least be something that makes me root for him, and this is coming from someone who's read the Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant. With Saber, Waver/ Rider, Kariya and even Kirei I can like them, feel sorry for them or at least be interested about them (strangely Saber's probably a better character here than she was in Fate Stay Night), but with Kiritsugu it's just hard to even care, which is sad as he was one character I was looking forward to. Thankfully not much of the book is spent from his perspective, despite him being the protagonist.
All the artwork is well-drawn and nice to look at, no complaints whatsoever in this area.
It's a hard start, what with the writing style (or maybe that's just Baka Tsuki's translation), Kiritsugu and how it takes a while to really get anywhere, but it seems like it'll be finally picking up with the next volume. Needless to say this book series could actually end up being quite good, and I don't really have many problems with most cynical series. Shame I'm not so optimistic about the main character.