u/CallAdministrative88

One of my best friends when I was a kid had a dad who was a big Mel Brooks fan, so I ended up watching most of them before I was a teenager, but my favourite was and still is Spaceballs. I saw it SO many times as a kid, and I was also not particularly into sci-fi so I didn't watch an actual Star Wars movie until I was I think 19 or 20.

I am incapable of enjoying a single Star War. All I end up doing is talking about combing the desert and having coffee before I watch radar and First Mate Private Asshole and then all of my Star Wars fandom friends tell me to go away.

What's one parody you enjoy more than the actual movie, so much so that it supersedes the original in your mind?

I'm trying to read more romantasy because I genuinely like the idea of it, but I'm coming into the genre as someone who reads a lot of horror and fantasy with smaller romantic subplots, so they're not trying to do as many things at once.

I got recommended The Lies That Summon the Night awhile ago and gave it a shot because the premise sounded neat, and as a writer who has a lot of artistic hobbies, the concept of the arts as this evil religious sin was interesting. The magic squirrels were very cute. I liked all the side characters and I thought the romance was fun and hot, I appreciate when the MMC is not a huge irredeemable dick the FMC inexplicably falls for but more of a surly weirdo, maybe a little on the nose with the whole "he's not a bad guy he's got a heart of gold!" tropes but I didn't mind it. The balcony scene was very good, no notes.

But! I felt like there was SO much infodumping and exposition about the universe. I get that this is the first of a planned trilogy and the author wants to frontload a lot of information so we're not lost, but it felt like "character asks a question = giant wall of exposition" or "characters encounter new type of magical being = giant wall of exposition". I have this issue with a lot of non-romantic fantasy books, and I think it's more interesting to read about the world in smaller little parcels of info rather than in these big sections throughout the book. It just seems more natural that way and doesn't interrupt the narrative flow so much. I really thought it worked well when >!Dominic is sort of leading her to the conclusion that this entire religious system is predicated on bullshit!< because it's a character piecing bits of what they've previously learned together, so I would have liked more of that.

I didn't care as much about the more political intrigue aspect of the world building, I feel like the first novel could have focused more on the magical aspects of this world and saved most of that stuff for the second book since it seems like it'll have more of a direct impact on the story.

Also, another, much smaller gripe I have is some authors who are specifically writing books they want to separate from YA novels go hard on the swearing. I personally swear a healthy amount in my daily life, but occasionally I notice it as a crutch in movies and TV as well as books, it's like a "this is edgy!" shorthand. "Fuck" and it's variants appear a million times and I think it probably could have been cut to half a million.

Anyway! I'm being hard on it because there's a lot I liked about it, I think it has a lot of promise and I'll definitely read the second book when it comes out. I just see this a lot in fantasy period, and I get tired of being fully immersed and then it's like "ugh AGAIN? when are they going to get to the fireworks factory??" (Simpsons joke, iykyk) I think some writers get so into their own world they go way too hard on it, especially in the kickoff to a series.

If you have any recommendations for my next read that avoid this, please suggest!