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anuragsahay's review
5.0
I absolutely love this series - it's a little pricey, but I got it relatively cheap on Google Play books, so I'm not complaining.
A look at my review for the previous instalment will make it clear that I originally got into this series because the enterprise was helmed by Max Gladstone, whose books I unequivocally adore. However, I have to mention a few other aspects of this season that I found interesting beyond Gladstone's involvement:
1. The previous season treated magic as a lot more horrific, and unknowable; it was usually quite Lovecraftian. This season changes it around, with one of the main characters spending a lot of her time trying to understand magic - it changes the type of storytelling to a genre a prefer.
2. Margaret Dunlap (who earlier was just a name I didn't know) is apparently one of the creative forces behind The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, one of my relatively recent obsessions.
3. The existing framework of understanding from the earlier season really helped get rid of info-dumpy aspects of the book.
I absolutely enjoyed the season. Unlike last time, characterisation wasn't the only thing that was consistent - quality was consistently good, the worldbuilding made a lot more sense, and the tendency of the differences between writing styles to pull one out of the book is mostly gone. As a piece of collaboratively written, episodic fiction, this is much better than the previous season.
The other aspect that I really didn't expect was the shift of focus - season one was very obviously the story of Sal, the new member of the Society. This season gives all the members of Team Three equal weight, and there are many stories in which Sal doesn't even appear. This is a much more balanced perspective to the story that came from season one, and I'm glad for it.
Finally, the entire season is somewhat the played out version of an argument between the same two characters, with different ones winning in different episodes. This character conflict could get grating at times, but it makes for a solid binge-able story, and I'm having to make a lot of effort to stop myself from buying the full cost season 3 instead of just picking up the book when its on sale in a few months.
In any case - this is a wonderful series, and I highly recommend it. I hope that more of the authors I like get together to use the Serial Box format, because I definitely enjoy it.
A look at my review for the previous instalment will make it clear that I originally got into this series because the enterprise was helmed by Max Gladstone, whose books I unequivocally adore. However, I have to mention a few other aspects of this season that I found interesting beyond Gladstone's involvement:
1. The previous season treated magic as a lot more horrific, and unknowable; it was usually quite Lovecraftian. This season changes it around, with one of the main characters spending a lot of her time trying to understand magic - it changes the type of storytelling to a genre a prefer.
2. Margaret Dunlap (who earlier was just a name I didn't know) is apparently one of the creative forces behind The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, one of my relatively recent obsessions.
3. The existing framework of understanding from the earlier season really helped get rid of info-dumpy aspects of the book.
I absolutely enjoyed the season. Unlike last time, characterisation wasn't the only thing that was consistent - quality was consistently good, the worldbuilding made a lot more sense, and the tendency of the differences between writing styles to pull one out of the book is mostly gone. As a piece of collaboratively written, episodic fiction, this is much better than the previous season.
The other aspect that I really didn't expect was the shift of focus - season one was very obviously the story of Sal, the new member of the Society. This season gives all the members of Team Three equal weight, and there are many stories in which Sal doesn't even appear. This is a much more balanced perspective to the story that came from season one, and I'm glad for it.
Finally, the entire season is somewhat the played out version of an argument between the same two characters, with different ones winning in different episodes. This character conflict could get grating at times, but it makes for a solid binge-able story, and I'm having to make a lot of effort to stop myself from buying the full cost season 3 instead of just picking up the book when its on sale in a few months.
In any case - this is a wonderful series, and I highly recommend it. I hope that more of the authors I like get together to use the Serial Box format, because I definitely enjoy it.
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