I roast my own book over at the r/fantasy sub.
After reading Jaeth’s Eye, I still wasn’t sure exactly what happened. Who the fuck is Agartes and what is his significance? Why did one character go by three names? On a scale of 1-10, how boring is Kefier as a character, really?
I did not connect with any of the characters at all. Kefier stumbles around from one plot point to the next and seems entirely incapable about remembering important events. I had to look up what “unreliable narrator” meant and am convinced that he isn’t one. Unreliable? Sure. But what exactly does he “narrate”? I’m convinced his selective memory is actually a form of disease. I was confused as fuck trying to navigate what was happening around this spastic son-of-a-bitch.
Don’t get me started about Sume. This weak-willed female character is a feminist’s nightmare come true. She can’t make up her mind about anything at all. Do I love him? Do I hate him? Make up your mind, woman! She “falls in love” with a man who “rescues” her and probably fails the Bechdel test in every chapter she shows up in.
But nothing compares to the last character, Ylir. My God, the cocky bastard actually thinks he’s funny. And I’m not exactly sure if he’s supposed to be a villain or not. Also, what doesn’t he try to sleep with?
Sometimes nothing happens except pages and pages of thoughts and this thing called “character development” which is hilarious because I didn’t like ANY of the characters at all. Who would want to listen to them whine for pages and pages about their hopes and dreams? The writing is okay, but so sparse I can’t picture anything at all in my head. I mean, where the hell is this supposed to be set? I was told by the author that it’s “all sorts of Asian,” whatever that means. Also, I flipped through the future books and saw that there were “airships” and “not-quite dragons.” This is confusing as fuck. Everybody knows airships and dragons don’t belong in the same genre.
All in all, I give Jaeth’s Eye a 1/10. 1 for effort. Oh, what the hell, let’s make it a 2/10 in case Villoso decides to cry, the big baby…
