An Autumn in Amber, a Zero-Second Journey - I really liked this one. I was expecting some sort of romance but it was more of an adventure. In the begining the characters have too much knowledge that is taught through experience, and there is a clear dissonance between their actions and their thoughts. The ending and the climax really sucked me in. In hindsight the theme was a bit too obvious but it didn't throw me out of the story so it works.
9/10
(a bit skewed as it really resonated with my emotional strings)
The synopsis did sound interesting but I was on the fence since I'm more of a fantasy reader. I'll put it on my plan to read list now if it's worth a 9/10.
You will be dissapointed if you expect 9/10, it's more like 7/10 but incorporating all the elements and themes that I love and very good resonance with my emotions.
The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: Volume 13 - Most "filler" volume I've ever read.
Zilbagias the Demon Prince: How the Seventh Prince Brought Down the Kingdom Volume 1+2 - Super interesting premise here. Hero gets reincarnated as the son of the Demon King who killed him and vows to kill and destroy the entire Demon empire. The interesting part is that many of the demons are written to be likable (including the Demon King himself). I wonder if there is a plan in place to resolve this in the end in a way that can make the readers happy. If he just abandons his quest it will be disappointing, but if he succeeds and kills the people readers come to like it would suck as well. So far there is no indication as to how the series might develop in this regard.
The Ephemeral Scenes of Setsuna’s Journey, Vol. 4 - I'm not a fan of the whole POV shifting between chapters, but in this volume, there is a 12-part arc that was a showcase of how it's done to absolute perfection. Other than that, the series found its stride where it was stumbling before. It's still very emotional but it feels more organic and less forced. It is still forced, don't get me wrong, but it has gotten better at hiding it.
The Kept Man of the Princess Knight, Vol. 1+2 - Very grim-dark fantasy world with the city in which the story plays is steeped in corruption, drugs, and sin. MC fits right into this environment but I think this makes him the most unlikeable MC I've seen in a long time. At first, I thought it's cool to have a morally grey MC and I enjoyed the book but towards the end of volume 1, he does something so uncharacteristic and irredeemable that it kills the entire thing for me.
::: spoiler spoiler MC has a long-year female friend who is one of the very few people in this town who are actually good and innocent. MC then betrays her and kills her by burning her alive just because she figured out that the titular princess MC has a crush on is a junkie. Yep, he killed his friend to keep his crush's addiction a secret. He could have asked her to keep it secret, blackmailed, or bribed her, or a million other possible things. But no, burning her alive it is. This was also incredibly uncharacteristic for that MC at this point. Yes, he had no problems with killing people in the story up to that point, but the people he killed were hired hitmen who were attacking him first, not his innocent friends. :::
Anyway, I checked the afterword for volume 2 and the author said “And most importantly, Matthew needed to receive retribution for what he’d done.” So I thought to myself that I read volume two to see MC getting his comeuppance. But nope... No such thing. I have also a problem with the author's apparent view regarding drug abuse which clashed with my personal worldview on that topic which makes it hard to really enjoy the series. The story is interesting, the worldbuilding (at least that of the single city this is set in) feels fresh and the prose is okay enough, but I don't know if I can overcome my gripes to pick up volume 3. Maybe if there isn't anything better in my backlog.
Zilbagias
I found the premise for this one really interesting as well. I ran across the manga version and wrote about it a little while ago. There is a lot to like in the setup to this story, especially with the open-endedness of the taboo breaking. The manga at least was really slow, so not sure if the novels might be better in that regard. I agree that a lot of the demon characters are likeable. I especially liked his mother and his private tutor.
The Taboo magic system was an interesting idea on the surface but I don't really like the implementation since everything he does is somehow rated as a taboo. If he does something against humanity it's a taboo because he is a hero inside. If he does something against the demons it's also a taboo because he is a demon prince. Basically, whatever he does it's a taboo and he gets stronger regardless. I wish there was some restrictions placed on him by this taboo devil pact.