 Alright, so for this one we have another Patreon requested review. This one is Crimson Tower, which was requested and written by Sarkis Avakian, and it feels a lot like an anime in written form. This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long. So when I say this feels like an anime in written form, I mean that like the plot and characters and action even all seem very heavily inspired by anime. And in fact this one actually comes with a soundtrack too, which was kind of nice to listen to while I read, and that one also feels kind of like something you would see in a lot of anime. And that's not a necessarily good or bad thing when I say that. It just is a thing. People who are really into anime would probably appreciate that, people who hate it would probably hate that, but you know that's all just what do you think about and well okay obviously this is a review. So it's all opinion based, but nonetheless just saying that it's based on anime I'm not saying is a good or bad thing, I'm just saying it's or not based on anime, but fuck you know what I mean. But just me saying it's inspired by anime isn't good or bad it just is. The story for this one it starts off and then it goes off in a much different direction than I thought it would because it starts as the main character Kai is just this rich kid you know his family is rich he kind of hates being rich though because it's stifling and so his father eventually sends him off to this university and as soon as he gets there now I was thinking there would be some sort of like mystery element or maybe Kai would get introduced to I don't know some something, but it just he shows up there and then he meets some people who can do magic there and then he's like oh yeah I'm also a magic user yeah like he apparently already knew about all this and he's already fully trained in everything so that was weird and then the story goes into a direction of demons try to get through to earth in their area and so they have to stop them and that's the main thrust of the story but it just took me off guard is all like I was expecting it to go even though I knew it was anime based I was expecting it to go in a much different direction than that but you know once I had adjusted to that I thought it was all right you know I thought that the story with the demons and everything at first it's just demons come in they fight them demons come in they fight them and it's carried a little bit more from their character interactions which this isn't a particularly long book either so I think had this been longer and the whole first half had been that I would have gotten bored of it but by being shorter it it works out better I think and then the second half as well there are some twists and turns in the story and it winds up being different than I thought it would be like again cuz you know at first I thought it was gonna be some standard like I don't know mystery or somewhat realistic thing or maybe he'd get introduced to magic but then it just like oh he's already knows about it and everything and he's just fighting demons and then the second half there's some doubt about who the real bad guy is and that there's a little bit more gray morality let's call it and so without giving too much away yeah I liked that it changed directions I liked that it took me off guard those two times because I never knew what to expect even going and knowing like okay this is definitely anime inspired and all that I just it caught me off guard and I always have to give points to something for catching me off guard even if it's not in the best way just being able to surprise me is enjoyable now the character cast in this I would say is passable for the most part like most of them are just you know anime character archetypes and that probably would have been better if there have been fewer of them but as it stands there's just a fairly large number of major characters in this who all need to get some screen time and they all need to do some things and like I said this is a pretty short book so having that many really just means that none of them get all that much development like some of them have one or two moments or aspects of their personality that stood out to me and I was like oh I remember that person but for the most part they're just kind of there and they talk a little weird like they're not even quirky or have unusual personalities or anything they just they just talk weird the only character that I wound up liking and I kind of hate myself for admitting this because I feel like I should hate him is the main character Kai and I feel like I should hate him because he's not quite Mary Sue but he is very close to Mary Sue territory because like I said he just shows up and he already knows how to do magic and everything they introduce him to demons and stuff which apparently he didn't know much about before which is odd but whatever and then he's able to fight them super well along with everyone else and he never really well I wouldn't say he never screws up but he never makes any major mistakes or anything and he gets along pretty well with almost everyone except the villains so he's definitely approaching Mary Sue territory but he's he's honestly just cool I I liked him he he has this way of approaching everything with just total deadpan like very little emotion to it and it makes him just fun to watch you know he's kind of sarcastic at a few points but for the most part he's just like yep I'm a blank slate but they made him so blank that he go that he somehow circles back around to having a personality I know that might sound weird but he's just so stoic that it winds up being weirdly endearing I think and the biggest area where that works is how he mentions how he's not at all interested in forming any sort of relationship you know not with men or women or anybody and I don't believe that the book goes so far as to spit as to outright state that he is asexual or anything but I wouldn't shock me if that were the case you know he just yeah he's not interested in sex or anything even though occasionally some stuff that I would some stuff I would classify as harem hijinks shows up but Kai just rather than freaking out about it just total stone face is like hey get get out of here I'm not interested which is pretty fun and it even gets to the point where like actual succubi will try and seduce him and he just doesn't care about it so I found that pretty entertaining as well the world building and magic and stuff in this is I mean it's anime you know there's magic some people can use it it's never really explained how it works but they just use it for fighting anyway so it's not that big a deal there's other worlds with like demons and elves and stuff which sometimes get along with earth and sometimes they don't and it's all kept secret for some reason I actually don't know why they bother keeping it secret it's just stuff like that so the only thing really left about this book that I want to talk about that actually matters is the way it's written because this isn't really written in prose it's written almost more like a script for a movie or television show or something and I it kind of works for me like it's not perfect because it switches between past and present tense at a few points which is awkward and you know most most scripts are just written in present tense the whole way through and it had it just been in past tense all the way through that would have been fine but switching back and forth feels really awkward um but that said it's mostly like for dialogue it'll just be like chi colon says this and then this person colon blah blah blah so that's the other thing and then when action comes up it'll describe like they do this and that and it it winds up working pretty well I think that had this been written in prose it probably would have been like two or three times as long as it stands now it's a much shorter more fun read and it kind of feels like maybe this was originally intended to be like a graphic novel or a show or something and if that's the case I think it would work pretty well as a graphic novel or as a manga because you know the story and everything is definitely very visual and very action oriented and those things they tend to work a little bit better when it's uh well when it's visual you know they they work a bit better that way than when it's a book so I think this one is kind of being held back by the format it's in but that said I get it you know making a graphic novel or something takes a lot more work and a lot more talent and usually it requires multiple people to do whereas writing a book is just you know you write it and then it's out there so crimson tower um as with all of my patreon quests it's there's an amazon link below so if you want to check it out on kindle it's pretty cheap and you know if you're into that sort of thing I think it's worth spending a couple hours reading through you know it's not going to blow your mind or anything but I enjoyed it just fine thank you to everyone for watching including as always the patrons whose names are here and a special shout out to Apocavalanan Alex Humva Ashley Watson Ava Tumor B Quinn brother Santotis Christopher Quinten Emily Miller Joel Johnny St. Clair Madison Lewis Bennett Ronnie the author of this book Sarkis Avakian Taylor Briggs Tobacco Crow Tom Beanie Topher Wheeler Vacuous Silas and finally Vevictus you guys are all pretty great I don't think I would be able to do this sort of thing without your support so it it really doesn't mean a lot to me and if you haven't rated this video comment it on it and subscribe to my channel then hurry up and do that please I I need your help and well no that's everything I'll see you later bye