Hello, author here! Thank you so much for your review and your valid points. I'll try to address some of them. -The story is admittedly kinda weird because the book was written primarily for me. I was always taught that you should make the sort of thing that you personally enjoy, so that was my main priority. Obviously it makes me very happy to hear that others have enjoyed it too and as long as it breaks even on costs, (which it so far has) I consider it a success. -I like art too and the original concept did have a picture for each chapter, but it would've been too expensive to have each one professionally redone, so I had to scrap it. -I totally understand preferring some large chapters over a bunch of little ones. This is a result of how the book was (and still is) written, which is that I output a single chapter every month. I'm fundamentally a pretty lazy guy, so I needed a system that would keep me productive. -The lack of in-depth descriptions of surroundings and stuff like that is purposeful. I embrace beige prose as opposed to purple prose. I always hated having to read through multiple pages describing rooms and curtains and...everything. So I try to keep things functional and focused on what the characters are actually saying/doing. -Some of the earlier weirdness was probably still me trying to find my footing or overcompensating so as to not give things away too early. You're correct in assuming that more stuff gets explored as the story goes on in future volumes. -Character appearances are described in the story, but only usually once or twice so I don't keep repeating myself. -The Issa vs. Max fight (speaking in-universe) did not need to go down like it did and I'm happy you pointed it out. It happened because Max overreacted to seeing Issa and Zurie poking around the Moreno Group's building and wasn't really willing to hear them out. He was extremely suspicious and Zurie's knee-jerk reaction of trying to mind-control them didn't help the issue. His intention then was to use Zurie to give the Moreno Group as much of an advantage as possible, being an extra Contractor on their side. Once he incapacitated Issa, he would then be leverage to make sure she did what he said until the crisis was resolved. Obviously this ended up being a non-issue given how things turned out. -At the time of writing the final chapter, it felt right to do it the way I did. If asked to defend it, however, I would be unable to do so. It's definitely a choice that I understand not liking. Again, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to give such an in-depth review and I'm glad that you enjoyed the story overall. In terms of content, the second and third volumes are complete and I'm currently working on Volume Four. Here's hoping that you enjoy what's to come as much as I do! EDIT: I totally forgot to address the weird eye thing. This is indeed not explicitly explained in Volume One, but we do get introduced to the concept behind it.
Thank you so much for the detailed reply. It is always nice to get a better understanding about my questions/thoughts from the creators themselves. It is great to know there are already more volumes ready to go. I am even more excited to read them, whenever that may be.
I'm more of a sci-fi guy, so I haven't read your book, but I do like the concept of your book that TheACStories discussed. I also like how the protagonist is college-age instead of the typical high schooler. As for your comment about writing a chapter every month, maybe I should do that, too, to get out of my slump. When I was in high school and college, I used to write a chapter every week on a book series I never published since I wrote it by hand.
@@reidkemper It's really helped me to avoid burnout. I used to aim for one every two weeks, but that was just too much for me, especially with a long-running story like this. If it starts to feel like a chore, then it's time to ease up. This is also one of the reasons I take the month of December off each year, along with all the family gatherings that tend to happen around the holidays.
I read the book and it was okay, although some parts confused me. It's definitely like a Shonen trying to be a murder mystery, battle, and supernatural all at once.
I did like the premise and the idea of a lot of the ideas. It just did not feel like a lot of it was fleshed out enough to be appropriately coherent. I enjoyed it enough that I would read a second volume, but with hopes that there would be plenty of all this cleared up and better understandable.
The R seems too random of a stylization to not have some kind of significance. Also, at first I thought Elsi eyes were just some kind of side effect from Zurie repeatedly using suggestion. Seemed a little farfetched to suddenly be like oh I probably have powers I can use right away now.
@@TheACStories that’s what I thought at first, then I wondered if she was just really good at observing things, and the author just explained it like she had superpowers. I do wish that was better explained, or talked about more before it happened at least
Thanks for the honest review. I emailed the author your video to check it out.
I enjoyed it regardless of my nitpicking. I really would look forward to reading a second volume and see the potential for where the story can go.
Hello, author here! Thank you so much for your review and your valid points. I'll try to address some of them.
-The story is admittedly kinda weird because the book was written primarily for me. I was always taught that you should make the sort of thing that you personally enjoy, so that was my main priority. Obviously it makes me very happy to hear that others have enjoyed it too and as long as it breaks even on costs, (which it so far has) I consider it a success.
-I like art too and the original concept did have a picture for each chapter, but it would've been too expensive to have each one professionally redone, so I had to scrap it.
-I totally understand preferring some large chapters over a bunch of little ones. This is a result of how the book was (and still is) written, which is that I output a single chapter every month. I'm fundamentally a pretty lazy guy, so I needed a system that would keep me productive.
-The lack of in-depth descriptions of surroundings and stuff like that is purposeful. I embrace beige prose as opposed to purple prose. I always hated having to read through multiple pages describing rooms and curtains and...everything. So I try to keep things functional and focused on what the characters are actually saying/doing.
-Some of the earlier weirdness was probably still me trying to find my footing or overcompensating so as to not give things away too early. You're correct in assuming that more stuff gets explored as the story goes on in future volumes.
-Character appearances are described in the story, but only usually once or twice so I don't keep repeating myself.
-The Issa vs. Max fight (speaking in-universe) did not need to go down like it did and I'm happy you pointed it out. It happened because Max overreacted to seeing Issa and Zurie poking around the Moreno Group's building and wasn't really willing to hear them out. He was extremely suspicious and Zurie's knee-jerk reaction of trying to mind-control them didn't help the issue. His intention then was to use Zurie to give the Moreno Group as much of an advantage as possible, being an extra Contractor on their side. Once he incapacitated Issa, he would then be leverage to make sure she did what he said until the crisis was resolved.
Obviously this ended up being a non-issue given how things turned out.
-At the time of writing the final chapter, it felt right to do it the way I did. If asked to defend it, however, I would be unable to do so. It's definitely a choice that I understand not liking.
Again, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to give such an in-depth review and I'm glad that you enjoyed the story overall. In terms of content, the second and third volumes are complete and I'm currently working on Volume Four. Here's hoping that you enjoy what's to come as much as I do!
EDIT: I totally forgot to address the weird eye thing. This is indeed not explicitly explained in Volume One, but we do get introduced to the concept behind it.
Thank you so much for the detailed reply. It is always nice to get a better understanding about my questions/thoughts from the creators themselves. It is great to know there are already more volumes ready to go. I am even more excited to read them, whenever that may be.
I'm more of a sci-fi guy, so I haven't read your book, but I do like the concept of your book that TheACStories discussed. I also like how the protagonist is college-age instead of the typical high schooler. As for your comment about writing a chapter every month, maybe I should do that, too, to get out of my slump. When I was in high school and college, I used to write a chapter every week on a book series I never published since I wrote it by hand.
@@reidkemper It's really helped me to avoid burnout. I used to aim for one every two weeks, but that was just too much for me, especially with a long-running story like this. If it starts to feel like a chore, then it's time to ease up. This is also one of the reasons I take the month of December off each year, along with all the family gatherings that tend to happen around the holidays.
I read the book and it was okay, although some parts confused me. It's definitely like a Shonen trying to be a murder mystery, battle, and supernatural all at once.
I did like the premise and the idea of a lot of the ideas. It just did not feel like a lot of it was fleshed out enough to be appropriately coherent. I enjoyed it enough that I would read a second volume, but with hopes that there would be plenty of all this cleared up and better understandable.
I want to know about the R now too
The R seems too random of a stylization to not have some kind of significance.
Also, at first I thought Elsi eyes were just some kind of side effect from Zurie repeatedly using suggestion. Seemed a little farfetched to suddenly be like oh I probably have powers I can use right away now.
@@TheACStories that’s what I thought at first, then I wondered if she was just really good at observing things, and the author just explained it like she had superpowers. I do wish that was better explained, or talked about more before it happened at least
Weird eye stuff going on, lol