Title: The Goddess' Chosen: Sword in the Stone

Author: JamesLester126

Genre: Fantasy

Quick Summary: Light Novel intent with rough-edged execution.

Thoughts:

There is so much telling here that I got bored within the first chapter... which is saying something, because a lot happens in the first chapter. The fight scenes come across stiff, and I think it's in part because we're given the direct play-by-plays. The unfortunate thing about giving us literally every single detail about the fighting is that it drags the pace of the scene down... which you really can't afford to have during a fight?

We also describe everyone with the same sort of formula: hair color, eye color, details over clothing and, often, what their weapon looks like. It's... well, formulaic. Give me something distinctive about these people you're describing, please. Not just that one has short red hair and another is blond. Give me other details, please.

Speaking of clothes. We get to a segment of the book where Allisa gets new clothes and I rolled my eyes incredibly hard while reading it. We really need to stop pretending putting the characters in half-dressed clothes is so they can "be mobile in combat" and that they're "good for adventuring". They're not. I know fully well these choices were made so we can oggle the MC. Hiding your reasoning in crap that sounds reasonable is just. Annoying, because that isn't the real reason and everyone knows it. It's the same shit that caused the Boob Armor trope. And like... sure, whatever plays your flute but don't try to pretend you made this choice for any noble reason.

I think the more annoying thing here, though, is that this is wrote with the intent to look and feel like an anime.

Here's the thing. There are some mediums that aren't meant to cross. Anime relies on a variety of factors that are painfully hard to get across in writing. Everything from art style to music choices to facial expression to even certain tropes do not translate well from anime to novel. Hell, look at Your Lie in April. At heart, it's just an anime about two music students, some trauma, and some death. And yet... Think that anime could've had as much impact in novel format? Because I don't. It used so many aspects that you just... cannot in writing. 

This book is no exception to this. The intent is clear as day, but the execution falls several marks short. I am thankful, though, that the author doesn't use this writing inspiration to make the plot wildly convoluted. However, there are a lot of POV switches for... not much reason?

The writing itself wasn't awful, but there was a lot of tense-switching. A lot of the dialogue is a few steps shy of great and at times made me roll my eyes. I already mentioned the fight scenes. Step away from such basic options for description. Give me interesting things to focus on. The chapters have too much going on in them. And what the hell is with a literal nine-year old hitting on/slut shaming a teenager? It's.... really creepy.

Also, the magic system. There's magic levels and chanting and shouting of magic commands and magic ranks. Please, pick either chanting or shouting commands. Not both. And why levels? This isn't Pokemon.

On the whole, I just wasn't all that compelled to keep reading. I finished all of the Prelude to the Hero... Arc? Part? I finished all of that, but saw no real reason to continue after that. I wasn't angry or frustrated, really, just... bored. It didn't help that there was so much going on in each chapter that they just... went on forever.