Title: The Last Philosopher

Author: NickfEast

Genre: Fantasy

Quick Summary: I've never read Hitchhikers Guide [yet] but I imagine this might be trying to be the fantasy equivalent to it.

Thoughts:

There's some good aspects of this book. The prologue for example, while seemingly disjointed from the rest of the book, was humorous and made me chuckle. Which is good, because this was advertised to me as comedic fantasy. So we were off to a good start.

But then, problems.

I don't know why all the "chapters" are broken up the way they are. I don't really understand what qualifies as a chapter here. I thought I got it, but the more I glance at the "parts" list the less I understand it. How do I know I've read a chapter? Why are all of the parts so horrendously short? It makes it easier to read, I suppose, but it also results in a... really awkward structure. Especially since, if each "part" is a chapter, a lot of them are broken up in really awkward places. I believe I've read half the book as of writing this, but I'm not entirely sure.

Not to mention, some of the jokes didn't strike me as all that funny. There's a section towards the beginning, for example, talking about an entire race of lizard people who are women, which then springs into a "joke" about work productivity and chocolate cravings? It didn't sit well with me.

Also there are some "parts" that could've been removed entirely. All they do is infodump about the history of the world in ways that could be integrated loads better without putting a pause on the overlying narrative. I promise you I will probably only remember 1% of the world's history as it's currently given to me.

Also, really quick, while we're talking about the world, if gender doesn't matter in the wizards, why did they elect to use he/him pronouns? I mean, the whole "gender doesn't matter" bit is cool [I, a nonbinary person, say] but it just. Strikes me as odd that in a world where anyone can be a wizard, they're all referred to by he/him pronouns. I wonder how trans wizards are dealt with.

This book moves... very fast. Sometimes I know what's happening [a dude broke out of prison, he's causing trouble which intersects with a different plot about some sort of dude with a "dog" who likes rocks trying to stop him?] but often I don't. I'm reading trying to piece together this narrative and it's... frustrating. I want to like this, sometimes I do like this, but at the halfway point when asking myself just what it was I was reading, I came up zeros. I know like... five people, but not by name just what it is they do because I can't remember their names.

On the note of the plot, rereading the summary, the summary makes itself out to be centered on Lyeasrakardsul but he only has shown up for a little bit from what I've seen so reworking the summary to incorporate the other plotlines present would benefit the story greatly.

Currently this is the second book I have not finished, because there's so much here to dissect. I might finish it one day, but that would require I remember what's actually happened. I can see this being enjoyable if you actually understood what was going on, though. Personally, I just found it quite forgettable.