It's a tough pill to swallow whether or not you're successful. I know that when I eventually publish, it's largely up to chance if anyone will read my novel. Sucks that all the work I put in may not be noticed, so I've just had to remind myself that I'm doing this for the joy of it.

Booooo!

vote for me, and I will put 100 gyoza in every mouth

I think wearing a suit would make me more cranky

Man, bamboo is also a problem? I've been buying stuff made from bamboo instead of plastic (like toothbrushes), I didn't know it was contributing to deforestation. :(

Thanks for sharing!

lol I'm guilty

We need a citizen's divorce

Also I don't mind if the character arc is predictable if the story moves them in interesting ways. But so far it hasn't.

It is a well-written book at the prose level, at least. I wish the world building was a little deeper given that this book is over 180,000 words, but that's not a deal breaker.

But the "unfeeling capitalist learns to care about poor people" story isn't one that I'm especially excited about.

Idk. It's like all these characters started out fun and interesting, but now they feel a bit predictable. Maybe they'll surprise me.

And finally there's Savine, a shrewd businesswoman and femme fatale. Another character that started out very interesting and compelling, but is starting to become tiresome. She survived the workers revolt and a poor family has taken her in. Maybe some personal growth will happen?

On the other side there's Clover, who is a lovable scoundrel type tasked with keeping a hot-headed soldier (the king's nephew? or son? I keep getting confused on that) in check, and is doing a bad job of it. Clover is cool but his banter is getting a bit predictable.

The guy she's hooking up with is Leo. He's a himbo fighting guy type, definitely gay but suppressing it, who spends most of the time whining that his mother (the general of this faction's army) is doing this fake-retreat tactic instead of a big showy manly fight.

The most interesting character is Rikke, a young woman who has visions and also likes to party. She was fleeing bad guys but now she's hooking up with one of the other POV characters, who is completely lame, and she thinks so too. Hardly any chemistry between them.

And no matter how sad she is over her troubled past, all I can think of is "you snitch bitch, fuck you." Then there's a man named Broad, a war veteran with a similar internal conflict, trying not to give into his tendency toward violence. All the rebel leaders are either blood crazed or corrupt.

The workers' revolt itself seems interesting enough on its surface, but none of the workers are shown in a very sympathetic light. There's a woman, Vick, a hardened spy who has infiltrated the rebels ranks. Her conflict is largely internal, trying to suppress her emotions as a trauma response.

We have one side on an extended retreat for the sake of wearing out the other. And another side where the crown prince, Orso, has been trying to convince the king to amass troops and go defend their allies. He finally does and gets sidetracked by a workers' revolt.

But the plot is also dragging for me. So far it's mostly people on different sides of a war trying to convince their most powerful leaders to engage in direct conflict.

Part of this is that there are a lot of points of view, which isn't my favorite thing in a novel. I have a hard time getting invested in a character when I only see little glimpses of them every few chapters.

I don't know *why* I'm bored, exactly. At first I found it very engaging. Now I'm feeling like I've already learned everything there is to learn about these characters and their witty banter isn't enough to make me care about them. I think?