My Blind Familiar

The concept is really interesting but facefalls into a brick wall on everything else.

The style and grammar is bad but not unreadable. Character is were it shits itself.

It starts by introducing  its world and people in it but except for its interesting idea it is what you would expect from any fantasy novel. The world building is never fun or interesting if its from prespective of an cardboard box. Yes characters are just cardboard boxes. They are as one dimentional one can be and you can't even have any reason to root for them. 

MC is the worst of them all. A child with nothing to like about and gets everything handed to him while feeling miserable about himself. Misery doesn't build sympathy if noone likes your MC . You need to have good characters to have a good novel but this one does not and everyone acting like a twat doesn't help it.

In the end its a very interesting premise but has a very bad writer.

I love the first book. The characters are fun and the magic system is reasonably fresh and well done. Also the synopsis is for the first book only.

Unfortunately I lost interest on the second book as the main character seemed to get a lot less pov time. I understand the need for character development but most of the secondary characters that get their POV are more interesting from the MCs POV. 

First book is light hearted while the second book is going to be a lot darker. In the second book one of the characters has some rape revenge that kinda came out of nowhere, and that is where I decided to hang it up as I wasn't interested in it.

I remember this story from a few years ago now. I also remember enjoying it to a very high degree. Such a high degree that I did in fact start reading more the genre. I dare even say that this story might be what jump-started my whole writing career. When I found out that the author was just some amateur, it gave me the idea of anybody being able to write as he did.

Sob-story aside, I really do enjoy this story. It has great characters, each character a unique power and skillsets, while also having both a rich personal history and flaws that cause them a great deal of pain throughout their days. It makes it all a lot more realistic to read, ignoring the setting that it all is in. Love the ideas about the demons, and the evolution system is more than just interesting.

Yes, it has the harem tag, but that should be no reason to dismiss it entirely. It does so many other things so much better. To any newer users, I do recommend giving this story a read. It might just bring inspiration into your hearts as well.

I loved this book. The concept of familiars as an integral part of the magic system rather then just an extra that's added on makes for a fresh take on a typical sword and sorcery world. Having read the chapters on this site as well as purchased the e-book I have to say that the promise seen in the early chapters doesn't dissapoint.

As for the cons for this series their are quite a few typos and one word replacing another. At certain points the book switches between tenses in an akward manner. Other then that I feel like there needs to be a bit more focus on Xero's training.

All in all an excellent beginning. I read the book straight through twice in a row.

Pros:

• Evolving monsters is almost always a winning formula
• A big world with plenty of disparate factions
• Some mysteries and questions on why good things happen for the protagonist; gives a sense that he isn't thrown all the good things "just because" to make a standard wish fullfilment story.
• Decently sized chapters

Cons:

• Needs an editor
• NEEDS an editor.
• Huge chunks of exposition just fall out of nowhere, and they don't feel like they're inserted gracefully at all.
• Characters seem to have no filter on their mind, easily regurgitating more exposition at the drop of a hat, whether they're talking to trusted allies, enemies, or complete strangers.
• The pace slows to a grind when the author suddenly wants to get super technical about how their magic works at random intervals.
• Gaping holes in how this society functions when the mark and level of nobility is directly related to somehow-not-ambiguous power levels rather than any test of ability to govern whatsoever.
• Rape as character development
• Rape as character development for a young (13-14yo) teenage girl
• Rape as character development and terrible execution

I feel nearly the same way about My Blind Familiar as I do about Sword Art Online: the initial idea is good, it has its pretty moments, and if your turn your brain off, it can be a fun ride. The writing is amateurish, with awkward sentences and stilted pace. Keeping my mind on just enough to figure out what all the run on sentences said was enough to glide me through volume 1 and into volume 2. I didn't see why so many people were upset with the familiar being female, or with her throwing herself at Xero. Akamatsu Ken was the first manga author I really got familiar with, so I've always been pretty easy on romantic comedy and harem stories as long as the characters were at least a little believable. The childhood friend and bully-turned-rescued-damsel alongside the dedicated familiar wouldn't win any waifu awards, but I've definitely seen worse executions of the harem.

Unfortunately, the "rape as character development", well, development to the story, really pulled me out of things, first because rape and human trafficking are a minor trigger of my anxiety, and second because it just came out of fucken left field. With that sitting on the back of my mind, it got a lot harder to tune out all the holes in the story and how flat the characters felt. I continue to find it more and more difficult to ignore how unorganic and awkward every dialogue sounds, and characters are becoming harder to distinguish as they seem to lose whatever distinctions I believed they had before.

I'll probably keep reading, because evolving monsters seems to hit right in my strike zone for junk fiction, but I can't say I'd ever recommend this story, and I will never be taking it as a serious piece of literature.

*This review contains spoilers up to chapter 14*

I am so sad right now. I made it through 14 chapters of god awful grammar, poor or completely incorrect word choices, sub-par character development, plot holes, and a whole host of other things, because I truly enjoyed the premise of a demon made of ash becoming stronger as it fought alongside a summoner who was learning as well. I will always have a soft spot for stories where the MC goes to an academy to learn and become strong. But you threw that all away when you decided to turn that demon into a piece of fanservice, complete with the ~ marking behind her words and a penchant for being overly touchy and attached to her 11 year old summoner. This is so disappointing, and I have no idea why you did it. It would have been entirely possible to use the same theme of a sword wielding demon without having to sink to these levels. In fact, that would have probably been enjoyable. As it is now, it's more like a poorly translated doujin that never actually gets past ecchi, and merely leaves the reader dissatisfied.

If you want to know if you like it, dont judge based on first 11 chapters, but after reading 12 and 13 there is a massive change in tone. From weak to strong story with an interesting imp demon with claws and muscle who is blind and can't talk to one chapter later overpowered loli female demon in love with master who can see just fine and mc getting a fat power(and talent) boost.

Wow I'm very disappointed in the way this turned out. Went from an 8 to a 1 in one chapter. I get sick of wish fulfillment story's that I got literally angry when ash turned out to be a girl. I guess I'll be dropping this due to the hatred I have for slave girls that want to do the mc. 

Mad King out.

when i first started reading this book i felt it had a lot of potential. especialy since this is from the same auther as Clockwork. the world building is great, the familier system is interesting, and the main character was a hardworking likeable protagonist. i couldnt find anything i didnt like about it at first either and was genuainly exited to see where it would go. that is untill everything stared to crash and burn in chapter 12. that is the real turning point in my opinion

the only redeamable characters in this novel are the mc: hes not bad, his actions make sence for the most part and he works hard to better himself and his familier.

his father and eldest brother: they become more important in book 2 and i like how hardworking and loyal they are to their wives

 his second brother on the other hand... im not sure weather to pitty him or just hate him. he is really one of my least favoret characters ever. badly written, bad personality, bad motivations... why does he even exist? the book would have be fine (better even) without him.

 I TRYED to read more, i realy did. but then to top it all off...

and thats why I will be droping the book. I think some people would really enjoy this book, there is somthing to be said for me being able to continue reading as far as I did. I really wish I could have loved this book, it has such a great setting and premise. the book really hooked me. saddly I was'nt able to continue, but hopefully other people will be able to.

I can't wait to see where this story goes next. Looking forward to seeing how the familiars can support each other.