thistlechaser | Book #10 of 2022: Shipshape, Book 1 of The Cerulean Swift (Reply)

Shipshape, Book 1 of The Cerulean Swift by Trey Myr.

What a rollercoaster of a book this was, and I don't mean the plot.

I always read the front matter of a book. The copyrights, acknowledgements, etc. The "other books by this author" section for this one listed only HaremLit. Harem stories. Just what they sound like: A man has a bunch of women who would do anything for him and want only to sleep with him.

I almost stopped reading right there, but it's possible someone could write something different than they had before, so I gave it a try.

I soon discovered that it was LitRPG as well. So the characters said things like "I have 17 vim, I need 20 to rank up, if I kill this monster I should get 3 more..." LitRPG books are usually the worst books, male fantasy, where men are men and woman are there only to sleep with them, so I was ready to abandon this story on the first page.

Then an unexpected thing happened: The story hooked me.

Set in a fantasy world, the magic system let people make Shapes (just what it sounds like, you could have a dog Shape or a hawk Shape or a human Shape, it would act just like the real thing, other than being made of magic and obeying the Shaper who made it).

Then the main character met a woman who instantly loved him and wanted to jump his bones. (Which lead to a way way too long graphic sex scene. Pages and pages long. I just kept flipping through the pages, waiting for it to be done.)

Then the character met another woman who instantly loved him and wanted to jump his bones.

What are the chances that both of these woman had the biggest busts in the country? Both were described like that. Massive chests.

Then the character met another woman who instantly loved him and wanted to jump his bones.

By that time, I lost interest in the story and skimmed to the end.

It's really a shame. The story and plot were enjoyable, it was just ruined by the harem stuff.