This was interesting to read, Hare.
Full disclosure: I am coming at this blind. I think I picked a good chapter to do so, since there is a lot of recap to help me figure out where I am, but I definitely did not know any characters that well going into it.
Except, now I feel like I know a little more. That’s great. I read maybe two paragraphs about Kaeso and was able to get an image of him. Ioannes was a little harder but he’s a main character. He will have more motivations and faults and strengths than a supporting character and that’s okay. Still, though, I got a good feel for him, and I like what I saw. He’s someone you can emphasize with despite his fantastic origins and the fantastic setting.
All in all, if we still did grading, full marks. Writing was on point mechanically. This felt like a good chapter for someone just jumping in to get caught back up. Maybe not the start of a book, but like the start of an act in the book or play. A great place to come in and catch up after you had to take a small bathroom break, but leaves you wanting a little more.
Which kind of follows into the next point. Nothing really happened here. We were told about stuff that did happen, but there’s no fallout, no tension really. And that’s fine for a chapter like this. Not every chapter needs to be BLAMBLAM ACTION TIME or MYSTERIOUS SAD TIME OF ANGST. It’s fine to let the reader have a breather every now and then before they get to another arc/act/whathaveyou, and you’ve done that well here.
Recommended Reading: Nothing. Get me another chapter ASAP.