Just finished Demon Seer by Kurtis Eckstein. I saw this advertised on Reddit and got it on my Kindle since it was free. I want my money back.
It's similar to Twilight in that it's pure wish fulfillment for the author, only instead of being written by a repressed MILF it's written by some nerd with a fetish for horns. Miriam, the female lead, literally exists to love the protagonist, Michael. It's not just her role in the story, it's her background, her sole motivation, the only aspect of her as a character. Michael falls in love with her instantly and the book never gives us a reason for his complete and utter devotion other than she's the most beautiful person he's ever seen, despite the horns, the skeletal wings, the tail, etc. It's all so perfect. The way they interact is ridiculous as well, being almost entirely **** like "You are my everything," and "Without you I am dead". Miriam makes a big deal out of how they can't be together (yawn) and some powerful demon tries to kill Michael because Michael is destined to be the super special demon king for some reason. The book literally ends with the bad guy grabbing Miriam while Michael watches and then... It's over. It ends mid-scene with absolutely no resolution or even climax. Oh, and Michael's sister has powerful psychic abilities for some reason. It's never explained and exists for convenience in a single scene.
Turns out Mr Eckstein, who's only other book is another self-published affair, has this grand narrative he wants to share with the world. Three storylines that intersect across three series of novels. This is one of them and there are more to come (please follow the link to donate to his Patreon). To call this over-ambitious wouldn't suffice. Eckstein has bitten off not only more than he can chew, but more than he can chew of a food his body can't digest. This man cannot write. It's not just the shockingly bad quality of his characters and plot, it's the actual prose itself. For starters, there's an abundance of typos, missing words and straight up using the wrong words. It's clear Eckstein never proof-read this thing before he uploaded it, a sign that he either doesn't care at all about quality, or that he's deluded about his own ability. Aside from errors, it's so flat and poorly structured, with characters' emotions and thoughts just baldly stated. No attempt is made at nuance or subtlety or sub-text. No credit is given to the reader to intuit or interpret or infer, and there's an incessant preoccupation with explaining things "logically". For example, when Michael is himself turning into a demon (no spoiler warnings because don't read this book) it's clunkily explained that his body cannot create mass out of nothing so he has to eat so his body can convert the food matter into his new horns and wings. It's clear that Eckstein is worried readers might say "How does that work?", as though he's trying to pre-empt criticism within the story itself. It reeks of insecurity and a lack of faith in not only his reader but his own writing.
I'll give an example of how bad the prose is in this book. Here's a direct quote:
"He already knew her tear ducts were connected to her emotions in this way. She always cried when she was upset."
This is a rant because I hated this book. It's a perfect demonstration of why self-publishing has such a poor reputation, how delusional some self-published writers can be, and how valuable an editor is to the writing process given that Eckstein doesn't have one and it shows in every single sentence. There's part of me that wants to lay the blame for Eckstein's total lack of storytelling ability at the feet of his self-proclaimed love of anime, but that's an entirely separate rant and my doctor says I should limit myself to one a day.
Anyway, I don't know what I'm going to read next. It'll either be Animal Farm by George Orwell, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, or Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Thank you for your patience while I scream into the void.