I know this has already been discussed a bit, but the pacing in Blades is still kind of fucked imo. And before anyone accuses me of purposely looking for things to criticize 🙄 I do think the last two chapters picked up and were a lot of fun. The book overall is definitely improving gradually, with today’s chapter arguably being the best we’ve gotten. But while we had kind of a slow start to the action, I feel like they’re still flying through all of the emotional moments, friend interactions, and developmental opportunities at breakneck speed.

Like Mal taking a blade for us? That’s a huge thing and could’ve been a very poignant moment even though we were in the middle of a battle, and especially for those of us who are romancing him. And having the opportunity to check in with all of our friends after making it through the portal? Imtura apologizes for giving up on us, Mal says he was running/doing things out of guilt instead of living in one breath then brushes it off in the next, Nia and Tyril still barely acknowledge what was really going on with them throughout the year we were gone…. yet we don’t get more than 2 seconds to respond to any of that?

They’re not even giving MC the chance to react to what happened to her internally. Like it’s one thing for us not to be able to outwardly express how we’re feeling to our friends. But it’s another when even the narration doesn’t portray any sort of introspection on MC’s part. For example in the elite skill scene with Tyril, I purposely had my MC focus on being trapped and restrained in Valax’s lair because I expected to get at least a little insight on how that’s affecting her presently. And yes, we did get a couple of sentences saying we were thinking about fear, helplessness, and confusion. But it would’ve been so much better if they described MC actually reliving that moment and those emotions.

Basically, all I’m trying to say is that they really already have everything they need to make certain scenes more impactful. They just need to set them up and let them breathe, so we, the readers, can feel and appreciate them as well instead of having to fill in the blanks for everything