A Side of Panache

Hello, and welcome back to our irregularly scheduled nonsense! Last time, Ren made a very ~mysterious~ deal with Durga, and Kelsey thought he was dead for a few pages.  But since that could lead to some interesting character interactions, Kishan immediately told her that he had a convenient magical vision that he was alive, so it's all good.  The chapter ended with them leaving Shangri-la, so now it's time to go rescue Ren, right? No!  We have another traveling/exposition chapter, because the climax of the novel is the best time to have one of those! Great. Chapter Twenty-Three: Going Home The glowing handprint fades and they're back on Mount Everest next to that prayer pole that was there before.  Kelsey feels something sticking to her eyes, and she pulls off a green film.  She has to help Kishan with his eyes since he doesn't, you know, have hands.  Remember, the Ocean Teacher said that the scales would fall from their eyes when they were finish...

Hello, and welcome back to our irregularly scheduled nonsense! Last time, Kelsey and Kishan fought some birds and got the Divine Weaver's Scarf, made a magical parachute, and jumped out of the world tree.  They've had a conversation with Lokesh, and it seems like Mr. Kadam has an idea of where he might be.  The tension has been ramped up, so now it's time for the dramatic climax, right? Right? Wrong!  Rather than continuing the action, we're going to spend an entire chapter following Kelsey and Kishan on their way back out of Shangri-la.  Kelsey does angst a whole lot, though.  This basically removes any wind put in our sails by the last chapter.  It's so slooowwwww Chapter Twenty-Two: Exit Kelsey and Kishan are free-falling, and they hear another Stymphalian bird chasing after them.  Kishan flips them over so that Kelsey can blast it with some lightning.  Kelsey hits it a few times in the belly, which chases it off.  Kishan pulls t...

Hello, and welcome back to our irregularly scheduled nonsense!  Last time, Kelsey and Kishan made it through the tests of the four houses with very little difficulty, and got ready to get to the MacGuffin in this chapter.  It's all very exciting. Before we get started with this chapter, I wanted to expand on some of the stuff I've been saying throughout the last couple of chapters.  Specifically related to what exactly I mean by "tension" and how this book utterly fails to make any of the action scenes accomplish anything. My main beef with how a lot of this is handled in the book is the fact that Kelsey and/or Kishan are immediately handed a solution to a problem as soon as it pops up.  Oh no, we don't know what to expect!  Don't worry, Mr. Kadam prepared very detailed, accurate notes that tell us how everything works.  Oh no, we don't know where the omphalos stone is!  Don't worry, I had a magical vision that showed me where it is.  Oh no, w...