My take on Heretical Fishing [Spoilers through part of book 3]
I saw this recommended quite a bit in the same breath as Beware of Chicken as a good slice of life series.
I’m on book 3 and I will share my pros and cons below.
Pros:
- It’s cute. The animals are cute. The idea of spirit beasts becoming a big family is adorable.
- The world is interesting. I quite like the trope that the world has already ended and we begin again. This is a theme Mage Tank shares.
- There’s a large cast of characters and watching Fischer convince everyone to fish is nice.
- Fischer’s reason to not lead (as of book 3) makes sense to me.
- The food descriptions are pretty good.
- The power of friendship reigns supreme and Fischer seems like a really good person.
Cons:
- Maria feels like a fantasy girl. I realize she’s a “girl” from a fantasy novel but she’s exceptionally one dimensional and feels like all she does is follow Fischer around and repeat whatever he’s thinking in his head.
- The story is repetitive to the extreme. Man finds fish, man catches fish, man eats fish. Every fish is the best fish ever. Everyone loves fishing.
- The other characters aren’t much more distinct than Maria. The mayor is probably the most amusing but the trope of him misunderstanding Fischer is a bit boring and his about face to be good seems too abrupt. His reaction when he found out his citizens are in open civil war with the capitol makes zero sense.
- The villagers all lie to each other and obscure the truth just because it is mildly convenient. I understand Fischer not wanting to know what’s happening but the lies happened before that. Watching Roger be lied to for so long is heartbreaking and infuriating at the same time. These villagers all lie reflexively. It makes them unlikable especially considering it seems like it’s completely ignored.
Overall I rate this as a solid C. I can’t say I’m not going to listen to anymore but I’m pretty sick of it after binging it for several days.