Celestine Chronicles (My first step in this genre)
So, I wanted to start off by saying that I am completely new to this genre. I started looking into something to try a few weeks ago and stumbled on the Celestine Chronicles by Cebelius. I just finished the series a few nights ago and would like to talk/vent about it, lol. I am also open to new series suggestions! (Minor/no spoilers in the first half, MAJOR spoilers towards the end of this) I may not remember all the names exactly, so forgive me, lol.
I really enjoyed this series. I found everything in the world set up, story, characters, and overall tone extremely interesting. I was pretty hooked right off the bat and burned through all the books fairly quickly.
There were some issues here and there as far as things that did not really make sense or were off putting in some way (either from a literal perspective or literary/story progression perspective). These things were pretty easy to ignore because I found the story and characters so interesting and did not want to ruin my own experience/excitement by overanalyzing. I also thought to myself “well, I’m sure it will be resolved later or brought back around. Maybe it’s just foreshadowing or something.”
Unfortunately, a lot of that expectation did not happen. It is so weird how a series can have such “mistakes” and be so good at the same time! For example, virtually everything single character in the first like 2-3 books that were not part of the “main crew” were just forgotten, even most of the major places like Florence itself, just, more, or less, never touched again. The one water girl (Cecelia? Euryale’s “mom”) never came back into the story at all after MC took his deep dive to see her true form. She’s referenced to and hinted at periodically, but nothing. I won’t go into them all or else I’d be writing my own book, lol. There were simply a lot of things and characters that were left in the dust and never touched again.
There are 3 main things that just did not sit well with me at all.
The final battle with Thomas. I was very disappointed in how this fight resolved. I like the actual fight scene itself with MC and Thomas, but it ended poorly, imo. They hyped this dude up throughout the whole series: So powerful, thousands of years old getting stronger, unlimited powers, literal apostle of Christ and I get that Thomas wasn’t stronger than him and wasn’t just going beat him down or whatever, but they built this up like it was Harry Potter versus Voldemort scale of conflict. Then he dies by immortal chick who was taken over and couldn’t control herself by a cheat-code sword that was unstoppable? Like... Idk. It just was not what I was expecting personally. I thought maybe all those forgotten character would come back, and everyone would team up somehow or combine strength or SOMETHING and win, but no. Ending conflict resolution wasn’t bad or good, just kind of okay.
My second and BIGGEST personal offense in this series’ ending is that we NEVER get the reconciliation between Terry and Shy. I was upset when he left him, Lana, Asterial, and La, behind to begin with. Then the last 3 chapters are supposed to be reconciliation and happily ever after or whatever, and we see his convo with Lana, which was nice, but not the VERY FIRST one who took him in? The one who sets the whole story and quest and everything into place? Arguable his “main/most influence over him” love before Prada? Nope. She’s a damn tree and he sits there and thinks about her for a minute, the end. Oh man, I hated this part so much, lol. I love the series, but this is unjustifiable.
The last thing is just that is that I felt there was a lot of potential to this world, lore, and story. I can see a lot of extension opportunities and all kinds of different additions or new stories/sequels that could take place. If I could hypothetically alter this series, then I would condense this first arc (the quest to kill Thomas) down to three longer books or so and then do sequels to further expand the world and story. It is not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things; it just seems like such wasted potential.
Overall, I did enjoy the series and I’ll definitely be explore more of this genre (hook me up with suggestions). Thanks! I’d love to hear other opinions. Apologies for the wall of text.