Aconyte Books The Game of 100 Candles: A Legend of the Five Rings Novel

The first book can be converted into an adventure or even a campaign for the TRPG game in spite of the forced corporate checklist of gay romance that appears randomly but thankfully. This books is not even worth considering for a oneshot.It seems that whatever success the previous book had was misunderstood by the sales team and then this second part was forced to come out with a mandate to add more of that corporate checklist that only hinders the entire narrative and plot. A character from the previous book appears without a reason for appearing, there is no exploration of the L5R universe, the rokugani courts, the supernatural in the setting or anything interesting. The characters randomly jump into mental rants about the other character but never advancing the plot. And about the plot..there was almost no more of that than what you read in the back cover. It doesnt even have a concrete conclusion.honestly. Dont bother with this if you are looking for a mystery, supernatural, adventure, L5R, or even romance (gay or not), because its clumsy in all.

This is a sequel to The Night Parade of 100 Demons (which I have not read) but the events of that book are covered by character exposition in this book. I have enjoyed Brennan's other works set in the world of L5R but this is a rather dull tale of two rather unremarkable characters. This is more of a gay romance novel than a samurai adventure, and whilst courtly romance is a well worn trope this one is sadly lacking.Suffice to say I won't bother reading Night Parade.

Excellent book second in a series . Great storyline and very well defined characters .

About 70% finished, and it's been a tough read. I hate to say it, but I might not finish.The first book was a supernatural adventure about two noblemen investigating a mountain village being besieged by demons. The protagonists were mostly featureless, but the one motivation each had (hiding their peasant background, hiding their haunting by a dog spirit) gave some flavor to the setting.This book tosses the interesting setting, class tension, and supernatural menace in favor of a deep dive into the two generic samurai lovers (are they lovers? I don't know; so far they haven't even kissed on a page). Gone is the tension they had in the first book trying to hide their secrets. They keep their bland personalities, but now they both share the same motivation; hiding the life-draining effects they suffered in the first book - from each other.The first book, while not a masterpiece, was an acceptable pulp diversion. This book took the weakest aspect of the first, and made it the focus.

I have read many L5R books from different authors but this one broke the immersion for me from the get go. I have yet to hear (or read) a Rokugani address someone as "Sir". The physician was not called using the honorific -san or even any another Rokugani honorific, but "Sir" (I would rather see no honorifics). Second, the description "a swordswoman born male". The description seemed forced as if stating that defined the samurai in question. I understand that in Rokugan, there are sexual attractions to the same sex BUT even for the highest ranking samurai, this is not flaunted openly. Most follow the rule of birth, along with everything it entails amd accept that as their place in the world. I admit, I did not finish the novel. It could have been good but I'll never know. My immersion to the lore has been broken, same as my interest in the book's content.