Reading the title and thinking: "Light of the Jedi... Sufficiently Advanced Magic... Of course it's sufficient... It's the freaking Force" Watching the video: "Oh... It's another book... Oh, erm... Sorry for the rant Master Goblin! Crap! I am never gonna go up the ranks of the Clan like this!"
THE DARN FORCE lol Welp, it happened again. I thought I’d gone crazy ... again 😂 “... but I never commented on this video 🤨 ... I’m crazy ... that’s it ... wait ... wait, ohhhhhh” I love when this happens though hehe 😜
Unpopular Star Wars opinion:Maybe it will take people many years for them to fully understand and appreciate the sequel trilogy. They bashed on Return Of The Jedi at first, too. Any comments?
I love that Daniel acknowledges both that he doesn't have a passion for Star Wars while recognizing the passion that lives in the community. As a reviewer, I give him a 9/10.
Pleasantly surprised to see that the author of Sufficiently Advanced Magic also wrote How To Defeat a demon King in 10 easy steps. Got it off audible and it was a pretty fun light story aimed at fans of rpgs and d&d, particularly Zelda.
@@jasonschmucker ???? No diversity in types of writing... like when GoT was popular, publishers wanted books like it. Idc for sjw types but you are assuming a lot.
I loved Significantly Advanced Magic. And if it were a game I'd play it. I also enjoyed On The Shoulders of Titians and the Six Sacred Swords series too.
I think I love the Six Sacred Swords the most so far. And yes, War of Broken Mirrors is the same world, and they all tie together in some ways, but to me it was the weakest part of the whole so far.
@@Jrabney4 Probably because it's shorter and then you can go into SA? Honestly, IDK if Will would go against Brandon like that - he knows what he's doing.
I won't go so far as to compare it with stormlight, but it's definitely my most favourite self-pub book. I just wish booktubers would try out eastern fantasy, eastern inspired fantasy and web-novels more.
@@solomonkenji5611 People would argue that anything else is better? (Of course they would, it's the internet, but I agree with you that this, or Zahn's duology, is the high water mark of Star Wars novels.)
I have read A LOT of Star Wars books in the past year and after getting really deep into the books you can really start to pick out author voices. Charles Soule I feel really focuses on the humanity of character, making the Jedi feel relatable in a way I haven’t really seen, whereas someone like Timothy Zahn is much more tactical, military writer, focusing so much on combat and vectors (I still don’t understand it) 😂 it’s one of those things if you read a lot of Star Wars books you’d be able to tell.
@@jasonschmucker I have a RU-vid channel of barely 300 subscribers, I don’t get paid anything? My opinions are my own and no type of money is going to sway my opinion on what I like and don’t like.
@@ImJaredRoss Come on mate, I love Timothy Zahn but it's not that hard to understand his "tactical" approach, at least not compared to other Scifi properties.
@@kingkusnacht oh that wasn’t meant as a slant against Timothy Zahn, I love his Star Wars book, Dark Force Rising is my favorite Star Wars books. I just get lost in the technicals of how he describes stuff with space battle. If you can that’s great, I just have a hard time understanding it because that’s stuff I don’t necessarily know. I just meant to say reading through a bunch of Star Wars books and becoming familiar with those writers you can see authors voices.
I love Zahn's writing. But, for me, Claudia Gray and the author of "Kenobi" that i forgot his name is very relatable, and makes we "feel" the story, rather than just "see".
Something that needs to be said about Sufficiently Advanced Magic y way of praise (and all Rowe's books, really) is that he is pretty good about dealing with things like remembering to have characters that are not just straight dudes. Literally his main characters's primary romantic plot is another young man and it's handled really well and without baggage. His world just naturally includes LGBTQ characters. Also, he does a great job at not really glorifying violence, which is hard in a world full of violence. I was really impressed with his ability to believably give us characters who fight, even for a living, without reverting to RA Salvatore levels of action movie tropes.
Yo Daniel. Read Cradle by Will Wight please. If you loved SAM,you have to take cradle for a ride. The name of the first book is Unsouled and is easily the weakest book in a completely awesome series.
I third this. Cradle is amazing, and yes, Unsouled is actually the weakest of the books, although I enjoyed it. They get progressively better and better. Wight also wrote the House of Blades series, which has one of the most original magic systems I've ever read. He is amazing.
Cradle is a good read. It reads fast and full of actions. However, it's too plot convenient. The Characters are either very strong or weak depending on what the plot at that moment demands. This reminds me of comic books and annoys me to no end.
@@HQofrandom Whilst I haven't read it yet, I do follow the author pretty closely and from what he's said, he knew the third book would probably not be as eventful as the last two but its kind of like a summer vacation story rather than a major addition to it's main story if that helps put it in perspective.
A note on SAM: Rowe is a game designer. The books are set in a world he wrote for a tabletop/LARP system he designed, so it is technically a LitRPG, but since he's removed all the trappings of that genre it doesn't read like one.
@@bribli2177 He means Progression Fantasy which is a new genre of fantasy. Go look it up in reddit. Its essencially focuses on characters getting stronger over time
@@bribli2177 I think he meant progression fantasy, not progressive. I think its also referred to as Lit RPG. Progression fantasy is a genre were the main characters show change and improvement by gaining new abilities and increasing their “power level”. Kinda like an RPG or some shonen anime/manga.
Imo, Charles Soule is one of the greatest comic book writers, and this was his first prose novel. Aparently, he and the other High Republic authors all took a creative writing trip a few years ago, to figure out what kind of star wars stories they could tell next. They all got together and bounced ideas off each other, and they decided the High Republic would be a great setting where they could start fresh. Disney never told them to set the story there, they just worked it out as a group of writers. The High Republic is (so far) purely the result of this group of writers trying to tell fresh stories.
"The dialog can get cringey at times" Yeah I can agree with that. This book holds the weird paradox of having poor dialog and also containing some lines that made me genuinely laugh out loud (i.e. "I briefly contemplated the safety of removing my own hand")
I think the dialog gets somewhat better throughout the sequal books, however it isn't a lot of improvement. I do however feel like the dialog problems add a little bit to the awkwardness of Corin's character.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic was a pleasant surprise. I split my reading between traditionally and self-published books and I'm pleasantly surprised by the quality of self-published fantasy. The trick is to pick well-edited books that try to do something new. Thanks for the review and I can't wait to see what self-published titles you'll try next!
I really enjoyed light of the jedi. It was exactly what I was looking for in a star wars book. It was a fun fast paced read that set up an interesting era, though there were too many characters. I really want to read SAM now!
Oh I LOVE Sufficiently Advanced Magic!! Andrew Rowe low-key becoming one of my fav authors cuz the extremely in depth magic system is my absolute favorite thing! And yes your criticisms are valid, the prose do be like dat
My thoughts on Light of the Jedi: We are All the Republic! Also, I don't think it's classic Star Wars. I get vibes of Firefly, a little bit of 40K and generally, a more... fresh take? I quite like it, but you're right, it's not 5/5
Just an FYI: The next major Adult/YA high republic book comes out on febuary fifth and is called “Into the Dark”, by claudia gray, and the next adult book that is at least being marketed as the Light Of the Jedi sequel is The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott coming out in July.
If you want a real treat the Audiobook for Sufficiently Advanced Magic is absolutely ace. They give each character a particular voice and it's almost like listening to a good audio drama. -Highly- recommended.
I'm seconding this - Nick Podehl is one of the strongest narrators I've heard, I'm impressed with his range of voices. (I got the book on Audible, in the UK. I don't know if its available on Audible in every country.)
Arcane Ascension quickly entered my "fun re-reads" category of things that I listen to, over and over, on audible, while I'm doing other things like commuting. The other of these series that I continually go back to is Will Wight's Cradle, and we really need Daniel to dive into that particular rabbit hole :)
Sufficiently Advanced Magic series as audiobooks are also.. soooo good! Nick Podehl is amazing for this genre as a narrator. (Also Columbus Day by Craig Alanson which I saw is on your TBR list - I can highly recommend giving the Audiobook with R.C. Bray a listen too)
Bro, you have no idea. The arcane ascension book series is so immersive. The best part about this series is that there are currently three thickboy covers out right now. So say you lile the first book, you'll have plenty more to read. I'm not even counting the other two shorter books seprate from the arcane ascension book series that are a part of the same setting.
The High Republic is technically a new era being explored for the first time. It is only a couple hundred years before the movies, whereas the Old Republic is still not technically canon anymore and was thousands of years before.
Very much disagree with the idea that Star Wars books have diluted authorial voices. Crack open Chuck Wendig's Aftermath trilogy and it's obviously Chuck Wendig. Same with most writers, I think. I always appreciate your reviews and hearing your thoughts!
My favorite of the new canon Star Wars books have been Claudia Gray's. She especially does wonderful things with characters, I love 'Bloodline' which is about Leia and the decline of the New Republic before Force Awakens.
I have never been into Star Wars and I always thought I didn't like Sci Fi, but I realize now that not all Sci Fi is the same. The Martian was very enjoyable, book and movie.
Sci-Fi comes in about as many flavours and tones as fantasy. Try some Star Trek, or Cowboy Bebop. It’s fun watching people try to answer the questions of where science will take us.
Claudia Gray is IMHO the best SW writer right now and her High Republic book (Into the Dark) is coming out next month. I only decided to read this one because I wanted some back story for that one but ended up liking Light of the Jedi quite a bit. 8 out of 10 (for Star Wars). Just a couple comments on the pacing Daniel mentions. The first part is a series of short stories revolving around a single catastrophic event. Part two is where it really starts feeling like a novel. Personally I think this made the first part feel faster paced than the rest, but I see where Daniel is coming from especially since some of the characters in Part 1 don't appear again outside their short stories except in cameo roles.
The writer was a developer for Blizzard. He basically wanted to write a book that felt like you were reading a classic JRPG like Final Fantasy. That's why there are basically "classes" and dungeons.
@@Jrabney4 well ..... yes. But quite literally, arcane ascension was a larp. I npc'd in it for years! You can ask about it in the official discord i think. Tell them Mr. tealights sent you
In regards to your comments on voice, I think the issue here is that Charles Soule's voice just happens to line up incredibly well with basic Star Wars. He's arguably the best Star Wars comic writer to date and this is his first foray into Star Wars novels (he's written only two standalone novels previously). Charles writes Star Wars right, but yeah he's not breaking new ground in writing Star Wars so I can agree. For me, this novel has a vast majority of things I want in a Star Wars story, which is mostly that it's not just a tie-in and that it touches on the question "well how DOES the Force work?"
Sufficiently Advanced Magic was already high on my TBR and considering how similar my preferences are to yours (basically we're the same except I care less about prose), this review rocketed this book even higher on that list.
Disney didn't de-canonize anything. This misunderstanding has absolutely plagued the Star Wars community since they bought the IP and I don't really know why. The old Expanded Universe was never canon, it was fan-fiction. Lucas acknowledged a couple things from the EU that got popular, and he did add a couple things from it to canon by including references to them in the Prequels, but the only things that were Star Wars canon prior to the Disney era were the six films and the Clone Wars tv show - nothing else. None of the books and none of the games were ever part of the Star Wars canon. All Disney did upon buying the property was reaffirm that "all this fan-fiction is, in fact, just fan-fiction" to avoid creating confusion. Just like George however Disney has also used the old EU as a source for some ideas and characters to bring into canon, such as Thrawn. It's essentially the same set up as when George owned it and nothing has really changed there.
I think I actually agreed with everything you said on LOTJ but would probably bump that rating to an 8.5 because I'm a fanboy and my love for SW is just a hair deeper. Great review, love your content.
@@jasonschmucker because I really enjoyed it and I really enjoy Star Wars? Why would you go on the internet and be a dick to someone you don’t know. Sounds like you’re a massive douche.
@@jasonschmucker Listen dude, someone can come into a product with different starting points, have the same critiques, but one person enjoy it more because of where they started.
I loved Sufficiently Advanced Magic. The entire series is light, fun, and enjoyable. I hope you read and review the rest of the Arcane Ascension series!
Daniel, what is you favorite Star Wars book? I personally love the Darth Bane trilogy because I love Sith and Ban in general XD. They are also great books, so that doesn't hurt ;-).
Me to! Very underappreciated! People recommend the Thrawn trilogy or Plaguise, but Drew Karpyshyn did a much better job by showing another side of the events.
I would totally watch this video right now, but Light of the Jedi is sitting on top of my TBR right now and I want to go into it unbiased. 😅 When I'm finished I will return! 💪💪
Stumbled upon Sufficiently Advanced Magic totally by accident, it was a freebie on Kindle a few months ago. Was very surprised by how much I liked it -- I usually don't have high hopes for the self published freebies, but this one was definitely a cut above the rest. Looking forward to reading book 3 in the series.
Hiya, Daniel! So I identify as a hobgoblin, and it stresses me out to have my favorite RU-vidr be a goblin. I usually floss with goblins. Are goblinoids goblin-like enough to join the clan? And what kind of clan doesn’t have a theme song!? Might I suggest “Piggies” by the Beatles? Just some thoughts.
I enjoyed the part of Sufficiently Advanced Magic where one of the characters asks the main character out and both are male and there was literally nothing made about it other than whether the main character wanted to date the person or not. No big deal made, just, this is a romantic decision. I feel like this was unique enough that no big deal was made that it stuck out to me and it was refreshing.
It's just another feature of the world and the character. Some authors just love using fantasy as an excuse to write romance, so its good seeing it being treated as a mundane thing. And that people can be mature about things without blowing them out of proportion, as is the case with shipping and plot derailment by sudden romance arcs.
I really liked sufficiently advanced magic- Though I often get old sitcom / dad joke vibes from the interactions. It's endearing at times and cringey at others. If you're sensitive to that I'd recommend skipping Six Sacred Swords. It's non-essential to the main series and reads as an excuse to squeeze out maximum quipage that really misses the mark for me.
Light of the Jedi was an amazing book. That first part had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I don’t understand why you didn’t like the characters at first because while there were too many we get to see how each of them react to a huge crisis erupting out of nowhere and I found myself really caring so I’m interested why someone didn’t feel that bond to them. I think you might have a bias towards the brand right now I’d recommend just trying to let that bias go and judge it for what it is without all that baggage you hold against the brand.
For me, I liked the opening of the book because even though I didn't connect with any of the characters, the multi-layered scenario of the hyperspace accident was gripping in and of itself, and it was such a huge sweeping event it couldn't have been captured with limitations of character POVs. The problem is once the initial hyperspace thing ended, Marchion Ro was the only character who really interested me. I really want to see what he's up to next. But I wasn't invested in any of the new Jedi we met
Light of the Jedi will be the first Star Wars book I have because it’s the chosen book for a book subscription I’m a member of. I don’t plan on reading any of the earlier books and I hope I won’t be lost. My only exposure to Star Wars is the movies.
Sufficiently advanced magic isn’t technically a Fantasy novel, i’s a LitRPG. The magic system is basically something you would expect in an RPG game (whether video or tabletop). You literally level up :-) i thought I would struggle with it, but listening to the audiobook and the great narrator helped.
Saw this notification pop up when I was on my lunch break and saw Light of the Jedi and then went to B&N after work and saw Light of the Jedi and knew but hadn't watched the video yet. My hand reached out but I paused and thought to myself...next time baby, next time... maybe. I read The Oracle Year by Charles Soule and really loved it I'd recommend checking it out.
The author Daniel keeps mentioning while reviewing Light of the Jedi is Charles Soule... I know the extended universe and owner of the IP are important but just thought that was worth mentioning.
Looks interesting, I might read it. It does remind me a lot of some of the most popular japanese Light Novels (Overlord, Log Horizon, Danmachi, SAO, That time I was reincarnated as a Slime, etc) and Korean manhwa (Solo Leveling, Survival Story of a Sword King in a Fantasy World, The Gamer, etc). But watching the review, gives me hope it'll be better than those.
I enjoyed SAM quite a bit. Really need to read the rest in the series next time I get chance. However, Daniel I need to level with you. You need to read Cradle by Will Wright. Seriously, that series is like fantasy cocaine! I got threw the whole thing within a week ...... It was not ok....... And I trust you to give it a fair review. The series could really use with some high profile coverage!
I think it can be qualified as a lit rpg because of the way mana was numerically valued and the work to level it up. Also the author wanted a game mechanic feel which lends credence to that idea. If a LitRPG is defined as the protagonist knowing it is in a world with game mechanics then I can understand why some would not qualify it as such, but beyond that it fits the bill pretty well.
This is a year late but I hope you try both more Star Wars canon and Legends books in the future. I really liked the High Republic main Trilogy of adult books.
@@gups4963 Yeah, I agree. I still like Thrawn’s character he’s just different. I only recommended the canon books because that’s what he’s reviewing here.
Thanks for the review of Light of the Jedi, I'm looking forward to doing my own once I get the book :) Have you tried Star Wars: Bloodlines? I feel like it is the strongest Star Wars book in terms of political and philosophical themes. And it almost fixed episode VII for me.
I was very exited about the new era, right because it's don't connecting to anything what we seen before. That may have been the issue for some people in the community, the absent of validation from previous events, like the New Sith Wars or the Old Republic. But people forget that wasn't new, the Clone Wars crew de-canonized the Republic Commando novels of Karen Travis as well long before the "Disney takeover". I optimistic for discover a new era which isn't try capitalizing nostalgia, but give as something new and they own fresh take on the setting, specially by Claudia Gray and Charles Soule.
I agree about SAM, it was a lot of fun. I was about ready to drop the book when the OP character follows that frustrating, annoying trope of not killing, BUT his logic was so sound I kept going (I didn’t start the series with this book, it might have been explained in one of the others). And I was glad I didn’t give up on it. Ive been listening to his books, he’s got an excellent narrator for them, Nick Podehl. I believe, rather than lit-RPG, it would be considered a cultivation story.
I loved Sufficiently Advanced Magic, but I liked the second book less than the first. I really enjoyed the litRPG feel and the characters in the first book. The main character is great for the most part, but I did have some issues with his extremely repetitive inner monologue about not wanting to touch people, I thought the character trait was really interesting but the author beats you over the head with it. He could have used a little more show and not tell after about the 100th time he says he doesn't like touching people, we get it man no touching, you can quit reminding us. That issue only gets worse in the second book. There is a point where Corin actually has to pause to decide which is worse, touching someone or letting his friend fall to her death in a pit. How am I supposed to see this guy as a hero if that situation actually gave him pause?
Lots of people are saying you should review Cradle and I agree. I love the series. You also need to read Iron Prince. It has thousands of 5 star reviews and is very fun.
One of the best examples of individual voices in shared universes getting away from the publisher is The Black Library and the early Warhammer Fantasy and 40K novels. I actually fell out of love with those books when authors with their own voice were summarily removed from series in order to get them back in line with the rest of the world/novels. Star Wars (and by extension, almost every shared universe designed to sell merch) cannot ever end or change in such a way as to render it unrecognizable. To reference The Black Library again, they attempted to change Warhammer Fantasy into Age of Sigmar, which was entirely different from what all came before and turned off a lot of fans. By shoving all the old content into "legends" they essentially did the same thing as BL... they disregarded a small and loyal fanbase in an attempt to capture a larger audience, creating a story by committee and ultimately having it fall flat. I honestly think Star Wars is in a bit of a Catch-22, when it comes to creativity. They don't want someone to 'damage the IP' but at the same time, they want something creative and interesting, such that it draws more people (customers) in. At the heart of every good story is the teller of that tale, and by attempting to strip that out from the creative process, companies do great harm to their pretend worlds. However, by letting people 'go off script' and do what they want, you could end up with an Episode 8/9 situation, so again... Catch-22.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic is the nerdiest school of magic book I have ever read. I am totally there for the RPGLIT open and close of the book and if anything I wish there was more. My one criticism is that there is hardly any class room instruction and the main character seems to be left to try and figure out how things work mostly on his own. If I had a dime for how many times he says "I wonder....." and "Interesting...." I could buy another book at least haha. I struggle to know who to recommend this book to even though I liked it a lot myself.
I’m a bit confused by this review. A few months ago I tried to read Sufficiently Advanced Magic on my kindle and I couldn’t make it past page 20. The prose was 1st person present with a stilted voice and riddled with errors. Was the copy I read later revised in some way? I just don’t see how anyone could make through what I encountered. I’m really not trying to be a jerk or snub indie authors. I just wonder how people are actually enjoying the prose I encountered. Was there a later edition??
Overall I enjoyed SAM, but I immediately had the impression the writing was a tier below what I expect from traditionally published. I don't remember many true errors, but lots of awkward prose. Also when I inserted into my head canon that the POV character has Asperger's, I connected better with the book. His world view, especially regarding relationships and communication, are so different than mine and that idea helped bridge that gap. Also since this is such a video game inspired book, I just told myself that the dialog was actually really good for a video game haha. Anyway there were lots of fun elements of the plot, worldbuilding, and magic so I enjoyed the book but I think there are a lot of people that would bounce off it in the first few chapters like you did.
My copy is two years old and is written in past tense. I didn't notice any errors (nor terrible prose), so you probably have the book confused with a different one. :-)
Have really enjoyed his work as well, according to a recent blog, his most popular pieces are actually his offshoots, SAM wasn't intended as the "main" story. I loved all the tongue in cheek of how to defeat a demon lord
Start with Timothy (Zhan) Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy. It's what the majority of fans treat as the real sequel trilogy and it kicked off the whole extended universe for Star Wars. Of course Disney now calls those novels Legends, but ignore that. These books are fantastic.
SAM is a book I have put off for a long time because if there are two settings I am sick of it's Magic Academy and Tower Climber so seeing them combined is not super appealing. Will keep it in mind if I ever feel like dipping back into that sub-genre.
I was pleasantly surprised by Sufficiently Advanced Magic as well. I thought it was a very well done, fun read and I have the rest of the books in this series in my TBR. And after looking into Andrew a bit (since he's self-published and I like seeing how people do it since I'm just going down that road) he is big into TTRPG, so that does come through quite a bit, but since I am into that as well, I appreciate how well it was done.
I picked up the Sufficiently Advanced Magic purely because of the title. And while I really enjoyed the book I think it was completely different from what the title referenced. I got clickbaited by my own expectations but also don't regret it.
All the modern Star Wars books use the same narrator for their audiobooks. Unfortunately I cant stand how he reads them. He reads it like its a kids cartoon. I'll give it a second shot based on this review. I stopped reading because of the lack of central character for the first act. Its hard to pay attention to an audiobook if I don't have a strong sense of character to latch onto. Also I've been on the fence about whether or not I want to pick up Sufficiently Advanced Magic. I was surprised that I liked How to Defeat a Demon King in 10 Easy Steps. So based on this review I think I'll spare the audible credit and give it a shot. All in all, I'll give this review a 4.5 out of 5. You accomplished your task of informing your audience and equipping them to make a decision whether to pick up these books or not. My only criticism is that I could have used more disheveledness, but otherwise its a solid review. Highly recommended.
I love Andrew Rowe, I've read all his books. I agree with your criticisms of SAM and the score as well based on the standalone book. In my opinion Rowe really shines in the way he does worldbuilding, and how he delivers a standalone plot in his books but weaves it into a larger plot that's happening across all three of his book series in a Sanderson-esque way. I highly recommend reading all three series to really see what his world-building is capable of, any individual book might be a 7 or an 8, but as a whole I'd give the world a 9!
Hi Daniel! You should really give Cradle by Will Wight a shot. The first book is named "Unsouled". It is self-published and the latest book (#8) in the series managed to get rank 1 spot on Amazons fantasy section when it was released. Highly recommended, tho the series starts a bit rough but get better in time.
I know you've committed to reading some self published fantasy this year. I strongly recommend Michael r. Fletcher. City of Sacrifice series. The first book had a few editing issues with seems to have been solved in the second. Mesoamerican fantasy for something completely different. Well written. Great character development. Fun, easy reads.
Why do I get my kicks watching your reviews of books I have already read and have strong feelings about? I do not know. Sufficiently Advanced Magic (and On the Shoulders of Titans) are sort of guilty pleasures of mine. I feel like every character is kind of "samey," they are all min/maxing munchkins trying to gain power in the most efficient way possible and more likely to look on another person as a means to an end first and friend second. Also, as you touch upon, the whole exercise kind of reads like a series of one context-less puzzle after another, much like an RPG game. But something about the power levelling that Corin is trying to do just interests me. That said, I really started writing this intending to recommend The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington, the first book in his Licanius trilogy. When you mentioned good self-published books it popped to mind as my favorite self-published fantasy book. It did eventually get picked up by Orbit (they are on fire!), but that just goes to show how good it is.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic, yes! I read it a few years ago and loved it, but for some reason I forgot it's name and the author, so I couldn't look for the rest of the series. Now I can, thanks! It felt like it sprang from a TTRPG campaign, but not so much that it felt like the novelization of a game.