luxintenebris's review
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
vi_rain's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
adnama's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
kitcatbooks's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
cyanide_latte's review
4.0
Almost the moment that this novel was announced, my husband and I had to pre-order it. He's a huge RWBY fan and got me into the series, and getting an entire novel based around Team CFVY was such an exciting prospect! He hasn't read this yet, but I'm glad I finally managed to finish it.
I should start by saying that before I read After the Fall, I did come across a video on YouTube that discussed how the book fits into the RWBY canon timeline of events, so I was obviously spoiled for almost the entire plot of the book prior to ever reading it. I tried to make sure there was some time between when I watched that video and when I read this in order for the information to not be fresh in my mind, and I partially succeeded. The story that occurs in the book's present time was still mostly new to me, but a lot of the background information given in flashback chapters had stuck with me longer, and I got through those chapters much faster because I essentially skim-read them.
You follow Team CFVY where they presently are, and for a point of reference, the story in "current-day" is occurring around the same time or shortly after the ending of volume 5 of the animated show. The team has been in the country of Vacuo, making their way to Shade Academy, since shortly after the ending of volume 3, and they've been having a time of it. We follow one major mission they're on at this point in time, but we get frequent flashbacks to the childhoods of Coco, Fox and Yatsuhashi throughout the book, and a lot of flashbacks to some of the team's time spent at Beacon.
There are a fair few chapters just dedicated to Beacon flashbacks, and in these (and towards the end of the book overall,) the narrative shifts into a third-person omniscient narration that is a little haphazard. The entire book is meant to have a third-person omniscient narrative overall, but generally Myers wrote clear breaks into the book when it was time to shift from following the thoughts and perspective of one character to the next. But after a while, we go from focusing on one character in a single paragraph to suddenly being in the headspace of a different one in the next, and I'm afraid that bothered me quite a bit.
Overall, I enjoyed this though! I think it's not entirely necessary to read for those who keep up with the show, but I enjoyed getting to know more about Team CFVY, and I think the fight scenes and world-building were spectacular. This has, if anything, whet my appetite and made me eager to see how the animators are going to handle the setting of Vacuo and Shade Academy when they get to it in the show.
I should start by saying that before I read After the Fall, I did come across a video on YouTube that discussed how the book fits into the RWBY canon timeline of events, so I was obviously spoiled for almost the entire plot of the book prior to ever reading it. I tried to make sure there was some time between when I watched that video and when I read this in order for the information to not be fresh in my mind, and I partially succeeded. The story that occurs in the book's present time was still mostly new to me, but a lot of the background information given in flashback chapters had stuck with me longer, and I got through those chapters much faster because I essentially skim-read them.
You follow Team CFVY where they presently are, and for a point of reference, the story in "current-day" is occurring around the same time or shortly after the ending of volume 5 of the animated show. The team has been in the country of Vacuo, making their way to Shade Academy, since shortly after the ending of volume 3, and they've been having a time of it. We follow one major mission they're on at this point in time, but we get frequent flashbacks to the childhoods of Coco, Fox and Yatsuhashi throughout the book, and a lot of flashbacks to some of the team's time spent at Beacon.
There are a fair few chapters just dedicated to Beacon flashbacks, and in these (and towards the end of the book overall,) the narrative shifts into a third-person omniscient narration that is a little haphazard. The entire book is meant to have a third-person omniscient narrative overall, but generally Myers wrote clear breaks into the book when it was time to shift from following the thoughts and perspective of one character to the next. But after a while, we go from focusing on one character in a single paragraph to suddenly being in the headspace of a different one in the next, and I'm afraid that bothered me quite a bit.
Overall, I enjoyed this though! I think it's not entirely necessary to read for those who keep up with the show, but I enjoyed getting to know more about Team CFVY, and I think the fight scenes and world-building were spectacular. This has, if anything, whet my appetite and made me eager to see how the animators are going to handle the setting of Vacuo and Shade Academy when they get to it in the show.
lacependragon's review
5.0
5/5 stars.
An awesome look into the world of RWBY and the parts we never got to see before. Vacuo is terrifying and I adore it and Team CFVY is different from what I expected, but I loved them as well. A great story that explains anything you might have forgotten but doesn't hold your hand too much.
Love the casual queerness of Coco, the way disability was handled, and the way mental health and communication was handled.
So looking forward to the next one.
An awesome look into the world of RWBY and the parts we never got to see before. Vacuo is terrifying and I adore it and Team CFVY is different from what I expected, but I loved them as well. A great story that explains anything you might have forgotten but doesn't hold your hand too much.
Love the casual queerness of Coco, the way disability was handled, and the way mental health and communication was handled.
So looking forward to the next one.
eyla's review
3.0
3.5 stars
In all honestly, this book wasn't amazing. The writing was often dry and repeated the same words quite often on a page, it felt hard to read even during the faster scenes. The plot wasn't incredible either, predictable. The area where this book shines is in the characters. There was no way Team CFVY couldn't have caught your attention in the early volumes of RWBY. And unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of them at all. This book was definitely what I was waiting for in terms of character exploration and development. I loved seeing what everyone has been up to and I am 100% on board for the next book, can't wait to see and meet Team SSSN for real this time!!!
In all honestly, this book wasn't amazing. The writing was often dry and repeated the same words quite often on a page, it felt hard to read even during the faster scenes. The plot wasn't incredible either, predictable. The area where this book shines is in the characters. There was no way Team CFVY couldn't have caught your attention in the early volumes of RWBY. And unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of them at all. This book was definitely what I was waiting for in terms of character exploration and development. I loved seeing what everyone has been up to and I am 100% on board for the next book, can't wait to see and meet Team SSSN for real this time!!!
bookishbambi's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
So, as a book recommendation, I say that this is definitely an enjoyable book for fans of RWBY (specifically those who have, at the very least, watched up to Volume 3 because of spoilers). It follows Team CFVY (Coffee), first introduced in Volume 2, and a mission they are on for Shade Academy out in the Vacuan desert.
In terms of world building, this book does explore new areas and Grimm considering the show itself has only mentioned Vacuo and Shade a few times, it mentions other things about the wider world, but, as I said about the spoilers thing, it’s definitely a book you have to watch RWBY to understand some things.
As for characters, it builds on those introduced but not very developed, CFVY has only made a few appearances on the show itself and as such FNDM was free to sort of guess what their personalities and abilities were. I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised by some of the things Luna, Shawcross and Myers add to them, given that traits before were based on very little interaction screen time wise. It has representation for the LGBTQ+ community as well as representation of a blind character portrayed in a similar way as Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender, where they’re more comic relief and very capable as a fighter. There were other extra characters, mildly explored in relation to their interactions with the main characters but I didn’t mind since it meant the few major extra characters were easy to remember during larger group scenes or later after some time apart from the main group.
I found the overall story very fun and interesting as a fan of the show, it gives background to characters otherwise barely explored, while also keeping an overarching narrative I’m excited to continue following when this book’s sequel comes out - I’m hoping Team SSSN (Sun) will get similar character and background explorations as CFVY, especially for Sage and Scarlet who have had less screen time and development than CFVY. I won’t go into too much detail here to save spoilers, but it provides a good idea for how the world is away from the main show storyline and explores the importance of the little things CFVY does in comparison to the larger dealings RWBY and JNR have during Volumes 4 and 5.
I think I only really had one issue with the story and that was some of the writing, it’s easy to follow but some sections got a little repetitive with speech tags and using names instead of ‘he’ or ‘she’ which would have read a lot smoother in my opinion. Other than that, i can’t really remember many other issues I had with the story though, like I said in the beginning of this review, I can really only recommend it to people who have watched RWBY - which I’m pretty sure was intended in the first place.
In terms of world building, this book does explore new areas and Grimm considering the show itself has only mentioned Vacuo and Shade a few times, it mentions other things about the wider world, but, as I said about the spoilers thing, it’s definitely a book you have to watch RWBY to understand some things.
As for characters, it builds on those introduced but not very developed, CFVY has only made a few appearances on the show itself and as such FNDM was free to sort of guess what their personalities and abilities were. I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised by some of the things Luna, Shawcross and Myers add to them, given that traits before were based on very little interaction screen time wise. It has representation for the LGBTQ+ community as well as representation of a blind character portrayed in a similar way as Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender, where they’re more comic relief and very capable as a fighter. There were other extra characters, mildly explored in relation to their interactions with the main characters but I didn’t mind since it meant the few major extra characters were easy to remember during larger group scenes or later after some time apart from the main group.
I found the overall story very fun and interesting as a fan of the show, it gives background to characters otherwise barely explored, while also keeping an overarching narrative I’m excited to continue following when this book’s sequel comes out - I’m hoping Team SSSN (Sun) will get similar character and background explorations as CFVY, especially for Sage and Scarlet who have had less screen time and development than CFVY. I won’t go into too much detail here to save spoilers, but it provides a good idea for how the world is away from the main show storyline and explores the importance of the little things CFVY does in comparison to the larger dealings RWBY and JNR have during Volumes 4 and 5.
I think I only really had one issue with the story and that was some of the writing, it’s easy to follow but some sections got a little repetitive with speech tags and using names instead of ‘he’ or ‘she’ which would have read a lot smoother in my opinion. Other than that, i can’t really remember many other issues I had with the story though, like I said in the beginning of this review, I can really only recommend it to people who have watched RWBY - which I’m pretty sure was intended in the first place.
timartin's review
adventurous
funny
relaxing
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
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