I’m not even going to waste time with an intro: this series is shit. After reading all 4 books, I’m convinced the author was more concerned with shilling nonstop for Rho (her self insert MC, to the point that they almost have the same first name) than actually writing a story.
The first book starts out fine and is basically ok. The characters are poorly developed and it has an obnoxious love triangle, but the plot moves fast and it’s kinda funny seeing how ridiculous things get, with planets constantly exploding and catching on fire and the like. But from Wandering Star onward, the plot ceases to be a thing until the end and we meet an endless stream of characters who are introduced, given a one sentence backstory, then give 2 to 3 paragraphs talking about how great Rho is for no reason at all, then disappear. I’d go so far to say that Wandering Star does not have a plot at all. It’s just a random series of events and character shilling before it suddenly stops. The other two aren’t as bad, but they still aren’t good by any stretch. The obnoxious love triangle also expands to three obnoxious love triangles, with one being between her, Hysan and Mathias, one between her, Mathias and Pandora, and one between her, Hysan and Skarlet. And they all feel about as forced and poorly written as every other YA love triangle you’ve ever read.
The only good thing besides a few cool worldbuilding ideas are the villains. Ophiuchus and the Master are by far the most interesting characters in the story, with Ophiuchus starting out as a generic evil guy who gets a lot more depth as the series goes on (to the point where he has more character development than every one of the “main” characters). The Master’s true identity, his plan and his connection to Ophiuchus are all shockingly well done and are easily the only parts of the story where I was actually invested in what was happening. His “defeat,” however, is an absolute joke, with Rho beating him with what felt like a speech check straight out of Fallout 4.
Overall, don’t bother. Zodiac is a series that feels like the author just wanted to write a self insert fanfic about how great she is, but couldn’t pick a specific series to write it for, so she wrote this instead.
Literature Character Shilling: The Series
I’m not even going to waste time with an intro: this series is shit. After reading all 4 books, I’m convinced the author was more concerned with shilling nonstop for Rho (her self insert MC, to the point that they almost have the same first name) than actually writing a story.
The first book starts out fine and is basically ok. The characters are poorly developed and it has an obnoxious love triangle, but the plot moves fast and it’s kinda funny seeing how ridiculous things get, with planets constantly exploding and catching on fire and the like. But from Wandering Star onward, the plot ceases to be a thing until the end and we meet an endless stream of characters who are introduced, given a one sentence backstory, then give 2 to 3 paragraphs talking about how great Rho is for no reason at all, then disappear. I’d go so far to say that Wandering Star does not have a plot at all. It’s just a random series of events and character shilling before it suddenly stops. The other two aren’t as bad, but they still aren’t good by any stretch. The obnoxious love triangle also expands to three obnoxious love triangles, with one being between her, Hysan and Mathias, one between her, Mathias and Pandora, and one between her, Hysan and Skarlet. And they all feel about as forced and poorly written as every other YA love triangle you’ve ever read.
The only good thing besides a few cool worldbuilding ideas are the villains. Ophiuchus and the Master are by far the most interesting characters in the story, with Ophiuchus starting out as a generic evil guy who gets a lot more depth as the series goes on (to the point where he has more character development than every one of the “main” characters). The Master’s true identity, his plan and his connection to Ophiuchus are all shockingly well done and are easily the only parts of the story where I was actually invested in what was happening. His “defeat,” however, is an absolute joke, with Rho beating him with what felt like a speech check straight out of Fallout 4.
Overall, don’t bother. Zodiac is a series that feels like the author just wanted to write a self insert fanfic about how great she is, but couldn’t pick a specific series to write it for, so she wrote this instead.