Naermyth by Karen Francisco

Naermyth is a fantasy adventure set in post-apocalyptic Philippines where creatures of lore, folktales, and the once-mythical waged a war that led to the human race's downfall.

Among my Visprint book haul, I read this last because it's the thickest. I'm happy I decided to spend more than my allotted budget to get this one. It was all worth it. I was glued to it once I started reading. I rarely get hold up for long by a book (I have very short attention span) so you can say a book is really good when I even choose to read than sleep just to finish it.

Naermyth can be a good plot for a movie or even a series. Anything that is about apocalypse is always a good premise, what with all the adventures just so the characters survive. The story runs on a very slow-pace (sometimes, I'd blurt out, "What, that was just a couple of days??), but it is action-packed so it's not boring.

I've never grown attached to any of the characters, but somehow I admire the protagonist (Astig! Itt would be cool to cosplay her) even though I do not really like her character–her being cold and hard-headed. Another thing I found odd about the character building is how Valarao seemed weak. He was the head/president of the Naermyth, (spoiler alert!) how can he die that easily? I think his subordinates managed to make an even greater damage on Aegis' gang.

I didn't actually get it when my friend Rein, who recommended the book, said, "Ang maganda diyan, makaka-relate ka dun sa mga lugar." Yep, that was actually plus points for Naermyth. The author really focused on building up the settings.

Sweet. I spent countless idle time in this park. :)

I just encountered several problems while reading, like name recognition. The characters had two names each and sometimes I interchanged them especially the ones not often mentioned. The supporting characters weren't built up. And I'm not comfortable with the concept of nicknames for the diwatas (Macky for Maria Makiling and Sookie for Maria Sinukuan). Through they're cute, I don't think the quirkiness is appropriate for their place in the novel. Maybe it's just me, but my mind went on turning the diwatas into gays because of that. 😁

I gotta give it to the author though for successfully providing a plot that branches out to many options that could really 'mislead' the readers. I had my guesses from the start (I have this habit of decoding things so I can guess what happens in the end), but then there will be plot twists.

And the love story, I never expected that. Haha! I mean I would love the story kahit walang love story, but then again, love gives colour and meaning to everything. I wonder if I could get my happy ending from book two. :D

Maganda, maganda. I hope the book two comes sooner. :)