The Agartha Loop

The Agartha Loop, Book 1

By: RavensDagger

Narrated by: Tess Irondale

Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

They asked Amber to become a magical girl three times.

She refused. That only made her more interesting.

The fourth time, she asked them.

©2023 Edgar Maloeuf (P)2024 Podium Audio

Came for Ravensdagger, stayed for Madoka Magica

I'll be honest, this book isn't the best start to a series. The book feels slow despite its pacing, the magic school setting is rather generic, the characters aren't Ravensdagger's best, and there's a lot of info dumping that bore me. So what keeps me invested in this story? The rather blatant Madoka Magica influence.

Any fan of the anime, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, should have certain expectations. Cute girls, suffering, friendship, suffering, love, suffering, epic fights, suffering, hope, despair, and suffering.

The only question is: how will Ravensdagger pull it off?

So freaking good

Ok so I am not usually into the whole magic girl trope, but since it was ravens dagger I gave it a shot, and I am so glad I did! The characters were well developed and interesting, and the story never left me bored. This one is a must!

Magical Girls and Time Shenanigans

If you're a fan of RavensDagger's other work, odds are you'll like this one. Magical girls with enough realism to be interesting and put together full dynamic characters, combined with enough whimsey to still be magical girls.

Late bloomer

Nothing happens in this book, it's all setup. Next book might be good if the story gets rolling but otherwise not the same quality as RavensDagger's other works. Tess Irondale does as good as she does on all her other roles.

Better than the negative reviews

Ok. I get the "nothing happens" complaint, but it's got way more plot than a slice of life book. Also if that's a subtle reference to the MC's flavor of time travel, well played.

It's a fun book that answers questions I never ask, like "What happens when Sailor Moon meets Grims Fairy Tales?"

I'll totally read the next book.

Great book

I absolutely loved the characters and story. However I have 1 complaint and 1 concern. The complaint is I whisper it was longer. The concern is that the plot twist at the end is too ambitious.

Disappointing

I'm actually shocked at how bad this is. I guess RavensDagger has spread himself too thin or something but this was shockingly uninspired. The plot isn't all that interesting and the actual writing is downright boring. Most of it takes place at a magical school for god's sake (barf). The main character is vanilla pudding and most of the other magical girls are annoying. None of them are interesting. The main character's power is sort of interesting but I was completely annoyed and disappointed at the ending of the book. There is no way in hell I would subject myself to a sequel. As it is, I nearly stopped listening halfway through and had to finish this on 2X just to get it over with. Bad, bad, bad. Trust me, read virtually any other RavensDagger novel (except maybe Sporemaggedon) and you wii be much more satisfied than this soulless work. Seriously, it felt like someone gave him this as a homework assignment and he just did it with the least amount of passion he could muster.

Meh

I decided to give the book a chance since I like the voice narrator and author. This was a bit boring. I think the most interesting aspect of the series was the monsters being grim fairy tale, but even that was focus less for the generic secret society villain that no doubt know something the magical girls and boys do not.

Like the book is overall about a girl turning into a magical girl to help his dad and end up in a magical girl school. In the school she will have teammates she will try to befriend and maybe something more if the blussing and hand holding is any indication. There seem to be some sort of pink hair girl causing explosion and human like or magical people endangering them.

The story is very bare bone, we get some small insight in the characters, the world, the secret villains, the classes and an overall premise. Its very slow, barely nothing happen, both figuratively and in some ways literally. It seem to burrow lots of elements from shows the author clearly like, which there nothing wrong with that. I mean I listen to a fantasy story that burrow heavily from Gurren Lagann final fight, and other series that recently ended having a Evangelion like ending, and love both. But this book does nothing that interesting and feel more like I just listen to a very long and drawn out 2 part episode of Re:Zero magical girl edition.

Maybe volume two is great as I can see potential, but maybe try that one series everybody recommend before spending your credit for this audiobook. Especially since there many better series from the author and the narrator.