Minimum Wage Magic

This is the first novel of a trilogy, but the trilogy is written as one continuous story: I think you have to be ready to read the whole thing. Each novel is a fairly normal size for a novel; the whole trilogy is shorter than [b:The Lord of the Rings 33 The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1566425108l/33.SX50.jpg 3462456], but longer than most other long novels.On the good side, the story is competently put together, I found it entertaining and quite gripping, and the characters are congenial enough, though not completely plausible.The scenario is imaginative but gaudy, and didn't strike me as plausible. I've read fantasy set in the modern world before, and it can work well, but I think this is overdoing it. It's set in a future in which magic, powerful dragons, and multiple powerful gods have all appeared, and we also have advanced computer technology coexisting with it.The dragons and the gods aren't particularly human-friendly, on the whole, and can be actively hostile. The city of Detroit is wiped out by one god and then rebuilt by another god. Dragons eat humans if they feel like it.It seems to me that all this going on would have a disruptive and damaging effect on human organized activities in general, and on the human economy in particular. In that sort of environment, I think it would be hard even to maintain steady production of computer equipment, and harder to advance the state of the art. So the advanced computer technology described in these books strikes me as implausible: I doubt that the damaged world economy would be able to research, develop, and produce such technology.Even without the computer technology, there are simply too many powerful entities in this story for my liking. It's inelegant and feels a bit childish. “Dragons are great, let's have ten of them! With names!”Overall, this seems to me what's called a young-adult book these days: not quite a children's book, although I suppose children could read it; but a book aimed at people in their teens and early twenties. The heroine, Opal Yong-ae, says that she's 26, but from her lifestyle and behaviour I'd have guessed some years younger.Regarding the structure of the story, each book gives Opal a task that seems completely impossible, but we know that she's going to accomplish it somehow (if she didn't, the story would be pointless and depressing). I find this rather irritating; the author is overdoing it again. Please, just give her a difficult task; we don't need impossible.Despite my various criticisms, I've quite enjoyed the whole trilogy, but at this stage I don't know how much I'll want to reread it in future. If I find myself rereading it regularly, I'll increase my rating. Three stars is what I give to books that I may well reread sometime, but not often.