Siphon

I'm writing this review after having completed the second book because I wanted to see if my main criticisms of the series would carry forward or resolve themselves. I should preface this by saying that I do quite enjoy the series, find the main character interesting and like the world.

I have two main criticism of the series. The first is that having each book span a handful of days amplifies the unbelievability of her accomplishments and interactions with people. Is it plausible to arrive in a new place and form deep relationships with dozens of people? Of course. Is it plausible to do this in less than a week while also engaging in a dozen other time-consuming activities? The compressed timeframe adds nothing positive to the story but detracts heavily from its overall believability.

My bigger criticism is not that the MC is a Mary Sue, she is, but that it's done at the cost of making everyone around her appear utterly incompetent. If she came into the world and immediately realized that Light magic should be able to make colored lights because she remembers that light has wavelengths from her physics education, that's fine. That's a fun application of her modern world knowledge to magic. That her Light magic instructor doesn't seem to know how to make colored light just seems baffling, though.If the Darkness instructor teaches her to convert indoor lighting into energy that she can use to recharge her stores, that's worthwhile. If she then immediately thinks of using sunlight to do this how can the instructor possibly not know if this works? Even if he doesn't use it that way himself, how can he be a lifelong user and teacher and not have himself learned, or experimented with, taking energy from the largest, most readily available source of energy available?She thinks to wrap her arrows in Wind and they shoot much further, and powerfully, and someone observes that they typically just enchant the bow, not the arrows. But ... it turns the arrow into a ballista bolt, for effectively free.

This ends up feeling like a consistent theme. Jade does something that might feel innovative to someone unfamiliar with the craft but that should be painfully obvious to any lifetime professional user of it. The series is in dire need of some imposing, powerfully competent magic users that provide some perspective and balance to Jade's accomplishments.