Absurd Pantagruelian adventures and obsessive far-beyond-Robbe-Grilletian physical descriptions filtered through a Final Fantasy-themed lucid fever dream.

Completely sui generis. ( )

One of those books where the best reviews are the articles about it, I suspect. Anyone who hasn't read articles about this book should really do so.

I'm not going to rehash the premise (sonic? fanfic-esque neuro-atypical author fantasy proxy saves the world which runs in JRPG physics) or the method (the book transcends text to actually go into the physics and mechanisms of the world in the most literal of ways) more than I have to; while it's not a enjoyable book in a conventional fiction sense (which is the _point_, the fascinating with this book is that it's its outsider art by a non-writer in the traditional sense, a particular personality who has conveyed his values into a complete work with integrity to his vision and values. And I don't mean this as a dog-whistle for some kind of unsavoury content: this book is a perfectly viable young adult fantasy novel with good people winning over villains, albeit one written by someone who is a particular kind of neuro-atypical and optimized for that particular kind of neuro-atypical.

And in that sense, the book fulfills what it sets out to do. It's not one I can personally connect with, but if someone said they really connected with it on their mental wavelength, I'd believe them, and I'd be glad this book existed for them. ( )

The Legend of Elemental Masters is a novel that is heavily patterned after early computer/console role playing games. We have a level umpteen protagonist, a few of his buddies, a whole lot of non-player characters and an evil antagonist. There's a whole lot of activity. Complete with damage pop-ups.

Oh boy. This is going to be a *difficult* book to review.

I kept thinking whether or not it's even meaningful to ask if it's a good book or not, and it's easier to just break that down to a lot of different questions.

Does the book follow any sort of established conventions? Most of the conventions went out of the window.

Are there interesting dramatic or comedic things? Are characters particularly interesting? In short, does it have *depth*? Well, no to all questions - It's patterned after early CRPGs, of course it's going to be incredibly simplified.

Would a commercial publisher rejected it as something that can't be sold to the masses? Well, this is certainly a book for surprisingly small niches, definitely not the cup of tea for huge masses.

But is it interesting?

Is it something you can read through, if you don't mind the gimmick? Will you find it fascinating if you're a fan of early CRPGs?

I believe the answer to these questions is a resounding "pretty much yeah".

As a video gamer, I liked the book in a really, really odd way, and I'm hesitant to give it any star rating because this is not a book that can - or should - be evaluated on the same terms as other books. It's certainly a rather interesting and a curious book. At first, it's difficult to read a book that reads like a mix between a play, a video game and a set of video game cutscenes. It's downright strange to read a book that has a whole bunch of almost-but-not-quite-HTML colour codes. The end result is certainly a little bit *unusual*, is what I'm saying.

But I made it through, easily enough even, and managed to find it quite interesting all things considered. This was not exactly an outcome that was easy to foresee. It's not a book that I would outright recommend to just everyone, but if you're a fan of CRPGs and you're familiar with the author's other works (for example, his video game development stuff that he features on his YouTube channel), I'd recommend it - go forth and broaden your horizons.

I realize I am probably in a small minority insofar as this book goes, or outsider art in general. When serious people review outsider art, they usually claim that we (the viewers) only enjoy it ironically, and that we are ironically (dishonestly) indulging ourselves when we praise the artists. However, I will come out and say it: I actually like The Legend of the 10 Elemental Masters very much, and my five stars is honest, not ironic.

The reason why I admire and appreciate these works is because they are the result of a completely personal endeavor, and because of that fact alone they are completely original. No matter how misguided they are, the author is dragging us into the way he thinks, and that's wonderful.

Nick Smith (who has some Internet fans as "ulillillia") likes video game RPGs a lot, and it's obvious in his work. The book reads like a movie script written with RPG conventions (including magic spells, hit points, magic points, numbers popping out of nowhere to indicate damage or healing, the works). Because the main character is basically invincible, the story is a foregone conclusion and not really relevant. But the content is wonderful. Here is an extract:

"Knuckles casts teleport. He appears on the roof of the airport. Knuckles casts edit twice; the effects aren't seen. Stop follows, without the effects visible, then teleport. After teleport, the plane appears on the ground landed and without the cage add-on, as if it was never there. Knuckles casts "start" on the plane. The spell has the same watch from the "stop" spell but it starts stopped. After a second, it suddenly starts going 60 minutes per second from 3:00 for a second, fading away in a half second after this. A green "stop" pops out. The plane's engines are not running. Knuckles casts teleport to return to the cockpit.

_Pilot_
Wow! That teleport spell is quite effective.

_Knuckles_
The ground is solid so the passengers can get out. I'll give you a
hundred-dollar bonus for your efforts.

Knuckles takes out two fifty dollar bills from his chest and gives
them to the pilot who takes it and puts it in his wallet.

_Pilot_
(taking the money) Thank you."

I heavily recommend TLOTTEM to anyone who has interest in outsider books. It is a masterpiece.

Here is a link to a published review by Alfred Armstrong of Odd Books:

http://oddbooks.co.uk/oddbooks/legend-10-elemental-masters ( )