Initial review: Why does nobody know that you don't urge a horse forward by pulling at the reins?

Longer Review below (28/8, 2022)
The biggest problem for me with this book, as seen in the very short review above, and this comes from a horse-girl-turned-horse-man so I'm probably in the minority about this detail being a problem at all, is the way riding horses is portrayed. If you know you know, but you *don't pull on the reins* when you want to *urge a horse forward*. Perhaps characters inexperienced with horses could be written to do this, but characters that ought to be fully experienced riders? I think not. Those poor horses. Has Sapkowski never been on a horse or is this down to a translation thing? I do not know Polish, so I can't simply find a copy in Polish and compare it. This might be one seemingly insignificant problem, but it has haunted me through the entire book, even when it's not described done. It simply frustrates me to no end and yes, something so "trivial" made it lose a whole star.

Now for the good parts. Dandelion is both a busybody and a gossip and he is a gem. Even ravenous werewolves agree. He is quite delightful and I love when he makes an appearance. Little Eye is a very interesting character and I would very much like to see more of her. Her dynamic with Geralt is very different from his dynamic with Yennefer, and Dandelion having basically a little sister is really nice. (I quite like the Found Family trope.) It's not that often that you get to see him be the older one in his relationships, so to speak. (Though, this is coming from someone who has only read this particular Witcher book, "The Last Wish", and watched the two seasons of the Netflix adaption; but I'll get to the other books in time.)

Geralt using Witcher Signs for non-Witcher things was amazing. It's a brief mention, barely touched upon, but I am a person who loves the misuse of magic thing. It's in fact one of my favourite tropes. Something so smiple as using abilities meant for battle for mundane things like fixing a pot fills me with such glee like you wouldn't believe.

The last page of the last chapter of "A Little Sacrifice" made me tear up. I won't go into it, but there's a lot of emotion on that one page. I also like that there is much more emotion in Geralt that people expect, and when he learned about the fall of Cintra, I felt for him.

Sometimes the book did feel a bit disjointed, though I understood after a while that at least in some parts (especially in the last chapter) it was purposeful. It does not change that I was very confused the first couple times the text literally fell down a paragraph in the middle of a sentence.

This is the 49th of Mårtenson's Homan novels, which I didn't consider when picking it up. I don't think it matters a lot if you're unfamiliar with the characters beforehand, though there are times when I feel like I'm missing something. I learned a little bit about John Bauer in the book, and I'm a bit curious to learn a bit more about him.

As for the second-most-important thing, the conclusion. I have to say, I'm not exactly impressed with the culprit. I don't want to spoil the ending or the culprit but I did not see that one coming, and not in a good way.

The most important thing is Cleo though. Cleo is the best. Cats are the best, and Cleo is a cat.

I'll try reading some more of these Homan books just for her, though they're not exactly a priority to me, particularly if the other 48 books end in similarly unsatisfactory ways.

I really liked the anime, and I really wanted to like this manga adaptation. However, there's just something that makes me... not. There's something in the art, while still lovely, that's just not quite right. There's something in the story, while familiar and one I do like, that's just falling flat.

Marked as did not finish because I had to return it to the library. I'll pick it back up though!

I marked with book as both read and dnf because I mostly skimmed it toward the end.

This manga has a very lovely art style, it's incredibly pretty. Somehow it reminds me of the korean comics I read when I was a teenager, even though it looks nothing alike. It's that it's long and slender, both in MAB, and in those korean comics. However, it feels like it really lacks in substance. There's not really a plot, at least in volume one, and the word "cute" feels incredibly over-used. Still, I do like the boyfriend's friend with face blindness. He feels a bit relatable to me, though I'm only semi-face blind.

Conclusion:
I won't be reading the rest of the manga, but I might flip through to find scenes with that friend at some point. I'm glad I read it by borrowing my sister's copy of the book.

I'm very biased toward Karakara Kemuri's art-style, ever since I read SUSANOH. Mars Red is so beautifully drawn, and absolutely gorgeous. I was also a fan of the character Takeuchi, even before I read Mars Red, as my sister would ramble a lot about him. Some of the expressions he made in this volume was both wonderful and heartwarming.

I do reccommend reading at least the last chapter in volume 2 before reading the first in volume 3, because initially, I was very confused with the opening scene. A lot happens, right from the get-go, and it's sometimes a bit tricky to follow. There was also a scene that felt like it was more or less the exact same as from volume 1, which did remove a star for me.

Overall though, Mars Red is quite a good comic.