Tim's Reviews > Critical Role: The Mighty Nein—The Nine Eyes of Lucien

Warning: There are some minor spoilers in this review. If you’ve seen the Critical Role show, you’ll know them already. If you have not, I’d honestly advise skipping this review (and book) until you have finished campaign two.

Alright, before we start this review I need to explain something. I’ve been a long time Critical Role fan. I was watching it back in the Vox Machina days and am still keeping up with it now. I saw it grow from a “bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors” to the borderline event it has become each time a new episode hits... and I still delight in this.

I also need to state now the rather unpopular opinion in some circles that The Mighty Nein are a far more enjoyable group of characters than Vox Machina ever was (and I love the original group). So, when the first Critical Role novel came out and had the subtitle “Vox Machina” before the title, it was my great hope that a second book would have The Mighty Nein in front. It did and I rejoiced. Even more so because it starred Lucien/Molly who I think is one of the most interesting characters in all of Critical Role.

So, did it live up to expectations?

Let us break out my old friends, pros and cons.

Pros:

Lucien remains a wonderful villain and seeing what he was like prior to the series was a delight. I also loved seeing his dynamic with his original group and how different (yet similar in some ways) he is to the version we saw as Molly.

There’s an interesting spin in that a good portion of the book is a prequel, but we get a bit more beyond that seeing a bit more of the story than we saw in the show.

There are some interesting “House of Leaves” style meta tricks (the author cites it and “The King in Yellow” as major inspirations and you can see them). While this would feel out of place in most stories about the Critical Role characters, here it is quite fitting.

Cons:

If you’re not already a fan of Critical Role, do not pick this up. You will be confused as all hell as it assumes you’ve seen it. Gaps in narration are left, some scenes are seemingly skipped over, and aspects fly through so fast if you haven’t literally devoted yourself to the 100+ 4 hour episodes of campaign two, you’ll just be wondering what you missed. Some likely will not find this a con, I find though some of these decisions made for poor pacing as while yes, I know some of the things that happened, they felt off being left out.

Some of the scenes that are recreated lose a lot of their power in the translation from show to novel. In particular, one of my all-time favorite moments (the tarot reading) loses a lot.

In closing: overall, I’d still say this is a satisfying read, that is if you’re already a fan of the series. It was a book obviously written for Critters who wanted to see more of a fan favorite character. I’m sure some would have preferred doing an origin story for one of the main player characters (after all, Lucien isn’t really the same character as Molly... and perhaps Molly’s story would have been a more “satisfying” read). That said, it’s entertaining, the meta touches are a blast and I loved spending more time in the world of The Mighty Nein. A solid 3/5 stars and a recommendation to those who are already fans.