What is smashing? Is it to smash or to be smashed? Is it an expression of how smashable something is? Is it a unit of measurement or standard by which we may base our society?

Does the smashing love me or do I love the smashing? Oh, woe is me this follower of smashing to be unable to comprehend the depths of the way!

Oh, sorry where was I? Oh yes! I read a handful of chapters from The Last Philosopher by and it left me very comtemplative! Blame her!

TLDR; A original universe filled with indepth thought and self-reflection starting from a creation story wrapped in comedic bacon, and sprinkled in insanity and digested by philosophical characters. There is even a philosophical rock!

The story is reasonably long, being 90+ chapters and still going (with how she has structured it, we can say 60+ as every 1 of 3 chapters is just a philospical line.) and I have read about 8-10 chapters so naturally what I say may not be the final result in its end.

Bonus points: The editor seems to actively go back and edit the story chapters to update them. This is very visible and is worth noting. The author clearly loves her story and is invested in it.

World Building: Where it begins... LITERALLY! - The story starts with a creation story so its only worthy that we start there. The story has maps hand-drawn and clear. There are nations, factions, and laws of both culture and nature brought up galore. Half of the time they are not explored further when you first hear of them, but with how the narrative goes, you also don't need to know more about them until much later half the time anyway. The world building can be rather telling-rather-than-showing a lot, and this is to the stories detrement when you are wanting to be from the perspective of a character and all of a sudden he is thinking about history, laws, events, and STUFF to add on to the world that, at the moment, leaves me confused as to what relevance it holds at the time. Yet, just as I can say that I feel like I am having an entire world shoved down my throat, I can also appreciate how much care, attention, structure, and thought the author has put into her world. She is not half-assing this! It makes the story dense, and so you need to actively filter out relevant information vs non-relevant information, but positively with an original entire universe you also feel it is alive. You are dropped into the ocean and you gotta keep up.

It also really helps that everything is comedic. People's names are funny. How they think is comedic. Even the gods that play a role in the background are basically comedians! So its no wonder its all one giant joke in a sense, if the creators of everything enjoy trolling and slipping those bananas under people's feet. The universe isn't so comedic that it doesn't make sense, but rather keeps it very light so it doesn't feel like you are having such a dense story being shoved on you. Like Silmillarion...

One thing that really doesn't help the story, though, is that while many events and nations are brought up, and the characters act like there is some importance to these beforementioned things, there is no weight left on the readers. It is like going back in time to 500BC and saying "Oh Hitler was just so bad..." People won't get it and so won't have personal weight, understanding, or experience to create a proper emotional reaction. It is like an inside joke you aren't let in on.

Bonus: A bonus to world building is that the author hand-draws not only maps of the world, but the rooms, buildings, and cities. I love that!

Characters: Unsure... - I really don't know how to feel about the characters. Every character mentioned thus far has been existing in their own set of chapter and don't continue into the next set of chapters. I haven't met any characters that continue on in the story. So there has been no real attachment of any kind, and the characters themselves seem to have no bearing on one another and so there is lost a great deal of flowing narrative. It is like a handful of short-stories within a universe.

Granted, the characters are great. Between a blackhole named Dick, a wizard whose name is so rediculas even he cant stand it, some woman fighting either a monster zombie or dessert virus(wth?) on a table-top game, and a philosophical rock (I shit you not) its just hilarious. I could see this being the cast of a child's show on Cartoon Network. haha The characters are relatively clear when you get past the philisopical ramblings they each do.

There is, however, lacking any decisiveness. None of them seem to take control of their own narrative. They each just sit there thinking while things go on around them and that doesn't make for strong characters. It takes effort to understand them because they never take what they believe or think and put it to action.

Grammar: Average - The grammar mistakes and punctuation are plentiful, and at times they make me reread a paragraph to understand what is being said, but its not to the stories detriment. It doesnt hold the story back much at all. I'd say it is on par for what is to be expected by a non-professional writer.

Plot: Getting interesting - Despite the fact the characters lack strength and narrative accountability, and despite the fact they don't last longer than their own short-stories (so far) there is a small thread of plot that carries over from one to the next within seemingly history itself. An event plays out here, and then something happens there, and from different points of view you can get a bit of puzzle pieces together to put together your own conclusions of what the story is. It is also helpful that one of the most contemplative subjects they each think on is the nature of some super-dark force called Darkness. With a capital D in every instance. It is a power that is easy to understand, relate to, and has subtle plays in history that leaves me wondering about it just as much as the characters who sit and think and think and think on it. I imagine Darkness will play a more active role in the story to come instead of being 'perceived', and when that happens I do think the story will become more and more interesting.

Overall I would rate it 3 smashing out of 5. There is a lot of love and care put into the story, a lot of structure and thought, and there is a lovely combination of dry-world building and rib-tickling comedy that just WORKS. However I don't see it becoming more as it holds itself back in ways I have mentioned before.

Naturally, I could be wrong. It could be a 4/5 by the end, but after reading 8-10 chapters (not sure if the between-short-story philosophy quotes count) this is how I feel about it.

This is not a story to take seriously. It is a story to not think too deeply about. The author knew what she wanted to do, and she did it. Literally building it up from creation just to do that. I don't see it as dark, sad, or action-filled nor dramatic. This is a story to chill with and chuckle at. It could easily be a childs tv show, like Adventure Time or something.

I'm out with a smashing!

If you are interested in learning to write, mastering the craft, want some really good reads, or just to chat and hang out with a mature group of adults, feel free to hit me up for a smashing discord book club that has lasted years.