The Mythmaker's Notebook

This review is in association with the Indie Blog Off Remnants (IBOR) Competition

The World:

Partial Function is set in a world built on the bones of monsters. Literally. The continent is organized around clans of martial artists who hunt creatures called Wedge. They create weapons, armor, and even buildings from what they kill. JCM Berne constructs a brilliant world: the clan hierarchy, the magic system, and the political friction between the Empire and independent martial clans. Berne trusts the reader to absorb the setting through action rather than exposition.

The Protagonist:

Akina Azure, the Spiral Witch, is someone who is always the most dangerous person in any room and doesn’t even care. A former legend of the martial world who walked away from it to raise her twin daughters in peace, she is pulled back when her daughters are taken. Her announcement to the world of her return felt a lot like John Wick’s return. Her fighting art, Infinity Bagua, names its techniques after mathematical functions, which is both brilliant and hilarious.

The best part of the book is the relationship between Akina and Dog. I’ll say no more about it.

Remy, Akina’s old friend and traveling companion, is the book’s other standout. Big, loyal, and carrying something the reader doesn’t fully understand until the climax, he provides an emotional counterweight that the more self-contained Akina cannot. Their banter is sharp, affectionate, and always pushing the plot forward.

Areas for Improvement:

The novel moves at a very fast pace that occasionally works against it. Secondary antagonists are introduced and dealt with efficiently, but some are resolved before the reader has had time to care about the confrontation. A few slower scenes would give the world more room to breathe and the stakes more weight.

The magic system can feel underexplained in the early chapters. Berne is clearly working from a complete internal logic, but the on-ramp asks the audience for patience. The payoff is worth the wait.

Who Should Read This?

Partial Function is for readers who want their plots filled with action, their protagonists formidable, and their humor bone-dry.

Berne dedicated this novel to his wife Moneeka.