星のカービィメ タナイトとあやつり姫

You've definitely got to give Mie Takahase credit, each of the four Kirby novels I've read so far have been pretty different from each other and this one is probably the boldest yet. As the title implies, it's really more of a Metaknight novel where Kirby and DeDeDe just happen to be tagging along (at one point Metaknight tells his pilot that Kirby's "not so much a friend as he is luggage") and I liked that even though Kirby has some good moments, they really do let Metaknight stay the driving force and solve the plot.

I feel like the vocab is maybe just slightly more advanced, possibly as a reflection of its more mature protagonist. It's not wildly different in terms of difficulty, but the opening chapters do have a lot more political and ship-related words than usual (this is the first time we see Metaknight's ship the Halberd in these books, he had an airship in the first book but it was just drawn as a standard blimp). The plotline itself is also more complex with deeper character motivations and that really made this one stand out.

The story is sort of "baby's first political thriller" and I mean that in a good way. Metaknight's going to a planet known for its cakes only to find out that the princess has fallen under the influence of a Svengali-esque hypnotist who convinces her to destabilize the cake economy under the pretense that all this cake is going to rot people's teeth, but there's actually something deeper going on with the scheme. I was surprised how deep they went on the characterization and the moments between Metaknight and the Princess are really great. He's still as inscrutable as ever but his actions speak louder than his words and by the final act he's basically gone full-Batman with one of those really dramatic "vanish into the night because society is safe now" kind of endings.

All of these books have been a lot of fun but I feel like this one was really firing on an even higher level. Even though Chef Kawasaki seems to be the only recurring character who's not part of the core group, there is a bit of continuity starting to build up as some details from the previous book are expanded on and I like that the books seem to be building their own world that doesn't require you to really know the games outside the basic characters and setup.