LOL. Your friend is not wrong. I'm also stuck between being very amused and slightly appalled by the extent to which every single NPC is fanatically OBSESSED with telling the main character how incredible he is. I don't know how fragile Kojima thinks his audience's egos are, but it's a bit much for me.

From what I've heard, Invincible is a fairly faithful adaptation that nonetheless condenses and shifts a couple of things around, so I'd certainly be interested in hearing which you think tells the story better.

I have to admit I'm a little underwhelmed by the 'extra content' in the anniversary edition of Sabriel >> Most of it is material I've seen before, plus excerpts from other books in the series. But hey. A new short story is something!