At last, after nearly two years of serialization, Crown of Chaos came to an end. I started writing the final chapter at eight thirty last night and kept going until seven the next morning. After typing the last word, I, Son of Heaven, felt relieved, drenched in sweat, and strangely bereft.
When Song of Nogizaka got axed, I was furious, unwilling to accept it, and ready to bite someone.
When Warhammer Throne ended, I felt satisfied, a little empty, and hungry for more.
When I chose to abandon Lord of the End, I was seething, irritated, and dejected.
But when Crown of Chaos ended, I felt surprisingly calm. I was just sweating all over because I was ill.
I knew this book wasn't good enough. I also knew that serious problems arose in the middle and later portions of Crown of Chaos. Chapters that used to routinely receive eighty, ninety, or over a hundred comments were getting only three to five by the end. Many readers had left.
Who was to blame?
Me.
Crown of Chaos had so many problems that, by the middle and later portions, I couldn't straighten out the plot or the power system at all. Writing it was agonizing. I'm sure you could tell, too: plenty of foreshadowing never paid off, plenty of storylines never made it onto the page, and plenty of material was glossed over.
It wasn't that I didn't want to write it. I simply didn't have the energy to keep going. My health hadn't been good since I caught COVID last year, and I kept getting sick again this year. I was in terrible shape overall. On top of that, the book's setup had problems from the start. In the end, its quality and performance kept visibly declining right up until its