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A surprisingly good DND-esque western fantasy adventure novel, albeit maximum levels so far suggests to be at minimum twice the highest in DND rule 5. The novel has unforced relationship development between characters, the characters themselves are also meaningfully different and interesting. The author has also (thank god) decided to not employ an explicit forced down-your-throat information exposition feeding (hate it) making this somewhat more of a ‘show, not tell’ experience. I also greatly appreciate how the dialogues feel somewhat natural (despite the mtl) and doesn’t totally pull me back to my miserable reality.

But, there’s always a but, despite some great work by the author there are still some eye-piercing immersion breaking ‘plot holes’ that are inextricable and unexplained. First, why is the MC’s name in Chinese despite being from a local farming household in a zone where western names seems to be norm (not explained so far), why does bro also have black hair (isn’t he a local, hello???) and why, despite having living parents (haven’t been killed at the making of this review, ch.170) has there been zero communication (no mention of letters, I understand they’re poor, but come on). There’s also other stuff that I can’t quite remember at the top of my head, but basically it’s those small nit-pickable details that greatly err me.

Despite that, my overall impression has been positive, in fact this is probably one of the only series I kind of actively follow (except from some others on novelupdate) here.

I can a handle gore, handle bad plot, handle bad pacing, but this novel with its interesting plot and good enough writing is marred by incredibly explicit insertion of the author’s political view. Every character has these “kill these landlord, hate these landlords, landlords are the worst for society” moments that are incredibly abrupt and nonsensical, characters sing patriotic songs, cry for patriotic spirit, and show how even foreigners love China more than their own home country (kinda). This incredibly amateur insertion of Chinese patriotism and the political views of the author is so fucking bad, low, and frankly, immersion breaking. Bad reviews tbh, 4/10 but will round up to a meh opinion.