Swallowed Star

Description

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Year 2056, in a city in the Yuan Jiang Su Jin area. On top of a ruined, shattered six story residential apartment sits a teenager wearing a combat vest, militaristic trousers, and alloyed battle boots. On his back is a hexagonal shield and equipped is a blood-shadow battle knife. He sits there silently on the edge of the roof. At this time, the sparkling sky was shining and there was a refreshing breath within the air that blew towards him. However, there was only silence within the ruined, deserted city, with an occasional howl that makes your heart skip a beat.

Associated Names
One entry per line
Swallowing the Starry Sky
The legend of spacewalker
Thôn Phệ Tinh Không
Tun Shi Xing Kong
吞噬星空
Related Series
Lord Xue Ying (Shared Universe)
Recommendations
Galactic Dark Net (11)
The Desolate Era (7)
Tempest of the Stellar War (6)
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation (5)
Coiling Dragon (4)
Emperor of The Cosmos (4)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Novel
  2. My Gem Collection
  3. Probably read when im bored (some of it)
  4. Wow there's a manhua version (ML)
  5. Donghua Adaptations

Latest Release

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128 Reviews sorted by


IMakeCopperMirrors
IMakeCopperMirrors rated it
September 3, 2019
Status: c400
Rating: 5/10

The beginning is good. After
Spoiler

one horned golden beast arrives on earth

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that it gets much worse and convoluted and not thought out. Modern day fantasy world building is very noice though at the start.
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moocho
moocho rated it
September 3, 2019
Status: c965
Think I read it to the end mainly because of the title.

Spoiler alert, no stars got swallowed. Just a whole lot of time on my end did. So I would recommend an alternative title.

Swallowed Time.
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Silvania
Silvania rated it
August 6, 2019
Status: c1486
My stance is a 2.5 for this.

I did enjoy the novel for the most part. However, The ending really is just... The most disappointing part and honestly killed the good feelings I had for this novel and is the main reason for this rating. If fixed likely would rate around 4.

The progression throughout the story is quite fine from the start to middle. It has your usual Fortunate encounters, Unique path of 'cultivation'. However, towards near the end the power balance feels... off

Unlike some of IETs other works where the... more>> ending usually rounded out the novel quite neatly and the power structure is fairly similar throughout this one has issues...

My feelings about the ending/what the novel did (It contains the ending basically. Seriously, You are warned)

Spoiler

Your ending is in another castle! Our new journey is just starting to the higher realms of cultivation! What? You expected more? Tee-hee *pero* Maybe if I write the continuation. There is no actual closure besides them leaving to go on another adventure where there is more loot, More young masters to offend, People actually stronger than the MC (Which makes the ending feel so... anticlimactic There is no one actually stronger than the MC for a good while and only due to 'mechanics and exploits' Rather than someone being legitimately stronger than the MC that the MC is threatened).

tl;dr You are left with an overleveled character in a MMO as they are waiting for more actual content to come out as they have fully completed all the content in the game already and are still grinding away at the final event the devs put out cause if you don't we just delete the game.

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Bottom warning that this basically spoils the novel. Seriously. =w= You cant blame me if you click on the spoiler. <<less
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Kergonan
Kergonan rated it
July 21, 2019
Status: c1486
As I really liked IET first two books, Coiling Dragon and Stellar Transformation, I started to read Swallowed Star and Desolate Era at the same time. But after a while, I started to apply to myself a "no two books from the same author at the same time" rule. As its translation was faster and I am more into fantasy than space opera, I decided to finish Desolate Era first, and then move on to Swallowed Star, even though the former was written after the latter. While it was good... more>> for optimizing my reading time, it was not so great for my reading pleasure.

First, let's get this straight from the beginnning: this is not a science-fiction story, and the post-apocalyptic tag is only applicable for the first fifth of the novel, but a space-opera, a bit like the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars, if the latter had overwhelming supernatural elements. The setting is initially fine, with a bit of a slow start, but it moves quickly then to bigger and bigger scales, up to epic ones. Litteraly speaking the descriptions are usually pretty good, but are marred with near constant mistakes in numbers and scales, which give a lot of "uh" moments at first, then upset you, and finally you stop caring otherwise it would really ruin the story. This is a recurring problem in this novel, one of many that the author later learnt to improve on or even erase completely in his next work Desolate Era.

The characters are okay, but most of them have not much depth. The main character, Luo Feng, is a good protagonist, but not as good as Linley, Qin Yu or Ji Ning, as he is as focused, but more merciless, ferocious and brutal and less sympathetic than the usual kind of MC we get from IET. Luo Feng's two main mentors are well described and the two others characters who appear with regularity in the story. His girlfriend/wife, parents, children and early companions get a lot of time during the first fifth of the tales, but only make sporadic appearances after that. His companions are otherwise very temporary additions, and finally the antagonists are numerous, but lack in term of variety, beside the final one, whose motivations are still a bit simplistic.

The power system is very clear at first, but quite simple. The author later evolves it into a more complex one, but it then becomes a lot messier and confusing except for the big "element-based" lines, with a less-used parallel system relying on gene levels. The one redeeming feature here are the progression and insight scenes which are very well made for the most part.

The translation is kind of a mixed bag. You see, initially this novel was first translated by Translation Nation, who was doing a very good job, first on their own website, then on Qidian's. Sadly, upon reaching the 900 or so chapter, a dispute between translator and publisher led Qidian to change the translation team to Nyoi-Bo Studio, who did not bother to harmonize their lexicon with the previous team's. This resulted into a calamitous translation for about the next 100-200 chapters, with some names translated in two different ways inside the same chapter, which made me think that the members of the new team did not even harmonized with their own. Upon numerous calls by the readers, the situation was mostly solved, but the translation still was inferior to what it used to be. A severe handicap for a novel which is just good to begin with.

In the end, what I'm try to say here, is that Swallowed Star is IET's transition novel, where he wants to tell us a story of truly cosmic proportion, and is not quite as succesful as he hoped. It's okay if you consider this a prototype of his following novel, as numerous elements of this space opera will be reused in Desolate Era's eastern high fantasy setting, but with tremendous improvements with gave us one of the best Chinese novel I ever read. Sadly, in the present case, all of these factors only result in a book that is above average/good at best, and the dive the translation took after chapter 900 does nothing to improve the situation. In the end, Swallowed Star only gets a 6 out 10. Seriously, after you've read Coiling Dragon and Stellar Transformation, unless you are an absolute fan of IET, you can pass this story and head straight to Desolate Era.

P.S: Thanks to IET and the Translation Nation team for your work. As for the Nyoi-Bo Studio translation team, please, try to improve. <<less
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Heller
Heller rated it
July 10, 2019
Status: Completed
Of all the IET novels that I read this was the most satisfying despite of the exaggeration especially on distance as well as years. I think this is only the novel of IET on which there were no tragedy on MC's family. The ending was quite lacking IET should at least do a side story about the adventures of lou feng at the other multiverse
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MyRAMEN
MyRAMEN rated it
April 4, 2019
Status: c19
It focused on building details too much for cliche things like that they are poor. It wouldve been good if it described it right but it felt really dull reading like a shakespeare book but in a moder setting. Also it keeps saying dojo which kind of ticks me becauae with he way the martial arts was described basically its a feudal samuris fighting system against monsters. The novel was way too dull andnot interesting.
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DoomControl
DoomControl rated it
February 26, 2019
Status: c1261
As of writing this review (my first) im caught up to the latest translation, and I have to say I love the story. There are serveral things to be aware of before you start reading. This novel has a large split at one point where the setting goes through a huge change ... more>>
Spoiler

the MC goes from earth to space, which is surprising as the entering space (or that this would even happen) is never really alluded to.

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I feel like this really made the story fun to read though, almost like going from one story to the story's sequal. Second is that this MC has a lot of lucky encounters, but not much plot armor. He works his way through with hard work and willpower in order to surpass everyone. Anyways thats all for now, I really enjoyed this story and suggest giving it a try <<less
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RedPlays
RedPlays rated it
January 8, 2019
Status: c600
The story is good for about 500+ chapters for me but later I noticed how s*upid it is

... more>>
Spoiler

What I notice is that the protagonist is s*upid and his friends are just dead weight and just keep holding him back (in the later chapters only). Next is that the world building is idiotic why? Cause it says that most planets are just like the size of Earth. MC is too much of a nationalist I mean why doesn't he just let China rule the world if he's just gonna not see Earth as a whole instead of being split

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Fily-91
Fily-91 rated it
October 5, 2018
Status: c1025
I really like this novel, from the MC to the plot and development. The antagonists are always not clear and the technology set gets you more involved.

What a discern interesting is the start of the cultivation world, it starts from normal reality and bring the concept of virus and gene evolution, not bad considering other novels, kind of more realistic.
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mainzer45
mainzer45 rated it
October 17, 2017
Status: v6c34
Not the best at expressing my views, but here we go.

Spoiler is full read, past it is the tl;dr

... more>>
Spoiler

This novel is... decent overall. In almost all novels of this type, its hard to keep fights interesting a lot of the time since you always know that the MC is going to lose maybe 1-2 fights throughout the entire novel and win every single other one. It makes it very hard to suspend your belief for the story and ends up being fairly bland due to this. I went into this novel expecting fight quality of IET's other novels that I've read, which are paced amazingly and every single fight is a wonderful experience, but comparatively the fights in this story feel average. I can't quite explain why, but whenever I was reading through the fights it was more reading through them to get to the next chapter to see if something interesting was going on, rather than (metaphorically) sitting on the edge of my seat excited for the next chapter to happen. At the same time, the fights are written well enough to where they're not completely boring to read through, and a good part of the story is similarly well written, to where it managed to hold my interest up to a point, but once I got to where I am in the story, I started to lose interest. I realized I'd started to, as I said earlier, read chapters just to see if the next chapter was interesting, and it wasn't really happening. Perhaps its because I've read so many cultivation novels that do it in a perfect way that most cultivation novels have to wow me for me to be interested. I find myself comparing this story and the excitement I get from it to my favorite novels like Coiling Dragon, Stellar Transformations, I Shall Seal The Heavens, and my most recent favorite, Desolate Era, and it just feels fairly average compared to them.

Another thing I have a nitpick with is the setting of the story. It feels oh so very pointless, and it reminds me of a review of an animated movie I was watching a while back with a similar situation. Why have this setting? What does it add to the story? Why not have it in an ancient cultivation world, other than to follow the recent trend of modern day cultivation novels? Everything about the modern day setting is easily replaced with something in your normal cultivation novel world, and it feels like something that was put in as an afterthought, rather than as an important story point.

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tl:dr Story isn't amazing, fights aren't amazing, overall slightly above average, but not much. Also, the setting isn't important and feels like its trying to follow the recent modern cultivation trend but ends up feeling very contrived. <<less
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Tedious
Tedious rated it
July 30, 2017
Status: v5c1
Nothing special. Just a hardworking MC with a normal personality with a talent, He have to start from bottom with a obvious burden like his family. While the battle are cool and a realistic atmosphere, whereas his enemy are too strong for such a normal MC.

Many times I cringe since it inevitable because his personality is at the level of a average teenagers. But obvious character development since it's a harsh world.

Even though as a talented average, faced with tension and high difficulty. It still felt dull for me.... more>> Since it's to be expected because the MC experience in life were "average" inevitably obstacle will appear. So this is just another type of cliches. Whereas the MC is average to its core (hard working, average talent, personality, average plot armor)

Tl;dr it's the epitome of a good cliche. Would probably rate 2 star but nah, since the story is detailed. <<less
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Brat Peed
Brat Peed rated it
June 26, 2016
Status: v6c21
Well if you already read Coiling Dragon and want more from the same author then this story wouldn't disappoint you (currently I'm at volume 6). As you watch Luo Feng progress becoming stronger you try to root for him. Surprisingly it well combined modern world, xianxia and post apocalyptic world with monsters + guns and hunters. The only downside is translation speed. If you are lucky you will get 1 chapter in 2 weeks. At this pace it will take years to finish. So maybe it's better to save it... more>> for the next year. <<less
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Lachiel
Lachiel rated it
October 23, 2015
Status: --
This novel is pretty good, while it is a IET novel where we can except romance to take a back-seat to "leveling up in strength" This one is still pretty good as even if it has the same basis with "My family I will help!" "I think I like this girl!" "You can't have her! She's too good for you!" blah blah blah! In the end we follow our MC on his path to power and how he gets the girl.. That's what it's usually about right?

I... more>> do recommend this to anyone who likes Stellar Transformations and Coiling Dragon, It's pretty good but you can see that they all have things in common. <<less
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Scarfior
Scarfior rated it
March 19, 2023
Status: c1279
For whoever is reading this review,

This novel is quite good, In between super excellent and average.

The MC has Quite a good personality and likes to differentiate between good and evil,

... more>> Is quite average on the universal scale but manages by using an opportunity,

And I quite hate the fact that the name of the novel is swallowed star but there is no swallowing.

But the most tr*shy thing about this novel is the MC is never powerful, in the starting, there was always someone to push him down at the end there was still someone to push him down, and not in the literal sense but physically.

But he got guts and always picks a fight with someone stronger not weaker cause how will he improve?

haaaa........

He is quite good, got good comprehension and a fighting sense, and always got lucky.

but what with him always having an enemy so strong we will have to waste 200 to 300 chapters to get to him and occasionally the enemy survives.

Well, it is a good novel. <<less
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Jaden875
Jaden875
June 12, 2022
Status: Completed
Took me a while to finally complete the ln but it was worth it mostly. Sad the author dropped it but it still ended at a good point and the sci-fi and world building was done really well. The characters while a bit bland were still pretty lively. Some different points in the plot were left unfinished but in the end it really didn't matter. The MC is pretty op but it's really all about the MC and his journey to the top.

Worth a read and would reccomend.
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stanljpierre
stanljpierre rated it
May 30, 2022
Status: --
This novel is just too hard to read while feeling any sort of enjoyment. First 100 chapters or so may have been somewhat interesting, but the plot rapidly got boring so early on. From him venturing out into the universe, everything felt so stagnant. I especially didn't like how weak the MC was made out to be and he getting bullied on several occasions without him being able to do a thing about it but endure silently. I don't expect an OP MC, but at the very least his talent... more>> should be as such that he has very few rivals in the same realm. This MC on the other hand on several occasions has his ass handed to him or he loses a fight due to some bs. Cant say I've read every novel of this author, but this MC is easily my least favorite.

Moreover, any novel that I can't read for second or third time truly isn't all that good imo. This novel falls under that category. <<less
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Tooqzy
Tooqzy rated it
March 30, 2022
Status: c10
I only watch ONA but I just hope for one thing that would make me give this story a 10/10, I would like the series to send the MC somewhere other than on earth I think there would be a way to extend this history if this is the case as well as the progression of the MC.
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Jofausto
Jofausto rated it
June 21, 2020
Status: Completed
That's a pretty good novel with solid world building and character development.

MC - Of course there's a bit of plot armor and the MC has a lot of luck, but I think he develops at a good pace according to the universe.

Side characters - One of the weak points of the novel, there is few if not 0 character development in the course of the novel apart from the AI, not mentioning details, really weak, even with his family.

Antagonist - there are few of them, one or two in the... more>> start and one at the end, doesn't really matter for the development as it focus more on self cultivation and experience.

Universe - A great point here, there a lot of explanation and examples of almost everything important, rank are determined and world development makes sense.

All in all I really enjoyed it,

Important negative points - No romance, no slice of life, few exciting battles and a end that leaves a bad taste. Personally I think it's still worth it <<less
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Azone
Azone rated it
May 21, 2020
Status: c1486
Finished reading, some part are good while some part need to skimmed through quickly. Overall is OK.

But I really like the first 2 arc where he is the underdog. The first arc on surviving the post apocalyptic Earth is specially interesting.

The ending in my opinion feel like there will be season 2.
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spiritrock
spiritrock
May 2, 2020
Status: c2
If it was any other time this would have passed unattended

For some reason this sentence give me chills:

"In the beginning of the 21st century, the entire world continued to have several virus outbreaks. AD 2003 was SARS, 2009 was H1N1, and 2013, finally the even more horrifying R-type virus broke out. As the R-type virus spread, it mutated into around twenty different kinds, which made it even more challenging for anti-virals to fight against. As a result, all of the countries of the world had many deaths." (I Eat Tomatoes)... more>> <<less
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