A great piece of work with excellent pacing, expertly crafted plot, heartwarming relationships and great translation.

The story follows a typical regression redemption trope but there is no annoying system or stats, status windows, skill lists or walls of exposition that typically follows this subgenre.

Narrative devices are employed and world building and character building are on point. Will recommend. 9.6/10

This novel isn't that bad, but it is EDGY. Every chapter so far is about how the protagonist steamrolls everyone/thing with future knowledge, while simultaneously writing a dark blog post about how his soul is the blackest of black and his suffering has transcended all... Alright, maybe not the last part. But it is pretty close. The novel tries to make you care and feel gritty, but it just feels cheap to me. This edginess is also why I'm dropping the novel, I can see that the plot and battles... more>> are just going to be repeats of the protagonist defeating literal pinnacle dark wizards by being the darkest black void of endless darkness that is dark.

That said, the novel does have a non-monotonous plot and the translation/transliteration quality is very good. The characters are very one-dimensional, with very little happening that is not directly related to the protagonist. They don't act realistically as people should in their situation, but they do interact naturally with the protagonist to perpetuate the plot. <<less

It’s ok. There doesn’t seem to be any strong romance, which I like. The world-building and plot is fairly interesting, the world-building in particular is quite unique and well-constructed (probably the strongest point).

It falls flat on characters, though. Mainly, the MC and his brother—being two central characters—lack any kind of depth to either their characters or their relationship really. It’s set up initially to create intrigue but basically not even a chapter in any conflict with their relationship is immediately resolved and they’re 100% loyal to each other and wholesome... more>> no questions asked.

TL;DR, While the powers and world is interesting, the characters are not and there is very little emotional depth and exploration where there should be. <<less

Is it worth reading?

If you're in the mood for a cliché and have nothing else to read, then yes. But if you're looking for a novel with a solid plot, good worldbuilding, and fleshed-out characters, then this isn't it.

• PLOT: The premise isn't anything new and the execution is so-so. The pacing is not bad. There are only a few time skips and the events that happened during those time skips were narrated properly. This novel is more plot-driven and delves into politics as well. The mental world is heavily used in this novel. Magic theories and magic itself are delved into deeper. It is interesting to learn new details about the concept of magic, which aren't really delved into in other stories. But I gotta say, it fried my brain cells lol
• CHARACTERS:
  • MC - He is a strategist and has superior analytical skills. He is like a mentor or an old veteran looking out for young promising talents. The author doesn't fail to remind the readers about how Shane has suffered for 10 years trapped in his own mind due to corruption, every chance he gets. It's a pity cause he's strong from the start despite only having 2 circles. Sure, he had a decade of experience, and lots of info on the enemies, future events & stuff that would help him increase his prowess faster and easier but there were no scenes shown where he trained or developed to improve his prowess. It's like since he learned runes, has the power of absorption, and has a strong & vast mental world that anyone cannot top, he became unstoppable from the start lol. He can easily defeat enemies that are supposedly way stronger than him. The author tries to rationalize it by explaining that the MC prepared beforehand that's why he was able to defeat the enemies but the author seems to have forgotten that not everything goes according to plan... no matter how thoroughly prepared one is. Once or twice can be but consecutive successes? Nah. His plot armor is thick and too obvious. This made his character boring to me, despite me liking MCs that use their head more than brute strength. I don't feel a sense of satisfaction when he defeats an enemy. Everything's too smooth sailing for him and since there are no real challenges or anxiety-inducing events that will make him desperate, he became a bland character. Plus, he doesn't have much of a personality. Yes, he's stoic but even nonchalant people have a few quirks. But Shane? He doesn't have any. His type of character can be seen in other novels. He's a generic, copy-paste character.
  • SUPPORTING CHARACTERS - They're not fleshed out. Some had the potential to be more than simple characters in a novel but since this is more plot-driven, they weren't given the chance to be shaped out.
  • VILLAINS - Some are OP, especially the high-ranking members of the organization. But of course, Shane's plot armor is more OP lol. Villains aren't third-rates with nothing to show but they are generic just like all the other characters in the story.
• BATTLES: There are a lot of battle scenes and they're actually not bad. Strategies are often implemented and I like that. But the battles aren't exciting for me. They didn't make me feel anything at all... regardless if it's feeling the anxiety of whether the MC & supporting characters will get out alive, feeling the frustration that there's an off-chance that the enemies will win, or the sadness when a character gets killed. The issue is probably the way the battles were narrated.
• ROMANCE: There's a scene where Shane spent a night with the 2nd princess, Anastasia. It wasn't narrated in detail but the author explained how it came to happen. And then a few chapters later, Anastasia was already being referred to as Shane's lover, which seemed too sudden but considering what happened, it's not surprising. It's just a shame cause there wasn't any buildup... their relationship was explained in a single chapter. To a reader, that's too quick despite being told that the two gradually became closer and spent more time together for the past 2 years (which was a time skip btw). The romance isn't really focused. It's barely even there. Normally, romance in this type of genre will make or break the story but I feel like the romance here could've contributed more to character development... especially to Shane. Sadly, the execution was done poorly.

I stopped reading cause I got bored. It's just not worth spending time to read it.... more>> Maybe if I'm in the mood for a cliché, then I'll read this again. <<less