Magic Industry Empire

Description

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A prestigious senior mechanical engineer in the industry, Xu Yi was sent to a world dominated by magic.

In a world with an almost non-existent industrial system, how can Xu Yi display his value?

When magic collides with modern technology, when magic merges with machinery, that is the beginning of this story.

Associated Names
One entry per line
魔法工业帝国
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Release that Witch (3)
Miracle Throne (2)
Monster Factory (1)
Seiun wo Kakeru (1)
Extraordinary Genius (1)
Game Market 1983 (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Novels i Have Read
  2. Introducing Tech to other worlds
  3. War Strategy
  4. ReviewedStuff.
  5. Organization/Kingdom Building

Latest Release

Date Group Release
09/20/19 DXHaseoXD v1c2
09/19/19 DXHaseoXD v1c1
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tipotato
tipotato rated it
October 20, 2019
Status: c4
I specially made an NU account just to review here and express my utter disappointment.

Reading the summary, especially "When magic collides with modern technology, when magic merges with machinery, that is the beginning of this story.", I expected to find a gem but instead I found shit.

The premise is great but the execution is so bad I decided to stop by chapter 4.

So basically, the MC has a masters in Mechanical Engineering and he transmigrated in another world. I expected he will use his Engineering knowledge to have an advantage.... more>> But upon chapter 2, you will discover that the MC has no knowledge to speak of.

So see here, in the 2nd chapter, our MC faces his first challenge. The office where he worked at is hot, because making and maintaining a magical Air-con is so expensive. So our MC has this aha moment where he decided to build an electric fan.

And this is where things started to go downhill.

I quote from Chapter 2

"The structure of an electric fan was very simple to a high level mechanical engineer like him and replacing the power source with a Magic Array also wasn’t hard for him. Xu Yi spent less than an hour and he had already finished the Magic Array.

This Magic Array was a primary grade Wind Magic Array, it could simulate low level wind magic and create rotating wind.

Xu Yi now just needed to combine this Magic Array and the structure of the electric fan together to create an electric fan.

Of course, Xu Yi still had many problems to solve.

For example, how fast would the wind of the Magic Array have to be to actually move the electric fan’s blades, replacing electricity in activating the fan?"

See what the problem here.

If you have a magic array that creates rotating wind why need the blades.

Its like the MC doesnt know how electric fan works.

You don't need to be an Electrical Engineer to know that the rotating motor is the cause of the wind. And the rotation is caused by the magnets and the coils inside.

Does the MC think that the wind is the one responsible for the rotation of the blades.

Its like those free energy devices. The wind rotates the fan and the fan produce the winds. F@cking useless.

If you expect a culmination of magic and technology, you'll be surely disappointed.

If the author continue to put BS in the story at least make it a believable Bs. <<less
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madmanthan21
madmanthan21 rated it
October 20, 2019
Status: --
Ive skimmed until chapter 10, and I agree with tipotato 's review, if he has a wind array, why not just get the wind array to blow air through a controller, which he is already using to slow down the wind so that it passes through some blades.

I would like to state this this could be a translation thing, but that seems quite unlikely.

This fan is literally wasting energy.

Also, there are multiple times in the subsequent chapters, where the MC mentions these guys not being... more>> able to understand modern technology......... in reference to a desk fan...

There is nothing modern technology about a desk fan, this has no electrical components, it's not even explained properly how it actually works, but it's using magic, what modern components did he use to make this magical fan?

There is no masters in engineering here, even a child should know that the motor turns the blades and the blades move the air, but in this case he is using a wind magic array, to move the blades, to move the wind... WHAT? <<less
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Edge
Edge rated it
November 8, 2019
Status: --
You know when arguing on Reddit or the Internet in general and one dickhead pulls a "I have a degree in engineering" or shits like that to make them look smarter but they're actually just full of shit? Well, this novel is like that. MC is just like one of those dickheads, always acts like he's smarter than others even though his knowledge is less than a middleschooler. It seems like lots of authors have this delusion in their head that they can create a character with intelligence greater than... more>> theirs. Side characters? Sure, as long as the dialogues are paid careful consideration and well-planned ahead. But bluffing the readers over a smart main character when you're s*upid only makes you look dumber. <<less
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Felix3D
Felix3D rated it
November 25, 2019
Status: Completed
Don't sleep on this series. It's actually really fun and rewarding. It probably would be best to read the first 130-ish chapters all at once to get a good picture of where the story is going and what the setting is though.

It's a fun, well written story fusing magic, engineering, and CAPITALISM HO! that has nice characters and relatable motivations. It's one of the best chinese webnovels I've come across, reminding me of Cultural Invasion of Another World and Release That Witch. In fact, I'd say it takes the approach... more>> and MC "Flavor" of of Cultural Invasion and merges that with something like the starting Setting/Map of Release That Witch. If you like either of those, you'll probably love this story.

This is definitely one of those hyper-optimistic "Good Capitalism" stories. Basically the story that's told in Colleges about Startups. "Change the world", "Make the cake bigger for everyone", ect. But the author really tries to bring gravity and some social commentary (such as discrimination/racism, s*avery, poverty, education, Gospel of Wealth, ect) into the story in a narratively interesting way. Author is basically trying to make the MC a chinese magical elon musk that doesn't actually feel very chinese at all, if all y'all ABC's like me can get :P.

If you are one of those people that don't believe in the capability of the engineering, don't forget he's literally leading a team of hundreds of craftsmen and basically is an engineer with a good understanding of blueprints. As an engineer myself, and one that worked in startups, I don't think it's unrealistic at all, especially with the timeframes and what is demonstrated (hint: most of the work is done by the magical circles! So complex tasks that may require programming/fine tools can be bypassed with that). Furthermore, don't come into this with modern biases. Harvesters and other "complex" tools were made in the 1800's. Furthermore, we have "simplified harvesters" which could have been replicated with 1600's technology and craftsmanship that were designed later. A lot of mechanical processes and tools we see today all could have appeared centuries earlier if the prerequisite tech was understood... which the MC does understand. In fact, the tech curve is... too flat... imho in this story. It could have been ramped up much quicker. The MC doesn't go into detail of the engineering, and the starting chapters have... optimistic timeframes... but it's clear that things are happening in *months* and *seasons*, not mere days when it comes to development. Yes its optimistic, but don't fall into the "Modernity fallacy" thinking that our predecessors were all idiots. Watch some videos from Townsends and other historical re-enactments and look up historical machines (Check out Clickspring on youtube!). There were amazing solutions in our history when schooling, information, and time were scarce.

Spoiler

Are you someone that wishes Miracle Throne had an MC that was less insufferably smug and that didn't always win? That was learning about the world like the reader was instead of being a timetraveler in the same world but with a supercomputer and everything laid out before him? This is basically that story. It's literally Miracle Throne's setup but with "don't think ancient people were idiots, they were plenty smart they just weren't given the tools" as the premise instead of "One timetraveler that's an insufferably smug xuanhuan protagonist wins everything."

Also, if you frequent AH or other "uplift" discussing forums, you'll know that it's a pretty common belief that you can basically uplift a society to 1930's-1950's technology in a short amount of time, like a few years to a decade, given enough basic resource availability. Mechanical precision and mechanical items are not the hard thing to recreate/uplift, rather it's the opto-lithography needed for electronics and microprocessors (things that need clean rooms) that's the main "Wall".

[collapse]

I get the complaints of a "Smart MC", but I don't see him as a "Smart MC" at all. In fact, he is probably average intelligence at best, and he's definitely not the smartest researcher in the story. He's basically the guy who came with science and engineering textbooks into the middle ages. He is /NOT/ the smartest guy in the room (he gets outwitted many times throughout the story). He is just standing on the shoulders of giants. Basically it's like going into a class of Lit Majors and teaching them about basic calculus. Or, like from my personal experience, going into a room of Salespeople and teaching them the specifics on how our newly developed product worked. I'm not smarter than the salespeople or lit majors, I just know things they don't. And they know more than I do on a lot of other things.

I mean, we already see two sides of this: people saying he's dumb for not being efficient enough/good enough at design, and people saying that he's too good. Just take it as a story with a tech tree. The MC is more of an engineer-CEO rather than a design genius/design firm. This story isn't a blueprint on how to make your own company and how to uplift a magical world, rather it's the story of one character's attempts at bringing about an industrial revolution and *inspiring others* as well as how his personal biases and modern thinking needs to adapt (The MC technically has a major character arc! He doesn't stay the same guy throughout the story becauses He, his business, and his thinking all needs to grow and change!). You'll begin to see the aspects you expect (i.e. how his designs are bad, how much effort needs to go into design, how little or much the MC actually is doing, how the MC is using his knowledge) soon. It's just too early! (That's all in later book one and book two... which brings me to:)

The story is split into books based on different "life stages" of the company. IMHO, the first book and second book are the strongest (expansion in/around Banta city and so on), while it gets less focused narratively as the books go on. But this sorta makes sense, and it's tempered by the fact that as the books go on, the story becomes darker and more politically intriguing. It has the common problem of the MC not really "struggling" hard to earn things, but at the same time when you reframe things to MC's "Actual goal" (I.e. it's not to be a rich dude) then you could argue he suffers great setbacks because of his own shortcomings being a bit socially blind and not the nat-20-in-charisma MC a lot of other stories have, as well as his "Modern" mindset.

Spoiler

What is that goal you may ask? Well...

Dogecoin. That's your first hint.

Ducktales. That's your second.

[collapse]

The chapters/books do go by pretty fast, and it does feel like there is a lack of development sometimes while there's too much dwelling on others, but it's not cringey and the women are written well (which makes me happy as a girl myself). In fact, even the villains become 3 dimensional as we begin to understand them more, and some allies become villains and vice versa - all in a way that makes sense in terms of the geopolitical climate and personal motivations that the prior books spent developing with each character. Nobody, not even the MC, is 100% correct, something the last book handles well with.... well "the inheritors" touching on this subject in their discussions/reflections. The Geopolitical stuff is honestly boring for me, but I know ppl who like darker stuff and intrigue will appreciate it.

The only really bad part is the ending. Literally the Author ran out of steam. No literally he wrote that on the last chapter. He didn't know how to escalate so you have this ending that is more of an "ok...?" sorta like how Cultural Invasion of Another World ends... except with no epilogue.

In fact, it's probably best to stop before reading the last book as I think that's a better endpoint in terms of story arcs/personal arcs.

Like I said, it's a very "optimistic" story and so can come off as naivete, but overall it's quite enjoyable. If this was serious literature, I'd probably give this a 3/5 stars, but this is novelupdates, and using my grading scale based on what I gave other webnovels, this is a 4.5/5, rounded up to 5/5 for a number of good female characters and far less sexism and "precocious perversion" that pervades chinese webnovels currently. <<less
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GnomeStyle
GnomeStyle rated it
October 20, 2019
Status: c44
There is nothing interesting in this novel, it is just the main character having everything go exactly like he wanted. There is no suspense in this story and 40+ chapters is only about fans, like for f*cksake... The author doesn't seem to hold much knowledge in this area at all ''wow look we make a screw in 1 minute'', that is how we make the fan! The world is incredibly boring and nothing interesting so far, the fact that magic levels have been mentioned and not even touched is very... more>> disappointing. The characters are alright, much better than arrogant young masters every 2 chapters.

Go read Release That Witch if you want something that exactly what this novel does, but a thousand times better. <<less
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TheBingeReader
TheBingeReader rated it
February 19, 2020
Status: --
see tipotato's review for what is as accurate as you can get, the MC says he is 1 thing but must be as thick as a plank of wood for all the things he does which makes little sense. The idea behind this is not bad but it is executed terribly, also suffers from copy/paste tropes/syndrome from other novels.

MC is a genious surrounded by morons (but is actually s*upid imho) - Check

Has a s*ave that just loves being the MC's bestest s*ave ever - Check

Soon devolves into a copy/paste of... more>> "Bringing Farm Into Another World" regarding pleasantries/titles/honorifics slapped all over the damned place - (Think nothing of it, please sir after you, no I must insist after you good sir, of course master/sir/chairman/lord/whatever, rest assured this and that) - Check

Has china is the best solutions to everything, such as the almighty rice that just happens to exist, a magic rice cooker (made of iron the MC noted rusts to bits on his fans when wet) - Check

Again as tipotato mentions, the magic is pretty much the solution to all these devices the MC makes, there is almost nothing mechanical about them, if anything they are just dumb frames that carry magic which does all the work for them, his fan doesnt even need blades, it has a formation that already blows wind, its literally wind, blowing a fan blade to blow wind???? His farming plough has poles that hold earth magic which directly parts the land, no or little mechanical stuff even required, the mechanical side is a near redundant gimmick.

Early on you see the MC sit down and think of new ways to use magic and how he meticulously invents new mechanical gadgets (even tho they are pointless placebo), however quite quickly in later chapters the MC abandons all that becuase thats too hard to write, instead he just conveniently whips out a premade earth-like engineering blueprint that fantasy dwarves/etc just happen to be able to follow to build his new stuff. Same applies for magic, the MC does pretty much nothing of worth and has his army of chinese imitation worker drones do all the work for him.

Had the author actually sat down and ran his ideas past a 9 year old first to vet the dumb parts it might have ended up ok, instead he has plot armor and convenience all over the place, this is literally a mash up of Bringing the farm to another world, release that witch and mechanical god emperor, all of which suck bigtime and need 200% suspension of disbelief, a shame really.

If you like a story where the you get to see the MC invent/make new stuff, this isnt for you because he only does that for 1-2 items at the start then never again, same applies to magic, its near never used, he rarely if ever uses it, but because of MC/protagonist reasons, hes just the bestest most powerful ever when required. Basically any progress in magic and machine is done behind the scenes, blueprints and magic formula are just whipped out as solutions every time, it has zero entertainment value. <<less
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berdanka
berdanka rated it
December 21, 2019
Status: v1c15
"Magic VS modern technology" stories can be roughly divided into two groups. The first one is where magic is constrained by something so it doesn't generate substantial benefits in terms of industrial advancement while the constraint is still in place (this is the main reason why modern knowledge can play a big role in a technologically outdated world of RTW for example). The second case is where magic can be freely used to circumvent the laws of physics and nothing restricts it, but people keep ignoring it for no reason... more>> until the genius MC arrives.

Sadly, this story is a second case. The author tried to make some weak reason to it that can be summarized to "mages are only interested in destruction and pure magic, so they hate the idea of anything that is not a pure magic appliance." This is the same as to say "people who study electricity despise applying electrical circuits in mechanical engineering just because the only right way to use electricity is to strike your enemy with a bolt of glorious lightning."

I've tried to force my way through the chapters despite how weak the premise is, but the last straw for me was when MC invented the Magic Fan, and mages around were like "wow, very fine control, such a novel way of magic arrays inscribing...", MC changed their minds with a little mechanical trinket and slightly refined magic array just like that. But wait, maybe the real last straw was when MC failed to realize that engineering knowledge gives him an edge over the conventional magicians. It was almost a lucky coincidence that summer's heat sparked MC's engineering journey. How lame an engineer you should be to not even be able to understand the huge perspectives of your own specialization? Did I mention that the author's engineering knowledge is also subpar?

There are other problems, like MC's naivety, immature writing, two-dimensional characters, and so on.

I'm not sure it worth reading. <<less
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Shtirliz
Shtirliz rated it
November 11, 2019
Status: v1c59
Lets be frank. Author doesn't know much about machinery, politics or business. MC is very good guy, who think about everyone and do only good deeds. Everyone aroung are good and friendly and even "not so good" people doing their "not so good" deeds only at kids level.
Spoiler

Just think about it - MC first created production of table fans and then just in another month he created production of harvesters. Interesting, did author even once see schematics of harverster?

[collapse]
I cannot read this anymore, novel is simply too s*upid and naive.
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sahs228
sahs228 rated it
January 19, 2020
Status: c78
well, the concept is novel but very idiotic. Don't read if wanna try the novel.

first of all, industry in a land of magic? Pffft hilarious.

second, there is no knowledge of the world and its state, as the story goes on, by the convenience of the author the world is being explained, which does not makes sense at all.

By the way, IRL, the first achievement of the industrialization of the world was two world wars. But now here, we don't know anything about the political situation of the world. we hear... more>> about a magicians killing people or something but, nothing so far. Very peaceful world which is not something that happens in real situations.

Also, what is the peoples' jobs, which they can pay for these machines? When there is no industries, only farming is present for peasants, what else?

It is not logical, he lives in this world but did not help anyone, but as soon as he was a little hot, he decides to make magic fan? What about that two years that he was living in this world, Every basic needs was not bad but a little heat made him to make stuff.

Basic needs like:

water : how do people get water? Well, creek, lake or magic? Because the first thing that you will want to make is a more convenient way to get water not a fan.

food : in c 40 or so he makes a rice cooker but later says that the people around there does not grow rice. First of all rice cooker is more of an electric appliance than a mechanical one, second of all, he could make a magic oven rather than a rice cooker, very s*upid decision.

health : what is the condition of living of people? How healthy are they? Is there any sickness? Well according, nothing is mentioned so far other than a "hospital" that was there conveniently at c20s or 30s. How is the women's health, because women had poor health situation in olden days, they are more susceptible to disease than men.

wealth: I explained a little. How can a farmer make money when they don't own any land, only nobles have land.

these are some illogical concepts that got to me so far. If you don't think about these stuff it could be entertaining, but then, he came to another world, and still he wants to make another china there. Funny. <<less
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Foxuoa
Foxuoa rated it
March 16, 2021
Status: v4c144
For those who are looking to read for a novel where the MC revolutionize a fantasy world into a magical industrialization era I recommend you to skip this novel because it’s very boring and I really tried to stick with this novel cos I thought it had potential but the writer of this novel is just really good at making things boring to read and for me who have a very mediocre standard I think this novel is utter garbage and here’s my reason why.

1) The writer is just bad... more>> at explaining how the MC makes his magic machines because I’m pretty sure the writer doesn’t really know what they’re writing and just extending the chapter length unnecessarily. For example for the first few chapters our MC wants to make a magic fan because his work place is hot which is understandable and he already made changes to a wind elemental magic circle which literally blows wind so all our MC really needs to do is make a structure which focuses the wind in one direction (basically he could just make a godamn blow dryer with the magic circle in the middle) but no the writer have to include FAN BLADES?!?!And this trend continues on till now.

2) The side characters are legit s*upid brain dead NPC and our villains are just outright air heads. So let me tell you how s*upid the villains are in this novel and how unsatisfying they are removed. King Eric after killing the previous king with duke Stagg secretly and portraying it successfully as the previous king dying from illness they for some s*upid reasons like reputation banished our MC and his company out of their financially broke kingdom even though that company was the sole reason why the kingdom is financially afloat and when problems starts to occur their reaction is literally the meme pikachu face. When proof of the previous king assassination surfaced King Eric’s sister, Princess name you won’t even care about got military magic machines from our MCs company like bazookas and magic repeating Crossbows (basically a rifle) and distributed to her small army you would think the writer would write what went down like how the bigger army just got absolutely destroyed and their despair but no we just got a quick summary of what happened “Princess army wins with no casualties” and the writer didn’t even show us how king Eric and duke Stagg died but only tell us. Literally a lot of tells and no show. Very boring

3) Like I have mentioned before in number 1 the writer likes to makes things unnecessarily long and he just doesn’t do this with technological explanations but also in economics. It was already established that our MCs company is very successful and rich and I’m not just saying casual rich but rich rich as in they make more money than the whole kingdom. So as always the writer would make a 5 page essay of why and how from the smallest things you don’t even care about because it doesn’t change the end result which is they are rich. And also the writer also does it with our MCs romantic relationships even though he already got a legitimate daughter and two maid wives.

4) Even though the setting is in a fantasy world the only fantasy thing in this novel is the magic system (which is sh*t but I won’t explain further cos this rant has gone too long) and the elves and dwarves (no other races are in this novel just humans elves and dwarves). Thats it, there’s no magical creatures, plants or phenomenon. Its very lackluster in the fantasy area which is where this whole story is set on which ironic

TLDR:Progression of the story is painstakingly slow because like I’ve said the writer likes to lengthen the chapters unnecessarily which doesn’t progress the story in any way or doesn’t even interest us the readers in any way whatsoever and lastly it doesn’t feel fantasy at all. If I can I would just force the writer to stop writing for the rest of their career

Thanks for reading this rant <<less
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tides
tides rated it
April 20, 2020
Status: v1c1
this book is tr*sh but not for the reasons that most of the other reviewers have stated.

they themselves have no clue how a fan works.

the blades and rotor is the most important part of a fan and while there is already a wind revolving magic array, it is not a fan because it does not blow air in one direction. It is the blades that determine how the wind travels, similar to how a plane flies.

however it should also be noted that the author himself is writing nonsense when it... more>> comes to the tech so they are right in this sense and the story stops talking about the inventions very quickly which is a letdown.

but what frustrates me more is how the MC steps into the role of a merchant and tells everyone that the worldview of a merchant is fact when he acknowledges that this is similar to a medieval world where nobles often abuse their power.

he tells the elves and dwaves that the humans will not ens*ave them or abuse them if they are beneficial but just a few weeks ago, his personal "s*ave" (who he considers family) was almost kidnapped by nobles who wanted her.

magic is another frustrating point of this novel. Magic is hard to learn blahblahblah but the MC never learns magic and when he uses it, it is a spell that just appeared and it's really strong.

the story also then becomes politics when he has no political power.

in short, don't read this. <<less
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GingerMessiah
GingerMessiah rated it
February 24, 2020
Status: Completed
I would give this novel 2.5 but wavering towards a 3 due to this being his first novel.

PRO

  • Business theme in a fantasy world
  • Sensible Male lead (when facing adversity)
  • Weak to Strong Male lead
  • A Male lead who doesn’t kill everyone like chopping up vegetables
  • Loyal and faithful harem
  • Interesting ending with a hint to why he transmigrated to this world in the first place
CON

  • Failure to explain the magic system of the world
  • Male lead seem to be too naive and forgiving even in the face of betrayal
  • Author/Male lead later neglect and stop mentioning his other wives and offsprings
  • Unnecessary info dump about how much things are sold and how much money are made (us Chinese love talking about business and money)
  • The final boss never materialise and the ending of the last conflict is very anti-climatic
If you are interested in a business themed story then this might be for you but you may become bored of it after the first 4-5 volumes.
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AnonymousNoLife
AnonymousNoLife rated it
February 6, 2020
Status: v2c1
T:L:D:R- If your expecting anything more then even less then the bear minimum DO NOT READ. If you expect to have any intelligible thoughts about this novel or wanted to have something that could expand your library of knowledge while also not being a textbook, DO NOT READ. If you don't really care about anything technical at all, and just want a story that goes forward to nowhere. Then I guess i'd recommend it to you.

A utter disappointment to anyone that has more then a double digit IQ or has... more>> even a elementary understanding of how a machine works. Honestly I could look past that, anyone that frequent Web Novels knows there is worse. The shameless cover ups of the shear inadequacy that is this novel by just leaving cliff hangers at the end of anything, that requires even slight intelligence on the subject that could be obtained by just basic research. But NOO, lets not do the utter minimum and go even lower by just not doing it. This entire novel may as well be an example of what NOT to do when your trying to make something enjoyable to read. The author goes out of his way to avoid doing anything hard, by like I said, leaving it out entirely, Anything, AT ALL, where the author would have to try to write something, is left out by a magical piece of paper that just happens to have something on it, SOOOOO agreeable that no one in AnyWayShapeOrForm can disagree with, so they immediately agree with it, so the author doesnt have to try to make the MC seem smart. Or, like I said as well, just Nothing, just a cliff hanger and he ends the chapter right there, only to have whatever it was, seem to never have existed from there on. Any negotiating of any sense in any way? Nope, here comes the godly paper. Any explanation on how anything works in anyway, Nope here comes the Hanger. Dropped Permanently <<less
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deathcoy
deathcoy rated it
August 7, 2020
Status: v4c19
One of the many technological revolution in a fantasy world themed novels and also one of the many that failed in this genre. The best way to enjoy this novel is not to think too much into it, yes, basically leave you brain at home when you read it.

There are many things to consider when touching the tech revolution subject. The complex political and business aspects that heavily influences the world. The power struggle that follows. The drastic repercussions and impact to society. A reasonable understanding on technology itself, the... more>> logic behind it, how it works, what makes it work, the basic technical aspects. How and which tech can be implemented and integrated into the fantasy world, their respective compatibility to society and whether they can meld together with magic itself. The tech progression that follows, you need to learn how to walk before you run. Walking the fine line between believability and the implausible. Ideas should be grounded and fictional at the same time, a precarious balance if you may, subtly blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. This is afterall bringing in reality into fiction. I can go on and on but I believe you get my point.

There are many aspects encompassing the subject of tech revolution. This is a much heavier and dense theme/subject than any other fantasy or fiction genres. It is also unforgiving. You can't touch this genre without at least using your brains.

Release that Witch did a reasonably good job tackling this theme but even then its not perfect and is laden with flaws. But at least its author made an effort to tackle almost every point I laid out above. Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei on the other hand took a different approach by integrating magic into reality, a reverse concept. And like RTW, the author tackles the subject by creating and tinkering the magic system itself to fit into realism.

This novel on the other hand basically ignores everything mentioned above. Either author is true pleb, uneducated and does not understand how the world around him works (to him technology in real life is basically magic itself) or he does this on purpose. I am inclined to think the former but that seems impossible in this day and age, how can he not even understand how a modern fan works? He also probably does not have a storyboard planned out seeing the haphazard writing and plot progression. Plot conveniences that he magically pulls out of his ass frequently. Moreover he definitely does not do any research beforehand judging by the incredulous concepts he vomits out in his novel.

I won't go on any further, I think you can probably understand where I'm coming from. You just have to read the first few chapters or volume to realize the Epic Failure that is this novel. Mind you, this review has not even touched on the quality of the narrative, the plot direction, the characters and their development, the world building and setting, the numerous cliches and such. That in itself is a mercy. Otherwise the rating would be in the negative (if at all possible). <<less
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mcarandang
mcarandang rated it
August 31, 2020
Status: Completed
Strangely contreversial,

kingdom building is a fun genre to get into it portrays the joys and magic of industrialization. Chinese authors have a good sense of that since it's so recent in chinese history.

Three large novels come to mind similar to this one

... more>> return of the witch (popularization / mainstream of the niche)

sword of gawain (similar, but different flavor)

this title / one... magic industry empire. (current one)

Although it's not as imaginative as jing yong and his style of wuxia and magic. It's a more engineering aspect focused on engineering, economics, politics, and kingdom building. Honestly would read this over another do-over to HK 1989 or something. (still love extraordinary genius, the first one I read). Many have written similar, but few have written just as well. It's been a while, but this was indulging. The protagonist lives in a medieval world and although the progress may not be realistic, the emotion I feel in the authors intent was great. This is not a novel for any reader, it's quite niche. However for those looking for this type of novel its a gem indeed. I give this novel the qualification of opal, a gem that can be viewed differently and perceived differently by many angles and the audience viewing it. <<less
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pipen53
pipen53 rated it
February 9, 2020
Status: --
There are so many things wrong with this novel, if you looked past the surface and just think a tiny bit you would find them.

Issue's just pop out from nowhere and are just contrived by the author to give filler chapters.

I could write a whole essay on all the things wrong with this novel. However I wont, the novel is better than 1 star but not by much.
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gazelle
gazelle rated it
January 2, 2020
Status: c579
Why is it rated so low? Its so hard to find good and fun novels like this one. I dont understand why are you all expecting the author/MC to be expert in engineering, economics and politics, because if he is, he wouldnt have time to make a novel and be busy to earn lots of money through business etc. These people trying to be smart by degrading others... sigh~

This novel is fun. I dont see harem yet. I like harem.

.... Seems like this novel is not a harem but devoted... more>> to lover because he keeps insisting in 1wife despite the fact that many girls like him. If onesided love from girls, I think it cant be considered harem.

minus 1 star. I hate devoted and dense MC :) feels like reading japanese ln <<less
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flesh000
flesh000 rated it
February 23, 2022
Status: v1c54
Was hoping for a "fusion of technology and magic". The "magic" described in the story is really just "magic arrays" replacing certain machinery, and making technology easier to manufacture. The story also describes "magic arrays" as being fueled by "magic stones". Truly some of the most limited, shitty magic I've ever come across.

Honestly, the technology isn't much either. So far, the main character has created several fans, air conditioners, machinery to aid in the production of the former, a combine of some sort, and a f*ckING RICE COOKER. So f*cking... more>> s*upid of him. He could be creating industrial machinery, and selling cheap cloth, steel, or other goods in high demand, but for some reason this f*cking idiot decides to sell HAND MADE (!) HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES to POOR PEOPLE.

Fusion of technology and magic? More like fusion of poor business choices and a dumbass MC. <<less
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VLeeAzn
VLeeAzn rated it
January 21, 2022
Status: v1c86
I could forgive all the massive plot holes there are in the beginning where he's basically admitting having been in that world for a while but never thought about using his former occupation's skills & totally gave up on it on the first occasion without looking back; I also usually force myself to read at least 50 chapters before writing a fair reviews.

I had actually found this quite enjoyable to read since it fits nicely onto the novels with similar tags I was looking for, it was a rocky start... more>> but it was still "realistic" (I put "" because it's a magical world obv. but I'm not sure anymore since some of the reviewers read this like an economic magazine instead of a novel lmao), like business ok, partners ok, industries ok, concurrents also ok however... what's wrong with the author on relationships levels ?

Interactions between men, friendship even social classes are fine but the romance part is where I want to puke all my human blood away; Wth ? So from where I've read there's two new girls that are friends with the female lead and he's hired both of them, as far as I know : they have known each other for tens of days, talked for 5 days at most within those yet the girls are deeply in love with MC & thought it was advanced enough they could throw a tantrum at him even though they are in an employer-employee relationship ? Worst is how god damn dense that guy is at 27 years old and talks about how women are some sort of mysterious creature, jfc.

I felt like I was in those wish fulfilling Japanese novels where MC literally trips and fall on women's breasts every 4 steps for a second. I did not come here to read that, so I'll just turn the 4 stars I initially would've given to 3. Srsly it's so bad.

Update v1c101: I read to chapter 101, this guy or the author is definitely writing a wish fulfilling story for the ultimate beta male because not only is he extremely bad at investing, he gives out 50 gold coins like it's nothing to save a random guy that we learn later just happened to be gifted which turns out to be a good investment purely because of plot armor. Oh and the 50 gold coins he gave to the thugs earlier ? Also turned out he is going to partner with them later on which also result on him somehow being smart for doing it. I'm at loss at how completely ridiculous the thickness of this plot armor is rivaling the level of the novel Monster Paradise. <<less
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avidnovelreader95
avidnovelreader95 rated it
March 30, 2021
Status: c56
before I read this novel I looked at a bunch of the reviews a lot of which were mentioning how the technological knowledge of the MC is inept for a senior engineer now im no engineer and don't have the knowledge. However I don't recommend reading this novel non the less but for a different reason so first off this novel is essentially a industrialization novel set in a fantasy setting. The issues with this novel in particular is the world building or setting. Why? Well this is a fantasy... more>> world were magic exists with the coexistence of a feudal type society which is problematic. So first of all in a feudal society the nobles generally hold power because they own the land and have superior rights essentially now this makes no sense in this fantasy magic world because a magician essentially would have the power to decide the fate of these nobles because they would essentially be a superior military power or straight up superior existence in general so it makes no sense why nobility would exist in the novel. Next the author tries to blend capitalism into this which has no place being simply because not everyone in the novel has equal rights and there are select few people who have superior rights and there's no protection of your property so lets say if a king all of a sudden wants to close your business for no good reason he can and that's because hes the king. Honestly the execution is just bad the author never considered the conflict of interests in the different elements that he/she is introducing into the story. So 2 novels that are similar in setting but are done much better are "release that witch", and "warlock from the magus world". In the first case magic and feudal society both exist but this is possible due to the extreme limitation of magic in the world in which only women could wield magic and even then its not every women its a minority of which and even if that person can wield magic they are generally limited by it for example if you have a witch that can wield fire she can't wield another type of magic say water or lightning this highly limits the versatility of the magician thus limiting their power. In the second case or MC himself is a noble but for the most part being a noble means jack sh*t in the novel because a magician could essentially decide the fate of any noble because they could just straight up slaughter the whole noble family if they wanted to on a whim, and this is essentially show in the novel the only rulers of the land are magicians. In both cases it shows that feudalism and your magic fantasy setting are contradicting to one another it simply makes no sense for both to exist in equal standings in the same realm it would only make sense if either one is limited like in the first case.

so tldr I don't recommend reading this novel not for technological reasons but that the world building is severely flawed. <<less
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