Notes from the Grey Tower

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Mathematics is the field for geniuses.

Only weirdos that can no longer be satisfied by mathematics will touch cryptography.

Some say, it was the cryptographers that brought victory to the world war two. They were the weirdos among the geniuses. They broke the enemy’s riddles from the radio signals, and grasped the Nazis by their throat. They remained anonymous. They belonged to the cryptography institute of British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6.

It’s okay to pursuit your lover, but dear Alan Caster, it’s not the best idea to follow him to the cryptography institute of MI6. It’s even a worse idea when the guy you’re after is the boss of the intelligence service, Garcia.

And the worst idea, Alan, was to think about dumping him once you’ve gotten his heart. >.>

Associated Names
One entry per line
Memoirs from the Grey Tower
灰塔笔记
Related Series
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Recommendations
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Recommendation Lists
  1. Meyhane
  2. High Quality, Underrated Danmei Novels
  3. Waving for the newly translated danmei
  4. BL Waiting for the chapters translation
  5. Actually Good BL Novels (CN)

Latest Release

Date Group Release
03/23/22 moo translations c11
02/13/22 moo translations c10
02/20/21 moo translations c9
02/15/21 moo translations c8
02/10/21 moo translations c7
02/08/21 moo translations c6
02/06/21 moo translations c5
02/04/21 moo translations c4
01/29/21 moo translations c3
01/29/21 moo translations c2
01/28/21 moo translations c1
03/05/18 SummerX c3
01/21/18 SummerX c2
01/19/18 SummerX c1
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5 Reviews sorted by


animana2
animana2 rated it
March 5, 2018
Status: c3
I usually don't write reviews here because I am too lazy. However, I saw that this novel didn't have one and thought that it would be a shame if people didn't pick up the novel for that reason. That is right, a shame because with only three chapter the novel already completely grabbed my attention.

The synopsis is not really attractive because it starts with a long text about math and frankly speaking, who wants to read about math? We already have nightmares about the subject.

So I will try to summarize... more>> the story again. The novel is set in England right before the start of WWII. Alan Caster, an irreverent, jovial, and a bit impudent young man is accepted to study in Cambridge in the field of mathematics since this is the only thing he is good at except for making jokes with his irreverent tongue and chase after his romantic interests that apparently change weekly, that is, until the other male lead appears (I am not going to tell who it is because it is more fun to discover while reading the book. The answer is in the first chapter anyway so no worries). Both main characters are math genius, one more than the other, which leads to the part of the plot related to cryptography. That is basically the study of how to create and crack codes.
Historically speaking, those codes were indeed essential in both WW but especially the second one, to transmit information and orders between allies. So, deciphering one of the enemy's codes would lead to acquiring confidential and important information that could change the flow of the war.

With only three chapter I can't tell much about the plot. But, what I can tell, is that the book is great. The author is Chinese but they either lived in England or did enough research to not give out the feeling of a foreigner writing about something they don't really know. An English reader might find incongruencies but for the others, the novel did construct an ambient with a 'Pre-WWII English' feeling.

Also, all the character, main and secondary, are very well developed to the point of you being able to think about them as living people. They are so captivating that you just want to know more about them.

And the plot so far promises to be very interesting.

At last but not least, the work of the translator is not good, it is superb. The quality of the translation is so amazing that you can't really teel it is a translation, it seemed more like an original work by a great writer. Supposedly, we should not comment about the translations on these reviews, only the original novel, but I think that the quality of the translation interferes directly with the quality and enjoyment of the read so here it is.

The review ended up huge, but the novel is worth it. I hope my poorly patched words will help some unsure readers to decide to give this novel a chance. I don't think you will regret it. And, who knows, maybe, if a lot of people start to read the novel the translators might get motivated to give us more chapters? I am eager for more.

;) <<less
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Gabialves
Gabialves rated it
February 1, 2019
Status: Completed
Spoiler

I do not usually leave comments because I am extremely shy even if no one knows me I still am so this time I decided to leave a comment because I am outraged and need to speak to readers who have weak hearts and hate abuse, let's first of all where the tag of r*pe? When I started reading this book I liked it a lot so I went to read in Chinese I regret it until today it has cruel r*pe how can not put, there are people like me who do not support this kind of thing and tag of drama my God the whole book is drama I I cried the whole book I hated ML until that cruel selfish face, I hated ML's doctor friend he knew of all the cruel things that MC had gone through and he just made him lose his memory and then still had the guts to go in the door he says what love if you loved he would have told everything and given a way to get him out of there even if he sent him out of the country and he left the MC with that monster that is the ML I cried too much MC poorly lost the right to know the truth lost the right of freedom and lived in a dream hidden from all those dirty things and that ML made him go, he practically stopped a gerra and what he received was locked in a tower and then against his will losthis memories of what award he received hein, he wanted to go after the person he loved came headfirst into those dirty places without knowing what kind of place was that just to help ML and what he won was a horrible horrible torment if he knew it was going to go through that would rather not fall in love, suffered a r*pe physical and psychological torment all that ML knew and did nothing will have people who will speak to "the more went to a greater good was to arrest those people" I'm sure it had another way could be more difficult but had another way ML let MC go through that, I almost did not say the whole book, so the whole book is sad cruel and distressing for those who like this kind of thing will love more for those who do not like it Hate like me, I cried I had to read some 5 books to be able to get out of this book's head the most I cried a lot and I was sad for several days.. So I only commented to people who have heart failure or for that type of anguish those who like congratulations found a perfect book for you..

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Karinda_L
Karinda_L rated it
April 14, 2020
Status: Completed
Hi, a Chinese reader here. First of all I'm so surprised that someone actually had translated this book to English (even it's only 3 chapters)... I read this book about five years ago. It's not that popular anymore, but this book is still my top 1 Yaoi novel on my ranking board. I have to say that I was deeply attracted to the story.

... more>>
Spoiler

Allen's ending was destined. They lived during World War II, and his mother worked for the Germans. As long as he knew Andermont, he would eventually be imprisoned in the Grey Tower.

Allen's character was based on Turing. Turing's su*cide was due to the general environment at that time, and Allen was imprisoned in the Grey Tower because he was determined by the government to be "untrustworthy." Anderman could not take Allen away. He was a colonel and he must obey the orders of his superiors.

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This ending was reasonable for me. The characters were independent individuals in the book. They had their own thoughts, beliefs and choices. While I was reading the book, I feel like the author acted as an observer, but only used a first-person perspective.

This book is very suitable for translation into English. I'm happy to see that this book at least has some translations, but still, I wish I could see more in the future if it's possible...

Great, even the translation has been deleted...

(The book was blocked on the original website and I can't read it from anywhere now...) <<less
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Chrysanthemum25
Chrysanthemum25 rated it
February 16, 2022
Status: Completed
I MTLed this novel way back. I'm glad that someone translated it again. I wanted to rate it 5 stars, but since it made me cry and sad, I removed 1 star. Lol

This novel is not for everybody. It has a dark mature theme. But the author did well in writing it. The world building was good, the plot was good and the characters feel real and alive. The way the author wrote the story felt that the plot may have actually happened in that era. I actually cried when... more>> reading this novel. Though it was HE, but the ending felt like a tragedy, it was heart wrenching. (If anyone is familiar with the movie Paycheck, they would know what I mean.)

If anyone is interested in reading this novel, remember to be open minded. I think people who doesn't have too much prejudice reading with the novel's genre/tags, will enjoy this, just like me. Oh, expect to cry, be sad and heart broken. But, I actually think that this would be a good spy movie. 🤔 <<less
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kiraluvst
kiraluvst
December 20, 2018
Status: Completed
Spoiler

I am so disappointed with the ending : ( ( ((

I know that it's probably the best realistic scenario, but I just can't help feeling betrayed, so unfair..

The author said it's a happy ending, but not for me.

If I stopped at 8/9 of the story, I would definitely give it a 5.

Highly recommend this though, very very compelling!! However you may want to consider whether to go until the end or not.

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