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Release that Witch
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Web Novel (CN)
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Rating(4.6 / 5.0, 2461 votes)
5    79% (1944 votes)
4    10% (235 votes)
3    5% (112 votes)
2    2% (61 votes)
1    4% (107 votes)
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2016
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Status in Country of Origin. One entry per line
1498 Chapters (Complete)
Licensed
Yes
Completely Translated
No
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English Publisher
One entry per line
Release Frequency
Every 45.5 Day(s)
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Weekly Rank: #717
Monthly Rank: #497
All Time Rank: #5
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On 20020 Reading Lists
Monthly Rank: #755
All Time Rank: #6

Description

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Chen Yan travels between worlds, ending up becoming an honorable prince in a medieval fantasy world. Yet this world was not quite as simple as he thought. Witches with magical powers abound, and fearsome wars between churches and kingdoms rage throughout the land.

Roland, a prince regarded as hopeless by his own father and assigned to the worst fief, spends his time developing a poor and backward town into a strong and modern city, while fighting against his siblings for the throne and absolute control over the kingdom. Join Roland as he befriends and allies with witches and, through fighting and even farming, pushes back invaders coming from the realm of evil.

Associated Names
One entry per line
Fàng kāi nàgè nǚwū
RTW
Выпустите эту ведьму
放开那个女巫
마녀 사용설명서
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Genjitsushugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki (45)
Tales of the Reincarnated Lord (23)
Sevens (22)
Ascendance of a Bookworm (19)
Maoyuu Maou Yuusha (19)
Common Sense of a Duke’s Daughter (16)

Latest Release

Date Group Release
09/25/17 Seki – CA translations c378
08/28/17 Seki – CA translations c377
08/27/17 Seki – CA translations c376
08/25/17 Seki – CA translations c375
08/23/17 Seki – CA translations c374
08/22/17 Seki – CA translations c373
08/20/17 Seki – CA translations c372
08/20/17 Seki – CA translations c371
08/18/17 Seki – CA translations c370
08/17/17 Seki – CA translations c369
08/16/17 Seki – CA translations c368
08/15/17 Seki – CA translations c367
08/14/17 Seki – CA translations c366
08/14/17 Webnovel c353
08/13/17 Webnovel c334
123…26
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triggerk
triggerk rated it
January 23, 2017
Status: c252
Release that Witch is a surprising read in a sea of webnovels. It isn't perfect, and I'll elaborate on that, but it's above the garbage often seen. There won't be plot spoilers in this review except the obvious "Yeah he helps witches" so continue with that in mind. Enjoy my mini-novel review.

Unlike most CN webnovels, RtW distances itself from Wuxia and enters the magic flintlock genre. With a setting reminiscent of medieval times, you've got a cast of knights and nobles and peasants. This isn't a new concept. In fact,... more>> it's old and worn. But it's how it's done despite the tropes, and for the most part, the author managed well. The twist is that the protagonist comes from our modern day, and this twist carries the story in both obvious ways and more subtle ones.

Had the first chapter never mentioned the origins of the protagonist, it would've been hard to realize at a glance. The name of this regular guy is soon forgotten as he takes upon the role of Roland, the fourth prince, and you will probably only know him as such. The previous Roland was a fool, as often these stories make them be, so when our modern day hero takes over, it becomes a familiar journey of climbing to kingship. He no slave or farm boy, but his status as nobility begins low relative to his siblings, and gives us, the reader, something to cheer for.

This brings up the advantages of a modern day man in a period lacking knowledge. But as you can imagine by the title, what keeps this in the fantasy genre is the inclusion of witches, giving Roland cards to play on his path to glory, literally and figuratively.

Witches are ostracized as devils and killed. Their powers are clearly seen and isn't mystical voodoo no one believes. And our protagonist becomes their friend. Whether it's because he's interested in a scientific standpoint or he's a friendly guy isn't important. What's important is the role witches play in the grand scheme of things.

Roland's Border Town becomes a bastion for them. His kindness and acceptance toward witches attracts a flock who aid and make possible things that would otherwise be impossible. Like many novels in epic fantasy, it becomes too much, and details become lost. Because of the story's scope, beside a select few witches, many of them take a backseat and are reduced to tools to help Roland grow his empire. This is a shame because the cast of said witches is fun and varied. Unfortunately you'll only familiarize yourself with certain ones, and the rest are non-existent until the protagonist has use of their power.

Those powers have an important role, and it's here that magic and technology mix. Roland's ability to rise up depends on magic, boosting his ability to quickly reach the industrial age of guns and manufacturing. You'd think one might overwhelm the other, but balance is kept in check. There are clear advantages to witches, yet they're no army. By helping witches, he's given the chance to command an army unlike any seen before, and with his knowledge, the overwhelming advantages he has crushes the opposition and gives Roland a legitimate claim to the throne.

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, he should know things others do not. On the other hand, he knows too much. Roland was a mechanical engineer before, but apparently he knows chemistry, biology, the education system, war tactics, shipbuilding, and who knows what else. Basic knowledge is fine. What this guy has is unacceptable, however.

"Hey, I'm going to write a chemistry textbook telling you every formula in the world. By the way I'm going to jot down a 500 page manual on how2biology. And I'm going to rewrite an entire play or three, by memory, perfectly. But wait there's more! I'll add in a physics course for free. Did I mention I'm a master plumber, farmer, and blacksmith? Hell, have some music theory too, because I'm a mechanical engineer who took some GE classes and we can all do that while governing an entire city as a full-time job."

Like, what? Some defend this, but there's literally nobody who can do this. Stop trying to "logic" it. Can anyone recite every country in the world by heart, right now, and every state and city and province? Can they list the periodic table in its entirety 20 years after they've long forgotten their high school chemistry class? Do they have seven phDs and a photographic memory? Literally autism. And if you don't want to admit that, then Roland's a Mary Sue, period. Frankly, being overpowered is fine. But let's call this story what it is and not pretend it's anything otherwise. Release that Witch is a power fantasy for teenage and young adult men.

Only in foreign webnovels do protagonists get a pass for being overpowered, which is called bad writing anywhere else. Even Superman has his Kryponite, whether it's a rock or vulnerable friends he must care for. Millions are enthralled by something like Game of Thrones because the characters are human. They are flawed and morally gray men and women who may not survive to the end. Protagonist-chan? He might as well be an alien, because nobody is perfect.

And this is an issue because I've never been concerned for Roland's well-being. He's perfect, and thus boring. While he's no fighter, he doesn't need to be. He is in no danger because he's not one step ahead but twenty steps. I'm quite certain that a witch introduced hundreds of chapters ago, who has never done a damned thing, will suddenly become relevant at a critical point. Then he's going to say, "Just as planned." But because the author didn't give our hypothetical witch any show time, it'll look like our prince pulled it out of his behind. Rest assured, Roland has his bases covered with a plethora of beautiful women surrounding him. He doesn't need to worry about them, either, since they're also ridiculous.

What's also boring is how dull his knowledge can be. It drags the story down when the author harps on about molecules. Imagine a football fan yapping in your ears about his favorite team while the season is airing. Now imagine you not giving a sh*t, since you'd rather watch Rick and Morty or Futurama or something. This is what it's like when the author writes about details no one cares about. Your eyes glaze over and you skip entire paragraphs as terms you've never heard of are talked about. Please stop. Go back to the story.

Speaking of story, like many in epic fantasy, there are multiple factions with intrigue and espionage in the background. There's a cabal of witches, the church, and the princes and princesses vying for control. The writer touches upon all of them in a third person omniscient point of view, meaning you see what happens at a bird's eye distance and hear the thoughts of all characters. The reader is in the know of things our protagonist is not, and of events he doesn't witness. Possibly good, probably bad. Although we learn more about the world than Roland does, we don't get to experience the surprises in store for him in the future because we'll be in the loop. I personally lean toward this being a negative because this just becomes info dumping and telling rather than showing. Where's the mystery if the author introduces a new character, then immediately tells us his secrets? His life story, his children's stories, and the name of the gopher in his front yard--there goes whatever interest I have in said person.

Another negative is the grammar. For a translated novel, it's okay. But being readable doesn't mean it's correct, and if you're someone who understands basic grammar rules, little things will bother you. Punctuation and dialogue tags, for example, or the incessant use of passive voice. The editors could do a better job. For the last time, you can smile dialogue. When will they learn?

Now I'm going to talk about what this story is and isn't. Despite the roster of witches, all of whom are women, this is not a harem. It has the potential, but it isn't and hopefully won't be. This story is also small on romance. Because of the cast size, Roland doesn't have time to dote upon characters you may or may not ship together. It's present and there, but it's a subplot. Though some may praise the romance, I can't, because I don't see it becoming more than superficial. There's maybe one chapter focusing purely on relationships as of the 200s. How this is good romance is beyond me. RtW is and will always be about Townbuilding 101 and the politics that come with it.

If the main course of the novel is reaching a modern day quality of life, then witches and magic and such are like the side dish to add flavor to the meal. If one witch is salt and another is pepper, you'll get a lot of salt and pepper. But again, because of the story's scope, you're not going to get much paprika or garlic or chives. They're there, but only as one-dimensional additions. Let's not mention the named knight or three. Unfortunately, you may forget who half the cast is. But if you love the few characters that get the screentime of an A-list actor, you're in for a wild ride.

Anyhow, if I had to recommend a Chinese webnovel to a reader who doesn't like Chinese webnovels, this story would be my first suggestion. At the same time, it's so far away from the typical CN story that it almost doesn't qualify as one, yet technically it is. There's no saving face or retarded "can't see Mount Tai" or wow, he can't decide whether he should laugh or cry 100x. It's not a story of self-improvement by getting lucky finding an artifact, then senseless slaughter. It's a standard western epic fantasy that also suffers from CN webnovel tropes, and whether that's what you want or not, that's what you'll get. It's unique, but not unique. It's done okay, but certainly not groundbreaking.

I cannot get over the detachment I feel for most characters. I like the characters placed in the backseat, never to be heard from again. I like the subplots that'll never be brought up in the future. Instead I read pointless specifics on topics I couldn't give a rat's ass about. Instead I learn Roland paves some roads, and maybe adds a few more witches I'll forget exists. Worst, I'll never be worried about him because I know the fourth prince will pull through unscathed. Why, then, should I or any reader care what happens? The stakes aren't high. They're as low as the dirt under our feet. And when the hero doesn't struggle to achieve his goals, then he didn't earn those victories. Roland is given them on a silver platter, and suddenly, everything he accomplishes is diminished. Zero tension, because every battle is already won.

That doesn't mean I didn't like it. It's still enjoyable. But the fun factor degrades. So I have to ask myself why I should read this pseudo western fantasy. Why should I read RtW when I can read Patrick Rothfuss? Why should I read RtW when I can read Brandon Sanderson, or George R.R. Martin? These known fantasy authors have been picked up by publishers because their work are proven sellers, and have years of practice under their belt in writing. Release that Witch competes in the same genre, but doesn't have the same polish. So for a webnovel it's above average, but compared to published novels vetted by professionals, it has glaring flaws. By virtue of setting alone comes its own pros and cons.

Lastly, I want to say that the story really drags when the releases slow down. Because it reads differently, the pace is different and does not fit the norm of CN webnovels. If you binge read it, the experience is better, but the translators are not keeping up as of late, and my interest in the story suddenly tanked. And once I let the story sit in my mind for a while, I realized it's really as good as people say it is.

Tl;dr, Release that Witch is pretty good for what it is. Release that Witch is also pretty bad for what it pretends to be. <<less
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bekyuubi
bekyuubi rated it
January 24, 2017
Status: c224
I have to say, I'm quite disappointed. For the many reviews of 5 stars out there, it seems like everyone has forgotten or has not read Maoyuu maou yuusha which have a far better plot and characters. Not 1 out of the 81 reviews so far posted on it.

Release that witch is a mish-mash of various genres put together that are reasonably done, and for what for what it's worth, the sum of everything in the WN put together, is actually better than its individual parts. ... more>>
Spoiler

There really isn't much that truly stands out. If you look at it from a kingdom building genre, it's dry and not remarkably interesting, but it definitely beats the ridiculous JP trope of 'Mayonnaise introduced to medieval fantasy, everyone falls head over heels'. The reason why it's actually dry is mostly because of the lack of the 'struggle' thus far.

Do you know how freaking hard it was to break the feudalism government? It took more than 600 years when it flourished in Europe. The entire idea of overthrowing the king-nobles-knights can be something grand, but when the MC starts to introduce new technology over and over again which makes light of the whole era, it immediately becomes weak as a story.
Now, the 'struggle' section comes in the form of witches and the political wars between the church-roland's family. The witches are somewhat out there as a struggle for their freedom from religion and politics, but Roland pretty much takes that struggle out by force. The witches didn't achieve their freedom with their own hands, because Roland handed them their freedom.

Based on these two alone, the MC has gone pretty close to become OP. It is convenient for him to constantly discover new witches with new powers to invent new upgrades. It starts to be a given that Roland will somehow succeed in defeating all his opponents through modern warfare weapons.
There's not much about achieving an egalitarian society, but more of a self-fulfillment state-owned authoritarian/monarchy play dabbling in socialism. I say monarchy, because it seems like Roland wants an heir.

There is no revolution to see here, where the people cast out their serf status because they had the courage to do so, it is handed down by MC. Is it really that interesting to read that? Roland and his witches 'cure' the crowd from a magic plague, and they adulate him to the skies. It's all MC and about his witches again handing out solutions on a regular basis! This is absolutely boring me to tears and it goes on for 200+ chapters before I finally gave up and dropped the series.

Then about the wars. Honestly, what's the point? When you bring up the guns, I don't see ANY way how it's possible for his enemies to win. Guns literally changed warfare to make medieval swords and sticks pointless. He even has bunkers for his armies to use, for crying out loud. It's not even a delay or avoid melee fights strategy in the 1700s, it's bunkers from the 19-20th century. For the other parties to win, they either have to evolve to something ridiculous or use an overwhelming number of men to defeat Roland.
Speaking of which, I think I kind of lost it when witches upgrade their abilities. That's pretty much hitting some of the Mary Sue factor, but the main heroine is pushing it too much. She is an absolute genius that finished studying years of high school material in months, then invent new designs like steve jobs in sheer moments, while upgrading her magic powers non-stop and is a badass too. Did I mention she's really pretty?

Despite all the things that plague the series, it is ultimately a package that is better than the individual parts. At best I can say that it's an enjoyable read for many people because it has the overall package, at its worst it's fast food WN that is way overrated because it's appearing for the first time, especially as a Chinese WN.

Edit: For those of you who have already read this WN, I would suggest you to youtube "maoyuu speech" and compare between the (fake) scholar vs Anna. See the differences in storytelling and characters' depth.
Also, Maoyuu started off from a webnovel, so don't think that there wasn't a precedent before Release That Witch.

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Dusk
Dusk rated it
June 30, 2016
Status: c207
Loved it, truly a beautiful read. I didn't expect a Chinese novel could be like this. The title and the cover for this novel doesn't do it justice at all. Don't let the title or the cover hinder you from reading this! A mix of realism, kingdom building, fantasy, mystery, witchcraft & science, it is a pleasure to read slice of life novel at the early chapters. The latter chapters however, will also shed some light into the 'darkness' of the world Roan transmigrated to. Relatively speaking, it's not as... more>> simple as it seems in the surface, but the 'darkness' is not anything gruesome or heavy things like rape and all, it's more like the dark dealings of the church and the pain caused to the witches. All in all, it's actually pretty light.

The MC is transported into a world very similar to medival times in Europe but in fact it is not. Supernatural powers truly exist here, magic exists in a minority of females who are somehow able to wield magic, these witches are however, hunted by the people as they are labeled as demon kins by the church, which have succeeded to brainwash the people of the continent. It has now been the goal of the MC, Roan to help these witches and build a kingdom where witches and humans alike can live together.

RTW tries to pursue realism to a certain degree, which most fantasy-web novel story does not usually do. It has also tried to integrate a big believe of medieval times, nonsensical superstitious. Which is done well at first but late into the novel you can see that this plot has been forgotten.

As the MC used to work as an engineer before, the author has used a lot of knowledge from the division to build the kigdom. One of the problems I can mention is that the MC Roan had lots of information stored in his head that even coupled with his work before, almost doesn't really make sense, this is specifically evident as more time passed. The novel has done itself decently in the romance divison, well, much better than most cn wn that is. If you like the novel you'll probably end up rooting for either of the main love interests or both of em.

As the story progresses, You will feel like this story has more secrets to it and is not simply what it looks like in the surface, and on the later chapters, mutated beasts and.. So called-devil would also appear.

All in all it's an awesome work, a slice-of-life fantasy and kingdom building with tinges of medieval darkness. 8.5/10 this is one good read amongst the sea of web novel. <<less
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R0
R0 rated it
October 25, 2016
Status: c376
Definitely my number 1 novel. I even paid $10 to read the raw on Qidian lol. I used to avoid this novel because of the misleading title and picture which led me into thinking it's another typical harem story where MC goes around save the witches making them fawning all over him. I at first read this without expecting anything, but it turns out to be an excellent novel. Most of MC's actions are logical and realistic. Well, it is an undeniable facts that MC has a lot of girls... more>> around him but it's not exactly a harem. There are only like two girls who actually like him while others are simply thankful to him or admiring him. Well, there are like 3 girls who still don't trust him.

When it comes to romance, this novel has pretty late romance but considering that this novel is likely to have more than a thousand chapters due to the fact that the world is not being completely explored and he has set his eye on a country because the country has oil but he still takes no action to go to the country because he wants to take over his country first. The interaction between he and Anna and Nightingle is just adorable. There's even a joke where he and Anna almost do "it" but Anna fell asleep so he slept too then tomorrow afternoon, he heard a knock on his door where his first thought was "Did she come here to continue yesterday's night "talk"" But he was disappointed when other people came in.

I can see some says he's stupid for creating guns? Well..
Spoiler

Yes, he did create guns and cannons, but he completely monopolizes the technology. How could other people have guns too. He even creates a 152mm Howitzer. During wars, he killed all of his enemies regardless of their social standing. Up till c372, no one can fight his armies back, well some of his soldiers did get injured because of the "pills" that is distributed by the church. He even creates air-balloon and drop bombs to his enemies. Border Town has become the richest city in the country under his rules so it's just natural for him to have the strongest army.

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Someone even said there are witches but no one is using their powers?
Spoiler

This statement makes me feel like this guy just read 5 chapters and decided to write a review. Currently, there are witches who are being used by the church to carry out dirty works, the church is collecting homeless little girls where the normal ones will be their devoted believers while the witches are being killed to extract their power to create God Punishment Army. From here, it's a heavy spoiler so proceed with caution

Spoiler

400 years ago, witches are being looked up as higher beings while normal humans are basically being called "mortals". The witches have one goal; to defeat the demons. Unfortunately, the demons are very powerful so a witch named Akaris decided to use witch as tools instead of warriors to amass an army that is capable of defeating the demons. Akaris is literally the god of the church but only the popes know this. With Akaris's influence, witches are being use as a disposable tool to make normal humans become strong. This is because there are witches whose power is deem as "non-offensive" so even if they have 1000 witches, there are like only 200 how can fight so with extracting their power, all of them will have the same power that is superhuman strength. That's all.

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I highly recommended this novel as most of the characters do have a backstory to some extend, it's neither deep nor shallow but it's at an enough level where you can understand the characters to some extend. Some people said that Roland is Mr.I-know-it-all but not really for example:
Spoiler

He wants to create a healthcare but unable to do it because he has 0 knowledge about medicine.
He creates an army and of course there're regiment, battalion, company, platoon and squad. But he doesn't know the exact number of each unit should have.
He wants to write periodic table but he can't remember all of the elements.
And he even make mistakes to the point he almost dies.

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The only thing that is slightly less appealing is that the MC doesn't lift and he takes nap after lunch.

PS: The best grills are Lightning and Macy (Mercy in the translation) (the flying duo) <<less
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Draeghe
Draeghe rated it
July 24, 2016
Status: c27
I had good hope for this novel and I was even enjoying it.

Right uptil Chapter 27, where I learn the Main Character wants to introduce 'the gun' to the world.

Although at this point it's not yet certain whether he'll succeed or not. I find it downright annoying that introducing firearms into a swords/archers (/magic) type of world seems to be 'the' technological solution that the MC wants to bring into play.

History tells you that the gun brought significant change to the world, but that change was wrought through a lot... more>> of bloodshed. I find it debatable that 'inventing' better weapons is the solution. At least not something that's so highly abusable by all. It's not without reason that weapons are banned in some countries and that other countries where it's 'legal' have a higher (firearm) deathrate.

And although you might argue that people will continue to kill regardless of the introduction of firearms. The death toll would be significantly less without such a powerful weapon. And in this type of world, it should be powerful.

I was honestly hoping that if he kept on the path of inventing, he would stick to more constructive things that would help life in general. And by that I mean more convenience like structures... Pipelines for sewers, watertaps, transport... I don't know... I'd like to be surprised, not write it myself, lol.

On a side note... At least it wasn't some MC getting into a magical world, who promptly decides to "Let's invent 'Gun Magic'", cause clearly that's the most imaginative thing to do in a world full of... magic. Then again, that's probably because this MC can't use magic to begin with.

I sincerely hope his 'gun-plans' fall through. And he no longer sticks to it.

For the rest it's still a decent novel, so I won't say I'll drop it immediately. So for now I'll rate it a 2. It might've been a 4, if it wasn't for the gun thing. Yeah, that seriously put me off. Although I'm sure some people would like it instead. <<less
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Daoist LastWish
Daoist LastWish rated it
February 28, 2017
Status: c135
A mildly interesting leftist, feminist fantasy novel. It was interesting in the beginning, because of the novelty. But the novelty wore off and then the weakness of writing were staring in my face.

In the beginning the plot was tight, and so I could ignore author's habit of demonstrating his own smartness by throwing in scientific terms at random. However, as time went by, plot became loose and it became irritating.

... more>>
Spoiler

Strong Points:
* Interesting premise.
* Good beginning of the story, but looses steam around Chapter 100 or so.
* Writing is generally good.
* Play of politics is well depicted.

Weakness:
* Author tries to be too smart, and dumps in scientific terms at random. He tries to depict manufacturing process in detail, but it just becomes tiresome to read all the pointless pseudoscience.
* MC must have an IQ of 3000000000 bazillion. In his previous life he just had a desk job, and in this new life he is Chemist, Civil Engineer, Mechanical Enginner and a Great General, all in one.
* Everyone on MC's side has a IQ of 200000 Million. Despite the fact that they are barely literate, MC's subordinates are grasping the knowledge that usually takes 10 years in mere 2 months!

Strange Things:
* Only women can do magic. Feminist much?
* MC is kick-starting mankind progress. What took 2000 years, MC is doing it in 6 months.

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Hantosh
Hantosh rated it
January 31, 2017
Status: c900
Plot:
Mechanical engineer MC reincarnates as a disregarded prince in a medieval fantasy world. After an encounter with a witch, he begins using their powers to help accelerate the development of his territory from nothing, fight off threats both human and otherwise, and prepare for an ancient doomsday prophecy. There's kingdom building, army building, tech development (firearms, explosives, steel, etc), war, slice-of-life.

Pros:
- Great writing. Feels like a Japanese WN, almost can't believe it's a Chinese WN. There's little of the repetitive/hand-wavy/edgelord writing that plagues Xianxia stories. Reaction chapters are... more>> enjoyable and help with the world building, told from the perspective of side/minor characters rather than through infodumps or used as filler. Author seems to have the plot planned out so far.
- Likable MC, memorable side characters. Side characters get screen time, reappearances, development. Cast is fairly large and expanding, so your favorite side/minor character (s) may not get as many appearances as you'd like. So refreshing compared to usual Xianxia stories.
- There's basic science involved so you might learn something (the comments are sometimes interesting and not just pure cancer). Having something grounded in reality really adds to the enjoyment (like Seiun wo Kakeru).
- Regular translator updates (QI). Source updates daily (used to be twice a day, now once).
- Contrary to my expectations (because of the science and whatnot), is easily read with GT. Get the Perapera Chinese add-on for Firefox if you haven't already. Or read it on LNMTL.

Cons:
- Translation quality (Volare) drops pretty quick. First chapter is great at roping you in, but a few chapters in you'll start noticing the errors. Typos, poor grammar, engrish/MTL-sounding sentences, odd word choices (eg: God's Stone of Punishment/Retaliation), occasional messed up names and translation inaccuracies. Still very readable and vastly preferable to MTL, with the caveat you may find the process slightly irritating.
Update: Both QI & Seki's versions are machine translations. QI = quick and dirty (worse than Volare's), whilst Seki is slow but reads better.

Recommendation:
If you liked "Gate: Thus The JSDF Fought There" for its modern day warfare trouncing medieval tech theme, you'll probably like this. Read up to chapter 900 with zero regrets so far.

Edit: triggerk has an interesting review, but perspective readers be warned that there are many points that are flat out wrong.
Spoiler

>> Roland was a mechanical engineer before, but apparently he knows chemistry, biology, the education system, war tactics, shipbuilding, and who knows what else. Basic knowledge is fine. What this guy has is unacceptable, however.

The war tactics aren't strange as he's a huge military nerd. They're not complex to the point of implausibility either. The theory/construction of the concrete bathtub river boats is relatively simple, they tested models beforehand and there's no stuff like air compartments etc like modern boats. The steel version's design uses the same basic theory as the concrete ones. I'm not sure what you find so unbelievable about Roland's education system. IIRC they're only teaching basic literacy (maybe basic math? don't remember), not even at the level of modern primary school curricula. Only the witches get a more specialized education with Scroll teaching. It's not till much later on he starts getting the alchemists to start teaching chemistry classes to help fill the chemist deficiency.

>> Hey, I'm going to write a chemistry textbook telling you every formula in the world. By the way I'm going to jot down a 500 page manual on how2biology.

It's basic chemistry/etc according to whatever he still remembers from school/life. They're exercise book sized at best, not several hundred pages, why would you even assume that? I guess you could bloat them with exercises for the students. He struggled to fill the intermediate level chem book (and gave up). As for biology (human health), it probably has complex revolutionary content like: organ locations/functions, microorganisms exist, basic first aid, wash your hands, why you shouldn't sh*t in the street, etc.

>> I'll add in a physics course for free.

He's a mechanical engineer, I should bloody hope so.

>> Some defend this, but there's literally nobody who can do this. (...) Can they list the periodic table in its entirety 20 years after they've long forgotten their high school chemistry class?

... Roland literally couldn't either, the periodic table in his chem book is full of blank spaces. A perceptive reader would use this as a reference to extrapolate how the content in his other textbooks might appear. I don't know why people keep getting the impression that he's writing 1:1 copies of his prior textbooks.

>> And I'm going to rewrite an entire play or three, by memory, perfectly.

Nowhere does it mention they're perfect recreations. Roland writes the basic outline (the translation makes it sound as if he wrote it all himself) with help from past life knowledge plagiarism whilst Scroll does most of the heavy lifting. Helps with having many plays to reference with her memory power. Cinderella & Chicken Calls At Midnight are primary school plays (1 western, 1 chinese), whilst for A Witch's Diary Scroll can draw from personal experience. He comments the plays aren't even that good, just that the people have nothing to compare them to. Not that crazy when you remember the author is a working engineer writing RtW as a hobby.

>> Did I mention I'm a master plumber, farmer, and blacksmith?

He has people that he delegates those tasks to, and witches to skip years of development work. He was never a blacksmithing expert, not sure how you got this idea. Blacksmithing is one of the first things he makes redundant. Farming he doesn't micro-manage, other than some common sense knowledge (use fertilizer, crop rotation) he's left it all up to the farmers themselves to figure out best practices and City Hall to help spread that info. As far as plumbing goes, it's not that big a leap with Anna/Soraya/Hummingbird. Trial and error for plumbing isn't terribly interesting though, which is why for many similar technological developments (see: Nitrogen extraction) the author doesn't over elaborate on the process and focuses more instead on the results.

>> Hell, have some music theory too, because I'm a mechanical engineer who took some GE classes and we can all do that while governing an entire city as a full-time job.

Recreating a marching song isn't impossible. Helping Echo spitball music ideas through conversation and singing some Earth songs in his downtime is well within reason. You're also giving Echo too little credit, she can mimic and project a person's voice after hearing it once and she has musical training. A chapter describing the fumbling about wouldn't work well in a written format though.

>> Release that Witch is a power fantasy for teenage and young adult men.

Don't disagree, RtW doesn't pretend to be otherwise. The first battle against Duke Ryans' forces should've clued you in. There are people who want the story to turn into tragedy, or to have the MC struggle, but the story has never been about that. It's a quick, light read with regular updates.

>> Only in foreign webnovels do protagonists get a pass for being overpowered, which is called bad writing anywhere else.

It's what their audience wants. Believe it or not, many people actually enjoy OP MCs. And as far as OP MCs go, Roland wouldn't even crack the top 100.

>> Even Superman has his Kryponite, whether it's a rock or vulnerable friends he must care for. Millions are enthralled by something like Game of Thrones because the characters are human.

Comparing Roland to Superman? lol, that's probably the worst analogy you could've made. One of Roland's main appeals is that he's a regular human in a fantasy world. Honestly if you have to go so far as to compare RtW with actual professional published works with years/months between releases to take it down, that says a lot about its quality. If you think it's possible to write Game of Thrones as a daily webnovel though, I've got a bridge to sell you.

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Genisyn69
Genisyn69 rated it
August 1, 2016
Status: c224
TL;DR - Great, if you like 'builder/management/politics' you'll definitely want to read this one.

Good world building, decent philosophical/faith war (witch persecution), deeper backstories referenced (church's plot &
... more>>
Spoiler

devil/demon hints of secrets i.e. hacala's mistaken idea on ancient text, & size of kingdom vs. wider world - (the map by picture witch & flying witch)

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Not a harem fiction, though there is romance hinted at during the story regularly.
Spoiler

until later, one requited love, one unrequited love shown so far. The question of "would you marry a witch" answer. The inclusion of fertility as an issue is really unneeded in the story as well...

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it's not overdone and doesn't supercede the main plot points.

complaint- MC has a broken amount of knowledge that he really shouldn't/couldn't have despite the premise of story.
Spoiler

During the story at least one person hints at "how could he know all these things", from their perspective he's just inventing or all-knowing, though he does blame it on the alchemist workshop saying it's their invention. However... this guy knows way way way more than he rightfully should even as a modern person, in both ancient developments of technology, not just their premise, but actually how to make them. To include a fairly advanced view of physics, biology, chemistry, mechanics, politics, aristocracy (noble version of politics). Granted most of the advancements are cheated by magic development to skip into industrial revolution items...

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random thought - (totally guessing)
Spoiler

I say he is a witch (warlock) himself, by way of possession.. though they say multiple times he's possibly influenced by the devil (multiple sources, including his minister), which is a bit funny since he possesses the former body of the prince. The only problem with this is that the one witch that can see magical powers in others directly never says anything about him having powers, so.. damn.. at least his sister realizes, without even meeting him that he's not the real prince.

With the constant reminder of fertility coming up, I have to imagine that's either just a very poor 'heartstring' attempt by author or something else for deus ex to fix later. OR!!! he's a warlock (witch) himself, but that's probably me trying to make him OP, and make sense of his current OP-knowledge, while also shipping him and the fire witch haha.

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youseiki
youseiki rated it
July 31, 2017
Status: c600
Release that Witch, the most praised and the most popular novel I've found in NU, with a lot five star ratings and reviews with only few people trying to question it's undeserving praise. But as an Elitist who knows how to judge and how to rate, I don't think Release that Witch deserves the praises, overrated is the perfect title for this web novel. Well with the overwhelming number of chinese trash novels with a lot of typical japanese novel and only few redeeming korean novel, I bet the easiest... more>> to read with quite different approach, RTW makes its own image of being different while showing there's a qualified series. Ironically it doesn't differ from most of the chinese wish fulfillment fantasies which gets a lot of cash, unqualified series needs to be evaluated.

<<<<<>>>>><<<<<>>>>><<<<< STORY - 3/10 >>>>><<<<<>>>>><<<<<>>>>>

There's so much problem in RTW, first of all, from the beginning of the story, it would be the introduction of advance technology to many people, the problem lies on non existing supplies and non existing money but was able to provide steam engine, wall, and mass produced guns with having any problems of food supplies and primary needs of people during winter, and what I didn't like in this series was how cheated it was to be able to produce unlimited supply of bullets and canon shells, moreover it has actually ignored how hard it is to produced these things and the author deliberately introduced a lot of characters just to react on the MC's innovative creations.

And after a hundred chapters, it's still happening. It's like typing in warcraft 3 "greedisgood 9999999" for money then "warpten" for fast construction and "sharpandshiny" for fast research, and it's not exaggerating that there's "whosyourdaddy" cheat for godlike capabilities of the army. So in response it's like "Hey, I need Guns, and I'll give you my 'how to make guns 101', don't worry about the supply and I'll pay you upfront... Nice now we have perfect 300 guns and 4 canons in only 3 months, damn I'm awesome" "I need steam machine for my mine.... Nice we have now two steam machines installed, and we were able to make it for few days, I'm awesome." or "You need to build a wall, don't worry about the supplies and money, I can provide them, my pocket is deep that it can ran the whole country" "They want to attack me because I didn't submit myself to him, pffft, I have guns.... We won, their leader is dead, so let's just leave the city without lord into chaos, let our ambassador without any skills to govern to let have his position, o yeah, let's just ignore some potential rebellious group out there, I mean we can take them if they rebel, so future deaths of people are irrelevant for me, I only need border town" "I need a ship, a Steel steam ship, I can provide the blue print and let the other guys do it, I mean they are blacksmiths, so they can easily create a new innovative ship without any problem... Now we have a steal canon ship, what a romance" "Hey the people are getting sicked, someone needs their help, just give them water, they don't need bread, and yeah we can black mail the merchant and make her submit to our request even if it's unrealistically impossible to achieve, and we don't have to provide primary needs for them like food, since we have holy water, also we can provide house, I mean we need migrants to come to us, we need human resources, I don't think about their lives, I just wanted to have them since it's sure they will worship me." "I can easily destroy my older brother, hmm, oh yeah, let's show him that we can kill him anytime, we don't need diplomacy, he is stupid, we just have to destroy him and his palace" "Oh another set of new witches, what a good life we have here, we need them for our tools"

Anymore than that will turn into spoiler from untranslated chapters. It's quite ironic that a lot of people makes pretentious reviews, they bash a lot of legit kingdom novels, and it's really alarming that a lot of them shows their stupidity when you try to recommend these legit kingdom novels and they only retort "Release that Witch is Better" is always their comment, Granted, the story is attractive, but it doesn't mean that it's good. I've pointed out in the jokingly manner statements on how unrealistic it was, it has ignored a lot of realism and logic and just proceeded on cheap writing by making the story predictable, and that predictability that most people anticipate was the reaction on how they see the MC and his advance technologies and ideals. Introducing, Inventing and Making things is fine as long as you have monetary support, supplies and man power, but the Novel didn't even bother to show that, instead the author wrote how awesome they are and how it will change the era of swords. This pretentious approach is not enough, the people have accepted these new technologies easily, it's quite a wonder how come did the blacksmiths was able to created perfect 300 guns in just 3 months, that's ridiculous when it needs a lot of factory workers just to produce 100 for at least 3 months. The author also undermines the knowledge of people in the medieval era, for those who have says that it's thoroughly researched, I highly doubt it. First of all, the medieval era was set after Roman Empire, which is the greatest Empire in the world, the inspiration of all form of governments, and in roman empire along, they already know the existence of Steam Engine and Cement. The author showed how blank is the knowledge of people which I can't accept, since it was Europe who has become the foundation of the entire world when it comes to influence, they have their own advance technology which paved the way for the improvement of people. Make it short, RTW was just a wish fulfillment fantasy.

Politics is also irrelevant, it's not even being showed, and the readers will say that this is Politics. I scratched my head and frown when I read RTW, I mean it will not work in real politics. First of all, I hate the Idea of the author to use Guns to gain control of a territory, Granted that Guns were needed to protect themselves, but the author showed how ridiculous his writing was, the biggest evidence was the Introduction of an Envoy from another country, I really hated the fact that the MC didn't care about his country which can turn into enemy, and his confidence to win the war, which only showed how cheap the author was when he wrote about the conspiracies of the Church and the neighboring country. In short, no need to talk, just use Guns for Freedom. This kind of Writing was getting too repetitive, I know that the MC is all knowledgeable, I know that the author brags about the information he knows, but the author seems lost when it comes to realism and logic, I mean Come on, those knowledge he brags were totally irrelevant to the story that you can easily skip them out without losing so much in the actual content. Another problem was the non-existing populace, I don't like how the author showed his motives by proclaiming that the MC will take the throne. But is the MC taking steps to take the throne, the answer is NO, he's just your typical reaction type MC, when enemies attack him, he attacks, he's not your political Genius unlike Lyle from Sevens, where he looks ahead and thinks about the future, he actualized the quote from Godfather 2 "Keep your Friends Close, but your enemies closer", but the Author of RTW showed "Political Power Grows, out of the barrel of a gun" which was from Mao Zedong. What I'm seeing here is a pure authoritarian, the MC doesn't care if there are deaths around his country, he just care when it come to his beloved Border town.

Conclusion about the story: RTW is just your typical wish fulfillment story telling, it doesn't have any sensibility when it comes to main plot while it brags about not so important knowledge, it doesn't deserve to be compared to legit books like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings.

<<<<<>>>>><<<<<>>>>><<<<< Character - 3/10 >>>>><<<<<>>>>><<<<<>>>>>

Oh the people of this site praises RTW because of the Characters... lol I know that there's a lot of Chinese trash with no characteristics but rape and kill, but here we will never see that sh*t... but it doesn't mean that it's better than the Japanese Kingdom Novel.

Oh it's nice to see to a Chinese novel where it doesn't mention "Jade-like Skin" typical beauty where the MC will definitely get that girl easily. Here in RTW, we have at least reasonable characters, I'm talking about a bit reasonable characters, but I'm not talking about Human Thinking Likeliness. RTW's characters are quite distinguishable, with their characteristics and a bit of relevance, the story is quite alluring for those who are sick to typical CN novels. So does it mean it's better to Japanese Kingdom Novels? My answer is nope. Sure that the characters have their own strength and weaknesses, sure that they are smart, but when it comes to antagonist, they are just your typical stupid prideful bunch of a fodder, they were irrelevant to the story. The characters in RTW does a good job on reacting in realistic way, but when it comes to Character Development, they fell in short to JP novels. The author did a good job on portraying discrimination, so probably, people will think that when the MC rescues the scared witches, they develop and build up their self confidence when it actuality, they don't. The story revolves so much to the MC that character development was thrown out, the author wrote RTW by only showing their reactions and to become tools, and these repetitive character writing is painful to read. Real character development comes when they can stand-up on their own without relying to the MC, though I doubt it will happen. Probably the only sole redeeming factor of RTW is the interaction of the witches to each other and their antics, but that's it, there's nothing more than that.

The interesting parts are disappearing, the characters are deteriorating, RTW has nothing to offer except power-ups of the witches or new technologies, with reaction of new characters. One of the biggest problem in this series was the irredeemable factors of the antagonist while their motivation was cheap, only backed up with their achievements and pride. RTW has even a problem when it comes to supporting characters, instead of supporting the MC, it's the MC who's supporting them, it's also not balance where they support each other, it's just one-sided. I know that the author wants to brag his knowledge, but the problem lies on when he brags, the other character reacts, then he repeats this process when he introduced another character whether they are witch or not. This is another reason why I've dropped it, I didn't have the endurance to read it, my brain hurts, my eyes averts this novel easily, and I can't bring myself to read it again. The characters are forgettable, and I doubt that I'll remember them after I read something good.

Conclusion about the Characters: It's still has the typical chinese trope of using characters as a plot device, nothing new, it's just set in western fantasy with a bit of realism.

<<<<<>>>>><<<<<>>>>><<<<< Enjoyment - 3/10 >>>>><<<<<>>>>><<<<<>>>>>

While it is evident that the novel is enjoyable, not for me, I really can't bring myself to like this, I mean I can still enjoy stupid but enjoyable series like One Piece or Artistic and Beautiful without any plot and character development Kimi no Nawa, then there's RTW which tries to indulge itself in Politics and Kingdom Building yet it fails to do so that it resorts into Witch Power Ups or Impossible production of advance products. It's within my expectations and nothing new comes out in this series, it doesn't have any plot where legit kingdom novels has, and probably the Lack of quality which I seek is missing in this series. So how can I recommend this series? Read RTW if you're not used to Kingdom Novels, along with Genjitsushugisha no Oukokukaizouki and Common Sense of a Duke’s Daughter, these three were the One Piece, Naruto and Bleach of Kingdom Novels, which is basically easy to follow, easy to read and easy to understand. They are the top Kingdom Novel you can read, but they don't qualify as a Kingdom Novel, so it's just you introductory novels for Kingdom novels and the Legit ones would be:

Sevens - Which is one of the Best Adventurous Empire Building, it has a lot of elements which is aimed for young adults while it has a lot of complex writing aimed for older readers. Sevens is your combination of a Typical Shounen Series and a Logical and Realistic Steps of an Emperor. It has the elements of many novels below this recommendation list (Rain and Shiro no Koukoko Monogatari)

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha - Is the closest to RTW, they introduced a lot of technologies and policies for the betterment of the populace, but Maoyuu has showed great characters and great plot without making it cheap, it has also a good Debate and reasonable Discrimination. This is one of the series in which Supply, Monetary Support, Man Power and Time are important.

Spice and Wolf - is probably the most notable Medieval Economics, it has a lot of Information, only available in PDF and EPUB

Rakuin no Monshou - Notable for Using Classic Themes of Kingdom Building

Nejimaki Seirei Senki – Tenkyou no Alderamin and Madan no Ou to Vanadis - heavy on battle strategy, and notable for having lazy protagonist at the back while they have a red hair sword artist girl as their partner

Madan no Ou to Vanadis - shows the importance of women to politics

Legend of the Galactic Heroes - the greatest kingdom building existing which is only available to Anime, one of the most highly rated anime series, and its greatest factor is Machismo and Chivalry, the manliest anime I've ever watch. <<less
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Elcasa
Elcasa rated it
June 22, 2016
Status: c5
The MC gets transferred into the body of a Prince (yeah he's the worst of his siblings). He has no cheats, aside a different perspective and otherworldly knowledge. As of Chapter 5, the story has been quite satisfying and realistic.
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intelanands
intelanands rated it
July 9, 2016
Status: c91
Tl;dr - Reincarnated mechanical engineer brings about industrial revolution in the Medieval Era (imagine going on an invention spree in the 14th century introducing steam engines, Newton's laws, Einstein's theories etc. Become the greatest scientist in the history and rule over the world), with the help of witches that are falsely called the devils incarnate by the Church. The world building is great, the translator is amazing and this story is a must read!!

***

The first thing I will say is that the title doesn't justify the story. If I was... more>> to sum up the story till now, it would be 'Engineer in Another World'. An interesting theory XD

The MC is level headed, smart, and he thinks like a student of science, and not like some stubborn and foolish idiot. He is nither arrogant nor a coward.

This is a story of an engineer being reincarnated in another universe, as a good-for-nothing prince and will fight against his siblings for the throne. And he uses science and stuff from his previous life in this world, which is still in the era of kingdoms using swords and crossbows, and becomes the overlord of the world.

Imagine you being reincarnated in 1500s. I will invent electricity, machines and everything I've learnt, and name then all after me. I will become the God of the masses and get worshipped by the whole world XD. Our MC is not that arrogant. He is humble and respects everyone, unlike a lot of novels. And there are witches in the story. From the sypnosis we get that the witches are hated by the whole world and our MC fights for them. I won't spoil it for you guys.

From the story so far, I think there will be lots of scheming, planning, plotting and conning others in the future chapters. Till now there has been no mention of things like cultivation levels or anything such. I don't think it will be a story where the MC is nuts about cultivation and becoming an immortal, which is different from a lot of xianxia novels, and I think this is one of the really good points about this story. The author is doing a good job at building the world, and I would recommend this novel very much. <<less
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yowamu
yowamu rated it
November 6, 2017
Status: --
Ah Release that Witch, which I will shorten in RtW, the top 1 ranking web novel in Novel Updates, highly rated and positively reviewed with no signs of going down. And because of popularity with a lot of people recommending from various novels in their front page and various forum post and threads, no doubt, that this novel will be easily notice.

Surprising Readers who prefers Chinese Novels, this comes with a different style than the rest of the Eastern Setting, which is the Western Setting. And the Er Mu... more>> (author) didn't hold back in sharing his knowledge, he utilized his skills of writing which makes RtW easily readable and addicting.

And now the opposition like me are very few, in fact this is quite amusing as a person who doesn't really read that much novel and comes, who doesn't really watch movies and animations, since I've noticed a lot of glaring flaws which is unacceptable in my standards. And this has caught up my attention for it's popularity and high ratings, and I'll evaluate it on what I see.

RtW is one of a kind novel which truly attracts a lot of readers and does a good Job on entertaining them, though that doesn't mean the story was good. RtW is a simple linear story, but Er Mu writes a lot of unnecessary bragging through his main character Roland. This not only the problem in executing the whole story, there's also irrelevant characters which were being shown without any correlation to the main plot. This kind of writing drags too much insignificant and meaningless chapters which has killed my time. Er Mu writes too much that you can skip them easily without losing any relevant information in RtW.

Boring, mundane, stuffy knowledge of Er Mu is what destroyed my enjoyment, it's far better to watch Naruto filler than to read this glorifying idiocy which is truly corrupting in my brain. I could have enjoyed this far better if not for Er Mu bragging his knowledge, this novel is practically boosting his ego instead of utilizing his knowledge to make a proper novel. And it's been 500 chapters, yet he didn't even try to change his old ways. I don't care about what Er Mu knows, but this fraud writing is truly painful to read, not even once of these bragging knowledge has actually helped the main story, which is Territorial Management.

The simplicity of RtW is quite bland, it was never appealing to me. It's trying to be complex, yet it isn't, it's too pretentious that I can't even bring myself to read this anymore. It's pretentious elements is the reason I've dropped it, a lot of logic was thrown out and Er Mu replaces it with his boring facts, the complexity of medieval era was thrown out just to show how knowledgeable Roland is, and the short sighted writing style of Er Mu proves how poorly written it was. The themes which were supposed to be relevant were not present in RtW, the importance of deep understanding in politics was never used, it's full of impracticality and inconsequential wish fulfillment fantasy.

The important aspect of RtW were left as a minor subject, like Politics, Economy, Diplomacy, Law, Public Administration, Philosophy, Psychology, Strategy, People, Supplies, and Labor, instead Er Mu writes impractical inventions without even trying to tackle these subjects which are connected to every action he does. For example Guns and Cannons, this part of the story already ignored Supplies and Human Adaptation and Learning. It's freaking impossible to easily make this in real life, the greatest conquerors like France, England and Spain are having a hard time developing and producing Guns, and a cannon is one of the most rarest things to have in battle even at the late 1700's. And RtW shows irrational fantasy about having guns, when training people with guns cost money, and fighting with guns cost more money, and in RtW, they have a cheat guns without worrying about bullet and cannon shell supplies. And Er Mu will use his mind tricking technique in writing RtW by mentioning this problem and dodging it. And that's only one part of the many problems.

There's also a lot of problem in Public Management, RtW dodges this issue very smoothly that only few can notice this. The Existence of Human Populace was thrown out in this novel, I wonder how many people would accept Roland without questioning him, seriously some soup bribed has silenced their sanity? There's a lot of problem here, Er Mu has put too much emphasis of Roland being a womanizer and unreliable, so is there any sane man who would follow such a person? Public opinion in these kind of novel are very important, but the author magically dodge it and replaced it with some characters especially the Witches. In reality, Roland's appeal to people is cringe worthy part of him, when he has been known as an unreliable person, he speaks idealism in front of people, what a day dreamer. But wait!! no one, or ever tried to think like this in the novel, instead the novel just swept it under the rug. I also love how the author magically dodges the issue of food supplies, It's such a wonder how the hell was Roland able to survive for 3 months in the Wave of Monster During Winder, realistically speaking, there's a lot of preparation before winter, and there's a lot of labor to stop during winter, it's basically a vacation, yet the impossible unresolvable problem was solved easily. This kind of dodging is still happening until now, it's not just Roland, but all of the siblings who are fighting for the throne. Questionable management, unrealistic governance, wish fulfillment fantasy are the things RtW offers.

When Er Mu has put a lot of relevance to Roland's status of being a womanizer, it hit me that this is the reason why there's a lack of Diplomacy between Roland and the political characters. On a serious note, it isn't the case, why there's a lack of diplomacy, and a lot of tiresome information dumps. It's quite simple, the author will mention a lot of characters and write how they fight each other will the MC is just chilling and developing his beloved Border Town, but it should be only limited before the Wave of Monster. Realistic Characters would wonder now when the Roland survive (especially those unlimited arrows and bullets) without relying to experienced leaders like the Duke. Er Mu is making a story of success, yet he failed in making it reasonable, he has skipped a lot of issues and problems, factors and sensibility to back up what he writes. The Surrounding territory was easily ignored, when the objective itself was to put Roland on the throne, Er Mu will always focus on border town. And to show that he's not dodging the problem, Er Mu will write up some stories besides Roland, it's so boring and irrelevant that it does not have any connections to the main plot at all, and more over it has spoiled the story itself making it less interesting. Speaking of other places, Er Mu will only mention them, but when they have a use or a threat, he will write about Roland conquering them with cheat guns and cannons, but most of time, he ignores the surrounding places.

Er Mu writes up how Roland can conquer every place, but he failed in writing on how he will govern it. On a Serious note, Er Mu uses a lot of idealism in his writing as his government policy, this failed subject was enough for me to dropped it, the realism was thrown out, but the details on how Er Mu brags is still there, conquering is not that easy as people think, there's a lot of subjects to be touched like Public Opinion, Law and Death, yet the author brags why Astrology is not important, it's too funny for me when I see some serious scenes trying to be intelligent but fails in applying logic. Seriously Speaking, killing a lot of soldiers of the enemy and conquering them, what will the family think about their husbands dying, their son dying, when the authority is responsible for their deaths, now Roland didn't even think about it, instead he focused on not so important debate with the astrologers, it's giving me cringe.

When the story itself is not good, hell the Predictability can be seen in hundreds of chapters, Er Mu only dabbles on giving too much information without even trying to make it exciting, yet a lot of people are excited in this novel. When you see there's a war, easy peasy, they have guns and cannons, who can win in that sh*t. The themes and genres were not done well, in fact there's a lot of problems regarding to what it was supposed to be, Failure in writing governance, then the author will just pop some problem just to solve it with his magical idealism. Boring short term goals, and the story of being a King was some too pretentious for me think of. And the author is using Conquer as its main theme, yet it fails on delivering on using proper strategy, long term goals and management. It also fails in romance aspect as well, it's so bland with any color at all, and Er Mu can't make a clear point if it's a harem or not. I laughed when I saw the "Scheming" and tag when I haven't seen that sh*t in RtW, seriously if it's applied to the antagonist, then I'm fine with it, but when the tag is supposed to be about the main character, it fails in giving the correct information. Roland will always solve his problem by using Guns for his enemies, and Magical Idealism for his people.

It was already hard to read this, when Roland Speeches, damn cringe, his words does not make any value at all, yet Er Mu makes the story so smooth that what ever illogical action Roland does becomes valid. Er Mu will truly tricked a lot people, especially those who are not used to these kind of setting, but not to people like me who's used to these kind of novels. Rinse and Repeat is happening in RtW, a lot of inconsistencies are being ignored, but people does notice these problems.

TL;DR - RtW is a Wish Fulfillment and a Pretentious novel that needs practicality, logic and realism, yet it brags on not Important Details which does not hold relevance at all. {STORY 2/5}

When the story was horrible itself, damn, why are the characters didn't not made RtW better, Er Mu should have made High School novel, that would make sense, but seriously? Er Mu decided to use his characters as a cheap reaction device which would always think as Roland as an omnipotent human being.

This problem was so bad that it's addicting to Er Mu and his readers, a of characters being introduced without prior existence just to end up as a plot device to smoothen the impossible projects that leads to information dump chapters. This repetition is still happening after hundreds of chapter, and the moment they got introduced, they are bound to be forgotten, well it's not that worse in a typical Chinese novel.

When Roland was already dull, the supporting characters have failed in their role, it's truly insulting for me to see these supporting character especially the Witches are being supported by Roland, as if they can't live without him, and their role was to make some tools, or else they die, nice logic Er Mu.

The antagonist, why should I mention them, they are cheap written character, some peoples says they are gray when all in all it isn't, it's just not obvious, but it's still the same as most Chinese mainstream novels in which fodders fills up the story. I would rather read "Genjitsushugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki" since a it has better antagonist than RtW.

Now unto Roland, his character is shallow, forgettable and short sighted. Er Mu failed a lot in molding Roland into a better character like many Chinese web novels. Roland by nature wants to be a king, sure I'm fine with that, but how will he do it? You know, what he did, he made Cheat Guns and Cannons, he Made Cheat Ships, he made Cheat Steam Engine, He made Wall, with the help of the witches, or they die. So how about governing, diplomacy, trade, supplies... Er Mu just has thrown the logic that most of them has been solved by the power of witches and Roland's idealistic laws. Then there's this cheap writing on how the author introduces some places, some people and to be dealt with, like for at least 500 chapters, this things is happening, and most of them can't be solved easily, yet the author will just give some idealistic method which would not work in reality becomes the solution in most of the problems. These Problems pops out of nowhere just to be solved by Roland, like seriously? How come people didn't notice this cheap writing when they bashed a lot of better novels, hell a lot of people can't even touch Maoyuu Yuusha due to its realism and complex logic of the characters.

I got tired with people telling me to read this because of better characters, but the characters of RtW made it so unbearable, it's monotonous interaction is boring as hell, the short sighted relationship is freaking killing me, these reaction writing is too predictable, the results can be anticipated. Er Mu totally perfected what the Chinese wants, writing in mainstream style in a western medieval theme, but in the end it's just all the same as the corrupting the readers by instigating ignorance. Reaction, Reaction, and Reaction of the characters is what Er Mu always do, he will brag his knowledge just to write how the that character reacts in his unthinkable modern knowledge to medieval people. His Ego boosting surprised a lot fantasy characters, which a lot of readers anticipate, this is just filling the heads of people with their wish fulfillment fantasies.

TL;DR: Characters are just the same as those boring typical Chinese Mainstream Web Novels, added with just a bit emotion, perspective, and depth, but in the end, they are just tools and devices to show how godly the MC was. {CHARACTERS 2/5}

I'm trying not to let my emotions by just cursing this novel, this novel proves the number of ignorant people, the logic and realism which is supposed to be in this novel are being scoff off by its readers. A lot of readers will try to defend this novel by using theories, not factual logic when a person will bring up logic in this novel, I've seen enough forums scoffing at the people who are questioning the impracticality of this novel. I know that this is not a perfect novel, and I know that this is a web novel and comparing it to Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones is unfair, but There's a lot of Japanese Novels which are truly Intelligent like Sevens, Spice and Wolf, and Maoyuu Yuusha from Japan or Grandmaster Strategist and Nirvana in Fire from China, and none of them failed in using practicality, realism and logic. These novels has sacrificed what people wants to read, instead they wrote in intelligent manner which made them as a respectable novel which didn't rely on wish fulfillment fantasies.

A lot of people who are reading this are so cancerous that they put a review in many novels with a similar theme, just to brag RtW is better which makes me sick, when their ignorance has already corrupted their mind, now they are dragging other people to be like them? Seriously, this is very disturbing since this is practically the same as those who read typical Chinese novels being a trash person themselves, to the point of bashing relaxing slice of life harmless novels, justifying rape as a manly action, racism and hypocrisy.

As for recommending or not, It's up to you, RtW is at bit better than most Chinese Stories out there, this is a good novel to read if you're sick of Chinese Novels, RtW is like a medicine to many Chinese Novels, but a poison to genuine intellectual novels, it's a double edge sword, once you get addicted to this novel, you can't enjoy other novels with similar themes even if they are far better as a whole novel.

TL;DR: I didn't enjoy this novel for someone who loves Intelligent Novels. {ENJOYMENT 1/5} <<less
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BLKCandy
BLKCandy rated it
June 26, 2016
Status: c249
Oh? This one is more interesting than I thought. Our MC has taken over a body of a prince which is assigned to rule a crappy border city.

The world common view is full of superstitions, which are partially true. Instead of rejecting or fearing the superstitions, the MC tries to understand them and employ or destroy them accordingly and opposed the church close minded reign. It feels like a changing point where magic changed from fearful to useful.

The MC also starting to brings some newer tech and ideas to the... more>> new world. This includes guns, steam engine, and some military reform so far.

Some politics are starting to come in to the story. We start to see some faction and ideologies formed. Though as the story mostly focused on the prince, we don't get to know that much about other faction. Plus, their interaction are mostly indirect / remote so far.

MC (and author's) views seems to be biased against the church and lean toward atheism. MC has also made quite a few assumptions on local religions, belief, and even how 'supernatural things' work without clear information or knowledge.

However, his expansion in one year is beyond my willing suspension of disbelief. His inventions and new policy adoption are done with only minor trouble and made great effect. He always has the tool/resource to implement his idea. Even the personnel. He filled the city hull with literate staff in a year. The corruption problem is minimal, despite the extreme centralization policy. His town is China political idealism. And while the author try to make MC seem to be a simply able man, he still feel a bit too google-ish like many bring tech to new world kind of stories out there. That guy can write a textbook and manuals without reference. He is knowledgeable in too many areas, engineering, city planning, healthcare, education, military, and so on.

This make the story feels a bit railroaded.

A bit too wishfulfilling, not that bad, but very unrealistic. <<less
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UsernameJ
UsernameJ rated it
November 2, 2016
Status: c124
This novel is easily one of the best on this entire site. MC is smart but not in the "I'm secretly a genius, watch me rule the world with my insipid intelligence!", more smart like "Slavery is bad because it harms humans and slows down the economy, let's get rid of it."

The writing is good, the pacing of the story is really nice. Characters are interesting and realistic. The world setting has a touch of mystery to it and we watch the characters do their thing while trying to figure... more>> out their place in the world.

Really good story, very different from a lot of other Chinese stories here. Definitely one of the best stories on this site, and absolutely the best non-Xianxia story I've read here so far. <<less
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Corty
Corty rated it
September 6, 2017
Status: c408
Just one word: Fascinating.

I looked for something fresh as I was waiting for other novels to be updated... and oh my.

After picking it up, I expected the usual tropes regarding reincarnation/spirit transfer stories but damn.

... more>> I couldn't put it down for even a minute and after reading this you will feel that other novels MCs are simply lacking both in style, intelligence and character.

The Story - 5/5

I won't spoil anything so don't worry. The stories starts with our protagonist dying from a heart attack, from overworking, and his spirit goes to another world where he takes over a prince's body.

The MC has no superpowers, no cultivating he is just a mortal thats all. But a mortal with memories from our modern world. Some reviews says his memory is overpowered but I don't think so, he utilizes all the basic knowledge that is taught in schools. Yes that may be true he remembers chemical formulas and mathematical equations but hell.

If he was a diligent student -and as he is from modern china and was an engineer, that speaks from himself- so he should remember all of this. Hell even I could remember around 60-70% of the thins he brings up from school and it was fun reading about it again and I think I learned more new things from this then when I was going to school!

So with the knowledge he has, he starts to develop his territory, introduce the population modern technology, industrialization, civic rights and much more, so if you would like to see how a little town with shabby, wooden cottages transforms into a city with brick buildings, this is for you. It's so satisfying to see how the world advances under his inventions.

The other big plot are the witches. Yes, there is magic in the world, and as a feudal, medieval setting, they are being hunted. Badly. If they catch one, the mob may kill her on the spot or turn her over to the church which may be worse fate than death.

Or MC sees magic as a new source of energy and possibilities so he wants to utilize the witches powers to help him achieve his goals and launch his people into a new, enlightened era. But to do this he needs to fight agains the church, his siblings for power and a hidden foe which when shows up our MC discovers the dark history of this new world...

Characters 5/5

Just... real. There are no 2D characters here. Even the villains are interesting. Be it the church's priests, army and bishops, or Roland's (the MC) siblings. Or just the nobles in the beginning who are look down on him. Everyone has a backstory, every secondary character has a personality.

The witches are all different, they are not just there to flock around the MC and be possibilities for a harem ending. No. They are people, they have distinct personalities and yes, as the story goes they may have to step back sometimes and not appear all the time in the chapters, but they never fade out as in other novels, other support characters.

Every one of them has a role in the story and they are well developed (and develop throughout) and interesting. I don't want to spoil anything, so you should just start reading and meet them!

P.S.: Oh yeah, also there are love in the story that develops slowly and realistically. And it's not a harem (but I would not mind it to be honest :D)

Translation 4/5

The first half done on volarenovels by Roxerer was top notch, no problems with it at all. After it went to Qidian there were some problems, but they were minor things and they seem to constantly improve, mostly some editing problem as I see and its updated daily.

Overall enjoyment 5/5

Best. It's just... oh gosh. It jumped to the first place in my favorite's list and this became my most anticipated novels. It's not for you if you want fights, super power ups, chapters of cultivation and heaven shattering advances. No. You will get a novel, written in western style that is more grounded in reality then most of the other Chinese novels.

The MC is intelligent, knows what he can and what he can't do, what needs to be done to be successful. You will never be frustrated why the fck does the MC feels like a 5 years old with some kind of mental disorder. The witches are not omnipotent beings they are humans too that the novels also states every time and cleverly too.

There are no 50.000 years of cultivation retreat to power up to defeat a mega op giga boss just to offend somebody who stands behind that stupid guy/girl who was his/her master and told the MC every 5 second "you dare" or "you are just an ant before me" and the other, booooooring tropes.

I can't praise his novel enough. Give it a shot, if you like intelligent stories and don't mind spending 3 or 5 chapters learning how to build steam engines, to speed up the mining process of ores to build canons and brick houses for the people, because it's just sooooo satisfying seeing the development of the world and the people living in it.

Conclusion: 5/5

After going back to the other novels I read, catching up with the translation, I felt how much those other novels' MCs are lacking compared to Roland Wimbledon. They are just... much-much-much more... bland. Never using their brains, their logic capabilities, even if they are from 'another world' they just... never utilize anything they brought over or learned before. I started to realize how much more weak they are -in writing terms- compared to this novel and this novel's characters.

I just hope the author don't mess this up and keeps it clean from all the other bullsh.t tropes all the way through. As it stands, this novel will be -at least in my opinion- one of the most well written, well thought out and most interesting novels.

If you read my review until this point I thank you, and also, go and give it a shot, I hope I was able to help you pick up a good novel and you will enjoy it as much as I do. <<less
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Moonbreeze
Moonbreeze rated it
August 29, 2016
Status: c278
Spoiler alert, this review includes information from chapter 100 to chapter 278 in order to answer some negative review like 'why MC introducing firearms into a swords/archers (/magic) type of world ' ‘why no-one thinks to use witch's power before MC arrive', etc. 1. Why MC introducing firearms into a swords/archers (/magic) type of world?
The MC needs weapon to deal with the threat of Demons, and humanity need new weapon as well. It's not a peaceful world.

2. Why no-one thinks to use witch's power before MC arrive?
They did.... more>> There are at least three ways to use the witch's power, and the power is widely use long time ago. This novel has more than 300 chapters already and I can hardly say the author have finished half of it.

3. One of his sister already realized MC acted like a different person and sent a witch to investigate. <<less
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Soma
Soma rated it
July 2, 2016
Status: c11
What a fantastic mind battling novel. An entertaining novel with smart prince as MC scheming around to wrest the throne from his siblings. The concept is interesting and... kinda unique, a fitting choice for those who get bored reading novel with predictable plot.
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BaramII
BaramII rated it
August 16, 2017
Status: c368
I usually hate CN, but this one, I like.

It's Kingdom Building. The MC might be a little too smart, ... more>>
Spoiler

he just wrote a science book, word for word, who the hell even remembers the glossary of those books from high school

[collapse]
Maybe it sounds better in Chinese or the translator just added their creative thinking, I don't know. But most CN I've read has that issue.

It's still a novel that I would come back and re-read. Not your typical CN that you will drop after 100 chapter or so.

The MC isn't gonna go "Oh, I know I'm getting strong, but we have to lay low, we can't provoke that person" every chapter for the next 300 chapter. Or

There are plenty of flaws, but once you start reading it, you can't stop.

You might start comparing Maoyuu Maou Yuusha and this Novel. Just remember this is this, and that is that.

They're completely different, although there are similarities, but they are none the less, different. It's like saying all cheese are the same. But if you can't help but compare the two, suit yourself, I will recommend this novel regardless. If you don't want to read it, you don't have to. In my opinion, this Novel is truly worth a read, a 5 star rate, in MY opinion. <<less
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Silveus
Silveus
December 12, 2016
Status: c174
This is not the best written piece of litature i've ever read. It's not even the best translated web or light novel i've ever read.

The characters are not the most vibrant characters i've ever seen.

The plot isn't the most interesting.

... more>> The antagonists aren't the most interesting.

The world and setting aren't the best either.

And yet, it's by far one of my favorite stories, I look forward to this way more than I do anything else on my reading list.

And I have no idea why.

No individual part stands out as absurdly good, but they all come together almost perfectly, to make just an absolutely enjoyable read. <<less
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merddin
merddin rated it
October 24, 2016
Status: c110
This novel is a rare gem. In short - go read it immediately, you won't regret.

Going into the details:
It boasts a solid, captivating plot mostly told from the point of MC but with timely inserted chapters from different POV that don't just retell what you already know, like in many other novels, but help to deepen the world and characters.

Speaking of characters, you won't find typical 2D cutouts here, all named characters have a proper story and reasons for their actions. Despite harem tag, as of now there isn't... more>> one, even though a couple of witches show interest in the MC (who definitely isn't oblivious). The romance isn't strong at this point as MC is preoccupied with more pressing matters. MC is likable and uses his brain instead of godly cheats. Overall this feels more like a proper fantasy novel than a typical web novel. The author clearly thought out the story and knows where it goes.

On a separate note, translator of this series is seriously amazing. Releases are fast, regular and of great quality. Thank you, so much for this novel! <<less
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