yeahidk

a year ago

Recommended

There's some really sketchy stuff in this one causing the low-ish rating, especially concerning women and age differences, but everything else is great. There are no cheats, no stupid unreasonable luck, no insane power levels (pog). The characters are three-dimensional, with clear motives, desires, and thoughts. The MC has a good personality that is neither unnecessarily violent and bloodthirsty nor overly boring and wimpy. The worldbuilding (which apparently mimics that of a webnovel I've yet to read but still) is amazing, with slow reveals as the MC learns more about the world while avoiding boring infodumps. The translator is amazing and you can tell they really enjoy their job and are doing their best. The women and age differences are really the only problem.

There are two major parts that are really weird about women and age differences, and those are mentioned in pretty much all the other reviews too so I thought I should also include my thoughts on the subject.

First, the MC's girlfriend is a 32 year old stuck in an unaging 14 year old's body and the MC is 16 (as of the start of the webnovel). I believe they started dating when he was like 10 and she was 26 which is just fucked up but well, it's fiction and set in a very clearly fucked up world. I think that it's wrong but can reluctantly understand the situation (basically MC needed a sponsor to survive and then they hit it off really well in an environment where it's more accepted) and see the reasoning (though the author definitely could have done it way better without making it weird).

The other major weird bit is when a 9 year old girl starts trying to make advances on the MC, effectively switching up the previous dynamic. Like the the MC and his girlfriend, she's trying to gain favor and protection by sucking up to someone known to be strong. The MC rejects her (I'd have 100% dropped this if he hadn't) and the event is glossed over as an example of how fucked up their world is.

I think that if you can read stuff from the popular webnovel author Toika/ToyCar, who, in one webnovel I saw and promptly dropped, made a simile joking about the rape of a virgin and playing it off a something inconsequential, then you can read this without problems. Even if you don't like Toika/ToyCar's works, if you can overlook the weird sketchy shit with women (whether due to the environment it presents itself in or otherwise), I heavily recommend this webnovel.

Alfoodo

a year ago

·

Edited

Recommended

Currently 54 chapters in.

The novel is very similar to warlock of the magus world and has a similar vibe to city of sin. The main difference is that the side-characters get a more attention and are better developed here, and the mc often doesn't choose the best or more calculated course of action. The novel does challenge your morality quite a bit and is MUCH darker compared to the other novels on wuxia, for example the mc is basically groomed by a 30 year old in the body thats forever 14 due to a magic accident, and then goes through emotional coercion from his senior sister for sex who is in her forties and this is all why the MC is 16-17! And if this wasn't problematic enough,there are 9 year old's willing to give up their body for survival, and the novel addresses all of this by saying all of these things are due to the cut-throat environment of the dark mages and this behaviour is learned, operant conditioning, etc, so there are a few tough pills to swallow and move past. But ignoring that, the novel is very good, Sein the mc and all of the side-characters all have their own goals and personal interests and its never as oblique and straightforward as becoming the strongest, its simply becoming strong enough to fulfill their own passions, whether its alchemy, potion crafting, or purely survival. This is actually one of the novel's greatest assets the novel has, the distinction between good and bad is heavily blurred so it's often up to the reader to decide, and often requires you to think from the characters perspective. In this aspect it's similar to beyond the timescape, every thing is created to benefit the strong. Everything has an explanation, e.g why there are dark mages and dark academies. Areas where the novel falls flat are the magic system itself, its very generic, basically there are 3 level's to initiate and then quasi to 1st rank mage, its very similar to what warlock of the magus world uses, but it's just less interesting the mc isn't revolutionising the path, he's just like everyone else trudging through the mud to reach the next level. Another good thing about the novel is the use of foreshadowing, there are often points or pieces of narrative which reflect on the title of the novel, and hints Sein is the guy who's may change stuff, instead of directly stating it. The novel is quite slow-paced (not as slow as CoS) but each chapter is quite exciting, as there's either a new moral dilemma or some sort of character interaction which reveals something new about the world and magic system, and its always quite fun to see the comment section as everyone has a very strong opinion on the matters discussed so due to this I never felt any rush for the story to progress.

And lastly the translator for this novel is very good and active, and often puts funny notes at the bottom of the chapter which is often more comedic than the novel itself. Overall the novel is highly underrated, I would give it an 8/10 slightly inferior to warlock of the magus world in concept and story-telling but it makes up for it in many other aspects which are often unique to just this novel, e.g how dark it is, definitely targeted towards a niche audience.

Update:

148 chapters in and the novel's only gotten better. We've progressed from the underworld now and the pacing was excellent throughout, and the best thing is that there were no over-usage of timeskips, there were adventures between and he actually joins a magic tower without it taking 200 chapters and even the npc characters he meets on the way serve their purpose, so there's zero, I mean ZERO filler! Which is a great achievement in of itself.

Acid

VIP

a year ago

Recommended

Read 84 chapters.

I recommend this story. It's original and the MC doesn't have a cheat object that helps him be better than everybody else for reasons or plot armor. It's a harsh world where your own survival is not garanteed so you have to do everything to try to say alive but nonetheless the MC and some other characters show a spark of humanity (they prioritize themselves true but they are not indiscriminately cruel for no reasons).

I'm buffled by some "arguments" like 8 years that try to prostitute themselves to stay alive or something related things. How could this setting be enought to label this story as trash? Haven't you read al least a novel on this site? Haven't you read about young lords that drug young girls to rape them? Haven't you read about young lords or MCs that perpetrate genocide for revenge... i could go on but i think my reasoning is clear: in this novel there are the same things maybe accentuated but it's nothing new.

So do yourself a favor and try this novel!!!

Sovereign of the Ashes

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