The Stars Beyond
Hiatus

The Stars Beyond

46%
27 Reviews
Author:
Chen Dong
Translator:
Jimmi & Dorlaken
The Scattered Arts, lost pages of manuals gathered from scattered archives from all across the world. Known also as the Old Arts, these are what remained from a vast collection of knowledge that was destroyed during the war that almost wiped out all of mankind. But we prevailed. Mankind rebuilt and reached for the stars. 
Wang Xuan, a student of the Old Arts Research Department, had read about tales of individuals capable of inhuman feats, of practitioners ascending to the realm of immortality. But in an age of technological wonders, not many would believe in such tales. Only the truly desperate, and with the wealth and resources at their disposal, could even dream of unlocking the secrets behind these tales. 
Corporate greed. This was how the research into the old arts started. But with new discoveries made in the New World, and the Old Arts declared obsolete in the way of the ‘New Arts’, the studies into the realm of the ancients is coming to an end. 
Are the immortals real? Can mankind truly break its shackle of mortality and escape death? These are questions that Wang Xuan desperately sought to answer. He was determined to walk down the path of the Old Arts even as he reached for the stars beyond. 
 
Original Blurb:
In the vast expanse of the universe, the birth and death of a galaxy are but fleeting flashes of light.
Gazing up at the starry sky, there's always a touch of melancholy, as if our fates have already been written. Where will you and I be a thousand years from now? Our homeland, the spark of our civilization, Earth itself, they are but specks of dust in the vast void of space.
A moment in the cosmos is a millennium on Earth.
The lifespan of an insect is but an autumn, and just like it, you and I are trying to navigate our brief existence.
What lies at the very edge of deep space?


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Details

Translated by Jimminx, Dorlaken

Discord: smilelikefox

The Stars Beyond is updated daily at 8.30pm GMT+8

Reviews
46%
27 Reviews
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XZadare
VIP
9 months ago
·
Edited
Not recommended
Review as of chapter 325:

The Stars Beyond has a fantastic premise with a marvelously well-thought out cultivation structure and the interesting twists about how that cultivation works or doesn't work. The main character, Wang Xuan, does things in a decisive and ruthless manner when it suits the situation, but honestly wants to work towards harmony more than anything, and he isn't reserved about using friends as shields if they're stronger than him.

However, the quality of the translation itself is what earns this negative review. There isn't any set consistency to the nomenclature within the novel. Sometimes, a cultivation level will be called the Herb Gathering level, and other times, the Medicinal Herb level. Sometimes, a treasure will be called the God-Slaying Banner, others, the Decapitation God Banner. It reads like machine translation was used in the initial translation pass, and while some cleanup was performed to improve reading flow, not enough attention to detail was present. Additionally, there were a few chapters that changed the entire verb tense for the chapter so everything was present tense instead of all the past tense that was being used. Once chapter even sounded like someone writing a book review instead of a description from within the book.

I will continue reading this because I can, for the most part, ignore this constant shift. However, I would not recommend this novel unless and until a consistent editing pass is established, and also a homogeneous and consistent set of nomenclature for the cultivation aspects of the novel is established.

EDIT as of April 4, 2024: The quality of the translation is degrading further, where we are seeing repeat sets of paragraphs in the chapters, and they seem to be draft paragraphs left in the posted chapter, instead of edited out. This is absolutely ludicrous.

Bhelliom Rahl
VIP
a year ago
Recommended
An interesting premise, I have always enjoyed novels that combined Cultivation and Science Fiction.

It is still too early to tell how good the story is with only nine chapters, but I see some potential in the few elements shown.

1) Quest for ancient secrets of cultivation - Walking a forgotten path, trying to discover what was lost

2) Mega Corporations - Groups with immense wealth able to use this to do whatever they wish, usually for their sole benefit.

3) Occult/Supernatural

These elements could be developed into a fascinating story but we will have to wait and see.

There has not been much character development yet but the MC appears to be a hardworking individual who has a passion for the Old Arts but also has a degree in Automation. Automation makes me think of robots or mecha but if this was just a passing point or something that could be developed we have not seen it yet.

Have not run into any arrogant young masters out to get the MC... yet, so that makes it stand out from most cultivation novels.

The translation is good and clear to read with a nice pacing to the story.

I am looking forward to reading it more and will update this review once it gets to 100 chapters.

shoddy
a year ago
·
Edited
Recommended
(Currently on chapter 48)

World building/Power system:

The premise of the story has unlimited potential, but has gone in an unexpected direction so far (more on this later). Originally, I expected the novel to take a more 'serious' approach and focus on world building with a clearer power system, however there are too many name drops from seemingly out of nowhere (for techniques, locations, power system, etc.) and although the translator has said it is only temporary, it is still a bit offputting. This might also be a consequence of lots of the techniques and 'powers' possibly being inherited from Taoism and other Chinese philosophies, as one of the readers helpfully comments about, thus requiring contextual knowledge to fully understand. Furthermore, so far the world building potential does not seem to have been explored properly, even though the MC is still on the 'Earth' equivalent, most descriptions are shallow and lack meaning. Personally, I would like the weapons and tech to have more descriptions and lore.

Characters:

Readers can get a general overview of the characters in the story from their interactions, however something feels off in that the author doesn't really describe any apperances or outfits? So far, I have gained a general idea of what the MC and other characters' personalities are like, although the interactions and descriptions make them somewhat one dimensional. This may be the effect of introducing too many characters without properly fleshing any of them out.

Translation:

For the most part, the translation is amazing, however there are many small typos and inconsistencies with names (wrong names in the context, Xuan Wang -> Wang Xuan, New Moon?) in particular that readers have pointed out, which could be easily fixed with an editor on the team. There seems to be some kind of issue with the spacing in some paragraphs, not sure if its just a visual bug or an problem with formatting.

Conclusion:

- There is a lot of unused potential in this world setting, currently lacks clarity

- The power system feels kind of random (my personal preference would be a system with more 'order' to it)

- Characters are not developed that well (so far), too many characters, too much jumping around ig

- Translation issues have a simple fix

- In general, the vibe is not what I expected, action scenes interlaced with comedic scenes. I expected it to be similar to 40 milleniums of cultivation, but some scenes feel more like they come from Keyboard immortal? (idk how else to describe it).

- I'll still give it a positive review since this novel is only in its early stages and has a lot of potential

Translator's Notice

TSB translation will end at Chapter 548
by
JaspaaarAdmin

7 months ago

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