Probably one of the better chinese novels out there. Its not perfect, but its by far way above in quality compared to the many other trash chinese novels out there.
For the Positives:
I love the occult and lovecraft themes in it along with the focus on the mystery aspect. Its a refreshing change from the usual xianxia, xuanhuan, transmigrator, regressor etc themes plaguing the current trends. Although its sorta transmigrator genre but its different, i won't spoil it. The setting is a mix of the industrial revolution age and the renaissance victorian age, its interesting how the author mix and match the technology and society levels from various eras of humanity and made it somewhat realistic and believable, especially with the presence of the occult and mysticism. There are also traces of political bureacacy intertwined with agendas from many secret organizations which makes the plot much more mysterious and engaging. Overall good job with the world building, premise and setting.
Author also created a unique power/leveling system revolving around alchemy thats very detailed, its not the RPG leveling system or the immortal law cultivation system but it does borrow features from both with inspiration from the occult and rituals, that said it has its issues.
The protagonist relies on his own smarts and intelligence to overcome obstacles. Meticulous planning, collecting sufficient intel on the enemy, concocting schemes, having backup plans, the importance of cunning and guile, along with quick thinking and wits are part of his trade and crucial for his survival, although sadly, not much of this happens later on in the novel. To be frank this is the only quality i like about the protagonist.
The absence of romance is a welcomed changed. More often then not romance tends to get in the way of good story telling. I can't understand why readers have a hard on romance and harem in these kinda novel genre. If you crave love so badly go read a real romance novel?
This novel also has variety and unique cast of characters. No matter the companions, prime antagonists, secondary characters in respective arcs, they are reasonably well written and have somewhat lasting relevance throughout the different arcs of the novel.
For the Negatives:
Plotholes and over reliance on plot conveniences in the storyline towards the later half of the novel. The more complex and complicated the story is, the higher the chances of plotholes. Author did try to cover his bases but he does that by introducing plot conveniences, i.e. author magic. One of the most damnable being the "divination" and "fate" concept loophole. when i mentioned the power system has its flaws? Its easy to abuse especially when the protagonist gets a super upgraded version of it. Initially the protagonist's approach to obstacles was via thorough investigations, analyzing and well thought out deduction as well as careful actions to cover his tracks however later on its all ing "divination" to sense future outcomes or reveal the individuals involved and using "anti-divination" abilities to hide his footprints. Author exploits this too aggressively to plug the plotholes that it becomes jarringly obvious. Theres also another example where the protagonist's artefact magically and suddenly gets the ability to steal high sequence abilities from other artefacts when its been mentioned that its impossible, coincidentally this is right before a high stake operation, its unexplained so might be an oversight. These are just two examples. I'm someone who likes to overanalyze and dissect the medium i'm reading to fully understand the story, so for normal readers this may not be an issue but i still have to say the plot conveniences are too pronounce especially in the late chapters when the underlying conspiracies are revealed and author wants to steer the story towards a specific direction, some things just don't make sense and others remained unanswered, presumably as part of the mystery element.
The narrative and writing is superb at the start till the middle of the novel but after that it just deteriorates. Its pretty obvious when you see the quality of writing towards the last 400-500 chapters take a huge dive. One of the primary fault is author's over reliance on plot conveniences mentioned before, it gets too overused towards the late chapters such that everything is explained via plot conveniences. Rushing the final few acts into a condensed mess is the other major culprit. Several subplots in the beginning had meticulous care for the buildup, clues and hints of being interconnected to the main plot but towards the later chapters these subplots suddenly wrap up. Author magically throws up facts out of nowhere to piece everything together and justify the conclusion, an example being the mystery surrounding his teacher. Its like these subplots are half cooked and have not been baked enough, clearly hinting on author trying to rush and conclude the different stories. The narrative does not flow organically. Basically author expends a lot of effort for the buildup of the story only to waste it away in later chapters with convoluted plot riddled with inconsistencies and lazy writing.
The pacing of the novel is problematic and its no secret. Quite a number of the negative reviews are due to the pacing. This novel has an excruciating slow start that tend to deter readers. The late parts of the novel on the other hand are rushed and feel underdeveloped. If you've read Coiling Dragon, you'd understand, that novel is pretty popular but infamous for its rushed late story and atrocious ending. Expect the same in LotM.
I did say i like the protagonist for being the resourceful and thinker type. However later on in the novel, author basically bombards him with ridiculous advantages like overpowered abilities, items and outside help. In fact he received a ridiculously overpowered advantage from the start of the novel, an endgame item at that. All of this essentially overshadows the protagonist's personal strengths and appeal. Consequently this curbs the character development of the protagonist. The plot armor made his progress too easy. He does not experience any significant failures or setbacks like losing major companions or overpowered advantages, no mistakes to learn from, no obstacles to temper himself with, basically theres no turning point to evolve his character.
The essence of this novel is about the descent to madness as you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at you, godhood was not meant for mortals and has a unimaginable price, strength(whether to protect or to kill) comes with sacrifice, these are the Lovecraftian themes author drew inspiration from. For example the promotion requirements for certain Sequences(class/archetype) requires creating a disaster or solving a disaster, the former you'd just cause a plague while for the latter, you'd spread a plague and then cure it. This is the underlying aspect of the Sequence system and the world, it is sinister, grim and dark. Conveniently, our MC gets to by all of these, absolutely makes no sense in the context of the world.
This is further exacerbated by the fact that our MC is someone with strong morals and righteousness. Its not wrong, many heros in other novels are like that but without proper character development it makes our MC look naive and immature, and he stays that way till the end, a brat. Other side characters like the Evernight Goddess and Emperor Roselle have much more character development and story behind them despite being a background character. Roselle for instance, we only get some insights into his life via the few recovered diary pages, initially he seems like the typical immature brat however reading further into his diaries, we see him evolve. From the carefree "self proclaimed protagonist" lifestyle, his perverted tendencies, his arrogance and self centered personality, to his reaction when he discovers the truth, his failures, companions he lost, his mistakes and lingering regrets, how he tries to turn things around, the madness and corruption affecting him, his family and his people, the compromises and difficult decisions he had to make, the people he had to hurt to protect, the struggles and sacrifices needed. He matures a lot, much more than our MC. A background character like Roselle who only had a few chapters of screentime has a more three dimensional character than our protagonist.
Lastly are the other characters, this novel has a huge cast of characters. They are likeable, even the antagonists but maybe due to having too many characters theres lesser opportunities for proper character development and presence across the different subplots. I like that author tries to maintain their relevance throughout the novel and create interesting backgrounds for them but i wished author gave them more time in the limelight as well as further flesh out their evolution as a character in a ing role and also higher focus on their character development.
To sum it all up, this novel has a solid start and mid but falls apart towards the end. To be honest the only reason this novel has a high score from me is due to the exceptional storytelling in the first half of the novel. that i find myself struggling to enjoy and immerse myself in the story. I try to be lenient(i did give it a pretty high score) but i still have to stay objective with the review. Author's overuse of plot conveniences in the later parts of the novel, the counter-intuitive decision of giving the protagonist absurd advantages that shatters his original character appeal which the author had painstakingly developed, coupled with the later rushed and condensed narrative as well as lacking character development for the ing cast and especially the protagonist, are all too huge of a disappointment. Moreover i really feel the protagonist was a mismatch for the themes in this novel. I hope the author realize this and try to maintain the high quality writing from the first half of this novel and consider a different kind of protagonist for the sequel he has in mind.
