Reviews of [Down for Maintenance]

This is honestly amazing. I love how it's so confusing and doesn't add up. The way you've left some things out and dropped vague hints of everything makes it more interesting. Not knowing something just makes a person want to read more to find answers for their questions. I love everything about it, and I'm already emotional attached to Lev Ari. Keep up the good work! The best of luck!!

Let me preface this by saying that I absolutely a d o r e your setting. Theology and biblical history are some of my favourite things to read about (cough cough His Dark Materials) and your synopsis alone just hits all the right spots. It is a pretty niche topic, though. You've done it proud. I won't pretend that I'm an expert on matters like this - I mainly dabble in other pantheons and ancient civilisations, so I'm out of my depth when it comes to Canaan (Levant?). That being said, I'll treat the setting without its biblical connotations and pretend everything is fully original unless stated otherwise. The first chapter gives me major Hunger Games vibes for some reason. When Lev talks about receiving a Blessing so his family can get the money they need, it's like how the kids in District 12 had to sign up for tesserae to get more food. of course, it's different in that these kids aren't being forced to go into an arena and butcher each other, but I just wanted to bring that up. Tangents aside, I love the dialogue. It's normally my go-to indicator when I judge what makes a story good and what doesn't - in my opinion, dialogue fleshes out characters in a natural way. Provided, of course, that said dialogue is natural in and of itself. There are times when it comes off as a tad expository, but in the end, it all flows very well and it feels like actual people are speaking. Especially the 'oy vey' at the end of chapter 2 - y'know, it just clicks. Even the steam vehicles. All in all, the exposition is handled very well. I'm not that bothered by the massive walls of text, honestly. It could do with some better paragraphing, but the explanations of the world around them do the job quite well. I would've preferred it if it was dialogue-ified, but I can't have everything. Amazing read, adding it to my library. great job, 10/10 would totes recommend except for stability of updates, but that'll probably change sometime in the near future.

If this was a dish and I was Gordan Ramsey - boy I'd call myself a donkey. Starting off, a smooth first chapter that eases the reader into the setting of the world. Ambience and tone of the book has all been set up within that first chapter, which, a moment I will probably come to recognize as heart wrenching another forty chapters into the book (if i do not call wrongly) follows, the lighthearted, celebratory briefness of the main character's goal being achieved. Six years old seems like an age too young to be worrying about the future, but the matter of maturity in which is probably a constant theme in the book is magnificently portrayed through the quails. It shows the conflict between reality and a tender mind so realistically that, had the scene been written better, would have stayed lodged within my heart. Honestly, I can only resort to being picky now because you know what you're doing and there is simply nothing for me to comment on. Even though this gives me major Kite runner vibes (okay you can call me crass, but the 3rd pov's voice in that book was too good), and forgive me if this is an intended style, I find it really hard to follow the dragged sentences. It may have been partly due to the chunky texts and useless, invisible periods, but sometimes I miss the end of the sentence and end up rereading a couple of times. BUT, I did count the number of words in some sentences and I went up to the 40s. Like I have mentioned, it may just be a writing style, but the sequence of actions come out so encapsulated within a single sentence that it feels more rushed than a brief, proper exposition. Now I'm not gonna sit here and bicker about the length of a sentence, but there is this bold foreshadow at '...scared of him?' Although it is appropriate to fit one in right now, I think it took me out of the vibe. Anyways, I shall refrain myself from rambling further on. Happy writing!

This is a very powerful and well written story. There is a certain gravity and weight behind the author's words that I haven't run into very often on online platforms. The characters are multi-dimensional and well written, their interactions feel natural (family to family, peer to peer, senior to junior) It's also very educational in some ways, under the guise of a story. Well done, author!

This story is surprisingly good! The writing is very descriptive without any grammar issues, sometimes a little heavy though. There seems to be a lot of lore to discover which i love! I wish author would update more! This reminds me of more traditional books than what I usually see on webnovel. Keep it up, author!

I don’t normally read historical book but this book is good . It well written what I like about it is the main character background. Also the author explains the difference wood meaning in the author notes.

Not something I normally read but after reading the first chapter I just couldn't stop ☺ but you need to update more to gain more readers but your work is pretty good

This is really good! I was surprised at how well the plot was thought and the writing is really good. Author, you need to to update more regularly (At leat once a day.) if you want more people to take notice of this.

The story is extremely well written and conveys a really powerful atmosphere and tone, making me feel uncomfortable. It really manages to set up characters really well, giving us the motivations and thoughts of the characters, and provide strange, contrasting disconnects that just makes me feel uncomfortable. I think that's intentional.

I absolutely LOVE how you developed your story. From the scenery to the characters, I felt I was there experiencing it with them. Keep it up dear author, you are doing amazing! I didn't look for any grammatical errors, but I recommend them to all writers! Happy writing,! :)

I'm impressed. The author obviously knows enough about this kind of world to make it sound realistic, but has made their own history and magic or worldbuilding so that it's unique.

Hi author! Upon reading your book, i noticed that your updates are very slow paced, maybe you can work on that. Also even though it only has four chapters each of tgem made me feel something Your name choice for the character us somehow unique, quite uncommon. I salute to that. That's all and please continue to update, author! Keep it up!