tl;dr I love this novel as evidenced by my consistent position in the top 4 fans, but the author has been updating like 1 chapter a month for a few months now. He caught Covid-19 in November, supposedly recovered at the beginning of December, but as on today, January 5th, he's dropped like 2 chapters since. Will change my review when I see some stability in updates, but I can't recommend in good conscious that anyone invest their time and money reading if it's a dead, unfinished novel.
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Full Review
Antihero has begun writing an absolute masterpiece of an online game novel. The MC's life inside and outside the game world reveal some excellent character depth and design, providing not just times of triumph and mastery, but also times of vulnerability and loss. This is often overlooked as Webnovel authors seem unable to let their precious MCs taste the pain of defeat, but it's these very moments of vulnerability and imperfection where we, the readers, can begin to relate with and build connections to the MC. And he is far from the only one whose struggles we observe and relate to. Antihero has written an impressive cast of characters into his novel, with my only critique being that I would love to know and learn more about the various members of his pantheon. There are still a number of characters that are barely touched on and I'd love to feel more invested in them and their tales, and see how they weave into the larger narrative.
The Cons
My biggest complaint is an elephant in the room that many fans have respectfully remained silent about, but I've bit my tongue to bleeding and feel like someone has to say it: The update stability has gone to trash.
In November, a fresh chapter was posted with an author's note at the bottom. Inside, we were told that the Author was hospitalized with Covid-19 and not to fret: this friend of the author had a cache of comics to upload daily for us! Well, good! I bought full Privilege with the promise that I would get something at least, even if it wasn't the multiple chapters a day we were used to... but no additional comics were posted that month. "Fine," I thought, "I want to support Antihero during his difficult time anyway."
In the beginning of December, Antihero returns! Posting a fresh chapter, his author's note details his return and he promises to get up to 2 chapters a day, maybe even 3 a day come December 20th. Excellent! I wish him well and purchase Privilege again, trusting that more will be released. Again, no chapters are posted through all December...
Now it's January, and Antihero has posted one chapter. I have not bothered to look for the author's note. I have not bothered to buy Privilege. It's been a few days and no additional chapters have been posted. Is the novel dead? Is Antihero milking us Privilege cows dry? Am I being too rough on the author by entertaining such a thought? I don't know, but I have resolved to cease paying for Privilege until I see the update stability has recovered.
And Antihero, if you read this, I really do hope you're alright. Please make your intentions for this novel clear to us, your supporters.