My previous review on another novel was a bit too long, but I cannot help it if I want to be detailed.
Like my previous review, all spoilers will be contained within [brackets], so readers can skip past paragraphs if they desire so. I will try to stay as neutral and un-biased as possible.
I know I am only halfway into reading this (148 chapters, which will change since the novel is still updating and I am still reading), but I decided to go ahead and type a review of this novel since I have a strong desire to do so.
Of course, this will mean that I say stuff that may or may not be correct, and may change as the author improves (the author seems to be relatively new based on comments), so I do apologize if I say anything negative that is later improved by the author.
Oh, and although I think the author is a female, I am going with he/she just in case I am wrong.
I will first start off with my own summary, before going through the five categories of rating on Webnovel’s reviewing system (Writing Quality, Story Development, et cetera).
The conclusion will be at the far bottom, so anyone who wants my short and sweet story can skip past the details.
Do bear in mind, I am a college student and have written novels before, so I am not a newbie.
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Summary:
The story follows Eureka, a silver-haired, red-eyed mysterious girl with the nickname of ‘Zero’, who supposedly has no abilities and yet managed to enter a knight academy within a kingdom.
She managed to do so four years ago after being found severely injured by the headmaster of the academy, with supposedly no memories of her past, by challenging the headmaster and the instructors to a fight.
The story is set four years after this event, where she meets a group of important side characters who invite her to join their party in order to win a competition. Although Eureka is originally cold and indifferent, she slowly develops a relationship with the group.
As the story progresses, and more of her past is slowly revealed, the mystery and depth of her secrets are slowly unveiled to the readers and the characters.
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Writing Quality:
Average (3-stars)
I am not a nit-picky person when it comes to the writing quality, so long as it does not interfere with my ability to tell what is going on. There is no particular issue in regard to the author’s writing quality, but I do notice occasional spelling, sentencing, and grammatical errors.
Considering the author is from the Philippines, I can understand if English is not his/her first language (assuming the author is the translator), and/or he/she is not best with English in the first place (I was terrible in the beginning as well despite English as my first language).
As such, I will not complain and be critical of the Writing Quality, since I have never cared much unless, as mentioned, it interferes with my ability to understand.
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Stability of Updates:
No Opinion (5-stars)
I will give the author full stars since I have not yet fully caught up.
I did, however, look at the release dates of the chapters, and did notice that the author does not have a solid upload schedule. Some seem to have a two-day period between them while others have up to a week’s gap between each release.
I do not consider update stability to be a very important part of what gives a novel a good or bad rating, and I have never complained much about release dates. I do get upset if an author decides to upload once a month or once a year, but I do not mind much if an author only uploads once a week and has a reason.
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Story Development:
Pretty Good (4.3-stars)
The concept of story development generally follows a topological sequence:
Exposition – The beginning of the story, which introduces the conflict, character, and setting.
Rising Action – Events before the climax, which usually happen as the character(s) attempt to solve the main/multiple problems but fails.
Climax – The turning point of the story, which is the greatest suspense or action.
Falling Action – The actions and events that happen after the climax.
Resolution – The end of the story, where the conflicts and/or problems are solved.
As I have not yet arrived at the climax, I will only talk about the exposition and rising action.
These two have been done very well and is characteristic of a someone who has done their research. There is a feeling of a story the author is trying to portray to the readers.
Although we are not really introduced to the conflict at the beginning, we are introduced to the main characters and some of the side characters. Throughout the story, the conflict is gradually revealed to the readers and there is a growing sense of crisis.
What I like is how the author has had a clear direction and goal regarding the story progression. I do not think there is any plot holes so far nor has there been a lot of convenient plot devices (I think, but I may be wrong).
I like how the author manages to give me a sense of growing conflict as the enemies are revealed and how terrifying they are. When you have an antagonist that gives you a sense of terror and urgency, that is when you know that an author has done a good job.
I like how the author has a bird’s eye view of the total situation and gives the other kingdoms and characters appropriate responses to certain situations. The situation is not situated in a single kingdom but the entire region.
What I do not like is how fast paced the story can sometimes be, and how certain things are unveiled too early and too fast. In my opinion, this can sometimes ruin the mystery and secrecy regarding the main character or the other things that follow along.
[For example, spoiler alert, as I mentioned will be in brackets, it is revealed to the other characters that Eureka is actually blind. Not too long after this is unveiled to the readers, the characters find out about this.]
[In my opinion, I found it an enjoyable plot twist upon finding out about this, as you rarely see the main character blind in other novels. Out of the hundreds I have read, I think this is the only one so far that employs this.]
[However, I felt as if this being revealed so early to the side characters was a bit of a waste. I felt enjoyment in this being kept a secret from them, and how they would later react. However, I was kind of let down and disappointed that it happened so soon after and abruptly.]
[In my opinion, if I was the author, I would have made it so some of the characters get suspicious, as some actually did, and come to this conclusion, and be accidentally revealed to them through an incident that enforces this notion, instead of it being told to them.]
Aside from this, the fast pacing can be sometimes of a detriment.
I understand that some things need to be time skipped for the sake of not dragging the novel on, but I sometimes feel as if the author is using the time-skip feature in Fallout, which causes the feeling that some of the characters did not mature at all as they age.
Aside from this, the author throws the characters from point A to point B and adds “this amount of time has passed”, without using the journey as a way to better improve the novel. I will further talk about this in the World Background category.
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Character Design:
Okay…-ish? (3.8-stars)
In regard to giving characters their own thoughts and emotions, the author excels at greatly. In terms of detailing what these characters look like, their personalities, what they would actually do, the author fails at greatly.
Excuse me for my language, which seems a bit harsh, but I am being as honest as possible.
The author has given most side characters their own thoughts and their own emotions. Most of them have their happy, sad, depressed, angry, frustrated, and lovable moments. I, and perhaps other readers, can feel for them and actually have heartfelt emotions.
The author rarely sticks to a single character and usually takes his/her own time to give characters their own arcs and their interactions with other characters. I usually do not like this and end up skipping them in other novels since they are usually done poorly, but the author managed to keep me reading the character arcs.
The whole “friendship is magic”-type stuff is usually cringy for me, especially when I am watching anime. However, it is rarely used in novels nowadays, except Japanese light novels.
I actually enjoyed the whole ‘friends will help shoulder the burdens’ since it is a breather from the ‘survival of the fittest’ and ‘blood-cold world’ settings generally employed by novels involving fantasy and magic outside of Japanese light novels.
What I especially like is how the author is aspiring to make this as anime as possible. You cannot hide this from me author :D. The fact that you use asterisks to show their movements and flashbacks to scenes are clearly to make their movements as animated as possible.
I thought that was funny and was grinning thinking about it. If this is what the author wants, then I will be rooting for this to become an anime.
What I do not like is the lack of details towards these characters and what they are wearing. Aside from the main character and a select few, I really have no clue as to what most of the other characters look like.
The author rarely and barely goes into detail as to their physical appearances and clothing styles. I have to create random vague mental images of what the other characters look like. The only thing I picture when the king is talking is the mascot of Burger King.
I have to mentally picture that half of the characters are wearing some sort of medieval armor since the author rarely mentions what they are wearing aside from on special occasions. I have to picture the MC wearing female knight armor all the time since there is rarely a mention of what she is wearing.
No offense, but I never thought I would encounter a novel where I have to mentally picture what they look like and what they are wearing based on a few rare details every now and then.
Next is their personalities.
The author tried and did somewhat succeeded for the main character and a few others. However, I find difficulty in understanding the personalities of most others, since they are vague.
The author gives them all emotions, no doubt about that, but the author generally limits their emotions, personalities, and actions based to “friendship is magic” moments most of the time.
I find that a lot of the characters are only there to give sympathy and hug the MC a lot of the time whenever they think of her past, or they are there to be friends with her. Whenever something happens that gets in their way, they stand up in the name of friendships.
Not that-that is wrong, but I wish they would have more distinct personalities outside of just hanging out with friends and doing friendship-like stuff. Yes, they have their own sad backstories, and yes, they try to overcome these mental hurdles and move forward, but that is mostly it.
There are political marriages and love-related stuff, but I wish their personal lives were richer and deeply explored. Like for example, what the queen and king talk about in their alone and free time, or what some of the side characters do when they are alone, or what personal problems they have that they need to solve on their own.
One thing that does grind my gears a little but is just my own whining and ranting due to me being nitpicky, is the extreme friendliness present that ruins character accuracy. A lot of it is excessive.
It makes zero sense as to how the current king became a king in the first place. He is too kind and friendly and has to be yelled at by a girl multiple times in order to understand the dumb decisions he has made.
Understandably, he has royal blood in him, but I am in genuine shock that he has not yet died and his kingdom has not yet collapsed. Like, a proper king knows how to lead his kingdom, defend against enemies, ensure the safety of his forces, and be ruthless enough to show that he is not messing around.
It took the yelling of a girl and a few hard lessons in order for him to finally execute a few people. It took a few words in order for him to have a mental breakdown and nearly kill those around him.
This also applies to other characters as well, but I will not go into detail, so I do not hit the character limit. Regardless, I know this is fantasy, but I would like it if more characters were a bit more ruthless and cold, so as to dictate what life in a medieval world would actually be like.
The main character herself is alright, and I enjoy how she changes as someone would in real life. I like the mystery and backstory behind her as well, and I enjoy these greatly.
The only nitpick thing that grinds my gears is her statements of how killing others makes her feel like her soul is being ripped apart. This should not be an issue for her, especially consider the environment she grew up in.
[A person born into an environment where people are killing each other all the time and there is chaos everywhere will naturally grow up used to this environment, as compared to someone thrown into such a place.]
[In fact, I feel like I and the readers would have greater sympathy if she killed enemies without caring and she explained that she is numb to it since she grew up in it. There would be greater sympathy if she did cold and ruthless actions that she would consider normal.]
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World Background:
Poor (2.5-stars)
Author forgive me for sounding rude and nitpicky, but the world background of your novel, in the simplest terms, is vague, poorly done, and terrible. I am trying to not be mean, especially since you seem relatively new to this, but this is the worst part of your entire novel.
This is the honest truth that me, the author himself/herself, and the readers can plainly see.
This does not even feel like a world, and the author fails to give detailed explanations.
The geography, climate, fauna, animals, politics, geopolitics, populations, magic system, distances between kingdoms, et cetera, are almost never explained.
The author leaves the readers to imagine most of what everything in this world could be like, and the readers are forced to make assumptions.
For example, I thought only a few hundred humans existed in this world, as most of the time, the kings, queens, knights, generals, servants, and side-characters are only mentioned. Rarely are the populations talked about, so there is almost no idea how large these kingdoms are.
The only thing I can mentally picture is four castles with a few hundred people in them most of the time, and them consisting of all of humanity. I can never picture the size of the cities and their bustling citizens and merchants when they are almost never mentioned.
I never even knew the kingdom the MC lives in was next to an ocean until it was mentioned a single time out of the 148 chapters I have read at the time of me typing this review.
I do not even know what the knight academy looks like or its physical appearance outside of it being an "academy".
All details that come up are only talked about in one to two sentences and almost never mentioned again. As such, it is really a major detriment to this novel since it makes the readers, including me, unable to be absorbed into this world as much as we would like.
I could keep going on, but the author and those who have already read some of it know what I am talking about, and I am trying to not hit the character limit. I really wish the author took his/her time prior to releasing this novel to establishing a proper world background.
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Conclusion:
Acceptable (3.8-stars)
In my opinionated conclusion, I find that the novel is an acceptable read that has its major flaws, but can be definitely be enjoyable and addicting if one overlooks the poorly done world background and character flaws.
The writing quality is alright, I have no opinion on stability of updates, I like the story development, I like the character design, but the world background is a disaster.
I find the major reason of why I am still reading this novel and enjoying it is the "friendship is magic" theme you gave to the characters, their flaws, how mysterious the main character is, and how they are trying to understand her.
The biggest major flaw would be the lack of world background, and I feel like the popularity and ranking of this novel would be way higher than it is now if the author took his/her time developing them prior instead of quickly creating a patchwork.
Overall, I would definitely recommend if one is willing to overlook the flaws.
My personal suggestion to the author next time would be to create an outline of the characters, the world background, and the story development, do some research, and then release chapters.
I know I was a bit critical and harsh in my review of this novel, and I know that you are relatively new to this stuff, but I am as honest as I can based off my experience reading hundreds of novels and my experience in creating them.
I hope the author can find this useful and take this as constructive criticism. I do know that he/she is trying to improve, so I can give props if he/she does not get mad and go on a rant like many other authors.
