Review written after reading up to the last chapter as of posting (chapter 149).
Honestly this is the best piece of writing I've ever read, the review will be divided into parts.
1.Josh
2.Other characters
3.The world
4.Story
1. Josh both caries along the whole story and also just feels like a viewpoint for the rest of the world. He manages to be funny in a very human way rather than just saying "he told a joke and they laughed". He has depth and background as a person but also has more aspects to him, he can be realistically funny, sad, happy, desperate, and even clueless. Do you know how hard it is to write a clueless character that doesn't make you cringe? I have never seen a more human feeling character that still has unrealistic strength and perseverance.
2. The side character all have real personality, real devotion and reasoning. They complement Josh just as much as thy do the story or world-building. They create a place, community, and group that doesn't just feel like an excuse to leave the tower. The author never creates a scenario or relationship just to throw it away and forget about it. It truly feels like they're a society with groups and levels rather than just MC, MC friends, MC enemies, everyone else. Which is what a lot of novels tend to create.
3. The world is less of an aspect than you might expect from what I've already said. The world in the novel is defined less by easy or literal descriptions and more by the characters and relationships. It doesn't matter where exactly the cities are, where exactly the tower is, where he even lives. You learn about the general world, technologically advanced human world that had a tower show up randomly, but then the characters teach you about the rest. I don't know where districts of the city are, but I know how the characters feel about the areas and what the place feels like instead of what it looks like.
4. The story is simple, it isn't meant to be about the mystery of the towers or the other worlds, it isn't about Josh's struggle to survive. It's about Josh, just Josh. It's about understanding him, how he proves he can do this, how he thinks in an unorthodox way and influences the people around him. It's the story of Josh Malum and his adventures, both personal (climbing the tower, finding something other than his girlfriend to care about) and public (teaching people, changing the tower, gaining attention, helping his friends). I don't think I can do it justice trying to condense it down into this tiny little review, but I 100% recommend reading this.
