Review after 80 chapters into the storyline! The novel has outperformed in most segments so far. It also has a few shortcomings. I'm assuming that the new readers must have seen the book tags, so I'll not talk about mc's antiheroism, his views and all that. I'll mention everything that is apart from antiheroism below so that potential readers can decide better wether they want to invest time in this work or not. Shortcomings 1) Slow burn: the storyline takes it's time to unfold. I don't feel it to be slow paced but just detail oriented. Others might not feel the same tho. 2) Limited fight scenes- again not an issue for me but most readers would prefer the novel to change this aspect about itself the most. but author has hinted about something called ranking war, which will appear in the upcoming chapters. Hopefully, the figh scene seeking audience can be pacified whenever that plot starts. 3) lack of culture plot- this is a problem for me as well. i don't like plots without any stories behind them. but the novel has left it's culture plot fans high and dry after chapter 53. 4) TMI- too much information is observed to being given seldomly in this novel. building a lore is fine. but sometimes the information needs to be introduced at the right time for it to make sense and have maximum impact. thankfully, i only observed two three such instances. so till now it's no biggie. hope author san takes heed from this comment. it'll definitely benefit him as well as us the readers. 5) comic relief has dropped down- volume one had a lot of comic relief moments that are lacking in the second volume. Now the plus points 1) writing quality- top-notch from my perspective. English is not my first language, so I might glide over a few obvious grammatical errors. But if there are errors, I can't spot most of them. There are sporadic cases of name swap maybe. But it should be counted as an ATD error, not a writing quality one. Solid 5/5 2) Story dev- author has placed heavy importance on the story development of the novel. He has made an intricate world with it's own set of laws and culture, which is not all that different from what we can relate to. I've gone through the entire ranking system and it's in depth and intriguing. But maybe author san needs to dial down on this aspect to focus on making the plot a bit fast paced for it's current and upcoming audience. 4/5 3) Character Design- The characters have enough info about them to make us readers imagine them into almost tangible personalities in our heads. author had only focused on the mc in the first volume, but thankfully he has started exploring the niche characteristics of other side characters. The interactions among them are driven by logic and rationality. They don't sound dummy and synthetic like most wuxia novels. Plus the in-novel characters don't go out of characters, ever. So that's a relief one seldom finds in newly published works. All in: 5/5 4) Updating stability: the novel is barely a month old and it has 80+ chapters as of now. And this is after the author declared that he has dropped his speed to focus on making the story plothole proof in one of his notes. So obviously its a 5/5 from me. 5) World background- most of the shortcomings I've enlisted above are from this segment. But their instances are rare and ignorable. Plus, I've read the entire ranking/cultivation chart of the novel. Least to say, it is intriguing. 4/5 In short, Vile Evil has all the qualities in it to break it big. It's a treat for the readers of antihero works. Hope the novel goes pro so that readers can expect a consistent release from the author. I think I'm forgetting something else to add, but whatever! Wishing all the best to the author.
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