Review from ch 267. This story started on a good foundation but took a nosedive after ch 100. The story is on rails for the MC at this point, as everything he does magically works out and he always faces the easiest opposition as the author forgets his own story. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
This story started interesting with the MC trying to make it in the railway business which was interesting to read about how he navigated inventing and introducing new technology. Sure it’s a bit unrealistic to imagine some guy knowing all these technologies without some explanation, like he perfectly remembered his past life’s memories, but I left that slide. I shouldn’t have. As the story progressed, he started introducing tech that he shouldn’t even know how it works since it was outside his field yet he knows how they work and is active in their development. Now I am fine with trying to invent tech you aren’t familiar with but know the basic concepts for it, other stories have done this, but not as easy. And that’s one of the biggest gripes I have with this story. Everything is so easy for the MC, unrealistically easy. Just pour some weeks/month and do some lip service for a new revolutionary tech to be invented. The lip service is important because the MC is constantly giving a simple speech and for some reason the world around him eats it up, even his enemies act as what he says is how it is.
Now the second but most consistent issue with this story, it’s inconsistency. The author forgets his own stories and what people/tech he has invented constantly. At one time there were submarines when the car hadn’t even been fully introduced in the world, or radio being a thing but then the MC “invented” it some tens of chapters later. And this is constant. Even later when the MC has a family, the names of the wife and child get mixed up at times.
Now the third and most recent issue I have that is making me want to drop this. The MC becomes the president of the US and that’s when everything goes off the rails. The interest in the story was the building tech and business empire angle but now it’s constantly presidently stuff that is honestly borderline impossible. First this man has one of the biggest industrial conglomerate empires in this world’s version of the US. He is the military industrial complex, yet as a president he is being treated as if he is just some upstart and getting conspired against by people who should be beneath his power. Like they conspire to start wars yet the author forgot the MC OWNS! The company that has invented the tech that give the country its military advantage. how would it go if the MC decides to not go along with the war? Remember how I mentioned how everything comes easy to the MC? It’s worse later in the story, as the MC is facing a secret order and conspiracy but the MC just always magically gets the good results, like he randomly uncovers the name of the conspiracy without ever being stated how, or he can convince the public despite the media being against him. Which is stupid because I recall he invented the radio and TV and owns some of those media companies himself. How is he getting attacked by an industry he should honestly have the biggest pull on?
Now the last issue, that connects to the previous point about the author forgetting things. The MC is a man from our world who died and went to the past. That’s how he has been able to “invent” things. However, even early on, the story seems to completely forget this fact. Despite some places having different names and people, this world is a copy of ours with honestly the same history. Yet the MC does not use his knowledge of future events at all or even point out he knows about it. He is about to face the First World War, which an educated man from the future should see coming from a mile away, yet he doesn’t act on it or even seems to know about it.
Someone mentioned about the author using chatGPT to write and I may believe it. Unless this author is having multiple people write the story for him, there’s no reason he should be forgetting these fundamental aspects of his story. Totally destroyed a story with a nice premise.
Thank you for reading my rant