My impression coincides with capeSpirit's review. It is good that I am not alone. This novel opens up explosively in its prologue, but then becomes excruciatingly boring for several arcs after that.
The first arc about abnormally rare food, wine, chefs rivalry and one of a kind cooking was like eating sawdust, terrible each time it was actual passages about something to eat. There were a couple of poignant moments when the FL feeds normal people, migrant workers from the poor district of the capital with the foods from their hometowns, not princes and dukes, and when she talked about people eating soil to fill their stomachs during war (and that speech changed the course of history), but otherwise this unbearably long arc about exquisite culinary mastery was unpalatable. Because her heart was empty and stayed unattached and uncommitted, aimlessly roaming the earth. From there the novel just did not get any better.
Spoiler
The premise was great though for anyone interested in Buddhism I guess. The FL during cultivation (in prologue) achieves the level of nirvana, freedom from desires of the heart and of the body. A man whom she deeply loved and cared for for centuries non stop helped her achieve that ultimate release during their wedding ceremony and he no longer elicits any feelings in her. That was her ultimate freedom. Freedom from love and attachment to another human being (s).
The system granted her return to her original world after that. Which did not happen (because of that man who is now obsessed with getting her back even if it takes a million worlds and an eternity).
How does one live a life after that if your heart has no desires, no anger, no delusions and no attachments? Is there a happiness or any normalcy in the cards for a person like that?
[collapse]
Disappointment of the century.
