- #1
Better than I expected, but it lacks... humanity?The MC is a bit too robotic for me to get emotionally invested in the story. Since he doesn't really have any emotional entanglements (minus the occasional strange reaction), his experiences aren't very meaningful. Other stories have MCs who are trying to rescue their friends, avenge their families, gain immortality, etc. Along the way, they meet and interact with all kinds of interesting characters. By contrast, we just get to observe the MC observing other people and occasionally (usually unintentionally) pissing people off.The universe is also quite s*upid. There's a particular trope I hate. These CN mage stories always wax poetic about the cold, calculating rationality of mages, but they're prone to bizarre emotional outbursts and everything they do is (in contrast to the claims) incredibly s*upid and counter-productive.We lost a war and we need to replenish our numbers with new mages... I know! Let's round up a bunch of kids with talent and let 95% of them die in a bullsh*t trial! Sure, the trial is only tangentially related to their potential, and getting attacked by a load of monsters means that even the more talented ones will probably get eaten, but who cares whether this actually makes any sense? We're so smart and rational!Another gripe is the edge factor -- stories like this (Age of Adepts, Netheril's Glory, etc.) go too far trying to show off how cruel or downright evil the MC and other mages are and don't stop to consider whether it's the least bit believable.