- #1
Initially despite the promising plot and well written battles there were various aspects of this series I found pretty off-putting... and I still do to be honest.Ian is an arrogant, dense, blockhead, with little in the way of redeeming features and some serious anger issues. The heroines and side characters aren't much better either, but their stories are slowly culminating into something and while I still dislike most of them I am curious to see where that's going. It also makes them feel more multifaceted and less like one dimensional walking tropes.Largely the most unappealing aspect to me personally is that the author spends entirely to much time sexualizing every single female in the story, repeatedly, ad naseum. I get it, and I know what genre I'm reading. It's a harem and people are here for the waifus, to some extent I am too I won't lie. The problem here is that the author will frequently break up what should a very tense moment to emphatically reiterate how gorgeous whichever female happens to be present in the scene. It feels awkward, incredibly out of place, and breaks immersion completely.Despite the initial distaste I powered through, by virtue of lacking anything else better to read, and as the mysteries of the letters slowly unfolds I find myself more and more intrigued by whats going on and where it will go. It can feel pretty formulaic at times but with Ian almost always being on the back foot to some degree it maintains tension, and it's a nice break from OP munchkins and eternally suffering weak protagonists. It's a nice middle ground I don't see too much in webnovels. Ians abilities and weapon of choice are also pretty non-standard, which further accentuates this series uniqueness.It takes a while to really set up, and not so great pacing doesn't help, but you could do a lot worse and after swinging widely from honestly kind of hating it to now enjoying the ride I'd say give it a chance.