- #1
Super boring. Not a goddamn thing about this is interesting. 10 chapters in, and I have not found 1 single solitary detail about the world, the main character as a person and much less the dynamics where the story is going. Instead, the author kept droning on about the scientific method to pacifying prisoners and the tools a warden has to keep them in line without violating the mental contract. And don't get me started on how the language tethered between what the average chinese writers imagined how a person of import talk and a proverb book, as if the writer is a foreigner in his own setting.There's not a plus to be found anywhere. The novel struggles with its identity between taking itself seriously and developing characters using goofiness in place of a real personality. That is the biggest, s*upidest crutch chinese novels have a habit of relying on. If anything, it highlights just how hollow and 2-dimensional they all are.Yeah, it sucks. One star. If someone tells you it's gonna be good in X+ chapters, start reading from there.