- #1
Well, I have been continuously struggling to read this story with just the Chrysanthemum Garden translation, and had to access the raws in order to decipher some poorly translated phrases. I'm bouncing back and forth between the raw chapters and the translator's, which is annoying and disappointing. I mean, normally I have come to expect a much higher level of translation from CG, and even if it's basically MTL with editing, at least the editing is done well. But I can tell that there are countless small problems with the translation quality, which highly affects the ease of reading. I'm not sure if I should just recommend readers who are interested in apocalypse/revenge/magical space/mpreg themed danmei to simply read the raw version with Google Translate or DeepL browser extension (which works better).As far as the story itself goes, I feel like the early portion of the plot was based on a different novel of the same theme/genre. But fortunately, after a few chapters the author starts with a more original concept of the apocalypse, and this is obviously a gong and not a shou protagonist like the novel I'm thinking this one is quite similar to. I think the writing is pretty decent but due to my inexplicable feelings like some low key plagiarism is at work here, I will be initially giving this a 3 star rating which may change when I read further on.---The first part of the review above was when I read up to chapter 8. At chapter 59, I've decided to drop this and change the rating to 2 stars. The main reason is that the main characters are too unscrupulous and wanton when they seek revenge at the drop of a hat. The MC has these personality quirks (influence from his previous life) that when he gets angry he will kill any person by any means necessary, often in gruesome and cruel ways, if his baby xiao shou is offended in even the smallest way. His baby xiao shou (ML) is something like a sweet, ignorant and innocent ger on the outside but on the inside is more like a heartless assassin who will also join in the fun of killing. Then this disgusting couple actually teaches those innocent and pure people around them how to kill others unscrupulously. The logic behind this on the author's side is that "it's the apocalypse, anything goes as long as the main characters survive" but I find this logic s*upid and insensible. Although I think people would become lawless during an apocalypse due to lack of law and order, and compete for resources in a harsh environment, I also think that indulging in blood lust, killing wantonly in the name of revenge, and inflicting cruel punishments on people in the name of "preventing future crime/mu*der" like some sick vigilante psychos is both wrong and not interesting to read about. I've read plenty of this kind of novel before but the main characters, including the side couples, strike me as too annoying to keep reading about and the constant mu*der of random cannon fodder is boring. The last straw for me was when the "male vixen" ger character (surname Yu) decides to deceive the feelings of an upright military man (surname Qin) in order to get pregnant, planning to "run with the ball" and leave the military man high and dry. [Btw, Yu discusses his plans to deceive Qin for his s*erm with the main characters, who all agreed that it was the best way to go in order to keep all the hidden gers safe from government harm (this seems like a flimsy excuse, and Yu could have simply targeted another guy whose background wasn't problematic!!!!) ] But... have these idiots ever thought that deceiving such an honest man is both s*upid, unnecessary and downright disgusting? That guy Qin is basically the only honest character in the bunch, and despite that he has low EQ and is a little foolish Erha type character, I think he's more likeable than any of the others and he really doesn't deserve to have his heart torn in two for the sake of some broken ancestral tradition of hiding the ger tribe. What I find disgusting about this behavior is that the ger tribe's ancestral teachings are to never marry and basically only seek a male companion for his s*erm. WTF??? What kind of broken mindset does this author have? Doesn't China have the worst opinion of people who use a surrogate in order to have children? Why would this author think that promoting some broken "ancestral tradition" of deceiving people for s*erm be considered in a halfway positive light by their readers? Or is this just a gross insensitive commentary on the practice of women IRL using a s*erm bank? Frankly, I don't understand the mindset of looking down on using surrogates, and if the author was using the ger tribe's traditions as a way of insinuating that women seeking a s*erm donor in a legitimate way is morally wrong, I think that person is just sick. Well, it's completely my guess in this situation as I don't know the author's true motives for writing this kind of broken plot. I tried my best to continue reading this story but ultimately I am both angry and annoyed by the characters, so I've dropping it here.Tbh, I only read this because it's the same author as There Is An Apocalyptic Man in the Village. Not sure what happened, but this novel is really crappy compared to that one. This novel is basically tr*sh but because I had to read it mostly in MTL I'm not giving it 1 star since I'm not sure if it would be a bit better with a proper translation. I'm pretty sure that it's worth 1 star but it's not really an honest rating without reading a better translation.