Those Who Ignore History

This is a dream come true for me as a bookworm and avid fantasy reader. The concept of the Arte is a long-time (power)fantasy of mine, an ability I would like to have if I could in real life. For that alone, I give this story a 5/5.

The world-building is great, I can't wait to see more. The MC thinks things through and the side characters are interesting.

Overall, I love the first 24 chapters, and I hope the author keeps it up.

I think the concept of the world is incredible! I also really enjoy the MC's ability set, and frankly it's one of the only reasons I'm still reading the book. The author has mentioned in the comments that he is a new writer, so this is to be expected.

My main issue is basically that the tone of the MC switches incredibly quickly. At one point, he's a more chill character, learning about his abilities, and the next, he suddenly becomes depressed and has this desire to take the world's issues onto his shoulders.

While I can sorta see how his circumstances would force him to be like this, his behaviour is incredibly inconsistent. He makes some jokes and the next moment he's borderline suicidal. He also seems to have a lot of inner monologues. More than 70% of the chapter is him going on and on about his troubles, or someone else's troubles, with the occasional sprinkling of a one-liner or a bit of dialogue. It does, at times, feel like the author is trying to reach a word count, as opposed to actually showing a story, or cleaning it up.

At the age the main character his, and the way his backstory is set-up, as well as the events that are happening to him, it feels like his reactions and thought process are quite unnatural. He's said to be a curious guy, but is restrained randomly. He also is said to be a bookish, and knowledge seeking guy, and yet his inner thoughts are usually him just being angry or depressed about his circumstances, instead of trying to figure his self out. Again, I can see how his situation would put someone in that state, but it doesn't seem to line up with the personality of the MC

Overall, I feel like the world is incredibly fleshed out in the author's notes, and all the characters do have their personality and charm, but I can't seem to muster any sort of connection to anybody, due to the MC constantly painting a depressing note over everyone's phrases and this, at least in the earlier chapters, is incredibly jarring and off-putting.

I'm on Chapter 32, as of writing this, I do want to read more, to see how the MC learns and grows, but I do hope that the writing gets a bit more concise and impactful, as opposed to verbose and repetitive.

Worth a read, and you might like it a lot, but some things are disagreeing with me too much.

Style :

Not the best I've read but fluid and pleasant.

Grammar :

Nothing to say there, I don't think I've seen a mistake, so if there are they must be pretty insignificant.

Story :

There is A LOT going on, very fast, very hard, with little time to assimilate things. All dialogs contain two or three worldbuilding details, rather subtly introduced even, but it means the character doesn't have time to ponder anything, nobody gives any explanation and everything moves on. 

And the events come so hard and fast that the MC (and so us) never has time to digest past events. Without spoiling, unexpected events happen roughly every 3 chapter, with one chapter spent dealing with the new situation and one chapter setting up the next event.

Now with spoilers :

Character :

The MC is likeable enough, not stupidly naive, not edgelordy. However, the secondary characters are so preoccupied with bombarding him and us with lore that they mostly exist as vaguely antagonistic cryptic assholes that permanently do things without explaining and retain informations for nothing. While it is a necessity because if they didn't, the lore dump would be massive, it makes them deeply unlikable. 

Secondly, the MC has practically no agency, and his character development feels so fast it feels rushed. I don't think it is, but he is in such a maelstrom of uncontrollable events that he is barely threading water at all times (which is very well said and we're made to feel). I understand the idea, it is well done, but I like my MCs to have some agency in their stories, and the last fully free decision he made was in chapter 0 when deciding what to eat before starting this story.

I like this story. The main character has chutzpah and the side characters are fun. Mostly fleshed out and real. The only tiny problem I have is the pacing,and it's not even really a problem. It's just fast. We're whisked into a world of magitech, alternate dimensions, god-kings, and given little background. To be fair, I can I get almost everything from the narrative and anything I can't, there's enough foreshadowing to satisfy that I will soon be in the know. So yeah, not a problem I would just like more details because the world building is phenomenal on this.

As someone for whom world building used to be a hobby, I can definitely say, there is a lot down on paper somewhere that we don't have access to (yet). It's thought out and presented so that little bits build on each other until you have a bigger picture. But still things are left unsaid that I wish there was more details on. Like how the MC is half bunnycorn... Or something. 

All that being said,the writing is pretty impeccable and the plotting very satisfying. I'm binge reading it at 4:30 am, so obviously it's got merit. 

Overall, besides the break neck pace, which come to think, has enough pros to outweigh the cons. And my personal frustration at not having the details I want when I want them, as opposed to when they're relevant, isn't something that inhibits the story at all. So overall, 5 stars. I wish I knew more, but I'm never lost. I'm gonna be irked when I finally catch up and have to wait for chapter drops. *sigh* But isn't that always the case? 

Let me say right now: This is a very good story, 0 doubt about that. That being said I’m not reading the rest of this story; and all I have to say is what’s happening up to chapter 6. I explain why in the spoiler section of the Story part; and to clarify, that hasn’t affected my judgment on the stories technical aspects.

Style: Cultivating Creativity 5/5

Style wise, this story is great; it’s got a good blending of Cultivation and Leveling that I think will work out well; and the world itself is interesting, the rules and interaction between the powerful and the regulars are not as callous and fixed as in most cultivation novels, and that allows for a much more interesting and dynamic world.

Story: Printing Progress 4.5/5

the story is good; it’s intriguing and has lots of opportunities for exploration of both the system and the world. Better still is the author doesn’t club you over the head with lore and info dumps, and manages to weave in information in a clean and subtle way; which brings us to that missing half star. The author is new, I knew that going into this, and it shows a bit in the weaving of their story. It’s a bit too gentle a touch, at least for how different the world is to most other stories and tropes; and some of the details are just confusing and distracting because I don’t have the basis of information and understanding to put together what’s going on. When that is an intentional part of the world, like with the archive, it works wonderfully; and as the story goes on it’s likely that issue will fade as we get a better understanding of the world and it’s customs. Now, between a the options of a too light touch making causing slight confusion and too heavy a touch making a dry and painful story; I prefer the former. Both indicate room to grow, but one is more likely to get genuine feedback and the other is more likely to suffer people just saying it sucks. And personally I want to see people grow and improve, so I prefer when they have that opportunity.

Before we move on, I do need to clarify why I’m not reading this story; but still wishing this author the best of luck. I came here on a recommendation from another author I like (the author knows who); and the hook of the description was great, but a little misleading. I’m going to spoiler the rest of this, but know that the author didn’t lie or intentionally deceive (as far as I can tell) they just didn’t emphasize exactly what some of what they said meant/implied.

Non-spoiler version: It’s got a topic that touches on a source of grief and pain; and I was not prepared or forewarned for that. The concept is great, and I hope it does well, but I won’t be reading it personally.

Grammar: Excellent 5/5

I swears I’m not lying about being a hardass about grammar, I think I’ve explained why in another review, but to summarize; I don’t review a lot of stories I don’t actually read, and most of what I enjoy reading has good grammar. And this time I have a good reason; this guy is an editor! But yeah, as usual 5 stars in grammar is no mistakes to 1 every few chapters; and this fulfills that criteria.

Character: Keeping it Real 4/5 potentially 4.5 or 5/5 later on

Ah, it’s always nice to find a person who can write characters well. The characters are great, already have some nice depth just 6 chapters in; unfortunately they suffer even more  than the story from the too gentle touch of story weaving. Everyone we’ve met has at least 1 major defining trait, they act around that trait being and having been a part of themselves; and it’s great! The problem is they lack the tertiary details, minor traits, and the dancing around those factors that add true and complete depth to characters; at least for the moment they do. As I mentioned, I’m stopping at chapter 6, even by most book standards that’s very early into character development; and since the characters are already this good, I imagine their going to be fleshed out even more as time goes on. If that happens then this score is getting bumped up to 4.5 or 5; but even if it doesn’t these characters work and feel far better than most, so unless that gets thrown away (unlikely), this rating shouldn’t drop.

Sorry for the rambling, it’s an issue, especially when I get emotional or care about things. I hope this was helpful, to both readers and the author; and I want to reiterate this very clearly, for the author especially: This story is Excellent and I do not want anyone thinking I don’t like this story. Even from the small bit I read I was hooked and wanted to read more. Keep up the excellent work, let no one get you down, and have a Wonderful day!

While the concept of the story is very interesting, the execution is jarring, inconsistent and confusing. The main character is meant to be curious, but feels more like an isekai character in a new world than someone who grew up in the world. Sometimes the MC is actually curious, othertimes he ignores things even when they could be important for his survival. The mc is supposed to have a huge and experienced family and an experienced childhood friend but none of this seems to matter and it feels more like the mc is an ignorant orphan kidnapped by a crazy mage and thrust into life-threatening experiences because the mentor doesn't care if he survives. Instead the mentor is supposed to be his uncle, his mother is supposed to be overprotective, but the mentor has no issue sending him into a situation, where he had at least a 1/3 chance of death, but most certainly a lot higher where some amount of training would have helped to increase the chances of survival but for some reason the mentor refuses to do this. If rewritten with the mc as an kidnapped orphan trained by a mad mentor I would give it a 4/5, since the concept is pretty interesting even if the jaringness some story beats and the inconsistencies of the mcs characterization would annoy me, but the utter nonsense that is the supposed background of the mc combined with the regularness he finds himself in life-threatening situation when it would be trivial for him to have information that would save his life is grating. He literally nearly killed himself in a standardized process where one sentence of information would have saved his life and the only reason he survived(and survival wasn't assured) was because someone part of this mandatory standaried process ddidn't want to clean up another dead body,suggesting that deaths have happened because one tüsentece of advice wasn't given in a mandatory, standardized process, neither by the government, nor his supposedly loving and experienced family.

Okay, let's get to it.

Your worldbuilding is fantastic, very interesting ideas and power system. However, your world building has some issues. The way you bring new concepts into view feels very forced, not always a bad thing, but it does bring me out of the story.

Your characters are... meh. They aren't given any space to breathe in the narrative, and this leads to a kind of flat experience. It's not a dealbreaker, as long as I care about the main character, but I could not for the life of me describe a single thing he's interested in other than the general 'books'.

Those previous points are mainly side effects of the main problem, which is that there is no fluff to the story. You move from one plot point to the next with no downtime and every line of dialogue is for the purpose of moving the story along. It is a style of writing that can be effective if, for example, your writing focuses on the overarching story rather than the characters. I find it to be ineffective at telling a compelling story though. (If you were going for a kind of whirlwind that shows how his life has changed so quickly, I would suggest adding greater reactions to the whiplash rather than him taking it in stride.)

In short, it's your first story, and it's a great first story. I look forward to seeing your writing develop.

Binge read and then despair because you ran out of chapters. The characters are great, the plot is moving along super well, and the MC is not just bulldozing through obstacles. So far we have mostly seen world building and set up but I have the feeling that once we make the turn into action and exploration it’s going to be a wild ride. I would also like to give some extra credit for leaning into an Arabic Mythology and fantastic influence- we don’t see it often enough!

I don't usually review stories until I finish reading them or they end their first book. However, this one caught me on the hook enough where I felt inclined to reccomend it to people already. It feels as though there's a strong world in place only 20 chapters in. 

The characters are interesting, albeit a little crazy most of the time. However, I wish we discussed more of the interpersonal relationships more. It seems like the emotions of his parents and some other characters get glossed over a little, and this could use some polish there. Their identities are clear and unique, plus fun to read, so I'd  want to see more of that. Also, more denizen of the libraries. I'm curious as to what other beings are there legally and what deals they could make. 

The story also has a surprising focus on the eldritch horror aspects of superpowers, plus a darker tone on their cost. Everything has a price, and with how powerful a lot of.his abilities are, he's got a lot to pay up on. We also don't know all of his debt holders too, so I'm very interested to see what they look like later. 

I would also warn about the content warnings. This series has the general fighting viscera, but also some horrific actions at certain points. The story trades a lighter tone for a more serious and interesting plot. 

Overall would reccomend, and very excited to see where this goes in the future!

This novel's world-building is overly complex and presents too much information too soon. 

Style: The overall writing style is very formulaic, with an almost rigid structure that makes it reminiscent of one written by AI, although it is not. The dialogue is deeply entrenched in appropriate fantastical phrasings and idioms, though sometimes to the point of excess.

Story: There is simply too much world-building too soon. The reader is thrown into the deep end, with an albeit very complex world, and little explanation. While this is usual of many novels, this novel presents too much new information too quickly, it just detracts from the story. The main grip of the story, the library, is almost like an add-on, with its significance lost in the novel's overly complex worldbuilding.

Grammar: The grammar is nearly perfect; I can not fault it.

Character: The main character seems to be likable enough, but the secondary characters are a detriment. His friend is an annoying nuisance, although, thankfully, her appearances are short-lived. His uncle is a lunatic who almost caused his death with the carelessness of giving him something 

too soon, and then everyone moves on hunky dory, as if it was the most natural thing.