To start the review off, I will say that this the same author who wrote "Strongest Abandoned Son", so if you read my review on that, you'll get the same gist of this review.
Protagonist was one of the world's best botanists in an alternate modern earth. He dies and is reincarnated into a new world of cultivation.
It must be the author's preference to take the plot really, really slow because it's the same deal as his other work, "Strongest Abandoned Son", the cultivation aspect in this novel is incredibly slow in comparison to your run-of-the-mill Xianxia novel.
Forty-two chapters in and the protagonist has barely grazed cultivation. The first forty chapters are nothing but world building, political conflict, and starting exposition to the world around him. Barely any actual progress in the cultivation aspect, which is the same deal in his other novel that is being translated here in this site.
His world building is fine, but the author has a habit of running around the issue in some areas. For instance, the world that the protagonist reincarnates into is a world where technology exists (cars and machines) but he keeps it purposefully vague. What era of technology? Why hide the setting you created and just ignore it? Only to use it in the beginning when you needed it?
I'd say a hundred chapters in is a good point to see if the story and the characters become endearing and fleshed out. Forty-two chapters in I can tell you that the main character is nothing special and thus far, the world around him is not the type to pull you (enchanting, mystical, mysterious, etc) in and keep you around. It's not bad, but it isn't good. Average. We'll see how this plays out in the future, but I'm doubting it.
The story, world, and characters are simply the textbook definition of "okay".
Apparently his works are popular considering he has made 1,656,627 dollars in royalties. https://wwyxhqc.wordpress.com/2017/04/30/richest-chinese-webnovel-author-ranking-2016/
Which in turn makes me question how this is possible. Am I reading the wrong novels?
Nevertheless, my opinion is that if you must read anything by Goose Five (in this site), it should be this. Strongest Abandoned Fart is another beast in and of itself and you could never make me read it again.
