Reviewing a flawed gem is never a fun process. On the one hand, you see potential in the work and you don't want to discourage the author from continuing their art, on the other hand, because you see the work has potential, you want to see that potential manifest and not remain in the realm of "what it could be" as opposed to "what it is". So I'll give my honest review, hope for the best and let the chips fall where they will.I'll start with the good, two stars and a wish as the teachers say... I mean they didn't say that in my day, but that's neither here nor there. The premise is interesting. It's very promising, a battle royale conducted by a snarky superbeing? What's not to be excited about?Furthermore, both main characters, Ashton and Matt are likeable. I enjoy the dynamic of their relationship.So that's the two stars, I might have more than one wish, but they all relate to the same thing, and that's the writing quality and style. The grammar is appalling, I mean truly appalling. But for my mind reconstructing sentences as I read, large sections would be unreadable. The novel shifts between past and present tense, and words necessary to make sense of certain sentences are just absent. As for the writing style. It's best described as simple, that's not a bad thing, it aids in understanding, but it's often so simple that certain sections come off as a little immature. Some of the dialogue comes off that way too, it breaks engagement with the narrative when every so often I have to stop and think "No person, reasonable or unreasonable would say something like this or do something like this."And then there are the descriptions. Descriptions aren't a bad thing, but you can go too far with them. The reader doesn't need to know everything about a character or a monster right off the bat. Details can be doled out on an as-needed basis. Front-loading so many details is really quite distracting.Overall, this webnovel is fun, the characters are charming and the premise is hooking, but it's majorly let down by the quality of the writing. Time spent in editing, reviewing everything from syntax to grammar to dialogue to word choices, would really move this webnovel from a middle of the road (for this platform) time killer, to a book people would be eager and willing to wait for.
