Mediocre, a nice standard for 'average' to compare others with. It's nice that it's completed already and we don't have to wait week after week, but for the style it's in, there are lots of other novels on this site that does the job better (and lots that do it worse).The nice things about it are the occasional warm scenes and amusing characters. Although rare, the feeling of family and friends are well-appreciated. But the idiocy! The sheer, mind-blowing, soul-cringing idiocy! It's like almost all the characters in this story, even the supposedly 'intelligent' ones are competing for the Global Morons Championships! What kind of husband sits around crying about his mistakes while his wife is lying in front of him still alive but slowly dying? SAVE HER you absolute nincompoop! And all that standing around waiting for an enemy to strike first! Or worse, give them time to summon a total badass?! Or treating a death-zone as a tourism site and getting trapped!? Or worse, the gambling habits! It's like a guy, who, just after becoming a majority shareholder in a global corporation, went to a casino and bet his very life all night long! That dumb!On top of that, the whole mindset of 'might makes right' looks like a child's temper tantrum. So many times I hoped for intelligent responses and all we got was more and more reason for endless conflicts. That, and a lot of contradictions of behavior and supposed character. The westernized names, the hate for churches and all that portraying gods behaving as badly as petty spiteful children doesn't help either. What happened to the author? Got rejected by a churchy girl who wanted to save herself for marriage? Sure seems like it. The story might have done better to delve more into meaningful side-plots (like a certain sort-of-teacher involving gravity and her spunky son, or a certain sister of a city lord who could have been a love interest, or even that certain pair of lovers stuck in a really bad place for a crazy amount of time). But instead? We get more reasons for a fight scene (which while plentiful, are too focused on reasons for power than actual action. Dude. Rookie mistake. Too much telling, not enough showing.)In the end, this story feels immature, like the early works of a budding novelist. It's a good first effort, I guess? Like I said, a good standard 'average' to compare others with.
