Take a photo of a barcode or cover
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“We are guardians, but also a bunch of miserable wretches that are constantly fighting against dangers and madness.”
I have a lot of things to say in this review, which is understanding since I read this monstrosity of 1326 pages of a book and flew through it like it was nothing… unlike more than 70% of the novels I read last year.
Okay, now I’m going to go through my thoughts on this on chronological order.
I discovered this on Tiktok, where one account called it “The Greatest Web Novel and Isekai to ever be made” with the simple synopsis of: “transmigrating into a terrifying Victorian era world and convincing everyone you are a God”. It explained that the first book was finished and contained 3 million words around 8 volumes and 1430 chapters, and that it was supposed to be a trilogy and the second book would come out this March following a different main character but without losing sight of the others. Then, it explained how to read it (because since it is a chinese webnovel, it’s not the easiest thing to find a translation) and showed a bunch of quotes from the book. And I saw that, and well, I was pretty much completely sold. I felt like I was going to love this book, that this was my sh*t. So, after a few google searches to see how I could read it, I started doing so immediately after discovering it and well… I read the first 100 pages that very same night (all of this in finals season which makes it even more funny lmao).
Because of course, this is such a big thing (for reference, the whole Cosmere is around 5/6 millions words right now) but the style of webnovels is different, people said that the beginning was always going to be slow and filled with info dumps, but that it got better around the 60-80 chapter mark (here things are often reference by chapter, volume or arc, kinda like manga i guess). I, on the other hand, was sold from chapter 1 and found myself running through the pages, absolutely hooked up by the initial mystery we started with and seeing all of this new world. But to be fair, things were pretty slow, much of it was this slice of life of Klein (our MC) acting like a malewife and figuring out things in this new world he had been transported to.
I believe people didn’t like the starting arc much because of this, but also I feel those people in their majority are webnovel readers accustomed to have plot and action all the time, fightings and such from the beginning, as I’ve seen that more or less is the style or other popular chinese webnovels. I’m not a huge fan of battles, I don’t mind them though. But what drags me to a book is the interesting lore, worldbuilding, characters and plot. And this, for me, checked all the boxes.
The plot to me was pretty catchy, because as the title suggested, it is all about mysteries, so we have one after another. Firstly, Klein, the MC is trying to figure out the accident that led him to arrive to that world and through a series of events he ends up joining the Nighthawks, which are basically a military forced linked with one of the Big 3 Churches (as there are many different gods here, each with a particular faith) but aside from the police since it’s agents are all people with powers, or how we called them here: Beyonders. And so, Klein starts having to solve all these supernatural cases, as that’s the job of the Nighthawks around their home, Tingen City.
Oh, yeah, I forgot to see but I guess it’s kind of obvious since it’s a fantasy fiction, there’s supernatural forces and such. But the magic system is what intrigues me more since it was a concept I have never seen before but it’s pretty common on TRPGs, which is called Progression Fantasy. The best way I can define this it’s just by explaining how it works on LOTM. In this world, there used to be your typical mythical creatures like dragons, elves and such, they’re now all extinct. But, their remains are still there, and because these creatures were so powerful, even after death there’s still some spirituality (magic, basically) left on those. So, people take them as ingredients for potions, and when one drinks it, they become a Beyonder, with different abilities depending on the abilities. And the way you can become more powerful, it’s by drinking a higher rank potion. They rank from higher to lower as 1 to 9. However, if one is not ready to drink the potion and does it anyway, they will lose control as the power will be too much and they will become monsters known as Rampagers. Because of the ranking system of the potions, Beyonders are also classified by this.
And I think one of the things that make it so interesting and funny at times, is because of the whole transmigrating thing, which is what makes this an Isekai novel. For those who don’t know, cause I didn’t either know what it meant despite having seen it in some anime, it’s the type of thing you didn’t even know had a specific name for it because of how common of a trope it is. Explained for dummies, transmigrating it’s what happens when someone dies and you get reincarnated in a body in another world (commonly a fantasy one when you come from our normal Earth) but not as a baby, but a grown person who happened to die at the same time as you. So, in this case, our protagonist is a chinese guy that wakes up in the body of Klein Moretti, a recent history graduate that killed himself with a revolver and left a note on his journal saying “everyone will die, including me”. The OG Klein dies, yes, and that’s when our MC steps out and decides to pretend like nothing happened and act as Klein until he figures out why the OG died, why he himself transmigrated in the first place and what he could do to go back home on Earth.
The world we stepped in is this steampunk Victorian era one where the Industry Revolution happened around 200 years ago. However, in the particular kingdom we are, the aristocracy still has most of the power and influence and now the bourgeois are starting to threaten them in terms of money and reach. And since our character comes from a modern era, well, he certainly is lamenting he didn’t come to a more advanced world and trying to improve it from the shadows as much as possible.
This is when the Tarot Gatherings come in. For some reason we don’t know, Klein has access to a space of gray fog everytime he tries the ritual that triggered his transmigration back on Earth, and he can connect to some crimson stars, when he does so, he’s calling a certain person to that same space. This first attempt leads to the first Tarot Gathering, when two people are suddenly brought to this space (that exists outside the physical one), and believe the person who has brought them there, Klein, is a god. And so, Klein turns the space of the gray fog into a big palace and lets them believe that yes, he’s a powerful mysterious being that’s interested in the lost history of this world and calls himself The Fool. This leads to the other members picking up codenames of the Major Arcana and the foundation of the Tarot Club as a secret organization. And it’s just so funny, because Klein has all of this knowledge from the modern era that does seem godlike from the perspective of the other members… And it’s just so entertaining to see everytime Klein has to act like a god when he in fact is making up everything as he goes but somehow still gains the faith and respect of the others. Especially because, as it turns out, each member either has power, money or influence… which leads Klein to gain a lot from it as he’s technically the one who has less to offer. But he still manages thanks to certain things I will not get into, but yeah, he’s ironically the closest to the gods for real.
I would say without hesitation that the thing I love the most about this novel is that the world feels so big and alive. We have multiple NPCs we follow and see both with and without Klein. There’s little details that seem unimportant that at the end reveal the biggest secret of them all. There’s all these mysteries and questions about the past history of this world, or about the gods and legendary figures that exist that make it seem like what we know is merely the tip of the iceberg. It’s something that you have to be in for the ride, and I certainly am.
Now that I’ve more or less explained this as basic as possible to not give any huge spoilers, I’m going to leave here some of my random thoughts on the plot and lore because there’s SO much to unpack:
- I thought
Qilangos was going to be the BBEG here… I was ready to celebrate the first Tarot Club success and then we went after Madam Sharon and suddenly the whole coincidences of the book’s mystery cases were connected… Megose’s baby… I think I’m still traumatized at that, I-- I was devastated at
Dunn’s death, like I knew it was going to happen unlike Old Neil's and somehow it broke me more than that one. Especially when he said how all his team members still live with him in his dreams, I didn’t expect that and it was freaking sad. Captain, we will miss you. - I did NOT expect that
the quill was behind all of these coincidences… Like, I had completely forgotten about that and the guy who stole it. That was a hella good plot twist. And what a good way to explain why Klein kept being at the right time in the right place all of the time, glad to know it wasn’t him having the MC syndrome or something. It really puts things into perspective that he was merely a pawn in someone’s game. Thank godsInce doesn’t know anything about the gray fog or the transmigration , that seems to be above everyone apparently. I mean,no one ever caught Roselle lmao. The True Creator gives me Demiurge / Horned Serpent vibes (two reference I think I only can get, but it makes so much sense I swear). Like why does he need to become physical to break his shackles?? Does that mean he’s actually Death or that was just a lie???? If so, why the fuck is he literally depicted as Jesus in the Cross but reversed????? If Klein can die and be brought back because his body heals itself as a side effect of the transmigration, does it mean he’s immortal?? Is this some Azik situation as well or what?
In regards to the whole volume as a whole and part of a bigger thing, the author said the first half of the first volume is slow. And if that’s supposed to be slow, I don’t know how the rest of the volumes are gonna be to me.... And I get, technically it was slow because it was all an introduction to the world and the plot didn’t necessarily move forward a lot (since our main mystery at the moment was what happened with the notebook and we barely knew anything until the second half or last quarter of the book) but damn, shit is catchy. I mean, I guess better for me lmao.
I don't think I can be super objective with this because I just love it too much. Everything was perfect, it was exactly what I was promised and more. I just had a great time and I'm already weeping about the fact that we have to say goodbye to some characters. I'm sure going to reread this next year or something to relive the whole thing again. That's how much I enjoyed it, because I never reread anything. I won’t run to the next volume merely because I don’t want the journey to end too soon.
That said, I do recognize there are 2 problems I could have with this book but I think they’re justifable for the moment. Again, this is merely the first volume of a very long book.
1. The writting. It 's not… the best. Like it’s not bad, at all. It’s just pretty simple and straight to the point, which is ironically one of the best things about it because it makes it read so fast and when we’re talking about a thing so long like this… you’re grateful for it. But still, I kinda expected a little better. However, it is a fan translation from chinese, so there’s that. And many people say that it gets better later, so I don’t mind it much. We’ll see if they're right. But because everything else is excellent to me, it's not the biggest issue I could have.
2. The plot armor. There’s so many things that happened that just were too favorable all the time for Klein. And to a certain point, I get it, since most of them can be traced back to the quill, so that makes sense. However, everything related to The Fool, seems a little too good to be true. Like… How is he able to control the grey fog? Why was he able to pull Justice and The Hanged Man from the beginning and why exactly them? How was he able to hear The Sun’s prayers to that random crystal ball??? Why wasn't he affected by the marionette artifact?? The fact that he can read Roselle’s diary written in chinese because he’s from there too… I don’t know, I don’t personally mind it, since Klein still has his (many) struggles, but because there’s still no reason behind all of those, I can’t help but be uncertain about how I should feel about it. I guess we will see, but I still enjoy seeing Klein getting away with things for just being so damn smart, really, I’m impressed he comes out with so many ideas lmao.
Overall, I loved this very much and if things keep being this way, this is for sure going to become one of my favorite series of all time. And even if not, I’m so glad I can dive into this huge thing that’s still not over and enjoy the journey. Really grateful that I found this hidden gem.
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i’m devastated.
a full review will come later, i’m still processing this end. because what the fuck. that was one of the most fucked up things i’ve seen in my life (and i’ve been into horror analog for the past 2 months now). and not like “damn, that’s terrifying but also a really interesting concept” as the infected of the last of us. this was more like “this is so terrifying like it’s not fucking funny. fuck, i don’t want to see this but i can’t stop now, it’s too late to erase it from my memory”.
my core though at the moment is, in leonard’s own words: FUCK!
i’m devastated.
a full review will come later, i’m still processing this end. because what the fuck. that was one of the most fucked up things i’ve seen in my life (and i’ve been into horror analog for the past 2 months now). and not like “damn, that’s terrifying but also a really interesting concept” as the infected of the last of us. this was more like “this is so terrifying like it’s not fucking funny. fuck, i don’t want to see this but i can’t stop now, it’s too late to erase it from my memory”.
my core though at the moment is, in leonard’s own words: FUCK!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Murder, Classism
Moderate: Cursing, Dementia, Pregnancy
Minor: Deadnaming, Transphobia, Cannibalism, Dysphoria