Pretty good so far. I wasn't expecting much from this book but I'm pleasantly surprised. I can see that the author actually put effort and time in creating a well made world, which is rare in harem stories.

Both MC and girls are well-written so far. It pained me seeing our hero being "betrayed" like that at the beginning.

The secondary characters are also nice. I was genuinely expecting a certain character with royal blood to be a douche, so I was surprised that he wasn't.

PS.: The only caveat that I would give PE is maybe try to change the cover art? It made me skip this series the first time I saw it being recommended. But I'm glad I picked it up a few days after.

EDIT: The madman actually did it! Honestly, the cover is good enough to publish it on Kindle Unlimited. Slap the title and the bottom and you're good to go.

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Spoiler Free Review.

Wow. Color me impressed.

I thought the initial premise of this was your average western styled fantasy but with slice of life. But there is actually a lot of buildup that pays off later on. Author seems to be cruel towards the MC, but does a damn good job of showing how suffering manifests in a person. The MC is different from most that I've read, he thinks a lot, acts when he is supposed to but is also destructive when he doesn't want to be. You can see from the writing the MC is a very conflicted person early on and he gets challenged as he progresses into the story.

Critique: The earlier parts were a bit cringey, not the bad type but once you reread this it kind of makes sense. The tone of the story is cringey/naive at the start and it gradually gets darker and more serious as the story goes on, it is flavorful. Mistakes can be noticed in earlier works, but I often miss them because I was following the story too much.

Prose: Improves greatly around Chapter 11, that is why I am giving 5 stars instead of 4.5, author is improving. The earlier parts are still fun to read. I think the author is building up to more interesting things as we go on, very entertaining take on monsters that lurk inside rather than outside of us.

Definitely recommend to avid fantasy readers. I have read this twice.

Update:  I like that author now consistently has more illustrations on each newer chapters releases, it makes things more flavorful while reading.

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I've read through chapter 19. First three chapters are a terrible mess (I dropped reading twice). The writing and story gets better. From maybe a 1-star to a (generous) 4-star. Things are going pretty good early on- not perfect, by any means. (Childish reactions, a deluded and irrational MC.) Still, it's something to look forward to. You want to see where things will go from there.

Then? The story never pays off. You never get the emotional feel-good you want. Bad stuff happens and it never stops happening. This is the kind of story where if MC finds any kind of lasting or meaningful happiness or relationship, the story ends. Much of MC's pain is self-inflicted as well. The "shoot yourself in the foot to get sympathy" kind of self-inflicted. The reasons for things falling apart is often arbitrary.
Despite what you read throughout the entire story, I believe the truth is that MC is incredibly selfish- everything he does is outwardly for the sake of others, but in reality it is to satiate his own selfishness.

There is very little worldbuilding or descriptors other than what is strictly necessary. The grammar improved by leaps and bounds from the first few chapters, at least. Characters are... kinda one-dimensional with a few exceptions. The passage of time and pov shifts can be abrupt. The author starts including author messages at the end of chapters that are... just grandstanding- giving spoilers to show that they know what's coming (and imo that's rather irritating). Then there's the use of AI art, if that bothers you.

On the whole... I think 3 stars is a fair score.
I would recommend against reading it if you need stories where you need the MC to have some kind of stability in their life.

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