tldr; Follow the day-to-day activities of a sociopath in a brutal, dark fantasy world. There's not much of an overall plot but some things you pick up on are weird behind the scenes occultist power struggles, the MC and others' not-really-talked-about-much quest for eternal life, and the relatable-to-everyone quest to earn enough money to buy live people you can dissect or mind-f*** into being your slave.

MC isn't especially likeable or dislikeable, she doesn't have much interiority and is fairly bland overall. She's very much the Amoral Mad Scientist mixed with those "will join a Sect just to get free resources" type Fast Growth Cultivators but she does everything for herself (read: make herself immortal) rather than to change the world. What does she want to do once she gains eternal life? The answer is a resounding: *shrug*. She basically just wants to keep existing because she thinks not being alive would suck (nevermind all the people she un-alives along the way, they aren't important since they aren't her).

MC doesn't really move things along much as she'd be just as happy to stay inside all day and play with her cadavers' organs, but when she does go out (and it's always to earn the money she needs to buy more materials), bc she's "special" outside forces pay attention to her from time to time.

The handful of secondary characters that clearly aren't fodder are decent enough, if also mostly flat. They're all pretty unsophisticated and you'll mostly get the archetypes they represent quickly.

The biggest driver for me to keep reading has been the world. It's a bleak and dark; nobody gives a flip about slavery, murder or worse so long as you are high enough up the social ladder. Or are too scary to confront one-on-one. The world is practically built on the idea that nobody can make villains pay for their evil deeds which is somewhat interesting to me.

All these nit-picks come off pretty negative but it all fits together to create a package that's really not so bad, though I definitely wouldn't rate this one highly overall.

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TotallyHuman

Status: 202 : time passing

Sep 8, 2023

This novel suffers from an unfortunate lack of readers and if this review helps to redeem this at least in a minor way, I feel like writing it is worth it.

What should the reader expect when reading this novel?

1) A bleak dark dog-eat-dog world where mercy, selflessness or compassion is not just rare - it is stupid and uncalled for, and ambivolence to someone's plight is already benevolence.

2) A main character that embodies this world, not goes against it.

So if you dislike either point, you should give this novel a pass, it is not for you.

If you do not mind the premises of this novel, then you are in for a rather interesting journey into this gritty but extensive world, with a refreshingly unapologetic and not hypocritic main character.

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