This review may contain spoilers.

Plot

The first thing I want prospective readers to know is that you want to trust the writer is taking you somewhere, we're just buckling the seatbelts and ensuring everything is to working order first. It takes quite some time for the actual story to get going, but it's helped by the fact that the characters, dialogue, and world are colorful and fascinating. Don't expect any fast-paced action story beats to knock your socks off immediately because you are sitting down for a well-crafted dish that the author has clearly put in the hours to deliver to you.

As for the plot, our MC has a bad day. Then it progressively gets worse when he suspects he might be going through a mental breakdown (after hallucinating murder attempts on him), he checks himself into a mental hospital where it only gets worse. It's confusing, he's dreaming about people who seem familiar while being chased in a labyrinth, and also his newest roommate claims to be God. Yeah, things are going really weird.

World

This is where this story *shines*.

There's a lot of lore and worldbuilding, and if that's your jam then this will be for you. The plot is always in the background, but there's so much to see, to breathe, to take in, to listen, to *taste* in the story. Have you ever wondered about the linguistic rules of Dwarven or the mating preferences of nymphs? It's in there, with a lot of philosophical and moral quandaries that have arisen as a result.

Character

The dialogue is on point. As in, *very* on point. Good dialogue is hard to write, and this author clearly puts time and effort into crafting each and every line. Each individual has their own unique speaking quirks and flair, and it comes out dripping with flavor. At times it may veer into the uncanny valley, but that might be because of my personal sudden inability to maintain suspension of disbelief over the author's actual skill.

I am truly impressed with how well the characters are fleshed out.

Additional Notes:

The writing is really well done with amazing style. Sentences and grammar are generally for advanced readers, particularly vocabulary words that some may find themselves needing a dictionary for (I know I did). That being said, the overall story is still approachable and most turns of phrases can be intuited without help.

A previous iteration of this story actually had a second point of view (which I still hope to see later down the line), but the way it was inserted was what caused me to be unable to give it a 5-star review at the time. Now that the author has reworked the structure, it's an easy-to-follow narrative with incredibly well-crafted dialogue. I wholeheartedly recommend reading this if you're looking for something interesting that's beyond the numbers go brrrr.

(Also, God is my favorite character. You'll understand :D)

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