ros_lanta's Reviews (988)

I really enjoyed this volume, it's the first time this spinoff really found it's own plotline away from the original so I enjoyed it a whole lot more than the first two books. 

This is a really interesting overview with a good selection of topics and covering many parts of the world as well as hundreds of thousands of years. I think this would be a great book to give to a child, and even as an adult I found it interesting as there were some things I hadn't heard about or had forgotten. I also really liked the illustrations. 

Some of the jokes and attempts to speak to modern kids were a bit annoying (though as an adult I'm not the intended audience). 

I honestly don't have a lot of thoughts about this volume. I enjoyed it but had no strong feelings and didn't find it memorable. I think this manga volume might suffer from being an adaptation of just the first part of the first light novel - it feels entirely like setup and doesn't really give a strong indication of what the rest of the series will be like. 

One genuine strength is the art, which is strong throughout with good character design and some lovely detailing for example in clothing designs. 

Overall I think this is a series that unfortunately requires reading at least two volumes to decide whether it's worth continuing. 

I had a really good time with this book. Despite having to adjust to the writing style (I'm not used to modern swear words being used in high fantasy or xianxia settings!) I enjoyed the novel from very early on. My curiosity was piqued by any number of questions arising, only some of which were answered by the end of this first volume. The actual plot of volume one wasn't very remarkable but the overall concept for the series is intriguing. 

I really like Xie Lian as a main character, and I also enjoyed his differing relationships and ways he interacted with others. Unfortunately I can't say I quite have the same level of interest as yet in any of the other characters, but I'm hopeful that they will be developed over time. 

The book has some lovely illustrations, though I'm not sure if they're specific to the beautiful deluxe edition I have or included in all editions. 

Overall this was an enjoyable read and I'm looking forward to volume two. 

Probably the main thing that drew me to this manga (other than the historic Chinese inspired setting) was the art style, which is really rather lovely.

The plot has promise, but does feel like something that's been done better several times before. My overall reaction was very middling - I liked it well enough but had no strong reactions (positive or negative) and didn't really connect to the characters (if anything I found the female lead ever so slightly annoying). The worldbuilding was decent but a little generic. There was just enough to hold my interest that I never wanted to DNF. 

Knowing that sometimes stories can improve once they get going, I think I might check out volume two before deciding whether or not to continue the series.