Story is a mesh of historical with a Wuxia touch and takes place during the Tang Dynasty. Protagonist transported from our world to this semi-fictional world, dies in apocalypse, turns back time and reincarnated in the past again.
I'll start with the positive.
The story setting is good, ancient china Tang Dynasty during the An Lushan Rebellion which kinda takes the center stage. Author crafted quite a beautiful world with the addition of Wuxia elements like cultivation, martial arts, supernatural low fantasy. A lot of the story revolves around the historical events during that time period. Pretty good world building all in all.
Another aspect i enjoy is the court politics and military bureaucracy. The cunning and guile is not at the level of novels like Kingdom's Bloodline but its fairly well done. It does take up almost half of the written content, so it might bore some people cos theres quite a lot of talking.
For the neutral.
Romance and harem. If thats what you're prioritizing then drop the novel. Its not the main focus and theres hardly any, at least not enough to make you happy. "Don't you know we're at War!!!" - Lotr
The cultivation system is mediocre common stuff but the interesting part is the inclusion of halos and formations. This novel is centered on war and commanders leading their armies so halos are like a buff and debuff aura that cultivators practice. So while strength of the individual is important, command abilities from halos introduce a new dynamic to the battles.
The protagonist also tries to implement modern policies and technology into the fictional world. Though not extensive but i do feel its a missed opportunity to expand on this further. Some work out fine but others not so as they don't integrate and gel well with the world and story itself as the novel goes from a conventional world with Wuxia to a high fantasy Xuanhuan theme, explained further way down.
Now for the bad.
Lots of plot holes. Its like the author didn't map out a plan for the story and just writes what comes to mind. And when author tries to "fix" them, he just retcons the story in later chapters which ends up making it worse, story basically ends up with a lot of inconsistencies. Also because of this the various plots thrown into the novel seems too obviously opportunistic and convenient rather than well planned.
Certain events and parts of the story are severely underdeveloped. Either they are too short despite being a major event or author dumps the plot in and somehow forgets about it, to later pick it up and shape it then forget about it again. Its plain to see author does not plan the story well. He has too many plots in mind which are beyond his writing capabilities. Ends up with poor plot structure and organization of events in the novel.
There are a lot of side characters but they're mostly disappointing or just average. They lack proper character development and substantial presence in the overall storyline. They literally feel like convenient characters for the sake of the plot than a full fledged character. Antagonists are also kinda dull and bland. Some have been dragged too long in the story its detrimental to the novel. Maybe because of their incompetence. Characters are forgettable overall.
Now for the main character. I'm kinda in favor at first but later on it starts to fall apart. He turns into a one dimensional character in a way. In my opinion author made a mistake by making him too invested in his goal, kinda like he gets dehumanized. Good characters are written to be human-like with strengths and flaws, wins and loses and how he reacts and behave differently to different situations and characters so that they can be relatable to the audience. But in this novel, author lost touch and just made the MC a single minded being, he feel like a doll rather than a true character. It doesn't help that he made all the obstacles and maturing opportunities for the MC too easy to overcome. The enemies are pretty much dumb. Almost everything is handed to MC on a silver platter.
Moving on to the battles and fights, i'm not a fan. Besides being lacklustre, author seems to have trouble translating epic battles into written words. Expect a lot of "Leaping Leopard Art, Dragon Claw, Stellar Energy Yin Yang Art" and sound effects like "ting, tang, cheng - hong long long".
I also take issue with the fact that author touts the novel as a conventional warfare with armies lead by generals with emphasis on the "Art of War" but it turns into something else later. In the early parts of the story we're seeing Wuxia genre elements with martial arts and cultivation but then turns into Xuanhuan with godlike abilities and strong fantasy elements. Whats the point of having an "Art of War" kinda novel when later on characters cultivate to get nuke levels of abilities? Switching genre and having no restrictions on power levels just kills the intended focus. Historical with low fantasy suddenly gets escalated into high fantasy. Remember when i mentioned modern technology being implemented into this world? Yea, this here makes it irrelevant.
I'm frustrated with the so call strategy and tactics of war in the novel. Xuanhuan replacing it is one, it turns into a stupid overpowered ancestor vs another overpowered character. The other is the flow of the battle, initial stages we get to see some interesting strategies and tactics but it always happens that towards the climax and ending it ends up in both sides throwing everything at each other and screw all warfare strategies and culminates in, as mentioned before, a powerhouse vs a powerhouse to wipe the floor. We only see some resemblance of strategy and tactics in small skirmishes.
We come to last point and i guess this one is more of a sensitive topic.
Racial Bias and Nationalist Pride but its NOT blind racism or nationalism.
This novel has some hardcore undertone of the die hard nationalist with the 'china number one' mindset and the chinese being the superior race. Nothing surprising really, this is a norm in chinese media and literature. However this is not like the usual mindless racism we see in chinese novels. In fact i'm somewhat inclined to agree with the arguments laid out by the MC. Hear me out.
More or less, the nationalist and racism was fueled by the fact that foreign power has already invaded China, from their government to their military, economy, trade and even daily lives of their citizens. It jeopardizes the safety and sovereignty of the country, it also jeopardizes the stability, jobs and livelihood of the locals. I quote a statement from the MC when he vehemently rejects the bill for forming the Regimental Commanders and proposal for increased intake of foreign talent; "The Tang will promote both the Tang and the Hu(foreigners) but the Hu will only promote the Hu". In a way, this is NOT merely blind racism and nationalism. Author goes through several underlying issues on the heavy reliance on foreigners, how they can endanger the livelihoods of locals, the danger of foreigners in various positions of power in the country, how they are effectively strangling the nurturing of local talents, how constantly recruiting foreign talents is NOT a long term solution but instead digging their own graves, the conflict of interest involved and much more.
Personally, as someone who is living in a country where HALF the population are expats and foreign citizens, i can empathize with this. The struggle is real for the locals. I do not advocate racism nor a fan of nationalist pride. However the cause of all of these is undeniable and instead we should tackle the problem from the roots itself, reforms to governing and policies, more focus on supporting and nurturing local talents and businesses.
A long review but i believe its quite accurate and concise. Overall i do enjoy reading some parts but- its ok at the start, drops in the middle and gets dumb later on.
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