Matabar by Kirill Klevanski

Peak.

My Review from RR:
Overall, this novel is impressive. It's evident that the author is a professional, or at least a semi-professional writer. Their writing appears very deliberate and effortless, suggesting that this novel, or more accurately this author, is destined for major publication.

However, my reservation with this novel lies in the author's penchant for what some might call "misery corn." That is, they craft a narrative where one misfortune after another befalls the protagonist. While the author's skill is evident, allowing glimpses of the main character's potential, these moments are invariably overshadowed by subsequent tragedies. This will at some point cause you to wonder if out MC is inept or just unlucky. At this point, I find myself desensitized to it all. I'd just a much settle for a "typical" shonen-style novel.

This one's complicated for me; it's a high-quality book in terms of writing, and it has good characters. The world the author has drawn for us is also very interesting and impressive. I like the magic system he's built and all its complexities, and it still feels like there's so much to learn and delve into. The chapters are long, and it feels like the author has good ideas of where he wants things to go. The only real problem I have with it is that it's exhausting; the main character is constantly getting stomped on, both literally and figuratively, pretty much everybody but his family hates his guts, and I think he's only won one fight so far by the chapter I'm on (51) without somebody else saving him or the offender deciding they don't care enough to kill him. It's very fast-paced and slow-paced, fast-paced in that a lot of stuff happens and there's constant chaos, and slow-paced in the fact that Ardi is still barely any stronger than he was at the end of the first arc, and he's practically no closer to his goals than he was 40 chapters ago. Keep in mind these chapters are way longer than average webnovels, 3-4 times longer, and it has a weekly release schedule.

It's weird in the aspect that I can't really say "nothing's happened" since that'd be a lie because a lot has indeed happened, but for some reason it feels like we've barely progressed. It's also weird because I'm usually the one calling for the protagonist's power progression to slow down for the story to be sustainable, but Ardi's progression is glacial since mages often take decades to build their power, and the story doesn't have large time skips after the beginning, so it's just constant crazy event after event, which IMO happens way too often for the time frame they're squeezed into, and Ardi is nowhere near strong enough to handle these events, in addition he has nearly no agency in them; it pretty much always ends with him stalling until somebody else saves the day.

Первый плюс этой истории в том что название состоит из ОДНОГО слова! Без всяких "великий" Сильнейший" "Слабейший" уже одно это меня привлекло.
Второй плюс в том что это не исекай или попаданство где гг постоянно сравнивает этот мир со свои прошлым миром.
А самое лучшее, но за что некоторые ругают, так это то, что гг ведëт себя на свой возраст и статус, а не как имба-перерожденец из Японии уже готовый резать людей пачками. Да он стесняется, тупит, но и в морду дать может и убить. Но он не становится сверх опытным бойцом который читает врага как открытую книгу после пары тренировок.
Главным плюсом я считаю мир в котором всë происходит, я такого ещë не встречал! Сначала я проводил аналогии с "диким западом" в США и коренными американцами, а после попадания гг в большой город, появились аналогии с Российской империей и городом Санкт-Петербург!
Такого я вообще не ожидал и это очень прикольно.
Конечно есть на что пожаловаться например картинки от нейросетей кривые (но это хоть что-то такое что грех жаловаться) ну ещë минус в том что до 50 главы у гг как таковой цели и нет он просто плывëт по течению.
Незнаю кому интересно моë мнение но надеюсь ктото прочтëт)

54. bölümü bitirdim ve şu anlık günceldeyim.
İlk bölümler aşırı karışıktı kabul ediyorum. Hatta başlamadan önce yorumlara, incelemelere göz attığım için bırakacaktım ama meraktan devam ettim. Şunu rahatlıkla söyleyebilirim: Benim için en iyilerden biri.
İlk başta yazarın büyülü bir dünyayla rönesansı yaşamakta olan bir dünyayı nasıl harmanlayacağını çözememiştim. Ancak bu konuda harika bir iş çıkardığını düşünüyorum.
Ve uzun zamandır aradığım (büyü+ akademi+ öğrenmeye aç bir mc+ iyi karakter gelişimi+ kaliteli yan karakterler+ incelikle örülmüş bir arkaplan) her şeyi burda buldum.
Daha fazlasını anlatmak spoilera girer dolayısıyla burda bitiriyorum.
Üstte saydığım ögeleri seven biriyseniz kesinlikle başlayın, seveceksiniz ^^

Review from Chapter 53:
Well it is a risky mix to pick.
Cowboys, 2 different magic systems (and more unexplored as the current chapter), orcs,trolls,high fantasy elements and industrial revolution all in the mix.
It well written. It hooks you and drags you on.
I believe book one closes at chapter 50.
The pictures to present some elements of the story was very refreshing...

I liked the character development and the training arks. The writer doesn't let you rest by using deaths of the dear ones to turn the tables. You litterly believe the stakes are high in every encounter.
The world building is solid. Reminds me of Final Fantasy in a spaghetti western.

I didn't like chapter 50 because it's clearly an end to the story but the writer moves forward to the next part by retelling stories and not showing them. Which is cheap. But because the story continues maybe even this has a point in he future.

On of the best out there to read. Similar to Mother of Learning, in character development..

I'll start this review by saying yes, it's a good novel. It's well-written and has an interesting universe, but not everything is perfect. I stopped reading it and don't plan to continue, and here are my reasons:

Repetition: Throughout the story, every time the plot hits a standstill, the author kills off a character that's important to the protagonist and forces him to move forward against his will, pushing the plot to a new point. This happened three times so far, and it feels like a lack of creativity when it comes to creating narrative triggers that don’t involve tragedy. Slowly, this makes the story predictable and tiring.

The Protagonist: Normally, I enjoy protagonists who grow gradually and develop more personality as the story goes on. This annoys a lot of readers, but to me, it's one of the few things that feels "realistic" in a fantasy story. In this case, though, I can’t defend the protagonist. He's extremely passive. This isn’t obvious at first, but what really bothers me isn’t just his passivity (since there's a context for him to act that way for a while), it's the fact that the story flirts with him starting to want something more, becoming more determined, and finally having a goal. But that never really happens. Ardi remains a completely aimless protagonist, lost in his own existence, and there’s no sign that this will change anytime soon.

Excessive Suffering: This one is completely personal, and feel free to disagree with me, but I really don’t like stories that make the protagonist suffer over and over in different ways every few chapters. I get that the author wants to show how harsh, dirty, and dangerous the world is, but after so many chapters of Ardi suffering both physically and emotionally for different reasons, I can’t help but think, "Is this some kind of fetish for the author?"

Strange... I found myself into the Wizardry side of novels this Christmas and New year...

I haven't read this novel yet (waiting for more chapters), but I know the author well, he has a large series of books, "Dragon Hearts", which I read in Russian (native language) and this book is one of the most popular in Russia, it is written quite well, I liked it, but I don't know if it is in English. In general, I think this book should not be worse than the author's first work. Stone Will. Dragon Heart (A LitRPG Wuxia) series: Book 1 https://a.co/d/e69qd9x