Molting the Mortal Coil by JustinAnkar

First off. There is nothing wrong artistically with this story. Nearly all of my critiques are subjective. And, to the author (because this review is not for you, but for potential readers) stick with it, you've done a lot of work and I commend it!!!!!!! Please don't take my review personally (or any review) because everything written can be rewritten, edited, fixed, etc. Please do fix any plotholes readers point out and feel free to write us back if we step over the line.

In our story, the main character was a lowly programming drone, who iniplicably died and was reincarnated by a powerful entity on a cultivation world. He has access to sect resources, stumbles across several ancient inheritances, is gifted the uber-storage-ring-of-AWESOMENESS... but never really demonstrates much interest in (1) cultivation or (2) martial arts or (3) enjoying life.

Given that the power in his world is based on physical might and martial prowess and he has had several near-death experiences, our intrepid MC inexplicably stays true to his pocket protector and insect collection, marching forward decade-after-decade to create theaters, resort hotels, and plumbing manufacturing. (Did I mention as a 60-year-old virgin, tasked by his ghostly ancestors to make babies and rebuild the sect, GIVES AWAY a treasure that can near-instantly seduce anyone near it... so no-harem is a virtual certainty in this story.)

Grammar: Pretty good, no complaints; near full marks. (This never figures into my overall ratings unless it is really bad.)

Style Score: Exciting as plain oatmeal. Basic wuxia (xianxia/fantasy) setting, but the main character doesn't seem interested in cultivation, so the genre and setting are 90% wasted. What is the point of a fantasy story where the main character never fights, is totally weaker than everyone around him, is a doormat for 200+ chapters, and spends his life collecting and raising bugs? I honestly want to kick sand in his face and tell him to do my homework...

Potential love interests are introduced and ignored or discarded.
Story pace is too danged slow, despite the author skipping years and/or decades at a time, and lacks direction.

Story Score: Very infrequent action sequences. Unique/weird main character doing uninteresting things in a potentially interesting world. Lots of discussion on the merits of plumbing and how he wishes he could recreate rubber and other "modern conveniences"; this isn't a real cultivation story (at least a couple hundred chapters in).

Character: Stupid. Cowardly. Waste of opportunities. I honestly look forward to him dying, because at least there is a bit of action when it happens. Middling cultivation prowess to start, plus he is coward and non-risk taker. Not stupid, but quite the idiot, since he seems to be missing the point of his circumstances.







It is unclear if the character has any goals other than "lets see if I can do this very technical and difficult thing" (His ancestors are still waiting for him to procreate, the sole task he has ever been given in the story, but nope, 100 years later and still a virgin; they are likely wishing they could die a second time, out of shame; the holy sword is most definitely broken... or maybe he simply likes men?)

So, I'm going to keep reading, in the hopes that somebody kicks the MC/author in the head and fixes this story, which has no technical issues. But, once I hit the end of my binge, I'll probably drop this if the character doesn't start moving in a more promising direction.