Metaworld Chronicles

Style Score: One of the more difficult guilty pleasure reads to elucidate my thoughts on——Metaworld Chronicles can best be described as a ninth-tier spell mandala that encompasses multiple schools of magic. Each interwoven genre element contributes to the dizzying array that makes up this story, with the raw Evocation power of progression fantasy, the Divination Gwennism foresights of a do-over, and the sweeping Transmutation of its parallel world setting.

Story Score: Criticisms have been leveraged against MWC aplenty, but in my view, dissatisfaction stems not from Metaworld itself but from the myriad camps of different readers, each with very different expectations. The militant faction of power fantasy purists are outraged when Gwen struggles through failure or moral quandry, while the high-brow gray faction find it distasteful when she performs too well. Some NoMs salivate at each morsel of worldbuilding introduced——eager to seek their teeth into more——while Fu-Er-dai spoilt for choice see the tidbits as the tedious chore of unnecessary info-dump. 

Personally——I'm unable to find any fault worth deducting CCs for. Five stars, every category! Weighing in from my own authorial tower firmly in the middle path, I enjoy reading Metaworld Chronicles immensely, have binged through three times in the past several years, and I've purchased the paperbacks to help show my support.

Grammar Score: Wutosama possesses a high level of technical prose, with no obvious flaws apparent or discernable, even when I squint real hard. As a binge-reader rather than week-to-week serial follower, I'll assume whatever errors escape his editing eye are caught and corrected by readers long before I could ever encounter them.

Character Score: We typically follow our intrepid but not infallible protagonist Gwen Song, with a narrative often flavored by her unique perpective and panache. Who she is is defined by her mood and the given personal context she finds herself in from chapter to chapter. Flighty whims contrast focused drive, she can be psychologically self-aware and also naive and blindsided. Gwennabitch doesn't always make rational choices, and her emotional maturity at the onset is firmly in the classification of 'cool wine aunt,' which helps and hinders her in equal measure.

While some readers found constant reminder of her leggy gweilo stature or day-to-day fashion choices irksome, I found them endearing. Focus on presentation and appearance is key to her identity——point of pride, mental hangup, and touchstone to her formative family issues all in one. Despite many unique advantages both mundane and magical, Gwen is all around too much of a hot mess for me to ever describe her as a Mary Sue.

Like the geopolitical and familial intricasies Wutosama crafts, the surrounding cast is colorful, distinct, and memorable. Many of the characters central to Gwen's life are multifaceted and attributed their own tangible arcs——Elvia and Percy in particular. Rather than assume the less-featured ensemble is flat or less relevant, it's more accurate to say that we're simply not privvy to their inner workings. This world Conjured into being feels that real, enough so that one can imagine that it continues on unseen in every direction until we have the privilege of exploring more of it along with Gwen.

I have enjoyed most of parts of this novel and as it is my first find on RR I'm pretty happy I managed to find something readable right out the gate.

My problem with this novel comes down to pretty much one or 2 things

- Descriptions of what people are wearing, at first I though it was an ammusing inclusion but when multiple paragraphs are consistently devoted solely to describing someone's outfit, I was like (CLAP)WHERE(CLAP)IS(CLAP)THE(CLAP)STORY?(CLAP)

- YES WE GET IT, she has LONG WHITE LEGS and apparently people find that feature attractive. I don't know if I'm using the word appropriately but I thought it made sense but I guffawed (not in a good way) and eye rolled so hard when great pains are taken to ensure that physical feature is mentioned EVERY SINGLE TIME fashion is involved.

- regarding the MC, how unrealistic the MC is as a "30 something" grown woman in a teenage body. She is able to anticipate and counter any attempts at disrupting anything that would get in the way of her BIG ASPIRATIONS. She uses her OLD WORLD knowledge to advance her goals which included intense long winded lectures that involve said knowledge. So I almost believe her character and personality. But than we hit the back and forth internal dilemna of I can't kill them or they are intelligent beings to. Cut immediately towards end of arc after MC killed or wiped out entire city and this happens EVERY SINGLE TIME. Lets not even get into wearing mini dresses that show of the LONG WHITE LEGS to a batlle scene. I really struggled to pair an intelligent, knowledgable and mature 30 something year old woman with a character that has a virtually obsessive compulsion to wear highly impractical clothes into a dangerous situation. My ONLY conclusion is that the MC is in reality not Gwen Song but ELLE WOODS.

- Lastly as a queer person I barely tolerated the queer relationship baiting as the MC's habbit of leading other characters on really started to grate on my nerves anytime a possible love interest appeared. In a sentence the MC, No we can't be in a relationship but you can totally touch me inappropriately, kiss me, hug me and I wan't to touch you, hug you, smell you, kiss you. And this is dismissively explained away as the MC's tendency to be masochistic. I think it was at that point I started to serously wonder if this novel is worth following. But then again the Romance genre is not my cup of tea so I'm highly biased against romance novels which I thought this wasn't because I didn't see it in the catergories. So the Catergories NEED TO BE UPDATED

in the beginning of the story it was pretty solid. Gwen found herself as a character and the author worked in a lot of humor and it was good. It was good up until chapter 300 and from that point onward it was a slog. It was honestly painful to read but this is one of the few novels that learned from their mistakes and actually fixed it. The pacing got better and by now as I write this it is almost fixed. The pacing could be a little faster even still but for the most part it is nearing the Goldilocks zone. Honestly I'm happy for the writer that they could take honest feedback and fix it and this is the first novel that has recovered from bad pacing in the middle instead of just continuing on as they did before with no plan on where they wanted to go and so for that I would like to give huge props to the author. 

Written on ch 55.

This isn't a reincarnation story.

Why?

Because the MC who is supposed to be a 30 year business woman with a difficult past and strong character has all the wit, resolve, and social ability of a 16 year old girl. 

Now, this isn't to say this is a bad story. It's fairly good for a pretty standard wuxia, which it is. Just because the MC is a woman and the world is more magic, less cultivation, doesn't make the plot armor any less thick nor the characters any more deep. Personailty is literally affected by elemental affinity, leaving about 12 or so character templates, NoM are general simpletons, and everyone thinks the MC is the best thing since sliced bread, not to mention she gets a power-up every fifth chapter. But, all-in-all, it's totally readable, downright binge-worthy, if it wasn't for the false promise that this was a reincarnation story, because it isn't. The MC is supposed to be a business-savvy mature woman so why is she as clueless as an already pretty stupid teenage girl? Why can't she handle awkward social situations with the 15+ years of emotional maturity she has over nearly everyone around her? Why is she so needlessly reckless in a world she barely understands? There are so many holes in her character backstory, you could pass a truck through them. She thinks and acts like a teenage girl constantly and only pretends to be mature by stealing famous lines from authors in her old world. Just because she dresses fancy and reminds the reader every chapter of how secretly old she is doesn't mean she acts like it. It's more like "Upgrading Specialist in Another World," where the soul that was supposed to travel to another world gets destroyed along the way and the actual MC just gets his power; the story would be more honest if it was written that way. But it wasn't, so now I have to read about a 30 year old woman whose never been in a relationship and can't handle horny teenagers, thinks she can beat evil Magus with her less than a year of training, and wanders around slums in stilletos. 

The grammar is great, the style is above average, and the story is okay, but the characters, especially the MC, just leave too much to be desired for me to give it a good score.

Not that you need care. 

Things to note before reading my almost full review

This story has been ups and downs for me, and this is my opinion. I am no story writer, nor am I qualified to give a complete breakdown of what is right and wrong with this story. I will give you my review (opinion) on what I have experienced while reading this story.

I started reading this story two months ago and caught up with the story last month. As of this moment, I am caught up with everything in the story and the latest chapter has been released 9 hours ago.

Review (and honest opinions)

When I started reading my opinion was "this is a cool concept of where a person is put into an alternate fantasy universe", and wondered how it will go. I kept reading because not everything was bad enough for me to drop. There have been minor ups and downs for the first arc or so, like most readings.

Then around when the major antagonists were introduced, the main character, as my opinion stands, gains a series of lucky things happen to her. Now, I do not mind luck, but when luck is majorly used as a plot point (or as some people call it "Plot armor") I start to have issues reading forward.

After that brief arc, the main character and a teacher has a talk about ethics. In some parts, I was alright with it, then the main character starts pulling out Shakespeare quotes like some scholar of a writer which at the time I was like: "Ok, this was unexpected, there was no lead up to this happening what so ever.". I was alright with those brief quotes because of her past life, and their schooling is different from mine. The next arc later there are more quotes from books, and it becomes a plot point where the main character is seen as wiser in some sense than others (I have felt). What makes my character score go down on this read is that the main character does not live up to that assessment and that no other characters have memorable doubts about this plot point.

The next part where the main character found them self in a pickle, I had major issues with the story, I looked in the comments and I see positive comments like I have missed something, so I re-read the arc. I felt like I am the only one in this arc who absolutely hates it enough to drop, which I have, for a week to collect myself. Now I hated it enough to skip chapters, which is not good for this review, but it is what it is.

I finally finished the arc where the main character and the adults have a conversation on the past of a certain teacher. I liked that part, which helped me keep going forward.

Then the main characters get familiars, throughout the whole story, even to the more recent chapters but lesser now than it was 10 chapters or so ago. Where I live the main character would be arrested for animal abuse, where the familiars fit the definition of the animal according to the law where I live. Also, it is majorly looked down upon for animal abuse, and I am no exception, I got angry whenever she abuses her familiar, which is 95% of the time she interacts with it. It is toning down in the more recent chapters but that is where more of the reason why I lowered the character score, and that other characters do not pay much attention to this abuse.

The next major plot point where an unexpected attack happens to one of the main characters. I had issues with the main character's unreasonable action towards the attack (I felt like it was like "I blame this on that, why did you do this" typical trope). After that, the main character gets a bit too attached to the other, where I felt it was a bit forced. Which, when I kept reading it solidified why I felt it was forced. I felt was a bad move on the author's part.

The next arc the main character has more strings of luck, but the battles before things go downhill in the story I liked. I enjoyed where the main character finally feels threatened enough to kill someone. Seeing the psychological abuse she has taken I agree with her actions.

The story gets better for me when she moves although I still have problems with some characters, although minor seeing the buildup and background they are given.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading my long tangent on this story, I wrote this review before reading others to not be influenced too much by their reviews. As I said before I am no writer, I am not qualified to properly review this story, but what I did give was my honest opinion on this story. I can tell you if you do not agree with me that is fine, I am not you, nor you are me.

Seeing as most people give this story a positive review, I am an outliner, but that just means I have a different perspective. It could also mean that people who share my opinion do not get that far into the story, but I sometimes like a challenge even if it does make me angry from time to time.

Reading the reviews, I agree with (for the most part) EARTHDRAKE's review and HUMANPROTOTYPE's review. I did not read every review I see, because that will take to long for me, and well I wrote so much already in this review. Thanks again I hope this review is read and my opinion is heard, even if it does not change the story going forward.

Not a fan of MC's personality.

Prior to changing worlds, she is portrayed as a strong and successful adult woman who has been through difficult times. After changing worlds, I expected there to be some confusion and panic at the early stages but what we're shown is not much better than a teenage girl with mommy issues and constantly in panic at every small unexpected event. I understand that the alter-ego sort of takes over when she is interacting directly with her mother but what about at other times? Especially when her mother becomes outright hostile, she doesn't seek help and goes like "Oh well I'll just wait for her to screw me over". 

For me, it's just another novel ruined by a contradictory main character. 

Wish fulfillment fantasy that promises but doesn't delivers. lets start the the good points:

- dialogues: some of them are on point – adult, clearly conveying the characters personality or pov.

- characters: initial characterization gives each one almost a unique voice, but that’s it. But it feels like their stuck into their sidekick role without any unique voice of their own. The biggest problem is though with the female lead, a self proclaimed 30 year old behaves like a teen.

- filler and gratuitous erotica – pages and pages of small talk, shopping, dresses, getting from point a to point B without any meaning full events.

- erotisized description that serve no purpose beyond fan service. e.g. a shower scene with an erotic tone that did not even connect to a internal dialogue to make it meaningful.

- world-building: despite being initially intrigued by the world political and magic system, it become very much apparent that the author just slapped a half-assed dungeons and dragons (1^st edition) rule book over the current geo-political system, and just went along with it without giving serious consideration to the ramifications of having magic. We have all the modern conveniences of a technological society photocopied into a magical one without a single change, cars (“turbo boosted mana core engine), phones, etc. In one of the fight scenes someone casts “detect evil”? Wtf – does it mean that a first level spell can make philosophical ethical judgment, when even the author magic system does not have the d&d distinction of evil vs good.

- cartoon villains with their obligatory pre-death monologue of justification and clearing of plot points.

- mary sue badassary – where the characters sidekick animal is a lovecraftian horror wurm that is just there to make the protag onlookers shit in their pants, when she makes her entry. And even when that horror nightmare gets kicked in the butt losing a few of its legs. Two minutes later its back on the scene brand new carapace.

- fight scenes that a literally characters calling out spell names like some bad version of japanese kid anime.

I could go on and on but in chapter 121 I gave up.

Author writes very well, has good imagination, world building is very good. Beginning used to be shaky but after the edits it is now fine. I have now read 255 chapters but had to drop it.

My main gripe is his need for the protagonist to solve everything (Marry Sue). I think it is due to the format, it is really hard to do edits and writing it chapter by chapter probably forces the author to concentrate on the "main plot", however it simply does not make SENSE for her to do everything. The amount of "admirers" who are in her thrall now is huge, people much stronger/more experienced than her amongst them.

I would suggest thinking hard how to make her only a minor player in parts of the plots. It would make it all more believable. And adding more cases where she fails. If not everything is on the line, it is easier to sneak this in. Because as this is now, it is getting ridiculous.

Overall I would recommend trying this, it was fun for me most of the time. Not a literary masterpiece, but a somewhat fresh take on the genre.

Well written story, interesting magic system, really detailed and unique setting... My only gripe is how many semi erotic scenes there are. The main character is basically a Lolita who freezes up with panic attacks when talking to her mom or when men look at her lustful or when she's not wearing long pants and men can see her legs.

Lots of scenes of her choosing just the right outfit to wear to some event, often with a corresponding picture from the internet that the author used as inspiration... then going on and on about how many heads she turned or how many people can barely contain their lust for her.

For example there is an early scene where she rides the train and a man starts groping her and ask she can do is freeze in terror. At first I thought this was just a comment on the human condition, or an example of the stories setting, but no, the author just likes writing scenes like that, and you'll find another one every few chapters with some contrived excuse why.

The story has a strong start and sets itself up to have some interesting characters.  However after the first story arc the power creep sets in and everything starts to settle into a rinse and repeat of the main character overpowering every obsicle in her way.