Metaworld Chronicles

Almost 4,300 pages long, this story is as engaging and interesting years in as it was on page one.  

The author does an amazing job of maintaining continuity, resolving plot points, and introducing fresh and new ideas and characters to maintain the impetus of this world.

Gwen has become one of my favorite MC's, and I have this novel on push notification so that I can read the chapter as soon as it comes out.  And I'm still never able to comment first!.

The 'extras' the author adds, like wardrobe photo examples, character lists, and photo's of main characters, give it an extra dimension that other novels miss.

What's amazing to me, is that almost 4,300 pages in and there is still so much of the story left to conclude.  Gwen still needs to graduate college, win the UICC, move back to Australia.  Visit Japan and England.  Import her business ideas to her home country.  Establish her tower.  Save the house of M.  Improve the quality of life and create a better and more effective government for the NOM's, and kill the void sorceress and the cult of followers that continue to snipe at her wherever she goes.  I won't be surprised if the book reaches 20,000 pages!

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

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. 

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.

A great twist on common D&D spells that U know by heart. Is the first thing that grabbed me to the story, after that I stayed for everything else. 

The Grammar is very well done, quirks in names and nouns when the point of view is that character are used, which I was interesting. Very nice descriptive writing style. Everything is easily understandable and laid out well, making it a treat to read.

The story is great but has some hit or miss moments, missed opportunity, here and there. While this does give it a more realistic feel to it than just a story written to please the reader. While the story is kinda hit and miss, the characters are very well done and believable. Every character is fleshed out and has an obvious identity. For instance, while Yue and Alesia are extremely similar almost identical character types they are obviously different people. This remains to be the same for every main character and even temporary side character or villain. 

This is currently my favorite story here on Royal Road and I enjoy reading every single chapter. Which is currently being released on a regular basis, by the way. If you enjoy a good story, well-done characters, and a solid fantasy world. give it a read.

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.

Writing this review as of chapter 11. I reserve the right to change it accordingly as I read, but I feel my interest waning as it is. Better to have something to put here before I lose interest in everything to do with this story. 

Competent but not entirely original magic system can make for a good base for this story. There hasn't been MUCH revealed in regard to the world, but it's an interesting take on a modern magic setting. 

Most of my issues with this piece of fiction relate to the characters and the style in which it is written. In TRUE "isekai" fashion, our MC is transported into a new world, very quickly adapts to it without much worry, and completely forgets about her past life. I won't hold it against the writer for this, as it seems to be the norm in these kinds of stories, but it's still jarring no matter how many times we read it. If a character doesn't act sensibly when it comes to one of their defining life moments, how can we expect anything from them? 

The writing style seems problematic to me, and is often outright off-putting. Many scenes read like groups of actors going through the motions of a script, and many characters exhibit and act in hilariously bad cliches. There's a lot of "passing of time" where we gloss over periods, that lead to a rushed feeling in the story, and chapters regularly feel like they lack substance when it comes to characters and their motivations and situations they find themselves in. There's also a slew of unnecessary saccharine/sappy lines and moments that feel extremely contrived and out of place - example:

"Cute! Too Cute! You are far too adorable, Gwen! The gathering felt their heart flutter."

Reading this made me cringe. Maybe I'm not the target audiance for this. I don't know if it's written for younger ages, or females, but none of the story so far has come across as serious. Tension is absent entirely, IMO. 

This story most certainly has a good premise, and it definitely delivers some good moments. However, at some points, it really falls through.

So first of all the thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was the style. Damn, I can't count how many times I've read how the side-characters admired Gwen's legs or her amazing features. It REALLY does get tiring to read about her amazing legs. And this is not only limited to her, every single time we meet a new character in the series Wutosama needs to tell us exactly how attractive their features are. I swear practically everyone in this series is supposed to be a walking model. 

Not only their appearance I also cannot imagine how much time I have spent reading what sort of CLOTHES they are wearing. I mean seriously why do we need to know what their attire looks like at any given moment right down to what their shoes look like.

Anyway, this is not the only problem I have with the style. Perhaps it is only me, but the amount of complicated and academic words in this story is just crazy. Perhaps the author is just really educated but this really frustrated me since I constantly had to look up words. (perhaps this is just because I am not a native English speaker). 

Apart from these problems, and the fact that some of the characters lacked a bit of life, I did actually enjoy the story. The idea of a clever protagonist who actually uses her brain to get through the different situations was indeed quite nice

Anyway to summarize I would recommend this story to people who like a well-developed modern fantasy world and can ignore the aforementioned faults in the style. The story really does have a good premise, and I really did enjoy a lot of it.

Started this story with already high expecations, and now like 4800 pages and 299 chapters later, i can safely say im happily surprised, with this story being actually one of my new favorites.

The story starts with the MC, Gwen Song, a 30 years old business consultant. One day she wakes up finding herself to be in the body of a 15 year old herself, with conflicting memories about two worlds. She finds out that it is now 2003, in another version of earth, one with magic, demi-humans and monsters, one where most of humantity lives shielded in the cities, away from the dangers of the wildlands. In such a world Gwen finds herself in. She has to go undergo many trials, the first being awakening her magical affinity which doenst go as expected, while there is also her family, one that gave her a hard childhood in her past life, and in this one it is no different, and thats just the start of it all, of a wild eventful life in the magical world Gwen is now in.

I like Gwen as a character, she is well written, but also flawed in her own ways, a character i can feel with, as she lives her eventful life, of making new friends, as she struggles and eventually triumphs over her enemies, or even losing those she knows and cared about.... While it may seem Gwen grows overpowered fast due to the powers she conviently has gotten, and has it seemingly too easy with recieving unique gifts and mentoring, the plot does quite require her to grow strong, especially with who is the main antagonist of the story so far. At times Gwen can act quite irrational for her mental age, but that is due to her physical age and the fact that her increasing magical affinity also affects her behavior, of her and other mages. 

At times it may seem she is without any set morals, as she kills to have more power, but actually its not that bad, she refuses to go wild with that, to be not like her greatest enemy, one that is so overpowered because of having absorbed so much power from her enemies, a path Gwen tries to avoid going on, atleast as much as possible, but its simply not possible for her to fully avoid that, since she needs power to defeat Sobel, her enemy.

Its true that at first it may seem that the transmigration aspect of the story basically doenst seem to matter at all to the plot aside from the initial reincarnation and that the story seemingly could have been done without it, however it does quite matter overall, even if its not exactly obvious, for example there is her mental maturity as a woman of 30 years old, which quite saves her in a lot of situations, even if that maturity gets limited by her physical age of 15 years old.

Then there is the fact that Magical world Gwen absolutely did not have a easy life, her mother Helena being a utter detriment to all she does, making M. Earth teenager Gwen a utter wreck, one that has nobody to even go to with her problems, to find stability in, not even her father who is simply useless as a parent. O. Earth Gwen had a similiar life, but overcame it eventually and worked to become a relatively succesful businesswoman, and would have kept doing that, until the transmigration happened.

Some characters may seem to be behave in a sterotypical way and seem cliched, but once again the higher affinity someone has for their element, the more their behavior is being influenced by it, this is especially noticeable with Yue, Elvia and Alesia, but to a degree also Gwen herself.

This story features such a wide variety of characters, while many of them may seem simple on the surface, they totally are not like that, not at all. For example Richard or Mia. Honestly the character im the most impressed by is Walken,  while at first he may seem to be a total jerk, one that can only be hated, and that hate is even justified because of what he did, even if there are circumstances. He however quite redeemed himself, to a way i grudgingly respect him, even if there is still what he did.

The one character im quite conflicted about is Percy, i dont exactly know what to make of him, at first he seemed like he would be a totally neglected character, one thats not important to the story at all, but then that changed by him being brought in the spotlight, in a event that made me dislike him and then that changed again, i honestly dont have a clue where the author is going with his character.

Then there are those characters that just provide something extra to the story, making the story much more bearable with bringing laughs, like Caliban does every time he appears before someone new, or Tao (even if he is near useless,he is still a fun character.)

This story starts off good, if not great yet, it takes some time for it to actually get to the action, as Gwen has to first sort of settle herself in her new way of life, returned to the body of a 15 year old, it takes a while for the story to go past that, but when it does, it really does it big. Later arcs are like that,  slowish plot  at first, with a large climax at the end.

While the setting for the story and its magic system, wich by the way is inspired by Dungeon and Dragons, may not exactly be original, they are however done very well in this story.

The setting for the story seemed to be sort of a standard one with the earth having experienced a apocalypse and humans having to hide in the cities, but over the course of the story it shows to be so much more, as it is revealed how the society of magic works, the functioning of the Frontiers and Tier 1 cities, and the differences between them, even what the place of the non-magical humans is in that world (spoiler: its not easy for them)

What is simply by far the greatest aspect of this story is the world Wutsosama has built for the story. There is simply so much there. Despite being a magical alternate version of earth, with sort of similiar history, it just feels like a realistic world, one that could actually exist.

The magical earth has a whole alternative history of its own, while it may follow a pretty similiar route for the most part, there are still major differences, that are due to the existence of magic throughout all of history, the author went really creative here with the differences and the similarities, for example Israel and Egypt who are eternal enemies of eachother. It is also interesting how at times the existence of Demi-Humans changed history, or actually took a place in history, like Centaur Mongol Empire.

I have to applaud the author for actually trying to show the world they have created for  the story, showing us much more than simply the likes of only China, USA or Australia. That does include the cultures of the nations and people. It is shown that the author has a lot of knowledge about other cultures by having journeyed to many countries, learning about their cultures and history, especially the Indegenious Australian people, or the Incans. This adds just more to the story, making it a even better whole.

As said, the magic system may be mainly inspired by Classic D&D, but its a system on its own, one that fits with the rest of the world.

An additional thing is that the author brings his expertise in economics to the story, by making that the MC's field of expertise before she got transmigrated, at first she does not have any chance of using that at all, considering there are just no oppurtinities for it, but later on it does get used. It may seem weird that nobody else has had such ideas earlier in that world, but remember that the world is a alternate one, one where technology never developed as far as in ours, due to the existence of magic negating the need for a lot of that development, and there is also the fact that some important events in modern history of our world never happened in that one, like the Great Depression which understandably never made it that neccesary to develop such advanced economics, while there is also Crystals being the main currency, one that is very resilient to inflation due to the massive practical uses it has, when compared to paper currency.

All of that combined makes for one of the most well constructed stories i have read so far in webfiction, only outdone by the likes of Wandering Inn, Mother of Learning and A Practical Guide of Evil.

This story mostly has good grammar, without barely any problems, but thats rather due to the amount of editing gone in it, this is due to the author making quite the amount of mistakes in his chapters, normally its not that bad considering those mistakes get noticed by readers and fixed, however problems still remain with the grammar, especially the first 80 or so chapters have a quite noticeable worse  grammar quality when compared to the later chapters. Special thanks to especially Andur and other readers for helping to make this story have a good steady grammar.

The writing style is just solid throughout the course of the story so far. Nice balance between story elements. Also the story moves at a fitting pace, switching speed when neccesary for the story, either slowing down to let the characters have time together, for conflicts to be resolves, or going fast to bridge a peroid of time, still following what happens without glossing over everything, but in such a way that the story also does not stall at a specific moment. The scenes are sufficiently detailed, with just enough to give some idea of what the scene is like, to at times more than enough to give the reader a image of just whats happening, though this story tends to go in the extreme at times with unnecesary details, like the dresses!

A extra thing i like is that there is all that additional material the author does provide, to give a better image of what the characters are like, how they look like, what are their skills and etc. And its only getting started with that, because the author is officially commissioning art for the story, i am interested in just what will come of that. There is even the published version of the story, thats professionally edited, with improved scenes and writing, if one has the money, i would recommend to buy to support the story so it can get more popular.

This story covered already so much in just 4800 pages, yet we still have a huge amount of the world left to still visit, the plot is nowhere near complete and there are so many things that still have to be adressed in the story, expect this story to be one for the long run, it wont be completed anytime soon.

Just a bonus, if you think yourself to be a actual 'first' commenter, then try to beat those madlads who always get first, its not easy!

With having said all of this, this is a story i just have to recommend, to the vast majority of readers, i really recommend to give it a try, to look further than what is shown in the story, to me this story is one of royalroads best, if one atleast gives the story a chance by reading far enough so it truly shows how good it is overall.

Man... holy fk...

Its a really, really good story but

Author please, for the love of god, if you aren't familiar with a foreign language/slangs... please stop using it. 

Im Singaporean Chinese, you gotta understand that it was *physically* painful for me to read the chapters that were in Singapore / China from cringing so hard at your use of the local slang and swears.

If you wanna make a character speak a different language, by all means go ahead. But when you are seeing ALL the China chinese characters speaking fluent English throughout the book but swearing ( badly at that ) exclusively in Chinese for some weird ass reason, its just plain cringey and off putting. 

They be going "You fucking Sha Bi"... why, why not just write "You fucking cunt"????

I swear the only use of the Chinese language ive seen in this book up to ch290 are swears.

Let's not even talk about your butchering of Singlish in the Singapore chapters yea? 

I'm not gonna pull the racism/cultural appropriation card or anything but damn, it was painful to read.