Tree of Aeons (An isekai story)

It's crazy to me that a story like this is rated so low. For what is it, a litrpg about a tree, it's phenomenal. 

There's a lot of creative systems in place and the chapter length is quite long. My main criticism of the story is that character development is average at best, but that's not really the focus for these types of stories. Also having an editor would really help polish a lot of the chapters.

It's definitely worth a read if you enjoy these types of stories. 

I binged it in 2 days and it's one of the better stories i've read. there are some small errors but it's still perfectly readable.

Minor edits: 2022/03/20

Tree of Aeons is a unique take on the cliché "heroes vs demons" set-up, following the perspective of a virtually timeless tree — A bystander, who always remains somewhat separated from the people he meets, who all eventually pass on. It feels... Melancholic — To me at least.

I really like this story. I like most of the characters and the world presents many, many interesting mysteries I am yearning for answers to.

Nonetheless, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it. As much as I love this story, I also believe it to be flawed to an extent I'd be remissed to neglect to mention.

The style of the story varies. At some parts it's curt, yet as the main character becomes stronger, begins expanding and the plot thickens, there is more to 'report' each year, so it becomes less sparse with words.

Some may mind this occasionally spartan writing, but I welcome it.

My main complaint about the style is that sometimes it is hard to distinguish whether there is a shift of POV, or the main character is simply listening in on a conversation.

Another major irritant is the frequent use of puns. The main character likes putting tree-puns everywhere — Which ends up very grating when the mood of a chapter is somber and suddenly a Patreearch of Treeology at the Acadetree of Whateverthefuck shows up.

It has on many an occasion killed the mood.

In terms of grammar the story is passable.

There are many mistakes. Grammatical, typos, missing sentence parts, capitalisation errors, etc.

At points it is distracting and has forced me to stop and re-read passages.

The hick-ups are simply too frequent for me to give it anything more than 3 stars in this department.

The story has me very intrigued. Both the conflict the character is facing and the secrets of the past he keeps uncovering have me very interested as to how this novel will progress.

The characters are a mixed bag. 

I like the side characters. They are flat at first, but as our main character gets to know them better they each become more fleshed out. But even here our main character has somewhat of an observatory role; a degree of separation between them and him.

He knows they will eventually pass on and leave him, but he also does not want to completely abandon his humanity and human connections as a whole.

In this regard I especially like the heroes. Some of them regard the main character with suspicion, some outright hostility, while others think of him a friend.

Yet, regardless of their stance on the main character, in the end they all meet their end, only for a new generation to take their place — and for them to also be slowly overtaken by bitterness as they deal with their lot in life.

They are tragic characters, possible threats and allies to the main character at the same time.

I really like how they're written.

But enough about the good, let's talk about the bad: The main character.

The main character struggles consoling his new nature as a timeless, all-seeing, soul-ferrying tree and his former human self.

Regrettably this conflict isn't executed very well.

The character will switch from 'I will care for this family!' to 'should I just murder everyone, kick puppies and steal candy from children with leukemia?' seemingly at random.

I get that the author wants the main character to seem alien, and morally grey, but it feels more like whenever the main character so much as hints at any human emotion the author worries he has overdone it and backpedals into cartoonish supervillain evilness.

I like some segments, showing the main character's alien nature and his struggle with it. But for every good moment, I can point to another that just made me go "Why? Why would you even consider doing this? This brings you nothing." 

One example of this would be the main character deliberating whether he should kill a non-hostile hero as soon as he stepped into his domain, despite the main character himself very clearly laying out in that killing any hero would result in him being marked as a hero killer and most likely being eradicated by the next hero that wanders past.

It feels forced at those points. Very, very forced. In stark contrast to the rest of this novel.

In the end, I am left with a severely flawed story, which I also adore and I believe is truly worth a read, but cannot recommend wholeheartedly without a word of caution.

Tree of aeons an isekai story is an interesting take on the iseakai but the MC is now an x genre. It stands apart in the lack of tangible benefits the MC gets: rather than getting some bonusses or a lucky break that coincidentally their unique nature allows them to make exceptional use of the MC here is just a tree, with a soul, but still a tree.

Because of this and the nature of the world in which the story is set, there is a different perception of time: trees don't do anything for years on end, nor do they see what's going on outside, and as such a large part of the story early on is just the MC talking to the select few who can speak with him and then trying to help, getting attached and experiencing the world through others, a experience the reader shares.

I won't go into later sections, read it yourself if you want to read those.

Style:

Generally acceptable, though nothing outstanding. Some odd word choices every once in a while.

Story: There isn't a lot of plot early on, because the MC is a tree and therefore can't really do much, but as the MC gets more competent and slowly starts to influence its direct surroundings it starts having issues which it deals with. There isn't a big bad evil out there to fight, at least for the MC, and so the story is pretty slice-of-lifey with growth inserted to show progress,

Characters: Pretty good as well. People are affected by things happening around them, do introspection, strive towards their goals etc. There's nothing earthshattering here, but there also isn't anything to complain about.  Watching the MC think about how being a tree has changed his perspective is something not every story of this kind does either.

Grammar: All the points for placing the words in the correct order with the correct letters.

I like how original and creative the story is. The MC being a tree makes for an interesting point of view on the world and the conflicts therein.

It also makes the MC partly adventurer and partly dungeon core.

The writing makes it obvious the author is not a native English speaker as it contains quite a lot of errors, both in spelling and grammar. For example someone jumping 'out' of their horse instead of 'off', which made me chuckle.

The writing is also often a bit childish (or childlike?) or simplistic. The MC is also kind of strange in his thought processes, he kind of becomes almost like a monster or chaotic neutral. Or maybe he always was that way, I haven't read a lot about his previous life.

I love how creative the author is with his world and the story he's building. The MC being a tree is a first for me and a very interesting choice for a non-human MC. Being a tree makes for an interesting POV since he obviously can't move around and is very long-lived. This is why there are a lot of 'time skips', which is a bold move but works very well.

All in all I think if you're not as bothered as I am by grammar and spelling mistakes this is a good story and worth a read. If you are like me and struggle to keep reading a story with all the before mentioned flaws, I'd still recommend giving it a go. There is a lot to like here.

While the plot premise is really great the novel mostly reads like a journal leaving alot of things out. At the start it was actually not that bad because there wouldnt be that much happening but then all of a sudden the mc starts randomly gaining new skills and abilities just by thinking about them, And then the mc seemingly just never uses or explores said abilities. There is so much lost content because of this and it can be quite frustrating when the mc doesnt use the things he has infront of him better. If you like a quick read then I'd say go for it. Otherwise Im not sure. 

Review as of Chapter 49.

At the start of the first chapter I found the descriptions very bare and the writing lacking, but the writing style works really well with the timeskips and overall point of view. However, the writing style isn't as good when it comes to focus on conversations. The author seems to understand this and keeps those to a minimum.

I really like the plot, it seems that the main character won't achieve a humanoid body for a long time (if ever), which is good. I dislike when 'monster' or inhuman stories have the monsters achieve a human form halfway through and lose the entire point of the story.

There have only been a few interludes so far, so the story isn't bogged down by too many POV changes. I would appreciate an interlude or two about someone who doesn't directly interact with the MC's reaction to the MC, though.

Grammar isn't outstanding, but it isn't bad - I've also only noticed a few spelling mistakes but nothing big.

Characters... So far, most of the characters, while lacking a bit of depth, have felt realisti. The human enemies not acting like complete idiots, also not being complete evil and actually having motives and be willing to compromise. The MC's and his allies have also remained in character and not acted oddly for no reason. Much better than most stories on this website.

Finally, the author also recognises criticism, which is always a massive plus.

it impresses me that spaizer could form an really great novel from this kind of concept. i expect it to be kind of boring and generic, but it suprised me and im happy i found this one :) it brings new fresh air, the mc doesnt behave like your typical goody two shoes and has an actual character. All in all i enjoyed reading it so far and hoping for more !!

Honestly best reincarnated as an object isekai ive ever read. I do wish more of its kind are outh there though.

The different POV and the overall story lines bring a sense of wonder and purpose to the story. I do wish I see more from the perspectives of the other characters.

A grind fic is what I call any story where the main character reincarnates into a litrpg world as an animal or plant (snakes, trees, and bugs tend to be the most common as far as I can tell). These stories are kind of a guilty pleasure for me since they tend not to have much substance and a lot of the time the most hyped moments are just when the MC is choosing their evolution path. That said this story stands out a lot from the standard grind fics I've read on this site because it also amplifies that with a well executed city building subplot and some very interesting worldbuilding. We've slowly gained more information about the gods, demons, and heroes though a lot is still a mystery. The story also has plenty of interesting side characters and a surprising amount of genuine tension.

edit: I'm not sure if I'd even classify this as a grind fic anymore, even though that's an arbitrary classification that I kind of made up. The MC's growing powers are still an interesting part of the story but there's definately a lot more to the story. It can't really be compared to the simple yet pleasant stories that center almost entirely on the MCs growth anymore. I guess the city/empire building and mysterious world lore aspects of the story have surpassed that one at this point. That being said my favorite chapters are still often the ones where the MC gains new powers.