Enlightened Empire

It's well written, and I didn't have any issues with grammar. I do like the premise of the story, and the MC who uses their brains to overcome their obstacles. I am very curious what other modern knowledge the author is going to use obtain an advantage. Maybe mass production method of steel, or crucible steel? Using lead in glass production to make crystal glass? Or perhaps make guncotton? dynomite? There's a lot of cool things he can do.

Ice cream!

Reminds me more of a BAEN Books novel than something on Royal Road.

Strengths: Well crafted and sympathetic characters that aren't cliches or overdone. Good worldbuilding with distinct cultures and realistic human behaviour. An engaging plot that doesn't pander to the main character. 

Flaws: A lack of foreshadowing and exposition makes some events seem to come from nowhere. Very important characters, laws or rituals just appear without any real context. For a hyper realistic novel such as ths one, the main character's immunity and complete indifference to assination is a little offputting. Assasins seem to have been made completly inept to make up for the lack of MC powers. Especially considering the existence of low powered superhumans that could kill the MC with a single punch or arrow. The existence of said cultivators is also a little odd and underdeveloped.

An interesting read. Excited to see where it goes. 

Ill first state that this story is one of the best kingdom building stories on royalroad, for quite good reasons. The author has put a lot of effort into creating this story. However its not perfect and i rather really wanted to like this story more, but alas.

Corcopaca Titu Primu Pluritac, rather known as Corco, is a prince of the faraway lands of Medala, who has been exiled out of the empire to Arcavia, the land where his ancestors once came from, before they fled,  Corco finds himself lost, with no purpose, with barely any followers who went with him in his exile. Then one day, when he has lost all hope, Corco suddenly finds himself awakening with strange memories, of a foreign world called Earth, of fundamental knowledge about many major concepts, that could change civilization forever. Armed with that knowledge, Corco finds a new goal, to change his nation for the better, and eventually the world at large, but such knowledge does not suddenly make everything easy, for there are many obstacles in his path.

I rather like him as a character, even if he is by no means perfect. He is a person who honestly wants to change the livihood of his people, and even the world at large with the knowledge he got from another world. While he may have such knowledge, that does not make him overpowered, it just puts him ahead of everyone in that aspect, he still has to actively use that knowledge to his advantage, and is not afraid of sharing specific technologies as long as it does benefit him and will not backfire, Corco is also rather a traditionalist, who respects the old traditions, but is not afraid of breaking them, if they are in the way of his plans for the betterment of society. There are his many followers, some of which do follow him out of loyalty, others because of what he could achieve. Even if i like quite some of them as a character, still i feel like they could have done better, some of them fall rather flat, i just dont know why.

While Corco is set up to win, in the plot so far, it hasnt been made easy for him, with him having many enemies that he must defeat or outsmart, and at times, things take a rather unexpected turn, forcing him to change some plans. As said, im liking the fact that even through Corco has all that knowledge, it does not make him infallible at all. A decision that i like, is to make the MC not reincarnated at all, but rather a native of the world, that got the memories of a dead person of earth, this rather improves the story by leaving much of the problems that generally come with Isekai stories out of the story.

The world is simply the best part about this story, its so detailed and thought out, there are a lot of cultures and nations that are very well developed and done realistically as much as possible. Though at times i wish that some nations and cultures got explored already, but there is no doubt, that the author has plans to eventually get to those.  This story also does have cultivation elements, but they are a rather minor thing, not overwhelming like in many cultivation stories one can find, cultivators are for sure strong, but are not invicible at all, and quite costly to maintain.

The author has put a lot of research in the required topics for this story, for the MC's 'discoveries' to make actual sense. Though at times, it can be seen that the knowledge the author has gathered about those topics, is not perfect, and that does seriously show itself at times, but i consider this a rather minor issue, though it still could be improved.

Grammar is overall good enough, with there being just few errors, which are puncuation errors, wrong capitalization, missing spaces at times, all those dont feel like actual problems, but there is also the fact that at times, i felt like a sentence could have been worded better. Normally a reader should not have any problems while reading this story, since those mistakes barely do bother the reading experience.

Overall the author has a readable writing style, that does its job quite well, with a good balance of story elements. I also have barely any complaints about the pace of this story so far, its a kingdom building one, the slow pace fits well with that.

However there are sadly some major problems with it, the writing barely did hook me at all in the start, maybe this is due to me not being that interested in kingdom building, even if its one of the genre's i read. This is a big problem with book 0 and a major part of book 1, with to a lesser degree the later ones. This does not help the story at all with attracting new readers considering many want to get hooked instantly.

To add on this, book 0 is rather a additional book that the author wrote later in when he was writing book 2-3, its not fully required to read it, but it could still give a introduction to the story, even if it does not have much ongoing in it.

Overall, this is for sure a very good kingdom building story, i recommend people to atleast give it a try even if it can be boring at times. For fans of kingdom building however, they should just start reading this story, its exactly the kind of story that they want, with a normal MC.

Because of COVID-19, I've been scouring the web for noteworthy and interesting stories: I'm happy to have stumbled across this one. Englightend Empire presents an interesting twist on isekai and most epic stories by focusing on the politics and economics of a story as much as the military and cultivation. There is no excessively overpowered main character and the author presents a somewhat balanced view of relatively new military technology. As an economist, I also appreciate the author's attempt at incorporating economic policymaking into a story when few do because of the difficulty. 

In short, I'm a massive fan of this story, so much so that I've read all 255 chapters in the last three days (rip productivity). Please keep up the good work! I wish the story will encourage other authors to similarly give as much importance to the economics and politics as the military and shinny weapons. 

This novel is an exemplary representative of the Kingdom-Building genre that is sorely lacking on this site. Granted, the pacing is sometimes too slow for my comfort (so many loose ends left unattended), but I appreciate the researched details and worldbuilding that really fleshes out the setting.

Reading this novel almost makes me want to jump in the writing pool myself. After all, this site has a dearth selection of kingdom-building novels.

This book is a kingdom builder. Now while there are a lot of kingdom builders this takes the cake. The plot and background built into the story is amazing. Furthermore the MC is actually smart and relatable, not a uber handsome tough guy. 

Good grammar

Good idea

Adds up to good potential

Look forward to seeing more.

Update: At chapter 170, still awesome, though less revengey and more kingdomy.

    This is a revenge story that bears some similarity to the Count of Monte Cristo, if the count was a bachelor exiled to a foreign country, was the crown prince of an empire, gained knowledge of the modern world through suicide, and just happened to read a list of technology that would be helpful to know for anyone reincarnating in the middle ages. TL;DR: Scroll down to  "should you read this novel?"

    I know it sounds pretty awful but the execution is amazing. Book 1's style can be tough to adapt to. Not because it is bad but because it is so well done in a not-webnovel style. This is a kingdom builder but not a kingdom-builder that features an OP protag, anime tropes, or excessive exposition. Better to imagine a revenge tale because the hardcore kingdom-building starts quite late (book 3). If you find yourself hating book 1, skip to the end of it and just read the last chapter or two; it was written as a prequel. The following books are in a more 'traditional' web novel style.

    That said, book 1 is fast paced and beautifully written. Five years pass in ~35 chapters and it is one of the best done time-skips I've ever read. While I didn't love every chapter, every chapter had a purpose and kept the story moving. It is also the least amusing of the books so people who came here expecting funnies based on the summary will be let down until Book 2. Though, by the end of it, I wanted that wonderful style to continue. It was like stepping into the Count of Monte Cristo's empire-building phase before he set out to get his revenge. Loved it.

    Book 2 transitions to a court intrigue and mystery setting. It starts off with a bang then more Stuff happens: mysterious events, tragedy, conspiracies, unexpected allies/enemies, shocking family secrets- everything you could want in a court intrigue setting. MC opens up a face-slapping booth and everyone gives him patronage. However, face-slapping is not a 1-hit KO as in other novels, those people stick around. The people are nasty, but the nastiness clearly serves a purpose on top of being nasty. Both for the novel and the character in question. 
    So far the main villains aren't unbearably stupid or mean to the point of self-destruction. They do what they do for politically motivated or monetary reasons and don't let themselves get caught in obvious traps. There are also multiple levels of smarts among both enemies and allies. The MC's ride is not perfectly smooth and he is wrong...not often but often enough to make the world seem realistic and like the MC isn't the favored child of the heavens. At ch170, he's been wrong pretty often in very character-consistent ways and some of the villains are learning. Some are comic-relief level stupid, though.

    The novel has a surprising level of cultural value in discussion of philosophy and metaphors. The metaphors are pretty awesome. They're subtle (some of them), touch on many aspects of life, and reference multiple cultural idioms that anyone who has spent time reading Chinese web novels, Western Classics, or loves world history and mythology will appreciate. Well, maybe not anyone. Someone will, I'm sure.

    Not really a negative but more just friendly warning for new readers: I do occasionally find the cultural melange to be confusing. The author borrowed aspects of many culturals and historical events to make EACH of the (several) cultures in this novel unique, and different from RL. This makes the novel both easier and harder to read. I've been confused a few times expecting rituals and cultures to match the names given, or confused by the correct usage of Occident and Orient that don't refer to RL cultures/regions.
    So don't assume cultural practices by anything other than tech level and the author's words. The author does a good job of giving any relevant cultural information you need so you can relax and go with the flow. The world the author made fits together nicely and feels both fictional and realistic in the right amounts. Author seems to have a very good grasp of what is important for immersion/plot and what is going to waste the reader's time.

    Grammar and spelling is perfect to the point I was confused by the sudden, voluminous, exposure to my native tongue. After reading a lot of web novels this was very jarring but it is so goooood. Readers familiar with web novels may be confused by things like 'shone' and 'driest' but rest assured everything in this novel is actually English! Except for the bits in Latin or French. I think there was some French. Might have been a flashback to The Three Musketeers. 
    There are some typos that affect spelling but not comprehension. Author has been good about fixing them when they are pointed out. 

    If I had to pick a weakness, it would be the characters. They're relatively underdeveloped compared to the rest of the novel's many outstanding aspects. However, for this style of writing, excessive detail in the characters would ruin it. The only way I can see improving the characters and their presentation without destroying the style would be to move to a <shakespeare/hemingway/great-short-story-author-here> level of writing. It isn't bad, they're introduced quite well, they fit the style, they're better than 90% of what is out there, but they appear to be the only place the author needs to improve. Maybe release speed...and robot hands wouldn't hurt. Bears hands might be cool but slow typing speed so I don't recommend them to authors I like.
    At chapter 170, I can say this is still the area that is the author's weakness, but it is mainly in succinctly capturing a character's persona. The author is very good at subtle changes and building up character growth over time. He doesn't spoonfeed you these things, there are a lot of little things you need to notice and interpret to understand, which makes reading it quite fun for me and others but absolutely maddening to some.

Should you read this novel? Yes. It isn't quite a masterpiece when compared to some of the world's greatest works of all time but it is one of the best things I've read, from both a literary and style standpoint, in a long while. Just be prepared for a culture shock if trashy isekai OP-protag kingdom builders is all you've been reading.

This review is done as of Book 2 chaper 27.

     This story is flawed in many ways from the akward combination of names to the instability of the MC personality.

When i first tried to read this book i abandoned it after 4 chapters, its first name The Raven and the Snake was bad(same goes for the current name whitch is a bit better but not by much) togheter with the "Bro" personality that the MC had plus his atitude, general opinion and behavior made him feel just like a washed up collage student, this broke any kind of imersion that i had and made me quit instantly.

After the rebranding i started to read again this time without knowing that this was a book that i abandoned and the prequel that i started with felt...acceptable.Some bad pacing here and there, the lack of meaningfull intrigue and the overusage of modern tech, procces, learning and mentality again broke imersion but the familiar western setting togheter with boredom made me stick with it. Unfortuanetly the time skiping and the ending that was cut short due to the constraints of book 1 reduced the overall score by a big margin.

Going in to book 1 i started to realize that i previosly abandoned this book and it was the same mess even with rebranding and the modified content. Nevertheless i continued and found that the by the middle of book 1 that everything was going quite well the intrigue was decent and the overall usage of future tech was mild at best, the mc still had the same bro personality and was still impulsive A BIG CHANGE FROM THE PREQUEL PERSONALITY which was pacient and cunning. Unfortuanetly the ending of book 1 was a disaster, and not the story ending(that was decent but an obvious try a making the story longer) but the writing itself, will not go into details due to posible spoilers but sufficiently lets say that the pacing was off the decision was not the MCs(minor spoiler) and overall it felt of and jammed in.

Going into book 2 everything starts to go bad starting with the overindulgence in future tech and unrealistic goals. Some techs are not properly researched by the author and the idea that trade can make you money hand over fist instantly toghether with the overexpansion of ideas/plans ruins all imersion and kill the mood.

Luckly there are still seeds of chaos and intrigue that help propel the story forwards so it is still worth reading if you are a fan of the genre.

Overall the story feels like a power trip of a fledgling author and I strongly recommend caution and reduction in modern tech/ideas and change in MC personality to that of a fledgling ruler and not that of a bro.