Mists of Redemption

I am so torn and frustrated by this novel. It manages to do so many things right, just to have its potential squandered by lucky coincidences, irrational MC's behaviour and cliche romance.

The character progression is done very good, it takes work, isn't outright handed to her and makes sense. Even now, 60 chapters in, MC barely crawled up to being average. Unfortunately even here the author hides sometimes abillities of MC for the sake of drama and revealing it in a dangereous situation.

Well, some skills of hers are a bit too overpowered, but that's part of the problem with the author not being able to weave the story in a way that would make the events natural, thus using unbelivable coincidences and events to push the plot forward.

The worst flaw of the story, by far, is the main chracter's stupidity. She's supposed to be a disillusioned hunter on the bottom the power and social ladder, yet she it's sometimes thrown out of the window to make her acts like an absolute fool. For instance, at one point the 'Romantic Interest' causes MC to be hunted by an assasin due to his ward thinking there's something between them. What does MC do after the survives? She absolutely ignores it and acts as if nothing happened, not telling the guy about the hitman because 'it's not worth troubling him with it', despite the fact that it's absolutely his fault and if she doesn't do anything she'll get killed.

Romance is done in (at least for me) an off-putting way, by having MC meet the 'mysterious man' andhaving him feed her food(!), her acting like he'd hurt her even though he has no reason to and helped her before. Did I mention that she prefers to talk about irrevelant stuff with him, despite the fact that he's the most knowledgable person on Earth in terms of Hunters and the monster problem?

Unfortunately, that'd explain too much and not be dramatic enough, so she doesn't ask useful, rational questions, instead she uses the scraps of the knowledge he told her to make a fool of herself.

I'd really want to like this novel, I really do. I don't give a single fuck about the premise that was copied from 'Solo Leveling', taking a shallow power fantasy and reforging it into a good novel is only worthy of praise. 

Still, it's one of the best post-apo litrpgs I've read on the Royalroad, so that's something. I was especially suprised of how good written this is, it reads like a published, polished novel, so it hurts even more to see how much potential here is wasted.

(Summary: Like Solo Levelin-! No. Like every Korean portal novel out there. See the rest of the review for details.)

Let me just start by asking everyone to calm down. Sheesh. I've read this and solo leveling and yes the two bear a lot of similarities, but that doesn't make it plagiarism, yet. 

If this was plagiarism then every darn book that starts with a random kid on a farm is plagiarism. I could probably list off five major series right here without breaking a sweat. The Hero's Journey has been around for thousands of years and people still use it to start a ton of their stories and every darn one of them starts almost exactly the same. Why? Because we love stories that start that way.

There isn't a pirate book out there that doesn't steal from Treasure Island, Lucas made star wars after he couldn't get the rights to Flash Gordon, and Tolkein was inspired by ancient Norse sagas. YA books are eternally trying to become as successful as Twilight was, and the number of "Magic Academy" books greatly increased after Harry Potter came out. People have been "plagiarising" since the beginning of time. We like similar stories and we don't need to reinvent the dictionary every time someone puts pen to paper.

So, yes the world looks a lot like Solo levelings world. Yes, the beginning plot looks very similar. (Though I would point out that leveling, portals, underdog stories, and rank systems have been around for a long time.) But just because the start is a little more specialized than the standard farmer finds old man and sword story doesn't mean it's plagiarism. 

The difference between this and plagiarism is where it goes from here. Sure the beginning looks very similar, but you can't label it as plagiarism only a couple pages in. 

I would ask that you look at the Manwha "I am the Sorcerer King" as it also closely resembles Solo leveling in the beginning and later diverges from the beginning plot. (If you are unsatisfied with just this, I encourage you to read any Korean novel, portals opening up to our world with an underdog character are almost as common as Japanese isekais are and I'd like to see someone claim that all of those are plagiarized)

The story is great by the way. One thing I would like to praise is the pacing of the novel. Many novels like this start out with a huge power boost right away but this one takes the time to set up the main character and their relationship with others. I like how it's looking like it is NOT going to be a book about how the main character takes revenge on all their past enemies. That is so overused in these stories that this is like a breath of fresh air.  As mentioned it is similar to some other works but I look forward to seeing how the author takes a cliche Korean leveling up story and makes it their own. (See "Everyone else is a Returnee", "Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society", "Seoul Station Necromancer", "The tutorial is too Hard", etc. All wonderful works with portals, family, leveling, rank systems, and dush bags just asking for a thrashing)

Really enjoying a well written and edited story. Like the mix of modern life and dungeon delving. So good I turned on the notifications for the next chapters!

Was interested in seeing the comaprisons of solo leveling and this so I went and read it. Yeah there are some but if you want some 2d characters and the usual op mc, bog standard cliche plots go read solo leveling. This has more depth and more fun

I don't really write reviews but I saw many here that say this is a copy of solo leveling. There so many  Korean , Chinese, Japanese and Russian novels with the exact same theme. Solo leveling isn't the first nor the last novel with those elements (hunter gaining unique powers that help him level up) . 
As for this novel i really like the style and the language/grammar seems great (English is not my first language so maybe I'm not the right perosn to judge) . The story is interesting too . Also not many stories like that with female protagonists. I just wish the chapters were bigger. 

Mists of redemption is definitely a story I can recommend to read.
I starts of similar to solo leveling, and has a very similar setting, but there are quite a few key elements that are different, so I wouldn't say it's an imitation. 

Story is hooking and has enough unique elements to keep the readers hooked.
The only things that bothered me were some minor plotholes and a few decisions a few characters made that I couldn't really understand.

But all in all, this is a novel I can recommend everyone who likes the genre.

It seems that the majority of the reviews of this story so far only talk about how it's similar to the Korean novel Solo Leveling, but don't really talk about the merits of this story on its own.

I will only briefly mention Solo Leveling at the beginning of the review, to hopefully help people who read all the reviews before trying out the story, and to dissuade them from believing all the crap that has been written to badmouth it. Basically, yes, the very beginning of the story and the premise borrow a lot of elements from Solo Leveling. However, I have read both, and while Solo Leveling had a really good start, the majority of the novel and especially the ending are utter trash. So I'm not sure why all the fanboys are complaining when this story could give you a great premise reimagined in a better way. Additionally, anyone who has ever read Eastern novels knows that even with the best of translators, the quality of the writing and the way it sounds in English is just not great.

So with that I'll transition to talking about the current story alone and start with the grammar and style. And in short, I'll say that in contrast to translated novels and the majority of other stuff on RR, so far this story has pretty good writing.

Grammar:

I have been a little desensitized to noticing spelling errors because of how much stuff I read on this site and others similar, and the fact that they typically have A LOT of spelling errors, but even still, I believe this novel has a lot fewer of those if any. Overall it's definitely in the upper tier of this category on this site.

Style:

The style is also quite pleasant, I haven't been distracted from the action by any strange stylistic choices so far, and the writing is immersive enough. Apart from that, it's all pretty standard and I'm only not giving it the maximum score because it could always get better.

Story:

So far the story has been great. I do love the setup and even though it borrows a lot of tropes from other novels, I'm a big fan of those particular tropes. And even though it's still very early on, so far they have been done better here than in other similar novels I've read before.

The premise is the pretty standard one where our MC is very weak before suddenly finding a sort of cheat that will help her get much stronger. So far even with that, she is not a Mary Sue at all, so hopefully, the growth will be gradual and it won't get to the point where it feels nothing is challenging for her any longer. Either way, that still feels a very long way off if it's ever coming.

On the other hand, the worldbuilding around the basic premise has a lot of depth. The way society has been restructured by the "end of the world" scenario feels very natural and believable. The majority of the Hunters are portrayed as anything but conventional heroes and the MC has to survive in a brutal and competitive environment where a lot more than just the monsters is out to get her. The way everyone behaves feels both somehow necessary to the survival of humanity, but at the same time also selfish and isolationist.

As far as the way the story develops for the MC, in particular, so far there are a lot of elements to like. The way she gains her special advantage doesn't feel too forced and it has an element of mystery to it that helps believe how she could be unique in her circumstances. There are also subtle hints of some bigger picture eventually coming. At the same time, in the here and now, she is struggling with a lot of different things and none of it has felt unnecessary or like filler. Which brings us to...

Character:

I don't often find myself particularly liking the MCs of the stories on RR. Even for stories I very much enjoy reading, most of the time it's because of the worldbuilding and the story, and despite the MC being either underdeveloped or even straight-up boring.

This is not the case here. Even with not too many chapters out yet, Jyn is already a quite well fleshed-out character with clear motivations and struggles. She doesn't really want to be a Hunter (and didn't even before finding out how weak she would be as one), but she has to push on because she is basically the sole provider for her family. She is separated from them and any friends she had, is truly unhappy in her own life but feels like she really has no options. She hasn't been given the chance to interact with a lot of people in a positive way yet, but from her internal monologue, it seems like she has a clear moral compass.

Summary:

All in all, while the novel does have many familiar elements, I would suggest giving it a try, especially if you are like me and enjoy those particular tropes a lot. The way it has been done here is more engaging, interesting, and just better than most other similar stories.

I haven't read solo leveling, but this fic does have a similar premise and is clearly inspired by it. The author should at least mention it in the summary.

That said from what was I able to find out from the wiki the trama is starting to develop differently, although someone who has actually read both works should judge.

In any case it is decently written so I think it deserves  3,5 stars, unless it really continues to develop as a genderbent solo leveling.(I mean it would still be  a legitimate story, but then it should be tagged as fanfiction)

I have to admit I started this story, to prove me wrong about the point that there is one more copy of solo leveling. This one takes it new heights, but still tha base is the same. Since a portal connecting our world to a world full of monsters and creatures of all kinds appeared, some people have acquired powers and the ability to hunt them: they are called hunters. The protagonist of the story, Sung Jin-woo, is the weakest of the rice and curry landers and barely stronger than a normal human. He is nicknamed by his fellow hunters as "the weakest". One day, he and other hunters find themselves trapped in an extremely dangerous dungeon, and only a few of them survive and manage to escape. Sung Jin-woo himself barely survives and is the only one who completes all the trials in this dungeon. He then turns into a "player" who can now see an interface showing him quests, stats, inventory, store, and levels. Will he succeed in leveling up to become the most powerful hunter?

Conclusion: this unmotivated review. I am happy there are authors willing to write their stories, but a bit own initiative would be nice. Otherwise just call it a copy or a fanfiction. 

Many litRPG books share concepts and plot points. You have System novels, reincarnation novels, portal novels, dungeon core novels, cultivation novels... etc.

This one shares some concepts with that Solo Leveling book, but I've taken a look at it and this one is still quite different. I look forward to seeing where the author takes the stories.

Keep up the good work!

To those that say this is not as good as solo leveling... really? This is way better, the story is different enough and this flows way better. The intereactions with the characters around th e MC are way better. And I think as a female lead its great,  I look forward to the further development as well, I binged this to the end in just a couple of days. Those that get stuck in the first 15 chapters or so keep reading its great!