This Strange New Life

So the story just isn't for me, I can tell the author put a lot of work into it though, characters are solid, writing is really good with very few grammatical mistakes, world seems fleshed out. Gave it as fair a shake as I could figured I wouldn't review it till chapter ten. But yes as good as everything is the story itself just isn't my cup of tea the way the mc talks with her AI is just too much for me, the mc herself I just flat don't like as a character and this isn't from a bad writing standpoint I'm sure many would love her personality but it's like trying to play a wizard when I'm a barbarian guy. I wanna smash and all I get is fireball 😂

Reviewed up to Chapter 10

Every so often you find a story that sucks you in, and I'm happy to say this is one of them. Now, I'm more of an old school fantasy/SciFi adventure type of guy, and to be honest, I thought I'd just read a couple pages and move on.

Three chapters later and I'm hooked. The author has an engaging style of writing, and the back and forth between the MC and her alter ego is a delight. I also like that there seems to be a lot of backstory we only get in hints (the flashback scene created far more questions than it answered, and now I want to know more). I'm also finding the MC interacting with the outside world as a baby interesting, with the MC frustrations at her limitations and her delight in simple things well developed.

Quibbles? Well, some of the grammar needs editing, yet the author's first language isn't English, and personally I can't imagine writing fiction in another language, especially one as crazy as English is. The story's also light on description, yet I always understood what was happening and let my imagination fill in the rest.

This is a story that I'm enjoying tremendously... about a baby. Who knew?

Three words to describe this piece of fiction:

Its baby Jesus.

Now to the serious part of my review:

While it can be quiet confusing at times, the flow of the story is quiet good and till now I have not found any errors in the used grammar or spelling, which is a huge plus point for me.

If you can ignore the confusing start, then this is a good story for most people of the genre!

A beautiful story, wonderfully entertaining, gripping, bingeable! I hope the author never stops this gem of a story! It's, for me, a completely new combination of tropes, told from a unique perspective of a newborn that is a reincarnation of a high tech warrior together with her AI, centuries later, in a medieval setting. And she's cute, and witty!

I'm thoroughly enjoying myself, and can wholeheartedly recommend this story to anyone who likes stories like the ones on my favorites list...

I'll start by saying this might not be for everyone. It's not a fast paced action extravaganza, it's not a OP MC style wuxia story (MC is indeed OP but not in a way that unbalances or invalidates the story) and it's not some isekai harem.

What it is is a story about characters with emotions, drive, love, loss, and hope. It's a slow story, not completely standstill but slow in a slice of life kind of way, it meanders through the plot. It does this in a perfectly acceptable way, and hits highlights very well. I found myself tearing up multiple times, smiling more than usual, and generally feeling more positive while reading this.

Grammar is well done considering the author is a non-native speaker, the characters are surprisingly well written (I've never been able to identify with a sentient black blob of hate before), the story is both relaxed and intricate at the same time which is incredibly hard to pull off, and the style is quite good if I do say so myself. Nothing specific to say about it, it just flows well for me.

In conclusion, if you don't require a formula of mandatory sex and explosions every third chapter then this story might be for you. (That's not to say the sex and explosions won't happen eventually, but it's not the focus of the story, at least so far.

Note: Reviewed at Chapter 10. (I don't know what chapter this review will SAY it was reviewed at, because I opened up a separate window to make notes as I read, but that's what I read up to for this review.)

Also, review contains SPOILERS!

Story:

It's definitely an interesting idea, a war vet and some powerful mage-tech combo who grows up in a new body, and actually focusing on how they grow and experience the new body. I will say though, at the beginning, I felt kind of lost - there seemed to be a lot of references to the enemy of the previous war, and general state of the technology/magic of the world, that it kind of left me feeling like I was reading a sequel; a sequel to a book that I really should have read before this one. I think maybe a better approach would have been to have the MC's memories more dim/fuzzy at the beginning, so you could more slowly introduce the background concepts of the world? I think I get that you're aiming more at a slice of life mixed with dramatic elements/high fantasy, but the slice of life is much easier to absorb than the high fantasy/high tech elements you introduce - so maybe they could be introduced a bit slower, especially right at the beginning.

Though one thing that really drew me in, especially in the beginning, was the description of the biological modifications being made to the mother's body, which made me wonder whether the author themselves is some sort of biologist. I think everyone is familiar with the idea of transhumanism, but for me at least what makes it really interesting is when people get into the details of specific improvements or changes they would make, and how exactly (or, you know, not exactly, but to *some* level of detail) they would be done.

So it's difficult; I like the high fantasy/high tech stuff when it's talked about, but in the first few chapters in particular many times it felt jarring or confusing the way they were introduced.  

Style:

It said in the summary that it was very dialogue-heavy, and it is. However, I think maybe this hurts it a bit. It would have been interesting to get an idea of how  what is, basically, an adult mind, perceives the world through an infant's body. I also found myself, especially during the earlier chapters, getting confused sometimes about who was talking - extended periods of dialogue, with multiple characters speaking, and no indication as to who was speaking other than different text styles for different characters tripped me up a bit. 

The author occasionally - not all the time but occasionally - seems to have the characters speaking as if they're in a manga/anime, or using emoticons in text, which personally isn't my thing, but I didn't deduct points for that. 

Grammar: Some mixups here and there - particularly when transitioning from speech to descriptive text - but nothing crazy for something being written for fun, nothing that hampered my understanding of what I was reading. 

Character:

The MC seems to be a reincarnation of some kind of extremely powerful magitech engineer, with a domineering, kind of hedonistic personality and an assistant AI (I'm still a little unclear on exactly how the AI is communicating with her, is it running inside her own brain? Communicating by satellite? Is it incorporeal? Maybe I missed it, or forgot it as I was reading) that they treat a bit like their own child. 

To be honest, I was often distracted from the MC's characterization, just because, well truthfully, I don't find her all that likable, at least so far. Well, that's not quite true. Let me put it this way. I'm in engineering, and the MC reminds me a lot of the attitude of a lot of my friends - kind of jerks, arrogant, dismissive of limitations, perhaps a bit overconfident of what they can achieve - and I think this intentional, and these can even be good characters - HOWEVER, I don't know how well it works for a character we're having inner monologues about that's supposed to be having fuzzy feelings for their family. I think I'd like seeing her more in her previous setting - in the middle of some high magitech war - than I like seeing her in this one. 

Also, I realize this is hard for an AI assistant, but I think they could stand to b e fleshed out a bit more - they are one of the more important characters, but so far they seem a bit flat other than considering Elayna their mom and being a bit more cautious. I say it's hard because to flesh them out I think they'd need to be able to interact with other people BESIDES Elayna, but that seems, at least by the rules of the story, impossible. 

Overall: The author goes out of their way to emphasize the slice-of-life elements of their story. However, I actually think this is one of the weaker parts of the story - far more interesting is their ability at giving details about the specifics of high tech/high magic spells, and the world system of magic they build, and the mystery of how exactly the world came to be as it is. In a way, you could consider it a post-apocalyptic high fantasy/high magic setting where the big story is exactly what happened to the world - but told through a very unique perspective and with heavy transhumanist elements. If you can get past a bit of a confusing beginning I think it's worth the read. 

As a fan of first-person works, This Strange New Life drew my eyes when I opened it. I'm no professional reviewer, so I'll just go over this based on the points that I liked, vis-a-vis advanced review categories.

Style: The way the author uses metaphors and analogies is very interesting. There's a distinct touch to it. The bantering with her AI, the light-heartedness...as a writer of darker works, it's fairly relaxing to me. It's subtle, but it really goes on one after reading.

Story: I get a feeling there's some timey-wimey thing going on, but maybe that's just me. *Stops pointless rambling* Anyway, as a SOL, I'm here for fluffiness, but I like stories that focus on protecting. If you like such a focus, here you go! 

Grammar: There are some odd points here and there, but not enough to detract from my enjoyment. Maybe a couple every chapter or so, but since my mind can ignore these issues, it's not going to affect my overall score. I suggest proofreading it slowly to catch sneaky mistakes.

Character: Now this is where it shines. The MC and the AI in particular are actually really charming; like I said, their banter is really engaging. Their parents and everyone else isn't all that fleshed out, but that's more of because I haven't read this far in yet, having stopped at chapter 10. That said, you can tell what they've been through in their final moments, and how that experience affected them, without shoving it down your throat. Subtle, but excellent.

Overall verdict: 5/5

For starters I just have to say that I started this as a review swap, but went and accidentally read the whole thing... So that's a thing. 

Style: The story is mostly in first person, with a few dips into third person for other characters. The switches were easy to follow and not overused, so they didn't detract for me at all.

Story: The story and world was very fascinating to me. Right up there with characters as the thing pulling me forward. Granted as of now the story is mostly mystery and setup, as the actual progression has been quite slow. But still it's kept me interested and curious, and the curiosity has only grown as more of the backstory and world has been revealed.

Grammar: For the most part everything reads smoothly, but there are a few places with errors here and there. They aren't too severe, and don't hinder me understanding what's happening at all. At most they make me pause and reread a section again. I should note that I remember noticing fewer and fewer errors as I read later chapters. I don't know if it was because I was just too invested or because there really aren't any. But I'm not sure that matters. 

Character: I really like the characters. It took a bit for me to get into the banter between the MC and their in-head companion, but it grew on me. The other characters feel realistic and distinct from each other, albeit they're not all as fleshed out as of yet, and I like reading about their interactions. They make me care about them, which is a very good thing indeed.

Overall this was a great read that I'm going to keep reading as more chapters get released. Strongly recommended. Especially if you like cute family bonding stuff. (although be aware of the mature content tags, it isn't cute all the time).

This is an interesting one. The main draw, to me, and what I think would draw others in, is that it's relaxing. There not a sense of high stakes; even in dangerous situations, there's a certainty that everything will be fine. There's a sort of comfort in reading a story like that, especially if you're just looking to chill out after a hard day/week/month, etc. We all need stories like that sometimes.

Style: Magical sci-fi isekai-ish and all that entails. Go for it. Dialogue-heavy and definitely more of a character-driven story. Impressive for a story that's being plotted as it goes along, and I think this will lead to some great creative moments, as the author clearly has ideas. 

Grammar: The author's work to improve their grammar is really admirable (just look at the comment sections on the chapters), especially given the fact that it wasn't even that bad to begin with. No problems, really. The small typos don't impede understanding of scenes. 

Story: This is where I'm mixed but still generally positive. Worldbuilding doesn't really show itself until the twelfth part or so, so the narrative to this point can be a tad confusing. The story would benefit from a little more exposition and more focus on sense of place in scenes, I think. There's attention given to the emotions of the characters far more than the scenery around them, and a blend would take the story to the next level. But that's just me personal preference as a reader, too. 

Character: Our main character is also someone I'm mixed on. One one hand, watching her be determined to protect her family is adorable and endearing. On the other, we don't actually have a firm grasp on her backstory and how previous experiences have shaped her (as of part 16). If/when we do get to learn more about her, it will add more weight to her desire to learn about family. Without the context of her previous life and previous views on family, relationships and life, it just doesn't hit as hard for me. The other characters, I feel positively about and am looking forward to seeing further developments. There's promising stuff, and the entire family dynamic is adorable and oozing with genuine care that adds to the general comforting feel of the story itself. 

Definitely wouldn't hurt to check the story out. 

I must say, this story surprised me, and in a very good way. I am usually not the biggest fan of first-person narration or dialogue-heavy works, and this one is exactly that. But man, I enjoyed reading it and continued hungering for more.

Style: As mentioned, it is a first-person limited narration and there is a LOT of dialogue. I usually tend to like a bit more descriptiveness and tagging of the dialogues, but in the context of the story, the minimalistic style was perfect. The characters are described through their dialogues and the author manages to keep them fresh throughout the story without them feeling empty or superficial.

Story: I must say, the world we are exploring through this story is still a mystery to the reader as much as it is to the MC. Yet there are bits and pieces hinting at complex and epic past events that give the story a promising future. The magic system is still a bit unclear in the initial chapters but I like the combination of magic and technology very much. I like how the author is teasing the reader with some flashbacks and difficult terminology that is later given an explanation and helps the reader put the world-puzzle together. And there are so many questions to be answered, so many storylines to be explored, that, if done correctly, it can lead to the creation of a whole multidimensional universe. My only minor complaint, if I ever had any, would be that in her past life the MC was too OP, and even in her second life seems to solve most of her issues with relative ease. No, no, no, we are not talking about a Marry Sue, at least not in my opinion, since there are quite a few indications that the MC is/has been quite flawed and carries some heavy emotional baggage. Just, up to now (chapter 10) everything she decided to do, she managed to achieve.

Grammar: Now, as much as I liked the story, there are some weaknesses in the grammar department. For the most part, everything runs extremely smoothly and that is why when I encountered some tense- and pronoun-switches it bugged me. Still, after polishing it through another read or via a grammar-aid online, the problems should be easily removed.

Characters: I really love the sciency-nerd that is the MC (seeing myself in her, no doubt). And her banter with her A.I. has been very enjoyable. I believe that these two, the MC in particular, are the most rounded characters in the early chapters. I hope that we can get a bit more development from the MC’s cute twin-siblings and parents (I have a soft spot for her mum) later on in the story. But as of chapter 10 I have no major complaints. Maybe my only wish would be for a worthy antagonist, be it even a minor one, that could challenge the MC and her friends/family and flesh them out even more by being a wall they need to overcome.