Cheep!?

First, let me say I really like this story and it is well written. In general, I can recommend it for having good likeable non human characters, and a good magic system progression as MC grows and develops. That being said, the novel has a serious problem.

Think what Avatar would have been like if the evil humans were given detailed back stories that explained their point of view. Say the greedy capitalist wants to save humanity because of some crisis only unobitanium can solve and the angry general had his pacifist son murdered in a first contact gone wrong, for example. Would you still be cheering for the guy who used to be human but is now fighting on behalf of the aliens? It would have been a tangled mess with no clear side to route for and generally just sort of confusing.

That is the flaw this novel suffers from: good guys doing bad things for good reasons while hurting native smart animals they don't see as people. This makes things morally murky. You will want to be on the side of the animals, but author does deep dive into the motivation of the "good" humans doing bad things and sets them in contrast to a villain who is cartoonishly evil as a backdrop.

The rest of this review contains spoilers.

Grammar: Very few to no obvious mistakes, the sentences flow well, dialog is vibrant and believable. Not perfect, and there's a few formatting things I'm not sure are intentional (when certain characters speak it's usually in italics, sometimes it isn't). Still, gold standard for an easy to read story.

Story: Overall pretty engaging. There's some tropes that are annoying to see, especially the whole in-built mind-control thing. If Charles has to act stupid to accomplish something for the story, then there's a ready-made excuse of 'Instincts'. Some events you can also see coming with bright sparking neon lights, too.

Character: None of the characters are cardboard cutouts. You do get the impression that everyone has their own story for the most part, but point's knocked off because of the whole built-in-mind-control thing.

Style: The pacing is sometimes tedious, most time skips are not used well or at all, even minor ones like scene transitions feel like I'm getting more redundant information than I need. I do approve of skipping a bit of the time with some unnecessary fights and hunts but I still end up skipping entire paragraphs of navel-gazing that could be summed up with the resolution perfectly well. And finally, we don't need to be spoon-fed alternate perspectives to make certain that we the reader don't really have any surprises. I don't need to know about the Life of Dane, I don't even really need to see the gears turning that'll have the main character wandering around with a bunch of idiots, until it actually impacts him. If it's important to Charles' story, he'll see it on his own time and we'll learn along with him, increasing the reader's bond with the character. If he doesn't, then we really don't need to know about it to appreciate the actual story being told.

Overall: Some good ideas, and I'd recommend it, but some parts of this annoy me enough that I probably won't re-read it until a whole lot more is written so I can skip past the pieces I don't care about.

Story does well with making the MC making decisions and struggle for growth. It's just that the story is taking an angle that most do with the whole man's best friend thing when you reincarnate as an animal. The major conflict in this story was resolved rather quickly, peacefully, and not in a way I found was entertaining. Which is wierd for a survival story made about how the MC finds his place and purpose in a new world. Overarching plot hasn't progressed since ch. 1 and I was of the viewpoint that his purpose was linked to lasting conflicts between nature and humans, but 42 chaps later I am still in the dark about what he is meant to do. I liked this story for the survival elements and brutal Law of the Jungle vibe in earlier chaps, which author has veered away from In recent ones and likely won't return to for awhile. I'm just kinda bummed the elements that lured me in are no longer present.

Pretty good, but not for me.

When I first started reading, I got the feeling that this was going to be a story of the MC and his family surviving to become stronger against all odds. I loved that they were together as a family. 

But..

The story gives a good back history before beginning the adventure. It proceeds to build the foundation for what is to come, building characters and story lines. There was a few grammatical errors, but very minor. Overall, a very captivating read! I am thoroughly enjoying myself.

Thank you!

R. J. A. Slinkycat

 ̶T̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶a̶r̶b̶i̶t̶r̶a̶r̶y̶ ̶s̶y̶s̶t̶e̶m̶,̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶t̶r̶i̶v̶e̶d̶ ̶p̶l̶o̶t̶ ̶h̶o̶l̶e̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶"̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶l̶d̶ ̶i̶s̶,̶"̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶s̶t̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶a̶ ̶g̶e̶n̶u̶i̶n̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶e̶n̶g̶a̶g̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶t̶o̶r̶y̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶a̶ ̶g̶o̶o̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶r̶o̶s̶p̶e̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶o̶t̶e̶n̶t̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶l̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶l̶e̶x̶ ̶n̶a̶r̶r̶a̶t̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶l̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶r̶e̶t̶a̶i̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶e̶l̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶h̶e̶a̶r̶t̶e̶d̶n̶e̶s̶s̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶I̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶I̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶ ̶n̶o̶n̶-̶h̶u̶m̶a̶n̶ ̶l̶e̶a̶d̶.̶ ̶5̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶r̶s̶.̶

EDIT FOR LATER CHAPTERS: Knocking it down 1.5 stars for the current heavy focus on the adventurer party and weird oath-person shenanigans - not really my cup of tea. Here's to hoping that it gets back on the good old murder-bird bandwagon, at which point my review might bump back up again.

This is a very good fiction.

Against my usual inclinations, I cannot justify giving this below a 5 in any catagory.

The style is fantastic, doing a great job of portraying human emotions through an avian lens. The flavor of the interactions with the siblings was fantastic, and there is a certain... je ne sais quoi, a powerful vibe that makes the work come together. 5 stars.

The grammar is correct. Grammar has always been somewhat pass/fail to me, and Cheep passes.

Story? So far there isn't much, except the vague JRPG quest to kill rats in the first act and God in the last. However, what we do have is good, and while I usually dock a couple points until there is something solid to bite into, eeehhh... it's fine enough. It gets a pass, because

Characters are where the work truly shines. The MC is fantastic, but in addition there are a variety of other animals that run the gauntlet between the edges of sapience and full self-awareness, and I just think it's *neat*. Non-human sapients are something I quite enjoy, but rarely have I seen them written as masterfully as here, and the ones I have are too-often limited to a single race or individual, a far cry from the abundance Cheep's managed to shove in its first few dozen chapters. 5 stars, and I'd rate it higher if I could.

An excellent story, well-written, about a human who transmigrates (unintentionally) into a bird. Well thought out descriptions of the difficulties of being born into another species with all the memories and experiences of a human intact, and the difficulties in adjusting to their new body.

I am really enjoying this series, and am excited to see where it goes.

The overall story is great. The only gripe I have is since it's a game lit yet not at the same time I can't quantify power. Everyone seems to have a power rating but how that power is ranked hasn't been explained. With true game lit I can read and compare stats and abilities. This is more nebulous. Still, the story is well written with characters and stories flushed out at a good pace.

The story is well written, well paced, and characters are decently animated with actual personalities. That said, a good half of the story feels like it should have the grimdark tag attached to it as much of it becomes a crisis and angst fueled trauma cycle that takes a while to end. The last 2 chapters have seen that easing, so if you're willing to move past that, I have hope for what the story could become going forward.