Aditya Prasad's Reviews > Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, Vol. 1

** spoiler alert ** This is a jewel of a book. The protagonist Kim is a very smart guy and it's wonderful to see him plan out a long term strategy and slowly work towards his goal - to get to see the end of the story.

Knowledge is power. We can see it action here. Our dear MC was a normal office worker who read an online novel in order to escape his reality. He was the only reader who stuck to the incredibly descriptive book even as others abandoned the book. He stayed with the author till the end.

Now what happens is, the story in the book he followed for years, becomes reality. You could say that the actual humans in earth take up various roles from the book and the flow of fate aligns with the story. Or in a sense it is revealed that earth was part of the story world all along? Or that the story world was deployed? The book is ongoing and I hope we get clarity on that.

The author rewards his faithful, patient, only surviving reader with a copy of the book which is invaluable to survive in the hell that Earth has turned into.

The book is fascinating because they have ideas of probability, that nature prevents implausible things from happening, that there are limits to how much Gods can interfere.

God's (constellations) are characters who collects stories, in the sense that they build fame for themselves. We see the famous myths that thrive in earth have owners, the Vedas, the Abrahamic religions, the Olympus gods. They all observe the stories playing out, looking for incarnations through with to spread their fame by appointing them as avatars. You earn coins from the Star Stream (Nature) as your fame increases and your stories are passed on.

The ideas are super deep, the idea of how you can read a book multiple times and come away feeling like it was a different book each time. You only die when your story dies, when you are no longer talked about. You have people using coins to create the stories they want, living vicariously through the characters (incarnations). These stories are streamed by the bureau throughout the universe. So this is a commentary on how the incentives for the bureau is to increase viewership count by forcing things to get "exciting". (I see a parallel with how TV is trying to sensationalise the news) There are lots of references to folktales which I haven't gotten to unpack yet.

We also have the original protagonist of the book which Kim had read playing an important role in the story. A regressor who will go back in time if he dies and has accumulated a lot of experience already. There are many other fascinating characters.

My favourite, our protagonist Kim Dojka, his ability is that of a reader, he can create bookmarks of characters he understands and become them and use their abilities for a short while! He has a personal fourth wall that keeps him objective and protects his mind from the story, ensures he doesn't become part of the story, lets him stay a reader. He has the ability to read the minds of people he understands, act through them in real time. I could keep going on, but the story is fascinating and I highly recommend this novel.

It is still in translation and sadly the translators have changed. The old TL was super good, did the work in her free time. It breaks my heart to see how the new TL went back and changed the terms. Qidan is really evil 😭😭
https://www.reddit.com/r/noveltransla...

I'll finish the book when it's complete and update the review. But if you can try to get the chapters translated by Rainbowturtle.