Guimi Zhi Zhu
Lord of Mysteries

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This Book is completed with 9 volumes and 1432 chapters (including bonus chapters)

Lord of the Mysteries starts off seeming like a typical story of a man who is suddenly transported to another world but quickly becomes a masterpiece of worldbuilding with a unique power system and tons of interesting lore.

But that's not what kept me reading this story. The best part is in my opinion the characters, Cuttlefish excels at making recognizable characters who all are very entering while having a lot of depth. That's all I can say without spoiling the series and I think it's best to go in as blind as possible.

One ... piece of advice to new readers is to give it a chance despite how confusing the first few chapters seem. I had some trouble with them at first but I kept going and this quickly became one of my favorite novels of all time.

I'm currently reading Chapter 650. The original web novel has 8 volumes, but MAL is using the published hardcopy books instead.

The main reason I'm writing this review is to give some well-deserved criticism to this series, since, in my opinion, it has far too many overwhelmingly positive reviews.


The Positives

- An isekai fantasy novel with original world-building. The world is well-structured, richly detailed, and has an extensive history. There are 22 pathways of development, allowing characters to progress from "zero to hero" (human to god) — or is it zero to... zero? 😄

- Some characters are genuinely interesting and experience meaningful character development. Audrey, Little Sun, ... and Alger immediately come to mind.

- Tragic events are well written and often make you genuinely feel for the characters who die.



The Negatives

- The pace is slow as f*ck. This novel is basically a slice-of-life story at times. The author goes into great detail about how the MC prepares food, travels by public transport, counts his pennies, chooses his clothes, makes small talk with other characters, and so on.

- What I find most annoying is the endless theorizing. Since everyone and their grandmother is secretive in this novel, nobody knows anything for certain. As a result, every character constantly builds elaborate theories in their head to figure out what's true, what's half-true, and what's a lie. The author seems to enjoy writing pages upon pages of this. I suspect it's partly because, like many Chinese web novel authors, he's paid by word count. However, I don't consider that a good excuse. Cuttlefish could have maintained a faster pace and added more meaningful story content instead. For example, he could have introduced a love interest for the MC or included more life-and-death situations involving the MC and other important characters.

- The characters were more interesting at the beginning. As the story progresses, many of the newer characters feel increasingly stereotypical. Cute female pirate admirals? Doll-loving male vampires? Come on now, this was supposed to be a dark novel.

- Some questionable writing choices. The MC is a virgin, and most of the supporting characters either are virgins or appear to have no intimate relationships whatsoever. Maybe the author thought a lot of web novel readers would relate to that, but it makes many characters feel oddly detached from normal human relationships. The one exception is Emperor Roselle Gustav, who is probably the most fleshed-out character in this regard. Honestly, I think he would have made a much more interesting protagonist.

- Another poor choice: at one point, Klein dies and is resurrected, and it's implied that he can resurrect several more times. This removes much of the suspense from life-and-death situations. If death isn't permanent, then the stakes feel significantly lower.

- The whole "pretending to be a god" thing gets ridiculous. Somehow the MC, who is often relatively weak compared to the world's major powers, builds a facade that he's essentially a god, and everyone keeps buying into it. The amount of effort he invests in maintaining this act feels absurd. What's even the point? And it's not just him—most members of the Tarot Club are putting on some kind of facade. Author, please chill with the paranoia.

I might edit this review later. Everyone is welcome to add their thoughts and feedback. 😉

When you hear about Lord of the mysteries as the best mystery story set in dark fantasy world, you will think that mc is one of those crazy and ambitious characters who are willing to take risks, but in Lotm no.MC is one of those characters who characters to put divination to know the danger he never risks his life like he is the fucking writer's son, though I understand he's weak at first but, writer, let him be a lunatic venturing towards danger like the fool Touma or Madarame Baku or Fang Yuan..... The story is slow, and the narration is ... full of boredom, the only solution is to read quickly 💀 although when I finished volume 1 = 213, and I thought the story was going to start entering a fun climax until the novel became a disappointment in volume 2 it was a slice of life to death, and you want to say "We got it Go to the next" 💀💀 I was really dropping it, but the writer kept volume two with many tarot club scenes, and after the scientist and magician joined in it was interesting to read their dialogues despite the boredom happening outside the club, and you have to be patient with 20 chapters per club.

In Volume 3 the writer attempts to correct the mistakes of the first two volumes and make his hero a mad adventurer in the identity of the "German Sparrow", but it is still boring, as the hero is still that person who desires knowledge. The disgusting level of danger before rushing towards him, but the vol was almost devoid of side characters

In volume 4, we return to the loathing of the first two volumes, "Slice of Life," but this time Klein was such a womanizer, I really would have dropped him if the writer hadn't added Amon in the last quarter of events and made Klein move.

Conclusion Lotm is a real slice of life, with some middling fights, with a few puzzles and mysteries branching out here and there if we compare it to mystery works like umeniko or Pandora... I'd rather read it 20 times than Lotm The current rating is 6/10, and it is impossible to read a Chinese novel after Lotm

I apologize if there are some exaggerated words but Lourdes at the moment is a disappointment