I had put off reading the Webnovel‘s top English Original The Author’s POV novel for a long time knowing how poor original novel quality is on Webnovel, but last week I finally decided to give it a shot.
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With low expectations, I went for The Author’s POV, and let me tell you how glad I was to set the right amount of expectations.
The Author’s POV is a popular original English Web Novel with Action, Adventure, and Fantasy genres. On Webnovel, This web novel has 6.8M views with more than 500 chapters and is still ongoing.
The basic premise of The Author’s POV is the Author finds himself transmigrated inside his own novel. He is in the body of the Ren, who just got into the Lock Academy. Set in a cataclysm world, where humanity has only left 2/8 of land on the Earth as a result of the war with demons. Ren tries to get stronger while allowing the world events to proceed as they did in the novel.
Here’s my opinion on The Author’s POV: It’s not that bad but it’s also not good. It’s a fine novel. There are both good and bad aspects to this novel, so readers have to decide for themselves.
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Let me give you my review of this novel.
My Vampire System Vs The Author’s POV
If we are comparing it to My Vampire System, the previous top novel on Webnovel, The Author’s POV is better. The main problem with My Vampire System is the Author mainly. I believe he doesn’t respect the readers and only thinks of them as the cash cows.
Have you read the novel? The Grammar is horrible, the characters are two-dimensional, and the plot feels like reading about someone’s day-to-day event.
I have written a detailed review of The Vampire System, here’s the link My Vampire System Review
In the case of The Author’s POV, things are different and better. From the 200 chapters I have read, I could feel the author’s ambition trying to reach somewhere higher along with this novel using the world, and its characters.
In short, the Author has planned out the plot in detail. Well, the writing is decent and in some places, there’s grammar messed up but at least it’s more readable than The Vampire System.
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World Development
The Good
One of the good aspects of this novel is world development. The world has a well-detailed history, present, and also a future, all are planned out well, and has also a sense of mysterious foreshadowing. There are various races such as Elves, Humans, Dwarfs, Orcs, and Demons.
They all have their own unique ecosystem(habits, food, living environment, language, etc) and power system(mana, aura, etc). For example, In the case of Dwarfs, they are scientifically more developed than any other race. In the case of a power system, Orcs are unable to use the mana but have their own power called Aura. As such, every race is different from one another.
There’s an ongoing conflict between all the races with demons and Demons are trying to conquer the Earth. They have already conquered Elves, Dwarfs, and Orcs planets.
In the case of the human territory, we have the power structure divided between the central government, Union, etc. There are many guilds operating as well. There are Heroes and Villains factions. Villains are the people who made a pact with the demons for power. As such, the author has described in detail the structure of the world.
The Bad
The author has failed to take into account the common people and their emotions. Can all the people on Earth use Mana? Same for other races in the world. What do they think about the ongoing war between Demons and humans? We don’t know about their lifestyle living in the 2/8th part of the Earth. Reading the novel, a sense of horror, tension, desperation, and sadness couldn’t be found. There’s a war going on where humanity has lost 6/8th of the land and the novel has happy and fun vibes most time.
Character Development
One weak aspect of this novel is character development. There always should be a sense of purpose when the author changes/develops one’s character whether it is in a positive or negative direction.
For example, In the case of Fang Yaun in Reverend Insanity, Fang Yaun discards all his emotions such as love and becomes a cold and calculating person only because, in his goal of achieving immortality, those emotions will make him weak. However, these changes don’t happen in an instant and there are many experiences that shapes Fang Yaun to be such a cold and evil person.
However, in this novel, The purpose behind the change in the main character(the author)’s mentality seems very weak. In one chapter, he is laying low and in another chapter, he is arrogant and doesn’t care about being low-key. In one chapter, he doesn’t want to participate in the novel’s plot and wants the novel to keep the same plot. In another chapter, with weak-ass reason, he participates in the novel event. He lets a man die when he could save him with the reason being destiny and in another arc, he jumps to save the students because he is now feeling sympathy.
The main character (32 when died), now inside a 16-year-old boy’s body, doesn’t act according to his mental age. Sometimes he behaves like an edgy teen, not a mature person. The personality of the main character is very inconsistent and the change always happens in an instant. Rather than letting the plot demand the change in step by step manner, his personality changes fast because the plot needs the change.
In the case of the other characters, the author has done a decent job. The author has given backstories to most of the characters and had made them consistent in their behavior but sometimes inconsistencies can be seen and they are also underused.
For example, in the case of Jin, there’s a change in his character. Jin was a stubborn, and proud character who looks down on others but now Jin has changed, he doesn’t talk much but is still a proud character. Though he might have lost one fight with the main character but Jin is a type of character who never backs down.
In one arc, where the main character and Jin were paired together, according to the Jin character, he should have challenged the main character in a fight or maybe not have followed the plan of the main character simply or maybe should have done what follows his character. Jin simply follows the plan of the main character and the reason is also kinda lame. And we don’t see get to see what’s going on inside his mind much.
But in the case of another lead female character, Amanda, the author has done a good job. Her character feels consistent.
lack of tension
There’s always a lack of tension in the plot. The main character F or E rank went to another planet where there is a constant battle between powerful Orcs and demons. They are sneaking and snooping around but there is no tension whatsoever. Things are easier and there are merry vibes. Am I the only one who feels that way?
good power system
The author has done a good job in the case of the power system. Various races such as humans, demons, orcs, etc have their own power system. For example, Human use mana, and through that, they are able to use the elements such as fire, water, etc. They have developed various skills for fighting with swords, spears, bows, and so on. The power level is divided from G to S ranks.
In the case of demons, we have seven clans, each according to the 7 heavenly sins: pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. Each clan was commanded by a demon duke which was as powerful if not more powerful than the top executives in the human domain, or equivalently SS ranks. Above them is the Demon King,
The main character has an OP cheat book which allows him to see ten minutes forward but is based on Kevin’s perspective. Kevin is the protagonist of the book that the main character wrote. Some events in the book are also changeable. The cheat has an obvious limitation that it won’t be much helpful in case the main character is not with Kevin.
In conclusion, the author has written about the power system in detail with logic and research. He has done a good job in this aspect.
Plot Development
The plot flows smoothly and is mostly light-hearted.
Some chapters are really enjoyable while some are boring. At the start, it is boring because of the info dumps but after some chapters, the story becomes enjoyable.
The plot tries to generate tension many times but sometimes, it just fails because the author tries to downplay the tension with humor and add on top of that the inconsistency in the character’s personality. The best example would be the immora arc where the author tries to insert humor.
Another thing I am unable to digest is F rank Main character planning or fighting against S Ranks or someone higher than his league.
In most cases, things are just convenient for the main character. The plans made by the main character just go well. Need to kill the Orc Chief’s child to provoke the war between Orc and Demon? The main character killed him because there were fewer bodyguards around the Chief’s child and the main character planned well. Like this, most of the time, things are just conveniently achieved.
There is no romance in the first 200 chapters. The lack of romance doesn’t affect the story.
Conclusion
In conclusion, The Author’s POV is a decent read. But whether it is for you, You can give it a read to know the answer. For to truly enjoy this web novel, you have to ignore bad grammar, info dumps, and inconsistent characters.
The Author’s writing gets better as there are more chapters and the story has good twists and turns to keep us hooked. For me, it managed to keep me hooked despite the boring start.
If you like novels similar to The Novel’s Extra, be sure to give this novel a chance.
Even i missed this one inspite it being before my eyes, will give a try