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Lord of the Mysteries (LOTM) is a novel that is most popular amongst web novel fans. An incredibly bloated story, with an interesting power system, unlikeable characters, but in-depth world building, an unsalvageable English translation, and pacing that doesn't improve.



Spoiler level: Minor



Here are some positives and negatives, starting with the negatives.

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Negatives:

Translation: The biggest negative is undoubtedly the horrendous translation. There is absolutely no flow, eloquence, or shared comprehension between the translator(s) and what the author is trying to convey in his work. The translation will offer you the bare minimum, which is a rough understanding of LOTM. Translation alone makes the content often unreadable and laughably bad at times. This novel might be much better in Chinese. (The translation I used was from the official Web Novel site).

Characters/MC: The characters are bland, generic, predictable, and cliche. Praise for the MC is common amongst web novel fans, however, if you're used reading normal novels or light novels, then LOTM will probably feel like it's missing something, as LOTM has many shortfalls, Klein being one of them. A good test would be reading a normal novel that you find enjoyable, then try LOTM, any perceived complexity in Klein's character will shatter immediately. I'm putting it harshly because of my own experience, naturally not everyone will be as disappointed in the MC as much as me. The worst characters that hold a major role in the story are Klein's siblings, they don't realise that he's a different person when any normal human would notice the change in his character immediately; regardless of whether Klein inherited the memories of the body he isekai'd into (isekai may be the wrong word for this context) or not, they're the stars of the drawn out slice of life sequences that add nothing to the narrative (which SOL scenes DO have the power to do), Klein's relationship with them is empty, and they seem detached and inhuman, even more so than the rest of the cast. The best written character in LOTM volume one is Dunn Smith, an amazing character by no means, but still interesting, somewhat funny even with the poor translation, and adds depth to integral moments in the series.

Pacing: LOTM fans will often say that the pacing improves after chapter 100 and things get incredibly interesting around chapters 160-180; this is untrue. There are twists, turns, and new plot developments frequently, but none of them are written well enough to warrant the praise the novel gets.

Meaning: There is no deep meaning in this story, nothing interesting that the author is attempting to convey to the reader, no depth or profundity that sticks with you after finishing the story. Every novel with a truly complex and interesting story will incorporate real values that the reader can associate with and think about in their own life. LOTM is, at the end of the day, still just another power fantasy. You will not find deep themes and profound questions that will keep you thinking after you've finished reading the story. Of course this complexity is not completely necessary to make a story good, interesting, or excellent, but the complete lack of these concepts and ideas in a story that seems to try and take itself seriously is something new to me, something I only found once I tried reading web novels like LOTM. This could change in future volumes, but the story doesn't come off as serious enough for that, though it may try to be.

Motive: Klein will sometimes randomly state that his goal in his new world is to uncover mysteries and reach the point where he's able to return home... but it's never really explained why he wants to go home, he never seems distressed, and he adapts unrealistically fast to his new circumstances.

Positives:

World Building: The world building survived the translation. The author has taken inspiration from The SCP Foundation and H.P. Lovecraft's work, he also studied the Victorian Era extensively before writing this novel, creating a unique and interesting world that feels relatively fleshed out, and is brimming with potential. This is mainly in regard to what has been talked about in letters, books, and stories, i.e., not volume one's location, which is less unique, a mishmash of overly used Victorian themes, and less of the authors own unique ideas (I'm not contradicting myself when I say that the authors implementation of Victorian culture both detracts and adds to the story; it detracts from volume one by being generic, but from a lore standpoint, it works well and will continue to work well once Klein travels and the story moves away from a traditional Victorian setting, and closer to something wholly unique, while keeping remnants of the stories, culture, and history the author studied, or so I would hope). There is a lot of potential in future cities, countries, and places the main character Klein has yet to visit. Finally, there's the information overload, which ties into both world building and pacing. This is a negative aspect of LOTM, but it makes sense to keep it under world building:

You will constantly get massive dumps of information, lore, and small details that are entirely redundant, this isn't a massive negative because it becomes less and less frequent as the story progresses but is more than worth mentioning. Some may even enjoy these parts of the story.

Power system: The power system is the main reason I stuck with this novel. The different pathways and array of unique abilities are incredibly interesting, you'll want to know what the next sequence for Klein is, what abilities will be revealed, the mysteries that will be uncovered, and the consequences Klein will likely have to face as he constantly bridges on madness (slight overestimation as of volume 1). This is regrettably undermined by pacing and the lack of expertise in the rest of the novel's writing, however, the power system is still good enough to hold its own. My lack of in-depth knowledge in web novels could mean that I'm overestimating the quality of this system, but at the very least it is new to me.

Why write a review after volume one?

213 chapters is a lot; if a novel is not good after 213 chapters, then a sincere recommendation is impossible to give. Fans of the series usually rank volume one above two and sometimes three, so if things will only get worse until volume 3/4, I'd rather write a review now than make an even more negative one after another infuriating 200+ chapters, at the very least. I'm also aware that some of my gripes with the series may be intentionally there to mislead the reader, perhaps 300 chapters in the future we will discover why Klein's siblings are so clueless, but I doubt it, and even if that is the case, is it a worthy tradeoff if it means bland and ignorant characters in the opening volume? I don't think so.

Conclusion: Lord of the Mysteries is a web novel that has potential in multiple areas, but is not worth sticking around for because of the translation that does not seem to improve. LOTM will continue to receive praise as one of the greatest stories of all time, perhaps true amongst web novels, but anyone who cares about readability and interesting characters should look elsewhere.