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rebeccazh 's review for:
地球上線 The Earth Is Online
by Mo Chen Huan, 莫晨歡
A very very creative novel. This is similar to [b:Global University Entrance Examination 全球高考|51348788|Global University Entrance Examination 全球高考|木苏里|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1581917228l/51348788._SX50_.jpg|76028938]. In a apocalyptic world, people are forced into Battle Royale-style cruel games with high death rates, run by a senseless, inhumane and and almost sadistic 'System', with two main characters who are very intelligent and can exploit the loopholes, and who start out as enemies but turn into lovers. But where GUEE was like a 'lite' version of this genre, this book really delved into it. The games in this novel are like math or logic problems, and feature a sadistic and twisted version of popular story characters like Cinderella, Santa Claus...
Systems in Chinese novels/webnovels (transmigration system, systems in these apocalyptic novels) always remind me of an amalgamation the Chinese government, Weber's theory about bureaucracy, and the rigid social mores that underlie Chinese culture that have turned rogue and monstrous. This novel was no exception. The true villain was always the system, pitting humans against each other and bringing out the worst in people in a dog-eat-dog world. The apocalypse having game-related elements and basically resembling your average melee game but with RL consequences (killing enemies kills actual people, regional players and regional servers, props as rewards, clearing bosses and floors...) was very interesting.
The book starts out quite slow, but really picks up speed by the second half. The mysteries were based off real-world physics, science, philosophy, math and logic concepts and really made me think lol. The cast of secondary characters was awesome. I especially love Mo Huixue and wished she had lived longer. A lot of the plot-twists were really unexpected and gripping, especially the ones near the end. It was riveting - I think this author is really good at writing mystery, thriller and plot-twists. Some of the plot twists really haunt me.
Romance was very very light; in fact, this is more of a mystery/psychological novel than a romance lol. The book in general didn't really touch much on anyone's emotions - you don't get a lot about the two main leads' developing feelings and it's pretty subtle and understated. You also don't get much exploration into the general psyche of the people after eight months of apocalyptic Hunger Games-like games.
But there were still A LOT of unanswered questions. So... who is Eve? What happened to her? How were Eve's chosen selected? And I'm not sure how to feel about the fact that all civilizations are put to a senseless, cruel 'test' or 'evaluation' once they have hit a certain level of progress or advancement. There's also some very subtle ethnocentrism and Eurocentrism - most of the top players and regions were either Chinese or Western/European, with most of the good guys being from these two regions too. Not sure how to feel about the portrayal of India in the last 10% too.
Systems in Chinese novels/webnovels (transmigration system, systems in these apocalyptic novels) always remind me of an amalgamation the Chinese government, Weber's theory about bureaucracy, and the rigid social mores that underlie Chinese culture that have turned rogue and monstrous. This novel was no exception. The true villain was always the system, pitting humans against each other and bringing out the worst in people in a dog-eat-dog world. The apocalypse having game-related elements and basically resembling your average melee game but with RL consequences (killing enemies kills actual people, regional players and regional servers, props as rewards, clearing bosses and floors...) was very interesting.
The book starts out quite slow, but really picks up speed by the second half. The mysteries were based off real-world physics, science, philosophy, math and logic concepts and really made me think lol. The cast of secondary characters was awesome. I especially love Mo Huixue and wished she had lived longer. A lot of the plot-twists were really unexpected and gripping, especially the ones near the end. It was riveting - I think this author is really good at writing mystery, thriller and plot-twists. Some of the plot twists really haunt me.
Romance was very very light; in fact, this is more of a mystery/psychological novel than a romance lol. The book in general didn't really touch much on anyone's emotions - you don't get a lot about the two main leads' developing feelings and it's pretty subtle and understated. You also don't get much exploration into the general psyche of the people after eight months of apocalyptic Hunger Games-like games.
But there were still A LOT of unanswered questions. So... who is Eve? What happened to her? How were Eve's chosen selected? And I'm not sure how to feel about the fact that all civilizations are put to a senseless, cruel 'test' or 'evaluation' once they have hit a certain level of progress or advancement. There's also some very subtle ethnocentrism and Eurocentrism - most of the top players and regions were either Chinese or Western/European, with most of the good guys being from these two regions too. Not sure how to feel about the portrayal of India in the last 10% too.