Question Is RI (Reverend insanity) actually that good?

Yea I got far enough to know the reason but doesn't really help with getting back into it. I just find it hard to continue stories that have a repeating structure in it if they last over 500 chaps. Like in "I'm Really A Superstar" it's always: problem -> fancy skill get -> major face slap -> enjoy popularity -> problem -> fancy skill get -> ad infinitum. Or in "Hail The King": problem -> power up -> kill everyone -> 2 chaps of slice of life -> problem -> power up -> ad infinitum.

 

This book is of high quality. For example, I have seen many detectives shows. But the one with the highest quality in recent times is "Sherlock". This has the equivalent quality of "Sherlock". You tolerate any personality issues presented in the show, due to how high the quality is.

 

One thing that amazes me is the fact that RI continues to get better even after 1800+chps in the story. You can see that the author has the story structured from the get go so you won't see some random BS pop-up. And characterization for Fang Yuan is pretty good as well since we get to see more sides of him as his previous lifetime experiences parallels and gives more depth to the character that he is now. In the first few arcs it does seem like that he is just some edge-lord that only has one personality trait but that is not the case.
Honestly though the biggest gripe i have with this novel is are the dialogues. They are pretty bad, probably due to language differences it doesn't translate that well. All in all RI is pretty much one of my favorite novels on this site with Lotm and Mao Ni's works being on the top of the list as well. But expecting top notch published book quality will ultimately get you disappointed

 

See, this is exactly what I'm talking about: effusive praise with nothing to back that praise up. It's not persuasive.

See, this is a lot more concrete. The problem though is that a book that has good characterization has to apply this to the entire cast. If only the protagonist gets much fleshing out, then I'd say that it's actually a failure at that front.

The other thing is that, on a personal level, the book just sounds like something that I'd hate.

 

If you don't have an open mind, it is highly unlikely you will enjoy this book.
One, it challenges the standard notion of good and evil. The MC can be called evil, but he is no more evil than the rest of the world, just he has more chance to display it. In this world setting, many things kill and eat people and MC is just one of them. Many people cannot get pass this point, and drop this book due to conflicts against their personal moral standards.
However, this book makes a strong case for relative morality, if you can stomach it.
Two, there is very little instant gratification here. Unlike t.v. series where each new problem is solved in the same episode, many problems are present and can only be resolved after all the key pieces becomes available much later on. So some enemies are not killed promptly, and revenge are often not served. Many readers are so used to such revenge plot and when it did not happen here, gets frustrated and drop this book.
A major theme of this book is to get pass the revenge and look at the big picture. Enemies of yesterday can become friends ( or at least usable pawns) tomorrow. Flames of revenge is heavily suppressed and if someone cannot get pass this point emotionally, they will not enjoy this book.
For those not incensed with anger, the story gives an interesting take of the benefits of living away from revenge.

 

See, I see this kind of argument pop up for "Reverend Insanity" all the time, and it just doesn't seem impressive. I guess if you already lean in this direction, then it's good to see validation but I have a hard time seeing anyone else caring about it much.

And it not as if I don't read villain protagonists; they're all over the place, and it's not as if they don't have reasons for doing horrible things to people.

This also seems very trivial. Sure if you've never read books that do this then it might seem novel but it feels like the last four out of five books I've read are like this and most of them aren't even that good.

Sure, I'm still not going to read the book, but I'd at least like to see what people see in it. Trivial reasons like "the protagonist actually thinks" or "the book is actually planned out" are not what I'd consider good selling points.

 

I would recommend stopping since the novel is banned in china. It will take atleast 3 years to unban since the author is writing a new book. Tbh this author is on my only read when nothing to read (inferior version ) list

 

Well if you want a toned down version that I found interesting than RI. Even though RI is better the ones I mentioned but I still like them better. So I will mention just in case are Warlock of the Magnus world, Carefree of dreams, Way of devil and Nano machine. But there is one novel if given time might rival RI is SOUL OF NEGARY.

 

If I had to say what I see in it, it’s that it’s a breath of fresh air, and I mean real fresh, especially in webnovel terms. Cliches? None of that. Perfectly understandable and well developed characters, with intelligence to boot? All of that. You won’t find almost any other novel where everything is so well-planned, believable, and really just so soul-touching. When you read RI, you can genuinely empathize with the MC even though he’s evil. You can support him no matter what he does, because his actions make sense. What happens to him and how he deals with it, how the people around him act, the entire world is just so logical you can’t help but fall in love with it. He’s not a mass murderer because of some petty revenge or out of the desire to save the world, and he doesn’t defend his actions. The author doesn’t sugarcoat the MC’s actions as being even slightly good - rather, he emphasizes the MC’s cruelty and devilishness. He’s purely rational. However... he’s not the only reason this book is a masterpiece. The author understands human psychology so well, it terrifies me. He puts that knowledge to good use, with every plot having its human roots.

Moving on from the plot itself, his descriptions are immaculate. You’d be hard pressed to find such wonderful imagery created with so few words anywhere else. When I was reading the manhua, I almost cursed the entire studio to hell and back. I had been able to see every detail as it was in the novel. I could picture it as if it was right in front of me... which meant that the terrible art choices of the studio that created its manhua made me cringe in disgust. Well, if you don’t want to read it, that’s fine. It’s a matter of opinion. However, although it might not appeal to all readers, RI is still definitely absurdly well-written and a masterpiece of a Chinese novel.

 

I've been reading some of your replies in this thread and I don't think you'll like it. Just don't read it lol

 

Don't worry, around 1000 chapters he's the one kicking the nuts.
After chapter 1500 chapter, he's kicking everyone's nuts including venerables.

 

I'm on chapter 713 and sometimes I just speed read the whole chapter as a lot of stuff will be irrelevant after a while and is honestly just boring, I read this based on recommendations and rave reviews but it really is underwhelming compared to Lord of Mysteries. I need a lot of motivation to continue reading specially since it was Sino-Blocked like Tales of Reincarnated Lord.

 

Still in actual books spoken he finished 2 full books of this series. Its like saying dont read Harry Potter, the last volume aint done yet. The two books that are complete make a great read to me. actually read them twice ✌

 

I’d argue that LOTM is worse

 

In this genre? Yes. I enjoyed reading RI, but I wouldn't call it the greatest novel ever. It's good, though, which for a 2000+ chapter action/adventure/fantasy/cultivation novel is not a small feat. My favorite parts were vol 2, vol 4, and the second part of vol 6 (after the cave). Vol 5 has some parts that stand out, but it is ~1000 chapters long so it's hard to describe which ones without being too spoiler-y. IIRC, ToastedRossi, you mostly avoid WN/LNs in this area precisely because they're frequently of lower quality.

Without spoiling, my thoughts:
I wouldn't say the first volume is *bad*, but aside from tighter pacing what RI does well is less evident. The MC's knowledge advantage is just too great at that point in the story, which forces the initial arcs to play out like most of its genre.You can sort of start to see how antagonists get to have brains, but it doesn't matter much yet. I also think the climax of vol 1 is one of the weaker ones. I think there's less char development for side characters in volume 1 as well, which is likely due to the author knowing that very few of the initial village characters matter in the long run.

> Failure:
The MC is allowed to fail, and frequently has pyrrhic victories (especially later on). This allows everyone else in the plot to be more competent & capable, and likewise makes it feel like the MC's cunning actually matters. That the MC's achievements were not guaranteed. I think unending perfect success isn't something good novels should do in the first place*, but in a genre rife with power fantasies overcoming setbacks that genuinely feel like setbacks is a rare occurrence. When people claim that the MC isn't needlessly ruthless I think this is a part of it - taking the high road is a more difficult path, and the MC scrapes by so frequently that it is a bit difficult for the reader to demand he be a good person while doing so. Again, this is more a later volume thing, the MC is ruthless from the start but it can easily feel like overkill early on. The degree of failure can be rather extreme, granted, as you can tell from the complaint earlier in this thread. I don't mind this, personally, but it's not for everyone. A novel could definitely have real setbacks without stomping on the MC's proverbial face anywhere near as much as RI stomps on FY's.

*Granted, there are novels that are meant to be feel-good power fantasies where the whole universe revolves around the MC. That's not something I personally enjoy, but I understand there is a market for that.

> Antagonists:
In this genre antagonists are frequently either too weak or too stupid to be a real challenge. In RI you start getting antagonists that are intelligent and capable, which means subterfuge, information control, etc actually matter. The antagonists are capable of learning, and are unlikely to fall for the same trick twice. These are all basic things you'd expect from a good novel, but again, in this genre good antagonists are vanishingly rare. In the last, unfinished volume 6:

Spoiler

The plot becomes a 3(4?)-way standoff between the MC and two powerful enemies. Each of them lacks the strength to take out the other two, so they're managing their territories and making various moves and schemes to break the power balance without making themselves the target of a 2v1. This goes on for some time. I can't even think of another LN that has something like this in the final arcs*, as it requires two competent enemies that can legitimately challenge the MC power-wise. It's rare for LNs to do this kind of plot at all**. Both enemies have actual goals, beliefs, different ways of doing things, etc as they've been indirectly fleshed out over the course of the series (and directly fleshed out in the later arc(s)).

*I'd emphasize again how unusual it is for something like this to be going on in the final arcs of a series! It's very rare for an author to still have any control over the plot or the MC's growth at that point; even the better written series often have final arcs where the enemy is relying purely on BS plot elements and apparently sacrificed their brain and personality to do so. To put it another way, most action/adventure/fantasy WN choke themselves to death on the MC's power-ups.

**It's common for there to be multiple enemy factions but that's not the same as.. it's hard to describe the difference. Like.. in a lot of series the other factions feel more like stationary obstacles than fellow players at the table. If the political aspects were turned into the fight, it'd be a small-but-powerful MC vs a bunch of slow moving, dim-witted giants. That kind of story can be well-written, but it's entirely different from a fight between equals.

> Side Characters:
On side character development... not so much in volume 1 but in the later volumes some side characters get a decent amount of development. It's not a huge amount, but I didn't feel that the cast was undeveloped either. The longer-running side characters tend to feel like people with lives outside of their scenes with the MC. This is also something I think any decent novel should do, but again it is rare to find in this genre. This is likely part of why I prefer the parts I do, as vol 2/4/6-past-cave does better on the side character front. Vol 4 in particular. Vol 3 might have also counted.. but the second half of that volume has infamous pacing issues that kind of drown everything else out. To put it another way, if the MC were to suddenly vanish I think it'd be possible to write a decent story with the remaining characters without having to suddenly give them massive amounts of development. I would emphasize that RI is still mostly MC-focused, however, and imo the side characters are only developed enough to not detract from the story.

> MC's actions have consequences:
For example, the MC is basically incapable of truly being someone's friend. He can fake it when he needs to, and has several opportunities to turn short-term connections into a long-lasting one, but in the long run he's simply too selfishly devoted to his neigh-impossible dream to make that kind of commitment. This burns bridges, as you would expect, and ruins opportunities to gain truly steadfast companions/allies/etc. There are arcs where the MC clearly has a much harder time of it precisely because he burnt a bridge for personal gain at an earlier point in the story. MCs that don't act like good allies having to deal with no one wanting to help them should be an obvious thing, but is rare in action/adventure LN (Usually ruthless MCs are so OP it doesn't matter / never fall so low that prior bridge burning is a serious issue). It helps that not everyone is a ruthless backstabber in this story - some characters are, but you see examples of characters genuinely helping each other as well. Examples of what the MC could have, but isn't going to. On the other hand, there are also points in the story where the MC only succeeds because of what he personally gained by burning a bridge - his actions are not without purpose. The key, though, is that the novel doesn't ignore the downsides of being so extreme. Again, this is something you'd hope any decent novel would do but is rather rare; especially since this kind of downside requires the MC have a reasonable power level + reasonably fleshed out, actually competent side characters + a setting where not helping the MC is a sane option characters can take.

There are other consequences as well, but I think the ally thing is particularly noticeable.

> Setting:
The setting gets built up over time, and really starts to feel like a unique setting that exists outside of the MC and his plot. You could run other series in this setting, and those series would be distinct from other series in the same genre. Learning more about the setting is interesting, and the setting is unveiled at a reasonable pace (outside of the second half of volume 3).

---------------------

These aren't the only things I liked about the novel, there's quite a bit I left out, in fact. However, most of those things - like what I covered above - would fall under "Well, that's what you'd expect from a good/decent novel". But I think that, itself, makes my point. At some point a novel has so many things you'd expect from a "good" novel that the novel itself is clearly good.

I consider RI to be a good novel. I feel I can say that without qualifying the statement with "good for a WN" like I would, say, Nano Machine (Which I liked, but.. eh, that's its own post). RI could certainly be refined further, yes, but I think a proper print series of RI wouldn't need to change very much compared to the usual WN/LN.

Does it get over-hyped? Yes, much like water in a desert RI is absolutely over-hyped. It's not some universally enjoyable novel that everyone will love and cherish forever. It's just a good novel that some people are going to greatly enjoy. It's not for everyone, and I would recommend using the manhua to speed through most of vol 1.

 

I read from the same sites everyone else on NUF does: Qidian, 17K, jjwxc, and Syosetu. And I'll read all sorts of junk as long as I feel that there's something in the story that's compelling. Sure, I tend to be a bit pickier when it comes to Chinese novels but that's mostly because of the kind of books I gravitate towards. For example, I don't read xianxia novels, but that's not because of their quality or lack thereof; I just don't have much interest in the kinds of stories that the genre fosters.

The book I'm reading right now does all of the things that you listed. Is it any good? I'd say that it's decent, but it's far from being a masterpiece. Being able to write books with these elements just isn't impressive because I already see it all the time.

I can't agree with this point. A book can have all sorts of good story elements but still fail to be good. To illustrate, I read a lot of romance novels that often score very strongly in all of these points. In fact, they're going to be better at them than Reverend Insanity, the book I'm reading right now, and perhaps the vast majority of the books out there. However, they still ended up being complete disappointments because there are a lot of other important things to a good book. Primarily the most important is that good books need to have some kind of spark to really make it shine. Instead, these books have a special odor that makes the whole thing stink.

 

Specifically, Xianxia/Xuanhuan and Isekai frequently have issues with what I was referring to, and Reverend Insanity is more or less in that part of the genre pool. This makes it shine more than it otherwise would.

I'd go further in noting that a lot of what makes those genres those genres does not lend itself towards solving these issues. I think going deeper into that would be worthy of its own thread, tbh. Like, imagine if err.. 'LU' was a romance novel and I went into a long talk about how LU has interesting fight scenes, a neat power system with a great deal of variety, handles power development over time quite well, etc, etc and then BakedBernard, avid reader of battle isekai novels, noted that all the decent stories they read have those things.

Speaking of which, RI does have all of those things, which is not special for its genre but when compared with works of random genre X is certainly something to consider.

Although I could argue that my statement of "so many" is different from "many", in that I was more referencing that there exists *some* point where I would consider a story well done even if I did not fancy the genre myself / want to read it, I'll admit it's a weak statement. It's little different from me saying that there exists some point where a story is good.

On sparks.. I've realized over the course of writing / re-writing this response that there are some some genuinely "hell yeah!" action/climatic sequences in RI. Most stories have climatic sequences but I'd say end-of-volume climaxes and climatic sequences in general is something the author of RI does especially well. I won't spoil the ending of volume 2, but many consider that the best sequence in the series and it is pretty memorable. When people are gushing about RI it's likely a combination of it avoiding many of the pitfalls of its genre combined with impression those moments left on them. I suppose that'd be the "spark" you were referring to, at least to those readers.

That said, having a "spark" is frequently dependent on the reader. Giving you a breakdown of how RI avoids the pitfalls of its genre like I did in my previous post is time-consuming but not difficult to write. Explaining exactly why a sizable number of readers were ready to bust out a rock guitar solo at the end of volume 2 is more difficult. I don't think merely describing what happened plot-wise would really be enough, nor am I sure you'd feel the same way if you read volume 2 of RI.

 

Yes, it is that good.
I check every lightnovel of xianxia, wuxia or magic world. I simply can't find a lightnovel which I can read as passionately as RI.
Not a single light novel! They are either trash, or female orianted.

 

Of these three genres, I read a bit of Xuanhuan, and it's so varied that I don't think that you can make broad generalizations about it. Sure, the ones that are all about the protagonist getting stronger and stronger powers is more limited, but there are plenty that don't don't do this. It's a huge stretch to claim that the genre itself is an issue rather than how writers use it. I'd assume that Xianxia is somewhat like this as well but that's just a guess as I don't actually read it.

Modern Isekai novels are sort of inherently trash, so sure you can compare Reverend Insanity favorably to them. However, it's an unfair comparison because you can compare just about anything favorably to isekai. And I'd even say that isekai novels are like this only because it's what the writers want. The easiest way to tell is by looking at classical Isekai - these books use the same basic ideas but tell completely different kinds of stories; stories that are better in just about every way.

Well said! The spark I'm talking about is very much a personal thing, and everyone looks for different things. I used to look for cool moments like great fights and other high points like that in my books, but I'm far more drawn to real moments nowadays. And the best of these come from highly human pieces of writing; about how people relate to one another, how their morals interact with the events around them, and about how these can generate poignancy and other strong feelings. The things that people bring to praise Reverend Insanity seem to be antithetical to this, and it's one of the main reasons I'm put off reading the book.

 

It's Good Guys Read It