Lusalec

Highly recommended for people who have the patience to enjoy a highly detailed kingdom building novel. Especially if you liked Release That Witch which is somewhat similar to this novel. It goes in deeper about the details, philosophy, schemes, politics and inventions than RTW. Which has resulted into less battles. This novel is more about kingdom building and less about war. The novel goes in deep about politics, public opinion, religious belief, scheming and society. We get a thorough explanation about not only how he invents and implement things but also why he does it. As others have said, it is similar to Release That Witch. However in my opinion it is also different in a way that it manages to not be called Release That Which 2.0. This novel takes place in the universe of "The Record of Unusual Creatures", once you reach the later chapters (600+) and uncover some answers, you will see that the overarching plot is very different than that of RTW. And how he handles his "opponents" is also very different. The few battles and showoffs the MC has are all well written and hyped up, which offsets this issue somewhat. Compared to RTW I would say that this novel goes in deeper into the technicalities and philosophy. Less adventuring and conquering. More thinking, talking, drawing up plans and scheming. And boy does our MC scheme well, his plans are several moves ahead of his enemies and allies. There are also some really formidable enemies as well as competent enemy leaders. A lot more factions compared to RTW. The inventions too have issues due to the physics of the universe working differently. So the MC could not implement his ideas directly and has to rely on competent allies and subordinates to solve things. The biggest difference perhaps is that the MC isn't the only one with talented people, his enemies also have talented people and are progressing while he is trying to get his stuff together. However it is slightly unbelievable that he is progressing the technology in the world this fast. They went from essentially late middle ages to a steampunk (but with magic) industrial age with internet. Though every single of his inventions are explained and fitting according to the lore. It is slightly unbelievable. But then again, the universe this story takes in has galactic empires that have FTL travel and living AI. As of right now there has also not been any signs of romance. Which is kinda expected because our mc's mind got a little bit warped by his reincarnation procedure. This also leads to certain very interesting and hilarious things later on. There are few "battles" however the buildup is good. There are plenty of mysteries the MC has to solve. But he doesn't do it alone since he has to rule over his lands and work. So he makes allies, friends and subordinates who can help him solve the mysteries. He does step in occasionally but he is mostly not on the frontlines or in direct command. I think it is a very well done kingdom building novel. Some people might find it slow, however I really like this slow paced way of planning things out and going into detail about stuff other novels skip in order to fit in more fighting and adventuring.