48 Hours a Day

I usually do not write reviews, but since this is a rare novel, I decided to do this since I felt as if I should express my opinion. Once again, I will try to be as neutral and non-biased as possible like my last detailed review. Bear in mind, this is very long even by my standards. I will say this: [SPOILERS] I went ahead and read the raw version, which has over a thousand chapters. I did not fully read it all, but I have gotten pretty far into the novel and should be 80% complete. Some of the stuff I say may be from the raw version or this current one on Webnovel, so you have been warned. As a precaution, the stuff that contains spoilers will have [brackets] so people know to skip if they so desire. Those who wish for my conclusion of this novel should scroll all the way to the bottom if they do not want to read the details I spent hours going into. First, I will do a summary of the novel’s central plot so readers can get a better picture. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary: In short, Zhang Heng gets a strange ability that pauses time for him at midnight, granting him 24 hours to do whatever he wants before time resumes to normal. It turns out that this ability was given to him by a mysterious being from mythology who can manipulate time and decided to give this to him to him order to regain his slowly dwindling powers through a game that many others play (This isn’t really a spoiler since this is explained on chapter five). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, we can get into the details using this chart. • Translation Quality • Stability of Updates • Story Development • Character Design • World Background --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Translation Quality: Pretty Good (4-stars) Honestly, the translation is done pretty good and is better than many other novels. It is very difficult to find any spelling or grammatical errors, so I give props to that. I have nothing much to say in this department. What I like: a). The translator, or author, or whoever is translating this novel, seems to be somewhat of a professional in what he/she is doing. The person seems to be well-versed in his/her English and it seems to be on a college level if I am being honest, since I am a college student as well. What I dislike: a). I cannot say that I dislike anything of the translation quality as I have never been nitpicky in this department. So no dislikes. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stability of Updates: No Opinion (5-stars) The author seems to upload once every day, and I am giving the novel five stars since I am reading the raw currently and have not yet caught up. I do not know if this is completed nor the upload rate of the raw version, but I am not complaining. What I like: a). What I wrote above. What I dislike: a). If anything, it would be better if more chapters were released every day or week so I can read more, but I can understand if the author/translator is busy and has limited time, so I will respect his/her upload rate and be content with the raw. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Story Development: Almost-Exceptionally Good (4.3-stars) Honestly, I never thought I would encounter a novel like this that keeps the reader constantly wanting to read more. Even if the raw version is full of errors and poor sentencing, it is good enough that I overlook these and want to keep reading for more. We are introduced to the main character immediately by a background of his knowledge into mythology and religious stuff, and how he gets a lot of it from his parents. The protagonist has a reason for understanding a lot of the mythology originating from other countries, which helps him a lot down the road. We are immediately introduced to the scenario at hand, which is that he has gained this strange ability. Characters are introduced as the chapters continue and many of them progress as the story develo**. There is a sense of mystery into why the world the main character lives in is like this, and this only grows the more powerful the MC becomes and the more he is pulled into the game. Most of the events in the story happen for a reason that are reasonable and logical. You have organizations driven by interests, desires, greed, or sometimes pure rationality. You have characters who are also driven by similar things, which gives them a feeling of being human. This even applies to the realities that the main character enters. More importantly, the author is very creative in creating the realities the MC enters. Some of the settings within these realities have never been seen before in the hundreds of Chinese novels I have read. I could write a whole essay on the creativity, but I don’t have the time. What I like: a). Many of the stuff I said above. b). I enjoy the fact that romance is a minor-plot in this novel and does not happen much. [Although, the main character still does not have a romantic interest even when I have read 80% of the raw version. However, there are hints of a growing relationship with one particular girl so far, but I do not know if it progresses into something more romantic.] What I dislike: a). The author tends to do a lot of time skipping. -Understandably, the main missions within the realities that the main character enters can take several months and even years to complete, including the time limits set on each reality. I agree that trying not to time skip can drag the story and make it difficult to come up with interesting ideas to keep the plot interest. -However, there are times when it is absolutely necessary to skip weeks, months, and years, and times when it is not as necessary. There were some very interesting ideas within many of these realities that could have been explore but were left out because of time skips. b). Secondly, along with the time skipping, is the occasional fast pacing. -The author uses fast pacing in a very poor manner occasionally, usually by skipping over stuff that may or may not seem important alongside the time skips. -They may not have seemed important, but they could have greatly improved the quality of the novel if the author took his time to explore these events. Mainly, I feel like much of the important stuff was the characters within these realities that were skipped over. [For example, there was one reality with a time limit of ten years, and the entire setting of the reality was very interesting. The author took his time to develop the story and setting within that reality, which is probably the longest one out of all the realities so far.] [However, some of the scenes with the characters I really loved were done too fast and were not explored that deeply, before being skipped over. Some of the character development could have been explored more and done better in my opinion.] [I was really sad and disappointed in how the author ended that ten-year copy of reality. They only made a brief explanation of what happened over the years and then did a brief cutscene before he was sent back to reality. I really wished the side characters were there or there was an explanation of what happened to them and how their relationship evolved with the MC.] -In short, I feel as if a lot of potential was wasted by using fast pacing and time skips over some of these characters. I did not mind much when it involved events, but I was disappointed and saddened by how the author did not delve deeper into some of the characters and just brushed them over. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Character Design: Exceptionally Good (4.6-stars) I am really surprised with the creativity of the author over creating many of the characters within the novel. Many of them are well-fleshed out, have their own personality, and feel 3D, regardless of their gender, race, nationality, and beliefs. Most of the characters have responses like a human would in real life, including the main character himself in many circumstances. Most of them have their own interests, desires, goals, beliefs, et cetera like any person in real life would. They have their own eccentric sides, telling the readers that everybody is different in their own way. You have funny characters, hateful characters, weird characters, and the species characters you really cannot stop liking. There are enemies that may seem evil but have a family of their own that they love dearly. There are people who have ill intentions but may have a good side to them. There are friendly people who are good but may also have a bad side to them. More importantly, the author delves into many of their back stories and personalities. You will find a wild girl who likes to drink and fight the MC all the time, yet has her own beliefs and is willing to take damage for the MC. You will find a leader of an organization who may be the enemy of the MC yet has his own family that he dearly cares about in a good way. You will find a girl who has a firm belief in justice, regardless if the world is against her, cares for her companions and friends, and is willing to put her life on the line in order to protect them. Honestly, this is the probably the best aspect of the entire novel. Other than that, what is especially good is how the author keeps the face-slapping to a manageable degree and does not make it a convenient comedy plot device. You have some here and there occasionally, but most of the characters are reasonable, and the ones that are arrogant are intelligent enough to back off and take caution. What I like: a). A lot of the stuff I mentioned above. b). The fact that I actually enjoy some of the characters. c). The fact that the author can pull my heart strings and make me feel emotional over some of them. d). The fact that the author does not use the romance trope to make the MC gain a harem of girls. -I feel like this is a big plus for the novel. Most of the romance in the story is one-sided towards the females that gain a romantic interest in the MC and they usually never blossom, because almost all of them happen in those copies of reality. -Like I mentioned before, there are hints of an interest towards him from a female in reality, and perhaps another girl, but they are very much subtle and almost impossible to tell if they are growing or not. -Even better is that many of the females actually have their own lives and most are not falling in love with the MC. e). The author makes the MC just as susceptible to injury and disease like the other players and makes him have to work in order to achieve what he wants. -The MC, aside from his time ability and exceptional calmness, is no different than any other player or human. He makes mistakes and pays the price for them. He gets injured and nearly dies. He has to learn new stuff in order to understand them. f). The MC actually uses his knowledge and brain to give himself advantages over his opponents and does not think with this third leg. g). Almost no racism, nationalism, sexism, et cetera found in typical Chinese novels. -I am not joking with this one. The author develops the characters from other countries just as well as those from his own country. Yes, there may be a few stereotypes here and there, but there are as many friendly foreigners as there are friendly Chinese people, and vice versa. What I dislike: a). As I mentioned in the Story Development, the author will sometimes not delve too deeply into some of the characters that are really enjoyable and lovable. -The author sometimes skips over a lot of stuff involving the characters, which I feel like is potential sent down the drain for no reason. A character I really loved had her arc abruptly ended by the MC returning to reality. c). The time skipping and skipping really puts a dent on how I view the main character in a positive light, especially when combined with the MC as a character himself. -I understand that the author explains that he has always been very calm since his youth and is losing his emotions over time, but I wish the author would put more feeling into him when it involves his relationship with other characters. [When the ten-year reality ended, the MC did not even act depressed or saddened by the fact that the girl he had spent ten years with together in adventures was now gone. In fact, the only thing he was distraught about was the disorientation between the copy of reality and his reality, and the fact that the changes that his body experienced in those ten years had disappeared.] [Yes, he mentions that he has dreams of the girl throughout the novel, but he should have at least cried when the girl he spent ten years with disappeared. I would have cried, and I would have fell into a depression. Yet, the MC carries on and returns to his normal schedule.] d). The author does not delve as much into the main character as with other characters. -I understand; the MC is a super calm and indifferent person which grows as his experience grows. I understand that his emotions are disappearing. However, even the least emotional person should at leave have some emotional responses, am I right? -Furthermore, no person is a machine. Even a person like him should be burnt out after going through these difficult realities that involve people who are no different than being real. I would be burn out. Bruce Lee would be burnt out. Jason Borne would be burnt out. -The author comes dangerously close to using the generic route of MC’s in Chinese novels, where they only befriend those who are friendly to him and he repays 10x to enemies whilst being cold and indifferent. However, I can feel some differences thankfully. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- World Background: Exceptionally Good (4.5-stars) Once again, praise to the author for the exceptional world background he developed. I have never seen an author so dedicated towards making the world background so realistic. This is not seen very clearly since there are only 88 chapters, but I have read most of the raw version and have seen many of the realities that the author has created. Bear in mind, most of these realities are based on actual history [with a few that are in the future]. Science, mythology, and history are major themes in this novel, and the author does a good job with it. As I said earlier, there are only 88 chapters, but in the raw version, you see a lot of events explained with hard science, like how a car works, how a rocket goes to space, how a fire leads to asphyxiation, et cetera. Stuff rarely explained in other novels are explained by this author in great detail. History drives almost all of the copies of reality, ranging from a few years ago to the 1800s (not really a spoiler in my opinion), and the author put in great effort to make sure they are as realistic and accurate as possible. [In fact, the author managed to make me, an American, learn stuff that happened in my country’s past that I never even knew about. I am even certain that the author has visited the US before. To me, that is a thumbs up to the author.] Not only is the history very accurate, but the author takes his time to make the culture where the history is involved as accurate as possible. Maybe not entirely accurate, but it is on a level only second to Lord of the Mysteries. Well, maybe not entirely accurate, but it does have a level of accuracy perhaps only second to Lord of the Mysteries (I think). I do not think I have read another Chinese novel that has spent this much time researching the culture of other countries other than Lord of the Mysteries. I am wondering if the authors’ parents are well-versed in mythology, or the author himself is, because the mythology also seems well researched. The only other novel I have seen that has done this much research into mythologies is the City of Terror. The game system is something I also very much like. The entire concept is kept simple and clear to the point that anyone can understand how it works. What I like: a). The stuff mentioned above. b). The level of research and accuracy the author has achieved with science, history, and mythology. c). The fact that the author throws the MC into past histories from other countries and does not solely focus on his own (although I have yet to see the MC delve into history regarding his own country), and the fact that the author makes the MC attempt to understand and integrate into these cultures and histories of other countries. -This really makes me appreciative and respectful of the author and is major positive aspect of this novel. I find it difficult to read a novel when a Chinese author does not take his/her time understanding the cultures and histories of other countries and tries to make it sound like their own country is better than others. -I also appreciate that the author does not make a country’s history and culture better than the other. It is rare to see these types of authors nowadays, especially with the growing rise of racism towards westerners thanks to the pandemic. What I dislike: a). The major organizations involved in the game system seem to only exist within the city and country the MC lives in, and most of the players seem Chinese. [I recall a chapter mentioning that two out of the three major guilds within the game are centered in the MC’s city due to its special nature. I also recall that most of the players in the game are from China.] -I only recall a few players/agents/beings, who are mostly not human, from other countries. -There is no particular explanation as to why the city the MC lives in is so special, and why the game system seems to only apply there mostly. If the game system applies to the whole of humanity, I do not see why it cannot involve foreigner players or why they are not mentioned. b). A few times, the author does not go into accuracy as much as it would be appreciated. [I recall one copy of reality that could have implemented its accuracy of historical London a little bit better in terms of its culture and etiquette. I do not know the author had been working on this particular arc before or after Lord of the Mysteries was released, but I feel like the author could have used the novel as reference since it uses European culture and etiquette a lot.] c). The author sometimes does not delve deeper into the aspects of these realities. -The author will sometimes skip over stuff that could be otherwise interesting to readers. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONCLUSION: I will be very honest in that it has been a long time since I have read a Chinese novel this good. If I were to give a score of a 5 out of 10 for the average Chinese novel among the hundreds I have read, then the score for this novel would be a 8.3 out of 10. In comparison, Lord of the Mysteries would be a 9.4 out of 10, just for an example. The author excelled in many areas and may have fell short in some other areas. However, this does not hide the fact that this novel is pretty top tier anyway. If it were not for the shortcomings in this novel, I feel like this novel would have the potential to enter the top