Laith
This a review for the complete series (Vol 1-7, and the remaining unpublished content). _______
I remember picking this webnovel series up in 2018 when the webtoon/manhwa first began its serialization and I was obsessed immediately. This series was thankfully among the first few webnovels that I completed and it really is some of the best writing that the medium has to offer. Since this story is finally getting an anime adaptation I thought I would do a reread and Solo Leveling is just as good as I remember.
As a primer: Webnovels are different from your standard novel in that they are principally published online, on a chapter by chapter basis. Webnovels are hugely popular in Asia and they differ massively in style and genre depending on their origin. This means that it can take years for a story to unravel, and depending on how disciplined and inspired the author is, you might end up with a story that's mostly filler or thousands of chapters of pure gold. In my experience with this medium I've found that the best novels tend to come out of Korea. Typically a Korean web novel is short (by comparison to seemingly infinite chinese web novels) and structured; most notably Korean webnovels have an ending and do not go on forever.
Solo Leveling is an urban-fantasy novel with video game elements: In a modern world where mystical gates full of monsters begin to appear, a weakling gate hunter undergoes a reawakening and gains a unique ability that sets him on the path to be the world's strongest. SL is the exemplar of what I would call the Gate Genre, a mix of asian fantasy and diablo, and it has spawned its own hoard of copycats and remixes.
I can safely say that SL sold me on a medium that I was skeptical about; could there really be quality reading in a space that seemed to be full of copycats? The problem persists to this day, if you go to Webnovel or KakaoPage today you’ll see thousands of variations of basically the same story. Solo Leveling was unique. Webnovels were and remain to be the driving force behind the Isekai genre boom and SL was a twist on the idea. Unlike those stories with a re-incarnated/transmigrated/transported protagonist, SL broke from the norm while still riding the video game system trend.
There are problems with the series, namely the over reliance on trope, an uncompelling protagonist, and weak dialogue. As the story progresses it falls into familiar beats, and the ending is a more of a set-piece/showcase of our protagonists final form (zero tension) than it is a struggle for survival. This novel also suffers from superman syndrome, and it only gets worse as the protagonist gets more powerful and further removed from the principal cast. His motivations are distant and vague and there is very little done to humanize him, as the story goes on and he accumulates more power it becomes less and less clear why he continues on (his personal motivations). There is a balancing act going on in the narrative sense, this book wants to be a popcorn read but is so heavy and serious at times, that it makes you wish for more deliberate characterization and a standard format. This story begs for a novelization with a talented editor, and I wish that's what these published volumes would have been.
I won't knock this story for having the same core weakness as all the other webnovels, in fact I want to be clear that I am rating this on its own special little webnovel scale. It is being compared to its peers. As a piece of literature, to be judged alongside the Blood Meridians and Slaughterhouse Vs, I think that this is a middling effort, 2.5/3 stars max. As a webnovel and a piece of entertainment this is a 5 star product; it stands head and shoulders above other stories in the medium and it is such an addictive read.
If you liked this novel and want more, or you found this series lacking I would recommend two other Korean Webnovels that I personally enjoyed just as much if not more than SL: The Novel's Extra and The Second Coming of Gluttony
TL;DR: It has its flaws but this is a fun and addictive series, and unlike some other popular webnovels it is complete and has many adaptations to choose from.
This a review for the complete series (Vol 1-7, and the remaining unpublished content). _______
I remember picking this webnovel series up in 2018 when the webtoon/manhwa first began its serialization and I was obsessed immediately. This series was thankfully among the first few webnovels that I completed and it really is some of the best writing that the medium has to offer. Since this story is finally getting an anime adaptation I thought I would do a reread and Solo Leveling is just as good as I remember.
As a primer: Webnovels are different from your standard novel in that they are principally published online, on a chapter by chapter basis. Webnovels are hugely popular in Asia and they differ massively in style and genre depending on their origin. This means that it can take years for a story to unravel, and depending on how disciplined and inspired the author is, you might end up with a story that's mostly filler or thousands of chapters of pure gold. In my experience with this medium I've found that the best novels tend to come out of Korea. Typically a Korean web novel is short (by comparison to seemingly infinite chinese web novels) and structured; most notably Korean webnovels have an ending and do not go on forever.
Solo Leveling is an urban-fantasy novel with video game elements: In a modern world where mystical gates full of monsters begin to appear, a weakling gate hunter undergoes a reawakening and gains a unique ability that sets him on the path to be the world's strongest. SL is the exemplar of what I would call the Gate Genre, a mix of asian fantasy and diablo, and it has spawned its own hoard of copycats and remixes.
I can safely say that SL sold me on a medium that I was skeptical about; could there really be quality reading in a space that seemed to be full of copycats? The problem persists to this day, if you go to Webnovel or KakaoPage today you’ll see thousands of variations of basically the same story. Solo Leveling was unique. Webnovels were and remain to be the driving force behind the Isekai genre boom and SL was a twist on the idea. Unlike those stories with a re-incarnated/transmigrated/transported protagonist, SL broke from the norm while still riding the video game system trend.
There are problems with the series, namely the over reliance on trope, an uncompelling protagonist, and weak dialogue. As the story progresses it falls into familiar beats, and the ending is a more of a set-piece/showcase of our protagonists final form (zero tension) than it is a struggle for survival. This novel also suffers from superman syndrome, and it only gets worse as the protagonist gets more powerful and further removed from the principal cast. His motivations are distant and vague and there is very little done to humanize him, as the story goes on and he accumulates more power it becomes less and less clear why he continues on (his personal motivations). There is a balancing act going on in the narrative sense, this book wants to be a popcorn read but is so heavy and serious at times, that it makes you wish for more deliberate characterization and a standard format. This story begs for a novelization with a talented editor, and I wish that's what these published volumes would have been.
I won't knock this story for having the same core weakness as all the other webnovels, in fact I want to be clear that I am rating this on its own special little webnovel scale. It is being compared to its peers. As a piece of literature, to be judged alongside the Blood Meridians and Slaughterhouse Vs, I think that this is a middling effort, 2.5/3 stars max. As a webnovel and a piece of entertainment this is a 5 star product; it stands head and shoulders above other stories in the medium and it is such an addictive read.
If you liked this novel and want more, or you found this series lacking I would recommend two other Korean Webnovels that I personally enjoyed just as much if not more than SL: The Novel's Extra and The Second Coming of Gluttony
TL;DR: It has its flaws but this is a fun and addictive series, and unlike some other popular webnovels it is complete and has many adaptations to choose from.