Last week’s post about Honoo no Mirage (Mirage of Blaze) made me very fondly remember the old times 😁 It also made me think about novels and series that I’ve enjoyed more than others so … I think I’m going to turn into memory lane for a bit and review some of my favorite stories that I haven’t gotten around to yet. 😉

Let’s start this off with “Game Loading”, a Chinese novel with 309 awesome chapters that has been completely translated already on Rainbow Turtle Translations.

What is “Game Loading” about?

Xie Xi has always had good luck – at least in games. Unfortunately, his own life isn’t going that great. Or maybe that’s good after all? At the very least, he doesn’t have much attachment to the world where he lives so he doesn’t mind too much when he is transported to another dimension where he is supposed to clear ‘games’ in different worlds. Then, he gets acquainted with the rather demented worlds made by designer ‘X’. – The start of a love/hate-relationship.

My opinion

I wouldn’t be reviewing this right now if I didn’t love this novel so you can already imagine what I’m going to say 😁 This novel is a world-hopping one – something I’ve actually grown a bit tired off since most of them seem like wannabe carbon copies of Quickly Wear the Face of the Devil. Game Loading is different though.

There is a backstory behind the place where Xie Xi is transported and even a backstory behind most of the worlds he visits. With each arc, he will get closer to the truth, letting the readers explore the worlds and the bigger universe together with him.
Because of that, the arcs made a lasting impression of me. It’s not just a task he starts, does, and finishes without ever looking back. No, doing the task will have consequences. It’ll either help him in accomplishing later tasks or make things more difficult.

There’s mystery to this and a sense of urgency that gets even more exciting in the later arcs when Xie Xi’s tasks basically become a race against time. To be honest, I felt a bit like racing against the time myself while reading. How come a day will only ever have 24 hours? And why can’t I stay awake for 48? These are all very valid questions while reading this because this novel made me go with a minuscule amount of sleep for about three days 😭 Can’t say I regret it though 😅

Anyway, there’s naturally also a good portion love in there and I guess some people will feel blinded by the shimmering dog food distributed later on in the novel 😜

Overall …

If you like world-hopping stories or originally liked them but got fed up with the always similar, then you should give this novel a try. It’s a well-written and well-thought-out story with likeable characters, a detailed background story and arcs with some more original ideas than most world-hopping stories I’ve seen. I’ll probably even reread it sometime soon.