Serial Saturday: The Undead World by Donkereweg

Michael Blaker
Game Industry News is running the best blog posts from people writing about the game industry. Articles here may originally appear on Michael's blog, Windborne's Story Eatery.

Hey all I’m back with a review of a series I was asked to do much earlier this year during my Hiatus for this week’s Serial Saturday. It’s The Undead World by Donkereweg!

Plot: This is a typical Isekai/LitRPG but it’s much too dark just for the sake of being dark. The current big go to genre word in the fiction community is “Grimdark” and every newbie author is just tagging it into their stories just because it’s the new fad. Like Twilight and all it’s ilk, most Grimdark stories are utter trash and this one is not much different.

Example: Not only does the MC get NTRed in the first few chapters, which is always a mark in the negative for me, but he loses his first friend he makes after dying. Why? Just because the author felt like being a dick and trying to be dark. There are ways of creating conflict without killing off every other named character or making every MC an edgelord. Take some of the classics like Lord of the Rings. Of the main characters only one dies for good, and even then it’s after being a dick and betraying the party that said character dies.

Characters: Our main dude Dantalian or whatever he goes by now is not interesting to read about and about as 3-dimensional as a sheet of a paper. The rest of the cast is no better, and most character are either killed off or just forgotten because they’re no longer important at all to the Author. Heck even the weapon-smith that Dantalian meets in the Undead City is unnamed in a later chapter. Classic sign of laziness by the author right there.

Grammar: For being a non native English speaker and this being their first work the author’s writing here is about the only good thing I can give this story a plus for. It’s not amazing grammar, but I’ve read worse. Still needs a lot of work, and honestly it could use a few editing passes at the very minimum just for grammar.

Overall: Steer clear, it’s a blatant attempt at trying to get into the writing business by jumping on the latest genre fad, Grimdark.

For those who like: Terrible Stories, Twilight.

Not for those who don’t like: Either of the above.

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