Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint

I loved this book but now my friends tell me not to finish since it is supposed to go downhill towards the end.

This is a jewel of a book. The protagonist Kim is very smart and it's wonderful to see him plan out a long term strategy and slowly work towards it.

Knowledge is power. We can see it in action here. Our dear main character was a normal office worker who read an online novel in order to escape his reality. He was the only reader who stuck to the incredibly descriptive book even as others abandoned the book. He stayed with the author till the end.

Now what happens is, the story in that book that he followed for years, becomes reality. Like all the actual humans in earth take up roles in the book and the flow of "fate" aligns with the story. In a sense it is revealed that earth was part of the story world all along? Or that the story world was deployed? The book is ongoing and I hope we get clarity on that.

The author rewards his faithful, patient, only true reader with a copy of the book which is invaluable to survive in the hell that Earth has turned into.

The book is fascinating because they have ideas of probability, that Nature prevents implausible things from happening, there are limits to how much God's can interfere.

God's (or constellations) are characters who collects stories, in the sense they build fame. We see the famous stories that thrive in earth have owners, the Vedas, the Abrahamic gods, the Olympus gods. They all observe the stories playing out looking for incarnations through which to spread their fame. You earn coins from the Star Stream (Nature) as your fame increases and your stories are passed on.

The ideas are deep, the idea of how you can read a book multiple times and come away feeling like it was a different book each time. You only die when your story dies, when you are no longer talked about. You have people using coins to create the stories they want, living vicariously through the characters (incarnations). These stories are streamed by the bureau throughout the universe. Lots of references to folktales which I haven't gotten to unpack yet.

We have the original protagonist of the book which Kim had read. A regressor who will go back in time if he dies and has accumulated a lot of experience already. There are many other fascinating characters.

My favourite character is the protagonist Kim Dojka, his ability is that of a reader, he can create bookmarks of characters he understands, he can become them and use their abilities for a short while! He has a personal "fourth wall" that keeps him objective and protects his mind from the story, it ensures that he doesn't become part of the story, lets him stay a reader. And much much more....

He has the ability to read the minds of people he understands, act through them in real time. I could keep going on, but the story is fascinating and I highly recommend this novel.