To Rule the World-Two Books-Six Anniversary Revision-Collectors Edition

First things first, I can't comment on the writing because I read a fan translation. I also don't wanna go deep into the quality of the translation because I'm just glad someone spent their time doing it, and I was able to read it pretty quickly. There were times I was confused because both the main leads alter egos names are Feng Xi, and I sometimes I couldn't differentiate whom the author was talking about. There were other such small hiccups but otherwise, I had an easy reading experience.

I liked that we get more of the history of the empire in the novel and also travel to more than the 3 kingdoms shown in the drama. There was also a lot of war in the book and the author does a good job depicting the strategic prowesses of each of the characters, as well as the heartbreak that comes with losing people while fighting. The book also had way less court intrigue and more of the war and I guess that was a drawback for me, because I'm not that much into reading about war and it's immediate aftermath. But we also get deep into the heads of the characters and understand their feelings and motivations better, which is always a plus – especially Bai FengXi whom we get to know the best in the novel. The extensive cast of characters are also well fleshed out in the book and that's one of it's major strengths. Even if some of the characters have a small presence, they are very memorable and I fell in love with so many of them. I also enjoyed the little flashbacks into the relationship of BeiFengHeiXi in the past decade – it was a lovely insight into how they came to be so close to each other. But there is also a kind of tension in their relationship – it's not always love and roses – and it adds so much drama to the story. The heartbreaking moments in the book also made me very emotional because I was attached to all the characters and and didn't wanna lose any of them. Ultimately, I found it to have a much more satisfactory ending – not only because it was't rushed but also because we got closure for most, if not all characters and I liked finishing off the story that way. However, the one thing I will takeway from this book is that despite not having any actual antagonist in the story, the author manages to create a plot which has tensions and conflicts and gives each character due respect.