The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor

The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor is a novel series that I will always remember fondly. It has strong points that more than make up for its flaws. Despite being a typical LitRPG novel about a VR MMORPG, it has a charm and atmosphere that I found compelling. Compelling enough to finish all the volumes. I have spent months reading the fan translations. The sheer word count, size and scope of the novel is impressive. But what is even more impressive is the fact that the author managed to keep the tone consistent. The content in The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor stayed engaging for the entirety of the seriesand I never felt betrayed by sudden changes in direction or tone. It is a long series, yes, but it does not feel unnecessarily extended in order to rake in more cash. The main character Lee Hyun, also known by his in-game username Weed, is a surprisingly complex character. He is frugal and greedy. He rips people off whenever he can, but in the most honest of ways, if that makes sense. His keen mind for money is the source of many jokes. In fact, I would say every possible variation on jokes about his frugality and greed has been done several times over throughout the course of the series. This type of comedy may get old quickly for some readers, but to me it is an irreplaceable part of what makes LMS so entertaining. Yet his greed comes from a desire to protect his family and deep-seated childhood trauma and poverty, so it is understandable why he is the way he is. He doesn’t trust other people, yet over the course of the novels forms bonds with them nonetheless. Lee Hyun is definitely not a standard protagonist or hero, and LMS is all the better for it. There is character progression and an expanding cast of side characters and relationships. Not all of these characters or relationships are very deep, mind you, but they are enough to give the world and story some life. Speaking of the world, there are plenty of descriptions of how life in Royal Road feels like. What you can do and how it feels to go on an adventure. How millions of players are enjoying themselves and/or struggling with difficult quests or events in the world. It gives the reader a good atmosphere of what it would be like to play such a game. It makes me want to play a good MMORPG, in fact. I like both Lee Hyun’s adventures in the VR MMORPG as well as in his real-life troubles and the events that take place there. But what are some of the less positive aspects of this novel? For one, perhaps unsurprisingly, LMS is a bit of a power fantasy and Weed is a special snowflake. Because of the way the VR MMORPG’s systems work, we would expect to see more people with overpowered skills and stats and unique abilities than just Weed. But… we don’t. That’s a bit disappointing. You need a certain suspension of disbelief to truly get into this series. Once you accept certain core premises, however, the series goes down much smoother. Especially near the end, increases in stats and skills come very quickly and more or less cease to matter. There is so much going on stats-wise that both the reader and author can forget all about it and just know that “this character is super-duper strong”. The actual numbers involved become irrelevant. Aside from that, the only material available to non-Korean readers are fan translations. And not all of them are of great quality. Unfortunately, there has been no hint of official translations at the time of writing this review. I also didn’t get the feeling the author grew as a writer past the first few volumes. But in a sense, that can also be seen as a good thing. He kept pumping out exactly what I had come to expect from LMS. In any case, despite being about a special snowflake main character and using the overdone setting of a VR MMORPG, this story is engaging. There’s humor, creativity and action aplenty. LMS drew me in and kept me entertained for all of its volumes. And really, what more can you ask from a novel? As far as I am concerned, The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor is worth your time. It certainly was worth mine.