Shadow Slave

This novel goes HARD. Like, the tension never lets up. Every arc had me at the edge of my seat. Sunny is such a complex character - he's not your typical hero, and I LOVE that. The setting is dark, dangerous, and weirdly beautiful. 10/10.

Good novel, I'll update this review later on to add more things to say in detail. For now I'll just say to read this incase you're hesitating, it's worth it 👍

Warning : Blinding Excellence

If you read this, you might find that 99% of other web novels are inferior.

You have been warned 💀

Quite good. Shadow Slave is an intricately woven story which continues to impress and go up my rankings. While personally not on the level of RI or LOTM, I can see how it is for some people. The first few arcs were some of the best I've read, though there were some things I'd like to point out.

For one, while the story explores dark and scary topics, it also has a crude juvenile humor and across the book, Sunny (mc) is almost constantly infatuated with any woman he sees and the author makes sure to shove this in your face every 10 or so chapters despite being a grown man.

Secondly, even when it does cover the more scary or dark topics, its very brief--almist as if the author doesn't want to go too far into what he originally planned. This one is one of the worst for me, as it could've been so much more.

For third, Nightmare Creatures (a form of dystopian-sometimes humanoid-beasts with thousands+ of variety) and their details are almost always cut short, even for those which last over the point of 50+ chapters, you only learn of their rank and brief appearance (sometimes not even that). This unfortunate shortcoming also applies for the strongest of these creatures, despite them being heavily emphasized on having intelligence and sentience, we almost always see them as mindless beasts attacking whoever and whatever they see. Some hold territory, but thats the limit of personality for almost all Nightmare Creatures.

Finally, the character development, while meaningful and spread across many characters, often feels shoe horned and improvised into the story to drive the narrative with no clear change prior, lacking a distinguisable change to character prior to it being 'announced' that the character changed. Side characters(apart from sunnys friends and allies) also aren't often fleshed out or even seen prior to the chapters they're defeated or killed.

Although I've bashed on some shortcomings, I enjoy the story despite those and find myself intriguied by the interesting approach by the author on both publishing (high weekly ch. count) and take on dark-adventure fantasy. Overall I believe that setting and dynamics is where this book shines most. It' a good read, and a great starter story into ln's/wn's. Would reccomend regardless of experience as a reader.

This was one of my first webnovels but I am an experienced anime fan and have watched over 200 animes and over a 100 manhwas and manga and I have to say this is the only peice of fiction that has made me so obsessed with it especially considering the fact that the first time I read it was during an examination but I still read over 1900 chapters in 3 weeks and have been religiously following the daily chapters since September last year and this really deserves the top ranking. I really love Sunny's character of more of a nice guy than a hero my favorite quote of his " I would help someone if they were in trouble in front of me but wouldn't risk my life for a bunch of strangers I've never met because noone cared about me when I was in trouble" so if you like action, world building, horror and peak story telling this novel is for you 

This novel broke me in the best way. I laughed, I panicked, I almost cried (almost lol). The side characters felt alive, the stakes always felt real, and Sunny… man, he’s something else. If you haven’t read Shadow Slave, you’re missing out big time.

I’ve read a lot of web novels, but this one is on another level. Sunny starts as a selfish, cynical loner and turns into something… more. Not in a cheesy way, but in a real, painful, earned way. His growth felt earned. That’s rare. Amazing writing.

Took me a few chapters to really get into it but once it clicked I couldn't stop. The worldbuilding is amazing and the Dream Realm?? Freaking genius. Sunny's personality is so unique - sarcastic, dark, but so real. Peak Novel 💯

I tried to stick with Shadow Slave because the worldbuilding was cool and kept me hookee, but man… the romance is straight up trash. It’s barely there for like 1,700 chapters, and when it finally shows up, it feels awkward, creepy. Sunny and Nephis got this weird master slave bond that never gets fully addressed in a healthy way. You wait thousands of pages for crumbs of development, and then the payoff feels rushed and emotionally flat. It's like the author remembered, “Oh right, romance is a tag,” and just threw it in late game.

Nephis barely shows personality for half the novel, and when she finally does, their connection comes off more like trauma bonding than anything genuinely romantic. There’s no real  tension, or believable buildup just obsession, contracts, and weird power dynamics

If you’re reading this for romance, don’t bother. If you’re reading it for plot and fights, you’ll enjoy the ride, but just be ready for the romance to either disappoint you or make you uncomfortable. Great premise, mid execution

It's good, better than most novels, and sometimes even the GOAT. The only issue I have with it is that tech doesn't seem to be used very creatively to help fight the nightmare creatures.