The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong (Novel) Vol. 1

I think most people pondering purchasing this novel are less concerned about the content of the novel itself and more if the physical copy of the book is worth it considering that it was online for sometime unofficially.I have moved to purchasing less physical books over the years and want to put my money in more 'investment pieces'. So, when I saw that all three of MXTX's novels were getting an official printing, I felt I should put my feet - er - money behind it. SVSSS is the series that I enjoyed the most and felt like it needed some love and that it was under rated since it is a comedy/parody and very fast paced. Honestly, it wouldn't work as a longer novel to keep the humor vibe.The actual physical book is nice; good weight, nice paper, clean, crisp and all that. Good font, the design at the top of the pages for the header is an extra touch that makes it feel fancier. I like the cover art and the french flaps make it a sturdier paperback and the illustrations inside are a bonus. Yes, I also liked the profiles for other charas on the back since they featured LQG. I will purchase the rest of the series for sure and already have pre-ordered the next volume.For us linguistically challenged individuals, the glossary at the back is helpful and it does its best to help us out with all of the letter combos in English that sound wise don't make sense aka why does zh-vowel = a j-vowel. I'm certain it isn't perfect, but at least gets the point across for a lot of the names and your guess is going to at least be better and will help you put things together if you do watch cdramas.It has a breakdown of key character names, and lots of wuxia/xianxia/cultural terms some that I knew already and others I didn't which is also helpful! Me thinking that yellow is a bad color = character death but actually just meaning they are wealthy (but do die at a high rate in these novels). It also has the huge list of martial arts specific relationship terms and hopefully, all of them will stick. I know it is always a huge debate with translators if it should be XXX-shimei or younger sister XXX.Price - is it worth it? I would say that it is absolutely worth it and it isn't expensive. It is well known that the publishing industry is tough and making money off of writing is difficult. If you consider that to publish this they needed to 1.) negotiate with MXTX and her agent 2.) pay the translators 3.) pay editors 4.) pay the illustrator 5.) pay typesetters/formatters 6.) pay the PR people, HR, support staff, sales reps . . . . and the list goes on it makes it clear that licensing an author like MXTX was a safe move with her works already published in Taiwan, Thailand, Korea, Burma, Vietnam etc and the fact that MDZS and TGCF had media already known in the English language audience.

For starters, the actual book itself is gorgeous! The cover is smooth and nicely made and it feels great to hold! The interior is well designed too, with each regular page having a decorative header, and the glossary pages having a small graphic on the outer edge to differentiate which part of the book contains the story and which contains the glossary - Really helpful for readers who find themselves flipping to the back for reference while reading! (Publishers of all fantasy novels, please take note….) There are also several wonderful black and white illustrations by the cover artist throughout he book to showcase the book’s major events, and each one perfectly captures the tone and character expressions of each moment!The story itself is wonderful as well, being a comedic take on tropes of the genre, but is never fully above poking fun at itself. The main character is pretty oblivious despite being what *should* be a powerful all-knowing omniscient reader, and it’s a delight to both read his snarky and relatable inner monologue and the book’s author perfectly setting him up to suffer the consequences of his own faults. For people experiencing this series for the first time, I can guarantee this book will be even more satisfying on second read once all four volumes have been released (and ESPECIALLY if the extra chapters detailing certain side characters are eventually included).As for the translation, I’m really pleased to see how cohesive it’s been made! I think it was a great choice fitting genre terms in the glossary instead of including them all as foot notes, and leaving the most important moment-to-moment references to keep readers immersed. A lot of care has been put in to balance making it readable for newcomers with making sure everything is kept in the spirit and intent of the original work. I was pretty worried it would be a tough translation considering how much our main character likes to think in memes and euphemisms exclusive to Chinese culture that may be lost on a reader who isn’t as familiar with those. But I’m really pleased to see they did a great job conveying the intent of those parts without going too deep into explanation OR over localizing it. I’d even be comfortable recommending this book to an absolute newcomer to the genre, which is something I didn’t expect when given the choice between this and the author’s other two works.As a final note, I personally love that Seven Seas put in the time to source artists and translators from the fan community for this series of novel releases. It’s obvious that the people who worked on this love these stories and have an incredible amount of respect and admiration for the material.Overall, great release! Looking forward to volume 2!

The package arrived earlier than I expected, which was a wonderful surprise. The book quality is great. It's bound in thick stock and nicely glossed. The end has translation notes and character sheets. I cant wait to read.