I feel in a strange spot, having read this series’s two volumes. The first volume was very prophecy-heavy, with more “scientific method” than actual “economics” (besides the weird downfall of the gold company on the sidelines). Then the second volume ignores the whole prophecy aspect and hones in solely on the economics instead (and again has a gold company get crushed on the sidelines lol) - and while I enjoyed said economics, it’s still a weird flip-flop of events.
The MC’s place in this world is a bit too nebulously defined for my tastes as well. We jump into the story with him having lived for five years in this world, and yet I know very little about key events in his life, such as his adoptive father who saw his potential and swooped him up, or how he came to have a relationship with Mia. Getting plopped into the world -> five year timeskip with a successful honey business just leaves a bit too much missing.
Even Ricardo’s (lack of) attachment to Earth is sorta off-putting: he originally claims those memories are illusion- or dream-like to him, but he’s working with the wealth of his education along with many other tidbits of knowledge, and thinks of himself as around 30 rather than 15(?), all while speaking rather detachedly about his previous experiences. He was tossed into the world Asuta-style (though with added body-regression) rather than bumping his head and regaining memories Bakarina-style, which is even less reason for him to treat the current world as his “reality” over Earth’s clearly dominant memories, considering his constant lack of knowledge on things people would expect him to know... but any possible introspection and development on that front is lost in the multi-year gloss-over.
Also, this is a bit of a personal peeve, but I’m not fond of repeated use of “Situation X is happening! [record scratch] So you’re probably wondering how I got here.” I can let it slide at the beginning of a story to act as a hook, but do you really need to use that method to inform me that one hour ago, Alfina decided to come work at the store when you didn’t expect it? Let me guess, she decides to come visit and you can’t turn her away. Just tell the dang story chronologically at that point.
Not to mention my personal feelings on storytelling that relies on leaving gaps in what the readers sees to maintain intrigue, because a plot point relies on the MC deducing things and creating a plan, but the author doesn’t want readers to know the details until later where “all is revealed,” meaning they have to swerve around it entirely as a result. This happens mostly with the collapses of the gold companies, where we end up with a scene like the end of V2 with Jean having to ask what happened and Ricardo answering with information that he - but not the readers, despite the story mostly being in his POV - has had full understanding of for some time.
All in all... promising premise, lackluster execution. There were certainly parts that I enjoyed, particularly the dynamics of the Food Court Firm, but my overall impression ends up as, “Huh, that sure was a thing that I spent time reading.”
