Dominion’s End

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Gender Bender, Sci-fi

Summary [from NU]

The red meteor shower rained across the sky, a black fog engulfed the world.

After waking from a night of torture and agony,

Humans discovered they no longer dominated the world.

—The hunters have become the hunted.

After the apocalypse, I struggled for survival for ten bitter years, but ultimately couldn’t escape death.

But when I opened my eyes again, I had transformed from an ordinary 35-year old woman into a beautiful young man of 18.

A different gender, a world that is both familiar yet not, an apocalypse that has vanished without a trace, and an unexpected return of 17 years of youth.

Looking around, I discovered I had a powerful, protective big brother and a gentle, charming little sister.

Just as things couldn’t possibly look any brighter—

The end of the world came crashing down again.

And this time around, is it fight? Or flight?

 

Personal Thoughts [spoiler free]

I recently had a hankering for a zombie apocalypse story, so I picked this one out from my to-read list, and boy was I blown away. The action scenes were especially captivating and well written. I think timing is really important when reading novels (or consuming any other form of media). When you have a craving for a particular genre or trope, the story instantly becomes much more interesting to you than if you were to casually pick up a story you know nothing about. While that was definitely the case for me, this story also has its own merits.

The protagonist is likable despite several negative traits, because it makes them realistic and relatable. They end up stepping on people’s toes, especially in the beginning, but that’s because of the paranoia they carried over from their past life. I usually don’t like drama caused by misunderstandings, because most of the time they’re not done well, but the ones in this story were well executed imo. Due to the protagonist’s past, it’s not easy for them to just talk it out, which is how most misunderstandings could be resolved, but they do eventually open up and grow as a person.

I do have one gripe about the protagonist, and that is their tendency to space out when they’re deep in thought. The first time it happened, it was played for comedic effect, and I was fine with it, but then she spaces out in the middle of battle. I don’t care how much of a space cadet you are, you do not zone out when there are enemies right in front you. The protagonist would literally space out in the middle of action and go off on a tangent. Although some could argue that the protagonist’s monologue thoughts help to build the world, I would have to counter-argue that the timing and placement of such world building material is poor. These sections make me frustrated and thus decreases my enjoyment of the story.

In regards to the cast of characters, I like how they each have their own strengths (and hints of more background stories). They’re not just there to prop up the main character. They’re all strong and interesting in their own way. Even the non-combatant characters are given attention. I especially enjoy the protagonist’s relationship with their two siblings (although these siblings really are too good to be real, but it’s so fluffy and moe to read about).

The translation quality by Prince Revolution! is simply top notch. They seem to be translating a lot of other works by the same author, although I haven’t read those yet, so no comments at the moment. Translation speed is a bit slow (approximately once a month), but they are consistent and the translations read super smooth. Highly recommend.