Preface

Put simply, this is a kingdom building novel written by a group of people.

Ever since I started working, most of what I have written have been reports of various kinds. It is with some trepidation that I start writing my first web novel. I do not know whether or not it will turn out well. Nonetheless, I will do my best to see it through.

On the topic of the origins of this book I won’t say too much. The people who know already know. In short, this work is a by-product of a tabletop RPG event once held on an online forum. Back then I was very interested, but I didn’t participate much and was only a silent spectator.

The main thing I felt during the event was that when everyone’s ideas aligned, the explosive energy and passion was astonishing. But when everyone disagreed and no compromise was easily reached that passion fizzled away.

No wonder why someone once said that writing as a big group was a great no-no of the time-travel genre.

But, I still want to try.

PS:

This novel involved about half a year of preparation, collecting a wide range of historical and technical references. I was pretty fortunate to have easy access to libraries and  academic websites; such things greatly improved the variety of resources at my disposal.

On the topic of history details, I have tried my best to be as faithful to fact as possible. But, because of the broad range of historical records and their many contradictions, for the sake of plot convenience or for lack of access to more precise records, there may be some discrepancies with reality. My knowledge of history is rather shallow, and it’s hard to avoid these problems, so please do leave comments to let me know.

This novel is mostly in the kingdom building genre. The technical references I draw from, apart from the usual theses and textbooks, also include little handbooks dating from the Great Leap Forward. These handbooks, because of the limited resources available back then, are all about the simple, proto-industrial methods.

Another aspect I strive towards is to ensure that the plot is rational. Unavoidably, there is still something of a protagonist aura around our main characters. If there weren’t, well, there wouldn’t be much point in their existence…

For friends who have ideas and suggestions about the storyline, characters and technical details please feel free to leave them in the book’s review section. Thank you all for your support!

[TN]

This is a preface from Boaster that I've included this for completeness. In total, a few hundred fans have contributed to this novel: many of the later chapters are actually fan-written story lines that have been edited to fit the overarching story by Boaster.