The first 13 volumes of this novel are pretty dull (well, except for sister's arc). The author sets up a magnificent stage where magicians and higher technology coexist, but emphasizes only the magic part until about volume 16 for whatever reason. I'm fine with him writing about what interests him, but personally I find the science side to be much more interesting. He also invented some of the most creative physic powers I've seen. However, all these have greatly gone in waste due to immature writing and a lack of a central plot. He manages to turn everything around at around volume 16 and really sets up an epic final battle, but that happened too late.
Other than its wasted potential, I'd like to address 2 additional problems with this novel. Firstly, the author likes to tell many different stories simultaneously, which I call immature writing. The problem with this becomes particularly conspicuous during the later quarter of the novel where 4 or 5 groups of people are trying to do things at different places at similar times. The author simply writes a few pages for a group, and immediately jumps to the story of another group which, for the most part, were unrelated. These mini side-stories do tie up in the end, but I easily lost track of the characters, what was happening, why they were trying to do what they're doing,... etc., and is in general a big minus that only dilutes my interest.
Secondly, the author creates a massive dichotomy between magic and science, where the magicians earn everything through hard work while the espers were just gifted. However he never truly develops this theme in depth. He sort of just told you, "here's something to think about..." and left it like that. In addition, the power of the MC pretty much defies any meaning he does manage to squeeze in, because it is just way too OP and out of place for the setting of this novel. I mean, almost every battle the MC was involved in boils down to he shit talking a bunch of crap, then he punches the villain. This in and of itself is a rather boring pattern for fights, not to mention how most of MC's shit talking was very idealistic.
Finally, if you're thinking of reading this because you saw the anime, expect shit art. don't even.
Overall, this story was interesting but too much potential wasted. I give this a 7/10.
