The story was solid, and the performance was great. And honestly, finally seeing a male protagonist in the genre who might be some shade of G/B is really really exciting to me. Nothing has happened yet, but even just commenting on appearance here or there has been really nice. It’s no where near as gratuitous as most LitRPG descriptions of women get. which I think is good. I do hope he eventually does have something happen. I so rarely get any fantasy MCs sharing a sexuality, I really hope something real happens for him.
Beyond representation – the magic of this world is very interestingly scientific. it’s fun to see instead of the stars aligning or some gods blessing, the MC is useful/important because of his knowledge. It somewhat reminds me of Chrysalis – that author seems very into ants and the passion shows. this one has a lot of good knowledge about general sciences it seems and it makes the read all the more interesting.
I don’t thinkt he story itself is quite up to HHFWM or DotF, at least not for me just yet. But I’m hooked and looking forward to what limits his knowledge can break. And HOPEFULLY a gay kiss or romance at some point.