Tower of God is a masterclass of world building

When I learned that part of Solo Leveling’s journey as a multi-media entity was being a manhwa, that brought me back to one of my only manhwa experiences, Tower of God. Which was also an amazing read.

(I was also curious if it had also ever gotten an animated adaptation. Yup. Five years ago. lol)

No matter what you seek, wealth or power or transcendence, you will find it at the top of the Tower of God. Every floor requires an increasingly difficult tests to ascend to the next floor. The series depicts a vast and diverse cast in their efforts to climb the tower.

I’m not really planning on spoiling anything but…

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The real star of Tower of God is the titular tower itself. It is the mutant offspring of the TARDIS and Castle Ghormangast on steroids. The number of floors is unknown and each one is the size of a continent. The author has said there are civilizations that don’t even know they are in the tower. 

Instead of air, the tower has something called shinsu, which is also like magic or psi energy or the force. The higher you go, the denser it becomes, making deadly for normal people. And you have to make a contract with the deity-like administrators of each floor to manipulate shinsu.

So, every floor is like its own world and it gets more dangerous and more magical the higher you go.

While there is a protagonist (Twenty-Fifth Baam), the cast is sprawling and characters come and go. Sometimes character die and sometimes they just leave the story that we see for a while. They all have their own motivations and schemes and they form a fascinating tangle.

I would have to go back and reread Tower of God, which is now much longer compared to when I read it, to try and summarize the story. Particularly after the first arc, the Floor of Tests, because after that, the cast and the setting and plot explode. 

The overall plot is a ‘Chosen One’ story but there is a lot going on. The fact that the plot doesn’t strangle itself is a wonders

I’ve also read that the manhwa has periodically gone on hiatus due to the author’s health issues (which I have no idea what those are) That makes me wonder if we will ever see the end of the vast story of Tower of God. Heck, the site I was able to read an English translation is gone.

But it is an impressive work no matter what.