THE Thai edition of “Lord of the Mysteries,” a web novel from China, became a highlight at the Bangkok International Book Fair that kicked off Sept. 30. The new book was officially published Oct. 1 by SMM PLUS, a prestigious Thai publisher with authorization from China Literature Limited, the largest original web literature platform in China.

Professionals in the publishing and literature industry, translators and reader groups have heated discussions about the novel.

In recent years, Chinese web literature works are getting increasingly popular all over the world. “Lord of the Mysteries” is not only a novel serialized synchronously in both Chinese and English, but also a phenomenon IP that has broken the paid subscription record of global web novels, becoming one of the most popular web novels in the year of 2020 with hundreds of millions of readers. Featuring multi-language charm both in subject and content, it fuses the Cthulhu style, SCP-like elements, Victoria-era flavor and Steampunk passion.

As a well-known media and publishing group in Thailand, SMM PLUS had cooperated with China Literature for many times in IP exchanges.

According to SMM PLUS, quite a few Thai readers have read the English edition of “Lord of the Mysteries” via Webnovel so far. To meet the increasing demand of readers, one volume of the Thai edition is scheduled to be published every 20 days.

The English edition of “Lord of the Mysteries” ranks No. 1 on Webnovel in terms of popularity among the completed fantasy novels, with page views exceeding 24 million person-times. It is scored 4.8/5 by nearly 5,000 reviewers. On the overall popularity ranking of completed novels, it ranks No. 3, an extraordinary performance manifesting its popularity worldwide.

“People with different cultural backgrounds share the same fundamental sentiments: Pursuit for novelty, curiosity for suspense, and yearning for family affection, friendship and love … these common traits are essential for a novel to get wide recognition across different cultures,” said Yuan Ye (online moniker “Cuttlefish That Loves Diving”), the author of the web novel.