The magical world of Davrar is inhospitable and strange. Terrible monsters roam, ancient dungeons lurk over every hill, and the prophesied Endings promise doom.
But it’s Nathan Lark’s new home. He’s developed his antimagic and found friends in the most powerful Adventurers of his generation. They’ve sworn an oath to defend the city of Gemore and defeat the Endings.
On the horizon is the enslaving mage-empire of Giantsrest, and Archmage Taeol dho Droxol hasn’t forgotten that Nathan holds secrets of Earth. Conflict is certain. There is only one path forward. Nathan and his friends must advance.
This is second in an isekai LitRPG series so you'll want to read in order.
This book is a bit episodic and mostly centers on Nate and the "Heirs" (the adventurers he fell in with in the first book) growing together. They take on hard challenges and figure out how to compliment each other (in terms of team function and power working toward shared goals).
I realized shortly after picking this up that I've already read this one, though I apparently never reviewed it. Fortunately, I was just fine tagging along for a refresher with the promise of catching myself up at some point. It doesn't hurt that I like both Nate and his team and seeing them grow together is a lot of fun.
The pace is good with lots of action, though little in the way of throughline. Their escapades don't really form a plot so much as an impetus for them to gain skills and levels and talk about what they want to accomplish. There's a lot of talk of "path" and "build" in true LitRPG nerd style, but that's at least part of what I was looking for so that's all good.
There's a bit of tension over Nate's plan to take on the Giantsrest nation/state/snakepit because that's a fight the Heirs didn't sign up for. And since Giantsrest is the bigbad of all bigbads in their neck of the woods, with lots of archmages and slavery, that's a pretty reasonable stance to take. Nate's hate for those guys is personal and related to the backstain who isekai'd him to Davrar (well, and also his perfectly reasonable hatred for slavery). And that's more risk than even the greatest adventurers in their home of Gemore can withstand. Still. They become solid friends and I liked seeing them become closer.
There are developments at the end that had me tense, but it resolves enough before the end to avoid becoming a huge nail-biting cliffhanger. The bad guys in this story are simplistic fools gifted power by the author for plot reasons and every time they show up to chew the scenery makes me tense. Frankly, they're a bunch of whinerbaby egotists and seeing them gifted victories grates, particularly when everything is so hard for everyone else.
Anyway, like the first book, this is a round-up to five stars and I'm still all-in on the story. I'm pretty sure I've read the next book (at least in part) in the past as I haven't caught up to some of the events I vaguely recall. But I'm happy to continue and I'm glad for that.
A note about Chaste: Nate's antimagic doesn't protect his clothes. So he's something of a serial nudist. There's nothing prurient about it, though, and there's no intimacy in this story. So it's pretty chaste, though Nate also is pretty free in appreciating some of those around him. He's an unabashed bisexual and there's lots to appreciate in a world where improving stats and levels makes people healthier, stronger, and more graceful. He never acts on it, though, so it's pretty tame all-told.
There is nothing specifically 'Wrong' with this book, and many things right with it, but I realized that my reading breaks were getting longer and longer while time spent reading was getting shorter and shorter. My 'too be read' pile is way too tall with too many hot new releases for this guy to put me to sleep. I love that the MC is trying to think long term but... regretting having introducing guns to a medieval society is too little too late, and the oaths he has sworn are sort of contradictory. This story line is fragmenting and the chances the the only Free society will get crushed as a plot twist just hit 80%. Nah, I'm out. I don't need to read the scene where the hero team meets the weeping survivors. This book has a lot going for it, and the idea of anti-magic as it's own power and class is interesting. I want to like this more, but I got too much I can't wait to read for this stinker to spoil my appetite.
The first two books are excellent. Our protagonist is a little overpowered, but in an interesting way. Instead of simply being the best at everything he’s given one unique skill, plus some advantages from his life on earth that allow him to immediately punch above his weight class. Better than that, though is he’s clever and smart, weighing his actions and using what he knows to help himself and his friends. I was originally turned on to this series by reading a Reddit thread Litrpg books where the characters are actually smart and I think the series very much fits that bill.
Nice characterization too. His teammates are flushed out and interesting characters in their own right which is unfortunately too rare in this genre.
Perhaps best of all the world feels fully realized in a way that is again too rare for the genre. A nice level of description, which lets you picture the settings. Things like the existence of dungeons have actual explanations in the law of the world. They’re not just added on because every one of these books has to have dungeons.
I can’t wait to read the next book. It feels like things are just getting interesting.
This is something of a milestone review. This is the 2000th book that I have posted on Goodreads. Sit down, stop. I don't need a standing ovation, your embarrassing me! - Sarcasm. Anyway, this was an okay second book in the series. I wouldn't call it great but it had its moments. I do like the magic system and the way the author intertwines science with magic. I like how insights are needed to develop magic and skills further. The world building was pretty good. So those were the good parts. Magic theory and world building. There were other parts that were just okay. That included the overall story and the characters. While the magic and skills each person had were developed the characters themselves didn't change. All the interactions were about the same. Some of the insights didn't make a lot of sense to me either. What kind of insight is needed for a skill like sprinting? Or tumbling? Overall there weren't any bad parts to the story just some meh parts. The good parts outweigh those so I will be looking forward to the next one.
Wow, what an ending. Events escalated lot more than what I was expecting based on the first half of this book. Wonder if the next book is going to be consistent high octane action - I wouldn't mind that, but I also enjoyed the slower paced chapters in this book (Nathan and the heirs leveling up, discussing their options, Insights discussion, going around Gemore on scouting missions, etc). It was nice to have the team stay together almost for the entire book - wish the heirs had some POV scenes.
I was also hoping for some significant interaction between Nathan and the crafting experts in this book, but we got only a scene - though that was really significant and I can guess how that'll be necessary given the direction of the plot.
Overall, I enjoyed this book better than the first one and I'd highly recommend for those who enjoy progression/isekai fantasy.
I think this one was even better then the first. Many of my pacing issues and character development issues were resolved in this one. It was a very fun book with interesting characters and fun magic and combat.
I have one pet peeve with it which is why I only gave it a 4 Stars. All of the stakes did not feel real. I don't think the characters will ever suffer long term consequences that won't just make them stronger in the future. Which is fine but makes this just a fun book for me and not a favorite.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
My main issue with the first book was lengthy science lectures that were boring (and coming from someone that reads detailed slice of life). That is dealt with in this one, the science grounding to magic is still there but no grating lectures.
Power comes along nicely, the group grown closer and I’ve really come to care about them. Interesting setup for the next book, overall loved it.
Very much continuing the antimage feel, I enjoyed this nearly as much as the first book. Things get a shade predictable in spots of course, the typical genre feature of someone high above everyone else like a quester made an appearance, and the accents could do with a bit of work.
The highlights were the battles of course, very entertainingly done, and we see a bit more biology as an applied science. All-in-all, a great way to continue the story.
Honestly, the main character just felt like a stick—useless and brittle. Sure, he’s strong, but nowhere near as strong as he should be. The rest of the team comes across as practically godlike thanks to Nathan’s insights, yet when it comes to Nathan himself, all he ever seems to do is run into mana. It got really boring after a while and felt like there was no real growth or development for the main character. Overall, it was a disappointing read.
Nathan continues to live in a different world as an Antimage. He and the Heirs have made waves in Genmore and now they must work to advance. New challenges and old enemies stir and Nathan must leverage all he knows from Earth to stop them. This is a great second book in the series. Can't wait for book 3
Got a guy who basically eats fireballs for lunch and some bad mages are pissed off at him. It's a pretty solid adventure taking on dungeons and increasingly difficult encounters that routinely burn off Nathan's clothes while he remains unharmed because of his magic resistance. If you like level ups, it's good dumb fun.
I must say this author does progression pretty satisfyingly. this continuation of ends of magic wraps up one plotline and the introduction of another. Nathan is as strong as ever and in no time flat but the stakes keep climbing and by the end he has no choice but to get stronger. I'm excited to see where it goes from here.
This LitRPG has surprisingly good pacing, with a good balance of fights, character moments, and worldbuilding. I also really like the magic system, which incorporates the main character's deep scientific knowledge in a way that is satisfying and interesting.
This story of a guy from Earth getting kidnapped to another world was fantastic. Since he doesn’t have the proper pathways the System there makes him an anti mage and the perfect magic killer. Fantastic stuff
Exciting, fast-paced adventure! Excellent read! I love that science can be integrated into magic like this. Possible HMC references for those in the know, such as the bioethics class.
Nathan and the Heirs go on a monster hunting, construct smashing, leveling tour of the countryside making friends and enemies. The hero remains interesting and the world engaging. I'm really enjoying this story.
This is all set up with a horribly balanced deck. Every confrontation leads to nothing, just forced tension. This is more about grinding levels than telling a story.