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The Last Psion #1
Defunct
A young half-elf learns he’s the secret heir of a murdered king and resolves to claim his father’s magic and save his country in this progression fantasy.
In the world of Alterra, forged from the ruins of Ragnarök and a nearly forgotten Earth, magic is everywhere. Despite this, half-elf Kiru and his mother live a quiet existence in a remote village where nothing ever happens. Nothing, that is, until the day Kiru gets into a fight with a rich lordling who breaks his spine.
Fleeing their small town together, Kiru’s mother confesses an astonishing truth to her He is royalty, the son of the murdered King Ruken Chromebane, monarch of the Kingdom of Blades, who was wrongly accused of being a tyrant because of his rare magical abilities.
Soon, Kiru begins to feel his father’s unique brand of mana within himself. This power, the half-elf discovers, was all that stood between the kingdom and invasion by an army of dragons. If he can harness it, he’ll be able to control his broken body and travel the continent in search of the king’s lost treasures, eventually claiming his own rightful place on the throne.
Accompanied by William the imp and Brunhilda, dwarven paladin in the Order of Valhalla, Kiru sets out to restore his father’s legacy and save his country. Stop the Royal Cultivation Academy, where Kiru must navigate a complex web of relationships and personality types—all while hiding his outlawed power—to recover the first of the slain king’s items . . . before it’s too late.
The first volume of the epic progression-fantasy series—originally released on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!
In the world of Alterra, forged from the ruins of Ragnarök and a nearly forgotten Earth, magic is everywhere. Despite this, half-elf Kiru and his mother live a quiet existence in a remote village where nothing ever happens. Nothing, that is, until the day Kiru gets into a fight with a rich lordling who breaks his spine.
Fleeing their small town together, Kiru’s mother confesses an astonishing truth to her He is royalty, the son of the murdered King Ruken Chromebane, monarch of the Kingdom of Blades, who was wrongly accused of being a tyrant because of his rare magical abilities.
Soon, Kiru begins to feel his father’s unique brand of mana within himself. This power, the half-elf discovers, was all that stood between the kingdom and invasion by an army of dragons. If he can harness it, he’ll be able to control his broken body and travel the continent in search of the king’s lost treasures, eventually claiming his own rightful place on the throne.
Accompanied by William the imp and Brunhilda, dwarven paladin in the Order of Valhalla, Kiru sets out to restore his father’s legacy and save his country. Stop the Royal Cultivation Academy, where Kiru must navigate a complex web of relationships and personality types—all while hiding his outlawed power—to recover the first of the slain king’s items . . . before it’s too late.
The first volume of the epic progression-fantasy series—originally released on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!
- GenresFantasy
379 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 2, 2024
77 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 7, 2025
[Spoiler]
I really like the premise, granted it’s somewhat cliche. Innocent king gets overthrown and killed. Pregnant Queen escapes and raises son in relative obscurity. The boys origins are revealed, the mother dies because tragedy, leading to a quest to save the world and revenge against his families would be killers.
The pacing and tension was fine. I had no issues in that department. I mostly took issue with the stories power progression. As for the magic system, most people are born with a single mana core attuned to a specific element. With a rare few in myth and legend said to possess two cores. You cultivate mana and rank up your cores.
The protagonist naturally possesses two cores. The protagonist is the last surviving Psion, a race of humans born with a second mana core in their head. I found this premise interesting. Protagonists are meant to be extraordinary. There needs to be something that differentiates them from the average Joe. A special bloodline and the rightful hair to the throne.
But the narrative takes a turn for the worse by destroying the first mana core in the protagonists chest and severing the protagonists spine. I think the author did this to add more tension and struggle to the story. The protagonist is forced to use telekinesis on his body to emulate the movement of a normal person. Which is a novel concept but in my opinion it made the experience feel tedious. Additionally, the protagonist can no longer use their first mana core and they have to waste a chunk of their mana moving their body around. Thankfully, I think the author is planning to fully restore the protagonist in the long term including their core. This problem is not resolved in volume 1.
The protagonist joins an academy and trains for a tournament to gain access to a prize room that secretly holds one of his fathers artifacts. Near the end of the competition, the protagonist is fighting a lightning cultivator and he briefly channels the enemies lightning mana into his final attack to defeat his opponent. This should be impossible because cultivators can only channel their cores attuned element. The protagonists upper and middle cores are attuned to the fire and mind elements. The protagonist also has a summoned familiar and familiars need to be compatible with their masters mana types. His imp William confirms as such by stating his mana types are fire and mind.
Maybe the author is hinting at the possibility of a third mana core? Many cultivation stories have upper, middle and lower dantians. His second core was a freebie due to his race, maybe he is also one of those mythical figures born with a second core without having to be a psion. Having a third core would distinguish him even from the scions of the past. But the narrative establishes that everyone awakens their core at the age of 18. Which means if he did have a third core. He should already know about its existence. His imp not possessing lightning mana is also another contradictory piece of information. I am pretty sure this is a plot hole.
There's some smaller criticisms. The protagonist receives training from an instructor named Giam and is taught a new sword style. The protagonist is told he can only master one sword style and is forced to choose between his mothers sword style or Giam's. This made no sense to me especially since the familiar contract with William gives the protagonist a perfect memory. He can master both given time.
There is an academy library and the protagonist takes advantage of his perfect memory to read most of the books. Learning several languages in the process. I was a little unsatisfied. I think the author should have made the protagonist read "all" the books in the library including the forbidden books. He is only staying in the academy until he completes his goal with the tournament.
When the protagonist wins the tournament, he is given a special key that lets him pick a single prize from the prize room. The protagonist manages to acquire his fathers artifact without using the key. Which means he can still pick from a pool of legendary artifacts. But the author decided otherwise. They are attacked by the principle, the antagonist for volume 1 and they escape from the academy. Giam sacrifices himself to hold off the principle. Giam's sacrifice is left open ended and the story strongly hints at the possibility that Giam possesses incredible cultivation knowledge that makes him a lot more powerful for his level. Hopefully Giam survives and imparts this knowledge to the protagonist. Losing out on the prize is already unsatisfying enough.
Lastly, the protagonist and his party discovers an ancient tomb with an evil psion spirit inhabiting it. The protagonist defeats the spirit and forms a mental link with it. The spirit begs for its life and they negotiate. The protagonist asks for cultivation knowledge and the spirit transfers the knowledge directly into the protagonists head. The issue I had with this scene was the protagonists desire for very specific cultivation knowledge. Instead of asking for all the cultivation knowledge the spirit possessed or just all their knowledge in general. The protagonist only asks for the knowledge he needed at the time and promptly destroyed the spirit. The usurper king basically erased all knowledge of psions from existence. The spirit was a wellspring of information and destroing it was a massive waste. This was a stupid development.
To summarize why I disliked the progression
1. The protagonist does not have 3 cores, only 2 cores and one is broken.
2. The protagonist does not decide to master both sword styles.
3. The protagonist fails to pick a prize from the tournaments prize room.
4. The protagonist hastily destroys a psion spirit filled with a wealth of information.
5. The protagonist does not memorize all the books in the academy library before leaving.
6. The protagonist fails to acquire unique cultivation knowledge from Giam
I really like the premise, granted it’s somewhat cliche. Innocent king gets overthrown and killed. Pregnant Queen escapes and raises son in relative obscurity. The boys origins are revealed, the mother dies because tragedy, leading to a quest to save the world and revenge against his families would be killers.
The pacing and tension was fine. I had no issues in that department. I mostly took issue with the stories power progression. As for the magic system, most people are born with a single mana core attuned to a specific element. With a rare few in myth and legend said to possess two cores. You cultivate mana and rank up your cores.
The protagonist naturally possesses two cores. The protagonist is the last surviving Psion, a race of humans born with a second mana core in their head. I found this premise interesting. Protagonists are meant to be extraordinary. There needs to be something that differentiates them from the average Joe. A special bloodline and the rightful hair to the throne.
But the narrative takes a turn for the worse by destroying the first mana core in the protagonists chest and severing the protagonists spine. I think the author did this to add more tension and struggle to the story. The protagonist is forced to use telekinesis on his body to emulate the movement of a normal person. Which is a novel concept but in my opinion it made the experience feel tedious. Additionally, the protagonist can no longer use their first mana core and they have to waste a chunk of their mana moving their body around. Thankfully, I think the author is planning to fully restore the protagonist in the long term including their core. This problem is not resolved in volume 1.
The protagonist joins an academy and trains for a tournament to gain access to a prize room that secretly holds one of his fathers artifacts. Near the end of the competition, the protagonist is fighting a lightning cultivator and he briefly channels the enemies lightning mana into his final attack to defeat his opponent. This should be impossible because cultivators can only channel their cores attuned element. The protagonists upper and middle cores are attuned to the fire and mind elements. The protagonist also has a summoned familiar and familiars need to be compatible with their masters mana types. His imp William confirms as such by stating his mana types are fire and mind.
Maybe the author is hinting at the possibility of a third mana core? Many cultivation stories have upper, middle and lower dantians. His second core was a freebie due to his race, maybe he is also one of those mythical figures born with a second core without having to be a psion. Having a third core would distinguish him even from the scions of the past. But the narrative establishes that everyone awakens their core at the age of 18. Which means if he did have a third core. He should already know about its existence. His imp not possessing lightning mana is also another contradictory piece of information. I am pretty sure this is a plot hole.
There's some smaller criticisms. The protagonist receives training from an instructor named Giam and is taught a new sword style. The protagonist is told he can only master one sword style and is forced to choose between his mothers sword style or Giam's. This made no sense to me especially since the familiar contract with William gives the protagonist a perfect memory. He can master both given time.
There is an academy library and the protagonist takes advantage of his perfect memory to read most of the books. Learning several languages in the process. I was a little unsatisfied. I think the author should have made the protagonist read "all" the books in the library including the forbidden books. He is only staying in the academy until he completes his goal with the tournament.
When the protagonist wins the tournament, he is given a special key that lets him pick a single prize from the prize room. The protagonist manages to acquire his fathers artifact without using the key. Which means he can still pick from a pool of legendary artifacts. But the author decided otherwise. They are attacked by the principle, the antagonist for volume 1 and they escape from the academy. Giam sacrifices himself to hold off the principle. Giam's sacrifice is left open ended and the story strongly hints at the possibility that Giam possesses incredible cultivation knowledge that makes him a lot more powerful for his level. Hopefully Giam survives and imparts this knowledge to the protagonist. Losing out on the prize is already unsatisfying enough.
Lastly, the protagonist and his party discovers an ancient tomb with an evil psion spirit inhabiting it. The protagonist defeats the spirit and forms a mental link with it. The spirit begs for its life and they negotiate. The protagonist asks for cultivation knowledge and the spirit transfers the knowledge directly into the protagonists head. The issue I had with this scene was the protagonists desire for very specific cultivation knowledge. Instead of asking for all the cultivation knowledge the spirit possessed or just all their knowledge in general. The protagonist only asks for the knowledge he needed at the time and promptly destroyed the spirit. The usurper king basically erased all knowledge of psions from existence. The spirit was a wellspring of information and destroing it was a massive waste. This was a stupid development.
To summarize why I disliked the progression
1. The protagonist does not have 3 cores, only 2 cores and one is broken.
2. The protagonist does not decide to master both sword styles.
3. The protagonist fails to pick a prize from the tournaments prize room.
4. The protagonist hastily destroys a psion spirit filled with a wealth of information.
5. The protagonist does not memorize all the books in the academy library before leaving.
6. The protagonist fails to acquire unique cultivation knowledge from Giam
January 7, 2024
This book was an epic read. It is a beginning of The Last Psion saga. In the far future, much like in Terry Brooks’ Shannara series, the world has changed and magic is used instead of science. The various peoples of the world: humans, elves, orcs, gnomes, dragons and drakonids are but a few of the species of this world. I found it to fascinating and awesome. Usually, I read really fast and still enjoy the book. But, I found myself reading slowly, savoring the book, as it has a lot of the tropes that I adore. Each person controls their own type of magic or mana and they cultivate it and then go through stages of power: Bronze, silver, gold and so on, with only bronze having no interim stages in that level.
The book starts of with King Ruken being woken during a Palace coup, led by Van Blaine. He sends his love, a Sapphire level elf who is pregnant with his son, off, as no one else knows of it. Surturia is one tough female elf. The fight scenes are epic. There is a lot of Norse mythology in the book with a nice twist of the world after Ragnarok. I laughed a lot, cried a bit, giggled and laughed out loud a lot, especially whenever William and Kiru argue. The book is mostly about how Surturia changes her name and lives in obscurity with her son, Kiru. Things happen that are so shocking, I began to chew my nails to the nibs. I can’t get over the fight scenes whenever they use both martial arts, fighting skills (sword swinging) and their mana.
I can’t wait for the next book and I plan on saving up to buy all of the other books that this author has written. If you like Norse mythology and magic, or dungeons and dragons, then you will like this book.
I received a free copy of this book via Podium Team and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The book starts of with King Ruken being woken during a Palace coup, led by Van Blaine. He sends his love, a Sapphire level elf who is pregnant with his son, off, as no one else knows of it. Surturia is one tough female elf. The fight scenes are epic. There is a lot of Norse mythology in the book with a nice twist of the world after Ragnarok. I laughed a lot, cried a bit, giggled and laughed out loud a lot, especially whenever William and Kiru argue. The book is mostly about how Surturia changes her name and lives in obscurity with her son, Kiru. Things happen that are so shocking, I began to chew my nails to the nibs. I can’t get over the fight scenes whenever they use both martial arts, fighting skills (sword swinging) and their mana.
I can’t wait for the next book and I plan on saving up to buy all of the other books that this author has written. If you like Norse mythology and magic, or dungeons and dragons, then you will like this book.
I received a free copy of this book via Podium Team and am voluntarily leaving a review.
January 4, 2024
This is just another mess in the great pile of terrible cultivation novels out of China that people in the States are on the bandwagon about.. They love making right makes right, money is always power and arrogance to the tenth degree. This is just another example, daddy got killed by another power house, he is the rightful heir to a kingdom that is long gone so he's gotta take revenge because he is the chosen one, challenge everyone because well he is a Teenager. This is very much a YA book and all the crap that goes with the drama of a CW show.
I really wouldn't call it a cultivation novel, because he was just given everything, he didn't earn anything himself. Even after someone broke his core, he just gets it right back a chapter or two later.
The Narrator was a terrible choice for this book
I really wouldn't call it a cultivation novel, because he was just given everything, he didn't earn anything himself. Even after someone broke his core, he just gets it right back a chapter or two later.
The Narrator was a terrible choice for this book
March 27, 2024
Defunct
Kiru grew up in a middle of nowhere village as the only half elf in an all human village. Fortunately, his elven mother has taught him wonderful cultivation techniques and that made him the rival for a nobleman’s son in his class. A fight between the two result in Kiru and his mother fleeing the village and Kiru horribly wounded. This is when his mother chose to tell him that he is actually the son to the wrongfully deposed king.
This was a great cultivation story with a significant academy element. Kiru is a fascinating character who has to overcome a lot in this story. He is not the only interesting character either. All of the members in the primary group are great. I’m not sure that I have ever read a litrpg with psionics and a well done paladin is rare!
Content warning: language
Kiru grew up in a middle of nowhere village as the only half elf in an all human village. Fortunately, his elven mother has taught him wonderful cultivation techniques and that made him the rival for a nobleman’s son in his class. A fight between the two result in Kiru and his mother fleeing the village and Kiru horribly wounded. This is when his mother chose to tell him that he is actually the son to the wrongfully deposed king.
This was a great cultivation story with a significant academy element. Kiru is a fascinating character who has to overcome a lot in this story. He is not the only interesting character either. All of the members in the primary group are great. I’m not sure that I have ever read a litrpg with psionics and a well done paladin is rare!
Content warning: language
September 15, 2024
There’s a bunch of colourful, extraneous details but the bones of this are plodding and predictable. I could not be bothered to go to Cobblers Academy with him. Good luck restoring your dad’s legacy!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews