Nathan and his companions have struck back at Giantsrest, freeing a city from slavery. But now an army is bearing down on them, led by a Questor archmage.
The Adventurers of Gemore will fight to the death, but they are outmatched by the magical might of Giantsrest. The Questor Brox has come to aid them, but he does not expect to beat his Giantsrest counterpart.
Nathan and his friends need a plan to win not just this battle, but the war that will follow. The Ascendent Academy towers over the horizon, and the Mages of Giantsrest believe themselves safe within the magical school and its legendary enchantments.
How will Nathan topple the empire of Giantsrest? Will he embrace the role of assassin and anarchist, or search for a different solution?
This is fourth in an isekai LitRPG series that you should read in order. It has a lovely "Story So Far" section but it's only for book 3 and seems geared to catching up someone who had to wait between books.
So Nate is finally going to take on Giantsrest, the capitol of the slave state that brought him to Davrar in the first place (to exploit and enslave him back in book one). He knows that Questor Badud is there and plotting to subjugate and enslave his adoptive home and the people he cares about. Starting with him as Badud has explicitly threatened Nate and is likely to come after him in the future.
Nate enters the city with Faline who is still directing him in matters of murder and political disruption. Around a quarter through, though, she manipulates Nate into a situation where he refuses to commit an atrocity and Faline delivers an ultimatum to get to killing or she's out of here. He tells her to take a hike. I kind of liked this result, though I still find Nate's ethical reasoning shallow. I mean, we found the line he wouldn't cross, but is that only because Faline chose to go for the gold standard, Anakin level of evil and skipped a bunch of steps along the way? What I mean is that we don't know his actual line, only that he has one that prevents him from being a cartoon villain.
Anyway, Nate on his own in enemy territory was fun. He starts getting creative and that means finding a way to take on the Ascendant Academy at the heart of Giantsrest's power. Faline has never managed to crack the fortress at the center of the city and has had to pattycake around its edges. Nate decides to take it on with his own unique brand of daring brazenness and experimentation. Infiltrating the school was interesting and gave Nate a bit of time to reflect on just how far he is willing to go in wiping out this enemy society. I mean, students being indoctrinated in the foundation of the evil empire are on the road to evil. But are they there yet? Can he spare these students without giving away his schemes or ruining his chances? I liked seeing him struggle with that and found this way more engaging than the Faline as vile temptress episodes.
So I liked this story and I think it's the first unqualified five stars I'm giving in this series. Is that because Nate is on his own for most of this? His buddies, the Heirs, can't join him in the clandestine plot here, so they are on their own doing adventury things. I dunno. I missed them a bit, but not so much that I wanted the story to be something different.
A note about Chaste: Faline is definitely too crazy to do anything intimate with. There's a seduction scene that might have been steamy if Nate had been tempted at all. Or ogled, even. But he resisted and we don't get enough that I'd tag it as steam. It's borderline for the chaste tag, but I'm still going to call it that but if you care maybe skip that scene. It's not long or important and should be easy to see coming.
Having gotten used to our hero doing much by himself I was hooked anew in this one. SO much so that, even knowing I was back to work today, I stayed up later than I should reading. Each chapter pulled me deeper and pushed me into wanting to see what happened next, and having to wait months for the next installment is going to be a bit sad!
I really like this series. I like the combination of science with magic. I like the leveling system and the insights needed to progress. The story is also pretty good. The author did make some weird choices though. The MC is something of a conundrum. He has a science background and seems to be ideally suited for teaching. Despite that he has a Rage class that is all about hand to hand fighting. He has a strong moral stance against what Giants Rest is doing, and yet he picks up assassin as his second class. Each of those things seem like they are polar opposites. He talks about the beauty and sex appeal of some of the women around him, and yet he turns down multiple sexual advances. While I like the characters and I like the way of talking, I don't really feel like Nathan has any connection with anyone. He has comrades but doesn't seem to have any friends. He would fight and die for his ideals but not to protect anyone specific. That is the biggest thing this series is lacking, some sort of personal connection. All the other stuff is really good though, so I am still looking forward to continuing the series.
I believe by now the writing speaks for itself, its quality. I especially love the analytic nature of the MCs build, which allows for a deeper feel to all of magic, even though he is anathema to magic. More importantly, wow what an intense book this was, full of hidey stabbey, progression, clash of political and moral views and momentum of the plot. I loved it, 10/10.
There will never be anything quite like this book series. I will always remember this author and hope they continue to write books like this. The character development was outstanding. They had their morals pushed to the limits and they either had to change or stand true to them. 10 out of 10
Another solid entry but alas the last of the current audio releases. The battle continues and Nathan continues to make astounding progress. More lore is revealed and I'm getting the inkling the source of Devrar may be revealed one day soon. Until then the Heirs will have some catching up to do
Fun popcorn series that bridges magic and science in interesting ways.
This book got a bit darker than some of the previous ones because of an assassination tilt to things. But it balanced out somewhat with the assassinations happening at this universe's Hogwarts that is run by evil mages.
still very good! mc is kinda a cheat code atp, with some pretty deus ex machina skills that let him basically waltz through everything, though, which makes it a lot less tense.
Best in the Series. The MC goes solo for a large part of this book, and the author has managed to keep it interesting. The fight sequence at the end was phenomenal and probably one of the best I have read.