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The epic, two-part conclusion to the Portal to Nova Roma saga begins now!
The Rhine has been conquered.
Venice is safe from pirates - for now.
And the eastern kingdoms of France have acknowledged Alexander’s claim to the frontier… and the vast riches that come with it.
For the first time, Alexander has built something lasting.
An empire with walls, shipyards, and foundries.
Warships rise from the docks. Cannons thunder from the forges. Legionnaires stand ready - armed with rifles and revolvers - to face any army foolish enough to test them.
But in a brutal medieval world, peace is always an illusion.
When French “allies” prove far less trustworthy than promised, and the king in Paris turns his eyes - and his armies - eastward, Alexander is forced to act. New alliances must be forged.
Forged in war.
Sealed by trade and diplomacy.
Paid for in blood… and cannon fire.
As the Mediterranean descends into chaos, Alexander will uncover powerful new allies - and deadly new enemies - in a dangerous, post-apocalyptic world where ambition rules and survival is never guaranteed. With new lands to claim, new powers to master, and wars unlike any he has faced before, Alexander must push beyond every limit to protect his people… and himself.
The legendary empire-building sagas reaches its most explosive chapter yet. Drums of war sound. Empires collide. And the world stands on the brink.
Join Alexander and his legions in Portal to Nova Paris!
The Rhine has been conquered.
Venice is safe from pirates - for now.
And the eastern kingdoms of France have acknowledged Alexander’s claim to the frontier… and the vast riches that come with it.
For the first time, Alexander has built something lasting.
An empire with walls, shipyards, and foundries.
Warships rise from the docks. Cannons thunder from the forges. Legionnaires stand ready - armed with rifles and revolvers - to face any army foolish enough to test them.
But in a brutal medieval world, peace is always an illusion.
When French “allies” prove far less trustworthy than promised, and the king in Paris turns his eyes - and his armies - eastward, Alexander is forced to act. New alliances must be forged.
Forged in war.
Sealed by trade and diplomacy.
Paid for in blood… and cannon fire.
As the Mediterranean descends into chaos, Alexander will uncover powerful new allies - and deadly new enemies - in a dangerous, post-apocalyptic world where ambition rules and survival is never guaranteed. With new lands to claim, new powers to master, and wars unlike any he has faced before, Alexander must push beyond every limit to protect his people… and himself.
The legendary empire-building sagas reaches its most explosive chapter yet. Drums of war sound. Empires collide. And the world stands on the brink.
Join Alexander and his legions in Portal to Nova Paris!
- GenresFantasy
678 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 21, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 30, 2026
Great imagination and core concepts for a good story in this genre, fumbled in its execution.
I feel like this series at this point is a bit of an indulgence. I kind of enjoyed the author’s other series, the Market one but that series was all over the place narratively and just got worse. Its saving grace was that it ended. It’s been some time since I’ve read anything by this author, and I was reminded with this book how his imagination can be so engaging but his issues with pacing and his overall narrative undermine that creativity and ultimately the potential of his writing.
This book is fun, for me, because I really like the empire-building element, I like the MC and his unique story/character, and I like the doppelgänger aspect. But how that all plays out is kind of a problem. We don’t really focus on any of those things, we kind of just gloss over so much of it. This book is at its best when it’s getting into strategy, preparation, training, learning, leveling. But so often that stuff is just briefly summarized if discussed at all.
Instead we are subjected to a frenetic pace of constant warfare and conflict across the numerous interactions of the main character where skills, classes, evolutions, whatever just fall from the sky like unexplained manna from heaven.
There’s no reason for this whole war to have taken place over the course of a year. There’s no reason for that pace at all in the context of the story. The author does it to try to level the playing field for the bad guys in some way, so the good guys have less time to prepare and thus overwhelm their opponents with their superior everything. But it’s never explained why this is happening in the story. It just doesn’t make any sense that this many nobles could be fighting and dying and spending however much money to lose over and over and there be no consequences for this king. But I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds with that. It’s just a story. And this is just one example of the shallowness of many of the plot elements.
Now this book isn’t as bad as Market in that the titular simple shopkeeper aspect was wholly abandoned in that series for another boilerplate isekai romp. We at least touch on the empire-building and why the MC is doing it. I just wish the author invested more in that aspect of the story and the payoffs for the people whose lives he changes for the better through it. To me, that’s better than this “unite the world to prepare it for some eldritch invasion” trope going on here that just flies from one conflict to the next.
For the pacing issues, the lack of in story context, and the lack of commitment to really any singular aspect of this story, be it character growth, empire building, trope plot, etc, I’m counting off a star. For the fact this book isn’t really a complete story in itself, as it just ends after a battle, not the culmination of a story arc, I’m counting off a star.
Some other issues I have with this book and series are the magical/system contract/oaths. I HATE when authors use these. They are simply a lazy cop out to fix plot holes, one that usually undermines logical consistency. I’ll take one example from this book. MC captures a knight with a secret class, and rather quickly and gently talks the guy into sharing this class with him. A class that’s been a state secret for generations. Then he wraps the guy up in a contract and walks away. Now, you may wonder why would someone with a state secret class not themselves be under a contract about it? Good question. That’s the problem with these plot devices and why I hate them.
The author uses these contracts in this story to fix plot holes and establish context for trust between MC and new allies more often than he just explains them in context. It’s beyond bad writing. It’s so absolutely and totally lazy. And it’s why I’m counting off another star.
I also noticed numerous typos. You pay five figures for an audiobook but not four for an editor? You don’t ask fans to beta read? Not counting off for this, but it’s hard to understand how he can spend two years writing these books and there’s so many typos.
The ending is a semi cliff. We didn’t end the book not knowing if this plot device McGuffin introduced right before it’s used worked or not. That would have been an egregious misunderstanding by the author of the genre he’s writing for. Instead he did it in the semi-way. We know what happened but we just don’t know what happens after. Not counting off for that, but it was close.
To conclude, I think this author has shown with the two series I’ve read, that he has a great imagination for both creating characters and worlds and magic systems, but he doesn’t know how to bring it all together.
I feel like this series at this point is a bit of an indulgence. I kind of enjoyed the author’s other series, the Market one but that series was all over the place narratively and just got worse. Its saving grace was that it ended. It’s been some time since I’ve read anything by this author, and I was reminded with this book how his imagination can be so engaging but his issues with pacing and his overall narrative undermine that creativity and ultimately the potential of his writing.
This book is fun, for me, because I really like the empire-building element, I like the MC and his unique story/character, and I like the doppelgänger aspect. But how that all plays out is kind of a problem. We don’t really focus on any of those things, we kind of just gloss over so much of it. This book is at its best when it’s getting into strategy, preparation, training, learning, leveling. But so often that stuff is just briefly summarized if discussed at all.
Instead we are subjected to a frenetic pace of constant warfare and conflict across the numerous interactions of the main character where skills, classes, evolutions, whatever just fall from the sky like unexplained manna from heaven.
There’s no reason for this whole war to have taken place over the course of a year. There’s no reason for that pace at all in the context of the story. The author does it to try to level the playing field for the bad guys in some way, so the good guys have less time to prepare and thus overwhelm their opponents with their superior everything. But it’s never explained why this is happening in the story. It just doesn’t make any sense that this many nobles could be fighting and dying and spending however much money to lose over and over and there be no consequences for this king. But I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds with that. It’s just a story. And this is just one example of the shallowness of many of the plot elements.
Now this book isn’t as bad as Market in that the titular simple shopkeeper aspect was wholly abandoned in that series for another boilerplate isekai romp. We at least touch on the empire-building and why the MC is doing it. I just wish the author invested more in that aspect of the story and the payoffs for the people whose lives he changes for the better through it. To me, that’s better than this “unite the world to prepare it for some eldritch invasion” trope going on here that just flies from one conflict to the next.
For the pacing issues, the lack of in story context, and the lack of commitment to really any singular aspect of this story, be it character growth, empire building, trope plot, etc, I’m counting off a star. For the fact this book isn’t really a complete story in itself, as it just ends after a battle, not the culmination of a story arc, I’m counting off a star.
Some other issues I have with this book and series are the magical/system contract/oaths. I HATE when authors use these. They are simply a lazy cop out to fix plot holes, one that usually undermines logical consistency. I’ll take one example from this book. MC captures a knight with a secret class, and rather quickly and gently talks the guy into sharing this class with him. A class that’s been a state secret for generations. Then he wraps the guy up in a contract and walks away. Now, you may wonder why would someone with a state secret class not themselves be under a contract about it? Good question. That’s the problem with these plot devices and why I hate them.
The author uses these contracts in this story to fix plot holes and establish context for trust between MC and new allies more often than he just explains them in context. It’s beyond bad writing. It’s so absolutely and totally lazy. And it’s why I’m counting off another star.
I also noticed numerous typos. You pay five figures for an audiobook but not four for an editor? You don’t ask fans to beta read? Not counting off for this, but it’s hard to understand how he can spend two years writing these books and there’s so many typos.
The ending is a semi cliff. We didn’t end the book not knowing if this plot device McGuffin introduced right before it’s used worked or not. That would have been an egregious misunderstanding by the author of the genre he’s writing for. Instead he did it in the semi-way. We know what happened but we just don’t know what happens after. Not counting off for that, but it was close.
To conclude, I think this author has shown with the two series I’ve read, that he has a great imagination for both creating characters and worlds and magic systems, but he doesn’t know how to bring it all together.
May 25, 2026
It's a great continuation of the the previous books. We get more doppelgangers, a few new magic systems, we get proper powercreep but not insane snowballing, we get to also see a few new story strands start.
If I had any criticism, it would be that not enough story threads are closed off; solve the Pirates, solve the Byzantines, AND MAKE THE EMPIRE MAKE SENSE. Imagine you look at a map and you get:
Miletus, 1200 kilometers of sea, then Venice, and a straight line up the Rhine.
Also, the God boons are great, should have killed a few more.
The ending is relatively decent as well.
If I had any criticism, it would be that not enough story threads are closed off; solve the Pirates, solve the Byzantines, AND MAKE THE EMPIRE MAKE SENSE. Imagine you look at a map and you get:
Miletus, 1200 kilometers of sea, then Venice, and a straight line up the Rhine.
Also, the God boons are great, should have killed a few more.
The ending is relatively decent as well.
May 25, 2026
I love this series so much ! Really one of the best for kingdom building !
I was a bit disapointed by this one because I felt like, the Author did not close some arc and it feels a bit Empty !
For example, the arc pirate was open and still not finished !
As well, i feel like the kingdom building part where he actually consolidate and build the empire is not evoked really.
I was a bit disapointed by this one because I felt like, the Author did not close some arc and it feels a bit Empty !
For example, the arc pirate was open and still not finished !
As well, i feel like the kingdom building part where he actually consolidate and build the empire is not evoked really.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 25, 2026
A true favorite
With so many choices to read, it’s fantastic when you find something new and exciting. Portal to Nova Roma is certainly both of those things. Looking forward to the next book now!
With so many choices to read, it’s fantastic when you find something new and exciting. Portal to Nova Roma is certainly both of those things. Looking forward to the next book now!
May 29, 2026
One of the best of the series so far
You get what you come to the series for. More world building , more civilization , more b***** battles. A great way to start whining up the series!
You get what you come to the series for. More world building , more civilization , more b***** battles. A great way to start whining up the series!
May 29, 2026
Captivating as always!
This series is hands down an all time favorite of mine. From the unique magic and class styles, to the immense world building, both literary and literally, this series is absolutely wonderful and I hope that it continues for many more books.
This series is hands down an all time favorite of mine. From the unique magic and class styles, to the immense world building, both literary and literally, this series is absolutely wonderful and I hope that it continues for many more books.
May 24, 2026
continues to delight
Going without sleep was totally worth it. I am cannot wait until August when the last installment comes out. Don’t delay, do yourself a favor and read it now!
Going without sleep was totally worth it. I am cannot wait until August when the last installment comes out. Don’t delay, do yourself a favor and read it now!
May 28, 2026
Bad vocabulary
There are more "f" words used in this book than all the others of this series combined. It is terrible that authors seem to think we need this kind of language.
There are more "f" words used in this book than all the others of this series combined. It is terrible that authors seem to think we need this kind of language.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews