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A review by sentry
Minute Mage by Reg Rome
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.75
Pretty fast pace book when things get going they don't really stop.
This book poses a pretty interesting philosophical question!essentially it's one big trolley problem, how many deaths is the life of one person worth?
Decent plot, a lot of scenes were predictable but that's not necessarily bad. There were a couple twists that I felt a bit unsure about. (mentioned later)
Biggest gripe:
The class restricted gear is a bit lame. I'm not a fan of system restrictions that don't really make sense. Each character has stats that they allocate, shouldn't melee geared classes who purposefully allocate any excess points in physical stats contribute to weapon/class strength be enough? But you put a lame restriction like "ope, I'm a mage, can't hold a sword in my hand anymore" - just doesn't sit right with me. I overlooked it, but when it came up multiple times it kept irking me. randomly while he's running for his life from a scorpion there's a scene where you learn "Oh! there are weapons that mage classes can use, they just needs to be enchanted" Okay... So... Why doesnt the main character focus on getting a weapon early on before the events start rolling? I get his primary attack spell is a grapple, but it just doesn't make much sense for a character who spent all his time training to be a swordsmen, to not prioritize trying to get a weapon he's most comfortable with. It's even reiterated later in the story multiple times when he goes up against melee classes he can easily keep up with them and dodge their strikes albeit due to high phys stats but also the author mentions his background training more than once.
Time traveling in books are hard to do right. This one does it okay, I think since it's in the forefront of your mind as you read the story it can take some of the stress from situations that 100% should be stressful. It does go the other way adding to stressful situations if he's out of resets, but I'm just not sure it's worth it each time. Especially because it's so shoehorned in whether or not it's past midnight each time something stressful is about to start.
MC is inexperienced and is still learning what he can do. He's pretty nicely written and I can tell the author put a bit of thought in the skill paths and how his chosen skills will affect the story.
He takes risks a lot which is good and bad in this story. It doesn't work well sometimes, you don't really feel any tension because you know the risk he takes will turn out completely fine thanks to time travel.
The survival scenes in the first fourth of the book did a good job of making the reader feel lost in the woods right along side the MC. Helps we know absolutely nothing about the world yet and are slowly dripped setting info.
I actually really liked the pace that the author took with exposition and telling us about the world. The MC was pretty clueless from a small village so learning about the world felt natural along side him. He learns mostly about things from his love interest and dialogue mostly felt pretty good thoughout.
Author had some interesting world building and made the world extremely dangerous, it's also mind boggling how people are able to even live safely behind walls. Anyone who is unclassed is either unlucky or insane.
Theinvasion felt extremely but also comically evil. And I'm interested in the author exploring more about how beuracracy and middle management is the true enemy lol. The main antagonist demon picking up human habits was an interesting move, if that's leading to something I'd say good minor character development there. Overworked and underappreciated gets intense when it happens to demons
Last of my rambling thoughts is on the characters themselves. This first book only really focuses on 4 characters. The group of 3 and the demon antagonist. All the others don't really get much attention on them. I thought the knight captain would was set up to be a way to build out a new character and a vehicle to explore the capitol city and the politics of this kingdom. But nope.in a interesting twist, that I'm not really a fan of, the captain and most of her squad is unceremoniously killed off, almost as a after thought. A bit meh, since there are so few characters in this story that we learn about or should care about.
All in all a decentish time travel litrpg that has me wondering if he'll be able to bring others through time with him, or perhaps just the whole timeline will be reset when/if the MC gets strong enough to go back further in time.
This book poses a pretty interesting philosophical question!
Decent plot, a lot of scenes were predictable but that's not necessarily bad. There were a couple twists that I felt a bit unsure about. (mentioned later)
Biggest gripe:
The class restricted gear is a bit lame. I'm not a fan of system restrictions that don't really make sense. Each character has stats that they allocate, shouldn't melee geared classes who purposefully allocate any excess points in physical stats contribute to weapon/class strength be enough? But you put a lame restriction like "ope, I'm a mage, can't hold a sword in my hand anymore" - just doesn't sit right with me. I overlooked it, but when it came up multiple times it kept irking me. randomly while he's running for his life from a scorpion there's a scene where you learn "Oh! there are weapons that mage classes can use, they just needs to be enchanted" Okay... So... Why doesnt the main character focus on getting a weapon early on before the events start rolling? I get his primary attack spell is a grapple, but it just doesn't make much sense for a character who spent all his time training to be a swordsmen, to not prioritize trying to get a weapon he's most comfortable with. It's even reiterated later in the story multiple times when he goes up against melee classes he can easily keep up with them and dodge their strikes albeit due to high phys stats but also the author mentions his background training more than once.
Time traveling in books are hard to do right. This one does it okay, I think since it's in the forefront of your mind as you read the story it can take some of the stress from situations that 100% should be stressful. It does go the other way adding to stressful situations if he's out of resets, but I'm just not sure it's worth it each time. Especially because it's so shoehorned in whether or not it's past midnight each time something stressful is about to start.
MC is inexperienced and is still learning what he can do. He's pretty nicely written and I can tell the author put a bit of thought in the skill paths and how his chosen skills will affect the story.
He takes risks a lot which is good and bad in this story. It doesn't work well sometimes, you don't really feel any tension because you know the risk he takes will turn out completely fine thanks to time travel.
The survival scenes in the first fourth of the book did a good job of making the reader feel lost in the woods right along side the MC. Helps we know absolutely nothing about the world yet and are slowly dripped setting info.
I actually really liked the pace that the author took with exposition and telling us about the world. The MC was pretty clueless from a small village so learning about the world felt natural along side him. He learns mostly about things from his love interest and dialogue mostly felt pretty good thoughout.
Author had some interesting world building and made the world extremely dangerous, it's also mind boggling how people are able to even live safely behind walls. Anyone who is unclassed is either unlucky or insane.
The
Last of my rambling thoughts is on the characters themselves. This first book only really focuses on 4 characters. The group of 3 and the demon antagonist. All the others don't really get much attention on them. I thought the knight captain would was set up to be a way to build out a new character and a vehicle to explore the capitol city and the politics of this kingdom. But nope.
All in all a decentish time travel litrpg that has me wondering if he'll be able to bring others through time with him, or perhaps just the whole timeline will be reset when/if the MC gets strong enough to go back further in time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Gore and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis