Isekai Magus: A LitRPG Progression Saga (The Fantasy World of Nordan Book 1) by Han Yang

4/5 Stars -Great fun, and a lot of story

An oxymoron of a book. The story is full-on, nonstop and long and it held my interest for all of it because I hovered through all 1200+ pages in a week. It’s incongruous, paradoxical and inconsistent. Our protagonist, Damien, is aptly named (think back to that 70s film The Omen). I will explain all.

Damien is a librarian, handsome, carefree and avoids commitment and yes, a self-confessed womaniser, which is easy to see because the opening scene starts with him ‘pulling’ a gorgeous woman (I already didn’t like him). Alas for Damien the woman is more than she appears and before he knows it he is sinking through a portal in the floor. It seems his ‘date’ is a lesser goddess and Damien has been chosen as her champion.

Pretty predictable LitRPG stuff so far, the handsome knight on the front cover he is about to become….erm not exactly, which Damien soon discovers when he awakens in the body of an old dead man. So begins the story of our fledgling hero as the body of the man he has inherited is on a different world, Nordan, one full of Zorta (Z), magic that inherits every living thing. With the help of a bunny rabbit named Sprinkles, he gets some Z and finds it reduces his age and the dilapidated body he is in starts to change and reverse its ageing. Now starts his adventure.

I don’t like to give spoilers, but trust me I have barely scratched the surface. This is chapter 1. Now, it turns out Damien’s transition did not go smoothly on account he panicked and tried to escape his fate. Everyone on Nordan gets one school of magic and due to his panicking, he ended up in the old man who happened to be a healer. A healer is a bit rubbish he thinks for a swash-buckling hero. Only it turns out, Champions get a second school of magic and Damien’s turns out to be Necromancy. Yep, he has the power over life and death. Suffice it to say, it takes a bit of adjustment for our hero. It is not an easy start and it turns out you can’t trust anyone.

The story is gloriously long (a bit like this review). I mean it is great value for money (the book not this review) and I raced through it which says a lot for the story. The characters, especially the undead ones, are a load of fun. The world of Nordan feels suitably large and epic and is filled with every fantasy race imagined, from Minotaurs to Naga. There are some gripes, grammatical errors and a pet peeve of mine, the excessive use of the word ‘snicker’. It is used so much that after a while I just snickered when I came across it (see what I did there?) which made my wife think I was a bit touched since sometimes it occurred two or three times on a page.

Also, when I think about it, Damien is pretty evil. I mean he jumps in with both feet. Wipes out whole villages of people whether they be Brownies (not the girl guide variety that would be a wrong too far!), Naga, Centaurs. You name it, Damien will kill it. Think about that. Whole families, male, female, their young all to fuel his growing needs. It is pretty sick and yet spoken of with such flippancy. I guess Damien is an anti-hero, yet he wants to be good and retain his humanity but then does everything counter to that. He is loyal, but only to his minions it seems to me, the rest can go holler. This uncomfortable facet of the book is counter-set by the fact everyone else seems just as bloodthirsty as he is but he does take it to another level. Damien seems at times overpowered, yet other characters are vastly more powerful. He is a genius at tactics (who knew?). He can raise the dead and the living with his Necromancy and Healer abilities and indeed he does. It all created a lack of jeopardy with Damien which is not so good but then there was enough to go around for all those other great characters that this was offset to an extent.

So, I will wrap this up. Engaging read, long and not without its flaws but I have to give the author a tip of my hat because I enjoyed it on many levels. A cookie-cutter (anti)hero maybe but it was a fun ride and great value. The last third of the story had more to offer as well, elevating it which it needed. The Amazon ‘Look Inside’ will give you a feel for the story and writing style. If you like LitRPG then give it a try.