10.0/10 ⭐
25 January 2026 to 26 January 2026 (Took 2 days)
I’m giving this book 5 stars because because I love the series, and because the author has the guts to lampshade the Z/Z ship at every opportunity (especially with Daimen and Silverlake).
Honestly though, I kind of liked the 3rd book better, if only because I liked the slower-paced adventuring. While the 3rd book was longer, a lot happened. This book felt like the opposite. It’s roughly the same length as the other books, but the 4th book is entirely about how Zach and Zorian finally stop the invasion of Cyoria.
It’s one long intense shonen-battle-manga-esque war arc between the heroes and villains. No expenses spared. Rule of cool in force. And I read it all in 2 days! Heck, I read 70% of it in one day. Once you get on this ride, there’s really no getting off of it until the conclusion. Zorian is truly the godlike OP cheat-level archmage that all isekai protags aspire to be, and I really loved that his last contribution to the fight was the one most in his wheelhouse of abilities.
However, I do have some minor issues with the ending. This may be due to the author’s writing style or the nature of where it was originally published (fictionpress/royalroad), but the ending felt it was missing a lot of emotional depth.
Spoilers
Zorian spends the entire book devastated about the sacrifices made in order to get him out of the time loop, but we simply never see him process that (due to the upcoming war). On top of that, we don't see Zach's reaction to Zorian's ultimate mind magic betrayal in order to save his life. It was pretty much the climax of the story, and yet his reaction to winning (in real life) was completely skipped over. We also never found out how exactly Jornak erased Zach's memories since he's not that good of a mind mage, but I don't care too much about him so whatever.Ah well, that’s what fanfics are for, I guess. Overall, I loved the premise, characters, story, and world-building so I guess I can’t complain too much.