Fantasy books, stories, ＆c

About

Mother of Learning is written by Nobody103 (Domagoj Kurmaić).

Blurb

Zorian Kazinski has all the time in the world to get stronger, and he plans on taking full advantage of it.

A teenage mage of humble birth and slightly above-average skill, Zorian is attending his third year of education at Cyoria's magical academy. A driven and quiet young man, he is consumed by a desire to ensure his own future and free himself of the influence of his family, resenting the Kazinskis for favoring his brothers over him. Consequently, Zorian has no time for pointless distractions, much less other people's problems.

As it happens, though, time is something he is about to get plenty of.

On the eve of Cyoria's annual summer festival, Zorian is murdered, then abruptly brought back to the beginning of the month, just before he was about to take the train to school. Finding himself trapped in a time loop with no clear end or exit, he will have to look both within and without to unravel the mystery set before him. He does have to unravel it, too, because the loop clearly wasn’t made for his sake, and in a world of magic even a time traveler isn't safe from those who wish him ill.

Fortunately for Zorian, repetition is the mother of learning…

Review

Well, it has taken me forever to get around to reading this amazing webserial. First, I waited till the edited versions were published as four arcs and then I delayed a bit to put some distance from another time-loop story I had read a few months back. I'm glad I could binge read "Mother of Learning" last week, as I had needed a bit of distraction (from something very positive for a change :D).

The first few chapters were a bit slow and Zorian (main POV character) was annoying to say the least. Speaking from hindsight, they were needed to set up the plot and the character growth was more satisfying as well. Once we got introduced to the time-loop, things got interesting real fast and it was a breeze to finish the rest of this long series in less than a week.

Most loops covered something new, introduced new characters (or covered them in more depth), etc — so don't worry that things would be repetitive. I enjoyed the characters progressing in terms of magical power, getting better at information gathering, etc. As I kept reading, I felt like these four long books wouldn't be enough — turns out that the author had cut short a few sub-plots!

As the title indicates, there was plenty of learning involved. Though the magical academy plays an important role, most of the actual learning we got to see was through mentoring from all sorts of people, including some very surprising choices. And almost all of the teachers had weird quirks, which I came to appreciate as the story moved forward.

The mystery of the time-loop and characters involved were a main driving force. Even though there were plenty of slice-of-life scenes, I'd say the pacing was great. Hardly any dull moment and I just wanted to finish the books ASAP. Good thing I was reading a completed series, the wait would've been excruciating!

One of the annoying things at the start of the first book for me was Zorian's attitude towards his family. He did have some genuine complaints, but I do not prefer reading novels with such family angst. Things did improve a lot by the end and I especially came to enjoy interactions with his sister. But overall, it was a sore point. Zorian's various dates were another thing I disliked (they made sense due to the time-loops and stuff from the past, but I felt like it was overdone).

On the other hand, I loved the various characters who ended up as friends and acquaintances. They played a big role in shaping Zorian to become a better person. The author hinted at a possible slice-of-life sequel — hope that comes to fruition, even if it won't be anytime soon (the author is currently writing a story in a new setting).

Speaking of characters, the various antagonists were well written too. Not everybody was clearly good or bad, and from a certain perspective you could even switch the sides.

The magic system was nicely done, though I found it harder to keep track of abilities and stuff as the series progressed. Some of it was probably because time-loops were skipped and some things got explained during action scenes. I didn't mind though, as I was more interested in the plot and characters.

The finish was really, really well done! So many surprising twists and turns till the very end. Overall, an amazing fantasy series that I'd highly recommend.