A Sword To Pierce Through Time (Loop)

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

~FIRST PLACE WINNER! Royal Road Community Magazine Contest, January 2023~

Jair Welburne has lived this life more times than he can count. He's learned unknowable magics, defeated the undefeatable... yet in the end, it's still not enough to save him or the people he cares about.

So there's only one thing to do: change the baseline.

Even if it means reliving some of the worst days of his life again, and again... and again.

[Book One completed. Alternate universe rewrite postingHERE, new chapters will resume here at a later date.]

Information

Status
Hiatus
Year
2023
Author
Aster Loka

Tags

LITRPGFANTASYADVENTUREMAGICDRAMAGAMELITMALE LEADSECRET IDENTITYHIGH FANTASYPROGRESSIONTIME TRAVELTIME LOOP

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.4/ 5.0
Followers
2,137
Views
607,737

Chapters(68 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

  • DiamondninjaRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Love this story.  An interesting time long power in a world with interesting litrpg mechanics.  I enjoyed the writers other story but this one was much better imo and nowhere is that a dis to the other as this one is just that good
    Eager for the next part to start as I know author is pauses it to focus on the other story.
    Really looking forward to more and highly recommend it.
  • Orion1024Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    The main twist is that MC has been looping for a long time before the story starts, and went several years past the start of the loop
    As a result there's plenty of foreshadowing future events, and the time period / scale of the coming story seems to be bigger than usual for the genre
    At the same time MC has a very urgent problem to solve so the pace of the first chapters is far more frantic than usual ; MC doesn't give that much a shit about making waves since that problem takes precedence.
    It's also very convenient to make the reader learn about the world and the magic system.
    Writing is solid and nice to read. Good work, keep it up !
  • RefreshingWaterRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    My opinion on this well written start is that I hope to see more of it in the future and whatever else this author would be working on. The premise and descriptions adds something that many serious fantasy fans are sure to like. Whether they begin at chapter one or paying attention to additional posts. Themes that are cool and character interactions that I get so invested in. Exactly the type of world building that makes the experience of reading that much more enjoyable. My imagination is highly responsive to the writing and maybe you can immerse yourself in the story too. I never try to self-insert with stories because I actually enjoy the perspectives of the characters I read about; they have their own experiences that makes their inner monologues actually matter. The author gives a reason for the characters' actions, a reasonable amount of depth and the premise already answers why the MC does what they can. With far reaching concepts like time travel, the attitude the MC has feels natural and returns to where they acknowledge how they felt during their journey to the extremes of what they could achieve. Whatever the MC has experienced doesn't desensitize them from their reason for continuing or from the knowledge of what could happen. This is a rare example of tasteful representation for this type of power. I'll be back for more of course. :3
  • Shades98Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    So the MC upgrades his soul sword right before he dies to Legendary, but it is incomplete... and then he uses his inate magic to go back to the begining...
    This story so far is how to Kill a Dragon who wants to eat your best friend... Due to who he was before he got his soul sword nobody will believe him nor will they help him... So far this story is showing progress but also is stopped at one point 1 week from the begining. Now the last chapter has killed the dragon, and we move into now we have to save the MC until he decides he can do the first bit better.
    I have enjoyed reading this authors works and will continue to support as I can. This story is well written and has a cool premis but like most time travel stories there are many times when it feels that it is dragging.
  • art27Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    It's a great read. The story is well written and it reminds me a bit of mother of learning or Re:Monarch. I'm looking forward to the next chapters and the gibt's from the beginning show that there is a great potential for interesting twists in the story.
    I'm waiting for him to get his full magic back :)
  • externalhardriveRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    As an avid enjoyer of time loop stories, this has got to be one of the best out there. If you're a fan of timeloops, or just a fan of well-written fantasy, you have to read this one.
    Time looping stories typically have to avoid three downfalls: repetitiveness, no sense of progression, and poor character relations. Maelstrom avoids all of them, while also providing a twist on the genre with solid writing.
    There's no sense of repetitiveness as useless information from repeating loops are not reiterated. It also does not feel rushed either. The author carefully weaves the necessary information between different loops such that the loops don't get stale or incomprehensible.
    Progression is possible due to the MC retaining information, but also the nature of the time loop is almost completely in control of the MC, so we can progress past certain points in time when the MC feels necessary. This is also where the twist on the genre came in (the following is shown in the prologue chapter): the MC has actually been looping for a long time already, and decided to return to the very beginning at the start of the story when he finally obtained something that can survive the trip back. This also makes it so what we read isn't just him doing the perfect run with future information, but actually him testing out new things.
    Character progression and relations are solid as well. The MC isn't the typical lone wolf who does everything alone and don't care about others. He actually has people he cares for and will take risks to save them. He's also hardworking, rational, and funny. Side characters are also solid.
    Grammer is also solid, with only occassional typos or small gramatical errors that an editor could easily fix if this were to be published.
    Overall, the book is still in its early stages, but if the currently quality continues, I think it will become one of the best novels on RR to rival the likes of MoL. My only complaint is that there isn't more to read!! :))
  • EcthelRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    First let's get the bad out of the way :
    - the pacing can be rather slow : the MC tries to solve a problem, fails, tries another way, fails again etc... until he eventually finds a solution. Some of those tries are summarized in a few lines, but some aren't and it can get annoyingly repetitive. That's especially true at the begining, as the story advances the "redudants" tries are more often sumarized.
    - the MC interactions with other characters are often shallow. He knows how to manipulate them and uses them, but he doesn't really get involved with or cares about most other people.
    - the author is working on another story in parallel and the updates on Maelstrom have been rare lately
    The good :
    - The time travel inherent limitations and the way magic works in this universe keep the MC from abusing it too much. Mostly, this means the challenges he faces wouldn't be trivialised by a few loops of grinding and the author doesn't have to make him stupid to keep him from abusing it.
    The MC can bring back his knowledge of future events, but that's it. He can't bring back artefacts, his trained body or the spells he imprinted. (except... there are some exceptions) There is no XP system so he can't kill the same enemy again and again for an infinite XP loop either.
    - the world feels big and fascinating. While the 50 first  chapters are mostly set in one city, we get glimpses of other cities and nations here and there, and eventually the MC leaves the "starting city" so we see more
    - the grammar and syntax are good
    - even though the MC can seems cold at first, he gradually opens up and feels a lot more "human" after chapter 20 or so
    To conclude, Maelstrom may very well be for you if you like well built worlds with a character that gradually get stronger. The 20 first chapters are a little weaker so i'd advise you to read at least up to chapter 30 before dropping it if you're on the fence.
  • Zenopath (AEV)Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    Its very hard to write compelling stakes when MC has such a broken time travel ability. He can rewind time passing his consciousness into his earlier self, both at will and on death, an unlimited number of times without repercussion. Yes, its not exact and can overshoot and force him to redo stuff he already did flawlessly, but that's a minor inconvenience at best. So what if he has to do a day or two over again? The author usually just passes through those extra days in a single sentence.
    Its hard to explain how this story fails to handle this OP ability without spoilers, but the TL:DR is that given what the MC can do, there is nothing that can pose a real problem to him, if he is willing to invest some of his limitless time. Yes, this was true of other time loop stories, but they at least offered ways to permanently hurt the time traveller (black elixers or soul damage). This story could introduce something like that too, but given that MC has already lived full lifetimes the question "why has he never encountered this before?" has to be asked.
    Usually the time travelling MC has to earn his knowledge of future events by living through them at least once (on screen so to speak), which feels a lot less like cheating than giving the MC that knowledge as part of his backstory. In stories where the MC does get future knowledge, it is usually a one time thing and they can only use that knowlegde in this one "playthrough", no do overs. This novel has given the MC both return to earlier self time travel AND future knowledge to work with, and he isn't bound to a one month timeframe or facing other time travellers either.
    Pretty much any conceivable problem could probably be solved with enough time. Poison? Spend a lifetime becoming a master alchemist, find a cure, go back in time, fix problem, easy peesy. The main character starts story with centuries worth of subjective lifespan fighting against a vague apocalypse, and has already improved himself considerably, what's ano
  • Osk5R M@r@Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    It is a common trope time loop story although the not described of the screen looping makes the story more fun than the traditional time loop. The MC spends to much time monologing for my liking but that is my personal taste. It is a strong story the MC is done well the side characters need a bit more development but all in all it is amazing.
  • rrname12321Royal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    Well written so far.  Characters are interesting and defined.  Not seeing many grammar issues at all.  Have two things I don't really care for. The first is the stuck in the academy plot and the lack of inventive solutions.  It really just seems like a lack of problem solving skills here for the main issue with Ran.  A whole world and essentially infinite time to find solutions but the solutions attempted seem poorly executed and pedestrian, especially in a magical world.  Will let the arc play out and see what happens from here though.