Machinist of Mana

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Be careful where you wander, for you might wander further than you think.

Percival had learned that lesson well, pulled from his previous life into a Victorian fantasy land he now finds himself pitted against nobles, overbearing adults, and others. Unfortunately he wasn't alone, deep in the darkness others have made there way to this new world as well. How will he fare against those who can remake flesh like clay and kill the weak without effort? Only time will tell.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2024
Author: Wandering Agent

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 981
Views: 53,179

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

CrystalLily1302Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The MC is distinct from the protagonist of the previous story set in this world and the world feels lived in and evolved. The author has done a great job expanding on things in the world in these few chapters that have gotten me hooked on seeing what our new character will do in this fascinating setting as well as wanting to know how things have progressed from the end of the last story.
KaywyeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Well written steampunk isekai with interesting characters. Pacing is a slow build for now, and I love the fact that the MC is neither a Mary Sue nor an edgewood but a fleshed out, well rounded individual. Excited to see where this goes. Looking for steampunk mixed with Mushoku Tensei? Here's your jam.
SaxifrageRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
With all the chapters already published, we can already appreciate the immense potential of this story. The chapters are long, the world is coherent for the moment and the path taken by the protagonist is really exciting! For me it's 5 stars although I can't judge the grammar as English is not my native language.
StrangestQuarkRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Normally, I'm not a big fan of steampunk. It is, in my opinion, nearly always better to go high fantasy if you don't want to deal with full on sci-fi, but this story provided me perhaps the best example I've seen on how it can actually work.
The story is set in a slightly earlier point of time then usual steampunk, which allows for a lot of political and societal discussion to feel valid, considering how much the world is in the process of changing all the while providing a lot of the necessary framework for believable technological progress.
The plot itself is a bit convoluted, there is a central conflict centered around a barely city level threat, but there is also a side plot that likely will turn into the main conflict of the story that is still rarely mentioned. Both are written well and despite the complexity of the latter I feel like I'm suprisingly clear on who wants what.
The Characters are distinct, many of them having a very realistic amount of faults without (usually) feeling like genuinely bad people. At the moment I'm not a fan of the romance of the story, but its not a large part of the plot, so its easy enough to give it time.
The magic system is fine, though its still very sparse in contrast to the world building or character development and it seems clear that it likely won't ever be a large part of the story.
Overall, one of the best attempts I've ever seen of making steampunk work. If you like the setting then definitely try this too, but even if you, like me, normally don't, I still recommend giving the story a shot.
Tarrying_soulRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I love the type of isekais where mc gets reincarnated as a baby and we get to explore the new world from his/her eyes. This novel scratched that itch.
The world is very interesting. (Not a big spoiler)
And even the mc not having a unique magic(he has physical enhancement, that's it- my personal preference is more of sorcerer) doesn't detract much from the story as I think the author is going to embrace steampunk in future chaps.
Regarding the style and grammar as a non-native English speaker, I will just say the author knows what he is doing and your reading experience won't be disturbed.
While the characters feel real, I didn't like any particular character or let's say I didn't find any unique character that makes you remember them.
By the novel title, you know that the story isn't going to be power fantasy but a little more exposure on how his being reincarnated affected his 'talent' would be awesome.
With the story still in its nascent stage and the author being an experienced writer, I can't give much advice to him without colouring the plot with my wants. So you do you author.
The novel is awesome! And I am eagerly waiting to learn more about your world.
readingstuffwijw2Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
The author has really improved in the writing style and pacing compared to the previous two series.
The world building is great and there is always just enough detail to give you a sense of scale but not really hand hold you through everything.
Pacing wise there is still some slow points with plenty of time skips laced into the story.
The mc is very relatable so far. The antagonist is shown to have a reason to be evil which is a huge improvement over all.
CurlyGreekRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I’ve started reading this story pretty much as soon as it began being posted.
The characters are quite nice, I like the Era and the noble ambiance. The language can be a bit more era-appropriate but it’s fine unless our esteemed author plans to adapt this novel into an HBO mini-series.
As always, I am a staunch proponent of intuitive magic systems, not having a Lit-RPG elements is a bonus in my book. I also think it was quite clever to separate magic into external and internal manifestations, which are mutually exclusive. I have not read author’s previous stories so I cannot say if it is a novel approach on his part but it is a fresh take for me, so kudos. This is also one of, if not only, believable way to successfully ground introduction of firearms into the story so it would makes sense without being just a fetishized gimmick to attract readers.
The pace is not slow at all, I disagree with some of the comments. Depending on the character development I’d say it is a bit rushed in the academy stage. If our MC is to be a titan of industry or a Francis Drake-like “explorer” figure in the lore of the world of MoM, these formative years during his education should be pivotal in the scale of ambitions and desires of the MC.
I’ve said this before (obviously in the comments like any other armchair expert) but the rollout of the world building needs to be expended. Interactions with foreign dignitaries, numerous mentions of geographical locations, chapters with POV’s of people in different capitals of the world, etc. In my view as of now all of that is lacking rather sorely.
Ultimately, where this novel falls short in my most humble opinion, is in the lack of focus on author’s part. Even without knowing that our author has numerous other coals in the literary fire, it would be absolutely clear that between sporadic release schedule and ratio of chapter length to the number of chapters-per-week, this novel gets only the half of the time it needs. The story is there, it just
sanluchiRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
got bored, the story goes very very slowly, the main character has been reincarnated but does not make use of any knowledge of his previous life at least until chapter 21, there is no explanation of what the world is like where he is. These are those stories where the mother seems to be the one who commands and has the last word, the social classes are well marked as nobles and commoners, and he is precisely a noble, I found the appearance of the goblins interesting, but that's it, the story in general is not bad but it does not catch me enough to continue reading.
SasiZhopuRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
As a whole the story is nice, but the main plot line is totally unrealistic and simply weird. This is a “young detective” kind of story where a child has to save the day. And the child in question isn’t overpowered and all-knowing or anything like that.
The main problem here is that the author is deliberately making the whole world around incompetent in order to make the MC shine, and it irritates me to no end. There are extremely powerful mages, niche specialists and other powers around but those powers aren’t being used to solve the problems. Those powerful people exist just for the sake of showing that the MC is just a slightly above average kid.
Having understood the whole concept of this novel I can’t make myself continue reading it, so dropped!
b24653Royal Road
★★★ 3.0
A story about a transmigrant that uses familiar tropes and motifs often seen in this genre.
However, in my opinion, it lacks the juice — the meat of the story: the details, the little touches and nuances that draw readers in. There’s not enough adventure, clever twists, interesting ideas, engaging dialogue, emotions, or lived experience.
The story has a solid skeleton, but it doesn’t develop naturally — it feels like the author is dragging it forward, rushing from one event to another. There’s no sense of immersion, no time to savor the journey — just a sequence of factual situations, bones without flesh.