RE: Monarch

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Cairn is a prince who is already tired of ruling. Faced with an imminent coronation and an overbearing father, he wants nothing more than to drown his responsibilities in cheap liquor and poor decisions. With the help of his sister, he hatches a plan to escape the clutches of the throne once and for all. It all goes terribly wrong, and Cairn finds his priorities shifting in the face of unimaginable tragedy. The change of heart comes too late, however, and Cairn dies. He reawakens to find himself transported ten years in the past. He immediately begins to plan for the future, only to discover his killer has somehow followed him. To succeed, Cairn must unite the kingdom and discover the motivation of his killer, using as many tries as it takes.

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I exhausted pretty much every time loop story ever written and decided to write my own. You'll see a few similarities here between this story and some existing stories, at least initially. There's a lot of inspiration drawn from both MoL and Re:Zero, though in terms of pathos and darkness, this story leans more towards the latter. Be warned, it is something of a slow burn. The main character will grow and become powerful, but a theme of this story is that power comes slowly and often at great cost.

Book One:Kindle EditionandAudiobook

Developmental Editing by the all seeing Irock4691

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2020
Author: Eligos

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 4,306
Views: 670,468

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

dween18Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
One of the best time-travel novels I read in my life, and I said this after reading Mother of Learning, which is a pinnacle of the genre. The timel-travel conceptual twist is refreshing, the the characters are complex and believable, and the consequences resonate. I have cried with this novel.
The only tiny thing is that the first chapters are so-so, but trust me, after the first loop you will fall in love with the story and the writer.
I am expectant about what Will happen.
Dragonmaster150Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'll prefacing this review by saying that this fic isn't for everyone. It's very dark, though not grimdark, and it definitly as its share of violence and despair.
That said, I would say that this story is now one of my favorites. The idea of a character constantly resetting in a stable time loop over and over multiple times to properly advance isn't a new one. RE: Zero has been stated by the author to be one of his primary inspirations and it shows. Unlike RE: Zero however, this isn't an Iseki story where the Main Character is someone from our world. Rather, Cairn is somone who was born and raised here and that ties into his main motivation to break the loops.
The cast of caracters is moderately large, but not enough to feel bloated, and each of the primary and secondary characters receive at least a modacum of development and the two primary main characters as well as the primary antagonist all receive a bit more than a little development.
The overall plot is fairly straightforwards, though each story arc is extraordinarily detailed as Cairn is forced to go through a number of loops to find the solution that gets him through alive, even if it means he's forced to make a less than moral choice, despite how aborant he finds it to do so.
The story is written in a very interesting prose. It is done in first person allowing us to see the story through Cairn's own eyes and participate in his thought process. As the story progressess we get to see snippets of Cairns past in the original timeline, particularily when he's in a stressful situation. The story is very slow burn however. It takes its time getting to where it wants to go, this doesn't mean that it's been padded with filler though. Each chapter offers some new insight into the characters and their relationships to one another, or serves to advance the plot, or introduces and explores some aspect of the world itself.
Grammer is some of the best that I've seen, even compared to a number of professionally published
HoloSolRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Ignore the prologue. Read to chapter 8 before making a decision on dropping it.
I almost dropped the story after reading the prologue and first few chapters. The prologue holds implications that aren't self contained because we know by its sombre tone how certain relationships probably play out in a negative way. DON'T READ THE PROLOGUE.
The story has a slow start that really ramps up around chapter 8, and boy, the quality really starts to shine through. The slow start has an excellent pay off as it increases the overall investment in the story. If you like MoL, you will almost certainly like this story after making it past the first few initial chapters.
Here is the quick rundown on what makes the story so good. The new take on the 'time loop' genre is interesting, and it keeps the story interesting. So far, the time loop operates like the check points in a video game. Honestly, this approach is refreshing, and it also keeps the story from being a totally foregone conclusion. There can't be a "perfect" run so to speak, and keeps some of the suspense that's normally not there in a time loop story (assuming you don't read the prologue).
The MC is also great. He is flawed, and his development in capabilities and personal growth is enjoying to read about. He's also rational without being a sociopath. The story seems to hint at a potential romance, but I have a feeling it'll be more akin to traditional fantasy novels like the Name of the Wind rather than RR Harems. The prospect of a story featuring a light romance like in traditional fantasy novels is a plus.
Michael-BlueRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Overall/Style: I generally feel conflicted about starting to read time loop stories. Written poorly, loops tend to be skipped over and the main character becomes overpowered with the reader barely reading about the work it took to get to where they are. When otherwise written well, there can be an issue that there is so much plot progression coupled with resets that it is hard to follow the story - how did actions during the current loop affect who knows what/who is doing what/who is alive/etc. RE: Monarch has so far managed to avoid both of these pitfalls. It is paced well and has a plot that is easy to follow - even with the looping.
Grammar: I saw few errors throughout the 40 chapters. This story is of a notably higher grammatical quality than most on RR.
Story: I read a review of RE: Monarch that recommended to skip the prologue. I know that there are some people who do not enjoy it. I personally did; I think it added a nice angle to the story that you don't see too often on RR. The author, Eligos, was ambivalent about keeping the prologue in the story because of complaints from the readers and so they conducted a poll. A simple (not overwhelming) majority voted to keep it in. Ultimately, whether or not you read it or start with chapter 1 is up to you. That being said, regardless of whether or not you read the prologue, the story is great. I think the pacing of Cairn's development is done well. Forty chapters in and he's not overpowered. He's still learning about the world, and is not so confident in his ability to predict other's reactions to his new behavior that the story becomes a boring fulfillment of all of his machinations.
Character: I have found that many stories on RR tend to rely on characters tropes and stereotypes that make it hard to really enjoy characters outside of the MC. I can't say that all of Eligos's characters are completely unique and trope-free (or that I care about every character who receives a fair amount of characterization), but I
Noahh56Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It’s not impossible that my rating is exaggerated as a result of my relative newness to the genre, but as an avid reader, I have never had such a voracious appetite for a story as I do for this one. I don’t consider myself capable of speaking on its mastery of craft or composition, but I will say definitively that I consider my life improved having read it.
Prince RadenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Note: This is my first time reviewing something. That's it. You've been warned
Story: We still didn't really enter into the main storyline, but it already seems to be good. Basically, the protagonist has to overcome certain challenges not only to survive, but also to save the lives of those around him. The challenges are well done: they seem overwhelming at first, but they also leave a spark of hope. In fact, I think the author managed to balance the emotional parts, so that they wouldn't be so heavy that you wouldn't want to continue reading, but also not so light that you wouldn't feel like they aren't challenging at all.
Also, the world seems interesting, with hints here and there of a bigger mystery (the time loop thingy)
Style & Grammar: Not much to say. I think the style is pretty good and is able to sustain the emotional parts of the story, while the grammar isn't bad enough to be noticeable.
Characters: The protagonist is quite likeable. He is semi-proactive: he has a goal and moves towards it, even though he might sometimes fall in despair. To achieve his goal he uses strategy and plans, developed thanks to the time loop. Unlike many other protagonists in RR he isn't antisocial or murderous, but instead he is more human and more honest to himself. What I'm saying is that he admits to himself that he wants to have friends (which is something I've almost never heard in a RR novel). The other characters are also quite likeable: they're smart and act for a reason.
Overall, I would advise giving this novel a shot for the first seven chapters and see if you like it.
TyrAureliusRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story takes so many of the best elements from other time travel stories, while still adding its own unique contributions. The author says that they just decided to write this after ehaustimg the genre, but that blase comment does not sum up the thought and care they seem to have put into crafting this story. If you like other time loop pieces, you will love this one.
B.C. FaJohnRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Eligos has mastered their craft. I was blown away by the way they encorporated their story onto the page so masterfully. One of my favorite things about this story is the way Eligos introduces their main character and makes them feel fleshed out, real, and genuine. I am not the most familiar with time loop stories, but I can tell this author put their heart and soul into making it a good one.
Style
Eligos's style is one of those things that really popped off the page for me. I found myself intrigued and drawn into the world they were creating, and the characters they were introducing. I have felt this once before with another story on the site, and I can say the feeling never left over the 12 chapters I read and enjoyed.
One thing that is often lacking on self published and indie stories is the lack of descriptiveness--or, as a counter, an author who makes things far too descriptive--but Eligos has maintained a healthy balance. I loved every piece of scenery and emotion they conveyed, and I know I'll continue to love it just as a result of their style.
Story
As stated, I am not the most familiar with time loop stories, but I enjoyed this one. I might not be the best critic for the genre, but I do consider myself a good critic of story--and this one is good. The pacing was done well, and Eligos managed to make the beginning interesting enough for a chapter-on-demand (i.e, Royal Road, Wattpad, Scribblehub, et cetera) type of platform, but kept it polished enough where it could transfer to KU or other publishing methods easily. Incredibly impressed there.
Grammar
I noticed little to no errors, and any I did notice were shrugged off because the writing style and story was enough to make it an afterthought. Overall, it seems incredibly polished and I found nothing to critique.
Character
As stated earlier, this is my favorite part of the story. Cairn is a character that is 3D in a 2D book. His emotions pop off the page and come to life. As Cairn struggled, I felt it. As h
SinasinaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I picked this up, because someone recommended this to me after knowing that I loved MoL. I liked it so far, but it would be nice, if there was a bit less focus on action and more on how Cairne approaches his relationships differently over the course of the loops. Perhaps the concept of urgency, that timeloops are not infinite were introduced too soon to the story..
alphaReviewsRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
The basic premise is that the MC exists in a world where some vengeful god / madwoman toys with him by torturing him with a never ending life in hell.
It wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that the author spends more time on the horror of seeing everything the MC holds dear get gruesomely murdered, time and time again (with brief time spent on the MC 'winning' against all odds in a desperate re-life, when in fact it seems quite clear the god is just playing with him, letting him keep his hopes up to make it all hurt that much more).
The MC is cringe inducing in how guilty and culpable he acts towards the world. His goal is just for world peace, which is nothing more than a stop-gap. Peace means people stop fighting. It is a negative of a bad thing. What positive are they supposed to do then? Hold endless festivals while populations keep growing exponentially? And who remains in control of it all, deciding all the little details like who gets what?
The MC's favorite strategy seems to be: 1) find a powerful woman who has reasons to hate his evil faction; 2) jump through fire to place himself totally at her mercy; 3) beg and plead desperately for her help in achieving his grand plan for 'world peace'. Rinse and repeat!
Anyhow, the author spoils his whole story by starting the first chapter at the near-end, so we know that the next hundreds of chapters can only result in the MC becoming what he is in chapter 1. Nearly all tension disappears and only dread remains as I wonder just how many scenes of children being tortured and gruesomely murdered people will read for that lame payoff - personally I skipped easily half the content (all the horror and the endless flashbacks in the middle of action) and I think my mental health is all the better for it.