The Sanguine Arts [ANNO: 1623]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

For reasons unknown, James—a deceased, possibly psychopathic, expert in the field of Polemology and the History of Human Conflict—is recruited by a shadowy entity for… indeterminate purposes.

Meanwhile, in Udoris, another Great War looms on the horizon; one borne of greed, vengeance and a warmongering reincarnator’s seemingly petulant whims.

This is a realistic Medieval Uplift with real Old English dialogue and semi-accurate politics, laws and culture. If you will read this, please expect all the baggage that comes with it.Modern MC sent to a pre-Renaissance universe.Cannons, flintlocks, forts and ships of the line abound. Proceed with caution.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Raven_Aelwood

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.4/ 5.0
Followers: 283
Views: 80,533

Chapters(36 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(9)

PelzyManeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is quite amazing. A great novel and a unique one at that. Definitely a ‘best-rated’ quality novel. As @Zach or Zach said, ANNO is well written, the characters are solid, and the world building IS pretty monstrous. A truly remarkable piece of work.
Seriously, give it a shot. YEAH SURE, the start is kinda of a slow burn, but it picks up speed soon after the introductory volume(And yes, the author indeed dedicated the entirety of volume one to (seemingly) partially, just partially, flesh out the world so we can have enough to work it as the story flows along). The writing is 10/10 quality, the chapters vary from moderate to long, the characterization is deep and very intriguing.
Style score: 5/5
Third person past tense, the classic of Royalroadl. POVs often switch between chapters, so we get the chance to see the thoughts and feelings of various characters, not just Levi(James?) the main character. The story wouldn't really work without that, and I like it, even if I'm not usually a fan of multi-POV. The actual style is great, too!
Story score: 5/5
I love the world and its very EXTENSIVE worldbuilding. Sometimes, I even get the feeling that the Raven is trying to make Anno feel like an actual real-life location and not some fantasy place in the book. Overall awesome.
Grammar score: 5/5
Up there with the best on the website. Excellent prose, no mistakes, and a good level of English. Volume two kinda transitions to a more ‘old english’ style of dialogue. The author seems to want to increase the immersion into that mediaeval vibe, and unsurprisingly, he is doing it very well. I suspect the volume one might receive an edit to fit the mood sometime in the future. Not sure, but that’s how Raven has been operating since I started reading his work so I want to remain hopeful.
Character score: 5/5
EXCELLENT character development, especially with the main character. As of the most recent chapter, the one from which I decided to write this review( Vol 2- Chap 2: The Motions)
KroopTroopRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Honestly a phenomenal piece of work.
Story: The story begins when a young man dies and his knowledge and personality (to an extent) are transposed onto anothers mind. The amalgamation set forth is refreshing in the realm of reincarnation fantasy as it allows for the knowledge of another to be used in a proactive way while also having the tools to actually survive (if anyone from a modern day western society were to travel back in time as they are now they would probably just die and whatever grand morality they spew would wash off the minds of others as it would hold a weight so foreign it could only be described as lunacy).
Character: The main character is an Earl named Levi set in a medieval time of swords but on the cusp of a black powder revolution (muskets). Once his mind becomes changed he steps forth to pursue his duties more seriously and preps for war as mutiny and betrayal are rampant. He is objective and refreshingly cold (to an extent) as almost anyone would be in that era of history.
Style: The story is written in third person with a small flurry of character shifts to better allow for an outside perspective.
Grammar: No grammar issues and the writing flows well
I would recommend for anyone to pick up this book, you'd probably enjoy it and if not, you can always stop reading. Pretty worth it in my opinion, so take the chance
LazybeepRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I just binge read the novel in patreon and first chapter itself was enough to hook me. Author has great narration skills and has done decent job on world building. The story is fast paced with military conquest done strategically and not just due to some technological advantage. I am quite surprised of how this has such low viewership . Only thing author can improve is by pacing the novel a little slower and adding some filler chapter focused on side character dev
Natasha Velkirk (Zach or Zach)Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Anno is well written, the characters are solid, and the world building is pretty monstrous. So long as you don't mind novels where they spend a ton of time fleshing out the world, (and then you spend as much time forgetting it all) and so long as it isn't something like a genre you generally dislike or something, this story is easily worth a read.
But there is that one "issue" thing.
So the thing about Anno is that there are a LOT of different perspectives, and most likely from the current trajectory they won't have a (direct) impact on the MC for at least a few dozen chapters. Maybe a little sooner.
NOW! They're well written, and aren't not enjoyable, but if you don't like multi-POVs than I think you will really dislike Anno. At least the first twenty or so chapters. The MC and characters who are with him make up around 60-ish percent of the content right now.
TLDR: If you like multi-POVs welcome to heaven, if not, welcome to hell. (not really though)
AevisRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I was never someone good at reviewing things yet I simply cannot pass without complimenting this masterpiece. A vast and realistic world, memorable characters with immersive histories and interlocking fates that bring forth a orderly history in a chaotic world, is really not something to be missed! Oh... And I almost forgot... Hail Javi!
B. SalemRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
TL;DR: Read it, put up with the POV shifts and the very descriptive writing, there's something of quality in there.
ANNO 1623 has the makings of a good isekai kingdom building story, yet it wrestles with its own issues.
Very solvable issues.
Style - The prose comes off as if it's attempting to create depth and color through descriptive and poetic language, something that has--long ago--become obsolete. Sometimes this is done without giving us a character's perspective. This takes away from the story, and I've found myself skimming the opening paragraphs of some chapters. I don't care as much about the color of the fields, the sound of birds, or the smell in the air if I'm not experiencing them through a character's senses, and I ought to be experiencing it for good reason too, like a change of venue that comes with a change of smells, sights, sounds..etc. The first description of a place ought to suffice for repetitive scenes in it.
Story - The world of this story seems to be well-built. There's a history there. This geopolitical situation didn't pop out of nowhere, and the technology achieved so far has its own historical progression. So I don't feel like I'm thrown on a cardboard map and told to imagine a real world.
The historical context this story is paralleling has been studied well by the author and he has done a splendid job of conveying a parallel history, though with his own tweaks added to it. I have some issues with the geopolitical and security equation that resulted in the first major event, but it could be explained away by more details later on.
The POV shifts have demolished a good part of this story's progress. I'm often hopping from one perspective to the other trying to come to grips with the characters, the events, and a unified flow that I can hold on to. I feel that several of the POV shifts are unnecessary or are taking too much 'screentime' that the main character should be getting.
Grammar - Finely crafted, a few mistakes here and there, bu
LilBrehRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
Everything was going well, however, I must drop this one. I prefer main characters that do not 'bang'.
Character designs are nice. No 2D characters here basically.
Story is also pretty good, although some things are conveniently inconvenient for our mc, it isn't stretching it too far.
The only minuses are: the povs and the writting style in general is sometimes confusing, too many details sometimes (like filling an essay), he bangs for the sake of having an heir, to keep the blood of his family running. This feels a bit out of character and unnecessary for the plot, because I don't see him caring that much about it or being prepared to die any time soon.
This is my third and last review of this novel.
BoombaTheSaintRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Few tales I enjoy on this site, and I deem this to be amongst those. And although I dubbed this "The Greatest Alternative History Fic" it isn’t a historical tale—not our history, at the very least.
Yet, it has a Time Travel aspect, but suffers no Fantasy or Supernatural element to it. Thus, my categorisation isn’t entirely false.
Style:
This story has the periodical lingo, mannerisms, and traditions of the era it intends to replicate. Noble use fancy speech, and common-born are rustic. The author tries to keep to those lines, and thus far, the results aren’t disappointing.
However, the style isn’t without faults. The pacing. Things are moving fast, and they do so at the detriment of history, characters, relationships, and world building. The set-up is neglected in favour of plot progression.
This, of course, is a byproduct of the author’s other works—fanfic works. One cannot write an original story as they would a Fanfic. You need to establish your world (the relevant parts) and characters before introducing major plot elements. I.E, you need to start "showing" instead of "telling".
I will keep repeating this a thousand times until y’all start understanding it. Show, not tell.
3.5/5!
Story:
This is the greatest aspect of this tale. There’s constant conflict and progression. A bit of drama to help things feel just the right amount of realistic. Of course, this isn’t absent of clichés. MC is from the future. MC takes over the body of a noble scion. Immediate conflict. Hostilities everywhere.
There are also some parts I didn’t particularly like. The MC is a bit of a Gary Stu. And the decisions made by characters aren’t executed how they should.
Example: At one point, the mc captures a noble of an evading party, along with his family. This capture could spell doom to this noble lineage.
Fortunately, this father has an idea. He will whore out his daughter (the eldest) to the MC. He instructs her to win his affection and suffer his lust—for her family’s sake.
Now, this is
Nanu089Royal Road
★ 0.5
my suggestion try reading kingdom's bloodline(people might say anything but just read it) and try to understand how those characters are so good.
no one likes a perfect mc(for the situation, knows war, cold blooded etc.)
things just go too smoothly and thats because you just look at the situation from an isolated percepective
and your wrting style and the amount you write
i like multiple povs but here they change too frequently and also are very short, try to lessen the COS and increase the amount of words for each especially the mc, at start it just felt like things where just moving forward too quickly
again i like the excerpts but they are sometimes just info dumps, like here try to hold on to as much info as possible dont just feed too much at a single para(rather than excerpt it seemed like a summary and was bland) .try for human nuances in those like you can try and reference real books to see how they dont just say everyting in a single para.
inshort if you really want to write a 1000 chapters as you claim i suggest you try and read kingdom's bloodline and Lord of the mystries(obv one if you hav read already) try and learn from their style
and the main thing is it is the characters of a story that are important not war or kingdom building or sex or any other shit.
just said this cause i felt like it would help ignore if y feel i am out of my depth