The Menocht Loop is a fascinating take on the time-loop sub-genre. A young man wakes up in the middle of an ocean with no memory of how he came to be there. After a time, a cruise ship sails near, and he boards it only to find it crewed by legions of the undead.

That’s where the book throws us for a loop of our own, because unlike all other time-loop novels I’m aware of, this book begins in medias res, and we discover our protagonist has been in this loop long enough to learn necromancy (really decemancy) of his own and become a figure of legendary power in his own right. He commands death like a god might, and he’s become so inured to his situation that he can casually wipe entire cities off the map just to try something new.

Yet, he’s still trapped in the loop.

The first book is about solving the puzzle of the Menocht Loop, and it’s a fantastic time loop story. However, again unlike every other time-loop story I know, the titular loop is just how the plot of the real story begins. It’s like if Mother of Learning had started with Zorian escaping the loop, rather than ending with it. I would suggest not making this book your fist time-loop story, but reading this one after MoL is quite a good time.

Arcane Ascension is part of the same world as Andrew Rowe’s other series, and there is significant overlap between each series, so I highly recommend looking up the author’s suggested reading order before diving in. Starting with Sufficiently Advanced Magic won’t hurt your enjoyment of the overarching plot, but I wouldn’t proceed further than book 2 of this series before taking a step back and looking at the others.

There is a lot to love about this series. An interesting magic system, magical towers filled with puzzling death-traps, characters that demonstrate intelligent problem solving skills, godlike figures with inscrutable motives, a magic school plotline, and an overarching mystery linking everything together. The writing is excellent, and each new revelation leaves you wanting to know more about the world.

Corin, the MC, is a soft-spoken and awkward guy raised by a physically and emotionally abusive father who values his particular form of magical strength above all else. In many ways their relationship mirrors the classic story of a father trying to force his son to be the man the father believes himself to be, no matter what the son desires for his life. It is very relatable and true to life - I have known more than one Magnus Cadence in my life, and their relationships with their sons are just as toxic as this one.

Corin starts the story defined by the trauma of his childhood, and much of his character growth over time is him coming to terms with his family and the wounds they have left on his spirit, intentionally or not. At the same time, his experiences have tempered him and left him surprisingly strong of mind and body, and driven to prove himself in his own right.

If you’re wondering about the LGBT tag on this, it’s because Corin is probably best described as biromantic demisexual. Part of his character development is him trying to figure out how he feels about other people, and dealing with his discomfort for physical displays of affection (or even being touched by others). It is very well done, but may not be relatable to all readers. It’s also a pretty light touch, so the vast majority of readers should have no issues with it even if romance in general is not something you enjoy.

Quick Version:

• Cool magic system.

• Great worldbuilding.

• Really interesting side characters / antagonists.

• Well-written queer character.

• Slow start, but strong finish.

Detailed Review: (Some very mild spoilers)

This book has a very interesting magic system with clear progression, and I particularly enjoyed how visual it is. In this series, mana is generated through spiritual "mana gardens" with various elemental/conceptual associations such as Life, Death, Space, Time, Teluric (earth), and Tempest. You might notice some of those are conceptual opposites/pairs - and that's where the series title comes into play, as our MC has an ability that grants him two mana types of his choice, and pairs them with their opposite.

This book is called The First Gate because of the structure inherent to the mana gardens, with each level of power literally placed behind a gate in the walls of a person's mana garden. There is a breadth and depth to the system, where people can grow in power by growing their gardens and raising the walls around them higher (seems to help with mana capacity), or they can break through the gates unlocking higher tiers of power. Thee system has a probably D&D inspired nine levels of gates, and people who have unlocked their ninth gate are basically demigods.

One of the cool things about this book is that we are almost immediately introduced to multiple people at or near the peak of power, and while the main plotline follows our MC as they learn magic, the subplot regarding these ancient wizards is deeply interesting, and had some of my favorite scenes in the book. The MC apprentices to one of them, and he's basically an affable/civilized monster - I'm eager to see how his story plays out. The tone of the book is rather light, but it's made clear several times that darkness exists in the world, and was perhaps the norm in the not-too-distant past.

Possibly this book's biggest weakness is starting fairly slow, but it definitely picks up in the 2nd half. I think this is partially due to the need to explain the magic system, and introduce other worldbuilding elements. The world the book takes place in is very interesting, there's a strange mix of almost modern and fantastical ideas, and it's implied that this has been artificially produced by the powers-that-be. At one point I found myself wondering if there might be external influences on this world (possibly from Earth) - I'm curious to see if that will end up being the case. There's a definite feeling of "we're seeing a small cross section of a much larger picture."

I also wanted to call out that this book has one of the only FtM transgender main character's I've ever seen in a this genre, the only other I can think of being from Matt Dinniman's Dominion of Blades. This was handled remarkably well and smoothly, in my opinion. I'm trans myself, but I often feel either beat over the head with a character's trans-ness, or it almost feels slapped on to no real effect except a single painfully awkward conversation. Begley, despite not being trans himself, manages to capture it as simply a part of the character's life in a way that feels natural. For example, one of the character's main goals is to learn the magic required to physically transition, so that comes up occasionally in conversations. It matters to the character, but it's not at all awkward, and their society doesn't make a big deal out of it, so no conflict arises from it.