Return of the Runebound Professor [BOOK 8 STUBBED]

I normally mostly read fictions with female MCs. But I was up to date on my fictions and this one came up a lot.

Well I'm now addicted. Each chapter is interesting in itself. I always finish each one feeling satisfied and looking forward to more.

It's easy to get attached to Noah and the rest of the cast.

The setting is unique. Is it post-apo fantasy? I don't know, but I love every tidbits we learn along the way.

Apologies for the terrible pun, though I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I do mean what I said in the title though. There is really a lot of potential available here.

I wasn't quite sold in the first two chapters and would have maybe even stopped reading if I hadn't put the first five chapters in my text-to-speech app. I guess they are a bit standard (which isn't a bad thing, but I wasn't in the mood for that).

But with each consecutive chapter I've been more an more intrigued by... well a lot of stuff. Without wanting to go into much more spoilers than what the first five or so chapters tell us, I'll try to explain what and why I like it.

The magic is really fun too. Though if you are looking for GameLit aspects, you are probably going to have to wait for a while - as there is nothing along those lines to be found yet.

More detailed analytics:

Grammar & Style: Works well. (Full marks)

Story: Mostly still in the wings. Though we've seen some glances of what might be relevant in the final arcs. It mostly seems to be a more character-driven story from what we can tell. Odds are high that we are going to have at least one or two school arcs early on which I like as well. Though this time from a

There's also some political stuff growing in the background which is bound to be fun.

Characters: Are well established so far and have solid foundations that can very well expand to some pretty good characters in due time.

Love it! I seriously can't stop reading and the rate of chapter releases (and the quality of said chapter releases) is fantastic.

Give it a try before it gets stubbed, you won't regret it!

How many words is this now? I should be almost at 50 by now that's a lot of words to write when you don't really have much to say other than it's a good story...

As title says, read this, no notes.

Excellent novel, pacing ie good, chapters tend to be a bit short but don´t affect pacing, characters are fully fleshed, grammar is great. 10 out of 5 stars. Read this novel, enjoy it.

Missing some more words for the minimum 50.

Words words words and more words.

The world building is compelling. The characters feel very real and multi-dimensional, even the villains. This story has power progression and a proper magic system without the system messages, which are fine but I really do prefer it when the author takes the "show, don't tell" approach. Which Actus does brilliantly. I read through the entirety of what is already there and now I eagerly await more. 

I really like this story because of its kinda unique magic system. Many stories may use Runes in some form in their overall-magic system. But Actus tries to make Runes the main-base of all magic in this world, which is definitely interesting whether the attempt succeeds or not.

I like the writing style, you can definitely see that Actus is a more experienced writer when it comes to writing I think, if its fight scenes or scenic or conceptual scences, I never felt lacking in my imagery world in my head.

I am not sure about the plotting format though. It feels like the MC stumbles upon one problem after another, without resolving previous plot points, which could get readers confused as the story progresses. They all do get addressed and resolved as it goes, so no issues there, but I personally imagine Actus to have written the beginning 50 chaps as it went (like a typical WebNovel) instead planning several Arcs ahead. It is a legitimate way of going about things. Yet, after 10-20 chaps you would imagine the MC Noah to have a better grasp over reality and his situation, but instead he continues to stumble into more and more plotpoints. 

Maybe I am also confusing here plotpoints with the Magic System, because as interesting as it is, to really understand the Magic system, you might need to read all 50+ chaps, because it is not being rushed and dumped on you, but it isn't done in a super nicely way either.

The MC has a interesting Cheat and background that fits nicely into the story. What I dislike is his naivity when being confronted with this new world. Some explanations are given for quirks in his actions, but I simply think that he is written as a very reckless character who has simply been surviving thanks to his Cheat. It gets better later on, but that is an investment of time the Reader has to make until then.

Worldbuilding is lackluster (excluding the Magic-system), probably gets better later on, but that makes it feel like the whole first 50 chaps are a big Pre-lude.

Characters are nice but lack depth compared to the MC. Like every character aside from Noah has a role, and he/she/it fullfills that role very nice, but aside from that pre-written role, it seems like they have no life which might be connected to the lackluster World-building. 

There is an Academy setting (as the title suggests), but we barely see general Student-life (you imagine from Universities in real World) and neither do the other Professors (we know like two) have hobbies or something like that.

I feel like this is the greatest missed opportunity here, as Academy Settings are generally a gold mine for world-building opportunities (see Hogwarts/HP). 

Overall I like this story, because of its nice writing style and potential of its magic system but I recommend a long breath for readers as it takes time for it to take really up. 

That is the First story that i read until the last chapter released, and i already have 5 stars to this story but It deserves a written review. The story, background, characters.... They are absolutely fantastic!!! The author knows exactly How much to describe a place, a fight, a Power without getting boring or too much extensive. Congratulations to the author!!! What an amazing work!

There are quite a few flaws with the story, but I'll just point out the big one right at the beginning, caused by Royalroad author's incessant need to over-index into gimmicks for their stories.

So many stories (especially this one) wouldn't have the flaws they had if authors were just willing to realize that avoiding getting captured, tortured, and killed, should be higher on the MC's priority list than the chosen gimmick, in this case, "being a teacher" (doesn't even mean anything, I don't know any teachers who act like the MC does, he says the right words, but without the power dynamic, knowledge, and tone, it's worthless, and the MC has none of it).

I understand with Castle Kingside, the Hippocratic Oath is pretty damn important, and the basis of many doctors' morality. It is also quite literally a war crime to attack doctors attempting to aid soldiers, showing the importance that society puts on this topic... but being a teacher? Really?

Anyways, the following spoiler shows up really quickly in the story, must be the first 10ish chapters.

This is what I meant in the title about Chekhov's gun. The author introduced details that ended up being relatively useless to the plot. It makes readers feel punished for caring about the details.

It's just... weak. The details I listed in the spoiler above are the big issues, but that doesn't preclude other issues, like his incessant need to be a teacher (which is the cause of the above issue, the author needed him to act like a "teacher" and killed details in his story to achieve that outcome).

To be a little more positive, this is pretty damn good. I really enjoyed reading it. But realistically, he makes some terrible choices in his situation, and gets away with it because the author lets him get away with it. There is no reason for him to get so involved in "teacher" duty (no way the author is an actual teacher, his principles are so overblown, it doesn't align with the majority of professionals in the field of education).

The other characters don't escape from the authors gimmick here either. The other major character, Moxie, has no business having similar morals to him.

Despite all that, I did not rate this too low, and that's because it's actually pretty fun. The magic system is incredibly interesting. The plot is just full of holes.

This story doesn't fall into any of the easy tropes, the main character has clear strong motivations and acts on them consistently. Special powers without immediately becoming over powered, a magic school that doesn't suffer from a case of the Hogwarts. Top notch character development with plenty of mystery, it is an overall a refreshing read. I'm looking forward to seeing where this story goes!

Massive fan of the story so far and I can't wait to see how far it gets. It has a great storyline, with a healthy amount of comedy. I hope to watch this story rise to the ranks here at RR, I am only a few chapters in and already hooked on this masterpiece. Highly recommended for people who like LITrpg.