Battlefield Reclaimer is an engrossing start to an excellent litRPG series that would push enthusiasts of this genre to continue the journey of Sam and his band of friends and family in the rest of the books just to find out how the complex characters evolve and fare later.
Sam Hastern is a young adult with a broken class system inherited from his grandfather, and for the last three generations, none among his lineage has been able to unlock the Battlefield Reclaimer class.
That is, until a fateful chance encounter within the ruins of an Outsider outpost in his home village from a bygone age during a war that shattered his world, Aster Fall, and then it broke apart.
From this point onwards, we're treated to a great ideas-filled and fantastic Wuxia/LitRPG plot containing complex characterizations (sacrificing some much-needed world-building for an amazing magical and progression litRPG system, great characters, and awesome battles).
This marvelous debut from David North encompasses pensive emotional backdrops with themes hinting at coming-of-age, familial bonds, and a neverending determination and perseverance against seemingly insurmountable odds for Sam to eliminate all the threats, monsters and malignant evils that dwell within his world to protect those dearest to him and Aster Fall in general.
This is highly recommended for readers who enjoy Progression Fantasy, Wuxia/litRPG, and an incredible magic system.
My major gripe with this first installment in the series, Guardian of Aster Fall, was just the slow progression of our MC, as the book tended to be a sort of prolonged slog for more than 87% of the book.
Otherwise, Battlefield Reclaimer is a good read, well-made, with much forethought about the progression, level structure, and overall magical system employed.
While there, he's at least able to level up, and events are set up for the sequel, in which the pace picks up quite nicely, and the world-building is expanded upon quite well enough to keep readers on the tip of their toes.
Hence my deduction of a star for this first book, but upon second thoughts, I suppose the effort required should compensate, so I'm being generous with my rating this once because the two sequels after this one quite make up for the slow progression I encountered here.
