Novel reminds me of the manga "Kingdom", battles are basically huge scale war where tactics & strategy, charismatic leaders and the camaraderie with their men are the focus though not as deep at a level as "Kingdom". Novel tried to touch on the cunning & guile aspect as well as court politics of fantasy medieval times but it came out half-baked. Its pretty obvious that the author struggled to convey various plots, emotions and themes to the reader. This also inevitably result in a lot of cheesy scenes and moments in the novel.
Somewhat like "Kingdom", MC started out as a lowly spearman and accumulates battlefield merits to finally become a great general. The setting is interesting to say the least. I would categorize it as low fantasy. There are goblins and orcs as well as magic but warfare is usually skirmishes between footmen like in real life. For now, very little is seen in the magic & mages department as its mostly of support role and although the common soldier can learn to utilize mana to empower their attacks, its mildly effective. Seems that the hardcore portion of magic is reserved exclusively for hero defined characters.
Anyways, the novel starts with the MC dying and not achieving his dream of becoming a great general. He underwent rebirth instead and sent back in time to when he just started out as a recruit with memories of his previous life still intact. From there he utilizes his previous memories, experiences and maturity(he was after all 38 yrs old when he died) to give him an edge to turn the tides of war and have another shot at pursuing his dream. Not all is smooth sailing though, certain unexpected events do occur since he technically changed history therefore actions and consequences do apply. Thats where the fun is at as the MC has to adapt and overcome these obstacles. The caveat being most of these turn of events are opportunistic in nature and overly convenient, further proving that the narrative & storyboard are amateurish at best.
MC is as cliche as it can get. Very typical kinda MC you see in most LN. Believes in justice, doing good things, being a good lord of a fief, saving the world, cherish friendships etc. No redeeming qualities honestly. He himself is not talented, in plain sense he is the most average of soldiers but he makes up for it with knowledge from his previous life and his determination. He started training advanced techniques from his past life and trained diligently. He also went in search of legendary weapons, items, gears that will make him stronger. Moreover he took the initiative on recruiting and training talented people to bring them over to his side. In essence, he "stole" these advantages as they're actually predestined for other characters in his past life, stacking so many boons on himself which will inevitably turn him into an overpowered character later on.
Its still too early to slap a rating to this novel but so far i do see some potential and looking forward to what the author can put out although the narrative as a whole is littered with cliches and the writing is barely passable at best. For now the "Kingdom"-like elements are probably the selling point of this novel.
(-24)
