Mother of Learning [Series], by Domagoj Kurmaic

What would you do if you had to live one and the same month for years, always being reset to the same spot? Well, you could go insane… or become one of the strongest mages in the world.

I’ve got to admit, I have a fable for stories including time travel shenanigans. But it’s pretty easy to botch a story with time travel, though; it needs to be done well.

This story is recommended a lot in the progression fantasy subreddit, and for a reason; although one could argue about the progression part. It’s not traditional progression with skills, but the story features a magic system that feels almost alive, and the time loopers do progress in their magic.

The time loop feels like there’s a good reason for it, and there are several loopers in the story. I’d say those are the strongest parts about this story:

The actual time loop makes sense. There’s enough mystery around it, but it is eventually resolved, and in a satisfactory way. All comes together in the end, and it feels good.

And then there’s the cast – not only the time loopers, but the whole array of side characters. And they all feel alive, like their own person, not like some dummies. If there’s one point to critique, then it’s probably that most characters follow the same speech pattern. A little more variance would have been great. Especially on the non-human characters.

There’s a whole race of telepathic spiders in here, and they are absolutely fantastic. Wait until you meet Novelty. You’ll love her! And just in case you start reading it and find a tragic event, rest assured that all’s well that ends well. (Minor spoiler there.)

All in all, Mother of Learning does a lot of things right, and nothing really bad. I heartily recommend this series to all people who love stories with magic and time travel.

Five out of five telepathic spiders for this time loop!