Time is money. Time is a Weapon. Time is running out.
Grant Leap is an orphaned, mortal farmhand in a world where cultivation methods and Weapons of Power are jealously guarded and only passed down among family. He’s not content with his lot; as a Januarian, someone living in District January, he should be living the good life just like everyone else. Food, parties, food, entertainment, and food are the minimum requirement. As an orphan, specifically a reviled Leap, there’s not even a chance of being treated as a human.
When a celestial event pours time magic into his field, coalescing into a lost Weapon of Power, Grant leaps at the opportunity to advance beyond even the scope of standard cultivation. At the first touch of the weapon, the orphan gains everything he’s ever wanted: a Sword and a Name. Also, a pesky mandatory quest with his life as the price of failure. It doesn’t take him long to realize that the best thing for him to do is to sell it and live on borrowed Time.
Yet, that would never happen. The blade offers him the first major choice he’s ever had to make: surrender to his desires… or live like a King.
My Opinion: 427 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
The story combines a kind of physical cultivation with RPG progression. The main character (MC) is a Leap, one of the few people born on a leap day, Feb. 29th. As such he is relegated to a slave position in his society and for his entire life forced to work for his master. At least until a magic sword lands in front of the MC and he gets the quest to defeat the lord of the land, Lord January as a first step to restore the world to balance. What follows is a journey for the MC to learn the ways of the sword, get into shape, and stumble through the world to get to his goal while avoiding the forces that want to stop him. It's a lot of training and fighting, and a good bit of world building.
The RPG stuff is consistent. The MC increases his stats and cultivation levels through completing quests, defeating opponents, or killing them. Training also improves stats. A unique aspect to the progression system is that cultivation time (in increments of seconds, minutes, hours, or days) are used for progression but also as a currency in the world. It lines up with the calendar/time theme of the series.
There are some criticisms of the novel from readers.
That the main character is unrealistically naive, which is partially true. The MC is a person that is treated almost as a slave, and is regularly beaten by the city population seems to still be a kind, trusting person. And despite being repeatedly told not to tell people his weaknesses or secrets, he does so throughout the story never really learned his lesson. It felt like a way to create problems for the MC but the behavior was consistent, I guess.
Another criticism is that the novel fat shames. This is also kinda true, though I think it's more of a conflict between the described society the MC lives in and what the magic sword thinks. The setup for the background is that the country the MC lives in is full of overweight people. The bigger you are and the more you eat is a direct reflection of your wealth cultivation power. It's been that way for hundreds of years and the country once farmed enough food for the now magically separated 12 calendar named divisions. The fat shaming comes from the magical sword, Sarge, that trains the MC. I mean there are some serious insults about how the people of the district are killing themselves, being lazy, should be ashamed for letting themselves get obese, and how much better a person the MC is when he loses weight. Sarge, I think, is based on a military drill Sergeant persona from before that country became the way it was, so from his perspective everything he says is correct. But it still felt weird as throughout actual history being fat really was a sign of wealth and prosperity as only the rich could afford enough food, especially meat and sweets. Also, in the fictional January district, no one ever starved as the abundance of food meant it was given out for free, which doesn't seem bad. Also there's this odd revelation that the leader intentionally shifted the culture from being clever and industrious to hedonism and gluttony. Like somehow big people couldn't still be clever or hard working.
Overall, the story was ok. It's the first in a planned 12 book series and as such the author may be stretching out character development with that in mind. The action is regular and there's good world building which was enough, for me at least, for the story to be fundamentally entertaining. However, I found it hard to root for such a naïve character as it felt like he should have been more untrusting and vengeful for how poorly he was treated by just about everyone. But his journey has really only begun and I'm assuming that's part of his eventual character development. While entertaining it was not my favorite book from the author.
Score: 7.2 out of 10
Lord January: A LitRPG Cultivation Saga (Year of the Sword Book 1)