About

Portal to Nova Roma is the first book in the series with the same name written by J.R. Mathews.

Portal to Nova Roma book cover

Blurb

To find peace, Alexander must first embrace war.

After tragically losing the only person he ever cared about, Alexander, a rogue artificial intelligence, opens a portal to an alternate dimension to escape his grief.

Scanning trillions of different dimensions, Alexander finally finds a world that is reminiscent of the only time he was ever happy, back when he could play virtual reality games with his only friend. He doesn't know why, or how, such a world exists, but he doesn't care. All he cares about is finding a place where he can escape the misery of Earth and start over.

Review

I've had this series on my TBR for a while now. When I heard that the main character is an AI, I pushed it higher on my list. I've been interested in reading a series where an advanced AI portals to a fantasy world and lands in the middle of an ongoing magical lecture. This didn't quite fit what I had in mind, but perhaps this is the closest I'll get.

The pacing was frenetic — you'd be hard pressed to find a chapter without action. The writing was easy to follow and if you find the first quarter of the book to your liking, you'll find it very difficult to stop reading. I certainly wish there had been some slower paced slice-of-life chapters (there were a few scenes, but the details I cherish were largely time-skipped). And POVs from some of the side characters would've been welcome too. The worldbuilding was good, with many pleasantly surprising details revealed as the plot progressed.

The two sequels released so far (with two more expected) were good as well. Overall, I'd highly recommend the series for those who enjoy progression fantasy.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟☆

What others are saying

From Russell Gray's review on goodreads:

While I'm usually more of a character person, the plot is what kept me reading here. It was interesting to explore the world, the factions, and the history of Nova Roma and the surrounding lands. The game mechanics go hand in hand with the setting and this is probably one of the author's strengths. There was a lot of familiarity to the classes, skills, and perks, especially for anyone familiar with D&D or other RPGs, but the game elements interacted with the world well and felt essential to the setting rather than crudely tacked on.

From Bender's review on goodreads:

Though plot-wise, it gives so much leeway for what amounts to a cheat-code, the way it is written is still addictive and realistic. The world is built very well and rather than a MC gaining power story, we get a drifting AI trying to find what it's end goal is.