I’ve got a special fascinating with time loop stories. Like most people I was probably first exposed to it in Groundhog Day but since then it’s been something I sought out.  It’s always interesting to see what twists each person put in the story, be they in book form, films or video games.

So take it from an appreciator of the genre that this is a great time loop story.

Zorian Kazinski is a normal student, though a very capable one. And yet he keeps falling behind Zach in his classes. Zach, who was bottom of the class until he suddenly became a genius in everything. Why this is is a mystery, and an annoying one, to everyone. Until there’s an assault on the magic academy a month into term and Zorian and Zach’s souls somehow get connected. Then Zorian discovers that Zach has actually been living through a time loop of the last month and that’s why he knows everything. And now Zorian is stuck there too.

There’s a few things that make this story stand out from the rest. To begin with, usually the protagonist is stuck in a relatively small loop, a day or so. This time loop lasts about a month, from the day that Zorian leaves to go to magic university to when the campus and attached city get invaded. This allows for a lot of variation between each of the cycles and is a nice exploration of how small changes can have ripple effects. The second is that most stories in the genre have the protagonist go through this alone, while here Zorian has Zach, whether he wants him or not. And the answer is not, with Zorian trying his best to stop Zach from realising that he’s looping as well. And finally because usually the time loop is seen as a curse, something to escape from. But for Zorian, he’s at magic university. So he takes this as an opportunity to learn.

This all adds up to a fascinating situation which was a great joy to explore. Watching Zorian discover news power or information about the people and places around him was great to see and fun to read. I’ve really got to give the author props for the way they release the information about the world. It’s nice and gradual and I was delighted that new facets of the world were being explored over 60% of the way through. This is a deep and complex world that has been build here and it’s being introduced and developed in a nicely paced and organic way. If there’s one complain I have it’s that I had a hard time placing some events, like wars, in the timeline of the world. There were things I thought happened decades before and it turned out to have only been a couple of years.

I was also a little worried about how the book would end. I knew that there was a sequel but in a book locked in a time loop it’s hard to bring things to a conclusion or a change. Well I’m not going to spoil it but let me just say that the ending was fantastic and washed all my concerns away.

In short, Mother of Learning: Arc 1 works well as a fantasy adventure and works even better as a time loop story. With an in-depth world and nicely evolving characters it is an engaging read and a fascinating mystery.