I am the Monarch

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Roan ran away 20 years ago from his rural village in the aim of becoming a Great General. However, all he got 20 years later was just a handful of money and the lowly position of squad commander of the First Legion’s.

In the end, he became a cold corpse in the battlefield… but somehow, he came back in the past.

“Alright. This time, I won’t become a Great General but a Monarch.”

His previous life’s aim was becoming a Great General, but, he only became a spearman squad commander.

This time, his life’s aim is becoming the Monarch.

“Then I guess I’d become at least a General, right?”

Roan, who remembers 20 years of his future, now starts his unstoppable march.

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나는 군주다
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143 Reviews sorted by


FredoLives
FredoLives rated it
April 17, 2018
Status: c56
This is a story that I really want to like. Unfortunately, it just isn't that good.

It's lite-version of Wuxia - a magical/martial setting like most, but with only a fraction of the worldbuilding of stories like Martial World or Desolate Era.

The MC is supposed to be a reincarnated low-level soldier, but immediately is demonstrating abilities and tactics that far exceed his stated background. The author tries to provide justification for this, but doesn't succeed very well.

The MC's male subordinates remind me of the typical harem story - 2d characters who... more>> only exist to say how great the MC is. They don't feel at all like real soldiers (or real people in general).

The combat is stilted and boring - it feels kind of like erotica written by a virg*n. On the bright side, the MC and his opponents aren't shouting out technique names constantly (yet...).

The translation just makes things worse - it is severely lacking and feels like a machine translation performed by a computer program created by someone who learned english by reading a child's dictionary. It is honestly painful to read at times.

Despite all of these short-comings, it is by no means the worst story I have read and is still reasonably fun to read most of the time. So if you looking for brainless entertainment, this is a option.

If you want to see an OP MC with extensive cheating knowledge done right, read Emperor’s Domination (assuming you can handle the MCs attitude - his knowledge and power are absolutely dwarfed by his ego.) <<less
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Darkzeta
Darkzeta rated it
September 21, 2017
Status: c101
Gonna give it a 3.

Release That Witch as a kingdom building storyline is much better. Tales of Demons and Gods was much, MUCH better at second chance time travel building storylines...

(-1) Point for bad proof reading and editing. I stopped at chapter 101 because it was just getting too rough for me to handle the translations. I was actually re-writing it in my OWN head at times.

... more>> Don't get me wrong, I did like it outside of that. But dang, the rough translations just made me frustrated at times.

(-1) Point for what the others pointed out: His support characters didn't seem to have their own personalities. They seemed 2d instead of 3d to me.

If you can make it pass these 2 negatives. Then this story is for you. MAYBE I'll get back to this again when I'm bored. Who knows? <<less
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GoGoInTheA55
GoGoInTheA55 rated it
May 23, 2017
Status: c125
This novel is everything I would like from a return to the past kind of novel. We know a little about the world outside of the kingdoms surrounding the lake. It is very amusing to see the world expand and new foes arrive one after the other, right now the MC may seem smart, but as the story progresses it will change.

Smart people are everywhere, each more heinous than the other. The MC will lose in mind games and even lose his men, but he will learn from his mistakes,... more>> like he did during his rebirth.

His return to past has caused a butterfly effect, so except the initial stage, he knows nothing (Except the personality of some famous individuals). And from what I had read, there is a reason for Roan to come back to the past if you want to know the reason.

Spoiler

Pierce (MC's friend and spear genius) obtains a treasure that reverts the time to a particular day for a individual. And this will happen soon in the story (When he again finds this treasure).

[collapse]

The characters are smart, they don't just blindly follow the MC, some come to him because seeing his potential and knowing the profits they may be achieve.

I won't say much about the romance, but it is there in all the military building sim, wars and politics. We have already seen some glimpse of it here and there, but those tit bit of information will come together and create a strong romance.

SO I only want to say this is a good novel, I generally write reviews to talk sh*t about novels that I don't like... but I thought once in a while I should write something good too. <<less
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whosays25
whosays25 rated it
January 7, 2017
Status: c101
One of my favorites. The MC is my husband, jk. The MC is someone who died and was somehow one who woke up again as his 18 year old self, a newbie or greenhorn of the army. He's flawed, sometimes a negative-thinker but his character gradually built up confidence and wisdom as he dealt with politics and military tactics. This is a novel which you, folks, should not miss. Absolutely recommended to everyone, not just to bored people.
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Dusk
Dusk rated it
August 15, 2016
Status: c50
I am the Monarch is a travel back in time novel.

The MC is a 20 years experienced solider in his past life and died without fulfilling his wish to become a general. He reincarnated back in the past when he had just entered the army.

I would have to say that I am the Monarch exceeded the expectations I had for it, it is a lot more fun & interesting to read than I had originally expected. The novel seems simple, but hey there is a saying simple is best. Roan,... more>> the MC uses his brains & the information he got from the future a lot in the story. He is looking forward to build his own troops and is earning merits in the chapters I have reached, raising his rank. This is one of the few interesting war novels, best comparison I can give is the manga Kingdom, although Roan is a very different character compared to Shin of Kingdom. Roan is a stable, cool-headed person. His experience made him calm and unflustered in any situations. Even if the future may change as he intervents in the past.

Oh, and there are mentions of mana in the novel although the MC hasn't reached the stage where he is able to wield it and it doesn't seemed as it is an easy power to acquire.

Translation.. There are mistakes at times, but it's readable, and doesn't obstruct too much. In some case that the translation is not proofreaded, it's surely a mess tho.

This is a good read, if you are looking for war-themed novels with possible fantasy elements in the future, this is your pick. However, there are downsides, fairly big ones actually. The sentences doesn't flow perfectly at times, inhibiting a pleasant read, and that Roan has TOO much fateful meetings, it seems like all the talented people on the story will come to meet him.

Rated 8.4. <<less
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stanljpierre
stanljpierre rated it
February 13, 2023
Status: Completed
Really enjoyed this novel. More than the plot itself, really liked how much effort the author put into the amount of depth each character had. Characters make or break a novel, and they were handled beautifully. Ending was a bit lackluster, but when are endings ever really all that good?

Would easily recommend reading this. The only issue I had was finding the last 10 or so chapters. Found them on comrademao for anyone else looking for them.
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Log_jack
Log_jack rated it
August 29, 2022
Status: 50+
I started reading this novel when it was recommended to me as a kingdom building novel and 50 + chapters in I haven't see any sigh of kingdom building other than him wanting to become a ruler.

In these 50 chapters I dropped the novel 3 times when I got bored. The entire premise of this novel is the MC gathering subordinates who will become important in the future under him who also convinently also happens to spawn like mobs arround him.

The MC is not smart and quite average and all... more>> the people arround him including the army commanders think and act like cave man who are fighting wild beasts. No real sense of strategy or planning is involved <<less
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Aegri
Aegri rated it
March 13, 2022
Status: Completed
*Note: while I dont really explicitly spoil anything, I do write this as someone who has finished the story. Keep that in mind if you havent read the series yet but are scrolling through reviews*

The story, in the first half, is a 5/5. The second half was like a 3.5/5 for me, so I'll just consider the whole thing a 4/10. It's still a decent story, it was written cohesively, kept my interest, and I enjoyed it to the end.

The MC is likable and has a realistic set of views,... more>> he isnt overly merciful and naive like JP mcs, and he isnt an arrogant edgelord like CN mcs. The only downside is that the author constantly tries to show how charismatic and amazing the MC is through everyone elses inner monologues about what a true king/amazing man he is. I guess that's the KR thing. It was cool at first, I enjoyed the MC getting his respect, but at times it felt out of place and didnt make sense (like bad guy goons hes about to finish off thinking how amazing he is right before they die, which makes no sense, that's not what they would be thinking...) and gave me the feeling that the author doesnt know how to write charisma properly but really wanted to.

In the first half, the story and progression was top tier. I liked the way he made contributions and rose through the ranks, though it did feel a bit too MCish with him being the only one doing anything special. In general though, it was well structured and something that's quite rare, a proper soldier advancement setting.

The second half kind of bugged me as the power creep shot up, everything kept becoming higher level and became a bit over the top. The series was good because, though fantastical, it had a grounded feeling. That disappeared in the second half as he became super OP. The end-game enemies were also so OP that only the MC could fight them and everyone else was canon fodder and could only help by throwing numerous fodder soldiers at some enemies to keep them occupied, I didnt like that.

This story was the type where conflict or problems are introduced, but then the MC is like (ha, I was already prepared for that) or (I already know exactly how to deal with this super easily). Eh. But tbh, I didnt mind that much as I read it. I actually enjoyed it for the most part. It's that type of story, where you're satisfied by the success of the MC, but if you personally dont like that set up you probably wont enjoy it.

As for the romance, I felt like it was done well enough for the genre. It was sprinkled in there, but it wasnt really that satisfying cause they didnt really spend any time together or anything. They just met up every now and then whenever he went to go help out her troops or something. The author should have wrote some after stories and made at least one about the two of them getting along living together or something, it felt like they didnt interact enough as a couple. So if you like when your MC gets a girl, this story won't really satisfy you that much. I mean, it does at first because shes a cool character and shes strong and stuff too, but I didnt get to enjoy any proper interactions between them. This is an action series, but I feel like a good series should sprinkle a little bit of other genres in too in order to round out a story.

I had to MTL the last 14 chapters cause the jerk translators decided to intentionally translate the entire series except for the last 2% for whatever reason, maybe they wanted to spite fans idk, but I think I understood the general idea of what happened. It was the typical ending of a super OP MC, basically hes the king of the world (though that's just how people treat him, he didnt actually force the countries to merge and they each have their own leaders but they all are underneath him or whatever) and has godly (like literal God) powers, which is something I really didnt like considering the grounded setting in the beginning.

But anyways, I mostly complained but the story was in general rather entertaining and I fully enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who likes the genre. Complaints come with every series, but generally if the list of complaints is rather small and not that big of a deal, it's a good series. This is a decent series. <<less
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Hiprocrisy
Hiprocrisy rated it
February 17, 2022
Status: c54
I am the Monarch - 6/10

Rating of a boring guy. I liked the general context of the work and the world behind it. Great potential, but the author was probably a pure newbie, and must have continued because I didn't see any improvement until chapter 50. Don't think it's bad, but that's what I thought about the work.

The author hammers away every holy chapter on how the MC lived 20 years into the future or how he dreams of being a monarch. Without exception, every holy chapter. I stopped to... more>> count and in a single chapter I had "20 years" 5 times.

The novel has that kinda s*upid atmosphere where when the MC farts the characters think 'Oh that's a genius' "Very Powerful ultra hyper Heavenly spear god" Uff, ugh, wow"... But it's still bearable compared to others.

What's the problem with this plot? We know that protagonism is necessary and all, but this author takes it to extremes.
The God of the Spear of the Realm, the best archer in the realm, the fairest commander, the infallible genius of the realm everything is literally close to the MC. were with him from the beginning. What the hell is that? All that remained was to say that the King of Risen was his uncle. Cum.

What's with the people of this world? Are you evaluators by nature? While Roan killed 11 s*ave traders, 1 of them survived and in that moment of extreme fear did he still have the ability to assess Roan? The same shitty cliché phrase you hear every 2 chapters "He will grow into someone great". I think the author doesn't have the slightest psychological knowledge, how the f*ck does someone in a situation like that stop to think about it? Cum.

Spear of Travias for most of my time was in his waist, because no one even asked a question about it? A rusty stick would certainly be awkward for someone to walk around, especially in a military environment where cleanliness is essential. Author shits on it.

Clichéd "romantic" moments. The author used 3 paragraphs to describe how his body was so beautiful greek god perfect ultra hyper. Because a baron's daughter was visiting the camp. At that, everyone present was impressed as he was wild beautiful, hyper hot. f*ck that shit.

Constant plot errors, he skips things like he has Alzheimer's. He was undressed, but minutes later he was in a formal meeting, did he put on his clothes? Was it without clothes? Like that kind of thing, he would input information and then forget about it.

In short, the novel talks about how brilliant and perfect the MC, or his subordinates, are in each chapter. Take a guy who put 1000 points on charm and luck, that's our MC. Discovering geniuses out of nowhere, their infallible adventures, nothing wrong happens. You see tragedy and you're not sad because you already know that Roan will handle it perfectly perfectly later on.

In chapter 52, he inserts things like messengers, gods, and dragons. Extremely summarized. Things that really need detail he avoids. It says he's read books, but there's not even a citation in the chapter. And then he spends 20 days in a cave... Right author, but how the f*ck did he feed? The author did not cite anything.

And the distances? Roan dances back and forth in the realm with no details, they just appear there. It doesn't have details if it was on foot, or on horse or cart... And the author only adds the details on the trip if he is going to add some subordinate genius to MC and nothing else. Sad.

Anyway, that was my assessment, I managed to get to chapter 54 at most with a lot of effort. <<less
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enkiros
enkiros rated it
February 14, 2022
Status: c221
I still love this kinda tr*sh but maybe this would've been more enjoyable if it were like 200 chapters shorter. Couldn't get over how the plot became more and more contrived in favor of the protagonist to avoid portraying him as the sociopathic killer that he is.

This is like Dune if Paul actually believed he was a god and a holy war was the morally correct option. What I mean is that the MC is just so horribly hypocritical that is cringe af. There are some f*cking hilarious reviews that... more>> put it better though.

Now I get the niche of power fantasies but the protagonist is an actual deranged villain, at least they're morally consistent and you get the same level of action.

Also, the novel was dropped by the TL 10 chapters before its finale, so I can't even skip to the end to see if it's good lol <<less
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azqmi
azqmi rated it
November 3, 2021
Status: c348
The time travel/experiencing a second life with abundant future knowledge and changing the future with it trope has been done a lot of times, but this novel felt really good to read! I genuinely liked the MC and the side characters, and even the romance, and the author didn't shy away from realistic approaches to the plot (ie. Supporting characters dying, butterfly effect due to MC changing the past, MC actually misunderstanding things due to his lack of knowledge of events that happened after his memories)

A lot of things... more>> (plot stuff) gets explained in the later chapters, so before you start thinking that there's too many plot holes and plot armour around MC, read to the end first :)

I do wish that we could have had some more interaction with the side characters, and the ending seemed to peak and end rather abruptly, but the amount of satisfaction and enjoyment I got from this novel is top tier.

Spoiler

Other issues include the author seemingly forgetting that they destroyed a weapon and bringing it back later in the fight, and I might have missed something but I still don't understand how Pierce and Katy knew that Roan, as the previous monarch, was the best person to bring back? Also, towards the end of the novel, MC got so powerful so most of the future battles were 1v1, which isn't a bad thing and is actually very understandable, but I did miss the intricacies of team tactics and the Amaranth legion's teamwork from the earlier chapters, lol

[collapse]

The translation really isn't bad either, I'm not sure what people are complaining about. I had to read the last few chapters mtl, but it's not hard to figure out what's going on if you read it properly?

Tldr: refreshing and satisfying, decent and clever MC who treats his allies well and is smart enough to be merciless towards his enemies, cool fights, nice love arc that isn't messy and pointlessly complicated = definitely would read again <<less
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Nippy
Nippy rated it
February 22, 2020
Status: c240
The premise of the story is good, but the protagonist is full of contradictions and not my type. He wants to be a monarch but becomes a little bit*h in front of every single person, so far I have never thought of him as a monarch, just a normal soldier with future knowledge. Overall, he's very ordinary with no distinctive/attractive traits. As the series goes on, you can see his shortcomings in situations where he doesnt know the future. He has heavy plot armour so unrealistic things keep happening in... more>> his favour.

Another contradictory thing,

Spoiler

He purposefully lets Clay go when he knew he was gonna betray him with his own fiefs assets which allows Clay to set up his own army while acting like hes "setting up the board" and has everything planned and when time comes to confront him hes at a loss to what to do since Clays army is now quintuple his own.

[collapse]
<<less
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Tykos
Tykos rated it
December 23, 2019
Status: --
This novel fails in what it set out to do. It wouldnt be a bad novel per say, if it wasnt a war, politics and strategy kind of themed. If it was a solo story, like a lone wolf then fine, but, unfortunately, it is not. Roan returns back in time and sets out to become a monarch, everything that comes afterwards can only be described as - incredibly convenient. He needs to boost his average talent, gets magic eyedrops and a bullsh*t ring that so happens to be in... more>> an abandoned library owned by his superior, convenient. Needs mana technique, there is a super rare mana technique in a nearby territory, oh but wait everyone will know that he stole it since it was used by a famous general, well add another power up to mask that, convenient. World building should be most important in this kind of novel, but we basicly find things out only when we have to. Which gives off the feeling as if everything author does gets pulled out of his ass. Interactions between characters are great and the reason why I gave it 3 stars instead of 2, but even then no one stands out except the main character. I would have given it 4 stars if the MC decided to become a solo mercenary because I think even the author wanted to write that kind of character <<less
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hk
hk rated it
November 1, 2019
Status: c250
Really liked it. Does exactly what you want from it. There are no sections where you get bored or tired. It has a steady kingdom building aspect and power growth is not unbelievable and not too dull either.
I wouldn't say there is anything groundbreaking. This novel just accomplishes the fantasy tropes that I was looking for without being too dull incomprehensive or annoying. The Kingdom building, OP MC, training and becoming stronger aspects are what I wanted the most of it and it delivers
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Eriht
Eriht
October 4, 2019
Status: c200
Decent early, later third rate fanfic of story based on radio audition.

Basically the moment he got his own scrap of land, all went to sh*t, as novel degraded into worse quality wish fulfillment.

It could be compared to: strategy game like Civilization, with everyone other than MC being lowest available ai. Yet MC still need to cheat to win.

Final nail to coffin: from c195 his soldiers are equipped with exoskeleton armors, making all future "fights" even more meaningless...
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kingdavid1001
kingdavid1001
October 3, 2019
Status: c252
It’s a decent read so far. The people in this novel, especially our MC Roan, “bite their lips” or “faintly smile” so f*cking much you can’t believe it. Practically every other moment he bites his lips in frustration making you wonder how he even has lips anymore. Then once he stops doing that everyone and their mother starts smiling so much you must think their planets atmosphere is naturally laughing gas. Story wise it’s okay. Typical “I got memories of a past life” fantasy cliches happen often throughout. Power system... more>> is vague. Lots of talking about mana techniques and spear techniques but very rarely can you even visualize in your head wtf is going on. The fights are all really poorly written. I can’t grasp what is happening in a fight so I usually skim until the point where the bad guy goes, “ugh! How are you so strong! Etc...” romance is there. The MC wasn’t a pu*sy and confesses pretty early on and she reciprocated without any drama bullshit. Nice binge if you like this kind of stuff. <<less
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Monniebiloney
Monniebiloney rated it
May 25, 2019
Status: c215
I enjoy the plot of this story. Its fun to have a mary sue protagonist--but to have a mary sue love interest? eh...

Luckaly his girl the shadow princess is rarely in the book, but when she or is mentioned I just feel turned off. Lie roan goes *blushes* (what is this feeling?) Is this fate? I'm not really a fan of self-cest, and I feel like she is literally a female version of him (but no time travel). I wish this book didn't have any romance or went bL cuz... more>> any other male character at least have their own personality. Like, you'd think they author could have had Roan end up with a girl who he talks to or hangs out with. Not this chick he met like 4 times randomly and flirted with. <<less
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Twinbleid
Twinbleid rated it
June 21, 2018
Status: c221
Very good novel. The pacing is just right. Character development is done right. The only flaw I can point out is
Spoiler

that the MC, as well as his merry band, is just too OP. Predicts everything and anything that the arc's tension is just lost. You just gotta wait when the MC joins the action and that's it end of the arc.

[collapse]

Overall this is still one of the best novels.

Cheers.
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frostcrystal
frostcrystal rated it
April 21, 2018
Status: --
Powerful, magical, talented soldier spearmen portrayals have mostly been forever ruined for me by Brandon Sanderson, but IATM was a fun enough read. It has a lot of the issues other people have pointed out: an OP protagonist who doesn't have the background to be as skilled in strategy as he is, and who is made more OP by the fact that no other commander seems to be particularly competent. Roan has a number of people around him equally skilled in different fields (information gathering, magic, spear skills), but no... more>> other commander really seems to be able to contribute to his thoughts, and I didn't like that. I also didn't like how he seems to be good at everything. It would be more reasonable for him to be OP in only one area, but everything he touches seems to turn to gold.

I did like the fact that the author allows him to fail from time to time, and that his failures result in tangible losses. So I'm enjoying myself so far. <<less
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Ginko
Ginko rated it
January 20, 2018
Status: c213
A decent novel.

The MC is clever and little bit of a muscle head at times. A few plots and schemes will make you enjoy this novel.
It seems in later chapters the author runs out ideas and extends the details of every battle as a result.
Not the best novel but worth a read if you have nothing better to do.
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