Legendary Shadow Blacksmith

The Otherworld

By: Romeru

Narrated by: John Joseph Rogers, Rylee Kuberra

Born blind in a war-torn world, an autistic savant's only solace was blacksmithing—until even that was overshadowed by loss and despair. But when he joins the Otherworld Project, a chance to live as a powerful clone on a distant planet, he uncovers an astonishing secret.

With newfound abilities, Julian’s rise to fame begins. Will he become a hero across two worlds, or let darkness consume them both?

©2025 Romeru (P)2025 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

Excellent world, plot, story. MC gets better.

So first things first. The MC is your typical dumb brute idiot. He doesn't get social queues and isn't exactly right in the head. He's not psycho, but with only 7 hours left, I think there's a much greater mystery to his past left to explore that explains why he is how he is. BUT!! He does improve. As he works with his clone in Aternea (yes, quasi Pandora rip, but I'm fine with it) and learns more about what Ellie has done to help him, he begins to better understand both himself, relationships in general, and explore the world beyond his comfort zone. If there was one thing that was difficult, it was seeing Julian stumble through things. I generally dislike the dumb MC that doesn't get social queue trope, but, honestly, I think this is the worst of the issues I have and it improves immensely.

With that said, there are a lot of mysteries that keep building. What exactly is affecting Julian so much that things transition between Aternea and the real world? How can he do what he does? Why is his incompatibility with bioware so low, but his compatibility with his Aternea clone so high? What's going on with the daemons?

There is A LOT of meat on this bone and the author is doing a good job with the feast. I think my MC issue will resolve itself and, honestly, the narrators do a fantastic job with the narration especially how he vocalizes Julian sub-vocal responses like grunts and other things.

I only bring up the MC issue at the start of this review, but it is a trope some readers/listeners have issue with and I wanted them to know that I felt like progress is made on this front.

I rather love that Earth has advanced so far into the future that the galaxy has practically been colonized. With that said, we don't see any non-humans on earth except for daemons.

Awesome book can’t wait to listen to the next one

Awesome book was hooked at every turn of the plot. Can’t wait to see what happens next

Will try next book

The overall story arc and concepts were interesting. Sometimes the specific writing could be improved. Almost all the female characters are poorly written or written as dramatically emotional but that’s not uncommon for the genre. Good enough to try next book!

I don't know

It's not bad just don't like the party we're he died. it just made me think I don't like this and just made me say ya no for this.

No accountability, the character is stupid, can’t finish it.

Character acts like an 8 year old. Even though sheltered, has no common sense and blames everyone for his choices. This lack of accountability is tiresome.