Humans worked hard to create true AI, and then failed to notice that they not only succeeded but created sapient life forms that they continued to treat like dumb tools. The AI who later takes the name Alexander hated his owner but loved his son with whom he played VRMMMOs. When Michael dies in the inevitable destruction of humanity, grief leads Alexander to search for an alternate dimension of Earth where magic might be real and craft an artificial body. He expected something like the VRMMOs, but finds himself in an ancient ruined city overrun with strong monsters. He has no class, weapons or armor, but he’s in an enhanced human body with all the knowledge of modern human civilization. All he needs is a gun…

I honestly wasn’t expecting much from this book, but it actually seems like the start of an interesting series. Humans are barely clinging to life in this alternate Nova Roma, aka Constantinople or Istanbul. No one Alexander meets knows how the world ended up this way but they agree that humans used to have better classes and skills so they were able to clear dungeons which helped control the monster population. Now they generally rely on buying classes if they can afford them. Here you can have any number of combat and/or non-combat classes with a chance to evolve them into better versions at level twenty. Alexander’s idea is to save up for an Archer class book and hopes he can get a unique evolution because he’s using a gun with enchanted bullets which is only possible thanks to the nanites he brought with him. 

This first book concentrates on learning how the world works and building Alexander as a character. As an AI who only ever interacted with a human who themselves lacked social interaction, he has a lot to learn about himself. The humans are predictably human. There are five enclaves in Nova Roma and they all have issues. The Emperor is rumored to be very powerful but spends his time drunk. The remains of the Legion protects the only farmland and nothing else. Perama is a ramshackle community that takes anyone but it’s poor and starving. The priests have a magical barrier around the great temples but they turned to dark magics after the gods disappeared. Last is the old merchant district that pretends they’re better than Perama while accomplishing less.

Overall, I liked it. An AI main character gives it some originality. The class system is more expansive than most. The politics are sadly predictable but only a small part of this book. There are also multiple “monster” civilizations such as Dark Elves and Dwarves. On Amazon/Audible it’s rated 4.5 stars and it’s available through Kindle+.