Past Life Hero, Recap of book 1

I'm still working on the chapters for book 2.  They'll be up soon.

The beginning and end of a book are the most critical places to get the tone right in my experience.

This is the first draft of the synopsis for book one that I've put together.  I've never included a synopsis before, but I think I might start doing so from here out.  They help me too if I need to come back to a series after a break.

-BC

PS let me know what you think of this synopsis, please!

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As a young boy on earth, born to a poor family, Max Cunningham suddenly remembered an entire previous life on an alien planet, one spanning centuries.  He’d been Chasa de Milo, Hero of Albion, a master Blade Sorcerer.

Needless to say, this had caused complications to his life.  It’d almost been too much to assimilate at such a tender age.

He’d persevered, drowning himself in school and helping his family during and after his parents’ divorce.  This hadn’t left him much time to focus on anything else, and as a young adult, having graduated from college early, he was broke.

In order to help with his student loans and other expenses, Max had begun teaching martial arts as extra income on top of his job at a cell phone store.  His students believed they were learning a new amalgamation of different Earth martial styles, but were actually being taught a secret art from Albion.

Max met a number of great friends this way and rediscovered a passion for training he’d had during his previous life.  He began working out seriously for the first time on Earth, and worked harder to cultivate his mana body–an arcane, mana-intensive process for growing as a Blade Sorcerer.

Unfortunately, Earth had so little mana that Max could barely achieve any real growth with his mana body.

Just when his life was getting much better, the Earth was attacked by monsters.  Max killed a monster and suddenly saw a strange new screen that invited him to seize additional power.

Max chose yes.

In a strange space, Max met a self-described messenger that looked like an angel.  There he received a Summoner seed, which he was told was one of the weakest Paths in the universe.

Then he woke up in a training Quartet, where he now had a body made from magic that would allow him to confer all his improvements after he returned to his flesh and blood body on earth.  If he was killed in the Quartet, he would come back to life, be regenerated.  The exception was if he died in a dungeon he would immediately be sent back to his body on earth without any of his gains transferring over except for his memories.

At first, growing accustomed to the training Quartet and learning more about the universe than he had before was cathartic for Max.  He was still worried about his family and friends on earth but after reaching the Quartet, when Challengers were actually returned to their worlds had nothing to do with how long they trained in the Quartet.

Whether Max spent the maximum time of seven years at Summoner academy, or graduated early, when he’d actually return to earth was outside of his control.

His views of the goodness and fairness of the Quartet system were shattered when he encountered bullying and the existence of “lifers,” people affiliated with worlds that had been under monster attack for long enough for various Challenger families to amass great wealth and power.  Lifer children could get unfair advantages and currency in the Quartet.

After dying the first time from an underhanded trick, betrayed by Wiley, murdered by Prince Regal and his older brother, Max barely avoided being killed again when he was regenerated.  He met Lavinia, a technical spirit, the soul and memories of a dead Summoner originally from Albion.

Having a contracted spirit as a Summoner and achieving the first star of his mana body gave Max a great deal more power than he’d had before.

In order to expose the injustice of the Quartet, Max attacked the Mystic Spear Path academy and made a scene.  He was killed but when he woke up, some things had changed.  Student activities and travels were being much more closely monitored.

He achieved the support of the Summoner Headmaster, and got himself a very prestigious, private dorm with the money he’d earned by fighting Challengers from other academies.

Max met another spirit, a quirky soldier level that he named Slick.  He was able to find a few ways to fuse Slick’s power with what Lavinia could do.

To make more money and grow in power, Max went to a dungeon.  The dungeon tech betrayed him, sending him to a rank five dungeon instead of a rank one.  This was presumably to kill him, but Max also assumed that if he survived, he’d be ambushed upon leaving the dungeon.

He needed to get stronger.

The dungeon was populated by giants, the target of Max’s quest to leave.  But he found a series of caves and tunnels where another group of monsters lived: dark fauns.  Killing them proved tricky, but possibly until the monsters adapted.

Running out of options, Max explored an ancient structure in a remote area of the dungeon, finding his way between worlds and meeting the goddess Morrigan.

She made a deal with Max: In order to become her Champion–a system that was largely from her own reality, not Max’s–she would give him three boons.

-The Hidden Twilight Eye, a necklace that augmented his third eye

-Mana Vault of WD Arand, a powerful artifact

-The experiences and knowledge of a Challenger on a different Path, conferring a third Path to Max: Bead Sorcerer

As a last favor, The Morrigan arranged to transport Max back his Earth before returning to the dungeon he was in before.  After arriving on earth in his Quartet body, he confirmed that he would have a day and a half on earth before being forced to leave.

He was returned to a familiar area and met up with his friend Blake.  After a brief catch up session, he learned that Blake was part of a militia group about to head to an apartment complex under attack by monsters.  Max agreed to join them on their mission.