The Zombie Knight Saga
by George M. Frost
- Gore
- Profanity
- Traumatising content
Death is coming. And he wants to help.
The world of Eleg may seem like a normal enough place at first blush, but wade deeper into it, and soon the dark, the deadly, and the mad will begin to reveal themselves.
But don't worry.
They usually have a sense of humor.
((Ebook versions of the first four Volumes [138 chapters] are available on Amazon.))
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zombie knight-or how i learned to stop worrying and love the undead
Reviewed at: I. | Ch. 1: 'O, benevolent darkness...!'
Frost's back and has brought my single favourite online story to RR.
Hector(the main character) is incredibly well written, and Frost has the chops to sell not only his reactions to the sudden life changes that occur fom his meeting with the grim reaper, but his ongoing depression and how being revived into undeath and gaining super powers still doesn't cure wonky brain chemistry, and realistically portray it as a part of his normal tought processes, instead of the ridiculous over the top, absurdly overwrought emotional maelstrom that authors on this site tend to potray it as.
the story as a whole maintains the quality that goes into the character writing, with believable cultures and factions, and integrates the fantasy elements amazingly well.
there's a six year backlog of story that i assume will be coming here, and with the benefit of not having to wait through various hiatus', should make for easy amazingly high quality reading

Death comes for RoyalRoad, to help, of course.
Reviewed at: II. | Ch. 2: 'Hark! Ye quiet horrors...!'
Without spoiling much, Hector is a young boy that follows on his suicidal intents only to find out that death isn't the end. He meets with one of the entities that govern over the souls and is offered a simple choice, to live on as a Servant or to carry on to the afterlife.
Style 5/5
The story is set in a modern world riddled with political and background agenda strife which is enjoyable to uncover and pretty much up the alley of anyone who enjoys such stories without being overbearing on the other who prefer a light fun read.
Story 5/5
If I had to take points in anything, it would be the story department. the story telling is stellar, that is quite evident as you read, but the pacing does leave something to be desired between the events, this lasts across the first couple of arcs for me, at least.
Grammar 5/5
A finely written story and amongest the worthy few on RoyalRoad.
Characters 5/5
There is certainly something endearing with the characters in the story, their interactions with their significant undead overlords and the others of their ilk.
TL:DR
Enjoy the magnificent read.

Great Story With Excellent Magic System
Reviewed at: XIII. | Ch. 13: 'O, blood of noble birth...!'
The Zombie Knight Saga is an excellent story with a great magic system.
The premise of the story is that a young man with severe social anxiety dies and is resurrected by a reaper to save lives. Being a 'servant' of a reaper means that he has certain powers, some of which are common among servants and some of which are unique to each servant. The story follows Hector's journey and adventures as he does his best to help people and become stronger.
The Zombie Knight Saga does a lot of things really well, with its magic system, fight sequences and characters being its strongest points but all other aspects still being solid.
The magic system in this story is excellent. It is detailed and complex, but well-fleshed out and clear to the reader. It opens up a myriad of interesting and unique possibilities for development and combat which are effectively realized and explored. Watching the MC and other side characters progress with their power has been a definite high point of this story.
The characters in this story are well-defined and complex individuals with interesting and realistic motivations, though that may not always be clear when we first meet some of them. The MC has been very well-handled, with his social anxiety being consistently portrated throughout the story and leading to some great humor. The relationship and banter between the MC and his reaper is another high point of the story, and is highly entertaining.
The worldbuilding has been done quite well, with the world, its history, and its politics being developed and expanded upon as the story progresses.
The story has been interesting and satisfying to read overall, but some arcs could have benefited from slightly better pacing.
The story is well-edited and has generally maintained a solid release rate over the 6 years since it began on its main site, though the author has taken a few extended breaks.
I would strongly recommend this story.
(Review as of Chapter 197)

Absolutely Fantastic and Unique
Reviewed at: I. | Ch. 1: 'O, benevolent darkness...!'
This is it. This is the webnovel that started it all for me. I had always been a reader to some degree, rarely going more than a few months without digesting some book or another. As I got further and further into adulthood though, I tended to read less and less. I hated having to go to a library to find a book to read that I might not even like. Having to settle on something that is terrible just because you want to read something is unfun to the extreme. So around 2015 to 2016 I set out to find something to read that was posted to the internet. I absolutely knew there was something out there that people had posted that didn't fall into the category of horrible fanfiction; it would be a massive waste of this incredible resource in the internet otherwise.
After a while of searching, I was met with this story, and while I wasn't expecting much, this story delivered such greatness that most professional printed books can't even hope to achieve. While I won't say this story is perfect, it is perfect for me, and by every right, deserves a 5/5 stars for every metric. This is the story that opened the world of webnovels to me that eventually culminated in my delving into everything from Japanese and Chinese translated fic to Royalroad. It has been quite the journey, but I still vividly remember most of the characters and places from this story, while many of the webnovels I've read in the interim I have completely forgotten. It is truly a marvelous story, and I am immensely glad that George has seen fit to bring his masterpiece here.

Resurrected and making new converts!
Reviewed at: I. | Ch. 1: 'O, benevolent darkness...!'
The other reviews already say almost everything, this story is going right towards the top and rightfully so. It has a well balanced feeling, it covers dark themes and situations but also gets plenty of laughs out of me.
The characters grow and develop personally and not everything can work out well or be fixed. Tons of banter and conversations engaging enough that it is hard to put down.
It gets lots of things right, the powers and setting are well developed and thought out with consistency in power and growth. There are lots of varied characters with depth and motivations.
This story is highly contagious and I foresee a major outbreak in new fans.

Will Be On Trending Quickly
Reviewed at: I. | Ch. 1: 'O, benevolent darkness...!'
This is one of my favorite (if not favorite, simply) web serials. Not only does it have 1900+ pages ready to be posted here for avid reader consumption, but it possesses the advantage of being a fantastic series.
I like grammar. Grammar maintains the intelligibility of external expression of thoughts. Further, I'm one of those who cringes when reviewers spell it "grammer" while critiquing an author's grammar. While I won't claim this work is flawless in grammar, any mistakes it does possess did not detract from my reading of the story (and I am not claiming it has any mistakes... nut about grammar I might be, but I can still be immersed in a story).
The characters have real depth and also develop realistically. Garovel and Hector have a growing relationship that is relatable (obviously with the caveats of the reaper-servant suspension of disbelief) and this plays out into the whole story in a genuine fashion.
The style always fits the voice of the POV. I'm rather impressed in this regard. Despite the variety of personalities in his characters, Frost wonderfully maintains each's individuality.
The story has recognizable arcs with appropriate pacing. He does introduce new arcs via new POVs without much introduction. Still, nothing is extraneous, and his execution is great. There are never points where you feel like he is just meandering around his ideas in order to give readers filler while he thinks up the next arc. It is clearly planned. Given its genre, he keeps the arcs properly obscure, not giving the reader too much information but enough.
I could say more, but I already drifting into some rants.
Bottom line: this is a story to read. You won't regret it. If you do, it would be akin to my dislike of tomatoes... there's nothing wrong with tomatoes in themselves, but a defect in my sense of taste.

Grim reapers bring people back to life with super-powers!
Reviewed at: CCIX. | Ch. 209: 'O, expanding venture...!'
TL;DR: Grim reapers bring people back to life with super powers in unique modern world, where we get to watch our newly revived main character struggle with himself and the world!
Recommendation: Read it! Would give it at least until Hector starts using is powers in combat before dropping.
Similar stories: Nothing quite like it on RR.
Release schedule: One 4000 word chapter per/week.
Story Premise Summary (possible minor spoilers bellow this point)
In the world of Zombie Knight Saga, there exist entities called “Reapers” who have the ability to revive one person as their “Servant.” These servants gain immortality and super powers while their Reapers are alive. The story opens with our main character Hector being revived from his suicide as a servant by the reaper Garoval, who believes he can give Hector a reason to live.
Worldbuilding
-Setting: Zombie Knight Saga is set in a technologically modern world. This gives it a nice contrast to the typical medieval fantasy setting and along with the powers that Servants get gives it a bit of a super-hero vibe.
-Magic/systems/classes: Reapers provide their Servants one of six types of powers. All of these types have very strict rules and, in many ways, have a scientific application that gives them a very distinct feel from any other kind of magic or superpowers.
-pros/cons: The magic really makes combat in the story shine. Every battle is different since almost all the powers are unique. Along with this, the goal in fights are very different from typical stories since Servant are immortal while Reaper’s aren’t. The number of clever strategies/interactions the author has thought of for Reaper/Servant fights is constantly impressing me. One thing I will note that could become a con in the future is that the author has an in-world mechanism for sudden power ups, however, currently it is incredibly well done and has been used very sparingly.
Plot
-story: While there isn’t an overarching plot in Zombie Knight Saga, many of the arcs in the story stem Hector interacting with the struggle between the two waring Reaper/Servant factions “vanguard” and “Abolish.” Most of these conflicts result from Hector in some way trying to help people and getting drawn into larger struggle. However, there is quite a bit of foreshadowing throughout and the story does feel connected, each event leads logically to the next and the is progression both personally for Hector and his companions.
-pacing : The pacing is decent throughout the story. There is generally slower parts of non-combat project/training and interspaced with faster paced fights. There are unfortunate times when alternative POV to the main characters interrupt the flow of the story.
-pros/cons: While I do wish there was a bit more of a overarching plot rather than the more event driven narrative the story currently uses, I am very happy with what is provided. My only criticism would be that the occasional different POV disrupting the main story.
Characters
-main characters: The interplay between these characters is really what allows the story to function. While Hector’s goals pretty much boil down to “he wants to help people,” his motivations are rather complex and as a result almost give him the feel of a superhero with severe psychological trauma. This is where Goraval comes in. Hector has quite a few psychological issues and Goraval is often there too contrast them with his experience and push Hector to improve himself. This interplay allows for Hector to deal with his issues and for the reader to root for him while still making his actions seem believable.
-character development: Unlike many RR stories, there is a ton of development to Hector, in fact, sometimes it seems unbelievable how far he has come. While the author generally shows Hector making believe progress with his psychological difficulties, there have been times it doesn’t feel believable given his past.
-pros/cons: The relationship dynamics between Reapers and Servants (particularly Hector/Goravel) is quite good throughout. Even though it is sometimes not believable, I also enjoy seeing Hectors progress though the story.

My favorite webnovel hands down
Reviewed at: II. | Ch. 2: 'Hark! Ye quiet horrors...!'
This is the story I cannot wait everyday to read. It has everything you want to love in a webnovel.
The characters are perfectly fleshed out and represent a good part of the awesomness of the serie, the dialogues also add to the freshnesh of every interaction.
The story itself is one with the best magic/power system I have ever read, and it keeps getting better as the story progresses.
There are no grammar mistakes, and the story flows very well.
I can't recommend this story enough. The only problem is that you may binge it too quickly.

Death, Magic and Science
Reviewed at: XXIII. | Ch. 23: 'Thy beloved kinship...'
This is one of my favorite web novels of all time. I discovered it years ago on amazon were several ebooks are available containing three story arcs apiece and have been in love with it ever since. TZK was actually my gateway drug into web novels! The characters are fantastic, the plot fascinating, the magic system totally unique and well defined, and the world similar and yet comlpetely alien to our own. Read this story if you want to read a one of the best web novels around.

Old novel, good novel
Reviewed at: III. | Ch. 3: 'Thy path be not gentle...'
The author started writing this story like 6 years ago, and since then I have been reading it on and of (it has been a long time!). From time to time I recall it and wonder "how many chapters may have written Frost since last time I checked it? let's check it out again."
I can't recommend more this novel, it's well written, entertaining, action filled, with politics (although I don't like those parts that much), and if you like it, you will have A LOT to read.
In other words, if you didn't know it from before, just for your information: this is one of the good ones.