Re: Blood and Iron by Zentmeister

5.5/10 as of 473

Overall, the novel is ok.
It's very obviously just a larpy, wish fulfillment novel for the author. Though WW1 and 2 is not my wheelhouse, the author seems to have a good understanding of weaponry and other equipment of the era but only a cursory understanding of contemporary geopolitics, and the people involved. Still, its enjoyable enough to read

Here are my main critisisms
-Most of the characters are pretty much 2d and act as the plot demands. I suspect strongly that the author hasnt done that much research on the personalities of any historical character
-The politics are overbearing even for me, and I probably agree with the author on quite a bit
-The author writes the story as if he thinks every sentence the mc speaks is super 200iq stuff. Its not, its just kind of melodramatic
-The writing style is far too much tell than show.

My country fought during the Second World War, and although it did not participate in the conflict from the beginning, there are still traces of it. Here, anything related to the German with a mustache is a crime.And if someone sees you wearing that flag or if you have that symbol tattooed on your body, you can be sure that you will be beaten up by a random guy, and God help you, because no one will want that. I don't know if the book is Nazi or not, I'm disgusted by even thinking about reading something like that, so I'll stay away from it this time.

Nationalist soldier gets regressed to pre-WW1 Imperial Germany after being killed by Muslim terrorists in the streets of Hamburg.

To establish some facts about MCs credibility:
- Was old man before death
- Was soldier who served in Middle East
- Was military academy instructor
- Was massive traditionalist/nationalist
- Was massive history buff

Review as of chapter 100:
So. An ultra-patriotic German gets sent back to a time when the Kaiser was still ruling - what do you think the story is about? MC hates communists, anti-monarchists, and loves his country.

Born to a noble family - his childhood arc isn’t unbearable but the story really improves when he grows up.

Uses his knowledge of the past to influence the conflicts of the day - this includes early modernization of weaponry/technology.

The romance angle initially looked quite sketchy and boring but I’ve found it to be ultimately fine.

The war aspects range from kinda cringe to really entertaining. Author is definitely a bit of a weaboo about historical weaponry and waxes on a bit about machine guns sometimes - still, it’s adequately done and his depiction of shell shock and PTSD is actually really well done. It’s not too on the nose, but you see MC - for example initially quite cold to potential war crimes from a historic angle change his tune completely after seeing them in action. You see MC take up smoking and his hands shake sometimes but there isn’t any angst-ing about it.

The usage of the Death’s Head symbol for his volunteer division in Russia is kinda cringe, but because of MCs (and seemingly Author’s) fierce defense of the monarchy and hatred of socialists I think it’s safe to assume he was at some point a wehraboo who thinks the symbol is cool.

I give it a tentative 8/10

Trash

The author seems to have a weird fetish with smoking. It keeps coming up when it is not relevant. Even going into detail like saying a character taking a deep drag. Its strange in the first place that the MC is smoking knowing what smoking does to people. I also just realized the pic for the novel has the MC smoking.

Trash
It's so cringe

The claims about the author making "Nazi" statements on Discord and believing that Jews are the root of evil remain unproven.
People, please avoid spreading hate based on unverified rumors and speculation.
Additionally, criticizing a novel without reading it is unfair. Please read it first before forming an opinion or leaving a review.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the author in this comment section so let me clear some things up. First off I've known Zent for years. We aren't friends by any means, but I've talked to him many times and been in his Discord since the start of Tyranny of Steel.

Is Zent a Nazi?
Zent is a Nazi by most definitions though he would probably identify himself more with the term Neo-Nazi. In now deleted posts (He purged a lot of his old messages) on his discord he claims that he used to be part of his local Neo Nazi group and still believes most of the talking points. He is antisemitic and believes Jews to be the root of a lot of evil.

Is Zent Racist?
Zent is not racist as far as I'm aware. Though his antisemitism can blur this sometimes, as there is the Jewish race along with religion.

I'm not claiming anything about this novel, but since people seemed confused about Zent I thought that I'd clear it up here.

I read it before don’t know why the rating is so bad. Like in the synopses the mc gets reincarnated in Germany before WW2 i read upto 200 chapters and dont find any nazi ideology in it. It mostly has Nationalism the mc loves his country and trys his best to make it better. I dropped it latter become the mc kinda lost all personality and all his Actions were to make Germany better. Although it was after he got ptsd and he was doing that to get his mind off it. nevertheless i lost interest after that point its overall good 7.4/10