Last Gun Alchemist Review: Is the Novel Worth Reading?

Our Last Gun Alchemist review in one line: start it for the opening, and finish it only if you can live with its hero. JOE_JOE_Z's Webnovel Original has a first chapter that does exactly what the title promises. The reviews under the book argue about nearly everything that comes after it, and almost every complaint lands on the same person: Ezra Ashenlocke.

Image: Webnovel cover for Last Gun Alchemist

What We Read: The Trial of Steel Opening

We read chapters 1 and 2 on Webnovel on October 16, 2026. Chapter 1, "Guns to the Head: Kill or Be Killed", starts in the rain. Ezra's mother wakes him before dawn, the maids whisper "Why him? Why not the brother?" as she walks him out, and a car takes him to what she calls a training center.

He wakes strapped into a glass box, facing another child in the next box. Under a metal cover sits a dismantled revolver. The instructions are short: assemble it and kill the kid across from you, and every twenty seconds without a gunshot, another pair dies.

Screenshot: Last Gun Alchemist chapter 1 on Webnovel, October 16, 2026

What sells the book is how the duel plays out. Ezra spills his bullets across the table, his opponent misses twice and cracks the glass, and Ezra loads the single round still near his hand and fires. Only after the kill do the other memories arrive: blueprints, an army factory, an older version of his own voice explaining how to build a weapon. The synopsis promised "a weapons engineer, a hardened soldier"; the chapter makes you watch a frightened kid earn that inheritance the ugly way.

Chapter 2 sets up the long game. The man in the long coat announces "There will be nine trials" for every Ashenlocke child from fourteen to seventeen, and "The highest-ranking survivor will become the heir." Then Ezra learns the boy he shot was the brother of Pamela, a Highline girl, and her friends nearly drown him in a toilet before a guard steps in. While they beat him, his answer is "I didn't know, I was just trying to survive". That's the first glimpse of the trait the low-star reviews keep circling: Ezra apologises in scenes where the premise has primed you for a killer.

Last Gun Alchemist Review: The Listing at a Glance

Screenshot: Webnovel listing for Last Gun Alchemist, October 19, 2026

A rating just under four stars on a book whose fans hand out 10/10s is the short version of the reception. The author's pinned note is honest about what you're signing up for: "My novel is slow paced but i can say the chapters are entertaining and not boring to read," along with a promise of "a complex power system and wide world build."

New to ranks, techniques and breakthroughs? Our cultivation novel glossary covers the terms serials like this borrow.

Where the Serial Goes After the Trials

The chapter list shows how far the story travels from that glass box. The early entries are a run of trials ("Trial Two - Hunt & Survival", "Third Trial - Awakening Ceremony"). A little past the 220-chapter mark the catalog reaches "Preparation for the Auction Event", then "Phantom Rolls Presentation" and a "Guns Presentation", and entry 278 is "Preparation for the Royal Academy".

So the hook is a survival trial, but most of the book so far is about what Ezra does with his knowledge afterwards: selling it, presenting it and studying among nobles. Warmongerrr, who posted the recommendation thread on r/noveltranslations, called the setting "more like medieval (nobility and empire)+ steampunk", and that fits the auction and academy stretch better than the grim opening does.

What Works and What It Costs You

Screenshot: Webnovel reader reviews for Last Gun Alchemist, October 8, 2026

The world is the draw. Achillies_7334 wrote "i really like the world setting and the characters especially mc and veda", and AbyssKid recommends it "to Action fantasy lovers." A weapons engineer's memories dropped into a country that runs on alchemy is a sharper pitch than most progression serials, and the readers who stay are staying for that.

The hero is the price. Aichi_Sendou_8125 put it in one line: "concept is good just hate mc personality". Justin_Legge is harsher: Ezra "lets everyone walk on him and forgives people trying to murder him." Two chapters in, we can see where that starts, and this Last Gun Alchemist review treats it as the main risk: if the apology in the bathroom scene annoys you, the reviews suggest you'll be annoyed for a long time.

The action comes in bursts. Healer312 complained "there's no gun action in chapter 1 to 34". By our read that's half right. Chapter 1 is a revolver duel, but it's a timed puzzle through glass rather than the gun-alchemy fighting the title suggests, and chapter 2 has no guns in it at all.

One more thing to weigh: king8512743 wrote "im like 90% sure there is some review botting happening in this novel". That's a reader's suspicion, not a finding, but it's a good reason to read the one-star reviews as carefully as the raves.

The Reddit thread raises the usual worry about Originals. CrazeValkyrie wrote that "the problem with original works has always been sudden ghosting by the authors", and Shallow35 replied "I only read completed works for originals nowadays." With a chapter posted the day before our check, ghosting isn't the problem today; the open question is whether the ending will justify the length.

Last Gun Alchemist Review Verdict: Who Should Read It

Start it if a specific edge appeals to you more than a generic power climb, and if you can take a dark opening built on a family's betrayal. The first two chapters are free on Webnovel and tell you most of what you need. Past those, whether Webnovel is worth paying for comes down to how far into a long serial you plan to unlock.

Skip it if you only read finished Originals, or if you want a protagonist whose past as a soldier shows in how he treats the people trying to kill him. We'd give it until the end of the first trials; if Ezra hasn't won you over by then, the auction and academy arcs won't change your mind. If finished is your rule, our best completed Chinese web novels list ranks books that already have an ending.

Once you're in, our Last Gun Alchemist reading guide maps the arcs, and the world and characters guide keeps the Ashenlocke branches straight. If you're unsure what label this sits under, What Is a System Novel? and What Is Xuanhuan? draw the lines, and Talent Points Into Physique is another ongoing Webnovel progression serial we've reviewed. If you'd trade the trials for a mystery, the Realm Walker review covers the best horror opening we read on Wuxiaworld in October.

How We Checked This

We read chapters 1 and 2 on October 16, 2026, and re-read the Webnovel book page, its chapter catalog and the r/noveltranslations thread the same day. On October 19 we reopened the book page and catalog for the current chapter count, rating and rank, and retook the listing screenshot. The reader-review screenshot is from October 8.

References

• Webnovel: Last Gun Alchemist
• Webnovel: Last Gun Alchemist chapter catalog
• Webnovel: Last Gun Alchemist chapter 1
• r/noveltranslations: [REC] Last Gun Alchemist
• r/noveltranslations: Last gun Alchemist