I'm glad I decided to check this out. It is a light and fun read! It is an interesting twist that the main character, Sam Ryder, is also the author of the book. I also understand that Sam Ryder is a pen-name.
There are a few concepts borrowed from other fantasy series here - things I've seen in other fantasy works like the following:
- Conan stories - Robert E. Howard
- The Barsoom Series (John Carter) - Edgar Rice Burroughs
- The Dancing Gods series - Jack L. Chalker
- Guardians of the Flame series - Joel Rosenberg
For some reason, appears on a list of "Harem" or "Polygamy" fiction on GoodReads, and Time Enough for Love, by Robert A. Heinlein, is included on the same list. Kind of strange - while there may be sex with multiple partners, I would not consider Time Enough for Love to be the same kind of story at all. Yes, the main character has sex, but no more than James Bond does in a single film (well, at least the older ones with Sean Connery and Roger Moore). The scenes may be a bit more graphic, but they don't last long, and I've seen similar scenes in may other books - I have no problem with the content.
Another oddity is that the series is on these two lists on Amazon:
- First Contact Science Fiction
- Time Travel Science Fiction
- Time Travel Fiction
The last two entries are strange - there is no time travel in first book (and I understand there isn't any in the rest of the series either - the author is confused by this categorization).
The first contact piece I can understand - while there are sword and sorcery elements to the story, it is kind of science fiction as well. This isn't just swords and sorcery on a single world - there is definitely a science fiction element to it, which I won't reveal.
So, Sam Ryder is kind of a loser - an outcast. He has a dead-end job as a programmer, which he just got fired from. He spends most of his time playing Alien Civilization, an online RPG. A gorgeous woman on a motorcycle offers him a thrill ride, one thing leads to another, and he ultimately finds himself on a world filled with goddesses and monsters.
This world is kind of like an RPG - there are levels, and Sam arrives as an Outcast, which is what he was in the real world. He is immediately leveled up to Warrior for free. Future level ups have requirements. After being leveled up, he finds himself fighting for his life in his new Warrior body - think Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan, or maybe even a little bigger than that.
Eventually, Sam learns that he has been recruited to protect the Three goddesses from the monsters on the world, along with other recruits, some of whom aren't human. Survival on this world is brutal for new recruits. There are daily fights against the monsters, and any real information about what is going on is sparse - different people know different things, and there is very little sharing of information.
The combination of different elements made this a very satisfying story for me. Believe it or not, the sex scenes, while graphic at times, are fairly short (one or two pages at most), and are actually an integrated part of the story - it will become clear if you read it.
I enjoyed this first story enough that I bought the full boxed set that includes all five novels on Kindle - the price works out to about one dollar per book.
If you like some of the novels I mention above, you may enjoy this. I was originally able to read it for free on Amazon Prime Reading, but the book is currently $0.99 - pretty low price to take a change on something you may enjoy. At the end, you will learn the real name of the author, who has a few different series under different names. I will definitely be checking out at least one of them.
As always, I'm interested in hearing from my readers. Have you read this series? What did you think of it? Please feel free to leave a comment.
