Book Review: Warrior: Monster Slayer (Book 1, The Monsterworld Saga), by Sam Ryder

I came across this book totally by accident.  I was looking through the Prime Reading list on Amazon and found it in the fantasy section.  I'm a fan of the Monster Hunter International series by Larry Correia, so this sounded interesting.  However, this is more of a fantasy tale - something like GameLit or LitRPG (I'm not super familiar with either of these sub-genres, so take that with a grain of salt).  But, the encounter was very similar to Monster Hunter International, which I came across in the local bookstore years ago - the concept sounded kind of neat.  I wasn't really taking a chance with "free" - other than sacrificing a bit of my time.

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.

Book Review: The Dragon Reborn (The Wheel of Time #3), by Robert Jordan

The Dragon returns!  This is the third book of The Wheel of Time series.  My impression is that this story picks up several months after The Great Hunt, as the winter season has passed.  Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne are on their way back to Tar Valon with Mat so that he can be separated from the dagger he picked up in Shador Logoth in The Eye of the World.  This was supposed to have been done in The Great Hunt - before the dagger was stolen with the Horn of Valere.

The rest of the group is gathering news from travelers of what is happening in Toman Head and the Almoth Plain after Rand declared himself The Dragon, and many witnesses saw him battling the Dark One in the sky.  Now that Rand has declared himself, no more false Dragons are appearing.

This title of this book is somewhat misleading.  In book one, Moraine realizes that Rand is the Dragon.  In book two, he declares himself.  So, in this book, with a title like The Dragon Reborn, you would expect the main focus to be on, well, The Dragon.  But, that isn't the case.  Aside from a little time at the beginning, where Rand decides to set off on his own, he is mostly absent from this story.  Oh, he appears briefly from time to time throughout the story, but the main focus is on all the other characters.  This reminded me of one of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality books - I think it was Being A Green Mother - where the individual the story is about doesn't even become the incarnation until the final chapter of the book (how then, is the book about that Incarnation?).

With this book, I've noticed a pattern in the storytelling which is consistent across all three books.  The group is together, they get separated into two or three groups that have separate journeys, and yet, whether or not they realize it, end up in the same place.

Throughout the story, we gradually learn more about what is going on.  We get more details on the Black Ajah, and what they have been responsible for in Tar Valon while the three Aes Sedai in training have been away (enslaved by the Seanchan on Toman Head).  The story becomes complicated for Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne - there's a lot going on in the background.  Many Aiel characters make an appearance as well, and we start to learn a bit more of their history, and why they are starting to appear.

Rand, Perrin, and Mat, the three young men from Emond's Field, all continue to have their own individual struggles.  Sure, they all have trust issues with Moraine - after all, they were raised to distrust Aes Sedai, which all relates to the Breaking of the World by the men who could channel who were driven mad by the taint the Dark One placed on saidin.  Despite all they have seen so far, they are all suspicious of being manipulated or controlled by the Aes Sedai.

Rand struggles with coming to terms that he is really the Dragon, and continues to have bad dreams, and wants to prove once and for all whether or not he is the Dragon, or if it is just dreams.

Perrin struggles with his ability to communicate with wolves.  He tries to close them out as much as possible, but finds that there are times where he simply MUST interact with them, and the interaction in this story was very surprising.

Mat seems in an odd place during this adventure.  In the past, he has been somewhat of a trouble maker, and has had distrust of Aes Sedai, and he definitely thinks mostly of himself (this is how he got in trouble with the dagger to start off with).  In this story, after being healed, he seems more angry and belligerent than before, and he has a huge distrust of the Aes Seda, and wants nothing other than to be left alone to go his own way.  But, he does what is right when necessary, and when asked.

With regard to Moraine and Lan, for the most part they fit their typical behavior pattern.  Moraine continues to reveal things only when necessary, which has a tendency to seed more mistrust - but, she has a lifetime of information which cannot be easily divulged, so it is a difficult balance.  This story is the first time we see real fear in her, which is sensed by Perrin through his extended wolf perception.

The pattern of slowness and extensive description continues.  I'm sure the pace and detail could certainly have been edited down, just as could have been done for the previous two novels.  I expected this installment, being the end of the first "trilogy" in the series, to have a much bigger climax, but it seemed about the same level as the previous two books.

The series continues to hold my interest, and I intend to keep reading, but my concerns about the pending slowdown which will be coming in a handful of books continues to grow.  We'll see what happens when I get there.

As always, I like hearing from my readers.  Have you read this series?  What do you think of it?

Book review: Codex Born, by Jim C. Hines

This is the second book in the Magic Ex Libris series, and I felt it was just as good as the first one.  This review makes references to some things that happened in the first book, Libriomancer, so if you haven't read that book yet I wouldn't read this post any further.

This story begins a few months after the events of Libriomancer.  Isaac Vainio is no longer a field agent.  Now he is a researcher for the Porters, and he's been working on the task assigned to him by Johannes Gutenberg, the man who created the Porters centuries earlier.  He has been researching the mysterious force which made an appearance at the end of the previous story.  While the Porters protect the world from magic, including the knowledge of it, this mysterious force is something which Gutenberg himself has been keeping from the Porters.  A force which he has been aware of and feared for 500 years.

In Codex Born, Isaac is called in to investigate the death of a wendigo in werewolf territory.  He quickly learns that forces which want revenge on Johannes Gutenberg (in response to events from centuries ago) are beginning to move against him.  In the months between books 1 and 2, both Isaac and Nidhi have had some difficulty adjusting to their new relationship with Lena Greenwood, the dryad.  This relationship appears to be a split-object triangle (definition).

Isaac has also taken on a mentoring role for a 14-year-old girl named Jeneta Aboderin.  Like many of those who exhibit magical abilities, Jeneta discovered her ability quite by accident, and her talent could forever change how the Porters understand magic.  I won't reveal her talent - you'll need to read the book to learn about it for yourself.

In the previous book, we learned that Lena is a dryad who was effectively pulled from a book - the title of Codex Born refers to Lena.  In this story, we learn more about her origins - it is interleaved through the entire story as a blurb at the start of each chapter.  As it turns out, her origins can have some nasty ramifications in this story.

One of the things I like about this series is that magic has consequences. In Dungeons & Dragons magic users and clerics and Druids all require physical components to their spells and you can only use the spells that you currently have in memory.  In this series, the more magic you use the more drained you become.  This can be very dangerous, as explored at the end of Libriomancer.

An especially interesting element of this story is how Lena is shaped by the desired of her companions.  The person she is depends greatly on the company she keeps - and the relationship she has with her two lovers makes her a formidable ally.

As with the first book, the story comes to a satisfying end, building on the previous story, and revealing that the situation is rapidly becoming more dire as time passes.  All has not yet been revealed - Isaac still doesn't quite know what they are dealing with.

This is a great follow up to Libriomancer, and the looming danger continues to grow throughout the story.  I highly recommend this to anyone who has read the first book.

As always, if you have read this series, I'm interested in hearing from you.  Feel free to leave a comment.