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: Not Alone, by Craig A. Falconer

I came across this book in the Kindle store back when I first bought a Kindle - probably summer of 2016.  I was immediately interested in it, and purchased it.  It then got buried under a bunch of purchases of books my some of my favorite authors and I forgot about it.  I recently saw that a sequel has been published, which jogged my memory that I had this book on my reading list.  I also recently had a very busy period where I wasn't reading any novels at all, so I started it during a free moment.

Let me say that this book is not what I was expecting.  The back cover blurb indicates that Dan McCarthy discovers evidence of a government cover-up and his quest to force disclosure.  Given the books length, about 736 pages, I expected that this would be the smallest portion of the story - I expected the majority of it to deal with first contact.

This isn't the case - and that is not a bad thing.  This is a very different kind of first contact story - and it *is* a first contact story, sort of.  What do I mean by that?  Well, you'll just need to read the book - as I said, it is a very different treatment of the first contact theme.

The story is fast-paced.  Dan's accidental discovery of the evidence, his leak of of the information, and his path to forcing disclosure, unfolds over two weeks, and about 50% of the book.  The remainder of the book deals with the events that take place after disclosure, and this is where the plot becomes much more interesting (and it was already super engaging).

The chapters count down to disclosure, and then begin counting up once disclosure occurs (a mechanism you've probably seen in some other novels).  I'm not sure I understand the countdown measurement - it is not in days or hours, and there is no hint that I could find as to what the numbering stands for.

I don't want to reveal too much of the plot, but Not Alone is interesting and engaging from beginning to end, and it doesn't disappoint - quite the achievement when the story ended up being much different than I was expecting.  There are also some very unexpected surprises later in the story.  Remember the surprise in The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle?   (What, you haven't read it?  Remedy that immediately - you are missing out!)  There is an equivalent element of surprise to be found in Not Alone.

Overall this is a very pleasing story of a young man with his head in the stars who stumbles onto the opportunity to prove that his belief in UFO's and aliens is real, and chooses to act on it.  Very highly recommended!  I can't wait to check out the sequel and see how things ultimately get resolved.

As always, I'm interested in hearing from others.  If you have read this book and enjoyed it I'd be interested in hearing from you.