It is a mix of science fiction and fantasy and I am still a bit on the fence as to how well that This book was okay, average okay.
Some spoilers below.
It is a mix of science fiction and fantasy and I am still a bit on the fence as to how well that works in this book.
I still like the hero. The book is fairly well written. Not great but it is okay.
The dumbass General is still there but luckily he is not too present and is not allowed to make too many shenanigans in this book.
What I did not at all like in this book is the rest of the Order of Scion behaving like complete, low-IQ, dumbasses and, thanks to their own abysmal stupidity, allows the enemy to literally wipe most of them out.
This ends up with our hero and his closest friends having to go down the lone wolf, hiding in the shadows, underdog route and I did not at all like this stupid twist. The fact that his Earth squad got pressed into working for the enemy just adds to my discontent of where the story went.
It looks like the story is going more into the lots of machinations, skulking around Hollywood drama style of story and I never really like those.
I will probably continue this series, if nothing else to see where the story goes, but right now I’m not in a hurry to do so....more
Christopher Nuttall is one of my favorite authors. One that I found quite early on when I re-kindled my reading hobby about 15 years ago.
Sadly this boChristopher Nuttall is one of my favorite authors. One that I found quite early on when I re-kindled my reading hobby about 15 years ago.
Sadly this book from said author did not work for me.
It is not a bad book in any way, it just never managed to kindle (pun intended) my interest.
I think it is mostly because I felt there was never a single person to root for. The gist of the story is, as the blurb says, a group of magicians get stranded on Earth and have to find their way about. Of course they make friends during the journey.
However, that is my problem. It is a group of people, some from Earth and some from this Mystic Albion place. There is really no clear hero.
Worse, it is a group of youngsters and the “Albions” arrived, no surprise, with a bunch of interpersonal baggage exacerbated by the fact that they have a somewhat medieval worldview as to how the hierarchy should be.
It is not as bad or dysfunctional as the average group of teenagers in a Hollywood movie but I still got tired of it rather quickly.
I would have liked (hoped for) more of a Schooled in Magic but in inverse. I.e. a heroic magic slinger gets stranded on Earth instead of the other way around....more
This book continues from where the previous book left off. I quite liked the first book. This one, well it is not bad but I liked the first one betterThis book continues from where the previous book left off. I quite liked the first book. This one, well it is not bad but I liked the first one better.
Maybe it is because the novelty of the story that started in the first book has worn off. I just feel that the neither story, nor Ashley, felt as compelling as in the first book.
Ashley is the superhero that always have the upper hand. She is also portrayed as the most mature person in the universe. The book is borderline, if not clearly, in the realm of young adult and it sometimes diminishes the book.
I do like books with heroes that stay heroes, surmounts obstacles and generally wins the day but it would be even better if the writing was a bit more adult.
Having said that, I still enjoyed the book so I will probably give the next one a go....more
This author is a bit uneven to say the least. I quite liked the first book, Fleet Mage Academy of his Star Sorceress series. ThReview of books 1 to 3:
This author is a bit uneven to say the least. I quite liked the first book, Fleet Mage Academy of his Star Sorceress series. This series, not so much.
The books are light reads, luckily, so when the first book was okayish I continued but from a decent enough start it moved downhill quickly. Warp speed quickly.
The author claims that this is primarily a space opera and that the fantasy elements are “tangential”. Well, he does actually not mention science although when I see space opera I do kind of associate that with science fiction.
Unfortunately there’s not a shred of science in these books. It is science fantasy at best. Star Wars appears like hardcore sci-fi compared to this.
Sure the author tries to wrap things in science terms but he fails miserably. He do not understand how fusion reactors work (hint: they do not, cannot, explode) for example. How much energy that would be needed to create thousands of ships, by converting energy to matter, in a matter of days is also something that has eluded him. Scientific advancements are just happening when they are needed. That the rest of the universe required thousands of years to make the same advancements, well let’s ignore that. And so on and so forth.
And no, the argument that they got their hands on advanced technology to reverse engineer does not hold water. Humanity today could not reverse engineer a FTL drive in a few days or weeks any more than medieval knight could reverse engineer a modern car.
So from a somewhat decent start it went very quickly downhill and in the last book fleets of millions of ships are created from nothing and humanity, went from today’s level of technology to jumping between galaxies, in the blink of an eye, in no time at all, not to mention wiping out millions, if not billions, of enemy ships in seconds. Unrealistic to say the least.
The main protagonist and his colleagues just have to look at some new technology for a second and instantly they understand things that other races took thousands of years to develop.
Unfortunately the implementation of the books and the story is implausible and downright childish.
It doesn’t not help my appreciation, or rather lack thereof, that the author portrays America (and UK and Germany) as the bad guys because that’s the politically correct thing to do these days. Of course UN is portrayed an epitome of righteousness and impartiality instead of the corrupt cesspool and playground for terrorist nations that they really are.
The books are not very big and, as I wrote, quite light reading yet the author had to fill them out with Scott harping about how his wife is the smartest person around and how sexy that makes here over and over again.
A shame really. The author had a somewhat original idea, that I quite liked, and then he completely ruined it.
Needless to say I think I will sit out the rest of this series....more
The writing is average. It is not really a masterpiece. It is a light fast read and a fantasy / science ficI have to say that I quite liked this book.
The writing is average. It is not really a masterpiece. It is a light fast read and a fantasy / science fiction hybrid. In addition it is a borderline young adult book as far as I am concerned.
What I liked about it was the story and the main character.
The main protagonist is a young woman who, literally, has grown up in laboratory. She is socially inept but very competent and has fleet smashing, again literally, powers.
The book starts with Ashley liberating herself from the Harbingers who had “developed” her as a weapon. Fast forward two years and she enlists in the Mage Fleet Academy and there the real story starts.
What follows is a young woman coming of age and boot camp (I know it is a fleet academy and not a marine camp but you get what I want to say) story. She makes friends, as she discovers she already has enemies, lots of them, she develops, she (end her friends) survives assassination attempts and so on and so forth.
I especially like that, although she is under orders to not reveal what she truly can do, the author has not created a story where a bunch of dumbass government agents are completely anal about it. Instead she may actually user her powers if the circumstances are sufficiently dire.
Of course, circumstances do become very, very dire as the story unfolds.
As I wrote, it is a light read with average writing but it is a story that I enjoyed, a story with an overall positive feeling and one that made me feel happy while reading....more
This is one of those books where I really felt I had to read more than the first book in the series before reviewing it. The fiReview of book 1 and 2:
This is one of those books where I really felt I had to read more than the first book in the series before reviewing it. The first book did a lot of setting up but it kind of ended just when we got to the real story.
I like the story. That is what got and kept my interest while reading.
The premise of some regular guy having a really shitty day enlisting for some experimental treatment turning him into a super-marine is already a good start for me. Then we have the Order of Scion which take it to the next level although it takes the entire first book until they are introduced in the last few pages. That is essentially why I really wanted to read the second book before reviewing it.
Apart from the story, which I liked so far, the main protagonist is an overall likable, and competent, guy. Of course he turns out to be a bit more than the rest of the marines, hence the interest from the Order of Scion.
There is a lot of action, marine action, in these books. It is overall quite well made. There are some quirks in the story and the universe the author has created though. It is not always very plausible and sometimes downright bizarre. Especially some of the aliens encountered on New Terra. Here we enter more into science fantasy than science fiction.
But then when the Order of Scion is introduced and we go on to the second book, well then the story is pretty much turned full on into a science fiction and fantasy hybrid.
It is still not bad though and I do wish to see where the story goes.
One thing that really drags down the books though is this utter asshole of a General who only cares about how he will look and his own career. This moron does not shy away from sacrificing his soldiers or nuke a planet just so he can look good. That kind of thing just pisses me off....more
This is one of those books where I really felt I had to read more than the first book in the series before reviewing it. The fiReview of book 1 and 2:
This is one of those books where I really felt I had to read more than the first book in the series before reviewing it. The first book did a lot of setting up but it kind of ended just when we got to the real story.
I like the story. That is what got and kept my interest while reading.
The premise of some regular guy having a really shitty day enlisting for some experimental treatment turning him into a super-marine is already a good start for me. Then we have the Order of Scion which take it to the next level although it takes the entire first book until they are introduced in the last few pages. That is essentially why I really wanted to read the second book before reviewing it.
Apart from the story, which I liked so far, the main protagonist is an overall likable, and competent, guy. Of course he turns out to be a bit more than the rest of the marines, hence the interest from the Order of Scion.
There is a lot of action, marine action, in these books. It is overall quite well made. There are some quirks in the story and the universe the author has created though. It is not always very plausible and sometimes downright bizarre. Especially some of the aliens encountered on New Terra. Here we enter more into science fantasy than science fiction.
But then when the Order of Scion is introduced and we go on to the second book, well then the story is pretty much turned full on into a science fiction and fantasy hybrid.
It is still not bad though and I do wish to see where the story goes.
One thing that really drags down the books though is this utter asshole of a General who only cares about how he will look and his own career. This moron does not shy away from sacrificing his soldiers or nuke a planet just so he can look good. That kind of thing just pisses me off....more
This series started a bit hesitantly with Out of the Dark which was not great but not bad either. Out of the Dark was followed up with Into the Light This series started a bit hesitantly with Out of the Dark which was not great but not bad either. Out of the Dark was followed up with Into the Light which was really good and now we arrived at this one which is a five star one for me.
Although this series is mostly science fiction it has a doze of fantasy in it even though the authors adds a half plausible scientific explanation for… vampires.
I do like the type of story this series spins. Humanity learns that we are not alone, the very, very hard way. They rise from the ashes and starts to do some serious alien ass kicking. This book is very much about the latter and, in particular, taking the fight to the enemy. Or is it the enemy?
The book is very well written as one would expect from a David Weber book and I am happy that, unlike some of David Weber’s books lately, it is not suffering from word diarrhea with endless dialogues and discussions. Even if it is well written it becomes boring if there is too much bla bla.
This books has a nice mix of everything including plenty of action and alien take downs, good characters, technological advancements and a few twists.
I especially like that the humans truly kicks alien behinds in this book and the mix of space ships, big fucking guns and space vampires was a delight to read. Yes, the space vampires actually works in this book and is not as tacky as one would suspect.
At the end of the day humanity not only teaches alien bad guys the error of their ways but gains some surprising allies.
Eagerly waiting for the next book in the series....more
Not surprisingly this is another great book in the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior series. As usual Larry Correia’s writing is excellent.
This book contiNot surprisingly this is another great book in the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior series. As usual Larry Correia’s writing is excellent.
This book continues the story of Ashok Vandal in this intricate world of sword wielders, magic, mystery and maybe some science? Ashok Vadal is back in play after escaping. I did not really like him being imprisoned but the story Correia weaved together after his escape, that I really liked.
Not only was it a nice adventure in itself but it really advanced the story in terms of how the world came to be as it is now in the book, the mystery of the black metal and so on and so forth. I quite like the direction the story is taking here.
Of course there is the usual action parts and, again as usual, Correia excels when writing those.
There are, unfortunately, also quite a lot of parts with dialogues involving the conspiracies and machinations which I felt was less enjoyable. Sure, they are excellently written but they were just not my favorite parts. There were times, when reading, that I felt there was too much of this and not enough of Ashok Vandal.
Still, Larry Correia is a excellent author and his books are not really comparable to a lot of the books, the majority really, that I have read. So when I say there was too much of this and not enough of that, it is really me being greedy and saying there was too much four star material and not enough five star material in the book.
So although, for me personally, this book fell half a star short of five stars, mostly for the reason I outlined in the previous paragraphs, which is more due to personal taste really than any fault of the author, I am really looking forward to the next book. I am dying to see where the story goes and really hope that we will get more revelations about the black metal and the ancestors....more
Larry Correia one of my absolute favorite authors. He is easily on my top five list of authors. Not only is he a great author but he doesn’t pander toLarry Correia one of my absolute favorite authors. He is easily on my top five list of authors. Not only is he a great author but he doesn’t pander to or take any shit from the woke screamers or CISGs (Common Internet Shit Gibbons) as he calls them when they start to throw their shit on his Facebook page. The latter usually ends up with said CISG being utterly trashed and Larry banned for 30 days since Facebook, or Facecrap as I prefer to call it, are part of the woke mob, cancel culture and fake news.
Anyway, about the book, it is a really good book. For me it does have a bit of uphill battle to fight since the genre of this book is not on the top of my favorite genres list. This book is essentially fantasy with a dose of steampunk. War is fought with swords, magic and steam powered battle mechs.
Still, fantasy and steampunk is not exactly at the bottom of my list either so…
What I personally liked most with this book was the characters though. These “thieves, drunkards, and worse” are absolutely great. The best character of them all is, not surprisingly, Madigan. He is bad-ass, competent and he does not take shit from anyone.
The book has a good solid story and there are plenty of action. This is essentially military fantasy so of course there are battles, plenty of battles. Actually, in the second half of the book it started to feel a bit overwhelming. In the first part of the book there was all the character introduction, team building and all that and I have to say that I liked that part of the book the most.
The second half of the book is actually quite gloomy and a bit sad. I really did not like some of the things that happened towards the end, especially when it comes to Madigan’s fate. It felt like the book hade both built up the Malcontents and torn them down again in the same book.
I wonder what the next book will be like? Given the rather gloomy ending with a lot of things simply shattered there are not really any clear and visible thread to pick up, at least not that I can see.
Bottom line is that this is a very good book though. For those more into the fantasy and steampunk genres than me when it comes to books it is probably a great book....more
This book is really a mix of science fiction and fantasy with emphasis on fiction rather than science. It is a bit different story and it has its goodThis book is really a mix of science fiction and fantasy with emphasis on fiction rather than science. It is a bit different story and it has its good points.
It is not very plausible and logical unfortunately and it is further dragged down by the way overused reluctant hero crap and who, just to make things even worse, frequently acts as a spoiled brat.
I did like the premise of the story though even if it is quite ludicrous so I’ll probably finish what appears to be a trilogy. It is rather fast and light reads after all so…...more
Review of books 8 to 13. I do not think there's any real spoilers but still beware.
I fell into a bit of binge-mode with this series and read books eigReview of books 8 to 13. I do not think there's any real spoilers but still beware.
I fell into a bit of binge-mode with this series and read books eight to thirteen back to back. Obviously I really like this series. It would probably would have gotten five stars if it was not for one unfortunate thing that really annoys me. We will get to that one later.
The series is a mix of magic and science. Normally that is really difficult to get right and more often than not it sucks. This author got it right, again obviously. The magic does not really screw up the science and overall it works really well. Also, the author has spun together a really nice and rich universe and story around the discovery of magic, human strife and… (drumroll) mysterious aliens.
Just to make it even more interesting the good guys, the Protectorate, are ruled by a monarchy. I quite like stories where, in the future, there a kings and queens instead of a bunch of dumbass politicians screwing things up. Okay, there are a few of those in this series as well but you cannot have everything.
This is a military science fiction series and there are of course space battles, ground battles and, well for the lack of a better word, magical battles and all that. However, it is also a series with a lot of interesting characters, mysteries and some books are more crime and mystery investigations than military action.
Then there are of course a bit of romance as well. You cannot really have kings, queens and princesses in distress without some romance after all.
It is all very well done and no part intrudes on the other. I am especially happy that the romance on politics are not going haywire. Well, there was one of the earlier books where the politicians were up to their usual bullshit, as politicians always are, but it got quickly resolved.
There are plenty of action and it is all well done. The characters are really, really likable. At least the ones on the good side. There are a few twists here and there. Some that I actually did not see coming.
In the last few books the main protagonist changes somewhat from that of Damien Montgomery to his protégé Chambers who, in the last few books, has quite some character development and gets some serious “upgrades”. It is not always it works for me when an author decides to pass on from one character to another in the series. I often end up missing the original character. In this series it works though. Chambers is also a very likable character and Montgomery is still very present even though he is not really the main protagonist anymore in several of the books.
Overall this is one of the best series I have read lately. Maybe not the best ever but definitely the best one I’ve read in the last half year or so.
Unfortunately there is one thing that really annoys me and is really the reason I will not go for five stars. It is this bloody twist where the main protagonist got hurt and lost some of his powers. He is now no longer uber-badass but just badass. For me that was a totally unnecessary twist. What makes it worse is that in every bloody book the author harps about how he lost his runes and can no longer do this and that. It is so annoying.
Without that bullshit this would have been a five star series. Now it is “only” a very solid four star one for me....more
Per Gunnar
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fantasy
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