The Bookwyrm's Review of Darkmage by M.L. Spencer

Author: M.L. Spencer

Length: 521 Pages/ 18 Hours, 26 minutes (Audio)

Publisher:  Stoneguard Publications

Release Date: January 6, 2016/ September 18, 2018

Narrator: Simon Wright

Series: The Rhenwars Saga, book 1

Genre: Grimdark fantasy

After reading the opening book in this series, Darkstorm, I was curious where the author would take it, considering that ending. Well, she took it a thousand years after the events of Darkstorm, and started a whole new cast of characters, with references and the history since mixed in, all to great effect.

The time has come for Darien Lauchlin, son of the Prime Warden of Aerysius, basically the head of the mage guild, to be invested as a mage. This is accomplished by an elderly mage passing along their power, which kills them in the process. After the transfer, someone unexpected betrays the entire mage guild, and the kingdoms at large, by opening the Well of Tears, releasing the forces of the God of Chaos upon the world. This includes the eight demons of legend, powerful mages of a previous era that were sent to the underworld as they attempted to open the Well themselves. Escaping as the mage's tower is destroyed, Darien watches the city fall to ruin as he escapes. Being helped by an aged mage to escape, he also gains that mages power, making him the most powerful mage walking around, much more powerful than a human is supposed to be. 

Escaping to the border of the Darklands, Darien must convince the commander of the border defenses to retreat away to a more defensible position now that the mages, who were defense only magic anyway, are now gone, and the defenses will be facing magic they can no longer defend against. While there, Darien meets Kyel Archer, an undiscovered magic sensitive who he takes on as an apprentice. With the help of a priestess of the God of Death, Darien and Kyel hatch a plan to defeat the forces of chaos and close the Well. Splitting up to marshal the various armed kingdom forces, Kyel is sent to gather up one kingdoms forces and have them gather at a place of magic power, while Darien goes to another for the same task.

This all ends up leading to a dramatic confrontation with the forces of the kingdoms against the forces of the Darklands and their chaos masters. Darien must choose whether to break his peace vow, making him a pariah. Also, the plan to close the Well involves the ultimate sacrifice, with the whole world on the line. The ending is such a twist, you can't possibly see it coming, but in the best way possible.

Like it's predecessor Darkstorm, Darkmage is primarily a character driven story, Its the story of people who have to make decisions that have world shaking consequences, which will affect them most of all. Is your oath and honor worth thousands of lives? Is the sacrifice your father made not enough example? Darien struggles with all of this, as do so many of the other characters. The Oath of Peace hangs over the proceedings, and Darien has to contend with it throughout. Darien is a complex, fully drawn out character. the secondary characters are given good development as well, especially Kyel. The villains are mostly in the background, working behind the scenes, although the initiator of the entire conflict does get a bit of poetic justice. The world building s top notch, the plotting is fast paced, action packed and emotional, and the twist ending really cemented how good this book was.

The narration by Simon Wright was definitely a high point. His voice sounds quite a bit like Kit Harrington, so it sounds like Jon Snow is reading to you, which is kind of cool if you ask me. Excellent voice work for the various characters, and he has excellent pacing.  I can't recommend it enough, in whatever format you choose.

The Bookwyrm's Review of The Future of Supervillainy by C.T. Phipps

Author: C.T. Phipps

Length: TBD

Release Date: TBD

Publisher: Crossroad Press

Series: Supervillainy, Book 6

As a huge fan of the Supervillainy series, I was really excited to hear that C.T. Phipps was writing a new volume in the series. When I was given the chance to read an early access copy of The Future of Supervillainy, my inner nerd went into overdrive. Not sure where the series would go after Tournament of Supervillainy, I was pleasantly surprised with the direction it went. 

After defeating Entropicus in the Tournament of Eternity, Gary and crew returned to Falconcrest City, to bask in their well earned spoils from the tournament. Living at the Warren Mansion, family home of the Nightwalker, Gary and his family are continuing their life of crime, such as it is. When government agents show up to arrest Gary, threatening his family in the process, Gary decisively and permanently, for the agents at least, ends that threat. Gary then meets John Booth and Mercury, the protagonists from the author's Cthulhu Armageddon series, and finds out the Society of Superheroes has been captured by Tom Terror and P.H.A.N.T.O.M.. When he finds out they were in a previously unknown realm at the center of the Earth, nothing will stop Gary and his crew from going to rescue them.

Arriving in the hidden world, Gary finds that Tom Terror and his minions have taken over a large swath of it, and are trying to take over the last free area. Gary also discovers the underground sun is Ultranian in nature, and the source of all the supers on earth. What follows is a thrill a minute battle though a world Indiana Jones and Jules Verne wouldn't want to try, With dinosaurs, villains and Nazi's, err, P.H.A.N.T.O.M goons trying to stop them at every turn, the final face off has a bunch of twists and turns, including some people from Gary's life he never expected to see again. It also turns out Gary isn't the only one with an Eternity Stone, and this means a shift in the balance of power that may have effects much greater than Gary expected, and he will be changed in so many ways by the end.

This has a really cool adventure story vibe to it, part Indian Jones meets Jules Verne, part Savage Land comics. Gary is his usual wisecracking, self deprecating, stubborn self. You might be  able to complain about character growth, but who wants Gary to grow or get introspective? That would ruin half the fun at least. The rest of the cast of rogues is its usual fun, crazy best. Cindy, aka Red Riding Hood, is still one of my favorite characters. She will literally say anything, and is definitely fun and shocking at every turn. The villain, Tom Terror, is one of his best, being a combo of The Red Skull and Lex Luthor. He comes across with grandiose menace like no other villain in the Garyverse, and he is a legitimate threat at all times to anyone who gets in his way. The new setting of the inner world is very Verneesque, but with touches only C.T. Phipps could come up with. All told, this is one of my favorite entries in what is one of my favorite series. I cant recommend it highly enough when its published.

Rating: 5/5

The Bookwyrm's Review of Soda Pop Soldier by Nick Cole

Author: Nick Cole

Length: 367 Pages/ 12 Hours, 27 Minutes (Audio)

Publisher: Nick Cole/ Podium Publishing (Audio)

Release Date: January 14, 2019/ November 6, 2018 (Audio)

Narrator: Guy Williams

Series: Soda Pop Soldier, Book 1

Genre: GameLit/Cyberpunk

I was a big fan of Nick Cole from his previous work on books like The Red King, but it wasn't until the kerfuffle about this book's predecessor, CTRL-ALT Revolt!, that I became aware of this book. A shame, really, because I missed out on some damn fine writing until now.

Set in the same universe as Revolt, just years later, we meet the protagonist, PerfectQuestion, professional gamer for ColaCorp, doing battle in WarWorld, the biggest MMO in the world, as ColaCorp's online soldiers battle WonderSoft's virtual troopers in a winner takes all battle for prime advertising space in New York, all in a game that has similarities to the Vietnam war and the setting for the movie Aliens. Unfortunately for PerfectQuestion, ColaCorp has suffered one defeat after another lately, being rolled back from previous gains and facing imminent defeat. In the dystopian corporate controlled world he lives in, losing his job will mean hard times, since jobs are hard to come by, and he'll be tainted by failure.

With his career possibly about to come crashing down, his personal life in shambles as his girlfriend is acting as though she is about to leave, and his game play bonuses leaving him well short of the rent, PerfectQuestion takes the rent money and bets big on himself, buying into an illegal fantasy MMO which can lead to big money and expensive prizes. It could also lead to jail if he is caught. Booting the game up, he finds himself playing a one handed samurai on a quest to find his sword. He begins to suspect something is up with the game, as outside forces put a hit on his character, and forces in real life turn his life into a deadly game of cat and mouse. He has to remain alive in game and in the real world, all while trying to come up with a way to keep ColaCorp from crashing and burning, leaving him nowhere to go. This leads to the breakneck finale, which will leave the reader breathless with anticipation all the way to the end, which has a satisfying, completely action packed conclusion.

Being one of the early entries into the GameLit genre, with a smothering of Cyberpunk, Soda Pop Soldier avoids a lot of the pitfalls that more recent additions to the genre suffer from. There are absolutely no harem elements to scare away female readers, and the main character, PerfectQuestion, is not a stat obsessed ubernerd living in mom's basement, but a guy who treats the game like what it is, his job. The secondary characters, almost all of whom are seen just in the various games, are surprisingly fleshed out, and some interesting backstory elements come out as well. The villain is a bit generic in motivations, but is cleverly integrated into the story, and he has an interesting resolution in the story. The world building, both in game and IRL is top notch, and the reader really gets a feel for being in the thick of the action. The game play elements are also fairly unique in today's overabundance of virtual reality interfaces in GameLit, instead going old school gaming and using keyboard and mouse. You still feel fully immersed in the game world, which is a testimony to the writing skill of the author. The military action all has a genuine feel to it, and I suspect the authors military background came into play in keeping the feel real to life. All in all, I would definitely rate this in my top 5 GameLit/LitRPG titles, and recommend it without reservation.

Guy Williams, who's work I was familiar with from several other titles, does a fantastic job bringing this world to life. He uses a variety of tones, accents and pacing to give each character a life of their own. His narrative pacing is solid as well, never getting either monotonous or speed reading. If you are a fan of audio books, this is definitely a version I can recommend heartily.

Rating: 5/5