Forgotten Ruin by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole

Forgotten Ruin is a first book in a new epic military fantasy thriller series by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole. After the success with Galaxy's Edge series in military sci-fi genre the two decided to try their hand at fantasy. 

And after finishing the book I can say they succeeded. Described as "Tolkien meets Shock and Awe" Forgotten Ruin follows an elite task force of U.S. Army Rangers who find themselves in a fantasy world not unlike something out of Dungeons and Dragons with the mission to (re)establish modern civilisation.

Since there will be potential spoilers, consider yourself properly warned.

The story could be described as Black Hawk Down meets Lord of the Rings. The premise is quite novel. It reminded me about how years ago there was a story on some forum about a group of Marines going against Roman Legionnaires. The closest thing though was a series of Japanese light novels called "Gate: Thus the Japanese Self-Defense Force Fought There", There was also an anime. But the similarities between Forgotten Ruin and Gate end with the premise.

Personally I found the narrator, who is also the protagonist rather annoying. In time I learnt to appreciate him. Especially once we were past the necessary infodumps that were disrupting the natural flow of the story. That is the only criticism I have of the book.

Having read Cole & Anspach's Galaxy's Edge series, there is resemblance in plot to the Legionnaire. Considering both Forgotten Ruin and Legionnaire are the first entry to the new series I can understand why the authors chose tried and true formula.

The Rangers in Forgotten Ruin are the underdogs trying to figure things out. Strangers in a strange land full of dangers they don't know or understand. Dangers they are incapable of fathoming. This allows the authors to put the characters through a number of dangerous scenarios and allow the reader to get to know them, root for them, and by the end of the book empathise with them. And when it comes to pulling on the heart strings of the reader, Anspach and Cole are professionals.

I heartily recommend this book to any aficionado of military sci-fi and fantasy. 

What keeps me reading Reincarnation Of The Strongest Sword God

Reincarnation Of The Strongest Sword God is a Chinese web novel written by Lucky Old Cat, 天运老猫. It's a mix of Chinese martial arts, LitRPG, and science fiction, and currently on Volume 29 and Chapter 2850. It is still ongoing.

The premise of the story is very simple. The protagonist who spent last 10 years of his life trying to make a name for himself and achieve greatness in an online game called God's Domain gets fired because of hostile takeover. And he starts over. 10 years in the past. This magical device was never explained but it serves as the central point that allows Shi Feng to take advantage of certain situations in the game because of his memories of, let's call it his past life.

From here on the adventure begins, and the story never disappoints. 

Paladin IV/12

Continuing with my personal crusade in honour of twelve peers of Charlemagne, today we have on display 4th of the 12 paladins I decided to create in Heroforge.

Since I started doing this, I came up with a set of rules every paladin I create must adhere to. These rules are:

1. Paladin must have a cross
2. Paladin must have a book
3. Paladin must have a sword, spear, mace or any other knightly weapon
4. No more than two items of the same armour set can be used on the same paladin
5. No armour piece can be used more than once across all 12 paladins
6. Weapons and shields can be duplicated across the 12 characters
7. Armour, weapons and shields used should strive toward realism
8. The models should be human in look and size
9. Paladin should wear a ring

Book list 2020

Five stars

The World Armada, John C. Wright

The Space Vampires, John C. Wright

Dune, Frank Herbert

The Man Who Was Thursday; A Nightmare, G.K. Chesterton

Four stars

The LawDog Files, D. LawDog

The LawDog Files: African Adventures, D. LawDog

Potovati z Orwellom, Jože Biščak

Suicide of the West: An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism, James Burnham

Solomon Kane: The Right Hand of Doom, Robert E. Howard

Ship of Fools: An Anthology of Learned Nonsense about Primitive Society, C.R. Hallpike

Shadows in The Moonlight, Robert E. Howard

Three stars

Flying Sparks, Jon Del Arroz

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 1, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 2, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 3, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 4, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 5, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 6, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 7, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 8, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 9, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 10, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 11, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 12, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 13, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 14, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 15, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 16, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 17, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 18, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 19, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 20, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 21, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 22, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 23, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 24, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 25, Lucky Old Cat

Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God Volume 26, Lucky Old Cat

Jordanetics: A Journey Into the Mind of Humanity's Greatest Thinker, Vox Day

Prisoners of Darkness, Jason Anspach & Nick Cole

Two stars

Lonestar: Heart of the Hero, Mike S. Miller

One star

War Crimes, Christie Golden

Catch-22, Joseph Heller

Greedfall review

Recently I finished playing Greedfall, and all in all I must say the game was a very enjoyable experience.

For anyone who ever played any other Spiders game, there will be a sense of a certain familiarity. The developers didn't try to reinvent the wheel with Greedfall, it's more like the game is culmination of a hard work on various RPG games in the past decade. The design of the skill tree in particular harkens back to Technomancer released in 2016.

What sets it apart from all the other fantasy RPGs is in my view its setting. Certainly, nowadays any and every game is special, unique, and different than all other that came before. And in most cases when it comes to RPGs, they are all the same bland of medieval-ish fantasy.