Review: One-Fifth Dragon

One-Fifth Dragon by Shami Stovall
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review. I made it through 10% of the book. Chapter 4. Then I entered the Dorothy Parker book throwing Olympics.

Pretty good start. Generic Asian/Japanese-inspired culture focusing on ninjas. Various clans with unique magical abilities. Some early examples of how those abilities interact and compete.

The student is learning from the master. The master is a bit young to be a master and (until now) too young to accept a student. They are assigned this student who has been poorly trained up until now by a different master.

They go on a training mission to assassinate someone from a dominant clan. The student encounters trouble. The poor training becomes evident. Perhaps the student's attitude is wrong as well. The master saves the student. The targeted clan experiences many deaths. The student and master get away.

And then ...Record scratch.... they go to an inn where the student seduces (partially) the master across several pages of narrative. It turns out that the main clan had adopted the master many years ago. The master has a unique form of magic, but no one wants to marry them. The student came from a clan that had been almost wiped out. The student was similarly adopted by the main clan. They want someone to breed with the master. The student agreed (despite serious risks) and does everything possible to consummate the arrangement while they are on the run from committing an assassination and multiple murders.

The master...again a very stoic person...resists temptation with the obvious implication that when the cultural rules permit it, they will be actively participating.

4 chapters in!! No serious character development up to that point. Bubbly student. Stoic master. Rough sketches of the culture. That's it. A good start, but only a start. Let's get our freaky-deaky on!

I'm not a romantasy fan. This smacks of romantasy in so many ways. I've read Peter V. Brett, N.K. Jemisin, and Robert Heinlein - each of whom have extended sex scenes included in various works in ways that are carefully integrated into the plot. It isn't the sex that is the issue. It is the romantasy trope of making the entire story about a romantic relationship.

Couple that with the fact that the entire scenario as written would be "problematic" in any other setting. One person makes a secret deal to have sex with another person. That second person was already feeling manipulated and vulnerable. And their sexuality is bartered away without their consent.

Rhetorically chucked across the room and started something that I hope will be better.

2-stars only because the writing was pretty good. Grammar/spelling were solid if not perfect. It has the bones of a good story early on.


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Review: Sisters of Mercy

Sisters of Mercy by Yuval Kordov
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This 4.5-star review is a fair representation of my experience.

The premise is that there is a mysterious quasi religious order who is raising girls to be embedded in a sort of android/mech. The mechanical body protects them from harm (mostly) while their consciousness and vital organs ride along. They roam in a dystopian wasteland hunting the remnants of a conflict fought ages ago.

It was a thrilling ride as the new "Sister" was being trained by an older "Sister". Discovering the things that haunt fallen cities and military bases. How to hunt them. How to kill them. Learning about the secure waystations used by the Sisters to rearm and recover from prior battles. Ultimately finding and defeating a relic of the old war.

My only complaint is that this is a novelette. That means that there are plenty of world building details that have been omitted.

I'm inclined to read the mainline Dark Legacies series by the same author.


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Review: Waffle Irons vs. the Horde

Waffle Irons vs. the Horde by Dr. Insensitive Jerk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This 3.5-star review is a fair representation of my experience.

The premise is that Earth is about to be invaded by malicious aliens. Another group of aliens precedes the destructive ones. The second group has come to save humanity by taking captives and forcing them to train to fight the malicious aliens.

Our "hero", such as he is, employs malicious compliance to obtain the best living conditions possible. Think about the 60s era sitcom "Hogan's Heroes" as a reference point. I'm old. Sorry.

There were plenty of jokes along the way. Cultural misunderstandings twisted for our hero's benefit and our amusement. Consider this funny version of "Ender's Game".

This was a light and entertaining book. I laughed more than a few times. The subtext is mildly small-L libertarian which is odd given the conclusion of the book.

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Review: The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant: Fred the Vampire Accountant #1

The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant: Fred the Vampire Accountant #1 by Drew Hayes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This 3-star review is a fair representation of my experience with the book. Perhaps this is closer to 3.5-stars

The premise is that Fred has been turned into an vampire. He was an in accounting before becoming a vampire. So he just changes his working hours to suit. There are other paranormal creatures running around. And an agency focused on containing bad actors. Light hearted. Easy read. Amusing at times.

I was not convinced that I should read any further installments.

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Review: Auntie Heroes

Auntie Heroes by Rita Beeman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This 5-star review is representative of my experience with the book.

This is a collection of short (and short-ish) stories that are predicated on an older woman (or women) who are surprisingly capable in unusual situations. Some situations are outright physical based on a thriller, spy, or military component. One story involves an older lady marking her last few years of government service in an overseas embassy that is attacked. The story nicely balances certain capabilities (such as shooting and weapons knowledge) with the reality that a woman (an older woman no less) probably lacks the physical stature to manhandle a group of terrorists. Tossing in a series of stun grenades until they surrender is a nice combination of those two facets.

Other stories lean more heavily into fantasy/sci-fi mode. One story leans into a Lovecraftian mythos where a group of old ladies is prepared to defend the local town from someone attempting to summon an unspeakable horror. A second story involves an older woman who thinks she is about to fight werewolves. The flamethrower comes in handy in any event. A third story involves a local group of women who find their overseas experience combatting a species of electrically active plant useful when the neighbor decides to plant some new botanicals.

All of the stories are inventive and a touch humorous.

Raconteur Press is an exciting entry into the genre publishing space. Well worth everyone's attention.



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Review: Red Seas Under Red Skies

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This 3-star review is representative of my experience with the book.

I read the first book in the series and loved it, 5-stars. This one...not so much.

Where the first book involved a lot of character growth and world exploration, this one relied more on withholding facts from the reader and deceiving the reader at every turn. It then ends in a cliffhanger with important plot points left unresolved.

Consider this a reader's test for this series. If you liked book 1 and like this book, then continue on with the series. Otherwise, move on to something fresh.


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Review: American Paladin

American Paladin by Larry Correia
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3.5 star review which is a fair appraisal of my experience with the book. But Goodreads doesn't allow 3.5 stars. So why did I go with 3?? I acquired the book via the author's Kickstarter campaign.

Here we go. The book is centered around Mike Spears. As a teen, he went to "the other side" or "the other world". A world populated by people who would make the Aztecs and their murderous religious practices seem almost peaceful. Normal people are kept as slaves there. Used for labor, food, and/or religious sacrifices based on the whims of the "gods" and those who worship them.

There are other creatures there as well. Equally dangerous and perhaps a bit more so.

Mike randomly made it back to our world and lost his family, lost his girlfriend, and lost pretty much every human/family connection in the process. He now lives and trains for the day when he encounters the monsters from the other world again.

We pick up with Mike after he has spent years training, wandering from place to place, and killing the human monsters from our world who our justice system sees fit to release back out into the world to victimize others once again. Mike has a code. So far, he hasn't killed anyone who was innocent.

Then he runs across someone being hunted by the monsters from the other side. The story is about hunting those monsters and saving the girl. If you can shut off certain critiques, then this is a fine book. Give it a try. It might scratch a certain literary itch for you.

If you are a fan of Larry's Monster Hunter novels, then I suspect that this book might be for you. I've not read those books for reasons that I think this book confirms. Alternatively, if you like Alistair MacClean novels, then this might be up your alley. It's not quite as good as Mr. MacClean's books but it's close enough.

I have read his Saga of the Forgotten Warrior Series and the first book of Servants of War series. I heartily recommend both as being outstanding on their own merit and vastly superior to this book.

I also want to point out that I have followed the author's career and controversies within the genre. His perspective is generally pointed in the right direction in most cases, IMO.

So why the round down to 3 stars??

- Gun porn. The author has a penchant for describing guns and ammo in loving detail. I'm familiar enough with weapons to know what he is describing, but it's really just wasted detail, in my opinion.

- Putting the subtext ahead of the text. Almost every author includes some sort of underlying theme or moral value in their story. But that subtext is covered by the text; the story narrative. Early on, the author discards the text of the story in favor of trashing Joe Biden, leftist judges, and the leftist modern politics. Again, I think his personal perspective is generally correct, but in 15-20 years, no one will know or care about those specific issues. He could have been a bit more generic and still served the interests of the narrative.

- Modern cultural references. One or two major references are probably fine. Anything more than that and the book will not stand the test of time. I have a hard time believing that all of our modern cultural references will survive the next 50 years.

- Too much showing, not enough telling. We learn about Spears' history and development via a series of brief vignettes at the start of each chapter. We are told that he has done a ton of training. We are told he experienced horrors. We are rarely shown either of them.

- Over competent character. Spears is a one-man wrecking crew. He can pick locks, shoot accurately with every weapon he encounters, is an expert grappler, and knows how to make bodies disappear. The only challenges he experience are when facing multiple humans or something from "the other side". He is The Terminator. He pursues relentlessly.

- Which leads to the lack of character development. There is no hero's journey. We are dropped into a crisis where the main character's major challenge is how to use the skills and resources he has already developed.

I was disappointed. I am a sometime Hugo nominator and I was hoping this book would make the cut. I know he doesn't want one. That doesn't mean that his superior writing (when it occurs) shouldn't be recognized. This one didn't measure up.

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Review: Mushroom Blues

Mushroom Blues by Adrian M. Gibson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review. I'm categorizing it as a plain "DNF" rather than a full on Dorothy Parker DNF.

This book came in second in SPFBOX. I read the winner. It was much better than this.

The premise of the book is that humans have conquered a world populated by mushroom people. They are just like humans except they have various fungi growing out of their skins including a huge mushroom on top of their heads. Everything is made of something fungal. They eat fungal foods. They build with fungal bricks and cables. They communicate partially via fungal spores. And the author reminds the reader of this fungal basis for life every other paragraph.

The book begins early on with heavy doses of racism, colonialism, and sexism. The subtext bleeds over the text pretty quickly. The native mushroom people exude a sort of language and culture that reads as "Asian" which as odd choice for people that would otherwise have no contact with an Earth Asian culture.

Within the book's narrative, there isn't any explicit reason for the humans to have conquered this planet. The impression given is that humans just love to conquer other places. There aren't any specific resources of interest nor any motivation due to expanding populations. The Terran presence on this planet is an excuse for humans to beat up on a native population...for fun?

The plot centers on a detective story. Our "hero" has a serious case of fungal-phobia and is assigned to solve the mystery of disappearing and murdered fungal children.

One feature of the story is that humans and mushroom people can make babies. How a species could evolve based on a fungal-centric biology that would be genetically compatible with humans is never explained. Do mushroom people have all the same sexual organs as human? If so, why when fungi reproduce via spores.

I made it 37% through the book before giving up. I might have lasted longer if I preferred detective stories. Belief is supposed to be suspended, not terminally broken.



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SPFBO Champions League

Now that SPFBO has completed 10 competitions, Mark Lawrence has started a "Champions League" where each of those winners will be ranked against one another.  The competition has concluded with the winners announced on Facebook and on Mark's blog.

I've read most of the winners, but not all.  With that in mind, here is how I would rank these champions.

I've segmented this into tiers as there are some books that far outshine the others.  And other books that...welllllll.  You get the point.  Links to my reviews are included where available.  Included in the comments is where the book ended up in the competition.

First Tier - Must Read
Book	Author	Dann's Rating	Brief Comments
	J. Zachary Pike	5 Stars	Solid mix of humor, old-school, hack-and-slash AD&D, economics, and the financial crash of 2008. Our hero is an adventurer in the old school D&D sense.  He assembles a team to go acquire treasure.  Along the way, he learns how his expedition gets monetized and how the adventuring system creates victims unjustly. [Came in second in the competition.  Great book, great series.]
	Jonathan French	5 Stars	A bunch of half-orcs are charged with defending civilization (read humans) from predation by full orcs.  This is a surface level "guys" book that includes an important subtext about questioning the accepted narrative.  A "must read" for any fantasy fan. [Came in 8th in the competition.  I'm not sure why.  I may have to read the judges reviews.]
	Morgan Stang	4 Stars	I should not like this book.  It combines a Cthulu-esque mythos, with a Sherlock Holmesian protagonist, with a steam punk vibe. But I love this book.  Our hero and her sidekick are engaging and entertaining.  The mystery takes time to resolve and kept me guessing.  Lots of dry British humo(u)r. Well worth the time to read. [Came in 7th in the competition.  Again, I'm baffled, but to each their own dentifrice.]
	M.L. Wang	5 Stars	The book is a tour-de-force of Asian inspired fantasy storytelling.  Our protagonist isn't supposed to be good with a sword.  Turns out she is great with a sword. Lots of culture/norms busting subtext included with a main story and characters that are engaging and thought provoking. [Came in 1st in the competition.  This is a worthy victor and well worth your time.]
Second Tier - Good Books, Solidly Entertaining
	Olivia Atwater	4 Stars	[I haven't formally reviewed the book.]  This is one of those "cozy" novels that have become popular lately.  Great characters.  The storyline is mostly OK and would be great were it not for the unforeseen resolution that smacks mightily of Deus ex machina, literally. It turns out that angels and demons really do live among us.  And sometimes they do miracles.   [Came in 4th in the competition.  It's a good book.  If you like "cozy" coupled with "don't think too much about it", then this is a great read.]
	Justin Lee Anderson	4 Stars	I'd almost put this book above "Small Miracles".  It was a well told story with engaging characters.  At the end of the book, there is a big reveal that causes you to reconsider all of the other actions in the book.  A real mind-bender. [Came in 5th in the competition and 6th on my list, so pretty close!!]
	J.L. Odom	4 Stars	While I enjoyed this book and wish the author, a fellow Marine, great success, it just left something out.  Mostly this is the first book of a series and it largely sets up the later books without really resolving any issues in the first book. [Came in 3rd in the competition.  There was a lot of great writing and worldbuilding in the book.  But it isn't a complete story.  And the fantasy elements were minimal.]
Have Never Read - I'm working on it.
	Michael McClung	--	I haven't read this, but I've heard lots of good things about it. [Came in 6th in the competition.]
	Rob J. Hayes	--	I haven't read this one either.  But the author is well known in the self-publishing and Grimdark communities. I'm reading this book right now.  Not the best first few chapters.  I thought this was going to be a DNF for a while.  It's picking up.  Unless it sticks the landing, it will end up in the Second Tier, above. [Came in 9th in the competition.]
Last Tier
	J.D. Evans	2 Stars [2.5 Stars]	This is a romance novel smeared with a layer of fantasy-ium.  Our protagonists smash for no good reason.  The magic and political intrigue is stated but never really shown.  There are the bones of a good story here that are occluded by "romantasy". [Came in 10th.  I agree!!]

Review: Academy of Outcasts

Academy of Outcasts by Larry Correia
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review which is a reasonable estimate of my experience.

Larry's other fantasy works have been uniformly great. It took me until the afterwards of this book to figure out the problem. This is LitRPG. I rarely find LitRPG worth the effort of reading.

This book was no different. As is typical for LitRPG, there was a focus on "levels" for magic users. Not so much for fighters.

As is typical, the names used for other creatures involved minimal creativity. Sometimes no creativity.

There were enough spelling/grammar errors that I started making notes in my Kindle edition. People wear "striped" shirts and not "stripped" shirts. And once my editor's hat was on, other elements of the novel became noticeable.

One big incongruity is how the first mages set up the Nexus in the first place. All of the elemental components were on elemental plains. So how did those first mages get the elements that would allow them to cast spells to allow them to travel to elemental planes so they could mine more elemental components?

If you like LitRPG, then give this a try. It might be for you. Larry is a very good author...just not enough to make LitRPG interesting for someone that doesn't like LitRPG to begin with.

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Review: Orconomics

Orconomics by J. Zachary Pike
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a 5-star review.

I rarely give out 5 star reviews. This book is something special.

[I failed to write a review when I read the book in 2019. So this will not be as detailed.]

The world of Orconomics is the world of old-school, hack-and-slash, raid dungeon for gold Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The only good version of AD&D, in my opinion.

The sub-text of the book is the story of Wall Street trading in stocks, derivatives, and other financial tools. There is, to my layman's eyes, a pretty solid critique in this book to the activities that led to the financial collapse of 2008.

Back to the story, our hero assembles a team of adventurers to go get the McGuffin. In the process of hacking and slashing their way to the McGuffin, they learn that the whole system is a bit of a Ponzi scheme that gets adventurers to rob nominally peaceful non-humans (i.e. orcs, etc.) in order to fulfill investment contracts.

There is a ton of humor in the story. The characters are highly relatable. The economics sub-text informs rather the story rather than surpassing it. This is a solid book that is worthy of your time.

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Review: Cold Silver for Souls

Cold Silver for Souls by Tori Tecken
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review. Maybe a weak 3.5 star experience.

This book combines the "wild west" with a gold rush with magic with land barons with company towns. And it is a fun and easy read. If anything about the author's/publisher's synopsis makes this book sound even remotely attractive, then go read it. A good experience awaits you.

So...why only 3 stars?

This fictional world has rules. Some of them are explained. Most are at best half explained. If there are rules, then I'd like to understand them.

There is a ton of backstory that is implied but never really explored within the book. This appears to be the first in a series that is enticing readers to hang around to get the "rest of the story".

I'm a fan of the first book in any series being self-contained. The reader should be able to walk away from book 1 with a solid experience and no expectation that the rest of the answers will come later in the series. If the reader elects to continue the series, then have all the cliffhangers you want. But book 1 should stand alone.

Peter V. Brett did a masterful job of that in The Warded Man.

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Review: The Devils

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 3.5-star review. Rounding up to 4 stars as it was an engaging read.

Consider the medieval world but where magic is real. There are vampires, mages, and werewolves. Elves are around but are considered evil. The relationships are either tortured or slapstick...and sometimes a bit of both!

At one point, the she-werewolf ends up fighting a he-werewolf. At least they start of fighting...

Something similar occurs at another point in the book when two armies are poised to destroy one another until their leaders...an estranged husband and wife...patch things up. Ah..l'amour!

The Pope is a pre-teen/early-teen girl who performs powerful magic on a whim.

And a street rat girl is plucked from the streets and told she is to the heir to an empire. A select team is assembled to see her installed on the throne. A vampire, a mage, a werewolf, an immortal fighter, an elf, and a jack of all trades.

Much jocularity ensues. Along with a lot of bloodshed and other forms of nastiness.

The author continues his reign as the lord of all grimdark; leavening a heavily flawed world with some spicy banter and a little spicier action. A nice enough read.

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Review: Breaking Hel

Breaking Hel by Miles Cameron
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review which a reasonable estimate of my experience.

While I enjoyed the first two books in the series, this one didn't really work as well.

One reason is the large number of characters coupled with the large armies. It was hard to keep the protagonists separate from the antagonists. Couple that with the fact that characters switch sides a few times.

A second reason is that the ultimate "big bad" in the series is never really exposed until this last book. The character(s) are in the other books, and quite a bit is done to question their motives, but those questions are never really answered.

Thirdly, the "big bad" involves worms that inhabit/coopt human bodies. The author did the same thing in another series.

Lastly, the book goes full on identarian with no useful differences between the sexes when it comes to fighting. And the author is an early Greek (as in BC era Greek) army reenactor. The dude knows better.

If you enjoyed the first two books in the series, then you will enjoy the conclusion enough to warrant reading it.

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Review: The Book That Held Her Heart

The Book That Held Her Heart by Mark Lawrence
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review.

There are times when the last book in a series doesn't stick the landing. This is one of those times.

The first two books were great reads. So what went wrong here?

The author is a bona fide mathematics genius. With that comes great familiarity with the string theory that we are living in one of many parallel, nearly identical worlds.

The author attempts to illustrate how there might be so many possible realities in the narrative of the book. The reader ends up consuming several different versions of what might have been. Think of the multiple endings of Tolkien's Return of the King, but not quite as well executed.

Couple that with an ending that is essentially, "conflict resolved because we wish it to be so". It is a fantasy book, so I suppose that's as good an ending as any other, but it felt a bit unjustified.

If you enjoyed the first two books in the series, then you will enjoy this enough as well.

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Review: The Magic Battery

The Magic Battery by Gary McGath
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 3.5-star review which is a reasonable estimate of my experience. Rounding up to 4 stars because the book was very engaging towards the end. The author stuck the landing.

The Magic Battery is set in the 16th century post-Martin Luther, Copernicus, and a few other luminaries of that age. The author admits to taking a bit of license with history in order get magic to be an element of history.

An apprentice mage develops the ability to store magic (hence the "battery") in a manner that will non-mages activate spells. Those with D&D experience will understand the concept to be similar to magical scrolls that can be used by anyone.

This undermines the religious and political dogma of the day as only bona fide mages of the Christian faith may legally cast spells. No women. No heretics (i.e., Jews, Muslims, atheists). The conflict should be obvious.

This book is a slow burn. The early sections drag a bit as our hero looks to learn and use mathematics with magical theory. As someone that uses higher math professionally, I appreciated some of that content. But there came a point where it became almost repetitive without advancing the plot.

The author also hits hard on the themes of social/political exclusion based largely on faith and gender. There were moments when it felt a little too on the nose. However, that may simply reflect a response drive by our modern moment when issues of inclusion/exclusion based on faith and gender are centered in public conversations.

While I think the author's perspective is presented in the book, at the conclusion, he certainly does not rub it in the reader's face. He leaves lots of room for thoughtful reflection regarding individual rights, free speech, right to the free exchange via commerce, and the right to peaceably disagree. This book makes you think, which is what any good book should do.

As an early outing, this is a solid book that is worthy of your time.

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Review: Dark Day, Bright Hour

Dark Day, Bright Hour by Julie Frost
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review.

The book tells the story of a soul bound for Heaven that finds herself in hell with her guardian angel who is trying to help her find a way out.

This is a light/breezy fantasy story set within a Christian cosmos. If the works of C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia, etc.) are heavy weight Christian theology in a fantasy setting, this is a cotton candy version of the same. Decent writing. I enjoyed the book.

The ending was less than surprising.

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Review: Heart of the Mountain

Heart of the Mountain by Larry Correia
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a 5-star review. That covers my experience with the entire series.

Larry Correia has managed the difficult task of writing a 6-book series with a cascade of challenges faced by our hero and his friends. Usually, making the "big bad" of each book bigger and badder than the previous book means that the "big bad" in the last book is just unbelievable.

Not so in this case.

The resolve at the end of the book allows great closure for all of the characters that the reader has become familiar with. Buy the series. Sit back. Enjoy the ride. It's worth every penny.

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Review: A Strange Penance

A Strange Penance by Cassandra Byrne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review. More like 3.5 stars but not enough to push it to 4.

This is a pretty good story about a guy who just wants to go back to a time when his mom read him books. But life hands him a shit sandwich and he ends up being a pretty rough and tumble character in trouble with the authorities and set on a bad path.

Things go bad. And then worse. And a little better. If you don't think about the plot much, this is a pretty good story. By the end, I wanted to know more about the characters.

But it ends just as the characters and the story are going someplace. It really felt like the start of a pretty good novella rather than the beginning-middle-end of a short story. Kind of frustrating, but in a good way.

However, when you think about the story, there are a couple of elements that really stick out. The first is the power imbalance between our anti-hero and his benefactor. In any other tale, we would questioned the benefactor's motives and certainly questioned whether the power imbalance would allowed any long-term relationship to be legitimate/successful.

The second is that the relationship between our anti-hero and his benefactor at the end of the story isn't really earned. A little work...just a couple of sentences...earlier in the story to justify the later relationship would have been enough. Call it Chekov's Love Gun.

I'm not giving away the details as I don't want to spoil the story. It is worth a read. Give it a buy/try.

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Minor edits for grammar 2/20/2025

Review: The Innocence of Death

The Innocence of Death by E.G. Stone
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review which is a charitable rating. This book was a hard DNF - Dorothy Parker would be proud of how far I heaved this one.

Our protagonist is a marketing guru. Death decides he needs help polishing up his image and gives our "hero" a choice; die right here and now or serve Death in the hereafter. He goes with option 2.

Shortly thereafter, our hero finds himself with some sort of eternal computer connected to various social networks and an administrative assistant. She is some sort of troll/giant/something big.

Usually, the fish spends more time pondering the lack of water before figuring out how things work. In this book, our protagonist slips into his new role with little muss and less fuss. I checked out when his administrative assistant sits on a sofa that cartoonishly bends/tilts to force our hero to slide down into her.

The plot had generally lost me, and that sort of cartoonish action caused me to move onto something else. Skip this and read something good.

If you want to experience a "fish out of water" and "hero dies and lives on in the hereafter" book, then please read "On A Pale Horse" by Piers Anthony. The first 6 books of that series are great.

But stop after book 6. Please.

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Modest edits for grammar/spelling 2/20/2025