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I remember Kylie Chan’n books. The Dark Heavens trilogy was okay, but when it got the second trilogy of Journey to Wudang I think I gave up after it’s first book. They became waaaay too long and didn’t keep my attention.

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Death Gate Cycle (7 books) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

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The Wandering Inn: https://wanderinginn.wordpress.com/

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Persoally I found Play to Live started well enough, but I felt it went downhill after the third book.

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Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold

Vatta’s War series by Elizabeth Moon

Vatta’s Peace series (book 1 coming later this year!) by Elizabeth Moon

Empire from the Ashes (omnibus) by David Weber

Liaden Universe series by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Humanx Commonwealth books (especially the trilogy of “The Founding of the Commonwealth”) by Alan Dean Foster

Old Mans War by John Scalzi

Solar Clipper Trader Tales by Nathan Lowell

Technic Civilization Saga by Poul Anderson

Heechee series by Frederik Pohl

The Unincorporated Man by the Kollinn Brothers (book 1 was good. book 2 was less so)

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Deeds Of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon

Elfhome Series by Wen Spencer

Black Wolves of Boston by Wen Spencer

Incryptid series by Seanan McGuire

October Daye series by Seanan McGuire

Vampire Files by P.N.Elrod

Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey

Elfquest by Wendy and Richard Pini (graphic novels)

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So, there is no direct light source in the abyss correct? So that implies either some ambient light or a plane of light very high up. Now if it was ambient light then it would seem that interior of caves should be lit up. If caves are not lit up then the light source is exterior which in turn suggests a plane of light.

If there is a plane of light then everything would be directly overhead and the combined ambient light would washout any shadows, correct? But exactly does that do to eyesight and depth perception?

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I recently sat down and thought about books 1 through 3 and as I did so I realized that Tom was becoming more passive than I thought during the alpha and beta readings. A lot of this is fueled by recent stories I’ve read and how main characters are being given their MacGuffin vs earning it and how affects the story — mainly because the former seems to be so common in litRPG.

This led to some thoughts about problems in the first three books that I never really thought about before.

In book one I could ostensibly argue that Tom had a goal and that he made decisions and took actions to meet that goal.
[list][*] He wanted his freedom, and when an accident gave him the opportunity he took it and sought to maintain it.
[*]He wanted to learn more about how a wizard links to demons so he took the opportunity to learn. Of course this was very much prompted by Maelen rather than being a goal (he could have wanted to sneak into Freehold as a human to find out more about demon summoning.)
[*]Sadly when he finds out about the state of demon servitude he has the attitude that it is not my problem / I only want to fix it for myself approach. He does argue with Jenn but he doesn’t want to actually do anything to fix it.[/list]
Overall book one felt like it had a better journey and better pacing not because more time to spend at editing it and polishing it, because it had a series of goals along the way whereas book two didn’t until the very end. Three returned to having a series of goals which culminated in an overarching goal (and when I think about it book one did not have an overarching goal at the end).

Then we come to book two. What did he actually earn?
[list][*]Mount Doom as a defensible base is given to him.
[*]The d’orcs and orcs loyalty is given to him.
[*]The power of Mount Doom is given to him. [/list]
At no point did he have a goal and actually earn it. He did manage to hold on to what he was given, but that is not the same as earning since something must be sacrificed before payment is given for it to be earned. In fact book 2 is just a giant fetch quest except no one told Tom what he was fetching or why. When confronted with the looming prospect on PTB ( powers that be) and unhealthy interest in him I think that it would have been better if Tom had asked Tizzy or Boggy for advice on a location to hide out in an infinite realm. Tizzy could’ve led him to Mount Doom as a supposedly abandoned base or there’s some other excuse, but it would have been a consequence of Tom’s choice rather then it just falling in his lap. Think about it, the plot needs Tom to be in control of Doom so when they go on vacation Tizzy leads them to Doom.

In book 3 he has a goal again. That goal is to reestablish domain in the material realms and establish a border/protection/buffer/nation that his people can thrive in. Admittedly there is a lot of side stuff that is completely irrelevant to that plot thread or only sets up stuff for book four (which is not released yet so it really didn’t go anywhere and I’ll have to reread bk3 just to recall who/what/why in bk4 which is a writing problem RJ had in WoT) that I still think should have been cut and handled some other way. I get it and understand why it was chosen to be in book 3, but…. see problems it caused for RJ.

Sidenote, if the Rod priests knew that a linked item could home in on Talarius then why didn’t they bring War Arrow along or some of his personal gear instead of needing Melessanc to do the d’oh moment? Surely there was something in his tent? Spare armor or weapons?

So, in the interests of streamlining book four, [b]what is its synopsis[/b]? Not the summary, but just the synopsis. Not the fetch quest, but the goal that Tom will set out to achieve by his own will rather than falling into it or being given a MacGuffin and told to hold onto it.

Edit: A lot of my complaints can be waved by saying “oh but Tizzy was manipulating things”, only that is starting to be overplayed. Tizzy needs a setback / minor derailment and Tom needs to start controlling his life. After all didn’t Orcus dislike the manipulation of the gods in people’s lives? Seems like what Tizzy is doing is very similar.

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Tom needs an aggressive suitor that is wooing him. Bold and audacious.

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What happened to Talarius’s mirror that showed power levels? Is it in the Rod camp at Freehold? I know the Inferno doesn’t have it since they would have used it against Sam when he came aboard.

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He said free e-book. He can talk all my free money. I’ve loads of it. Nearly infinite in fact.

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Actually, while you are online (not TAG), tell them you have multiple books that need to be updated. Their systems knows which are out of sync on your content vs. their system and they can just push all of the ones for which you are out-of-date.

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It looks perfectly okay for Kindle on Mac.

However, that pale gray text w/ italics? Appears only for the scene headers like “Murgatroy: Several hours earlier, DOA + 1, Shortly After Lunch”

It is possible Amazon is somehow missing the close tag from the first header and so it is converting the whole book.

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Well, Orcus only has access via his rod. Lose the rod and possible lose access to Mt. Doom’s power. A god can access anywhere except the Abyss (and vice-versa for Orcus).

God-mana also seems to be of a higher purity or contains more animus mixed in than Doom’s. Doom also has an limit from the impression I get. It pulls only so much fire, water, air, and earth which is then combined with the spirit. Take people out of Doom and the levels drop. Also, there seems to be a hard limit where adding more souls would not increase mana generated unless the elemental energies are also increased. God can just scale based on worshipers.

Basically I look at Orcus vs. gods like that old graph of warrior vs. mage. A god is weaker due to fewer worshipers starting out (mage), Orcus is stronger at the start (warrior). But at a sufficiently high level (aka # of worshipers) the god route contains more mana. It just depends on where the intersection is.

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That’s… a long description of Book 4.

Maybe a shorter blurb?

[b]Blurb:[/b]
Doom has fallen upon the multiverse! Orcus, god of oaths and punisher of perjury, has returned to his seat of power and is reopening his old places of power. Under the banner of Doom orcs rally across the localverse and march to reclaim their stolen heritage. But the forces of the status quo, an army of duplicitous elves, and a horde of demons and unlife stand in its way.

Oaths of brotherhood and friendship will be tested in the coming times. Will those sworn to support him keep to their word?

Worst of all, enemy forces may be uniting to prevent Orcus’s return. Can he reclaim his people’s legacy or will the orc’s civilization be forever shattered?

[b]Synopsis:[/b]
Orcus calls upon the oaths sworn to him by the Five Siblings, but reluctant gods do not make for great allies. As Orcus seeks to reestablish the ancestral homes of the Orcs an army of unlife, an army of elves, and the treachery of gods will seek to prevent his return. Orcus must find a way to reclaim what is his without becoming that which he despises the most — an honorless god.

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Also “Powerful Oaths” or “Oaths of Power” as titles?

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