RI March 2025

As usual, the links are Amazon affiliate ones which could in
theory earn me money.

==

Hell to Pay: Urban Fantasy Action with Witches and Demons
(Tear Down Heaven Book 3)
by Rachel Aaron
https://amzn.to/3EJfLJ2

In the last installment Sumerian demon queen Bex and Witch of the
Blackwood Adrian dealt a major blow to Gilgamesh's mastery of Heaven
by taking down one of his anchor chains binding the great wheel
which both showed he wasn't invincible and got them a really cool
fortress/headquarters.

Now though, things are rather on tenterhooks as there has been no
reaction from Gilgamesh.  They know it must be coming, and they
know it will be bad, but so far things are hanging fire -- and
leaving the pair facing worsening resource drains to keep their
troops together and supplied.  On a more personal level it seems
every time Bex & Adrian might have an actual date, some new mini
crisis comes up and keeps them apart.  For Bex it is developments
within the War Demon ranks that may let her finally bring them fully
onside, for Adrian it is the the news that his father is alive (and
possibly a gamechanger himself).

In the event, Gilgamesh is hardly idle, and neither development is
quite what it seems and the final battle is unexpectedly on them...

This was another enjoyable outing.  Bex & Adrian continue to be
very likable characters and the cosmology of the series is interesting.
I believe we were intended to guess something that Adrian missed,
but it was pretty well done and furthered his development.  Bex as
well comes to some realizations about her origins and loyalties.

We were kind of promised a trilogy here, but since the story is
clearly ongoing after the climax, I can forgive Aaron fudging it a
little by giving another title to the next arc.

The Calamitous Bob
by Alex Gilbert
Book 1 of 9: The Calamitous Bob
https://amzn.to/435noTp

In Kazar: The Calamitous Bob book two
by Alex Gilbert
Book 2 of 9: The Calamitous Bob
https://amzn.to/4dcftYd

The Death Path: The Calamitous Bob Book 3
by Alex Gilbert
Book 3 of 9: The Calamitous Bob
https://amzn.to/4cW8GBN

Somewhere across the dimensions is a world called Nyil, beset by
monsters but also blessed (or cursed) with gods who have won access
to that magic for Nyil's sentients and provided (through the
[apparent] sacrifice of one of their own) an Interface to that
magic.

The local top-god Emeric is a bit of a Zeus-like figure who can't
quite keep it in his pants and he is (dangerously) on the outs with
his wife after another drunken spree of infidelity:

"Not only do you cheat on me," the deadly belle intoned,
crossing her arms under her modest bosom. "But you do it
morphed into a golden manatee? A manatee? Have you gone
mad?"
 
The hem of her white dress slowly turned red with fresh
blood, an ill omen, if any. However, the King of Gods, who
looked no worse for the wear after his recent defenestration
on account of being God of Luck as a side gig, ignored it.
His overtaxed brain still tried to operate through the
cataclysmic hangover harrying him.
 
The words "golden manatee" somehow cut to the haze of
immortal-grade alcohol.

Disaster struck.

The King of Gods, Emeric, smiled beatifically at the memory
of his ravishing, plump-nosed shape.

"We were off our arses and thought it was funny," he replied.

A preternatural silence spread over the entire city. Entire
legions of warriors and scholars stopped to a standstill.
The dark clouds of fate on the march covered the midday sun
like a swarm of locusts.
                                                       
Somewhere in the depth of Emeric's mind, an ancient drive
awoke, one that dated back to an era when he was not quite
as durable as he was now -- his survival instinct.

"Oh SH--"

[Divine Killing Blow]

[Divine Uncanny Dodge]

Both skills fired at the exact same time. A ravine formed
in the hallowed ground where Emeric used to stand on a stone
said to be indestructible.

Clearly the King of the gods needs to lie low for a while.  A
disguise would not be out of place either.  He'd always heard that
sex was better for women, maybe he'd try being one for a lifetime
or so.  And there is that mudball across the realms where they have
no magic and nobody would expect a god to go...

Viviane Saint-Lys is a combat medic in the French Special Forces.
She's rebelling from her manipulative SOB of a father who loves her
& whom she loves but can't live with.  The Army seemed far enough
away, though that has yet to be proved.  She's quite pretty,
intelligent, in top athletic shape, brave & has a high sex drive
that doesn't particularly discriminate on plumbing.  A nice package
to be sure, but not one that she would expect to get her number
rolled from across the cosmos.  Unfortunately Emeric is also the
God of Luck and good luck for someone usually means bad luck for
somebody else.

Viviane finds her soul suddenly torn from her body and only an
unexpected and sudden pang of conscience from her dispossessor
leaves her traumatized psyche robed in a newly created body on Nyil
instead of destroyed in the void.

Unfortunately, due again to that divine spark of luck and the
haphazardness of Emeric's last minute rescue, Viv lands in possibly
the absolute worst spot on Nyil to be: The destroyed palace of the
Harrakan Empire, a polity that went out in a legendary stroke of
infamy when a magical experiment gone wrong destroyed half of the
capital city and polluted the whole land with black mana and undead
monsters.  If Viv is to survive at all, she must leave the deadlands
before mana poisoning kills her, though it is more likely that one
of the undead monsters (of which zombies which are the least and
hardly worth mentioning) will get her first.  On her side, she has
only two assets:  One, She can now access the Interface which
provides her with some very basic information including the fact
that she can now manipulate mana and Two, if there is nobody living
in Harrak, that's not to say nobody is there.  In fact an experimental
and intermittently genocidal War Golem has kept running after the
fall of his masters and his magical AI is willing to chop logic
enough to consider that if Viv were "born" in the Palace, where
only Imperial children are allowed, she must then be heir to the
Empire...  Together the two start a trek across the badlands and
into history.

This series started as an online serial and Gilbert warns up front
that the pacing can be a bit leisurely compared with a series of a
known number of books.  I can see that, but I personally did not
find that it drags (so far).  I can sense that nature in a couple
of other places as well were I am pretty sure Gilbert planned and
foreshadowed developments that he decided in the end weren't what
he wanted to do and went in another direction.  To some extent this
works in his favor as it lets him pull off surprises.  At any rate,
the meta-plot of Viv's ascension towards godhood (never said, but
I would be very surprised if that's not where we're going) is never
derailed by the unexpected twists & turns.

Gilbert is a French expat living somewhere in Asia.  In general you
would not know that English is not his native language though there
are a few foibles.  In particular he uses the word "traits" in a
confusing manner.  I finally worked out that it is facial features
and/or sometimes ethnic facial features.  He also once found a false
friend, implying that "corpulent" meant corpse-like.  Aside from
that, his prose is very readable.

As you may have guessed from my mention of mana and the Interface,
the world here is litRPG, but not annoyingly so.  I simply skip
over all the numbers and don't feel I miss anything.  What you may
not have guessed from my introduction is that the series is more
serious than the farcial opening sequence implies.  In fact that
scene with Emeric is not exactly what it seems, and he is to some
extent running a deep op whose scope we have yet to know (though
he was still a high-handed prat to Viv).  Also, though Viv was
chosen for her sex drive, among other reasons, the series is
definitely not erotica.  Viv enjoys herself, generally offstage,
in serious relationships.  That's definitely not to say there is
no humor or sex, but it's leavening not the meal.

If you are wondering about the name of the series, the first people
Viv meets have no 'V' sound in their language.

"Hi, I'm Viviane, please don't kill me"

"Bibiane?"

"OK, just 'Viv', maybe?"

"Bib?"

"You know, just call me Bob..."

I am currently seven books into the series (so it will feature in
the next batch of reviews as well) and am enjoying it.  There are
nine books listed, but I don't know yet if that is "so far" or
total.
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..