Author: RW Krpoun
Rating: 4.5/5
Comments: I read this back in July, during the Great Hiatus of 2024 and I'll be honest, I don't remember a lot of specifics. I do remember finishing it and I enjoyed it. Grog stories are great and this one lived up to the standard.
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Author: RW Krpoun
Rating: 5/5
Comments: I owe the people on my Discord a big thank you for telling me this was out, it completely slipped by me. I still love these books. Grog, Burke, Hatcher, Hunter, and Provine Sael are all great characters. This book shifts the story a bit from a lot of personal story arcs to a larger arc, and we say a fond farewell to some staple characters to get some more focused action.
It has my unequivocal recommendation.
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Author: RW Krpoun
Rating: 5/5
Comments:
This is not a revelation, but I really like the Grog books. I pretty much dropped everything and read this one as soon as I found it.
Grog is a rare blend of humor, action, and oddly poignant observations which make you really admire Grog.
I had to take a moment to consider why I enjoy these book so much. I think it's that Grog has an unwavering code of ethics that everyone wishes they could be as committed. It's not about being a brute, or a slave, or a fighter, it's that he is an Ebon Blade and he will uphold the honor of his barracks. Life, death, love, and family are all secondary to that singular fact of his existence. It's the foundation of who he is. I suppose a psychologist might classify him as stunted, but there is an elegant simplicity to his world view.
Anyway, in this book Grog has a lot of character growth and frankly some of it is downright hilarious.
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Title: Grog III (The Ebon Blades Book 3)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09GP3X5BP/
Author:RW Krpoun
Rating:4.5/5
Comments:
Just as funny, exciting, and poignant as the others, and I enjoyed it greatly. Knocked a half a point off because there didn't seem to be a over-arching goal for this one, it was just "Life happens", which is entertaining in this case, but it needed something to tie it all together and make it mean something.
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Author: RW Krpoun
Rating: 3.9/5
Comments:
This is kind of a fantasy take on military fiction, and it mostly works. The story gets a little bogged down in world building, and as typical Krpoun likes to jump between POV's. This slow pace meant it took me a lot longer than normal to get through it, but I'm glad I did.
I think the world has good potential, but I hope there's a little less of the "here's a thing, now let me explain the thing to you for half a page" in the next book.
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Title: Zerk
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/d/B0785JJ2KZ/
Author: RW Krpoun
Rating: 4.5/5
Comments
RW Krpoun is apparently a fan of two things, zombie apocalypse stories, and protagonists that are a little touched in the head. Both of which are fine with me because he uses them to tell a damn good story.
So Zerk is our hero and he's got a friend named Bear. When you figure out what Bear's story is, it's pretty touching. No spoilers, but it was a legitimately emotional moment for the old and crusty curmudgeon.
Anyway, if he pumps out a sequel I will definitely read it.
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Title: Floating Hunger (Yard Gnome Action team book 3)
https://www.amazon.com/Floating-Hunger-Yard-Gnome-Action-ebook/dp/B0836PDN4R
Author: RW Krpoun
Rating: 4.3/5
Comments
This is currently the last book in the series, but there are plenty of hooks to continue the story if he decides to.
This book was just as good as the others, but I marked it down just a touch because there were some obvious points where he cut/paste the description of X in from the earlier books, and it really wasn’t needed. We’re on the third book, we know X, just give us a sentence or two for us to reconnect, not the whole 2-3 paragraphs you used in book one.
The POV switching was about on par with book 2, and of course we just had to see what the antagonists are doing (bleh). Definitely a good cast of characters though, I hope to see them again.
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Title: Rolling Hunger (The Yard Gnome Action Team Book 2)
Author: RW Krpoun
Rating: 4.5/5
Comments
I followed book 1 straight into book 2, and read it in a day. The characters from book 1 are back, and they add some new ones. The POV switching is not as bad (yay!), although we still get to visit the antagonists (boo). What is better in this book is the way the characters change in both attitude and motivation. Good stuff. I am going to take a break before book 3, but I'm definitely going to read it. I just need a break from reading as I've done 4 books in as many days this week.
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Title: Payload (The Yard Gnome Action Team Book 1)
Author: RW Krpoun
Rating: 4.25
Comments
This is somewhat standard zombie attack fare, but he takes it in some different directions, which I like. Also good characters, some really interesting characters.
The problem I have, is the POV switching. I mean, each member of the team gets their own intro, and it really bogs things down in Ch 1. Then we get to see stuff that the antagonists do (which I really dislike as a general rule). So the presentation of the story could be changed to make me happier, but the story itself is pretty fun.
Oh and the yard gnome bit, is great. Moogie is an excellent mascot.
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Title: Grog II: Book 2 of the Ebon Blades
Author: RW Krpoun
Rating: 5/5+
Comments:
Every bit as enjoyable as book 1. There were several points I outright laughed during the book. The character development is just excellent.
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Title: Grog (The Ebon Blades Book 1)
https://www.amazon.com/Grog-RW-Krpoun-ebook/dp/B0851HYMXV/
Author: RW Krpoun
Rating: 5/5
Comments:
So this book has a … lackluster title. It was a whim that I even looked at it, but it had a couple hundred reviews that were 5 star on Amazon, which is notable. Looking at it today, it has no 1 or 2 star reviews, and has an aggregate 4.8 star rating.
So the high rating enticed me to look at the blurb which honestly didn’t really encourage me.
So I started Grog with, not apprehension, but certainly some ambivalence.
Grog deserves it’s rating. Despite being a slave, Grog is not a victim and he conducts himself with an iron sense of what’s right and proper and his place in the order of things. In some ways Grog’s ignorance of the world outside his experience is staggering, but yet believable, so in addition to his journey on the Grand Quest, there is his journey as he learns about the world, which is arguably the more interesting part of the story.
One really unexpected part of the book, is the humor aspect. Grog’s very structured mind, and his observations about the wider world are frequently very amusing without being intentionally coy or ironic.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the book and it didn’t hit any of my triggers. Devoured it in about a day and a half and am now plowing through book 2.
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Title: Wild Era: A LitRPG Progression Epic https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0F3HK8892/ Author: David North Rating: 2.9/5 Comments: Anot...
