In a universe where technology and magic co-exist, Nicholas Lyons desires one thing: to serve his queen as a Space Knight in the Royal Trident Forces. But when his final mission as an Academy cadet goes horribly wrong, Nicholas discovers he possesses illegal magical abilities that grant him power far beyond that of a normal man, knight, or mage.
When a clandestine assignment lands Nicholas on the worst starship in the kingdom’s fleet, he finds a motley crew of warriors hiding their own terrible secret. Death and betrayal lurk around every corner, and Nicholas finds himself torn between his loyalties to his new crew, or the oath he swore to his queen.
And death no matter which choice he makes.
My Opinion: 395 pages, $4.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
Full disclosure: I received an advanced copy for review. I did purchase the novel once it became available.
Written by Michael-Scott Earle (Lion's Quest) and Samuel E. Green
Nicely priced at about $0.012 cents per page. The Amazon book description doesn’t describe the novel as LitRPG but rather as a Sci-Fi space opera that incorporates magic tech into the universe.
On its surface, the novel seems to be trying to satisfy the author’s two major reading groups. The LitRPG community who loves Lion’s Quest and the community that loves his space opera series Space Justice.
I’ll admit, right off the bat that the novel doesn’t have enough LitRPG elements to satisfy the audience that loves detailed number filled descriptions of how everything in the world works.
However, for me, there are just enough RPG elements in the story that it does qualify as a LitRPG story. There is a ranking system that replaces Levels. Characters go from cadets to squires to knights to specialty knights. Additionally, all weapons have item descriptions straight out of an RPG. Weapons can either be traded in or broken down for their arcane dust, which in turn can be used to create more magic based weaponry. A Kingdom Point system acts as both currency and a type of XP replacement since you need a certain amount of it to try to increase your rank.
While personally not thrilled with the light RPG mechanics, I did really enjoy the Sci-Fi space universe that the novel describes, once it got to the Sci-Fi stuff. Which for the record took a little too long (23% mark). The space knights remind me of Warhammer 40K with their combination of tech and magic. In this universe, the use of magical melee weapons is justified by the development of personal shields that deflect ranged weapons fire but still allow slower melee weapons through. The magic rune system gives each weapon and armor piece a seemingly infinite number of possible magical power combinations and is based on alien rune tech.
The action in the novel is pretty gritty and fight scenes are pretty bad ass. You not only get your standard alien threat that the knights face but a more subtle intrigue between kingdom factions that the main character Nicholas gets caught right in the middle of. So, this leads to some nice fights between magic weapon wielding space knights too.
Overall, the novel is rather light on RPG mechanics but the constant action makes up for it. If you’re looking for an action packed world full of magic tech and space battles, this is for you. If you want a crunchy LitRPG novel, this isn’t it. Personally, I had a good time on the space adventure.
Score: 7 out of 10.