![]() These characters genuinely feel like real people. There is just something about the way the characters are written (both main and supporting), from the way that they interact with one another, to their behaviour and emotions, that feels so relatable and authentic. ![]() It’s lore and history were also explored further in this sequel, with hints that the Once King’s invasion might have some historical basis which hopefully will be revealed in the finale.Įxcellent characters have always been the hallmark of Rachel Aaron’s books, and I’m delighted to see that it remains as such in this co-authored trilogy. Being a world of MMORPG, FFO’s worldbuilding is a geek fest with awesome-sounding magical artifacts to boost speed, strength and power, and high leveled raid bosses. After some heart-pounding and exhilarating action scenes, it became quite easy to put all these different player levels and roles (such as tanks, damage-dealers and healers) into context. Regardless, it was not difficult to understand all the gaming jargons. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve not been gaming for a long time and I’ve definitely not been exposed to MMORPG. What made Last Bastion so enthralling? I can boil it down to three elements the worldbuilding, the action and most importantly, the characterisation. This is one of the highest praises I can heap upon any book as Brandon Sanderson is my favourite author of all-time, and I can never read anything else when I pick up one of his books. In fact, I think engaging is too mild a word to describe how I feel when I read these books, which have reached what I deemed as a Sanderson-esque level of addictiveness. Co-authored with Travis Bach, her husband, FFO is no exception. I have always found Aaron’s books, from Eli Monpress to Heartstrikers to her latest DFZ series, to have that engaging quality which made it hard for me to leave them aside for long. Last Bastion is not a short book by any standards, but I finished it in under 2 days as it was super addictive. Regardless, it is testament to Aaron and Bach’s ability to spin a story that was so engrossing that I was barely able to put it down. Plot-wise, this is a pretty simple and straightforward narrative with an underlying commentary on how violence begets violence in a vicious cycle that will only destroy the people on either side of a conflict. Not exactly their idea of a safe haven from the constant danger and fighting they’ve encountered in the past few days. What greeted the player characters, however, was a city on fire and laden with corpses. A term used by the NPCs who are supposedly real people to describe their entrapment in the game environmen, the Nightmare is so named for the dreadful never-ending cycle ofreliving the quests the players undertake, oftentimes dying a painful death over and over again. Our main characters, James and Tina, arrived at the city of Bastion to seek refuge and find some answers after the world of FFO was suddenly released from the Nightmare. The story picked up immediately from the ending of the first book. Hence, they gave us a heart-pounding, fast-paced, action-packed and dangerously addictive MMORPG-style adventure in the world of Forever Fantasy Online with a great cast of characters. It seemed, however, that Rachel Aaron and Travis Bach decided that safety will be a bit boring for the fictional characters and the readers. Last Bastion by Rachel Aaron and Travis Bach. I received an advanced reading copy from the authors in exchange for an honest review.
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