LastRock

The Immortal Great Souls #3

by Phil Tucker

Scorio has won his vengeance. His foes lie vanquished, his skeptics silenced. Yet, as the powers of hell watch eagerly, Scorio and Naomi spurn those who would recruit them, and venture into the untold depths of hell in search of the enigmatic Herdsmen. Amidst landscapes of haunting beauty and terror, they will face terrible fiends, forge friendships with wondrous new allies, and encounter societies of Great Souls to put the worst of hell to shame. All will seek to manipulate Scorio. To use him. To bend him to their will. And all will suffer the consequences for trying. The LastRock audiobook by Nick Podehl is slated for a June '24 release.

Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Fiction, Audiobook, Dark Fantasy, Dark

848 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 5, 2024

About the author

Thanks for visiting my page! I'm Phil Tucker, a Brazilian/Brit who currently resides in Asheville, NC, where I resist the siren call of the forests and mountains to sit inside and hammer away on my laptop.

Reviews

[Khalid Abdul-Mumin · Rating 5 out of 5]

WANTED!!!
NAME:l , Scorio, once known as The Scourer, Lord of Nagaran, Master of the Black Tower, The Bringer of Ash and Darkness, the Shadow of Spurn Harbor, the Abhorred, Quencher of Hope and Unmaker of Joy.

MINISTRY of MAGIC
Department of Progression Fantasy

CRIME: Exceeds Expectations!
STANDARDS: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

REWARD!!!: I Highly recommend reading his trials and tribulations in the amazing and spectacularly envisioned world within The Immortal Great Souls trilogy.

[Jay H (Hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need moreeee!!!!!😭😭😭

[Graeme Rodaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiend Imbroglio! Great Soul Enemy or Great Soul Ally! "Well, I put my trust in a single Great Soul, Scorio, to be precise, and so far I haven't been disappointed. But we'll have to see how this plays out. We've never been able to trust a Great Soul before. For all of our history they have been our oppressors!" - Xandera - The Fiend Folio

Brilliant. This series is just so much fun.

If you haven't started reading it yet ... what's stopping you?!

One nit: the cover falls a little flat for me ... I always picture Naomi's 'Nightmare Lady,' form as a variant on the alien queen from Aliens.

Which would be a helluva lot scarier - just like Naomi's 'Nightmare Lady,' form. My goodness, is she an ominous figure I'm enormously invested in finding out what happens to her.

Strongly Recommended, 5 'Time to Level Up,' stars

[PunkHazard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing Amazing Book! Easy 5/5 Book and automatic front runner for my book of the Year. I’ve read some really good books so far this year but there’s just something about Bastion that will always touch my heart. Immortal Great Souls and Dungeon Crawler Carl are both my favorite series full stop. Hell they are up there with One Piece as my favorite series in any medium. So yes I had no doubt that this book was going to be amazing. Instead of breaking it up like I normally do in my reviews I just want to list all the things I loved about the book

* First I want to say just how much I miss and love actually reading and being in this story. Every page, every sentence, every piece of dialogue, every epic scene and tense moment. It just profoundly brings me a sense of joy and piece that no other book can do.

* Scorio is still my guy. I loved being with him and his adventures. Getting to know him more, seeing him navigate hell and interact with all the different great souls and fiends. I said this before but I support any and everything he does

* He’s a freaking Dragon!! That’s cool as shit! The new powers and awe inspiring feats he shows in this book blows my freaking mind!

* Incidentally I love characters that can transform into dragons in any story. It’s always super cool. Zach Bell, Sengoku Youko, and Fire Force all have characters with dragon powers and they are typically my favorite characters. Just more proof that Phil Tucker writes books just for me.

* Naomi was fascinating this book. And not just because of the end. She slowly started to bother me a bit, her overly negativity and combative nature started showing me the cracks in her character. Normally less is more for that type of character for me. But it served a purpose and came to a head and ultimately I think her arc was well executed.

* Scorio and Naomi’s romance was adorable. I didn’t see it coming and did not expect for Phil to take their relationship to that level. But I was happy to see them happy for those moments and I weirdly like a good sex scene in a book between characters I love.

* The villains in this book are some of my favorites. The Iron tyrant and the blood Ox were fun foils to Scorio. The fight against the Iron tyrant was my favorite fight in the book (among a lot of good ones). Cool powers and you really got a good sense of the progression of Scorio and the stakes. Plus we got to see a dragon bite a guys leg off before having his face melted. Where else do you get that?

* I always like it when our heroes (in any story) has to deal with a threat that they have no way of defeating or even fighting. It takes the tension up through the roof. The Blood Ox was a good addition in that sense. Though I’m upset that he died off screen. I would have loved to see 2 imparotors face and kill him. I was really hoping to see that fight.

* Alain, Plassus and Xandera are the obvious stand outs in this book. All amazing additions to the cast and you truly grew to love each one by just their natural charisma and charm. Man I was hoping Alain would stick around for awhile. I did not see his death coming

* Leonis’s switch was weird and felt out of nowhere. There weren’t any hints of that up until right before Scorio’s fight with Plassus. I also think his and Lianshi’s breakup was kind of sudden. I am happy she’ll be joining us into the next book though(I don’t expect that to last)

* Hell is as batshit insane as its ever been. We got a lot more fiend action this time around. Got to see the strange anatomies and powers of the denizens of hell. They are as fearsome as advertised. Like the book said, itt makes sense why the Great souls haven’t won yet. My favorite outside of Xandera was probably the Nethercoils just cause they were the most fun to imagine.

* We got to ride through Lava, birth an egg who is the same person as the one who layed the egg, go through a time loop training, and see the aftermath of a mountain size creature’s bones. Hell is truly a wonder.

* I’ve talked at length about the magic system before so I won’t go into all the things I love about it but suffice it to say the battles and war we got to see in this book was crazy as hell. So many powers against so much carnage and craziness really brought the creativity of the abilities to light.

* The abilities are crazy creative as always and I’m again left in awe of how Phil thinks of so many weird and wonderful powers. My favorites introduced in this book was the ability to create burning staffs that increase as you defeat enemies, Plassus’s power had a cool aesthetic to it(especially during the war with hundreds of fiends surrounding him as he walked), The living tornado guy and the black sun that warps fiends. All super fun

* The intrigue was on full effect in this book, the herdsman stuff has got me pumped to see how that unfolds. Knowing they have a Imperator on their side ups the tension like crazy. Sarana will probably be the first one Scorio kills in the future. The other arch spire and the moving fortress leads me to believe these guys know a lot about hell and once we get in tuned with them a lot of stuff will be made clear. I can’t wait.

* The archmagus is also a fascinating inclusion into this equation as well. Even the fact that Blood Ox wants to kill him rasinses more questions then it answers. Namely is he even still alive? And if the Archmagus is so powerful to go throughout time to confidently collect all these heroes then why did he need the great souls to begin with. Something tells me the Arch magus is the final villain of the story and I can’t wait!

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book. Wow. Everything I’ve said about the previous two books is just elevated even more with this one.

The rage/epic moments are what I’m here for, there’s only a small number of books that have me so captivated throughout each chapter that I dread needing sleep and yearn for waking up so that I can bounce straight back in.

I feel like Tucker is growing with each book and with each book he develops both the world and characters soo much.

[Benjamin Raible · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit of a step down from the last books. Especially his healed heart is problematic. Now to create competition Characters pop out left and right whose abilities match or sometimes simply outclass our main character. Then their hearts guter because of a lack of mana in the right moment which feels pretty unsatisfying. The book often says as a joke that the mc mostly wins by luck but its very true when you think about it. So I’d say either let him loose and grow (like in the second novel) or give him the abilities justifying his victories.

[Morwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, if you got this far you already know how amazing and addictive this series is, but wow, does it keep surprising me!
I think I've already given my impressions in the reading updates, but I might add something to this review as I process it.
I can only say that the next book can't be out soon enough, the wait is just cruel :D

[Edozack95 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Third book in the Bastion universe and third success as far as I'm concerned.
I literally devoured it in 3 days and I can safely say that it will remain in the top 10 of books read in 2024.
Without giving spoilers, I can say that in this third book we will focus much more on the figures of the fiends, on the diversity of these creatures, their dangerousness but also how perhaps not all of them are monstrous (Nox is an example).
It remains one of Scorio's greatest strengths, his anger, his strength and his desire to find out more about these Herdsman. As a character we see him evolve not only in simple strength but also in more mental aspects.
Finally, perhaps what made me enjoy this book most of all are the action scenes, masterfully described and which catapult you from one battle to another.

[Yahya Alshetairy · Rating 5 out of 5]

الكتاب الرابع متوقع صدوره نهاية السنه.
انا ايش بلشني اعذب نفسي بالانتظار...
وحقرا الرابع اول ما يصدر وبعدها اقعد انتظر سنه للخامس،...

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredible next book in the series, my biggest complaint is that I cannot immediately pickup the next one because it is not published yet….lol

[Ty MaC · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

Best of the 3 amazing ending

Great progression fantasy

I am going to wait for audiobook but can't wait for book fout.

[Chip · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Dragged on a little bit, somewhat typical of middle book problems - and I was admittedly disappointed to learn this is not the final book of the trilogy (i.e., series isn’t a trilogy). Very little in the way of plot development / secrets revealed … hopefully the next (final?) book will be meatier.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mean, this series is just too good. I remember reading book two and not putting it down, even if it meant I could not review for finals lmao. The pacing is amazing, and fantastic new characters added extra oomph to the story * insert Alain appreciation here. Hope to see you in the next book*

Excited to see we’re delving deeper into Naomi’s character. If the is one gripe that I have, I wish to have seen more Jova or Leonis. Maybe the next book.

Overall 👍👍👍👍👍

[Evan Winrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly outstanding series that still feels like nothing similar in the fantasy world. This third book built my appreciation of the world building even more and brought new surprises. I was constantly coming back to read more despite a busy schedule because the action stayed so constant and Phil Tucker made it hard to rip my attention away. Looking forward to the next installment more than I have any book in quite some time.

[ShandyT · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

Another rockstar entry into this series, perhaps even better than the last one. The mysteries continue to pile up, the characters deepen and struggle and change, and the powers grow ever more badass. There are some twisty moments in this book that rival the impact of the big twist in the last one, and that is a high bar. I can't wait to know what happens next!

I tried branching out into more progression fantasy after this, dipping my toe into the "cultivation" genre, and bounced off it 60% through my first (large) book. While I can see certain similarities between this series and that genre, particularly in the form of elixirs and pills as power-ups, and "hearts" vs "dantians", but everything else in the IGS series is a departure. For the better, in my opinion. I like that the characters in IGS have goals outside progression, and that the progression itself is less rigidly structured. I also enjoy the irreverent and informal tone of IGS. I wouldn't say this series is perfect, but I would say that it is an excellent vector for those coming into progression fantasy from traditional fantasy, rather than from anime or other Eastern media.

[Andy Peloquin · Rating 5 out of 5]

TL;DR Review: Epic, addicting, complex, and action-packed. A spectacular new entry into what is arguably the best progression fantasy series around!

Full Review:
Stepping back into the world of Bastion, the pit of Hell, and the Great Souls in the opening pages of LastRock, it felt like I never left.
From the beginning, the dynamic duo of Scorio the Red Lister and Naomi the Nightmare Lady are instantly addictive. Their drive for advancement, their growing relationship, and the battles into which they are drawn are just impossible to put down. This book is long—and I mean LOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGG—but I burned through it in record time because I was utterly spellbound by the stakes, the world, the plot, and most of all, the characters.
The Characters:
At its core, the Great Souls series’ greatest strength has always been in its characters.
On the surface, Scorio is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a progression fantasy protagonist: driven, ambitious, overall a “good” human being, flawed in all the right ways, and most of all, strong. But with every new discovery and revelation, we get to see the complexity beneath, the layers that make him perhaps the most nuanced character of any progression fantasy series I’ve read. His advancement and progress is made all the more interesting because of who he is; we want to learn more about him and how he’s become to be the way he is, and so we are more than willing to go along with the wild ride.
Naomi continues to solidify herself as the greatest female progression fantasy protagonist. The fact that she is the Nightmare Lady means she is an amazing asset to Scorio in battle, and brings a fascinating depth to her character. She’s cynical, suspicious to near paranoia, and jaded by hard experience. But her effort to overcome that is a major element of her progression, one that inevitably leads to fascinating places. And knowing that within her is quite literally a creature of nightmare gives some amazing room for plot twists and turns that had my jaw on the floor.
Leonis, Lianshi, Moira, Ravenna, Jova Spike, and a host of other familiar faces are back, but we’re treated to a whole gamut of fun and engaging new characters—from the half-mad Plassus to Alain, eternally condemned by his power to be a Peeping Tom (in a way that’s both creepy and funny), from the Iron Tyrant to Queen Xandera. With every new character, the series becomes ever more complex and engaging—chiefly because you never really know who is an ally and who is secretly an enemy.
And, of course, the powers on display by each character is incredibly fascinating. The scope of imagination required to craft such disparate and unique abilities—multiplied a hundred times over with the full cast of dramatis personae—is immense. A true testament to the author’s skill and creativity.
The Story:
Where Bastion was more focused on Scorio and Naomi alone and The Rascor Plains just began to expand the world outside of the city of Bastion, LastRock rips the world wide open and gives us our first big-picture look at hell. We learn more about the many layers that descend into the Pit, the power players who are seeking to carve out their own territories and domains—both the Great Souls and True Fiends—and we get a first-hand look at the real powers at play.
The action in LastRock is truly breathtaking. There are entire chunks just dedicated to bloody, massive-scale battles with thousands of fiends. Which, inevitably, leads to deaths among those Scorio has come to call friends. The true brutality of this hellscape is displayed fully for the first time, and the stakes become all too clear when even souls ranked far higher than Scorio and Naomi face death—real death, from which there may be no return.
The book instills a very real sense that “no one is safe”—and, more importantly, “nothing is off-limits”. The impossible happens time and again (in a way that makes it feel all too real) and the characters’ journey is utterly unpredictable in the best possible ways.
Final Thoughts:
Bastion has always been the most epic and ambitious of the progression fantasy series I’ve read, and LastRock just cements that in my mind.
The story gets bigger, the stakes get higher, the characters grow more powerful, and the personal issues become ever more troublesome.
With this being the most enthralling of an already insanely addictive series, I am now eagerly waiting to find out what secrets will be revealed and what enemies will arise to challenge Scorio and company in Great Souls #4. The next book CANNOT come soon enough!

[Jason Humphries · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book of the series so far. I will keep this review brief because I already listed most of my likes/gripes about this series in my review of book 2, and book 3 is mostly more of the same. The thing that makes it better than the previous books is that it didn't have any of the huge pacing issues that crippled book 1 and 2.

This book is still excessively wordy and could have been half as long with a good editor. But if you just skim a little bit, you get about the same effect. It makes up for the wordiness but having way more stuff happen than previous books.

Spoilers from here:
------------------

Scorio is still an idiot. On purpose. The author has carefully created this character to be a huge idiot. We've seen his past and he was a vengeful idiot then too. Now that I've accepted that, it's kind of fun to watch him misunderstand everything and make the same mistakes over and over again. There's a great chapter where Scorio tells himself repeatedly that he's not going to lose his cool, and then he immediately gets mad and challenges a Charnel Duke Plassus to a duel to the death. Luckily Scorio has some sort of plot armor in the form of being "whispered", otherwise he would have died 100 times by now.

Plassus is my favorite new character. More straightforward than anyone else. Sick of all the secrets and fighting unbeatable threats. And he just doesn't put up with Scorio's stupidity.

I'm kind of embarrassed that I didn't realize Scorio was a dragon until now. This make so much sense in retrospect.

This will probably never be explained, but I've been wanting for two whole books to see what a battle against hell looks like. Now that I've seen it, it makes no sense at all. They say that it's necessary for them to have lower advancement souls to fight the weak mobs so the stronger souls and focus on the big threats. But then when we see the battle, strong souls can kill hundreds of tiny mobs per second, and weak souls only exist to die. We have seen that ascension rarely requires battle. Most advancement in the series happens during moments of training or contemplation. So why risk the lives and potential of the weak souls? They are completely useless in a big battle. They should be treated as non-combatants and ferried to and from places with strong mana for training.

In my review of book 2 I made a bet that Scorio could have advanced to Dread Blaze if he just sat and thought about it for a few seconds. And I was totally right! What a dummy.

New comic relief character was actually desperately needed. And his one-punch ability is cool. It's a shame that now we have to wait for him to respawn.

Naomi losing her mind and killing a dude has been foreshadowed for a while, and I'm glad they're finally addressing her complete lack of mental health. Up until now she has been just as stupid and emotion-driven as Scorio. Hopefully once she works through this she can be a bit more competent. Having both of the main characters be morons has been difficult.

Still excited for the future of this series. I think it has a lot of potential!

[Fern S · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Overall I did enjoy the book and I will finish the series but I'm just a bit annoyed and disappointed. 
I think this book definitely could've done with more editing. 
I will say I still enjoyed the characters a lot and the plot, for the most part, but what irks me and has caused me to drop the rating is the editing errors and inconsistencies. 

I was listening to the audiobook version and picked up quite a few so I can only imagine how bad the physical version would've been to read (as it would've been more obvious). The worst I think was when they called him "Scorpio" instead of "Scorio".... 

There also felt like there was a shift to the tone of the writing. The most noticeable change to me was that there was suddenly a lot more swearing and sexual references. But I also felt there was a change to the characters personalities, etc. And it didn't quite feel natural.
While I don't mind some sexual content and references in general, etc. it annoyed me because it was very jarring, due to it being an obvious change (to me) when compared with the earlier books. 
It took me so long to finish this book because I needed to step away for a couple of months and even then, it still bothered me a little at times. 


As with the earlier books, the repetition in vocabulary could also become noticeable and therefore a little annoying at times. However it is a long book so it can't be helped sometimes. 

Lastly, I mentioned this in my notes when I first picked up this book but I feel like maybe AI was used to help write this book? Some of the language and mistakes just seem 
..off? 
Idk if this is the case, but it just bothers me.
This could've been another 5 star (or close to it) for me but there was stuff along the way that bothered me in an accumulative way. So eventually, I felt like rushing to get to the end (to conclude the book and series), not because I was excited for the ending but because I wanted that sense of completion and it was annoying me so I wanted it finished and out of the way...and that's sad because I thought this was one of my new favourite series. I had raved about it to one of my friends but now I feel awkward about it... Like, do I need to give them a warning that it goes downhill a bit in my eyes? 

Sorry, bit of rant. Just getting my feelings out. 

[Dan Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Epic" is a word thrown around in the SF Fantasy genre with a casual disregard for its actual meaning, along with 'Opera' and 'original'.

But these books are Epic - they're not perfect, and they need an edit and a spell check but they are Epic. A brilliantly drawn massive world encompassing a dramatic rags-to-riches, fight-against-the-odds tale of derring-do. These books shove the story into an alien hellscape of fantastical landscapes and creative creatures. The author seems to have mixed computer game-style 'levelling up' mechanics with fantasy and come up with something greater than the sum of its parts. It doesn't take itself too seriously - but it is good solid fun.

Sure... some of the dialogue in these books is awful, as though Phil asked two teenage drama students to make up a scene about young love and then borrowed their dialogue verbatim. He's also prone to 'explaining' rather than 'showing' in places, but generally, descriptions are vivid and characters - certainly the main ones - are consistent in their actions and processes.

But despite the dialogue irritating me (more in book 1 - he's getting better) I can forgive him because along with creative world-building , I've got a steroidal gore-fest slow-burn mystery driven on the whole by characters I liked. There is a bit too much Teen melodrama in places, where one minute the character is tearing somebody head off, only to then get all angsty about who fancies who which can get tiring. But inspire of it's issues....I like these books.

I have no idea if others will like these books - but I'm looking forward to the 4th book - but he needs somebody to spell-check it before they put it on Kindle...and please...crowd fund an editor.

[Eve · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is always a wonder why an author brags about writing 20k words or so in 1-2 day periods. The quality of the book's writing becomes clearly diminished. I have not seen an author who had made that a bragging point actually succeed into creating something of average quality. Phil Tucker is no different either.

There is an excessive amount of repetition in this book, inflating its size. Sometimes, the same conversation is repeated just with different characters. Information is redundantly repeated pages apart, sometimes 3-4 times. This book will at times run out of sayings/phrases that it would start reusing them again 3-4 times.

That would not be an issue if it was only a webnovel because the standard for editing is far lower than published books.

The quality of this book's storytelling, prose and editing remind me of serialized webnovels. It is a shame considering this author is also the author of the Black Gate saga. Truly a waste of his talent. It is not like he can't manage that quality again. He has done it before, he can do it again.

The book needs massive rounds of editing. There are many issues that could be fixed with a capable editor. Issues that should not have made it into the final released draft. I wish these self-published authors took editing as seriously as big house publishing take it. Today is not the day. This author clearly values speed at the expense of his writing. If he had laid back, and found the patience, this book would've been quite a bit better.

It is a true shame. This one was a huge disappointment.

[Stephen Parish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent addition to series

Book Review

Phil Tucker’s latest installment in his series is a masterclass in storytelling, offering a thrilling mix of action, romance, and exceptional world-building that will captivate readers from start to finish. The narrative follows Scorio, a relatable and evolving protagonist whose journey resonates as a testament to perseverance and growth.

The series shines with its richly crafted characters and an intricate power system that keeps readers intrigued. Tucker’s ability to blend compelling character development with a densely layered plot is nothing short of remarkable. While some moments may feel predictable, the surprises more than make up for it, keeping the reader hooked through every twist and turn.

Fans of LitRPG and progressive fantasy will appreciate the immersive pacing and the intricate details of Tucker’s universe. Though the distrustful dynamics among characters can be frustrating at times, the depth of mystery and intrigue keeps the tension alive.

A must-read for fantasy enthusiasts, this series cements its legacy with each installment. Tucker’s storytelling is so compelling that waiting for the next book becomes the only downside. Highly recommended for those seeking a fast-paced, action-filled adventure that stays with you long after the final page.

[Sean T. Forster · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absurd hyper-descriptiveness

As I made the review on his previous book, it is like Phil has to keep a thesaurus and dictionary open for every sentence he writes. He violates the rule of keeping the language to the audience, using common terms instead of just trying to squeeze every possible adjective into every sentence he possibly could.

Each fight sequence is exhausting to read as he spends pages upon pages using SAT vocabulary words as large as possible to describe every tiny minutia of movement and action. He doesn't need to say how the opponent lands or flaps or swings every single time among thousands of moves and attacks.

Every composition teacher I have taken would give this a C at best for excessive use of adjectives and description. Nevermind the frequent typos and errors. And contradictions.

Just... it is a headache to read anything by Phil Tucker because he can't stop listening to himself speak in prose (metaphor) on the paper trying to prove intelligence and wit constantly instead of just telling a good story and allowing imaginations to come to life with just the right amount of description (about 1/10th to 1/5 as much as he uses).

Ugh. Time to take an advil.

[Humza Ahmed · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun read, with a lot of exciting moments and some surprising twists. However, this book felt clunky. Names and references from previous books had changed (Dameon/Daemon, Empyreal Prophecy/Cerulean Prophecy) with no explanation, and the plot forgot what had happened in some moments (characters were unable to use their Heart, but were all of a sudden supplementing their strength with mana).

But most significantly, the book focused on romance more than the previous 2 and it was jarring. Books 1 and 2 were focused on friendship and adventure. This book fell short of that, and while I applaud the author's decision to bring a sense of true danger to the book by killing some characters, it did feel like they'd simply built up a character to toss it away.

The last third of the book brought a surprising amount of change. As always, when writing about characters with supreme power, there's a difficulty in describing the relative strength of the more 'normal' characters. This is especially prevalent when the MC develops powers quicker than average without really digesting the preceding power bump. I don't want to spoil the ending, but I want to point out that this was alluded to earlier in the book and the MC ignored it, which went against his character.

[Christopher Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

It would seem that it took a bit for author Phil Tucker to get his "Immortal Great Souls" storyline moving along the tracks. This third book (of what we mistakenly believed to be a trilogy) is a significant shift in both tone and depth to what has come before. From what we had previously reviewed as "Hogwarts in Hell" from the first book that still had gradations to a young adult audience, this book makes the full shift to very adult themes. For myself, the shift was acceptable (and appreciated) as you could imagine view the same Hogwarts reference from young naive kids from book one to epic confrontations at the close of later books. Some might get thrown by the shift however.

This book really gave the overarching plot and characters so much breadth and focus. It also provided some levity with the existing characters (love the character Nox), but added so much more with the introduction of the character Alain. This book finally pulled me into this world, and definitely has me looking forward to the next in the series. We went audio book on this one, and while narrator Nick Podel consistently does an amazing job, I did wince as he kept saying the main character name incorrectly at the beginning of the book.

[Marc Gommert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really engaging and fun to read. It was also very exciting and well paced.
This series is also extremely angry, furious even. It feels kind of cathartic to see a mistreated underdog killing all the corrupt, sneering, self-serving and greedy authority figures ruining the lives of him, his friends and most of the common people, while also exploring themes of questioning dogma, established worldviews and "us vs. them" mentalities.
I make no presumptions about the author's views or intentions with this, but this really feels like one way to channel all the frustration and anger one could experience in the current world into a book series about killing demons and people that have wronged you.

Prose is still a little too try-hard flowery for my taste (sometimes feels like it was written with a thesaurus on hand, and we're doing progression fantasy here, not Shakespeare) and some phrases turn up way too much for their own good, but other than that, the writing is also really working.

Looking forward to the next entry!

[Rut · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is not good. If all you're after is new monsters, lots of action, and new powers, then you might be satisfied. However, the pacing is all over the place. Numerous sequences and character actions feel like they are happening conveniently in order to arrive at particular plot points, rather than occurring organically. Characters make strange decisions that are completely "out of character", and there is one particularly ludicrous scene that is just plain silly. I had to reread it a couple times just to make sure I didn't miss anything. Nope - it was just that bad. It's a major plot point too. Also, while the editing isn't nearly as bad as Book 2, it's still not great (e.g., "Dameon" from Book 2 becomes "Daemon" after about chapter 15 or so in Book 3. I mean, when character names change . . . come on).

It's a shame, because it's an interesting world and intriguing overarching story.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dense, incredible world building, page turning book

I would love to speak with Phil Tucker to get a peek into this complex and amazing mind of his. Phil is building a world unlike anything I've ever read before. The character development is unreal. The complexity of this world and plots and people are at an entirely different level. While it is vicious and violent it is also endearing and hopeful.

In this book Scorio is furthering his venture into hell to learn more about the herdsmen and what is taking place. His relationship with Naomi blossoms and also shatters due to its complexity. The story constantly exceeds and goes beyond anything you can imagine. We're finally starting to see the direction this series. The intricacies and complexities of hell are far more than I could
have envisioned in book 1. This is again a tribute to Phil Tucker's brain and his storytelling.

What an amazing author highly recommend!

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to give credit where credit is due.

I hated the first book of his that I ever read, The Path of Flames. It was so bad that I intended to never read anything more by him. By accident I read Bastion (the first in this series) without realizing it was the same author because I'm a sucker for anything Hell/demon related. It was good enough to forgive him and continue the series.

Now I've finished the third book, and I'm sad that there aren't more to read yet. He went from me actively not caring about any characters, main or side, in Path of Flames, (and legitimately hating several of them) to really really liking many of the characters in this series and being actually sad when some of them died.

So, bravo to Phil Tucker for vastly improving as an author and writing a series that I would recommend to friends, and here's hoping that he writes the next novel(s) in the series very quickly!

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good, really enjoyable. We actually got to see some of what the great war is actually like in this volume, some good fights, some good development, personally very happy I guessed correctly in regards to Scorio's development.

I will say I think the author needs to ease up on the betrayals, the gimmick has been milked after 3 books and we know there's at least 1 more coming. I was going to give the book 5 stars all the same but the fate of a character near the end forced me to drop it down. In retrospect it feels like the character was only there for that one moment of chaos, it didn't really need to happen to get the same result and while its probably considered good writing its very unsatisfying as a reader.

Probably sound overly negative towards the end there, but you don't have to like everything about a book to enjoy it. End of the day if you enjoyed the previous two volumes, you cant go wrong with LastRock.

[Apellön · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Another banger from Phil Tucker!

Tucker delivers again with a smart, fun, and original take on progression fantasy. The world is rich, the power system is super creative, and compared to book 1 it seems to not drag has much

mc last abilities feel a bit underwhelming for now ( but I guess we haven’t seen full potential yet) compared to some wild souls powers out there—but that just makes his growth and strategies all the more interesting to watch, it’s always a blast to learn and get to see other souls and all the dynamics.

Phil is good at keeping new intrigues going to make you want to know and see more on just about everything with an out of the box writing.

It’s easy to read, and full of twists. Enough to have always some tension and turns you didn’t fully predict - I had a great time definitely one of the most entertaining reads I’ve had lately. Great adventure , badass and fun.