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Guild of the Eternal Flame #1–5 omnibus
The Complete Guild of the Eternal Flame Box Set
The Complete Guild of the Eternal Flame Series!
It began at the Inn.
Five strangers.
And a town in peril..
When a Dwarf, Elf, Rogue, Ex Sailor and a Dragon Born Sorceress all find themselves stranded in an Inn during a snow storm, they expect to be leaving as soon as the snow melts and the pass reopens. But then the supply wagon goes missing, and farmers complain of vandalism and slaughtered herds.
Can these five adventurers find some common ground to work together and help the town? Will they rise to the challenge? Or are some differences too much to overcome?
Find out now in this story of five unlikely heroes stumbling into something worth fighting for, and the sentient fireball they find along the way.
It began at the Inn.
Five strangers.
And a town in peril..
When a Dwarf, Elf, Rogue, Ex Sailor and a Dragon Born Sorceress all find themselves stranded in an Inn during a snow storm, they expect to be leaving as soon as the snow melts and the pass reopens. But then the supply wagon goes missing, and farmers complain of vandalism and slaughtered herds.
Can these five adventurers find some common ground to work together and help the town? Will they rise to the challenge? Or are some differences too much to overcome?
Find out now in this story of five unlikely heroes stumbling into something worth fighting for, and the sentient fireball they find along the way.
- GenresFantasy
898 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 16, 2024
338 people are currently reading
171 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 15, 2025
Sometimes, a decent D&D-based sword-and-sorcery yarn with a bit of character depth is exactly what I'm in the mood for. This is one, though unfortunately the poor standard of editing reduced my enjoyment.
While it's clearly based on D&D (it's obvious, even if the author didn't outright say so), it makes the excellent choice to go the opposite of the obtrusive LitRPG route; rather than sticking all of the game mechanics into the story, the author has carefully kept them out entirely - no mention of spell slots, characters with non-strength-based and non-intelligence-based classes haven't obviously dumped strength or intelligence (the half-elf rogue is described as "burly"), and combat flows like novel combat rather than game combat. Armour reduces the damage done by a blow at one point, rather than D&D's binary hit/doesn't hit. It's not so much like a D&D game as it is a novel set in a D&D-like world, if the game aspects were ignored and it was treated just as a fantasy setting. Nor does it follow D&D all the time, though the characters' classes and even most of their subclasses are pretty clear; the ranger has no spells, for example, and magic sometimes works a bit differently, though I don't know what edition the author plays.
In terms of the plot and characters, I did expect the characters to start trusting each other with their backstories sooner than they did. The fourth book ends with the first of them confiding in one of the others, and it's only at the end of the fifth book that they all fully confide in each other - which does make a nice ending point, so I can see why the author timed it that way. We only got hints at the backstories prior to that point, which did provide intrigue, but we had to take it on faith that because of unspecified Bad Things that had happened in the past, these five adventurers had all individually decided to help others in order to atone for their previous bad decisions or actions that had hurt other people (and all happened to meet in a tavern in a town with a problem they could solve, but that's a genre trope, and I give it a pass). The characters are, in other words, noblebright, good-hearted people who will do what they can to help others, even risking their lives to do so.
The editing was rough in places, though I've seen much worse lately; there were a surprising number of missing closing quotation marks (and the occasional missing opening quotation mark), a few simple typos, and some homonym or vocabulary errors (refuting/disputing, too/two, knell/knoll, censor/censure, diffuse/defuse, horde/hoard, peaked/peeked, discrete/discreet, even sales/sails). In the first book, characters sometimes "reply" when there isn't a preceding line of dialog to reply to. Pronouns for the ranger's wolf companion and several other creatures, including human enemies, go back and forth between "it" and "he" rather than picking one and sticking with it. In a few places, a sentence degenerates into garble or changes grammatical direction in the middle, or an idiom gets mangled. It oddly uses metric measurements in a fantasy world, and then mixes them with traditional units, and then gets the conversion wrong. The west gate becomes the east gate at one point, and a period between one and two years has, a few pages later, shifted to between one and two months. Confusingly, the same pronoun is sometimes used for two different characters in the same sentence or adjacent ones, leading to a mental stutter and having to go back and parse the sentence again, and some modifiers dangle. It's below average; I generally see at least a couple of dozen errors in the average published book, from trad-pubs as well as indies (though indies sometimes make different mistakes), and this is almost twice that. But the author can write in the past tense, which isn't as widespread a skill as you'd expect, and nearly all the apostrophes and most of the commas are in the right places. It's scruffy, but wouldn't be hard to fix. Some readers won't notice, or care.
I think I know why there are so many issues: the author has a lot of books out, so is going for the reproductive strategy of a lot of offspring with small investment in each one, and probably doesn't spend much time on revision. I know that's economically preferable for some authors, but it does short-change the readers a bit. And it doesn't need to be a straight-up choice between quality and quantity, either; Lindsay Buroker and, even more so, Melissa McShane manage to produce a lot of books and still maintain high quality. (If you like this book, McShane's Company of Strangers series is similar, but with a more original world and much better editing.)
The story would normally place this in the Silver tier of my 2024 Best of the Year list, with the other solid, enjoyable books, but because the editing is distinctly below average I can only put it in Bronze, and I'd hesitate before picking up another book from the same author.
While it's clearly based on D&D (it's obvious, even if the author didn't outright say so), it makes the excellent choice to go the opposite of the obtrusive LitRPG route; rather than sticking all of the game mechanics into the story, the author has carefully kept them out entirely - no mention of spell slots, characters with non-strength-based and non-intelligence-based classes haven't obviously dumped strength or intelligence (the half-elf rogue is described as "burly"), and combat flows like novel combat rather than game combat. Armour reduces the damage done by a blow at one point, rather than D&D's binary hit/doesn't hit. It's not so much like a D&D game as it is a novel set in a D&D-like world, if the game aspects were ignored and it was treated just as a fantasy setting. Nor does it follow D&D all the time, though the characters' classes and even most of their subclasses are pretty clear; the ranger has no spells, for example, and magic sometimes works a bit differently, though I don't know what edition the author plays.
In terms of the plot and characters, I did expect the characters to start trusting each other with their backstories sooner than they did. The fourth book ends with the first of them confiding in one of the others, and it's only at the end of the fifth book that they all fully confide in each other - which does make a nice ending point, so I can see why the author timed it that way. We only got hints at the backstories prior to that point, which did provide intrigue, but we had to take it on faith that because of unspecified Bad Things that had happened in the past, these five adventurers had all individually decided to help others in order to atone for their previous bad decisions or actions that had hurt other people (and all happened to meet in a tavern in a town with a problem they could solve, but that's a genre trope, and I give it a pass). The characters are, in other words, noblebright, good-hearted people who will do what they can to help others, even risking their lives to do so.
The editing was rough in places, though I've seen much worse lately; there were a surprising number of missing closing quotation marks (and the occasional missing opening quotation mark), a few simple typos, and some homonym or vocabulary errors (refuting/disputing, too/two, knell/knoll, censor/censure, diffuse/defuse, horde/hoard, peaked/peeked, discrete/discreet, even sales/sails). In the first book, characters sometimes "reply" when there isn't a preceding line of dialog to reply to. Pronouns for the ranger's wolf companion and several other creatures, including human enemies, go back and forth between "it" and "he" rather than picking one and sticking with it. In a few places, a sentence degenerates into garble or changes grammatical direction in the middle, or an idiom gets mangled. It oddly uses metric measurements in a fantasy world, and then mixes them with traditional units, and then gets the conversion wrong. The west gate becomes the east gate at one point, and a period between one and two years has, a few pages later, shifted to between one and two months. Confusingly, the same pronoun is sometimes used for two different characters in the same sentence or adjacent ones, leading to a mental stutter and having to go back and parse the sentence again, and some modifiers dangle. It's below average; I generally see at least a couple of dozen errors in the average published book, from trad-pubs as well as indies (though indies sometimes make different mistakes), and this is almost twice that. But the author can write in the past tense, which isn't as widespread a skill as you'd expect, and nearly all the apostrophes and most of the commas are in the right places. It's scruffy, but wouldn't be hard to fix. Some readers won't notice, or care.
I think I know why there are so many issues: the author has a lot of books out, so is going for the reproductive strategy of a lot of offspring with small investment in each one, and probably doesn't spend much time on revision. I know that's economically preferable for some authors, but it does short-change the readers a bit. And it doesn't need to be a straight-up choice between quality and quantity, either; Lindsay Buroker and, even more so, Melissa McShane manage to produce a lot of books and still maintain high quality. (If you like this book, McShane's Company of Strangers series is similar, but with a more original world and much better editing.)
The story would normally place this in the Silver tier of my 2024 Best of the Year list, with the other solid, enjoyable books, but because the editing is distinctly below average I can only put it in Bronze, and I'd hesitate before picking up another book from the same author.
May 28, 2024
Guild of the Eternal Flame
I enjoyed these books, I had to give it 5 Stars because it kept me intrigued all the way through. The author had a great storyline but could have told the background of the 5 involved it would have helped. I was interested in reading more about the characters in the end. But well done. Hopefully she will write a sequel and bring Adorn and Sahria together. We can only guess what happens next
I enjoyed these books, I had to give it 5 Stars because it kept me intrigued all the way through. The author had a great storyline but could have told the background of the 5 involved it would have helped. I was interested in reading more about the characters in the end. But well done. Hopefully she will write a sequel and bring Adorn and Sahria together. We can only guess what happens next
January 2, 2025
Awww group hug.
So bad, it's funny. There is (almost*) no character development at all. The writing is so cliche. They're insta friends.
'can my baby and I join you on your adventure? My usual adventuring buddies are off fighting a blue dragon'. That is an actual quote from the book. *snickers*
*There is some character development in the 5th book.
So bad, it's funny. There is (almost*) no character development at all. The writing is so cliche. They're insta friends.
'can my baby and I join you on your adventure? My usual adventuring buddies are off fighting a blue dragon'. That is an actual quote from the book. *snickers*
*There is some character development in the 5th book.
April 7, 2025
I liked this it was exactly the type of book I really needed to read right about now now it was fun, an enjoyable read and the kind of thing I would write so yeah lots of fun I am a Gamer myself and I too love to write stories about my characters and do (not published though well at least not professionally) so thanks for the thoroughly enjoyable read!
May 5, 2024
Very easy read.
July 1, 2024
very good read.
I liked this a lot and would recommend it to everyone who likes fantasy books.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful imagination.
I liked this a lot and would recommend it to everyone who likes fantasy books.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful imagination.
December 28, 2024
I enjoyed this series the guild of the eternal flame, the main characters were good and reading how they grew trust and help each other was interesting. I would recommend this series.
Ian
Ian
March 2, 2025
Easy Read
This series was very well written and can be read by all. I always appreciate an author that does not curse with every other word in a book.
This series was very well written and can be read by all. I always appreciate an author that does not curse with every other word in a book.
April 9, 2025
A fun adventure with some interesting characters
I really enjoyed this boxed set and found the story development spot on. A good mix of adventure, fighting, magick, and good times.
I really enjoyed this boxed set and found the story development spot on. A good mix of adventure, fighting, magick, and good times.
September 8, 2025
It took way too long to develop the characters and was quite repetitive
October 15, 2025
Wonderful read
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews