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The SciFan Universe #1
Conquest
***Voted #1 Favorite Dystopian Book at Virtual Fantasy Con***The future of mankind is in the hands of one woman—but only she can See it.Over the last five hundred years, Timur Demyan has used his ungodly powers to decimate countless empires. Now, the immortal villain stands as the CEO of the company that has developed DarkForce, the most popular augmented reality video game in the world. What gamers don’t know is that DarkForce has been patterned after an alien planet inhabited by the Leviathan, a loathsome creature with whom Timur has forged an alliance.Undercover operative Lily Thatcher has only just begun to unlock innate Seer abilities that allow her to witness past, present and potential future events after she overcame certain death. Now dragged away to another world with a sentient dragon by her side, will her powers be enough to stop Timur and prevent Earth’s apocalyptic fate?
- GenresFantasyScience Fiction
419 pages, Paperback
Published May 22, 2016
20 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
About the author
R.M. Mulder
20 books13 followersMost of his friends from High School still don't even know his first name. Known only as either "Mulder" or "Agent", there was an unforgettable moment when a girl he was dating expressed her confusion when a friend approached him and called him "Richard". The ongoing joke was "Hey Mulder, where's Scully?" Ironically he later married a redhead...
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 12, 2016
Conquest: Rise of the Fifth Horseman is the first book in the Fifth Horseman series. It's a fast-paced fantasy that melds a lot of different concepts fairly successfully.
The story starts with Allan, a corporate lawyer, proposing to his girlfriend of four years, Lily, in a very awkward scene in a restaurant. Lily is an agent for the NSA and though she loves Allan, her job (which he knows nothing about) would interfere in a marriage between them.
As it turns out, neither Allan or Lily are what they seem and I mean that in a metaphysical sense as the reader soon discovers. Mr. Mulder has woven in strands from both the Old and New Testaments, dragons, conspiracy theories, nano technology, myths and legends about such diverse historical figures such as Elijah, Tamerlane, John the Apostle, and Noah to a cohesive adventure story.
Allan and Lily must save Earth from a soul-sucking creature while passing through portals to another world. I admit I was a bit confused about the logistics here, but it doesn't really matter to the story. There is a lot of violence, some gratuitous in my opinion, and I wasn't especially happy with the ending, but I look forward to the next book because, in the main, this was a good story that kept my interest. I recommend it to readers looking for something just a little different from the usual.
The story starts with Allan, a corporate lawyer, proposing to his girlfriend of four years, Lily, in a very awkward scene in a restaurant. Lily is an agent for the NSA and though she loves Allan, her job (which he knows nothing about) would interfere in a marriage between them.
As it turns out, neither Allan or Lily are what they seem and I mean that in a metaphysical sense as the reader soon discovers. Mr. Mulder has woven in strands from both the Old and New Testaments, dragons, conspiracy theories, nano technology, myths and legends about such diverse historical figures such as Elijah, Tamerlane, John the Apostle, and Noah to a cohesive adventure story.
Allan and Lily must save Earth from a soul-sucking creature while passing through portals to another world. I admit I was a bit confused about the logistics here, but it doesn't really matter to the story. There is a lot of violence, some gratuitous in my opinion, and I wasn't especially happy with the ending, but I look forward to the next book because, in the main, this was a good story that kept my interest. I recommend it to readers looking for something just a little different from the usual.
November 20, 2017
Conquest
By: R. M. Mulder
Narrated by: Andrea Emmes
This is an audible book I requested and the review is voluntary.
This is not a litRPG, it is about a fantasy that takes place sending people to another world or dimension through a portal.
I found it very interesting in the beginning and up to about half way and there it began to bog down. If it had been a print or e-book I might have skimmed portions but that is not possible with an audible book. I really wanted to like this book. It didn't really get much better and the end was a disappointment altogether.
The one good thing about the book was the narrator. If it wasn't for the narrator I might not have made it through at all. She made the voices great, all of them, even the deep gruff male voices she did perfect! She helped me stick it out when I wanted to quit. Her excitement kept me going. She was the perfect voice for this book.
By: R. M. Mulder
Narrated by: Andrea Emmes
This is an audible book I requested and the review is voluntary.
This is not a litRPG, it is about a fantasy that takes place sending people to another world or dimension through a portal.
I found it very interesting in the beginning and up to about half way and there it began to bog down. If it had been a print or e-book I might have skimmed portions but that is not possible with an audible book. I really wanted to like this book. It didn't really get much better and the end was a disappointment altogether.
The one good thing about the book was the narrator. If it wasn't for the narrator I might not have made it through at all. She made the voices great, all of them, even the deep gruff male voices she did perfect! She helped me stick it out when I wanted to quit. Her excitement kept me going. She was the perfect voice for this book.
July 1, 2018
Boring. Plasticky characters, awful dialogue, flimsy plot, and the constant bible verses are noxious. At about 12% I couldn't take another word.
January 20, 2019
Where you lost me was at 94%, when I just couldn't take it anymore. The MC was so goddamned cocky all of a sudden because he suddenly gained some power, without necessarily knowing how to appropriately use it. Suddenly he's all "I can defeat the bad guy" but based on WHAT?!
Then he goes and gives himself up to the Leviathan, which he has EXPLICITLY and IN DEPTH been warned against. What did he expect was going to happen?
Then he goes and gives himself up to the Leviathan, which he has EXPLICITLY and IN DEPTH been warned against. What did he expect was going to happen?
June 4, 2017
I've never read LitRPG before, although I kind of wonder if Realms Unreeled would qualify? But anyway, I saw some complaints from some "purists" of the genre who said that this wasn't truly LitRPG. As I'm not really familiar with the subgenre, I won't argue that point. What I will say is that I really enjoyed the story at the beginning. There was a strong science-fantasy edge, with a heavy religious theme. I was enticed by the concept of seraphim as told in the story, and the way each chapter began with chapters from "Methusala." The book had me until about 68% of the way through.
The complaint that another reviewer had that the gaming scenes felt forced and like they were slapped in to "make it LitRPG" didn't feel true to me. I felt that those pieces flowed in the story, and that they made sense. But suddenly there was too much happening at the 68% mark, and it happened fast with little time spent really delving into the why and how.
The story starts out being all about Allan, his client Timur, his fiance Lilly, and how their relationships aren't what they seem. Then we get thrown into another world where Timur is not what he seems on a WHOLE new level! Allan meets John and discovers that he is "the chosen One" type of trope. I was good following this story line, following Lilly and Allan's motivation, even following John's motivation, and realizing that Timur's motivation might be a bit skewed as he is clearly insane and unstable.
I followed the intro to Brittany and why she was a part of the story, but suddenly Brittany and her guy took a huge chunk of the story that seemed only tangentially related to the main story line. , but there was no clear understanding of why their quest in the video game suddenly had such importance (I suspect that will become more relevant in the next book, but talk about a HUGE cliff hanger!) and then there were some explanations that ended up being inconsistent (The four horseman tie in, leading to the number of seraphim pulling from famous historical figures, which then changed in a latter chapter, for example.)
We started out with Allan being the main protagonist, then that shifted to Lilly and both of their motivations took a drastic shift that while sort of making sense, were still frustrating because we didn't see the growth on Lilly's part to lead to her change, and with Allan being the protagonist, I expected more of him. Then the story ended on a giant twist of Screw the Reader ever designed and I was left mad.
I believe this is the first book by the author, and I think that part of the problem is that he was too ambitious. I love books that pull from lots of historical mythos. Rick Roirdan's series are some of my favorites! The way that Joshua Robertson weaves ancient Celtic myths into his works, Supernatural pulling monsters from all around the world.
But each of those weave all those elements into a series. We get a chance to be immersed in one element before another element is thrown at us. With Conquest we are barely getting used to the idea of the two worlds and seraphim, before the game element is thrown at us. Before we can process that aspect, we get dragons, before we can fully process that element, we get the ascension aspect, and before we can truly right our view of this world, the Leviathon flips everything on it's head. We are invested in Allan's story, and then the focus shifts to Lilly, and before we can fully get invested in Lilly we're twisted to Brittany's story and then the last chapter is about James. Each of these characters tie into the others to some extent, but the transition of focus was a bit mind bending for me, all in one relatively short book.
Then there are some other aspects that I need to decide if it was the author's cleverly toying with my expectations of the tropes, or if the transition really was as jarring as it felt to me in the moment. This will take some time to process and analyze. I might have to come back to that.
I think the author has an incredible concept going. The world he has created and the multiple conflicts are fascinating, especially as a first time author, but it gave me major whiplash bouncing from all those focuses. Mad props to the author, though. I have yet to brave writing true fantasy or science fiction because I fear I would not do so well with keeping all the plates spinning and balancing the focus. For him to add in these other story elements on top of such a tough genre? Wow.
I enjoyed the story enough, and feel that the content is ok for my boys to read. I will probably read the next book in the series when it comes out. Hopefully as the author fine tunes his storytelling, the focus will tighten and develop. I am excited to see where this author goes!
The complaint that another reviewer had that the gaming scenes felt forced and like they were slapped in to "make it LitRPG" didn't feel true to me. I felt that those pieces flowed in the story, and that they made sense. But suddenly there was too much happening at the 68% mark, and it happened fast with little time spent really delving into the why and how.
The story starts out being all about Allan, his client Timur, his fiance Lilly, and how their relationships aren't what they seem. Then we get thrown into another world where Timur is not what he seems on a WHOLE new level! Allan meets John and discovers that he is "the chosen One" type of trope. I was good following this story line, following Lilly and Allan's motivation, even following John's motivation, and realizing that Timur's motivation might be a bit skewed as he is clearly insane and unstable.
I followed the intro to Brittany and why she was a part of the story, but suddenly Brittany and her guy took a huge chunk of the story that seemed only tangentially related to the main story line. , but there was no clear understanding of why their quest in the video game suddenly had such importance (I suspect that will become more relevant in the next book, but talk about a HUGE cliff hanger!) and then there were some explanations that ended up being inconsistent (The four horseman tie in, leading to the number of seraphim pulling from famous historical figures, which then changed in a latter chapter, for example.)
We started out with Allan being the main protagonist, then that shifted to Lilly and both of their motivations took a drastic shift that while sort of making sense, were still frustrating because we didn't see the growth on Lilly's part to lead to her change, and with Allan being the protagonist, I expected more of him. Then the story ended on a giant twist of Screw the Reader ever designed and I was left mad.
I believe this is the first book by the author, and I think that part of the problem is that he was too ambitious. I love books that pull from lots of historical mythos. Rick Roirdan's series are some of my favorites! The way that Joshua Robertson weaves ancient Celtic myths into his works, Supernatural pulling monsters from all around the world.
But each of those weave all those elements into a series. We get a chance to be immersed in one element before another element is thrown at us. With Conquest we are barely getting used to the idea of the two worlds and seraphim, before the game element is thrown at us. Before we can process that aspect, we get dragons, before we can fully process that element, we get the ascension aspect, and before we can truly right our view of this world, the Leviathon flips everything on it's head. We are invested in Allan's story, and then the focus shifts to Lilly, and before we can fully get invested in Lilly we're twisted to Brittany's story and then the last chapter is about James. Each of these characters tie into the others to some extent, but the transition of focus was a bit mind bending for me, all in one relatively short book.
Then there are some other aspects that I need to decide if it was the author's cleverly toying with my expectations of the tropes, or if the transition really was as jarring as it felt to me in the moment. This will take some time to process and analyze. I might have to come back to that.
I think the author has an incredible concept going. The world he has created and the multiple conflicts are fascinating, especially as a first time author, but it gave me major whiplash bouncing from all those focuses. Mad props to the author, though. I have yet to brave writing true fantasy or science fiction because I fear I would not do so well with keeping all the plates spinning and balancing the focus. For him to add in these other story elements on top of such a tough genre? Wow.
I enjoyed the story enough, and feel that the content is ok for my boys to read. I will probably read the next book in the series when it comes out. Hopefully as the author fine tunes his storytelling, the focus will tighten and develop. I am excited to see where this author goes!
September 27, 2018
The author has a great imagination, mixing ancient and modern storylines. This was not a genre I normally read, but I found parts of it enjoyable.
November 30, 2020
Got bored. The constant quotes irritated. The characters were unengaging.
January 14, 2019
Never slows down enough to know what it is
Spy thriller? Urban fantasy? Biblical fiction? Who knows? After all, it throws everything including the kitchen sink at the reader, all in an overwrought, dialogue-heavy wall of melodrama that never really let's you get to know any characters, let alone discern a coherent plot.
There are super-powerful beings on the loose and a religion-heavy influence with the possible threat of the end of the world, yet there never really feels like much risk amid all the preening, moustache-twirling villainy. It's all over the place and all the soap opera action can't paper over the cracks.
Also, for something supposedly science fantasy, there's very little science in show.
Spy thriller? Urban fantasy? Biblical fiction? Who knows? After all, it throws everything including the kitchen sink at the reader, all in an overwrought, dialogue-heavy wall of melodrama that never really let's you get to know any characters, let alone discern a coherent plot.
There are super-powerful beings on the loose and a religion-heavy influence with the possible threat of the end of the world, yet there never really feels like much risk amid all the preening, moustache-twirling villainy. It's all over the place and all the soap opera action can't paper over the cracks.
Also, for something supposedly science fantasy, there's very little science in show.
February 8, 2019
Conquest has a lot of interesting ideas... too many interesting ideas to be honest. This book has a serious case of ADHD, jumping rapidly between multiple characters, each one dealing with at least two different plot thread simultaneously. The result is, though each plot seems like it would be very interesting and worth exploring, none of them are developed and it's very easy to get lost in what's happening. It really feels like this is 2 or 3 different books spliced together.
Also, the phrase, "_____, you mean like _____ from the bible" got really old. After the character does that the first time, you'd think they'd stop being surprised / disbelieving of it. There was seriously a point where one character, currently on a world with two suns, RIDING A DRAGON, and having psychic visions, was astonished something else she had heard of from the bible existing. I mean, at some point you'd think their incredulity would be completely exhausted.
Also, the phrase, "_____, you mean like _____ from the bible" got really old. After the character does that the first time, you'd think they'd stop being surprised / disbelieving of it. There was seriously a point where one character, currently on a world with two suns, RIDING A DRAGON, and having psychic visions, was astonished something else she had heard of from the bible existing. I mean, at some point you'd think their incredulity would be completely exhausted.
April 6, 2019
Long-winded, confused, in the end even boring.
It has several interesting ideas, but they are shallowly (or confusely) developed and I lost interest fast. The game-lit aspect is shoe-horned, uninteresting and useless.
I hoped it would finish soon - but it didn't.
It has several interesting ideas, but they are shallowly (or confusely) developed and I lost interest fast. The game-lit aspect is shoe-horned, uninteresting and useless.
I hoped it would finish soon - but it didn't.
April 9, 2018
Couldn't finish it, just felt meh about the whole thing.
April 20, 2019
Stopped about 60% through. There is a lot about this book I don't like, including the blasphemous nature of the story. If that doesn't bother you, perhaps add a star.
None of the characters actions make sense. The primary villain seems to go from being a knowledgable several hundred year old conqueror, to a modern technophile with no understanding of himself, or those around him (in the second world, at least). The main character is simulataneously a very intelligent lawyer, and a completely obliviously inept man with the social skills of a four year old.
I made the mistake of reading the "prequel" first. This a is a mistake because Officer Parker's storyline is word-for-word- the same as the prequel. That just feels like a cop-out at best. That said, I feel like the prequel was far superior to this novel. It doesn't have quite so many of the issues, and I actually enjoyed reading it.
Why does a world based on ancient Biblical culture speak old English? Even the dragon!
None of the characters actions make sense. The primary villain seems to go from being a knowledgable several hundred year old conqueror, to a modern technophile with no understanding of himself, or those around him (in the second world, at least). The main character is simulataneously a very intelligent lawyer, and a completely obliviously inept man with the social skills of a four year old.
I made the mistake of reading the "prequel" first. This a is a mistake because Officer Parker's storyline is word-for-word- the same as the prequel. That just feels like a cop-out at best. That said, I feel like the prequel was far superior to this novel. It doesn't have quite so many of the issues, and I actually enjoyed reading it.
Why does a world based on ancient Biblical culture speak old English? Even the dragon!
July 17, 2018
What a genre-bending read!
Audiobook version.
This had everything from Historic Asian figures, the Bible, gaming elements, and futuristic high tech stuff. Narrator Andrea Emmes knocks it out of the ball park as usual. Having a good narrator truly makes a difference, and with certain books, it's all the difference.
Audiobook version.
This had everything from Historic Asian figures, the Bible, gaming elements, and futuristic high tech stuff. Narrator Andrea Emmes knocks it out of the ball park as usual. Having a good narrator truly makes a difference, and with certain books, it's all the difference.
December 23, 2017
Review to come.
March 14, 2025
Great writing, fantastic plot, engaging story, a must read!
July 9, 2016
This one gets a full 5 stars!
Such an enjoyable and captivating read with as may twist and turns as can be imagined. Richard M. Mulder pulls you in with a deep and mysterious scene before dropping you off in the modern world of Earth. Mulder’s novel continues to surprise with every twist and turn of the story while still keeping the story grounded with his impeccable descriptions. Not wishing to spoil and of the surprises I won’t go into detail. But I will give you this, so many loose strings are tied up in a nice little bow while still leaving a HUGE cliffhanger. The ending is satisfying enough that I didn’t seek to pull my hair out, yet left me hanging so much that I have to pick up the next book in the series! Basically, Richard M. Mulder needs to hurry up with the next book!
Such an enjoyable and captivating read with as may twist and turns as can be imagined. Richard M. Mulder pulls you in with a deep and mysterious scene before dropping you off in the modern world of Earth. Mulder’s novel continues to surprise with every twist and turn of the story while still keeping the story grounded with his impeccable descriptions. Not wishing to spoil and of the surprises I won’t go into detail. But I will give you this, so many loose strings are tied up in a nice little bow while still leaving a HUGE cliffhanger. The ending is satisfying enough that I didn’t seek to pull my hair out, yet left me hanging so much that I have to pick up the next book in the series! Basically, Richard M. Mulder needs to hurry up with the next book!
July 23, 2016
This is a very imaginative tale of Allan Young- a young lawyer- and his wannabe fiancee, Lily Thatcher, whiz programmer and undercover NSA agent, as they travel between our world and the land of Zion on a different dimension as they seek to protect both worlds from being taken over by an evil force. As the heroes gradually learn of their powers and understand the challenges they need to overcome, they try to muster forces to triumph over their adversaries on all dimensions. Combining elements of advanced software engineering, biblical references, conspiracy theories, and even dragon lore, this is a very innovative and entertaining take on the fantasy, scifi, and dimensional travel genres that will keep you guessing right to the end.
did-not-finish
May 11, 2019DNF 31%
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews