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The Hammer
Armed with his trusty hammer, the King’s Champion Gharrik Anzar is known for two things: Slaying his enemies and conquering women.
But when a portal to another world opens in the middle of his homeland and monsters begin to pour through, he’ll have a new mission.
Step through the portal, kill everything that stands in his way, and stop whoever is sending the monsters through.
There’s just one problem.
He can’t bring anything through the portal, and the technology on the other side is… well… lacking.
In order to win, he’ll have to build an army out those he finds on the other side, outfit them with weapons and armor they’ve never seen before, and then march them through a battalion of undead, orcs, and ogres.
It sounds impossible, but if it didn’t, they wouldn’t send the hammer.
Please Note: This Novel contains a Harem.
But when a portal to another world opens in the middle of his homeland and monsters begin to pour through, he’ll have a new mission.
Step through the portal, kill everything that stands in his way, and stop whoever is sending the monsters through.
There’s just one problem.
He can’t bring anything through the portal, and the technology on the other side is… well… lacking.
In order to win, he’ll have to build an army out those he finds on the other side, outfit them with weapons and armor they’ve never seen before, and then march them through a battalion of undead, orcs, and ogres.
It sounds impossible, but if it didn’t, they wouldn’t send the hammer.
Please Note: This Novel contains a Harem.
Kindle Edition
First published May 19, 2018
80 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
J.A. Cipriano
92 books585 followersWhen New York Times Bestselling author, J. A. Cipriano was in second grade, his teacher gave everyone in class a journal to write down whatever they wanted. Their first subject was to write about something they didn’t like. J. A. chose to write about why he didn’t like writing. His reasoning was simple. He had bad handwriting. Even then, he was destined to be an engineer due to his messy scrawl.
Unfortunately, he found through the course of this little adventure that he actually liked writing. That year was sort of the high point for his writing career because he won a writing contest for the state. He got to go to a big dinner and his teacher was all dressed up.
He kept writing little stories, year after year, and in sixth grade, won another contest. In seventh grade, he broke his arm and got the cast signed by both Dean Koontz and Stan Lee. It is, by far, the coolest cast he’s owned. That was about the time he found video games and anime. His writing turned mostly toward fanfiction until about ninth grade when he wrote his first novel, a small book about twenty thousand words called Revelations. In sophomore year, he wrote two more books to complete the trilogy because he saw Star Wars that year and learned trilogies were the cool thing to do.
He rewrote Revelations during his senior year, and his wife swears it is the best thing he’s written. J.A. is not so sure. Every time he reads it, he cringes, but then again, he hates everything he writes, so there is that.
It was about that time, he got heavily involved in a fanfiction writing group, but that isn’t one hundred percent accurate. It was a world based on a popular anime but everything was created especially for this world. It made it so that every story someone wrote was unique.
Imagine writing a Star Wars novel set 1,000 years after A New Hope, where everything that happened was a distant memory and you get the idea. You have the force, some distant memories of the past, and that’s pretty much it.
He wrote about a million words (863K to be exact) for them before he decided to do his own thing. He wrote another novel. He put it in a drawer. He wrote another one that eventually became the basis for The Hatter is Mad. His next novel was Kill It With Magic, his first real novel. It’s not bad, but it’s bumpy. This is unfortunate because the books get loads better as the series progresses.
Since then, he’s written six more novels, four of which are in the Lillim Callina Series, and one in the Abby Banks series. The other is stuck in a drawer for time undetermined. He’s writing his next book now which is about werewolves fighting mummies in Ancient Egypt. After that, he will move onto Abby Banks 2. The Spy Within will come out in June or July.
J.A. also has three chinchillas. Two of them are grey, and because of this, they are named Slate and Cadmium. The third is named Jet because he’s black, and Jet is old English for black. See, creative. He also has a cat named Turtle. This does pose problems for his two-year-old from time to time.
Unfortunately, he found through the course of this little adventure that he actually liked writing. That year was sort of the high point for his writing career because he won a writing contest for the state. He got to go to a big dinner and his teacher was all dressed up.
He kept writing little stories, year after year, and in sixth grade, won another contest. In seventh grade, he broke his arm and got the cast signed by both Dean Koontz and Stan Lee. It is, by far, the coolest cast he’s owned. That was about the time he found video games and anime. His writing turned mostly toward fanfiction until about ninth grade when he wrote his first novel, a small book about twenty thousand words called Revelations. In sophomore year, he wrote two more books to complete the trilogy because he saw Star Wars that year and learned trilogies were the cool thing to do.
He rewrote Revelations during his senior year, and his wife swears it is the best thing he’s written. J.A. is not so sure. Every time he reads it, he cringes, but then again, he hates everything he writes, so there is that.
It was about that time, he got heavily involved in a fanfiction writing group, but that isn’t one hundred percent accurate. It was a world based on a popular anime but everything was created especially for this world. It made it so that every story someone wrote was unique.
Imagine writing a Star Wars novel set 1,000 years after A New Hope, where everything that happened was a distant memory and you get the idea. You have the force, some distant memories of the past, and that’s pretty much it.
He wrote about a million words (863K to be exact) for them before he decided to do his own thing. He wrote another novel. He put it in a drawer. He wrote another one that eventually became the basis for The Hatter is Mad. His next novel was Kill It With Magic, his first real novel. It’s not bad, but it’s bumpy. This is unfortunate because the books get loads better as the series progresses.
Since then, he’s written six more novels, four of which are in the Lillim Callina Series, and one in the Abby Banks series. The other is stuck in a drawer for time undetermined. He’s writing his next book now which is about werewolves fighting mummies in Ancient Egypt. After that, he will move onto Abby Banks 2. The Spy Within will come out in June or July.
J.A. also has three chinchillas. Two of them are grey, and because of this, they are named Slate and Cadmium. The third is named Jet because he’s black, and Jet is old English for black. See, creative. He also has a cat named Turtle. This does pose problems for his two-year-old from time to time.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 23, 2018
We have yet another book by this prolific and prodigious author. He continues to amaze me with the books he puts out, this one being no exception. While I do admit that this isn’t exactly my favorite genre, I really did enjoy myself across the board. His writing is great, his actions scenes continue to blow me away, and I liked the plot. There was never a dull moment in the whole book. If you like action-oriented fantasy, you really need to try this one; you will love it! Highly recommend! I was provided a complimentary copy of the e-book which I reviewed voluntarily.
June 4, 2018
Gharrik Anzar, the King's Champion is looking for a new challenge. He has seen and done and defeated everything and everyone of note in his own world and now he is about to step through the portal into an unknown world.
Leaving everything behind (including his trusted hammer) he comes to a world on the brink of war. A world filled with trolls, orcs, giants, mythological beasts and most of all... magic.
Wielding his new and improved hammer, assisted by lovely (and deadly) women it's up to Gharrik to lead an army against the dark forces. Yep... it's hammer time!
My take on the book:
While I was pretty damn sceptical at first, the book kept intriguing me.
World building is excellent. Love how the author created the world, the details described and attention to little things during the scenes.
Character building was good.
This is a tale about a Conan-like figure who can pretty much take any beating or well... sidestep it rather. With his keen mind and trained body helping him through countless battles. While he is pretty full of himself (and I think this was accentuated a tad too much in the book), he always got the job done, so his reputation was well earned. Though I have a feeling not all is as it seems with our hero.
The women in the book aren't damsels in distress, no, they fight tooth and nail beside our hero to try and stem the tide of darkness.
We get to know them well enough, though some more info about their history would have been nice as well.
The pacing and flow of the book were great. Never a dull moment but not always so action packed that you were on an adrenaline high till the end :)
There were a few tiny errors, but none that took away my attention of the story. And yes, sex is a frequent pastime in the book (if that is important to you).
I voluntarily read an advanced reader copy of this book and while it took me some getting used to it, I enjoyed it! Good plot, well executed, looking forward to how this will continue!
Leaving everything behind (including his trusted hammer) he comes to a world on the brink of war. A world filled with trolls, orcs, giants, mythological beasts and most of all... magic.
Wielding his new and improved hammer, assisted by lovely (and deadly) women it's up to Gharrik to lead an army against the dark forces. Yep... it's hammer time!
My take on the book:
While I was pretty damn sceptical at first, the book kept intriguing me.
World building is excellent. Love how the author created the world, the details described and attention to little things during the scenes.
Character building was good.
This is a tale about a Conan-like figure who can pretty much take any beating or well... sidestep it rather. With his keen mind and trained body helping him through countless battles. While he is pretty full of himself (and I think this was accentuated a tad too much in the book), he always got the job done, so his reputation was well earned. Though I have a feeling not all is as it seems with our hero.
The women in the book aren't damsels in distress, no, they fight tooth and nail beside our hero to try and stem the tide of darkness.
We get to know them well enough, though some more info about their history would have been nice as well.
The pacing and flow of the book were great. Never a dull moment but not always so action packed that you were on an adrenaline high till the end :)
There were a few tiny errors, but none that took away my attention of the story. And yes, sex is a frequent pastime in the book (if that is important to you).
I voluntarily read an advanced reader copy of this book and while it took me some getting used to it, I enjoyed it! Good plot, well executed, looking forward to how this will continue!
May 28, 2018
Gharrik Anzar is the King's Champion and does through a portal into another world with his hammer in order to stop whoever is sending monsters into his world. However he cannot take anything through with him and it is a very basic world with no technology. So in order to win he will need to build an army, and kit them out with weapons and armour that are not even discovered there yet as he has to march them through battalions or all sorts of strange creatures he has never imagined let alone met before. Just as well they sent The Hammer.
Wow - this was a great story with lots of different supernatural beings, creatures and magic as Gharrik fought his way through all the obstacles he found in his way. All through the various trials he faced he retained his integrity, humanity and compassion - it's no wonder he gained followers, alliances and life partners as part of that process. There was lots of drama, danger and intrigue which has me very curious as to what will happen in the next instalment in the story. Well written and definitely lots of detail to appeal to lovers of science fiction, fantasy, the supernatural and romance.
Wow - this was a great story with lots of different supernatural beings, creatures and magic as Gharrik fought his way through all the obstacles he found in his way. All through the various trials he faced he retained his integrity, humanity and compassion - it's no wonder he gained followers, alliances and life partners as part of that process. There was lots of drama, danger and intrigue which has me very curious as to what will happen in the next instalment in the story. Well written and definitely lots of detail to appeal to lovers of science fiction, fantasy, the supernatural and romance.
May 27, 2018
One of His Best
Have read about half of this author's books and I must say this is probably the best. Not too serious but fun with good pace and enough grit and naughtiness (a bit more would have been great) to be a fun read all the way through. Hope to see MC gain some runepowers even if it is through one of those awful plotlines like he is kidnapped even though he is surrounded by his subjects.... if not a dude with a hammer that's is already a champion is going to see no growth. Book 2 will tell, either a stellar new series or a one book hit. Either way worth the money and a fun read.
Have read about half of this author's books and I must say this is probably the best. Not too serious but fun with good pace and enough grit and naughtiness (a bit more would have been great) to be a fun read all the way through. Hope to see MC gain some runepowers even if it is through one of those awful plotlines like he is kidnapped even though he is surrounded by his subjects.... if not a dude with a hammer that's is already a champion is going to see no growth. Book 2 will tell, either a stellar new series or a one book hit. Either way worth the money and a fun read.
May 23, 2018
A man from another place came through a portal to find himself and boy did he! This book has it all. Wizards, magic, giants, orgs, ghouls and much more. Love with three very different females and a Kingdom to conquer. Gharrik Anzar was known as The Hammer and very masterful about killing. This book keeps you wondering what's next. A well written book. I received a complimentary copy of this book.
June 16, 2018
Here Comes The Hammer
Gharrik is looking for new challenges, having done it all. He wins the right in combat to enter a portal to a new world. He finds romance, combat, and intrigue. He excels at protection and the women he gathers around him are assets in this. I like the action, humor, and romance. The main character is very strong. His women are very compelling. I look forward to another book.
Gharrik is looking for new challenges, having done it all. He wins the right in combat to enter a portal to a new world. He finds romance, combat, and intrigue. He excels at protection and the women he gathers around him are assets in this. I like the action, humor, and romance. The main character is very strong. His women are very compelling. I look forward to another book.
June 16, 2025
This book is very bad. This has all of the entertainment of watching someone else play a video game with God mode turned on while bragging about how good they are. The MC is never challenged, even in situations he has no context for. Not all stories with overpowered protagonists are bad...but this one is. The harem and sex aspects are equally bad and for the same reason. Every attractive girl wants him, gets him, and is overly satisfied. Nobody is even briefly jealous.
August 5, 2019
The typical fantasy book starts with someone that does not know much but has to learn the ways of the world. This book flips that over and starts with a very capable character. He tells us how he had to learn in the past but is very capable. It was an interesting inversion and kept me interested in teh story from the start.
June 3, 2018
J.A. Cipriano is one of my absolute favorite authors. He’s wildly imaginative and a wonderful story teller. I suspect that in The Hammer he decided to let loose and just have fun. Conan has nothing on Gharrick Anzar and his novel is one heck of a joyously wild ride of an epic tale (yes, with harem included). I had a fantastic time reading this story and can pretty much guarantee anyone else will too. But for the fact that I’m literally dictating this review to my husband from my hospital bed I could go on and on with praises - the book definitely deserves it. Since I can’t do that I will simply note that the book is most definitely one to read, it is easy to highly recommend. I’m definitely looking forward to book 2.
May 29, 2018
Surprise
This book came out of nowhere and actually blew me away. Mr. Cipriano has created a new universe and mythology that has great potential. I'm eager to see where the new Warlord and his generals go next.
This book came out of nowhere and actually blew me away. Mr. Cipriano has created a new universe and mythology that has great potential. I'm eager to see where the new Warlord and his generals go next.
June 4, 2018
Good Read.
Portal fiction with a harem of some powerful females. A warrior goes through a portal to a world of magic. Battles are quick and do not run on for pages. Looking forward to the next book.
Portal fiction with a harem of some powerful females. A warrior goes through a portal to a world of magic. Battles are quick and do not run on for pages. Looking forward to the next book.
June 9, 2018
Good start for a new series
The author has really grown since their first books. Story is interesting and leaves many openings for continuation. Uses a different take on the taken to a new world.
The author has really grown since their first books. Story is interesting and leaves many openings for continuation. Uses a different take on the taken to a new world.
June 18, 2018
I have read so many of prolific author J.A. Cipriano books lately. A slightly different genre than his other works this book, like all his writing, ended as an excellent page-turner. I look forward to his next work in this series!
May 23, 2018
Another great book
Loved it. The characters are engaging and not your usual suspects. It's another hit for Mr. Cipriano. I can't wait for the next one.
Loved it. The characters are engaging and not your usual suspects. It's another hit for Mr. Cipriano. I can't wait for the next one.
May 24, 2018
Great start to new series
Great start to a new series!! What if Conan had a few more brains, well read The Hammer and find out
Great start to a new series!! What if Conan had a few more brains, well read The Hammer and find out
May 26, 2018
Best 1st book
If the following books are as good as the first, this series might end up becoming ny favorite from cipriano. Awesome badass mc and unique female leads.
If the following books are as good as the first, this series might end up becoming ny favorite from cipriano. Awesome badass mc and unique female leads.
May 28, 2018
An interesting start
I enjoyed this story and hope to see more. I really like the runs based magic and look forward to learning more about it.
I enjoyed this story and hope to see more. I really like the runs based magic and look forward to learning more about it.
June 13, 2018
Well written epic
One of my favorite authors and this is one of his best books. Very few typos to distract from an excellent story that was hard to put down.
One of my favorite authors and this is one of his best books. Very few typos to distract from an excellent story that was hard to put down.
May 31, 2019
4 stars, Great book, maybe the best one so far by this author. I would for sure read the next one in this series. This type of books are not for everyone but I like them.
December 29, 2021
(Insert MC Hammer joke here.) The MC is a blowup doll; every time he has a challenge he just sucks in more ego and inflates himself some more. Seriously there is just not enough room in the world for his ego. He is a walking talking clichéd Chuck Norris meme.
October 24, 2020
Read it in record time and I'm already reading the sequel. Brilliant, full of action, mystical creatures and a book that flies in face of political correctness.
I certainly recommend this:)
I certainly recommend this:)
December 10, 2019
This is a god-awful fantasy novel about a hammer-wielding hero of unparallel military and sexual prowess. I only picked this up because of Nick Podehl narrating it but this only kept me going for about 7 chapters, and even that felt like being too generous. The hammer dude is like a very dumb Conan (even though he modestly describes himself as intelligent and is supposedly one of the very few literate people in his world), and the writing is badly in need of some editing. Then again, perhaps not as no editing could have improved this pile of excrutiatingly boring clichés. One could bear this type of 'epic' fantasy when there's at least a touch of humor, and looking at the cover, I was really hoping this would be the case here but listening on, I despaired to find any whatsoever. All in all, there're no redeeming qualities to it. Stay away if you value your time.
January 20, 2022
An awesome new start to a series I hope will run longer than the builder series. The main character is pure badarse. I was continually reminded of Conan but with an awesome hammer instead of a sword. The world that Gharrick Anzar finds himself on is a world rich in fantasy tropes and allows for plenty of violence and fun. I am really looking forward to the next installment and cannot wait to see what happens next as this world has so much scope and by the end of book one we havent even really scraped the surface.
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June 2, 2018The Hammer
I loved this book from start to finish the author did a great job with the characters and the story 5 out of 5 stars
I loved this book from start to finish the author did a great job with the characters and the story 5 out of 5 stars
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews