I don’t know how long I’ve been sitting at this particular desk. However, what I do know is that my boredom is about to come to an end. The tides of chaos have changed, rifts have opened to other worlds, and unless I miss my guess, nothing will ever be the same. Within the day, a new lord will come to power, and in his path, nations will burn.
After being sucked through a dark and mysterious portal while walking his dog Jerry finds himself in a magical duel to the death. With the help of an ancient and unknowable force Jerry finds a way to interact with the magic of the new world as if it were a game. Using this new power he sets out to save as many fellow abductees as possible before they are murdered by this new world’s vicious inhabitants.
Joshua Done created a thrilling fantasy book full of mystery and action. I really liked it! You keep connecting with all the characters which is not easy. It is very hard for an author to create empathy between the reader and the characters, but you can expect it in ‘I Overlord (Tower Lords Book 1)’. Also, have you seen this awesome cover? If it doesn’t scream magical fantasy book ahead, I don’t know what does. I recommend ‘I Overlord (Tower Lords Book 1)’ as it is a great fantasy book mixed with political issues and mystery for you to think about exploitation and how sometimes we are pawns and we don’t even know it. It also deals with topics religion, corruption and slavery and exploitation. Joshua made a wonderful job describing the many characters personalities and expressions. I truly enjoyed how his characters were real, even though it is a book inspired in the RPG. It could have been a simplistic book or too based in charts, but this wasn’t the case. Joshua created grounded plot and how Jerry is not invincible! We don’t need always an eternal hero. Jerry was abducted and is now in an unknown realm with magic and ancient creatures and powers. He has to find a way to go back and help his friends that were also abducted, before they are killed. Will he able to do it? He might be a little bit clumsy and not experienced, but will this weird experience define him or will he take the chance to survive? To me this book is a must for this fall. You can expect a roller coaster of emotions. Believe me when I tell you that it is addictive. You can expect so many great moments that I had to take a break from reading.
Jerry and his dog get sucked through a magic portal. It's not all fun and games as Jerry is bewildered with what has happened, and is up to his knees in mud. And Jerry loves his mud! A well crafted book that takes you from a simple lad to someone determined to make a change in his new world. Come blood or guts, Jerry will see this happen. Rufus the dog is hilarious!
This book is a most definite must read, I am located within Sunny South Africa and trying to endure this rather isolated period , and this book certainly helped me get through most of the tough monotonous days ... This book is truly balanced and I commend the author for the sterling job.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book (from someone who doesn't normally read Sci-Fi)
I like Pratchett and Fforde fantasy but this was clever and immediately hooked me. The characters were well developed and the story was interesting. I'm looking forward to the sequel.
I highly recommend this book. However, this book need a serious redo on the grammar and sentence structure. Not a lot of spelling mistakes, mostly just missing words, improper use of commas and random “to” and “the” words in incorrect places. Still, I can’t wait for the sequel!
I Overlord is the first book in the Tower Lords series, it has been written by the very talented author Joshua Done and is a masterful science fiction novel. This novel is very much geared towards younger readers, that is not to say it can not be enjoyed by older readers (like myself) for a feeling of nostalgia of young adult fantasy and science fiction novels as Joshua Done writes as good as any successful and established sci-fi writer!
From the first chapter, I was engrossed. The main character - Jerry has a very mundane life. He is a programming graduate who has a low-level programming job in Microsoft, which was not as glamorous or as interesting as he thought it would be… One day as he is walking his dog, he finds himself sucked into another world that is run by a crazy and corrupt religion. Of course - Jerry becomes a magnificent hero, and the reader follows him on that journey.
Jerry’s journey is great! It is exciting to read about his mundane and boring life to it becoming chaotic and crazy out of nowhere and to see his reaction to getting thrown into the deep end of this world. It is entertaining that his ‘sidekick’ is his dog named Rufus, who gains the ability to talk.
The overall tone of this book is very lighthearted and humorous in a witty sense, I must admit - I laughed out loud a few times. Joshua Done’s writing style is unique and sharp, so it gets straight to the point rather than overdoing description or scientific jargon (which can often make a novel tedious within this genre). Throughout, there are twists and turns which will keep the readers turning each page and eyes wide open!
Furthermore, the action-packed scenes are incredible to read! These specific scenes have an excellent flow that would match the pace and adrenaline of a real battle. Also, the use of magic creates a fantastical world and strengthens the level of interest a reader will have whilst reading this.
The dialogue throughout the novel is my personal favorite element, as it really allows the character’s personalities to shine through, and allowed the reader to understand each character and appreciate their sense of humor. The language used throughout this book is not too complicated, so this is a great and accessible book, especially for those who are younger and enjoy this genre. I Overlord will certainly get young adult’s imagination running wild and actually make them want to read more!
I highly recommend this book for readers who enjoy portal fantasy and science fiction novels that are extremely fun and humorous to read. I am excited to read the second book in this series - I hope Joshua Done has the same consistent and excellent writing style and we find out more about the characters.
This review may contain some spoilers but there are no specifics. Read at your own risk as I need to share some details exactly why it is so bad.
Not good at all. There are ENDLESS monologues and no personal development to speak of. Not any that we see, other than the ones the author tells us in an info dump blurb. The MC is the usual entitled condescending prick you see in many isekai like stories written by westerners. He always grumbles, complains about why things are not going their way. Like the crystal, thingy is literally the ONLY thing keeping his sorry ass alive in that situation and he fking nitpicks every single thing the crystal does and second-guesses every decision the crystal made FOR HIS SAFETY, decisions that he agreed to. The MC does not let any chance of a sarcastic quip at his literal savior go. It's like he is intentionally trying to antagonize his only real chance at surviving. The crystal had nothing to do with his predicament and he treats every interaction with the crystal as if he is speaking with his high school bully. A conniving jerk of an MC. Not to mention, he is STUPID. he makes grand speeches to ignorant natives about why what works and why his plan is good etc. Except for his plans NEVER go according to plan. All that explaining and whatnot is nothing but wasted word count cause something will go wrong in the most stupid way possible. His allies make just enough mistakes for his enemies to have a fighting chance, he stumbles around just enough in a fight to get injured but not lose. Some people in his city die just enough to show that the war/fights were not easy even though the writing would say otherwise. The most infuriating thing is that the author cannot write a good death scene. Characters that had many interactions and scenes dying OFF SCREEN. Like, if you write about a character, and we at least a little emotionally bond with the character, it's just plain BAD writing to kill them off-screen without rhyme or reason. Forced plot development to make the MC see the 'reality of how brutal the new world is and that human lives are worthless? Did the author get bored of writing that character? Whatever it is, it is lazy writing. It was there about at chapter 26? that I dropped this book. I'm fine with suspending my disbelief for a while. But if this book requires us to turn off our brain completely then that is just bad...
TL;dr won’t be buying the second if it’s out, but not mad about spending my time on this, may be good for younger readers.
The premise is fun, if a little overdone (but it’s done a lot for a reason). Relatively unique use of the RPG system. Not much in the way of character development or depth to the plot. MC is likable and doesn’t make terrible decisions. Dialogue can be a little witty but nothing particularly clever.
The combat is not very well written, but that may only matter if you’ve ever done a martial art or watched fights that weren’t in movies before.
The word “scream” and it’s various forms are used so many times it got annoying. Relatively few typos or basic grammar errors compared to the usual.
Some plot issues arise pretty early, like it is pointed out that everyone is small compared to present day humans due to dietary problems (this keeps a main character alive). Cool, but then throughout the book half of the characters who are pointed out are described as being very large.
A fun read overall, but REALLY needs some editing and a grammar checker. I'm not sure if it's lower standards in education today or some sort of dictation software, but I see lots of books using "hoard" where it should be "horde" and too many other examples to list, and I see much of that in this book.
A quick test in Word showed that this sort of homophone (I admit I had to verify what they're called; it's been a while since I was in school) is not caught by the editor, so a sharp eye is required. I realize we're not talking about authors who have staff for this sort of thing, but I suspect that many honestly don't know the difference.
Anyway, the book. An easy read if you can silence your inner grammar critic and an interesting take on the "transported to another world" trope. I will definitely read a sequel, and if the author wants another set of eyes as a beta reader I offer my services. Always provide a solution along with a problem you bring up...
I enjoyed the dialogue between the characters though it’s a religious war, I get a sense of an attempt at humor from Done. Humans exchange fighting strategies with hobgoblins, priests, and other characters such as a now talking dog. The conversation is light, easy to comprehend and the personalities shone through.
What I expected was more magic, power, and strength from the characters. Usually, with science fiction books, the wildest of imaginations are entertained. Often these powers include healing magic, the resurrection of life, instant arrival of weapons, or escape machinery; none of that in this book. Then again, its Book 1, therefore those and more probably come in the subsequent series.
It’s a good read for the techies, young adults, and those who like fantasy novels similar to Lord of the Rings; have a read an enjoy the “World of Komar” reigned by the “Tower Lords.”
I went into this not expecting much. I thought it would have been some bad comedy that focused on the dog, but it turned out entertaining (once you got a few chapters in). I could have done with far less pop culture references, and I don't know how the protagonist , but I'm willing to read the next book.
I hope the plot in that doesn't get hijacked by some previously shown POV showing up, and the protagonist will be able to sit down and do stuff with his magic to survive. Why mention at the start of the book that he is a software engineer, if he isn't going to combine magic and science?
I hope there is lots of outside the box thinking going on in the next one.
I OverlordJoshua Done I found that a lot of people complained about spelling mistakes of not so obvious words where a spell checker is required but to be quite honest the book made sense in all and I love how it was a science fiction. The word horde as opposed to hoard are both very similar in context and depends what the author decides fits more. This book was very good and I love the style of the authors writing.
I like the story. Somehow despite it being filled with some serious (social, moral) issues the writer is able to keep it a fun read at a good pace, kept me consistently engaged. I kind of wish I had an author like this writing my childhood schoolbooks.
I am less happy with the reader - so much unnecessary emphasis, and misleading too. Just a flat uninflected voice might have been better that what this reader did. On the plus side, the character voices were done well, even if I disagreed with the choice of voice for the hobgoblin commander which just threw me out of the story each time I heard it.
Mistakes: I found eleven mistakes in this book, most after the 80% mark. This book could be so much better with some flushing out. More background instead of rushing from one action scene to the next.
Plot: People of earth are being pulled into a different world where the church holds power and thinks the new humans are daemons in disguise.
Characters: I felt like I was rushed from character introduction to character introduction and never really got to know any of them. They have no depth and very little background.
Rarely have I read a book that I felt was so woefully underrepresented in the number of reviews it has VS how much I enjoyed the book.
The whole modern person being sucked into a different world thing has been done plenty of times. The basic premise of the book isn't what makes it so great, it's how he brings it all together.
I've read A LOT of books in this genre, and this to me is one of the rare standout gems. Not just the system used, but the way all the characters come together.
A unique take on the RPG system where it is implement but no stats are shown, just talked about and mentioned. The book was dense and having to explain a ton of stuff (as you do when you get transported to a new world) can take up a lot of time. The way the magic system is used could be fleshed out a lot, the author tries to make it sound really in-depth but it just ended up being a bit too complicated.
Characterization is minimal but I did end up enjoying the MC and the people around him.
I Overlord, By Joshua Done was one of my favorite reads so far I enjoy fantasy novels so much and I definitely recommend this to those people who enjoy science fiction and fantasy novels. I find the author to be very intriguing and captivating that I don't want to get up off my seat. I could have finished the book in a day, but I obviously had work so I took 3 days to finish it and I was always looking forward to coming home and reading it. Amazing book and very talented author I have to say!!!
I saw negative reviews about the author and decided to have a look at what all the fuss was about. I must say I am quite disappointed how critical and judgmental some people can be, I would like to see them try follow their dreams and passions like this Author, at least he tries. I really was fond of how the book was structured and how the characters were developed. A well deserved 5 stars from me.
I liked, that it was very different, with the rpg elements at the beginning. However this is over all very rough. Things happen because the plot/progression need it to happen. It does not feel like the characters put the work in to get results.
The acceptence of modern ideas is just odd. Also distancing a population from a magic backed religion feels even more odd. Just look how powerfull religion and its connected culture is on earth, without any magical prove.
At no point was I bored but there was nothing substantial here.
This was a mix of the usual "portalled to a new world" tropes with a large dollop of the white-savior syndrome. On two occasions the protagonist was saved by Deus ex Machina in the form of a sapient crystal. That's one more time than is permitted by decent editors. ;-)
If you don't mind pulp fantasy, and enjoy a mild power-trip, then I can recommend this book to you.
Not only did this book keep me at the edge of my seat but , I was blown away by how talented this author is and his great use of grammar, he definitely deserves more credit than he gets I haven't been so excited to read anyone else novels in years . Loved this novel, in my top 3 of "Joshua Dones Greatest reads!"
The whole feeling of the story comes across as if it was written over many years in which the author forgot what the first part was about. Somethings are brought up and then changed later then it goes back to something else and then it ignores other things that was brought up before, the whole thing feels disjointed.
I enjoyed this book when first read it a couple of years ago. Reading it again, I liked it even more. And off all the books I’ve read over the last couple of years (and that’s been a large number…) this is one of the best. I loved the world concept. Good characters. Just enough funny and none of the stupid. Bravo.
What more could you ask for in a book... This novel really helped me through a difficult time and I would love for others to experience this as I did. I really enjoyed the read! Absolutely spectacular!