Micro Mention "The Pirates of Pacta Servanda"

 

After this book, “The Pirates of Pacta Servanda,” I only have two more books to read in Jack Campbell’s steampunk “The Pillars of Reality” series. In this one, the cataclysmic conflict of this series is starting to kick off with early battles of the war against the great guilds.

As the title suggests, this is one of the more nautical-themed books in this series, a move in setting that I was giddy about. Why you might ask? Because I feel that Campbell's singular skill, above all his other great writing gifts, is to describe naval vessels in motion and conflict. You can tell these parts of his stories are directly informed by his Navy experience.

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Author's Website: https://www.jack-campbell.com/index.html

Micro Mention "The Assassins of Altis"

"The Assasins of Altis" was probably my favorite one yet of Jack Campbell's "The Pillars of Reality" steampunk series. He has a way of making his characters grow on you until you feel incredibly attached to them—and then he threatens their lives. I love it.

There is something about Campbell's stories that always draw me in. Even when I notice flaws, the world he creates in his stories never cracks open and falls apart for me. I'm not entirely sure at this point if my firm suspension of disbelief is a genuine effect of his quality as a storyteller or maybe I've just been so long immersed in his imaginary realms I just can't tell the difference anymore. 

In any case, I often find myself wishing the real world worked more like a Jack Campbell story than it does. There are still great, possibly world-ending perils in Campbell's stories, but there is always a core of thoughtful earnest people willing to put everything on the line to face those challenges. They aren't zealous or god-like entities and aren't immune to consequences that might result in their tragic deaths. But still, they struggle, fight, and almost always succeed because they do what they believe is the right thing to do for the good of everyone.

I'm just saying I wish there were more people like that in the real world.

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as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Author's Website: https://www.jack-campbell.com/

Micro Mention "The Hidden Masters of Marandur"

I’m a big fan of Jack Campbell's "The Lost Fleet" series, so I was a bit slow to get on board with his "The Pillars of Reality" series because it's a major shift in the genre—Sci-Fi to Steampunk Fantasy. But "The Hidden Masters of Marandur" has warmed me to it.

What I think did the trick is that once you get past the character introduction phase of Campbell's stories, with a little time, these earnest, hard-working, brave people always worm their way into your heart. Well, they do for me, at least. That's a bit of a back-handed compliment/insult, though, because having reread "Dauntless," recently, the first book of my beloved "The Lost Fleet" series, I did notice the same weak up front character introductions in that story too. His characters are a slow burn, but I almost always find myself liking them by the end.

This preview is an Amazon Affiliate link; 

as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Author's Website: https://www.jack-campbell.com/