Crafter, Part II

From Chef to Crafter to Conqueror, Book 3

By: Gabriel Rathweg

Narrated by: James Fouhey

Ryo and company are back!

After arriving back in time and another dimension, Ryo has begun the arduous task of building an infrastructure, creating a military, and staving off the most brutal war machine in human history. All while creating some of the most delicious food and drink his new timeline has ever seen or tasted!

With the help of his AI companion Allen, young Lord So the ruler of Tsushima Island, the grizzled old samurai Saito, a wily old shinobi named Jiro, a mysterious blind monk, the legendary Marco Polo, and a fugitive empress in waiting, how can he lose?

With his knowledge of history and the help of his companions, can he stop the unstoppable tide of the greatest conqueror the world has ever known?

Rejoin Chef Ryo as he tries to change history with a little bit of luck, a lot of technical know-how, and some fantastic food!

©2023 Gabriel L. Rathweg (P)2024 Tantor

too many flashback/forward

every time there is a flashward it feels like I am getting spoilers. also the consist jumping makes the interludes confusing when they are also not in sync with else of the two timelines

Stopped story in the middle of a fight

Overall the book is good, but the flashback from the end of the story at the beginning is a bit annoying. Ending the story in the middle of a fight is lame. If you want people to buy your books, follow the traditional story format. Gimmicks suck especially when the next book may not be available. Several months later when you start the next book in the middle of a fight, you’re wondering what the heck is going on? The other option is to repeat part of the story, which is also not great.

It's good, but has a lot of problems

The overall story is an excellent follow-up to the previous two novels. Book III suffers from an absurd amount of jumping back and forth in time to the point where even the author seems to lose track of what point in time he's telling the story from occasionally. The narrator is definitely a step down from the previous two books. The opening of the book, which is told from the perspective of a 13 year-old boy is read in the sing/song cadence of a parent reading a bedtime story to a small child. This is toned down in later chapters, but never entirely goes away. I'll no doubt choose to revisit this book again some day, but when I do, I'll be reading the novel rather than listening. If I'd used a credit rather than just buying Book III, I'd request a refund. If Book IV is read by the same narrator, I won't be getting it.

Excellent book

I really enjoy the in depth look at Japanese culture of many years ago and find the whole storyline interesting

Change in narrater

Book is good but they need to stop hopping around the time line also new narrater not bad but it’s weird

Not as good as the first two

I dislike changing narrators in the middle of a series. That immediately had me wary of this book. That isn't to say that this narrator is any better or worse than the previous, I just dislike the break in consistency. However the break in consistency was par for the course for this book. The biggest thing that was bugging me in this books is that previously it was that everyone was afraid of Kublai Khan invading. In this book it is now Genghis Khan is the one to be feared, with no explanation of the change. If this is to be a similar timeline like ours that makes no sense as Genghis Khan would have been dead by then. There was also a lot of jumping back and forth as others have mentioned. It almost felt like this was written by a different author.