Halcyon Rising: Bastion of Hope

Halcyon Rising, Book 2

By: Stone Thomas

Narrated by: Chris Graves

How to survive when the god of war wants to destroy you and everyone you've ever met? Probably hide, really really well. What did I do? Become head priest of the most beautiful, irritating, quick-thinking, mind-reading, mildly sarcastic goddess I could trip over in the woods, then tell the war god to his face that I was gonna wipe up the pantheon with his ugly mug.

Now I'm seeking divine intervention from gods in neighboring cities, fending off a parade of unwanted guests, and racing to build this temple into a wallsy, towersy, fortressy, badass city with defenses for days - before the war god's newest recruits can blow this place to kingdom come.

Thankfully, I have the girls to help me. They're the first family I've ever known, and I won't let the war god take them from me as long as I'm still alive. Which, I admit, may not be much longer...

Warning: This book has no gimmicky warnings, just nonstop save-the-world action, tons of cool new skills to unlock, and me working my ass off to keep my growing city full of beautiful women satisfied!

©2018 Stone Thomas (P)2019 Stone Thomas

Arden starts to find his footing

Building a temple and a community is hard... I certainly couldn't do it, so kudos to Arden for even trying! Nevermind the early brewings of a grand adventure to contend with! It's a good thing he has such... pleasant?... Yeah, we'll go with pleasant,.. company on his adventures.
As has become my custom, here are 5 things I enjoyed about the book and 5 things that I didn't care for as much:

Things I enjoyed:
1. The bureaucrat character is a nice foil for Arden. He's such a stickler!
2. Many of the secondary characters get their chance to shine more so than in the first book.
3. I really appreciate that each chapter in the book feels like it contributes something to the main story. Stone did an excellent job with pacing on this one.
4. Chris Graves is a fantastic choice for LitRPG/HaremLit, he definitely proves that again here.
5. The city-building elements in this book provide an even grander scale than simply focusing on the character stat sheets.
*Bonus* Donkey Hotay? A+ on that one...

Things I didn't care for as much:
1. I really want more from the deities in this whole series. It often feels like they're just waiting for Duel to take them over instead of actively trying to prevent chaos from winning.
2. I feel like there is a little bit of refinement that needs to happen with the magic and leveling systems. Most critical items are explained well, but some ancillary skills, or skills that Arden's crew have, could be fleshed out a bit. It's definitely hard with Arden Skillmeistering everybody all the time. Too much and the book will feel way crunchier than it needs to, but a little more expansion wouldn't hurt. It's a tricky balance to be sure.
3. Adventurers are jerks... I don't like how this makes me feel about every character that I've ever played in any RPG ever...
4. I wanted way more from the labyrinth scenes. There were way more opportunities for crazy stuff to happen.
5. The premonition skill that Nola has should be a much bigger game-changer than it is, though I suspect that's coming in the future.

I'm definitely looking forward to what Stone has in store for us next!

A Rising Epic!!!

Great story and narration!

Arden and the gang are back and the shenanigans continue! With the god of War on the move and stirring up trouble, Arden and his pack of beautiful ladies continue to build up their defenses and seek allies. What gods and followers will they manage to dig up? Will they be able to maintain their settlement or will they have to relocate?

This was another fun listen! If you enjoyed the first book, then you will love this one too!

Note:
This story is Haram Gamelit - this genera often contains explicit scenes

World expansion done well

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

The world created in the first book was well done and this story expands it well. The characters are well fleshed out and interesting. As a casual video gamer, the stat pages are interesting, though they do get tedious when so many are done in the book like they were in this book. Overall, a great story with easy to follow plots and characters.

The narrator was solid. I didn't have any trouble understanding or following along.

More LitRPG and World Building

First, let me say you are likely to feel a bit lost if you skip the first book. Although the first book is short, there's not much in the way of catch-up here. These seem to have the feel of a single book written in multiple volumes, as was done with LoTR. There's less individual payoff for each book, though binging all when complete will probably work quite nicely. In this volume, there's more world building and we see more LitRPG-ish elements. The harem aspects received much less focus than the first volume. I appreciated how this change gave the series more depth while still refraining from taking itself too seriously. There were some excellent comedic moments to lighten things, as the plot could easily get dark. And I have to say "Donkey Hotay (sp)" is probably the most epic name for a donkey ... EVER. :) Without spoilers, I will say the end of this volume seemed a bit sudden and I had a sort of "Oh, guess that's it for this one" reaction. Again, it seems to fit with this being more like multiple volumes. This is still an engaging story, and probably moreso with the added plot. There are bigger things at work and bigger challenges ahead for our cast of characters.

Nice work with narration again by Chris Graves. If you haven't experienced his work, you should. He has energy, fun character voices, and nice pacing. Very enjoyable experience.

I received this audiobook for free in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

A good continuation.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Good sequel, a bit slow to start, but it sped up and had a good finish. Chris Graves does a good job once again with the narration.

great series

the story is a great continuation of book 2, just as good as book one if not just a bit better. can not wait till book 3 hours audio.

So good!

This was such an amazing addition to the story! Chris Graves’ narration is so awesome, I get fully submerged in what’s going on with each and every character!

Between the action, romance, adventure, and new surprises, this is an absolute must listen!

Fun Lite LitRPG

Bastion of Hope (Book 2 in Halcyon Rising) is a good fantasy story and middle-book continuation for a set series. While the series is listed as LitRPG/GameLit, it is really fairly light on those elements outside of one ability that the Main Character gets. If you can't guess from the pictures (or if you know from reading the descriptions of the other books in the series), there are harem/polyamorous relationship elements, and while that aspect is not to my taste, they are kept minor enough and non-explicit enough to not detract from the overall plotline. The overall story is fairly good and the narrator's performance is excellent. Recommended for listeners looking for a fun and different fantasy read/listen who are old enough to deal with the occasional mature content.

Disclaimer: I was given this free review copy audiobook and have voluntarily left this review.

liked as well as the first

I enjoyed the story and characters as much as the first. If you dont like harem stories you won't like if multiple partners doesn't bother you I recommend this series for lite fantasy lovers
I was given this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Great second book!

Good continuation of the LitRPG series. Has a great mix of comedy and action. Narrator did another excellent job. Will likely pick up the next book in the series.

Disclaimer: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.