The Swordsman

A Pulp Harem Fantasy Adventure

By: Zack Archer

Narrated by: Chris Graves

A down-on-his luck screenwriter. The mythical warrior Beowulf. A harem of hot warrior women and monster girls. Joining forces to take down the bad guys in modern-day Los Angeles. Wait. What?

Adam Fraser's coming home from an unsuccessful movie pitch when he nearly collides with Beowulf and a duo of powerful warrior women who’ve been catapulted forward in time by an evil alchemist named Mossheart. Realizing that each can help the other, they set off on an epic journey across Hollywood to track down the alchemist before he accomplishes his ultimate goal: the resurrection of the monster Grendel.

What could go wrong? Lots. Tons. A crapload of things could and do go wrong, but along the way, Adam builds his harem, grows in strength and skills, gathers material for an incredible movie, and discovers how to defeat villains and become an expert, um...swordsman.

Warning: Would it surprise you to learn this audiobook’s intended for those over the age of 18 who like fresh takes on old stories, sexy monster women, shape-shifters, adrenaline-fueled action, cool, snarky characters, and lots of haremy (yes, that’s a real word) adult situations? Probably not, so if you like those things, and I’m guessing you do, come and get swung with The Swordsman!

©2018 Zack Archer (P)2018 Zack Archer

Fun Romp in the vein of Bill & Ted visit Conan

I like it when a book announces what it is and doesn't pretend to be something else. Pulp and Harem are pretty much all over this book, and at times I felt like Robert Howard might have written this if he had gotten really drunk while he was horny. I totally don't mean that in a negative way. That is actually a compliment, as I think Howard often wanted to go a bit farther than he did when he wrote.

Anyway, this is a fun romp that covers a few different genres. We have sword and sorcery, time travel, pulp fantasy, and even a little melodrama. The story focuses on a down and out filmmaker who accidentally meets a temporally challenged Beowulf and his beautiful bevy of buxom babes bumming about which kinda goes into his need for someone to star in his reality show.

Now, are there a few issues? Sure, no book is perfect, but here I think the only issue I really had was that the characters could have used some more development. There is plenty of snark, sex, battle, magic, and even some excellent relationship development but there were points where the characters sometimes came a cross as being 2D rather than 3D. Still I think the book had good balance and pacing, and I wish I could have reviewed this on my litrpg podcast since it was so fun. Still, it has to be LITRPG to get on there. So that's my loss.

I felt that Chris Graves did an excellent job on the narration, he did accents and made me like Mossheart just by the attitude that he put on when he spoke through him. He definitely adds grit to the story ans some extra impact that you don't often get from narrators nowadays.

Give this book a listen. It was fun and worth the 6+ hours to get through. It was an excellent way to pass the time. Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. Getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.

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not even erotic scene saved this book.

this book is way too generic and characters too one-dimensional and unbelievable I had way too many dx machina to get away with.

Great read PERIOD. 4.89/5

Full review after i finish the last hour, but this book is perfect, so much to unpack, so many silly quirks, harem element is great but not over kill, if you are looking for super x rated, this isnt that. Though its definitely not pg13. Full review STILLLL inc. xD

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I gotta say this 1st book in the series is utterly epic I can't wait for the others to come out

Pretty goood

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

Not fantastic, but fun enough. The harem part is pretty non-existent, i was expecting more given the title, but maybe book two will develop that part further. Chris Graves narration was great.

Time Travel Harem Adventure

The Swordsman: A Pulp Harem Fantasy Adventure was written by Zack Archer. The audiobook is narrated by Chris Graves. The publishers summary really covers what the audiobook is about there should be no surprised listeners. This is pretty much straightforward male wish-fulfillment fantasy. There is nothing wrong with that. The time travel twist of dropping off the classic characters of Beowulf and giving him an evil foil who is an Alchemist named Mossheart makes for interesting adventures in Los Angles of 2018.

The story does hold the listener's attention but moves slowly through the first part of the audio performance. The main character Adam tends to slide from snarky over into complete waste of space at times. The other characters surviving out of their time were interesting. The harem part of the story was okay but not that big a part of the overall story. Just a scene tossed in here or there to keep Adam dragging along as there look to the next thing. The narration by Chris Graves was good this is the first performance that I have heard from this narrator and he did a solid job with the material he was provided with for this audio performance. There were some errors with the audio production it seemed like there were word breaks or missing words. It would draw me out of the story. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. Did you find this review helpful? If so, would you please take a moment and select the 'helpful' button below? Thanks so much!

A fun reimagining

The Swordsman gives a time travel twist of some story elements of Beowulf and gives us a character to interact with all of these fish out of water elements in the form of Adam. The setup leads to a lot of different action scenes that were quite entertaining. The first book introduces a lot of elements that are hopefully delved into much further in the future books, but it does well enough setting up the world and its subsequent rules. It is first and foremost made to entertain and isn't looking to get bogged down in any crazy story elements, and it does just that for most of its length.

The narration by Chris Graves was overall pretty good. I think he is quite good at narration, and if the production alongside him were a bit better it would have no complaints by me at all. Hopefully, in the future, the production can get that little bit better and make it all work seamlessly.

Overall if you come into this looking for a fun little escape with some good action scenes you won't be disappointed. I look forward to seeing what happens in the next book.

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

Great idea poorly executed

TLDR Version: This is a four-star story, brought down to two-stars by inconsistent writing, weak characterization, and a cardboard villain. The performance was nothing special and left me feeling like I'm describing a cheap pair of khakis.

I get it. This book is a male-fantasy-harem novel, so what should I expect? Frankly, I'm disappointed. The basic story is a unique take on an interesting trope, the action was done well, the descriptions were fair, and the sex was good. What I found really disappointing were the wooden, uninteresting characters and the inconsistent, poorly written dialogue. When those things bothered me enough that I couldn't get into the sex scenes, I knew I had to write a review.

Beowulf was completely one-dimensional, as were his two companions who were basically sex-objects elevated to supposedly badass warrior babes. They had no motivation other than fighting and fucking, so I just didn't care about them, even when the main character slept with them. The villain was even worse. He was like a cartoon villain from the 80s, except even Mum-Ra and Cobra Commander had more motivation. His sidekick was more interesting. The other thing I don't understand is that Beowulf, a Viking hero, doesn't seem to be interested in sex at all. It's weird. The main character is drooling over all of the women in the book and Beowulf doesn't even try to get any "off-screen." Honestly, the various directors, actors, and other "industry people" were far more fleshed-out than the primary supporting characters. It felt off-balance.

The dialogue was also an off-putting blend of archaic and modern speech. Normally, I wouldn't care, except that there were times when the main character would have to explain a word or phrase to Beowulf and his warrior women and it was completely random. At times, they would use modern language, contractions, and slang but then fail to understand similar language. They also have their own magical items that do wondrous things, but immediately believe a car is a dragon and a phone is demon magic. It also makes no sense that Beowulf just kills indiscriminately. Sure, he's portrayed as a Viking, but he would have understood the rule of law, murder, and trials. His complete disregard for human life is part of what makes it impossible to see him as anything other than a cardboard cutout of a cartoon Viking hero.

Finally, in the dedication, the author mentions that he spent a lot of time researching for his novel. While it shows in some places, it is wildly inconsistent. Language, descriptions, and even plot devices seem haphazard to the point of irritating. This may sound like a minor thing, but when there are enough of these minor annoyances to distract from a book that's basically a harem sex fantasy for men, that's something. If I were nitpicking, I'd add that the armor, weapon, and clothing descriptions are also lacking in any historical accuracy and Viking war-helms didn't have horns. It makes the author sound more like the out-of-work scriptwriter protagonist of his story than someone who actually did any real research.

Overall, this book is written just well enough that I'd only recommend it to people who would read any male-centric harem fantasy. The performance was pretty bland, often creeping into cringeworthy territory, and most of the characters sounded pretty similar.

loved it! just set your expectations right

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

So, this is one of those books that you have to go into with the proper expectations. If you go in expecting Tolkein or George R.R. Martin, you are going to be dissapointed. If you want a good action-filled, urban fantasy story with a harem, you'll enjoy the hell out of it like I did. I thought the narration was done well and I was HIGHLY entertained the whole time.

A Bit Too Haremy for My Taste

Ok, to start, this is entirely my fault for not understanding what a Pulp Harem would entail. Knowing what it is now, I would probably not have requested a promotional code and listened to this title.

The Haremy parts (and the author insists that's a word) really boil down to explicit sex scenes. Oddly, not as many as I would have expected once I realized what was going on. It's like there was this sc-fi, fantasy adventure that kept getting interrupted by pornography. Or maybe the porn was being interrupted by the story... not really sure.

The characters are all one dimensional, the plot is predictable and the women are all busty. But I guess that's what goes with a Pulp Harem title.

Now, don't get me wrong. I actually enjoyed listening to this, even if the explicit sex scenes made me a little uncomfortable while on my morning commute. It's fun popcorn fiction, reminiscent of sexploitation films that pop up in the B-movie world.

Adam Fraser is a screenwriter who gets caught up in his own B-movie when the legendary warrior, Beowulf, and his two busty companions are catapulted forward in time to Las Angeles and fall directly into Adam's lap. His crappy life soon becomes an adventure to become a swordsman and defeat the evil sorcerer, Mossheart. Yeah, it's that B-movie like.

But it's fun, so if you're ok with explicit sex in your books, give this one a try.

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