Warfang

A LitRPG Series (Sky Realms Online, Book 5)

By: Troy Osgood

Narrated by: Pavi Proczko

Hall's village of Skara Brae is finally becoming a true home. But the growing community isn't without dangers....

Between raiding Red Caps and dives into the local dungeon, danger seems to lurk around every corner. Adventure. It makes Hall wonder if he should remain as Lord of Skara Brae. The excitement of life in the wild calls to him, but so do his responsibilities.

Both duty and adventure collide when members of the Greencloak Rangers, Hall's favorite faction from the original game, arrive in Skara Brae seeking Leigh's help in her role as Druid Custodian. The Northern Territories of Edin are being overrun by corruption and demons. The Greencloak Rangers' traditional enemies have seemingly aligned with demons. Hall fears this means the Desmarik Republic has started their invasion plans. But why Edin?

With Leigh and the Breakridge Irregulars, Hall journeys north to confront the growing Desmarik menace. Some of his questions will be answered, but more will be asked. Why is Hall encountering signs of Bastion The Sage everywhere? What role does the Sage play in the events around Hall?

Find out in the fifth installment of the Sky Realms Online LitRPG saga!

©2021 Aethon Books (P)2021 Aethon Audio

Consistently Enjoyable!

It seems rare for the quality of a story to continue throughout a long-standing series, but Troy delivers! He excels at keeping the story fun while building each book upon the last, each with a new adventure and new problems to keep things interesting. I've eager to hear Book 6 as soon as he can get it out to us!

This series gets better with every book!!

Warfang starts as most of the Sky Realms books have, with a look at Bastion and how he has seems to have a part to play in what is going on with some of the ‘Players’ – Hall at least and his group.
The story for Warfang is incredibly busy in this book, with several minor story arcs taking place before the characters move to the main part of the story. For the first part of the story, we get to see a lot more of the workings of the day to day aspects of Skara Brae, not just the ‘Civil’ side of it, as far as town building, but other things as well, relating to the various characters (including the multitude of NPCs that have now gathered within the village), and some events that take place.
Several things happen within the opening chapters of the book, with a raid by Duntin Red Caps looking for payback over a looted chest from an earlier book. The Irregulars also enter into a minor Dungeon that has been found by the Skara Brae ‘Defence Force’ (the Trainers and Adventurers from Lands Edge that now stay at Skara Brae), which provides an interesting experience for the group.
I don’t want to give away too many spoilers, there is a lot of fun adventure stuff for a good third of the start of this book, that really gets into that Fantasy Roleplaying, and takes us through several quite captivating adventures as Hall and the group fight one set of threats after another, some that are directly threatening the Village, others just for pure exploration. All of it though is just pure DnD fun, with outstanding combat, a good bit of LitRPG that doesn’t get overbearing, and some interesting character development, not to mention some intriguing story lines also.
After a while though, the ‘main’ story starts, when a group of ‘Greencloak Rangers’ arrives at Skara Brae, seeking not Hall’s help, but Leigh’s, as the Custodian of the Grove – for there is another corrupted branch of the World Tree, similar to like what she cured, and no one has been able to cure it, and they need all the help they can get.
What follows is a new set of quest chains that not only takes Hall and the crew, and this time, not just Roxhard, Jackoby, Caryn, Sharra (with Tulla of course), but Leigh and Angus join the group.
Taking the Ridgerunner for a faster trip (and so we can have the fun of reading about Gerdi and the Brothers Battleforge), the Breakridge Irregulars head to Timberhearth Keep, the home of the Greencloak Rangers to start their journey. It is not long before they work out that this is the work of the Desmarik Republic, and Demons.
I don’t want to give any spoilers, because the rest of the book is a series of Epic quests that show how this series is growing. With every book, the series has evolved, providing a new aspect to the story (Silver Peak the development of Skara Brae, Axestorm was Roxhard, but also the entire Player, NPC concept, as well as the party split, and Caryn and Sabine. Greenfire introduced the new enemy and Demons, and now Warfang expands on this, but really grows the story. All along, Osgood has continued to develop the individual characters (both Player and NPC alike), as well as Skara Brae, using his main character Hall. Now, we move into an almost campaign type storyline with the series that is going to be something truly epic.
As with all these books, the combat sequences are just stunning, with the right combination of detail, but not too much so you get to read about every twitch of the blade, or breath someone takes. This holds true for the LitRPG element as well, with comprehensive detail so you know what Hall’s stats are as the main character, but you are not too overwhelmed with updates every few pages. This is one facet of these books I have loved from the start, and was something that immediately drew me to a genre I was initially not overly keen on.
The other really extraordinary part of this series is the world building, which has been just breath-taking. Hankarth is a world that leaves you in awe of the descriptions of a world, torn apart, and now a series of floating islands, held together by magic. Each island is a different part of the world, and has retained those qualities, with the climate, and its people, making each island unique, and utterly fascinating. This is one of those stories where you would just love to go and visit as the descriptive work brings to life these remarkable places and leave you in wonder.
Osgood continues to deliver a stunning series with just exceptional characters, and a world that is enchanting. This is a must read for any Fantasy reader, and especially if you like your LitRPG. This book is a real growth to, showing what is to come, which is going to just get better.
Pavi Proczko’s Narration is great, he has a really nice speaking voice that is easy to listen to. He does a fantastic range of voices, both male and female, that are clear and concise and easy to understand. He uses a range of different voices, and this allows you to clearly identify each of the voices so that you know who is talking without having to be told. This is a story that has been designed with Audio in mind, so it flows really nicely, and Proczko does a great job with keeping that flow whilst reading.
Proczko has improved in this book with regards to the emotional aspect, providing a better understanding of the emotional range of the characters and how they are feeling in the moment.
One aspect of the Narration that is great is the use of a different voice that stands out for LitRPG element providing a clear delineation of this aspect of the story. Overall the Narration is great to listen to, and I have the rest of the Audiobooks.  

There are other body parts!!!!

EVERY SINGLE fight “Hall hit him in the shoulder” “the spear hitting him in the shoulder“ “biting Hall on the shoulder”… DUDE come on!!! I would laugh every time it was the shoulder, simply because I knew it would be the damn SHOULDER!!! And I’m on book five, I understand his “limited racial dark vision” no need to keep bringing it up… And instead of repeating the same damn thing every time he slays something, you could have just said “slain whatever, EXP gain 35 x5 total gain 175” But with that being said, I did enjoy the series. And I will get the other books.

Another great episode in the series

I really like this series. Unlike other LitRPG series the MC is not overpowered. My complaint about the Audiobooks is that the narrator is rather monotone and boring. He does not change voice tones enough and speaks with almost no excitement when critical things are occurring in the story. The story itself is great and I can’t wait for the next book, I can only hope that they may be find a new narrator.

Good story but I just can't remember

Can any one remember how they beat the custodian of the Grove in the first book.

great progress

loving how the story is developing. hall and his crew compliment each other. great story so far

Emphasis on detailed combat

While I enjoy the main character and many of his villagers, including the druid partner of Hal's, the emphasis on combat details has grown to be too much. The story is more hand to hand combat than anything else. The epilogue meant to entice the reader just bored me. I thought I had committed to the series, but after five installments, not sure. I would have preferred a great deal more "growing the village". The narrator is skilled but was too monotone to engage my waning interest.

Distinctly Meh

Gets caught up in mechanics and battle. The story is lacking an the battles are repetitive. The characters are dull the series went from I can’t wait to see what they do next to I don’t care if they live or die

just not there

this book wasn't cutting it for me so I stop at the tavern and deleted.

Doesn’t measure up

I am a fan of the series. I personally hold Pavi Proczko up as one of the better narrators of audiobooks. Troy Osgood is one of my favorite authors and I’ve enjoyed watching Hall and the others grow and am absolutely thankful for the author ensuring a believable MC that I identify with even while using a convoluted point xyz experience awarded leveling system.
Yet on the shoulders of all that this fourth book in the series falls flat compared to the first three. The first half of the book seemed a exercise in detail by explaining a dive into a poor quality dungeon with crappy loot (no not really half). When the book actually started moving along it was acceptable but still didn't seem up to the quality of previous offerings. I absolutely will buy the next book and I suggest that you support Troy by purchasing this book as well and make your own mind up. He and the continuation of the story is worth it.