Leo Frankowski is the author. http://www.baen.com/conrad-stargard-the-radiant-warrior.html So what do you guys think? Good, bad, or the ugly?
its ok, with some suspension of disbelief ofc although the series isnt really new, and the author already crossed to the other side.
i think this is the first book right? the last book is about his story and a clan of mutants i think...
The book handles relationships (and consent) about as well as your average xianxia. This series literally has my top "Holy fuck, an actual publisher put out this book?" line. (Del Rey Books; we're not even talking Baen here. He'd move over there later, because of course he would.) "Krystyana and I didn't have anything in common but a certain sexual attraction, the sort of thing any normal man feels for a healthy fourteen year old, and even that was already fading, at least my half of it." But, don't worry, everything works out okay for our MC with the overly-clingy teenager (who, by the point things come to a head a few years later, was raising three of his kids, but hey, chicks just don't understand that a real man can't be tied down), after her childhood friend, who's totally a nice guy that's always been there to support her, rapes her into understanding what a bitch she was to friendzone him, while her friends sit outside the bedroom, laughing and eating popcorn. No, I wish I was kidding. Oh, and the MC is basically a self-insert, which adds another level of squick while he's rhapsodizing about the charms of underaged girls.
Really?! What the fuck? I can't help my self from laughing aloud right now. This sounds like a poorly written Literotica fiction, and it made it to publication? Though, I'm sure your own biases are mixed in there, but it still sounds fucking stupid; even if I were to eliminate half of what you said.
0/10 not recommended. The only good thing about this series is the Kingdom Building genre. I prefer Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen.
I mentioned him and the series in my review of "Release That Witch". For readers who had never read the classic "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", the Conrad series serves as a decent introduction to the fantasy genre of time-travel and history-making. For others, the charm of the series wears off once they find other writers more suitable to their world view. The Conrad Stargrad series was a product of the 1980s: unapologetic about the author's one-sided view on how things should be in his fictional world. This was before the term "political correctness" became a thing. The MC can come off as arrogant because he knows things while everyone else is looked upon as ignorant peasants. He takes it upon himself to drag the unwashed, uneducated masses to prepare for a historical Mongol invasion, whether they like his methods or not. An interesting contrast is the more recent Safehold series by David Weber. Same sort of technological uplift of a backward society mired in religious restrictions, also heavily wrapped in technological discourse. The difference is that the 'good' faction of the series would be viewed as "liberals" and their enemies as conservative bigots perpetuated by a religion that was founded with good intentions (but with terrible methods) which had devolved due to natural human greed. Both series divide the black and white very clearly. The difference in attitudes between the two series is like... Re:Monster and Death March. I guess that analogy works somewhat.
It's true, but that was just small part of the bigger story. I agree on both counts. Love kingdom building and Lord Kalvan is a kingdom building too. I'm a big fan of all the series you mention.
It was the late 80s, so yeah, there's a lot of stuff that got published back then, before the MMPB market collapsed, that would just be a mid-grade story with a handful of fans on FFN or an Internet forum today. I read the series back when I was a teenager, and enjoyed them. The skeevy shit is presented in a breezy and lighthearted manner, so it's really easy to not even notice it, but I ended up going back to look at them after some other discussion called them "rapetastic shit" and I had the response "Oh, they're just being too sensitive, let me go take another look... Holy shit!" Here's the part I was referencing: Spoiler: The Radiant Warrior ... Krystyana let out a scream that could have curled the toenails on a war-horse. Yawalda must have gathered a crowd outside the door, because as soon as Krystyana ran out of breath we heard a round of applause from the hallway. "Damn you! Damn you all! Is everyone against me?" "No, my love. Everyone is for you. Every one of your friends want only what is best for you and so do I. And the thing that is best for you is me." [...] And every time she screamed, the applause from the hall got louder. Indeed, I found out later that there were more than three dozen well-wishers out there, and that they had sent to the kitchens for beer and popcorn to ease them while they waited us out. [...] She was still struggling, and I found it best to simply sit on her while I removed the rest of my armor, padding and small clothes. She screamed some more and the crowd cheered some more. Eventually, she desisted. I threw my weapons to the far corner of the room, for my love was in a truly feisty mood and I feared she would be tempted to sin with them, and in so sinning, add to my wounds. In truth, my leg wound had opened a bit in the struggle, but what's a little blood on the sheets on your first night with a woman? Well, admittedly, it was the wrong person's blood, but one can't have everything. It was a long night, and the second in a row without sleep. Nor was it nearly as pleasant as the one before, for my love was not working at my pleasure as I was at hers. Yet in the end I was successful, for the early dawn, I looked at my love and she looked back. And smiled. And that day we went to the priest and posted our banns of matrimony.