Forged in Fire (Destiny's Crucible Book 4)

I enjoyed the story. I was disappointed in the ending. The reason is all the loose ends. It almost feels like one of those serials they showed in theaters in the 30's and 40's. Even though the author says he has wrapped this up, there are a number of things that remain outstanding.

Very good read. I liked the series enough to read it twice. Believable characters and plausible plot line. Struggles of main character to advance knowledge without being condemned by authorities is part of our own history. Good character development. Looking forward to next book.

An enjoyable conclusion to this saga, I hope the author continues in this universe if not with the characters. I highly recommend the first book if you are a fan of Least Darkness Falls and are stumbling on this book, and if you've read to this point then I recommend this book as well.

This was the best yet. The plot carries through from the first three books. Hopefully there will be more to come. The author did a great job wrapping this story line up but teed up potential plot lines for future books. .......Keep them coming!

5th Book Needed. I appreciated that the Watchers had a few paragraphs, and the mysterious blue egg shaped structures were at least mentioned....but neither were resolved. I spent the entire book enduring the preparations for war hoping that the last chapter would describe what happens in the next 50 years of Joe's family.

It all cultivated to finality in this book. I had been waiting for that fight for 3 books now. I wasn't going to be happy if it wasn't in the 4th. This book did not disappoint. We get to see the battle. ...and it's a good one!

The story so far has a very interesting storyline. I love the idea of a person with modern ability being in this situation.
Sally... The book is pretty much nothing but conversation, discussion. There was a "big" battle at the end but if you grow bored with all the yap and start skipping, you'll probably miss it.
Sadly, I have no plans to continue the series. It started out fascinating, and turned into something else.

More great storytelling by the author, some new (but necessary) characters -- all as fleshed out as one could ask for. I was really pleased and surprised at the length of the book -- NOT a finish-it-in-two-evenings short story. It took the better part of a week, reading several hours a night to get to the conclusion -- and I still wanted more.
The main characters continued to play major parts and were not abandoned as some authors do.
Many times I found myself laughing out loud at the antics between Yozef and his bodyguards and friends. I cried when Ana said Yozef was "in the arms of God" (no spoiler). When a book can make that much of an emotional impact, someone is doing some high-level storytelling.
The book ended at a logical stopping point -- now may be time for some spinoff books in this wonderful new world's setting.
There were some minor editing errors, puntuation, hyphenation, and mismatched tences in the same sentence. There were a couple of places where the sentence had an unnecessary word that should be omitted, and a few sentences that didn't make sense because of words flip-flopped around. (I reported all these errors to the store). But the editing was far superior compared to most of the KU books out there.
All-in-all a wonderfully gripping storyline with a great cast of characters. Buy it, rent it with KU, but read this series.
Much better overall than Webber's Safehold series from book three onward. This author didn't drag out the story unnecessarily just to milk the fans for more cash.
Thank you.

This book is a very disappointing entry into this series. You could almost skip the first 40% or so of the book and not miss too much. It takes almost half way into the book before you will see anything new or interesting, and then it isn't until about the 70% mark that things develop any type of tension.
Topping it all off is the way the entire story is wrapped up in about 3 chapters. Given the build-up thus far, I was left a little disappointed

You must seriously suspend your understanding of how real people actually think, act, and behave to enjoy this series. After the fourth installment, it’s become a bit of a tiresome chore for me.

I do believe the story is somewhat imaginative story (somewhat being that a transplanted uptimer is an oft-used plot device) that somehow does just enough to keep me interested in how it all goes down although the fact that good guys win is a given. But the author falls into a number of amateurish writing traps.

He overvalues his characters and he overpowers them. With surprisingly few exceptions, the people of the island old Joe washed up on are surprising liberal, even for today’s standards despite being from a tribal, patriarchal society hundreds of years more primitive than our own. The author has basically made them an idealized version of our own society, which is of course completely unrealistic and doesn’t even fit the own narrative he framed. Next all his characters are special with no flaws I’ve ever perceived. The tried and true one-dimensionals abound in these novels. Joe has all these special alien powers. Thank goodness this twenty-something science geek also seriously dabbled in military theory and just about everything else you can imagine, how convenient. Absurd actually. Oh he even knows details of geology I only learned in a graduate environmental archaeology class, despite 10 hours of undergrad geology. Sure...

The next amateurish technique is over-explaining. He hashes everything out with verbal dialogue or internal monologue to an endless degree, then he does it again with different characters for the same topics. It wasn’t bad in the first book but each book gets needlessly longer. The third book has least plot movement yet is still 2nd longest. This book trumps them all for no reason. Spoon-feeding is for children, Olaf. I’m a grown man.

My biggest specific complaint is how old Joe’s loyal wife had to talk HIM into having a second wife despite that it is not a common custom in their society though not explicitly forbidden. She does this because she needs a babysitter, no joke, and her friend is also depressed... I wanted to believe that maybe the author spent dozens of pages hashing this out then endlessly updating the reader about it because it somehow played into the main plot, but I suspected this was juvenile fantasy expressed in words. I’ll let you guess which one it turned to be. I really question whoever edits these books or advises the author. This entire polygamy sideplot is a complete waste of time and a harmful distraction ultimately.

This is dime-novel quality pulp fiction in a digital age. Thankfully we don’t have to pay hardback prices anymore and I can justify spending a few dollars on blah like this.

Kindle Unlimited -Thank you.
Really happy this showed up as a true Kindle Unlimited series so I'd get to read it!

I'm with the reviewer(s) that enjoyed the 'slice of life' storylines as much, if not more, than the incredibly well done war themes. Kind of petty, but was glad Ana's immediate kinfolk didn't appear to have been invited to the ending ceremony. So... I'd like to get to read about the university creation, exchanges with allies, family growth, a deepening of the relationship with Ana, and mayhem from the children.

The 4th book would end the series nicely. But I'm hoping the future possibilities references might mean that this is the close of an arc and that the series will continue.

This was a nail biter. So much detail, it almost became muddled at times. So many people to keep track of is difficult. Overall the story was a great continuation and very well written. I did not want to stop reading. I will be looking forward to the next book in this very interesting and informative series. It makes me wonder what I would do in Yosef's place.

Loved the entire series! Learned so much about strategy. The secondary characters were awesome also. I do wonder how was the news received in Narthor about the defeat? What about the Fuome's thoughts about the technological advancements? What happened to the enemy soldiers that were hiding in thw cleft of rocks. What happenes that was in the bed with Ederling? And Aunt Tyla? So many questions. Loved the whole series.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has a great premise, well built world, and excellent plot execution.

One or two point have some slow day in the life moments but not enough to Serra t fringe overall experience.

I enjoyed a well-written series of books that didn’t include filthy language, and the sex scenes mostly left to the imagination.
Developing the scenes, and keeping tract of all the characters by the author, revealed his life experience in coordinating relationships, and strategic knowledge of war-fare.
Good job.

You must seriously suspend your understanding of how real people actually think, act, and behave to enjoy this series. After the fourth installment, it’s become a bit of a tiresome chore for me.

I do believe the story is somewhat imaginative story (somewhat being that a transplanted uptimer is an oft-used plot device) that somehow does just enough to keep me interested in how it all goes down although the fact that good guys win is a given. But the author falls into a number of amateurish writing traps.

He overvalues his characters and he overpowers them. With surprisingly few exceptions, the people of the island old Joe washed up on are surprising liberal, even for today’s standards despite being from a tribal, patriarchal society hundreds of years more primitive than our own. The author has basically made them an idealized version of our own society, which is of course completely unrealistic and doesn’t even fit the own narrative he framed. Next all his characters are special with no flaws I’ve ever perceived. The tried and true one-dimensionals abound in these novels. Joe has all these special alien powers. Thank goodness this twenty-something science geek also seriously dabbled in military theory and just about everything else you can imagine, how convenient. Absurd actually. Oh he even knows details of geology I only learned in a graduate environmental archaeology class, despite 10 hours of undergrad geology. Sure...

The next amateurish technique is over-explaining. He hashes everything out with verbal dialogue or internal monologue to an endless degree, then he does it again with different characters for the same topics. It wasn’t bad in the first book but each book gets needlessly longer. The third book has least plot movement yet is still 2nd longest. This book trumps them all for no reason. Spoon-feeding is for children, Olaf. I’m a grown man.

My biggest specific complaint is how old Joe’s loyal wife had to talk HIM into having a second wife despite that it is not a common custom in their society though not explicitly forbidden. She does this because she needs a babysitter, no joke, and her friend is also depressed... I wanted to believe that maybe the author spent dozens of pages hashing this out then endlessly updating the reader about it because it somehow played into the main plot, but I suspected this was juvenile fantasy expressed in words. I’ll let you guess which one it turned to be. I really question whoever edits these books or advises the author. This entire polygamy sideplot is a complete waste of time and a harmful distraction ultimately.

This is dime-novel quality pulp fiction in a digital age. Thankfully we don’t have to pay hardback prices anymore and I can justify spending a few dollars on blah like this.

Kindle Unlimited -Thank you.
Really happy this showed up as a true Kindle Unlimited series so I'd get to read it!

I'm with the reviewer(s) that enjoyed the 'slice of life' storylines as much, if not more, than the incredibly well done war themes. Kind of petty, but was glad Ana's immediate kinfolk didn't appear to have been invited to the ending ceremony. So... I'd like to get to read about the university creation, exchanges with allies, family growth, a deepening of the relationship with Ana, and mayhem from the children.

The 4th book would end the series nicely. But I'm hoping the future possibilities references might mean that this is the close of an arc and that the series will continue.

This was a nail biter. So much detail, it almost became muddled at times. So many people to keep track of is difficult. Overall the story was a great continuation and very well written. I did not want to stop reading. I will be looking forward to the next book in this very interesting and informative series. It makes me wonder what I would do in Yosef's place.

Loved the entire series! Learned so much about strategy. The secondary characters were awesome also. I do wonder how was the news received in Narthor about the defeat? What about the Fuome's thoughts about the technological advancements? What happened to the enemy soldiers that were hiding in thw cleft of rocks. What happenes that was in the bed with Ederling? And Aunt Tyla? So many questions. Loved the whole series.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has a great premise, well built world, and excellent plot execution.

One or two point have some slow day in the life moments but not enough to Serra t fringe overall experience.

I enjoyed a well-written series of books that didn’t include filthy language, and the sex scenes mostly left to the imagination.
Developing the scenes, and keeping tract of all the characters by the author, revealed his life experience in coordinating relationships, and strategic knowledge of war-fare.
Good job.

While I enjoyed the concept reading book 1 the rest of them have been something of a slog. Revisiting things from time to time has its place but this book could easily lose 25% or more in repetitive introspections and explanations. It took what could have been a 5star book down to 3 at best for me.

This series has only gotten better with each book. Character development has greatly progressed, and the plot developments seem to grow organically given the basic premise. It has gone well beyond what could have a rehash of the man who matters genre. I am looking forward to the next installnent.

I've finished the complete series...but barely. I love the premise of this story but instead of following the adventures of a young man who inadvertently ended up on a planet elsewhere in the universe and finding himself with humans circa 1700, we end up watching an ego out of control. The hero, on his way to being emperor of his planet, subjugates the population and has them loving him. He has men, women and children undertaking massive digging projects and sacrificing themselves to their enemy just to protect himself and his harem of wives from the enemy, His brave family continue to warn each other to stay away from the front lines. We're too important and if we were killed, who would invent toilet paper? I found myself pulling for the enemy. On the other hand, my vocabulary has improved. You can tell the author has lots of letters behind his name. I had to keep my dictionary handy to follow along. I've also developed a loathing for the word "however" and the phrase "for example". Probably won't ever say those words again. Good luck.