Odyssey

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The Year is 2020...

An experiment decades in the making known asProject: Blue Mondayrears its head. A Portal opens in Fort Lauderdale, and the government keeps it a secret from everyone. Immediately, it sends forces through the portal to secure it, and to escape from a dying planet Earth.

Staff Sergeant Hezekiah Brooks is among them. He finds himself in a world of magic, elves, demi-humans, and dragons. As he fights against the ruling Iscariot Empire in the new world, he is forced to adapt to his new circumstances to survive. He finds a new family among his allies and a new enemy of his own making. Carefully, he must find a way back home... alive, keeping his ragtag squad of five soldiers - Unity - alive and safe. All while playing as a puppet for a creature of mysterious origin, who seemingly knows all and controls everything. He finds himself at the head of a revolution that will burn everything to the ground, just to build it all again...

Hezekiah embarks on his Odyssey, to protect his family and to fight against the evils of both the worlds of New and Old...

Information

Status: Cancelled
Year: 2021
Author: Digital Riot

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 3.5/ 5.0
Followers: 54
Views: 28,673

Reviews

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Community Reviews(6)

ANCTRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This is the story of a marine that is sent through a portal that suddenly shows up in America. The author takes the time to set up our MC and the nations of the new world. This is a slower paced story that promises interesting clashes between various cultures.
Style: The style of writing is fairly consistent and a smooth read. It falters in dialog and exposition. The dialog unfortunately is mostly stilted and lacking in life. There are some conversation that are done well, but mostly it feels too scripted. With exposition, the author has the tendency to stuff a sentence too full or speak to the reader. The former is something that written experiance will fix. The latter, in this case, is an issue of perspective discipline. This too is something experiance help with. I expect author will get better as they move forward.
Grammer: Their prose is pretty good and I found very few issues. The few errors were understandable.
Story: The plot is where I think this story shines. It is really cool to see a portal story from the perspective of American culture. The author has also clearly done some good research into cultures/history to developt his nations in the new world. I look forward to seeing how everything clashes.
Character: The characters all have depth to them and the author takes time to share develop with several sides to the world. A stronger hand with dialog would see this better represented.
In conclusion, if you like the idea of our world interacting with a fantasy realm, this is a good story to read. The author is newest, but has talent. Almost more improtantly, their research shows dedication
BullerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Jumped right into the story without reading the warning at the end of the summary. Now that I have read it, the story-vibe makes so much more sense. It really is something akin to Gate in the soul, even if the entry events arent exactly the same. It's not even done that terribly either, which just makes it more than just better than the average inspired fic.
Anyway, I was supposed to write a review here, so that's what I'll be doing now.
Style:
This here is something I can't say I liked that much. Don't take it as a harsh thing. Really, it was great for what it did, yet the way that it presents the story just isn't for me. I am, of course, talking about the effect sounds. *Growl* *Thud* *Bonk* or however else you want to describe them. The author just writes them outright, and that just doesn't fit with me. It's a very common style, so I'm saying it should be changed or anything. I just didn't fit into the group that liked that stuff. 4.5/5 nonetheless.
Grammar:
Pretty good. A few mistakes here and there, but nothing that will melt your brain if you skim it. Nearly didn't notice them myself if not for rereading a few parts for this review. 5/5
Story:
Gate inspired hits hard here. A giant crab? More like a giant... something. I didn't actually read far enough to the point where I could say that I know exactly how the story turns out. The summary on top gives a good idea of what there is to expect later on though. Haven't skimmed ahead to quality-check tho, so this one is on your own. 4.5/5.
Character:
He hates them, he doesn't hate them, he loves them, and then he's right back to hate them. An understandable thing when the whole group is a bunch of not-that-well-trained soldiers. Wasnt really sold on them being sold at all, though I did like that quib about the medical guy only having three hours of training for the job. Very specific comments about this but whatever. 5/5. Don't take them too seriously.
That leaves with an overall score of 4.5. That's it.
DecimvsRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
So far so good, well written with the exception of a few minor grammar mistakes, but besides that it's pretty great with some good worldbuilding and personality if I'm saying it right. Like I said in the title, I'm excited for future chapters and what sort of twists this story will have. US Battlemages? Combining technology and magic to make something better?
horizon108Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Disclaimer: This review has been made at the end of chapter 8.
Now that's out of the way, let's get into the meat of the story.
Note: Do not stop at chapter 3. It is a bit info dumpy, but the story after that picks up again quite well.
Style score: 3.5/5 - It was a solid 5/5 for me till chapter 3. The dialogue flow was incredible, and the characters were lively with the proper feeling of a squad out on an escort mission in dangerous territory, conveyed perfectly.
However, after chapter 3, the dialogue and voice changed for the worse. This I attribute to the stark difference in voices between the modern voice and the alternate universe's voice. It's a bit jarring, and the exposition is quite heavy at that point, but moving onwards; It significantly improves as the pov shifts back to Brooks.
Story score: 4/5 - The story has elements from many novels, as alluded to by the author himself. However, solid world building means that it is significantly better and a certified standalone novel worthy in its own right. The world has been fleshed out with maps, images that the author has provided in the author notes, as well as considerable research on the arms and ammunitions of the age.
Oh, and did I mention that he's created a language for the book?
Yep. That's committment alright.
Grammar score: 4.5/5 - I'm not an expert at grammar and focus on readability. This novel reads extremely well when it's in Hezekiah's POV, but has a few minor errors in the other POVs. But this doesn't detract from my rating because, given the length of the chapters, this is more than acceptable for me and for the majority of readers. Hence, an above the norm 4.5/5.
Character score: 3.5/5 - This is where I found the book to be a little less impelling. The characters initially were quite interesting. But as they began reacting to the events and new characters were introduced, they became stilted, for the lack of a better word. They seemed as though they were playing out a grand play between themsel
65goldenoneRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
I made it to chapter 19 before I just couldn't continue anymore, this story is terrible.
There is no verisimilitude.
The scale and scope of this world is contradictory and nonsensical.
One moment travel from A to B takes one day, the next it takes weeks.
The author throws out big numbers for wars in an attempt at shock value that just makes the world look ridiculous and make no sense.
The setbacks the marines suffer are just plot-induced stupidity that aren't earned.
The militaries don't behave like they actually would in the situation they are in.
The attempts at building tension fall flat.
New magical abilities come out of nowhere to serve the needs of the plot rather than feeling like a natural part of the world.
There are no genuine characters, just caricatures that don't behave like real people.
Said caricatures don't display the kind of morality and behaviour someone in their position and society would.
The same goes for the various organizations(certainly the US military).
The elves encountered in the beginning are just goody-toe-shoes Mary Sues.
They are Noble Savages(a cancerous trope if there ever was one) who don't behave like actual primitive tribals would.
And their continued independent existence is just plot-induced stupidity in light of the rest of the worldbuilding.
And the ridiculous "moral outrage" of various caricatures about muh(potential) civilian deaths(purely from collateral damage) is inorganic and just a cringe-inducing fantasy.
They act like the military is going to round up and massacre entire defenseless population centers after a battle.
And the Iscariot queen is practically an author mouthpiece.
Had it not been for the competent grammar and the fact that I like the story concept, I wouldn't have given it more than 1 star.
ReeBoi77Royal Road
★ 1.0
thought this going to be a good action flick, only to be met with edgydrama and dumb decision, and it seems the writer ignores or has no idea on how military ops and tactics supposed to be done. Too often i find needless death, questionable decisions and actions, and some unrelatable personalities that only serve the tio further the "hero" mc plot