#BookReview: Warmaster 3: Gamboling Coil by Melissa McShane

This narrator did a bang-up job with this one

This book is the third in the Warmaster series I found via a friend, Jana S Brown. She introduced me to the author, and we interviewed her on The Blasters & Blades Podcast about this universe on YouTube, BitChute, Rumble and audio. I was so hooked that when it came out I instantly purchased and read book three!

So, here we are, Warmaster 3: Gamboling Coil by Melissa McShane. I ‘read’ this novel in the audiobook format as read by Talon David. This narrator did a bang-up job with this one; it was just as good as the first two novels in this world that she narrated! I can’t wait to see what else this Talented Talon can accomplish in her voice acting career, because she has skills!

Overall, I am not surprised that I ended up loving a book genre that was spawned by the games that I’ve learned to love. I played online open-world RPGs like the Fallout and Elder Scrolls franchises and loved the open-world gaming concept. That transferred over to the ttrpgs once I found a game with friends. Now, I can experience that over and over again, even when solo, through this genre. I can’t wait to dive deeper into this literary space.

And let me tell you, as my third foray into this genre, this was a banger! I recently bought another LitRPG book because I ‘m having so much fun in this space. Again, I thank my lucky muse for showing me what I was missing. This series is a rare treat for me. If you want to see my thoughts on the previous novels, then read my first review here and the second review here. There will be some overlap between these reviews as I am unsure how to review a sequel to a book I loved without repetition. Obviously, if I loved the second book, then it would have elements that made the first novel work.

Seriously, this author sold the entire genre of literature to me. As you can see, I am writing another review from this space! I know you can barely contain your excitement! But please don’t embarrass us in public; people are watching! They’re staring at us, don’t look, but that guy over there might even be filming. Let’s save those moments for beer, bars, and bratwurst!

The Story

The main character of this novel is Aderyn, a woman who grew up in a world that is basically a TTRPG game, except it is very real to the people who live there. After she gets the Call to become an adventurer, she is given a class, Warmaster, and she meets her friend Owen. He is the ying to her yang, and when their powers combine, they’re danged near unstoppable. This novel picks up where the second one leaves off and I loved every minute of it.

During this story arc, we see Aderyn and Owen learning to work together through city politics and try not to die as they venture into an area outside of their level. While en route, we watch them level up through the ranks of ‘the system.’ I loved seeing them figure out their new powers, apply them creatively and build their intra team dynamics. Even better, we watched her continually improve her Warmaster class, which is generally thought to be useless in the world.

During the course of this book, we see Aderyn and Owen deepen their friendship with their party members: Isold, Weston, and Livia. These companions are a lot of fun to see in this novel as they learn to work together as one unit. Though I would think the term found family or choosen family suits their partnership better. We got some of that in the first two books in this series, but it really shines through in Warmaster 3: Gamboling Coil. It was an important traint, since poor intra team dynamics can kill you in a danger zone. This aspect of combat is often overlooked or poorly shown. Having been part of a team whose life depended on the actions of others, I notice when authors get this one wrong. Done right, it blends into the background. But, if you do it wrong, it shines like the Beacons of Gondor.

As a former grunt, or infantryman in civilian parlance, I also liked how Melissa described the combat scenarios. It was clearly written, and I could picture the conflict like a movie in my head. It felt like how it should happen, though I’m inexperienced in swordplay. To be fair, I’ve also never fought monsters or slung spells at the wee beasties. But, because Melissa got the little sensory details right, I was able to suspend my disbelief when she wrote the fantastical awesomeness.

We saw more than just the literal combat in this novel. We see the age old adage that politics is combat by other means in action. Like I said in the introduction, this book had political thriller themes. We, the reader, spend the first half of this book in the dungeon that gave this book its name. That portion of the novel was fun, but what I really enjoyed was what happened in the town of Obsidian, named for its painted walls. It was in a dangerous part of the realm, better suited for people who were higher level adventurers. Obsidian has a reputation for its lawlessness and general almost anarachal chaos. The number of people who are murdered there is distressingly high.

While in the city, Aderyn’s party gets themselves inadvertently embroiled in local politics. Stuck between the seven factions that control everything, they struggle to survive and thrive. I would elaborate more, but we’re spoiler free here on Upstream Reviews. Through this section of the novel, we get to see the group struggling to pick sides in a dispute. We see them navigating the murky waters, without knowing the lay of the land. Even cooler, we get to see what happens because of those decisions. The political machinations was enough to quench the urge for thriller readers, but not so much that it was overdone. I am not a fan of thrillers, but this didn’t make me want to move on to another book.

That out of the way, let us move along to the gaming system underlying this world. It is kind of crucial, given the nature of the GameLit/LitRPG genre. We got to see the party level up a few times and grow as characters. During the trek through book three, the party continued to learn about the game world and grow as people. But what was more important, we got to explore the previously hinted at Fated One quest. It was a lot of fun, especially because Owen was no longer an outsider. That meant the party was on more equal footings as they learned what they would be required to do to tackle the system level caps. I really enjoyed this shift from the author, Melissa McShane. You can only ride the noob train entry point for so long before it is overdone. The author didn’t do that. Nope, she kept me engaged from start to finish, and I couldn’t more strongly recommend it.

This story was expertly paced, and the prose was cleanly written. There was never a moment in the novel where I couldn’t envision the world. I could see the adventure unfolding in my mind as a movie in my head. In fairness, I have read enough fantasy to help me envision everything. Even better, I had a solid base of knowledge from my gaming experience, both video and tabletop mediums. Further, having read a lot of the classics of fantasy literature, I’ve seen many of the genre tropes.

One area where my experience with legends and lore from modernity and antiquity helped was with the monsters we encountered. I recognized the harpy and Godzilla. I think that my experience with those iconic creatures allowed me to visualize them better. Obviously, Melissa shaved off the serial numbers for Godzilla to keep herself from getting sued. She also gave him a different name, so we had that sense of newness and foreignness for the outlander, Owen, to recognize and identify. It did make things fun, and I will most assuredly continue reading this series far into the future.

And how could we talk about a novel without talking about the authorial voice? In this novel, I found a well-rounded storytelling voice. There was enough depth to solidly ground you in the story without wandering off into left field. She drip-fed us enough details to keep us informed without stealing that sense of wonder from us. However, you could tell that this world had depth to it, even though she didn’t show us up front.

Finally, the thing I liked the most about this novel was the way Melissa took the hints at romance from book two and kicked it up a notch. She crafted a convincing ongoing romance that was easy to believe and cheer for. We saw that with Owen and Aderyn, and we saw it with Livia and Weston. Oh, and we saw it with Isold and every other NPC character, both young and old. It was done with the fade to black, so we saw nothing that we couldn’t let our kids read. But, the adults could read between the lines, which worked for me. I also liked that Melissa McShane showed the duality of her skills. Because of how she handled things, we saw romance at three levels. With Livia/Weston, we got a committed pairing that was hot and heavy. With Isold, we get a Lothario, and finally, with Aderyn/Owen, we see the sweetness and naivety of two youthful souls.

The Characters

This novel follows one main character, the journeyman adventurer named Aderyn, and her companions. She is a 20-ish-year-old woman who’s awarded the class of Warmaster. It is a class that gives her the ability to read tactical situations, but since most in this class are ignored, their full potential is never unlocked. However, the other Warmasters haven’t figured out that potential has to paired with a compainion. She has Owen, but most don’t have a person like him to bond with and interlace their skills with. Owen, her erstwhile companion, has skills that mirror hers. He is the ying to her yang, allowing both of them to be better while working together. Throughout this novel, Aderyn has begun a single-handed campaign to prove the worth of her class. Through this, her party thrives and exceeds the expectations of their abilities based on their collective inexperience.

I really liked the arc of Aderyn’s character; she wasn’t your typical ‘girl boss.’ This was a lady who was competent, and she earned every one of her skill upgrades. She fought for those gains in a way that made sense. During her time in this novel, she had to compensate for her smaller size and the lower system levels as they travel the map. They do that by outthinking the monsters and opponents. Further, she continued her path toward being able to collaborate with her teammates. The ability to trust someone to be strong where you are weak is something that takes a lot of conscious work to develop. Aderyn offered the inverse to her team, balancing each other’s abilities. She uses her brains to empower their brawn, and it worked for me.

Speaking of the characters in this novel, the were well-written and fleshed out. Their motivations made sense to me; they felt real. I don’t know that I’d want to have a beer with these inexperienced kids, but I don’t hate them either. Maybe I’m just getting old and crotchety? Whatever, get off my lawn, and we’ll continue with this deep dive into the residents of the system!

Finally, we couldn’t talk about the characters of ‘the system’ without talking about the system itself. It was its own character, working with its own mysterious agency. The game had dreams of its own, coming across almost like it was the deity for the world. It felt like this was symbolic or a stand-in for a higher power, which made the world feel even more fleshed out. I am not sure how else to describe it; I am still working it out on my end. I truly think it is an almost godlike creation, but who created the creator? Am I reading too much into it? Is when I am reading it flavoring it? I don’t know, but it struck me that the game ruleset that runs this world feels like the ancient gods meddling in the affairs of man. Your mileage may vary, so check it out.

The World

This story is set in the fantasy world of ‘the System.’ Sprinkled throughout the various cities are that special breed of humans known as ‘adventurers.’ These people rove around the land, completing quests and trying to earn system growth and advancement. As a GameLit/LitRPG world, it is set against the backdrop of a gaming system and ruleset. It is here that we find the continued tale of characters Aderyn, Owen, and their other companions.

Seriously, what’s not to love about the world-building in this novel? It was expertly handled by Melissa McShane, who clearly knows a thing or two about the written word. I said that about book one and two, and now book three hasn’t let me down. She told a compelling story set in a beautiful world of ‘the System.’ Like I’ve previously said, everything was extremely fleshed out, giving this setting a very lived-in feel. Unlike some authors, Melissa didn’t info dump all of her world-building up front. Instead, she fed it to us in drips and drabs that kept me on the edge of my seat, hooked from page one. She expertly strung us along and always left us wanting more.

What I loved most about this book was Melissa’s letting us explore the north further in this world. We saw the lands near the coast where higher levels of adventurers hang out. We also got to meet new monsters, and explore a new city. As we discovered more about ‘the System,’ we also got to see a different style of dungeon, one that was rumored to transport them wherever they want when they defeat it. During the course of this book, our main characters get to discover if the rumors are true. We also learned about the darker side of some unscrupulous adventurers who prey on their weaker noob peers. This was a tad darker than previous books, but not so gloomy that I needed to double up on my Prozac!

I know that I sound like a crazy fanboy, but trust me, this story was anything but amateur hour! It was an exciting romp through dice and pages. I swear, I could almost hear my favorite dungeon master say, “Roll for initiative” when the combat actions started. It was like I was really in the system with Aderyn! I’m practically gushing over this novel, and you will, too, if you give it a try!

Politics

This novel has no real-world politics and doesn’t stray outside of the standard power plays that happened in the medieval world with several city-states. That absence gave you room for you just to dive in and enjoy some good old-fashioned historic fun! Okay, historic-ish, and the ISH is doing some heavy lifting! But it was the standard fantasy tropes that Tolkien would approve of. However, the plot of this novel did have some internal political thriller shenanigans so this might be your thing if you like that genre too!

Content Warning

This was a relatively clean story, so there was nothing that wasn’t PG-13 in this novel. There was violence, but it wasn’t gratuitous. There were smooching scenes, but they didn’t get into detail. They were pretty blunt about what followed, but it was all off screen. Basically, I would let my kids read this novel as well.

Who is it for?

This book is for people who enjoy a good GameLit/LitRPG story about a pair of young adults finding themselves and the path they want their lives to take. The book Warmaster 3: Gamboling Coil continues to expound upon the value that family can have on your life. It highlights those values in a positive light, which is rare these days. I loved the focus on the evolving romance with Owen and Aderyn and with their larger friend group in their adventuring party. If you’ve ever seen the world as it was and wanted it to be better… this hopeful novel is for you. That was my big takeaway from this novel, the role family can play in your life. We even got to see that from both the good or bad incidents.

Why buy it

Before I read this series, I would’ve said that I’m not the typical audience for this one. But Melissa changed all of that. I’m now a convert and just read the third book in this series. I’ve even started a few other books in this genre because it was so fun! So, why wouldn’t you buy this book? This was a fun romp through a gamified story that is perfect for all ages. This is a solid escapist story for when you want sword fighting and justice in a hurry. The adventure was compelling, the prose was clean, and the story arc had me unable to stop turning the page. Sleep? Who needs it when this book is there!

If I haven’t sold you on this GameLit/LitRPG novel, then I haven’t done my job. So, if you are intrigued, then click the link already!