Last Bastion

Forever Fantasy Online, Book 2

By: Rachel Aaron, Travis Bach

Narrated by: Josh Hurley

Length: 24 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

Bastion was supposed to mean safety. It was supposed to mean a break from fighting for their lives and a chance to talk to someone who might actually know what’s going on. Access to their gold and some beer would have been nice, too.

They got none of those things. When they arrive in the capital, Tina and James find a city on fire in more ways than one. Players and non-players hunt each other in the streets, while the king who controls the city’s all-powerful artifact cowers from the chaos in his castle. Desperate to warn somebody about the Once King’s coming invasion, James wants to try to talk to the king anyway, while Tina just wants to meet the royal portal keepers who might be able to send them home.

It shouldn’t be hard to get an army of the world’s best-geared players through one city, but when they discover that the captain of the Royal Knights has been massacring low-level players in revenge disguised as justice, James and Tina will have to decide which is more important: the lives of their fellow gamers, or the stability of their new world’s last great city. Both choices deserve a champion, but with the Once King’s armies closing in, taking the wrong side may doom everyone to an eternity as slaves to the Ghostfire.

©2019 Rachel Aaron and Travis Bach (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

Gack, how do I review this one?

How do I review this one? 2hrs into the book, I put it down... and almost didn't pick it up again, due in part to the fact that I was having trouble reconnecting with the characters, but mostly because of Josh Hurley's over the top narration. At the time, it just seemed like too much to take! To be fair, I quite enjoy these authors, and I had enjoyed their first book in the series, so I put "Bastion" away, thinking that maybe I'd just listened to too many LitRPG's recently, and needed a break from the genre... Finally, a month later, I was ready to tackle it again, so I girded my loins, and  picked up the book again (Josh's narration now being a known consequence). I discovered that within just a few minutes, I'd been sucked into the action packed adventure.
The story picked up exactly where book no. one left off, and again follows Roxxy (aka Tina) and her brother James... but surprisingly they're not together as I'd expected. A difference of opinion created a rift between them as they each had separate goals. I really enjoyed seeing the character development of the other members of Roxxy's raiding party, but boy there was times when all I wanted to do was to slap some sense into Roxxy! She's just so damn stubborn and pigheaded! My son (who's an avid gamer) pointed out that her rock-headedness was built into her nature as she's both a Tank, and she's wearing her character's Stonekin persona...
  ... And yeah, the ending is sorta a cliffhanger, but as with the first tale, I'm not too angry, as the main story's ARC finished on a high note...
Will I pick up the next audiobook? Yeah, especially as my son is enjoying the heck out of the series, and I've proved that I can put up with the narrator (while my husband makes fun of the narration, from his lofty position in the peanut gallery! ).

so much whining

you can really believe you are in the head of a bunch of whitney overly emotional pre teens. i absolutely hate it.

Could be great.

There is so much potential in this story but Roxxy's immaturity just ruins it for me. She would have rather commit mass murder and kill everyone than have a battle be a draw and have peace. She gets mad and hateful toward her best friend who she claims to love just because he disagrees with her and isn't a lapdog. I had issues with her in the first book and but she just keeps getting worse. It really takes away from the story. I really enjoy other books by the authors but I think something was off when writing these books. I know other won't agree but that why it is an opinion. I just wanted to share my thoughts.

Expected okay, got surprisingly great!

I had read the first in the series and was satisfied enough with it that I picked up the sequel, but didn't expect that much more than a decent way to kill time during commutes. While I wouldn't call this my favourite, I was definitely surprise with just how engaging and interesting the story ended up being.

The characters were whiny at times, but overall still relatable, with problems whose resolutions I was eager to discover. The narration was also very well done. I'm a little disappointed that things weren't wrapped up, but I'll still be happy to pick up the third when it comes out.

Unbearable Dialogue

The problem with this book is that its full of people arguing. But the writer(s) is terrible at writing multiple viewpoints. Its always one person wanting to do the obvious and the other person not wanting to do the obvious for obviously poor reasons. Or both sides are right about something obvious while wrong about what the other side is obviously right, or just having a self pity party. So it just always comes off as that latter person just whining obstinantly like child. Or both sides whining. Other than that its fine. Unfortunetely, that is literally the majority of the book. Basically every time the line 'if you would just listen' popped up or 'but' I would just skip ahead. Because all that would follow is a bunch of "no you!" And there are a number of characters having personal crisises I cannot understand on any level. The authors successfully made the battles feel like a sick waste without anyone to root for, but only by making it clear that both sides were motivated by being diagnosibly stupid. Not that there were actually any battles in this book. What there were, were one sided slaughters as the ego of losers who identify as gamers was carefully massaged by throwing masses of weak and helpless men against them.

And its not that the story was bad, its just every minute if interesting developments was accompanied by 2 minutes of "ITS ALL MY FAULT!" or "GAH WHY DO YOU ALWAYS DO THIS!" or sone other constantly rehashed whining. And its pretty obvious all this whining is being used to pad the book length.

But its not all bad, when no one is arguing, discussing ect. Its decent at worse and is often very good.

an exciting listen

this was a fun exciting listen, only down side I can say is that it felt like the characters personalities did a huge jump in development from book one to two which took some getting used to, but I can't wait to hear the third

Awesome

Love it!!! Keep it up. Can’t wait to hear what happens next. Thank you for the entertainment.

good book!

very good sequel. the ending made me curious about the next book. if you liked the first one, you will like this one as well

hard to listen

I found that the plot points were written in a way to add more drama and build character. but it felt like there where to many obvious plot points and I ended up get bored moving through each point just waiting to get to the next one. it would really help if there was less talking pointless drama and more decisive action.

what a crybaby

the MC is a huge cry baby constantly pathetically whining about how things aren't going perfect this Uber gamer highly experienced guild leader seems completely incapable of delegating authority the characters constantly bicker about everything

4 star's

Love this series so far can't wait for the next installment.

Narrator was great.
Story expanded on the first.
A handful of glitches but didn't have much if any effect on the story.

A worthwhile continuation

A lot of things here that is worthy praise. Good worldbuilding, with characters reactions being very realistic.

In the first book, sometimes it felt annoying switching from the story you actually cared about but in this one I was excited to listen to them both.

Look forward to reading the ending to this series and finding out what secrets people are holding onto 👀