Sword of Justice

De: Ryan Rimmel

Narrado por: Robb Moreira

A new world. A magical sword. A kingdom in peril.

When Yorick moves into his grandfather's house and discovers a magical sword, he opens a portal into a fantasy realm known as Exigen.

Talk about being thrown into the deep end. If he wants to survive, he must battle monsters, level up, and learn to avoid vicious tentacle monsters.

With the fate of the Kingdom in peril, only Yorick and his enchanted sword can save the princess and thwart the forces of evil.

Join the adventure of a lifetime in this new action-packed isekai LitRPG adventure from Ryan Rimmel, bestselling author of Noobtown.

©2025 Ryan Rimmel (P)2025 Recorded Books

wasn't disappointed

I knew he wouldn't let me down. The references to noobs (in my top 4 favs) made me feel at home in this story

So So

this book is not well written. story could have been better. Book sounds like it was written by a kid. Not the worst story but not in top 100.

A decent first start

OVERVIEW:
I'll admit; starting a new LItRPG series is a difficult task. I know the genre gets a bad reputation, namely for some things I will go into. But I won't lie; some of my recent favorite books have been in this genre. Cradle for example(more progression fantasy but imagine it as the cousin to LitRPG) is pretty solid.

The premise and my superficial enjoyment of knights and magic swords drew me in. While it certainly has some elements that hold it back, it does have quite a bit that I found is decent. Nothing that will blow the socks off of you, but nothing that made me regret picking this up.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.


A. PERFORMANCE & PROSE

Robb Moreira is new to me as an audiobook reader. I've heard his name amongst a few circles, usually recommending the Victory of Tucson series. But this was my first time.

He immediately blew me away. His range is great, particularly for Yorrick and Justice, but also a lot of supporting characters, especially female leads. Note, there are talented male narrators who can nail female voice actors, Simon Vance, Travis Baldree(one of my absolute favorites), Tim Gerald Reynolds.

But Moreira impressed me with his range and was a highlight of this book. The prose was simple but functional. I know this sounds like an insult but it isn't. If you are expecting purple prose, like a Tad Williams, George RR Martin, you will be disappointed. There is some stilted lines in the beginning, but other than that there was nothing that made me want to drop this. The descriptions served their purpose, the battles were clear where I could follow.

There was nothing horrible.


B. PLOT & WORLD

The premise is pretty straight-forward. Yorrick, a young adult, stumbles upon a magical sword named Justice who needs his help liberating a world while training him as a knight. Simple premises I always am a sucker for and it is quite straightforward. We also get some details about Yorrick's grandpa as within the story he had disappeared and he was quite close to.

And a personal reason for why Yorrick even embarks which I won't spoil. The plot itself doesn't have any holes I can think of. But it does suffer from a lot of busy work. What do I mean? Well, we have an objective to how the world gets liberated. That's fine. But it's quite clear Mr. Rimmel chose to draw things out.

Now, I get why Mr. Rimmel did this. This is a LitRPG series so we need to have Yorrick train and get stronger. That's fine. The problem is that this at times overstays its welcome. The action is such where there were times I was just glazing over it at the beginning. Usually, whenever Yorrick was trying to level up. So the early portions of this book are a bit rough. However, midway this book does become much better. Once we exit that holding pattern and actually get to addressing the central conflict it is quite cohesive.

It helps the character work was cohesive enough where I was invested. As for the world, this is a nitpick but Exigen? I get this is fantasy but that name just reminds me a lot of Exegol from TROS(atrocious film) where it sounds like a gas station. Naming aside, the world is decent. It's a traditional middle ages fantasy world with orcs.

I have to praise Rimmel for the world-building of the Orcs. Learning about their culture and why they operate was neat. It wasn't super in depth but it didn't really need to. It was all relevant to advance the plot and never once did it feel like I was reading an encyclopedia. The ending of the book is a cliffhanger but I wasn't particularly annoyed, given how the character work was enough where I was willing to check out the next installment.



C. CHARACTER & THEME

The two major characters we have are Yorrick and Justice. Yorrick is pretty neat. I praise Robb's vocal direction for Yorrick. Nasallly voice but not grating to the individual. I did enjoy his internal conflict about being a squire/ Knight. It was consistent given his own personal reasons and hang-ups. He was solid and I enjoyed the way his arc resolved itself. I adore Justice. I am a sucker for sentiment weapons in fiction but Justice was something to behold. You can tell Robb had a lot of fun voicing him. He's not a deep character but he doesn't need to. His dynamic with Yorrick is great and they were definitely the highlight of the book.

We also have Alana as a major supporting character who I was annoyed but grew on me. Her relationship with Yorrick was good, very much being the individual that anchored us to this world. There are a bunch of other supporting characters but I won't go more in depth. Just know they served their purpose within the plot well.

If I had to note something, there is going to be a bit of wish fulfillment of a sexual nature in this book. Rest assured, there is no in depth descriptions. But I can see some being annoyed by this. Personally, I didn't dislike it as it was done as tastefully as possible.

The theme of this installment was faith. It's explained that the world called for a Sword Knight centuries ago and were let down and taken over. So having the denizens of this world learn to trust in Yorrick and by extension themselves against overwhelming odds was a key theme I noted. Not a bad approach, given Yorrick's own trust in himself is also showcased and how that translates as a larger than life knight.

There was nothing that undercut the theme plot and character wise so that's a plus. All in all, the character work was strong enough for me to be invested.


D. WRAP-UP


Sword of Justice is a decent book. It's not going to light up the LitRPG world or as strong as some entries I've read. But through its decent character work, I found myself invested enough to keep reading. Where the series goes is hard to say but my hope is the second installment can take the decent elements from this first one and really elevate them. So I look forward to checking out the sequel.

So if you're looking for a decent Knight saves the world story that isn't complicated but is just competent, I recommend this.

Thank you all for reading. I hope my critique has given you the necessary knowledge to make a choice.

Score: 7/10

Wonderful start

Absolutely love this new series, more Gamelit or Litrpg lite. That is not to detract from it, I actually enjoyed this foray into a new world from the author. Great story, great build up, great pace, and awesome narration.

Great, first book in a new series!

Great new book in a totally new series.
So used to Newtown, but it is very easy to get into following this book.
The character and the narrator have grown on me and it is actually quite a fun lesson! Love it love it love it

Yeah!

This is a good one. I like the character. He's interesting and fun. I like the interplay with the sword and the narration is good too. Excited for more

For teen boys

If you came from Jim and Sir Crabby you may be a bit disappointed like I was. I got the book because I get all of Rimmel's books, sight unseen. I don't believe I'll continue with this series. The book follows a teen boy with a sword, and seems written for teen boys with *swords*.

Good story Good narrator

Came because of noob town, stayed because it left me in stitches at points. The voice cast for narration fits the protagonist of this story perfectly. Great job and I look forward to more.

Another Great Book

The story was enjoyable with just the right amount of speed and action. It never felt like there was a rush to get to the next plot point and never felt dragged out. Robb did a great job on the narration. I am excited to get to the next book and hear more about Yorick and Justice’s adventure.

Funny, light heated romp through the hero trope

The story line is as familiar as the title implies and all the right LitRPG buttons are pushed. Main character is not exactly overpowered, but if you believe the Sword is the MC instead of the sidekick then all the pieces fit together.