The offworlders are defeated. The Lithoids have been destroyed. It seems like a long-awaited peace is about to befall Hearth, but the servants of Chaos have their own designs. They’re eager to destroy the trouble-maker and control him like some kind of puppet. Once a doomed soldier, always a doomed soldier.
But Archduke Maximilian Valevsky is not going to stand for this state of affairs. If there’s a fight brewing, he’s ready to wage war against the world, including the gods themselves! This is the only way to achieve greatness.
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Vasily Mahanenko is a fantasy author working in the new genre of LitRPG - the MMO-based fantasy and sci fi. His Way of the Shaman series took Russian literature by storm in 2012.
Vasily dipped into his college-days insider knowledge as a hardcore gamer in order to create a believable world of the virtual-reality MMO game. His bestselling series combines fiction and video games, telling the story of Shaman and his friends stuck in the ruthless reality of Barliona. He used his more than ten years' experience as an ERP implementation project manager to approach his writing in a well-organized manner, working to a strict schedule, a set of deadlines and even a budget. At the moment, the series boasts six novels with the seventh one in the works - this time the author expands on stories of Shaman's companions and those who helped and supported him in his trials and tribulations.
The first book of the series has already been translated into English, with more translations to follow, aiming to make the Way of the Shaman series available to the English-language reader in its entirety.
Vasily's other passion is space exploration which is why he now works on a follow-up series entitled Galaktiona. Set in a space-simulator based world, the first book of the series in already finished while Vasily works on its sequel.
Book #9 The Lord Valevsky: Last of the Line Series by Vasily Mahanenko is a gripping blend of dark fantasy, political intrigue, and relentless personal struggle. Across the ten books (with more on the horizon), the series follows Max - formerly Maximilian Valevsky - on his harrowing journey through a world where light dominates and darkness is hunted. What makes this saga stand out is its moral complexity. Max is not your typical flawless hero - he’s cunning, pragmatic, and often forced to make brutal choices. His quest for vengeance is both deeply personal and intricately tied to the fate of the realm. Mr. Mahanenko excels at showing how power, loyalty, and survival often clash in unpredictable ways. As expected, the world-building is rich, with a unique magic system and a society shaped by the tension between light and dark forces. The political maneuvering is as intense as the battles, and the pacing keeps you hooked - each book ends with enough intrigue to make you reach for the next. If there’s any drawback to this collection at all, it’s that the series can be emotionally heavy at times - as Max’s journey is filled with much betrayal, loss, and moral dilemmas. But for us readers who enjoy character-driven epics with shades of grey, then this is a strength rather than a flaw. A dark, intelligent, and addictive fantasy series with a deeply layered story and a protagonist you can’t easily forget. Happy Reading…
I received a review copy of this book. I was rather surprised by this one, despite the urgency in his assigned tasks, almost nothing got done in this book. Well, that's not entirely true, plenty of things happened, just none in the way of closing rifts, or much of anything related to growing the main character's power. Now we see there's only one more book in the series. I don't see it, either that last book is going to be one seriously condenced close all the threads kind of book, or it's going to end with nothing resolved, and have a pointer to another series that continues the story. No idea which I'd prefer to be honest, but what the heck, either way, the story should still be interesting. There are truly some astounding solutions in this book, proving that the main character isn't really interested in what everyone else thinks he should be doing, and exposing enemies left and right in the process. Regardless of how the next book turns out, it should be an interesting read, just as this one was. Looking forward to it.
Yes I know I'm more than a little late with this one. This review is for the ARC. It's pretty good and as far as I can tell the editing was not bad at all. I only found a handful of mistakes that I emailed to be corrected. While the book was decent, it is heavy on the politics. The final setup book of the series. I'm looking forward to seeing how it will all end. I'll admit that in my opinion this is one, if not the, most interesting world that has come across my Kindle from Russian authors. You have had multiple was to get lots of different loot. You also have lots of different dangers to keep things interesting.
7/10 The end is coming in book ten. Been a fun ride!