The Tower of Endless Worlds

Tower of Endless Worlds #1

by Jonathan Moeller

Give me a hundred guns, and I will conquer my world.


THOMAS WYCLIFFE just wants to finish his dissertation in peace and quiet. So when a man in a black robe appears in his closet, claiming to be the last of the Warlocks, Wycliffe figures it is a bad joke.


But he soon realizes the last of the Warlocks can give him power beyond imagining.


And all it will cost is his soul.


SIMON WESTER needs a job. Badly. So when a rich and powerful Senator offers him employment, he jumps at the chance. Sure, Simon expects to find some corruption, some shady deals.


He doesn't expect to find black magic.


LIAM MASTERE is a Knight of the Sacred Blade, defender of the mortal races. But can swords stand against guns? As bullets and bombs destroy his kingdom, Liam must risk everything to save his homeland's one chance of salvation.


By daring the horrors of the TOWER OF ENDLESS WORLDS...

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction

ebook

First published June 1, 2012

About the author

Standing over six feet tall, USA Today bestselling author Jonathan Moeller has the piercing blue eyes of a Conan of Cimmeria, the bronze-colored hair of a Visigothic warrior-king, and the stern visage of a captain of men, none of which are useful in his career as a computer repairman, alas.

He has written the DEMONSOULED series of sword-and-sorcery novels, and continues to write THE GHOSTS sequence about assassin and spy Caina Amalas, the COMPUTER BEGINNER'S GUIDE series of computer books, and numerous other works. His books have sold over one million copies worldwide.

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe 2.5 stars.

Rambling urban fantasy which didn’t connect. Even after 600 pages, didn’t really care if protagonists lived or died.

Yawn.

Not bad, but …

[Tony Duxbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful fantasy that straddles two worlds. An evil warlock from another world ends up in Thomas Wycliffe's closet and that starts a partnership that brings power to two evil men. Simon Wester is a stuck up and arrogant grad student that can't keep a job. A chance encounter puts Simon close to the now Senator Wycliffe. Soon he finds that not all is well with the Senator and his business. Against his will, Simon is forced into a fight against evil that encompasses both worlds. Lovely stuff. Recommended reading.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am enjoying that this story takes place in both urban and medieval worlds. I also like the different POV of the characters, even the bad guys. There are enough to keep it interesting yet not so many that it gets confusing. Seems like I can always count on this author for a good read.

[Anne Patkau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moeller is an author I keep downloading. Here, Simon is confused good, knights are loyal determined, villains are scary bad, thugs are over-muscled. Endless worlds in one tower lets evil into Earth. Guns overpower swords. Can magic save us?

[Deborah]

Half urban fantasy - half traditional

This book is quite different from the other series I have read by this author & not quite what I was looking for.

There is a the main setting of modern life with politicians & gangsters mixed in with chapters of traditional fantasy knights & wizards. The first half of the book has a few small editing mistakes (wrong words) but mostly well written.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great First Book

I love this author's books. Full of tension and adventure. This one ticks all the boxes great fun as well definitely recommend

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book that started out strong apart from some editorial issues, playing with the traditional fantasy premise of a person from Earth being contacted by someone from another world. In this case, though, it's not some wide-eyed ingenue being asked by a wise, benevolent old wizard or underdressed enchantress to save their world, it's an impoverished (and, as it turns out, highly unscrupulous) graduate student who finds a creepy warlock stepping out of his closet - a warlock who is very intrigued by these things called "guns". Fast forward a few years and the student is a US Senator, filthy rich from selling guns and other supplies to his extradimensional visitor's army of darkness, and using black magic to take down his opponents.

This is a pulpy, high-concept setup, and with better execution it could have made for a rip-roaring culture-clash/anachronism stew adventure along the lines of SM Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time or Eric Flint's 1632. Unfortunately, the execution is a bit lacking. Aside from some fairly significant editorial problems, we spend a lot of the book following a rather annoying protagonist in the form of a young man who ends up working for the villainous Senator. He spends rather too much time either in tedious denial about the supernatural goings-on around him or being a pretentious, judgemental prat (I sense the author has an axe to grind about people who think history and classical literature are unimportant, as this comes up repeatedly). It doesn't really help that people keep pointing out to him that he's a bit of an arrogant snob. In fact, in general the book is at its best when it takes its premise seriously instead of having people point out plot contrivances (and/or blame fate) or note that, golly gosh, this is just like something out of a fantasy novel.

Another equally glaring problem is that the fantasy world feels very colourless and generic. The bad guys wear black, operate out of a blasted wasteland and enjoy torture, rape and massacre. The good guys live in bucolic kingdoms with knights in shining armour, a council of wizards, and...that's about it. We learn next to nothing about any specifics of their politics, ecology, geography, society, etc., and there's very little fleshing out of any non-Earth characters. This severely dampens the drama of the villains stomping all over them with their Earth weaponry. (I think that the author over-estimates the effectiveness of a few hundred guys with Kalashnikovs against a much larger medieval army, or at least portrays how such battles would go inaccurately, makes the good guys far too slow to adapt, and underestimates how fast the bad guys would go through their ammunition given their tactics. I don't want to get into a nerd-off with angry gun enthusiasts, though, so I'll say no more.)

I did feel the book picked up a bit towards the end when things got more urgent, dark and dramatic - the fantasy side of things got fleshed out a bit, the twerpy protagonist got out of denial, and the main Earth female character got something to do besides shimmy around in miniskirts and boots being angry and getting ogled. Overall, a flawed but moderately enjoyable ride with some fun juxtaposition of the fantastic and mundane (I liked the detail of Coke cans and Burger King wrappers left lying around the interdimensional labyrinth). I just about enjoyed it enough to consider reading the sequel or some of the author's other work, which puts it head and shoulders above most e-books of this sort.

[James Sundquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is prolific and dependable, writing a sort of ebook 'pulp fantasy', and his stories are usually reasonably well-crafted and fun to read. This one has an interesting concept and characters, and kept me interested (though a couple times the general plot arc seemed to lose momentum). I was a bit annoyed with the abrupt ending, however, but at least it explains why one character dropped out of sight in the middle (He's a main character in the next book). Also, the romance was a bit hard to believe, but it was nice to see Simon's transition from know-it-all recluse to someone more confident and mature.

Still, I want to know why the knights of this other world are too stupid to use archers or proper tactics. I'm not sure hand grenades and Kalashnikovs would make such short work of proper castles.

[Rodney Bishop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good concept

I liked the concept of the tower. Some proofreading errors, not devastating though. Will most likely read the remainder of the series.