The Drachma Killers

The Last Warrior of Unigaea #2

by Harmon Cooper, Dan Van Oss (Cover Artist)

The Drachma Killers.

The reason that Oric Rune became a Player Killer continues to loom at the back of his mind as he makes his way north with Sam Raid and Wolf.

All is well until an ambush throws a wrench in their plans, forcing Oric to come to grips with his digital existence, and the fragile lives of those closest to him.

With the Red Plague spreading, and the denizens of Unigaea becoming increasingly hostile, Oric must decide if he should go after those who have ambushed and betrayed him, continue his personal quest to rid Unigaea of the Drachma Killers, or ride north to the Rune Lands and address the Red Plague head on.

Joining Oric and Wolf this time around are the mysterious Deathdale, a scholarly giant named Lothar, and a powerful Hourglass Mage, whose control over the game-time continuum may be the key to saving Unigaea.

Betrayal, vengeance, unspeakable calamity.

The second installment of the Last Warrior trilogy offers an unforgettable journey through a dark fantasy world filled with LitRPG elements, intense action, humor, and an ending you won’t see coming.

Genres: Fantasy

298 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 8, 2017

About the author

Harmon Cooper is the author of over sixty fantasy works. His bestselling series include Pilgrim, War Priest, Cowboy Necromancer, and Tokens and Towers.

His series, The Feedback Loop, is one of the earlier GameLit works first published in 2015. An earphone award winner for the series Death's Mantle, Harmon won the LitRPG/GameLit Audiobook of the Year award for Sacred Cat Island, narrated by Legends and Lattes author Travis Baldree.

Harmon write progression fantasy, cultivation fantasy, and LitRPG/GameLit.

Reviews

[Sinisa Mikasinovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part two over, huh? That was quick!

With a runtime of 05:56, two minutes shorter than the first part, it wasn't a reading challenge. I swallowed the book in two days while commuting.


Exactly like this guy!

Okay, I may have listened during the bathroom breaks, too. Nobody commutes for three hours per day, after all. If you do, you have some serious introspection to do. Anyway, these were some serious bathroom breaks! I didn't want to get out as the book was so freaking interesting! And then when I did, I couldn't, because I cramped up 🤣

I suppose there are worse places to get stuck in than in your own bathroom. Especially when you just got a new Jacuzzi! Wooo! Yes, let me brag about my apartment facilities instead of helping you decide if you should read this book! 😂


I'm sure you'd like to know more, but I just have to keep some secrets...

Alright, rewind. I feel like I have 3 or 4 serious sentences in me. Let's put them to a good use.

I'm biased now. I love this book. Part two is everything I hoped it to be after the first one was over. Yes, still a bit shorter than I'd like but the entire trilogy still clocks about 18 hours in total. That's pretty impressive!

If you haven't read the first part yet, you probably shouldn't start this one. It literally starts where the other one ended, no preamble of any kind. I do not see that as a flaw, though. Just read as Gods want you to. Nobody likes sinners. Well, some people do, but that's really out of the scope of this review. Please behave and let me finish.


Apology accepted!

Where were we? Ah, I love this book!

Why? That's pretty self-explanatory if you're seeing things from where I'm standing. Since you can't do that, let me help you out. But you shouldn't make it a habit as I can't always be there for you and fix your mistakes. Read this. No excuses!

This is pretty much non-stop action. No difference from the first part. The story is set, things start happening and it just flows. I can't really say 'from one shitstorm to another' like we're used to seeing in other books as here the main character actually does get a break every once in a while!


Approved!!

Not just that, he's actually pretty badass. Yes, he does use his head frequently which helps a lot with not doing stupid shit. These things tend to piss me off. But characters are indeed well built and I felt I could really trust our dude to find the best way out of a particular pickle. Remember him being a badass? Yep, he can really dish out damage, sometimes just going full mental.


Offense is still the best defense...

It also helps when you have powerful friends around. Hot Sam Reid, the Illusionist, is still here. And Deathdale, the hot Solar Mage is still here.

Together, they are doing some pretty interesting things. It's been a long time coming. Now, I know what you're thinking, but I'm not spoiling anything 😁

Alright, I'll spoil something else. Somebody dies!


*ba dum tss*

Oh, and there's also a Giant surprise! Yes, you got it! The party gets +1 and a Giant joins in! I know what you're probably thinking right now and if you are thinking what I think you're thinking, you are sick 😅

By the way, Lothar the Giant is a pretty awesome character, I really liked it. Works well by triggering Oric (Who is our main guy and I'm just mentioning it now, 2000 characters into the review, as you're supposed to know this already by reading the first book before reading the review for the second one) and has great chemistry with all the other characters. Again, no sex with a Giant! Stop it!

Lothar has also been given a great voice by the narrator. Seriously, the Soundbooth Theater guys are kicking asses here. Jeff of Hays is a standard superhero and Annie Ellicott makes my heart skip in all the right places. They've been handed a great script by Cooper and they did their magic with it.

I'm sure some things work out better if you're reading the book by yourself. But internal monologues, or arguments with himself that Oric increasingly starts to have, are brought to perfection here. Little things like this are the reason why I got so Gods damn hooked on audiobooks and will never let go.

Many NPC characters are well-designed, too, with a very mis-adjusted mind of their own. Hilarious scenes usually occur on the market, or when a tornado of curses and insults can make you laugh out loud. I'm not saying it happened to me, but has ever a bus full of people given you a "poor guy lost his mind" look?


No? Carry on, soldier!

I also got to the bottom of that Deja Vu feeling that's been nagging at me for the longest time. I've been having it in the background when listening books the Soundbooth Theater produces. It was always present, but never enough to focus on. But now that I know what it is, it is eerily similar to what Marc Thompson does in the books he reads. Going on a (yet another) tangent here, Marc just finished the production of the new Solo: A Star Wars Story book. Bought, queued up. Now I just need a day to last 34 hours and I'll set! I may fake illness next week. Let's keep that between us 😅

So, awesome production by SBT. And awesome writing. And awesome characters, setting, story, encounters... you name it. I really do love this story. You may not, if you're not a LitRPG fan (or anyRPG for that matter) as this is really just another one in the sea of LitRPG we're slowly drowning in. But this one is done right. It is as things should be.

We've had vampires, we've had zombies. Now we have LitRPG. And the battle has just begun. I have 40 more queued up. Those 34-hour days? I need them to be at least 44, if possible.

The Drachma Killers, ladies and gentlemen. A proper sequel to a good novel. An Alien 2 to Alien, if you will. 5*, big as a barn.

Hope you enjoyed the review! If not, fear not! (I should have been a poet.) There's still the last part of the trilogy for us to go through together 😍 Looking forward to it!

 

The Drachma Killers (The Last Warrior of Unigaea #2)
by Harmon Cooper (Author), Jeff Hays (Narrator), Annie Ellicott (Narrator)

Verdict     Still awesome! 😎
Runtime     05:56
Overall     
Performance 
Story       

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great to have Oric, Sam and Wolf back with us. They've been missed!

I feel this is an ever so slightly slower paced read than the first book in parts, but I can assure you it is no less exciting, action-packed, fun or emotive for that. Great storytelling and well-written as is the usual for a Harmon Cooper work.

I really don't want to spoil any of the story for anyone, but I loved the people that were met along the way. Great characters, and a new NVA Seed who helps in the most unusual ways.

So, so, sad. Harmon Cooper, you tore my heart out...and then you just leave me there, in a soggy heap and in pieces. How could you? I'm not letting on why I am saying that, I can't. Read it for yourself and enjoy, well, not really enjoy...if you see what I mean! Recommended.

I was given an eARC, which I voluntarily read and reviewed. This review is honest and the opinions are my own.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again, I enjoyed this book, it was a pretty decent story, and it flowed well, even if it didn't exactly make complete sense at times, though I guess that's what comes of having a hero who likes doing his own thing, even with the fate of the world on his shoulders. Nothing wrong with that, but it did make for some confusing side trips at times, and quite a few "What the hell did he do that for?" type moments, but it's all part of the fun right?
This one (just like the first one) ended rather abruptly, and (to me at least) completely illogicaly. At least it's a pattern.
We do find out in this book a bit more about why the main character is looking for revenge for his side trips, and the world is fleshed out a bit more, and of course, his relationships grow (though I won't go so far as to say they mature), though it does seem by the end that he's settling down to some serious work even if it means accomplishing his task at the cost of other things.
That's the kind of main character development we all like to see, even if it took a while to get there.
On the other hand, he's still a bit too wishy washy for my tastes, though it looks like he'll be forced to buckle down in the next book and just get it done.
Some decent character development in this one, and a bit of story arc advancement, though it's obvious that the bulk of the story is still to be revealed, so I'm guessing it will happen in the next book, if the author can cram it all into one volume. I'm personally not convinced given the writing style to this point, but I've been pleasantly surprised before, so I'll withhold judgement on that until after I've read the third book in the series.
If you enjoy LitRPG, then you will probably like this one, if you like lots of action, then this isn't a bad choice, If you're looking for happy endings, this isn't the book you're looking for, as there's none of that in sight in this book, but I suspect that too will carry into the next book, and we'll see a bit of resolution there as well.
The ending was rather disappointing, seeing as how its soul purpose was to get you to read the next book in the series, so if you prefer your books with a bit of completion, you aren't likely to enjoy this one. Otherwise though, it was a fairly decent book, even if the character development wasn't all one might have hoped, though we did learn some about both the solar mage, and the main character, it really didn't add a whole lot to their overall personality, and I find by the end of the book, though they have grown some, it wasn't enough to make me feel like the read was inspiring or fulfilling. I'll read the next one in the series, but mainly because I hate to see storylines unfinished. The characters are likeable enough, they just don't seem to have any depth to them, and that's one thing that could make the story so much better. Make me care about the characters, make me interested in what happens to them, and the book would rate another star. Make the world more vibrant, and give the characters more life, and this would be an excellent story I could be happy rating with 4 or even 5 stars, but at the moment, although it's a good story, I just can't bring myself to offer it more than an average rating.

[Liquid Frost · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last Warrior of Unigaea: The Drachma Killers is book two in the planned trilogy. Cooper does something out of the norm on this round - he kills characters. Who, What, How? I'm not about to spoil that. He does pull a bit of deus ex machina in the form of an NVA, but it isn't out of the realm of possibility. Oh, there are some sexy vamp/mermaids! And jerky.
Loads of jerky.

Oric, Sam and Wolf remain hell-bent on trashing the Drachma Killers. Deathdale joins forces as she has her own particular need for vengeance. She continues to be hell-on-wheels. Well, no wheels, but you'll understand that pretty quickly.

The Red Plague, or source-code bomb, is still threatening the existence of Unigaea and the team are on a two-fold quest. Vengeance and saving the Proxima World. Who is behind the Plague? Can it be stopped? You will not get these answers in this installment, but you will get closer for sure.

Wolf and Oric continue their bond. Sam and Deathdale have a jealousy thing going on. And Lothar, a big ol' Giant of Academic Proportions comes along for the ride.

I'm curious to see how this trilogy concludes. There is a healthy amount of story left. I'd imagine the next installment will be pretty action-packed.

4.8 of 5 stars. ARC provided by author

From the Publisher:

The reason that Oric Rune became a Player Killer continues to loom at the back of his mind as he makes his way north with Sam Raid and Wolf.

All is well until an ambush throws a wrench in their plans, forcing Oric to come to grips with his digital existence, and the fragile lives of those closest to him.

With the Red Plague spreading, and the denizens of Unigaea becoming increasingly hostile, Oric must decide if he should go after those who have ambushed and betrayed him, continue his personal quest to rid Unigaea of the Drachma Killers, or ride north to the Rune Lands and address the Red Plague head on.

Joining Oric and Wolf this time around are the mysterious Deathdale, a scholarly giant named Lothar, and a powerful Hourglass Mage, whose control over the game-time continuum may be the key to saving Unigaea.

Betrayal, vengeance, unspeakable calamity.

The second installment of the Last Warrior trilogy offers an unforgettable journey through a dark fantasy world filled with LitRPG elements, intense action, humor, and an ending you won’t see coming.

[Kai · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Drachma Killers continues with Oric and Wolf to seek their revenge against the Drachma Killers and to find the sources causing the Red Plague. Sam Raid, Deathdale, a Solar Mage, and Lothar, a giant joined their team with to find the cause of the Red Plague except Sam and Lothar refused to join Oric, Wolf, and Deathdale to fulfill their quest for vengeance.

Their journey is tampered with assassins to stop them. As to which quest, listeners/readers are going to want to know.

Toward the end of this book, things don't go as plan. It also leaves a lot of questions of whether Oric and Wolf cross over to Polynya before or after. I won't give the ending away but it is enough for listeners/readers in wanting more.

Both narrators, Jeff Hays and Annie Ellicott gave an excellent performance. I can't wait to hear them both in the next book.

I was given this audiobook by the author. I have volunteer to write an unbiased review of this book. I was not compensated or influenced in any way in writing this review.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its a return for our vengeful heroes as they have a two fold purpose now, save the world and get some well deserved revenge in the meantime.
Straightforward , no as we soon find out that things are just a lot more complicated than we first thought, I found this to be more complex and more of an emotional ride than book 1, however I did think now we know a little more it made for a better adventure and a read for me.
Suffice to say with so many twists and surprises I'm on tender hooks for book 2.

[Norma · Rating 5 out of 5]

( Format : Audiobook )
"Male pride is another word for sheer stupidity."
With the remarkably multi voiced, talented Mr.Jeff Hayes narrating another book of imaginative fun and adventure by Mr.Harmon Cooper, what's not to like?
Recommended to all LitRPG, Fantasy, and everyone who enjoys a frolicking good story with character, readers.

[Vilius · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story made even less sense than in the previous book. There were plenty of times when something was shown as if this would have some consequences later in the story only for it to not matter at all. For example, the main guy was planting bombs and one of the bombs fell into water, "It will dry", - the main character thought to himself and that's it, I guess it dried.
Something else that annoyed me and didn't make senses was that he grieved for when his *minor spoiler ahead* party member died like it mattered at all. They can recreate a character and be playing again with him in a matter of days. He didn't give a shit about NPCs which die permanently.
Anyway, I wouldn't recommend this.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audible Version. The book definitely ends on a cliffhanger, but felt it was a great short story. The progress moves along well and never felt slow or boring. We learn a lot about some of the characters and even gain a new one. The descriptive dialogue helps you visualize it and Jeff Hays narration brings it to life very well. Once again great narration and great story.

[anita Ewing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't wait to find out what happens

Do Orik and Deathdale kill all of the guild? What is going on with Sam? This is a great Proxima book and is as well written as the rest.

[Ciayrra The Scorpion Flower · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing story! With one of the best narrators, you feel engrossed. I like the addition of Annie Ellicott. So if you want a cool, fun listen by this audiobook!

[Davidl Campbell'Sr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strange?

How can 2 main characters be killed off and don't change the next book? Let's hope what ever reason doesn't change the great adventures told so far in this series

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

New to the genre, I really got into the story in book 1. Good characters and plenty of action. Looking forward to the next one.