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Factory of the Gods #2
The Trains of Keldora
After victory over the Chained God, Julian’s work is just beginning.
One month after being stranded on a fantasy world and finding his place with the town that has welcomed him, Julian is ready to upgrade his Godcore to the next tier and expand the Factory.
But he might have waited too long. The Gods of the Green are on the move, and have dispatched a team of high ranked Adventurers backed by a vicious Nature Goddess. Surrounded by sabotage, hostile forces, and the never-ending demands of the Factory, Julian is in over his head.
He’s going to have to innovate his way out of this mess. Good thing Julian always has a plan. If he can’t overpower his foes, he’s going to have to outproduce them.
One month after being stranded on a fantasy world and finding his place with the town that has welcomed him, Julian is ready to upgrade his Godcore to the next tier and expand the Factory.
But he might have waited too long. The Gods of the Green are on the move, and have dispatched a team of high ranked Adventurers backed by a vicious Nature Goddess. Surrounded by sabotage, hostile forces, and the never-ending demands of the Factory, Julian is in over his head.
He’s going to have to innovate his way out of this mess. Good thing Julian always has a plan. If he can’t overpower his foes, he’s going to have to outproduce them.
222 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 9, 2020
151 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 28, 2021
Introduction
The Factory of the Gods is an inventive and engrossing LitRPG series from Alex Raizman. This series consists of four books (so far) - they are 'The Wastes of Keldora', 'The Trains of Keldora', 'The Motors of Keldora', and 'The Guns of Keldora'. It is set in the same universe as Dinosaur Dungeon.
Context
The story starts with Kurli, an Aelif, who casts a spell to find someone or something that can have a possibility of saving her village. This spell ends up transporting Julian, a slightly autistic nerd and failed entrepreneur, from Earth to Keldora, where Kurli is. Julian discovers that magic exists on Keldora as his phone bonds to a Godcore and gives Julian the ability to create items. The rest of the story is about Julian overcomes his failings and uses his intelligence and knowledge to try and bring some semblance of peace and prosperity to the Wastes (where Kurli lives). He has to try and survive other Gods and Heroes who oppose any kind of development in the Wastes. Each book in the series has Julian overcoming more and more difficult challenges by inventing something new and changing the lives of the people for the better (hopefully).
LitRPG
The LitRPG elements are good and quite different from what I am used to seeing with other authors. There are the standard templates like tanks, bruisers, clerics, druids, wizards etc. But there are also a lot of new classes like 'Creators', 'Enthrallers', etc along with variations on existing classes that are new to me.
Julian is a creator i.e. his class allows him to create 'stuff' based on blueprints that he comes up and the availability of appropriate materials. In addition to the base class, there are specialisations that come up as a Hero, God or Dungeon levels up. The way they level up is also a bit unique since different classes need different 'investitures' to gain experience. For example - some of them level up by getting access to lightning (i.e. electricity), or fire or physical force. The concept of 'cores' i.e. Hero Cores, God Cores, Mana Cores and Dungeon Cores also make this LitRPG stand-out by establishing different types of entities as well as giving them competing and vastly differing abilities.
As the story unfolds, we find out that each world has its own set of rules too, mimicking some of the popular RPGs out there. This adds an additional level of complexity.
Plot, Pacing & Writing
The plot is good by LitRPG standards. Julian is not driven by aggrandisement but rather from a
altruistic perspective. While his initial focus is his survival, and then, his adopted 'village'. Eventually, he reaches a stage where he is trying to bring peace and prosperity to the region. I like this approach since it is a bit more open-ended than plots that focus on vengeance or FedEx quests. In fact, I was quite reminded of Terry Pratchett's later books like Making Money, when I read the first couple of books. While not quite as humorous or filled with dry wit, the core idea of introducing modern concepts into a low technology world and seeing what happens, is the same.
The pacing is definitely above average, with very little portions that drag. The writing is quite good too.
Conclusion
The 'Factory of the Gods' is an inventive LitRPG series. I like the Universe that this series lives in, I like the character classes, and the story so far. The fourth book ends at a tantalising point and I would love to read the next instalments.
The Factory of the Gods is an inventive and engrossing LitRPG series from Alex Raizman. This series consists of four books (so far) - they are 'The Wastes of Keldora', 'The Trains of Keldora', 'The Motors of Keldora', and 'The Guns of Keldora'. It is set in the same universe as Dinosaur Dungeon.
Context
The story starts with Kurli, an Aelif, who casts a spell to find someone or something that can have a possibility of saving her village. This spell ends up transporting Julian, a slightly autistic nerd and failed entrepreneur, from Earth to Keldora, where Kurli is. Julian discovers that magic exists on Keldora as his phone bonds to a Godcore and gives Julian the ability to create items. The rest of the story is about Julian overcomes his failings and uses his intelligence and knowledge to try and bring some semblance of peace and prosperity to the Wastes (where Kurli lives). He has to try and survive other Gods and Heroes who oppose any kind of development in the Wastes. Each book in the series has Julian overcoming more and more difficult challenges by inventing something new and changing the lives of the people for the better (hopefully).
LitRPG
The LitRPG elements are good and quite different from what I am used to seeing with other authors. There are the standard templates like tanks, bruisers, clerics, druids, wizards etc. But there are also a lot of new classes like 'Creators', 'Enthrallers', etc along with variations on existing classes that are new to me.
Julian is a creator i.e. his class allows him to create 'stuff' based on blueprints that he comes up and the availability of appropriate materials. In addition to the base class, there are specialisations that come up as a Hero, God or Dungeon levels up. The way they level up is also a bit unique since different classes need different 'investitures' to gain experience. For example - some of them level up by getting access to lightning (i.e. electricity), or fire or physical force. The concept of 'cores' i.e. Hero Cores, God Cores, Mana Cores and Dungeon Cores also make this LitRPG stand-out by establishing different types of entities as well as giving them competing and vastly differing abilities.
As the story unfolds, we find out that each world has its own set of rules too, mimicking some of the popular RPGs out there. This adds an additional level of complexity.
Plot, Pacing & Writing
The plot is good by LitRPG standards. Julian is not driven by aggrandisement but rather from a
altruistic perspective. While his initial focus is his survival, and then, his adopted 'village'. Eventually, he reaches a stage where he is trying to bring peace and prosperity to the region. I like this approach since it is a bit more open-ended than plots that focus on vengeance or FedEx quests. In fact, I was quite reminded of Terry Pratchett's later books like Making Money, when I read the first couple of books. While not quite as humorous or filled with dry wit, the core idea of introducing modern concepts into a low technology world and seeing what happens, is the same.
The pacing is definitely above average, with very little portions that drag. The writing is quite good too.
Conclusion
The 'Factory of the Gods' is an inventive LitRPG series. I like the Universe that this series lives in, I like the character classes, and the story so far. The fourth book ends at a tantalising point and I would love to read the next instalments.
November 12, 2020
What a ride... a train ride!
You guessed it. The gamelit factory story has trains. As in the factory levels up industry enough to start making trains. And it is awesome.
This story is great because it focused a lot on the nature of gods versus other gods in a way the first book didn’t have time to, and also addresses some of the concerns you might have for an Industrial Age factory being near where you live...
All in all, fun story.
You guessed it. The gamelit factory story has trains. As in the factory levels up industry enough to start making trains. And it is awesome.
This story is great because it focused a lot on the nature of gods versus other gods in a way the first book didn’t have time to, and also addresses some of the concerns you might have for an Industrial Age factory being near where you live...
All in all, fun story.
November 12, 2020
This new book follows a few weeks after the end of the previous book. Julian, the MC, expands the town, adding walls, living units, some turrets for defense, and apparently people from the wastes starts to come and join the community -- at least this is what was said; except a single scene there is not any other impact or reference in the story.
Kurli continues to be explosive and annoying. I understand her frustration, but the way she reacts to it is not very convincing. Perhaps a bit more exposition, with dialog and actions, would make it more relatable than "I hated that Julian saved me, transforming me into a hero, err, monster. Therefore I'm going to disappear for one month, abandoning my little sister I'm allegedly very concerned about, and when I come back it will be for no reason, since I'm still frustrated and pissed about the situation and need to vent the first moment I get."
The writing style remains the same. Lots of mansplaining (I'm a man), lots of telling without showing, nobody disagrees with the MC. The power levels are unbalanced. The MC has brilliant ideas, like building a railroad when the town is under siege from both hive-minded monsters and Godscore army from the Green.
If I had one thing to change, I'd say change the writing style to be more showing and less telling, specially if you are telling what the MC or the enemy thinks -- it is the equivalent of explaining a joke: if you have to do it, then it is not a good joke, and a missed opportunity to develop the characters. This killed any kind of tension that could have been built because I knew from the start what would happen. Instead, if you need explanations, save them for after the event. As an example, there was this event in the story where they captured somebody. It was supposed to be a battle of smarts: I pretend I believe you, you pretend you believe me, and we see who is more deceiving. Except the author gave away the whole thing from the beginning. Any possible tension and reward in outplaying your enemy was flushed away. If the MC acted as if nothing was going on, and the moves were revealed after the event, I'd feel the MC was pretty smart. Perhaps I would even feel good in having foreseeing some of it. Instead, I get a boring instruction manual.
In sum, if you liked the first book, you are probably going to like this as well; it follows the same pace and characteristics, whether it is good or bad. The thing that improved, though, is the editing. There were fewer typos.
Kurli continues to be explosive and annoying. I understand her frustration, but the way she reacts to it is not very convincing. Perhaps a bit more exposition, with dialog and actions, would make it more relatable than "I hated that Julian saved me, transforming me into a hero, err, monster. Therefore I'm going to disappear for one month, abandoning my little sister I'm allegedly very concerned about, and when I come back it will be for no reason, since I'm still frustrated and pissed about the situation and need to vent the first moment I get."
The writing style remains the same. Lots of mansplaining (I'm a man), lots of telling without showing, nobody disagrees with the MC. The power levels are unbalanced. The MC has brilliant ideas, like building a railroad when the town is under siege from both hive-minded monsters and Godscore army from the Green.
If I had one thing to change, I'd say change the writing style to be more showing and less telling, specially if you are telling what the MC or the enemy thinks -- it is the equivalent of explaining a joke: if you have to do it, then it is not a good joke, and a missed opportunity to develop the characters. This killed any kind of tension that could have been built because I knew from the start what would happen. Instead, if you need explanations, save them for after the event. As an example, there was this event in the story where they captured somebody. It was supposed to be a battle of smarts: I pretend I believe you, you pretend you believe me, and we see who is more deceiving. Except the author gave away the whole thing from the beginning. Any possible tension and reward in outplaying your enemy was flushed away. If the MC acted as if nothing was going on, and the moves were revealed after the event, I'd feel the MC was pretty smart. Perhaps I would even feel good in having foreseeing some of it. Instead, I get a boring instruction manual.
In sum, if you liked the first book, you are probably going to like this as well; it follows the same pace and characteristics, whether it is good or bad. The thing that improved, though, is the editing. There were fewer typos.
September 6, 2021
Alternative Title: How To Kill A Goddess.
There have got to be hundreds of ways to do so. My personal favorite is show off the inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and lies that pervade her faith (all faiths have them because they are built by humans), but confining her in an vacuum chamber, or feeding her through an industrial shredder, or using the Force Equation to hit her with a massive amount of kinetic energy, or blowing her up with tons of explosives, or a mixture of two or more of the aforementioned methods would likely be a much faster way to do the deed. Fortunately this isn't my problem, I just need to rate this book and recommend that you start the series with the first book, _Wastes of Keldora_, because this is a good Isekai/LitRPG series for those who enjoy works of those to genres.
There have got to be hundreds of ways to do so. My personal favorite is show off the inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and lies that pervade her faith (all faiths have them because they are built by humans), but confining her in an vacuum chamber, or feeding her through an industrial shredder, or using the Force Equation to hit her with a massive amount of kinetic energy, or blowing her up with tons of explosives, or a mixture of two or more of the aforementioned methods would likely be a much faster way to do the deed. Fortunately this isn't my problem, I just need to rate this book and recommend that you start the series with the first book, _Wastes of Keldora_, because this is a good Isekai/LitRPG series for those who enjoy works of those to genres.
November 26, 2020
Good followup and progression!
Picking up pretty solidly where the last book left off, this continues the Isekak/LitRPG/Fantasy/Factorio combo well, and gives some decent progress in the growth and tech progression, as well as the larger conflict going on.
Don’t expect to see multiple different co flicks, this still sticks to the same slow progression as the previous book, but it sets things up well foe the coming escalations.
If you enjoyed the first book in the series, you will likely enjoy this one as well, and be left looking forward to more.
Picking up pretty solidly where the last book left off, this continues the Isekak/LitRPG/Fantasy/Factorio combo well, and gives some decent progress in the growth and tech progression, as well as the larger conflict going on.
Don’t expect to see multiple different co flicks, this still sticks to the same slow progression as the previous book, but it sets things up well foe the coming escalations.
If you enjoyed the first book in the series, you will likely enjoy this one as well, and be left looking forward to more.
November 21, 2020
Potential
This was better than the first book and the MC finally got significant upgrades to the god-core but throughout the story he was always at the back foot; reacting and always second-guessing himself.... oh and he’s just a squishy human. I hope in later books he at least gets a hero-core or a personal god-core because he really needs a way to increase his personal strength.
This was better than the first book and the MC finally got significant upgrades to the god-core but throughout the story he was always at the back foot; reacting and always second-guessing himself.... oh and he’s just a squishy human. I hope in later books he at least gets a hero-core or a personal god-core because he really needs a way to increase his personal strength.
November 24, 2020
Another great addition. It’s a bit surprising that you’d get trains at Copper, not that many other BIG advancements that can happen at higher tiers. I can see guns, refineries, robots, nuclear; if we follow some of the tech that happens in Factorio.
Having a confident MC was a great improvement from book one, but now we get teen anger and some other drama that seemed forced to me.
Otherwise this is a fantastic second book, I enjoyed it more than the first.
Having a confident MC was a great improvement from book one, but now we get teen anger and some other drama that seemed forced to me.
Otherwise this is a fantastic second book, I enjoyed it more than the first.
November 18, 2024
Great second book
I'm enjoying the continuing story, this time the minor editing errors I noticed were along the lines of capitalization and punctuation, but nothing that detracted from the book. Once again progression feels faster than I expected, but I'm getting used to it. I enjoyed the mental twisting of trying to get around tier requirements by creating the parts instead of the whole thing. Onward to book 3!
I'm enjoying the continuing story, this time the minor editing errors I noticed were along the lines of capitalization and punctuation, but nothing that detracted from the book. Once again progression feels faster than I expected, but I'm getting used to it. I enjoyed the mental twisting of trying to get around tier requirements by creating the parts instead of the whole thing. Onward to book 3!
November 30, 2020
I am very disappointed
The proofreading was...deficient. Massively deficient. Frustratingly deficient. ‘Brake’, not ‘break’; ‘to’, ‘too’, & ‘two’. The worst part is the places where puns are used appropriately, making the obvious mistakes all the worse.
Other than that, it’s actually quite enjoyable. The characters and concepts are excellent.
The proofreading was...deficient. Massively deficient. Frustratingly deficient. ‘Brake’, not ‘break’; ‘to’, ‘too’, & ‘two’. The worst part is the places where puns are used appropriately, making the obvious mistakes all the worse.
Other than that, it’s actually quite enjoyable. The characters and concepts are excellent.
February 19, 2025
It's been years since I read the first book. I heard people dismiss book two, so I will see for myself.
While I remembered somethings, many were forgotten. I don't know if the author changed anything since book one, or if the protag was acting more foolish.
The magical engineering that I expected in book one did and didn't show up.
Don't know if I would continue. We will see.
3/5 Stars
While I remembered somethings, many were forgotten. I don't know if the author changed anything since book one, or if the protag was acting more foolish.
The magical engineering that I expected in book one did and didn't show up.
Don't know if I would continue. We will see.
3/5 Stars
December 8, 2020
This was entertaining if flawed.
This read was entertaining, also there was less wierd character interactions than the first book. There are quite a few typos and errors. However, I found this to be entertaining enough to overlook all that. Read this!
This read was entertaining, also there was less wierd character interactions than the first book. There are quite a few typos and errors. However, I found this to be entertaining enough to overlook all that. Read this!
February 19, 2021
Solid improvement in series
Solid improvement over the original book. Better character interactions, Acton scenes are easier to follow, world building continued to improve. Looking forward to number three.
Solid improvement over the original book. Better character interactions, Acton scenes are easier to follow, world building continued to improve. Looking forward to number three.
May 15, 2021
Fun
Julian is still building his Factory but now the Green comes to call and they want the Wastes to stay the way they are. He fights his way to the top.
So minor edits needed for common word misuse and such. Otherwise a great read. Enjoy
Julian is still building his Factory but now the Green comes to call and they want the Wastes to stay the way they are. He fights his way to the top.
So minor edits needed for common word misuse and such. Otherwise a great read. Enjoy
June 10, 2021
Good story that needs an editor
This would have been a 4 star rating, but there are too many wrong words used (homonyms - way instead of weigh sort of thing), and other problems. It's not unreadable, but it pulls you out of the story.
This would have been a 4 star rating, but there are too many wrong words used (homonyms - way instead of weigh sort of thing), and other problems. It's not unreadable, but it pulls you out of the story.
December 14, 2021
Good Story
This story of a idiot savant engineer being summoned to a world were the rich and powerful are using the poor and downtrodden as free experience. He uses reinventing Earth things to combat them.
This story of a idiot savant engineer being summoned to a world were the rich and powerful are using the poor and downtrodden as free experience. He uses reinventing Earth things to combat them.
April 22, 2022
Author definitely improve the right style and did not make the main character a wet napkin. Some budding potential romances (even a love triangle 👀) my only complaint is the town development does quite make sense
November 9, 2020
A great sequel that does well to build on character relationships and flesh out the mysteries of the world.
November 12, 2020
Great read
Interesting plot, characters, and setting. It keeps you guessing and interested. Absolutely recommended read. Six more words because of limit.
Interesting plot, characters, and setting. It keeps you guessing and interested. Absolutely recommended read. Six more words because of limit.
November 14, 2020
Good story
The storylines premise for this book is fun and engaging . I believe my boys will enjoy reading it as well.
The storylines premise for this book is fun and engaging . I believe my boys will enjoy reading it as well.
January 28, 2021
Another cool story
This story continues to entertain and develop in a way that really drives p the enjoyment.
One of the most relatable main characters that I've read in a while.
This story continues to entertain and develop in a way that really drives p the enjoyment.
One of the most relatable main characters that I've read in a while.
Read
May 12, 2021A great book
I felt this one was better than the first in the series. I look forward to reading the next one in the series.
I felt this one was better than the first in the series. I look forward to reading the next one in the series.
June 29, 2021
Full steam ahead!
Puns aside, this book was fantastic. More of all the good bits, with some crispy fresh core goodness thrown in!
Puns aside, this book was fantastic. More of all the good bits, with some crispy fresh core goodness thrown in!
October 20, 2021
Great book
This was the best book yet! I really enjoyed the story line and can invest in the world and it’s people. It’s very fun to read
This was the best book yet! I really enjoyed the story line and can invest in the world and it’s people. It’s very fun to read
May 1, 2023
The author is kinda cute ngl
July 25, 2025
Solid. The factory must grow.
September 17, 2025
Good follow up for the first book. Very good world building and character development.
July 3, 2023
Oh dear. I was pretty bored of his darn factory by this point and consequently didn’t enjoy this at all.
October 1, 2022
Not very good. Story about an engineer MC by someone who can't do math apparently.
Most hilarious part of this for me was how the MC was all 'holy shit, my train cars have extra-dimenaional storage and can hold 14 tons of coal.
Real world coal cars store 100+ tons of coal.
Overall lots of things that feel dumb like this
Most hilarious part of this for me was how the MC was all 'holy shit, my train cars have extra-dimenaional storage and can hold 14 tons of coal.
Real world coal cars store 100+ tons of coal.
Overall lots of things that feel dumb like this
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews