• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Holo Writing

Authors Jacob & H.P. Holo

  • Home
  • Books
    • Gordian Division
    • Monster Punk Horizon
    • Seraphim Revival
    • Monster Girl Tamer
    • Freelancers of Neptune
  • Audiobooks
  • About
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • Contact
  • Appearances
  • Free Book

fantasy adventure

March 7th-9th! Grab Monster Punk Horizon #1 and Monster Girl Tamer #1 for JUST $.99 in the Mana and Might Promo!

March 7, 2025 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Hey, y’all! šŸ˜„ If you love LitRPG and GameLit you’re gonna want to jump on this!

For the next three days, you can grab a bunch of FREE and $0.99 books, either from some seriously talented women authors and/or about some kickass ladies! šŸ’–āœØ

GRAB YOUR FREE and $.99 eBOOKS HERE!

Both Monster Punk Horizon #1 and its spicy offshoot Monster Girl Tamer #1 and are in there for JUST $.99 – and it’s a perfect time to read both, because I just finished the first draft of Monster Girl Tamer #2!

You’ve gotta grab ’em fast, though, ’cause these deals are gonna disappear on March 9th.

Also, FYI, a fun perk of this promo is that, when you buy these eBooks at $.99 on Amazon, you can add the Audible narration for just $7.49 – which means you can effectively get both the eBook and audiobook for less than $10!

GRAB MONSTER GIRL TAMER #1 HERE!

Monster Punk Horizon Audiobook Cover
GRAB MONSTER PUNK HORIZON #1 HERE!

NOTE: As Amazon Associates, we earn a wee little commission on any Amazon purchases made through qualifying links on this page.

Filed Under: Holo Books, Uncategorized Tagged With: fantasy adventure, Harem Fantasy Adventure, Monster Girl Tamer, Monster Punk Horizon

Library of the Sapphire Wind – Book Review

July 8, 2022 by hpholo Leave a Comment

There’s a meme that occasionally graces my social media feeds, lamenting that so many fictional heroes are unqualified teenagers, wishing for a story that follows an old grandma with the benefit of experience on her side.

Jane Lindskold’s Library of the Sapphire Wind has become the book I recommend whenever I see this meme.

Library of the Sapphire Wind Book Cover

In Library of the Sapphire Wind, Meg, Peg, and Teg are three ladies of retirement age and the only people in attendance at a book club when, suddenly, they find themselves transported to another world—summoned by three precocious youths who were hoping for mentors from their own world to help with various weighty problems. The three book clubbers, however, are the first humans this animal-headed trio has ever seen, and they’re not sure what to make of them.

However, Meg, Peg, and Teg are also three ladies with useful experience of their own, and they reason that, since they’ve been summoned to an alternate magical world to help solve a problem, they might as well see what they can do.

After all, it’s more exciting than regular retirement could ever be.

And as a former librarian, a semi-retired archaeologist, and a dedicated parent and grandparent to generations of children, they might be more qualified than even they realize, especially when the magic of the summons points them toward the isolated, destroyed ruin of the titular Library of the Sapphire Wind—along with the young summoners they have to manage on the way.

I can’t gush enough about this book, y’all.

I knew I was going to like it from page one because, let’s face it, librarians, archaeologists, and cool grandmas make for great characters in any type of story—but then the mini talking carrier pterodactyl showed up, and then a discussion of the magical translation linguistics of the world of ā€œOver Whereā€ (as the main characters dub it), and I’m a sucker for linguistics and pterodactyls, too.

My personal reading preferences aside, though, this is a more complex book than I expected it to be.

The animal-head motif that defines the residents of Over Where makes the book seem like it’s going to be a fun storybook adventure—and it definitely is a fun adventure—but fox-headed Vereez, stag-headed Grunwold, and lion-headed Xerak all have reasons for summoning aid that are darker and more complicated than the book’s colorful cover would suggest.

And while this tale told from the viewpoint of these three would likely present them as the heroes of their own stories, the tale as told by Meg, Peg, and Teg is one of how these characters need to mature, and how the three help them do so along the way. Which isn’t to say that Vereez, Grunwold, and Xerak are children in the conventional sense—Over Where has a different understanding of such rites of passage, where adulthood is not reached at a specific age but by the acquisition of a mature state of mind. Thematically, this raises the question of what it even means to be an adult, with each maturing character yielding a different answer, and often expressing maturity that is surprising for their relative ages. (When one young character speaks of a complicated romantic association, it’s to say, ā€œThere’s good in him. I’m just not sure it’s good for me.ā€)

It’s as much a tale of adventure as it is a tale of three mentors helping three adolescents grow up, and taking their jobs very seriously. There’s also a not-so-subtle jab at famous fantasy mentors like Dumbledore who send young protagonists off to do dangerous world-saving things without giving them useful guidance, such that I wonder if the book wasn’t entirely written as a reaction to such mentors.

That doesn’t mean it’s a book one reads for its Important Themes, though. Library of the Sapphire Wind is ultimately a book of complex, thoughtful points wrapped up in an adventure that is just plain fun. There are plenty of exotic locations for the main characters to explore; the Library itself is as cool as one would expect a magical library to be (complete with its own sentient, incorporeal guardian, from which it draws its name); and the variety of monsters the characters face as they travel to and excavate the library are as enthralling as any that ever captured young imaginations in children’s stories (Mine, at least; I’m a sucker for monsters, too).

The depth to which the worldbuilding goes is hypnotic, as well. Much is made of the summoning spell’s translation magic and how the characters must adapt—and thus learn more about each other’s worlds—when the magic doesn’t know how to translate specific words or concepts. There are also plenty of wonderful background details that don’t necessarily contribute anything to the story (yet—there’s a sequel, Aurora Borealis Bridge) but still serve to flesh out the world of Over Where as a living, breathing character of its own. One of my favorite such details was the setting’s concept of reincarnation: Over Where is a world where reincarnation is such an accepted (and proven) occurrence that it exists casually in the background, and though there are different subdivisions of the related belief system that disagree over some specifics, the concept in this setting is also wholly separate from theology. (ā€œWhat do gods have to do with it? Gods are for crops, moral guidance, explaining how things got started, stuff like that,ā€ as one character says.) It doesn’t affect the story at all that much except to explain why one character lives in a necropolis community (which exists because of those subdivisions trying to influence reincarnation through the treatment of interred bodies), but it’s still a really cool look into the spiritual and physical logic of the world.

Though, perhaps, given the age of the main characters, reflections on mortality are not wholly out of place—especially when one considers other inevitable effects of age, and in turn how those affect the storytelling.

Though Library of the Sapphire Wind is ultimately an interesting fantasy adventure, it’s not a rollicking quest to beat a conspicuous bad guy in a Hollywood-style castle-crashing battle (though the characters do see their fair share of dangerous encounters and action scenes). Meg, Peg, and Teg are not reckless, daring heroes who barge into danger without thinking. Age and experience has made them careful and sensible (if sometimes to the chagrin of their young companions), and the novel flows at a calm, fluid pace that reflects that sense of care. And yet it’s never boring, but rather appreciative, introspective, and always enjoying the ride—and encouraging its readers to do so as well.

Library of the Sapphire Wind is easily one of my new favorite books. It expertly balances the thoughtful maturity of its older protagonists with the eager energies of its young ones. Combine that with its infectious sense of wonder, and it becomes something the fantasy world needs more of.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: adventure, Aurora Borealis Bridge, baen books, Book Review, Fantasy, fantasy adventure, Jane Lindskold, Library of the Sapphire Wind, Over WHere, Review

The Story of Edie Skye

July 2, 2022 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Edie Skye Banner

OK y’all, it’s time for the epic story of how this whole Titan Mage thing happened, so buckle up and grab some popcorn:

It begins in 2020.

One of my jobs as writer/author wife/handler/marketer/general awesome person is to research keywords for our books’ Amazon ads. One of the places I look for keyword ideas is the also-boughts on our books, and for some reason, the also-boughts of Jacob’s anime-inspired giant mech series, Seraphim Revival, were loaded with … harem books.

The Seraphim Revival is perhaps the least spicy thing either of us has ever written, so naturally I was curious and started looking into the featured titles.

Which is when Jacob walked into my office and saw my computer screen full of booby book covers.

I joked, ā€œWe’re writing the wrong books, Jacob.ā€

Jacob joked, ā€œYou should write a harem novel.ā€

I joked, ā€œYou write the outline and design the babes and I’ll do it.ā€

I neglected to realize that Jacob was between projects at the time.

It was also the beginning of lockdown. Which meant he was at home. With free time.

And Jacob’s brain is not one to sit idle.

Which is why he came to me later with 5 outlines for a complete series of harem novels, complete with a sci-fi-inspired elemental magic system, a mech upgrade system, character details for the main cast, and the first few chapters, just because.

***

There’s slightly more to it than that, though. Y’all know I struggle with OCD (and it’s the primary reason why my writing/writing process is often so chaotic).

We didn’t know it was OCD in early 2020, but we did know there was a problem – manifesting heavily in my inability to write consistently, among other more practical problems – and one of Jacob’s suggested solutions to help me over this hump was for him to outline a project and oversee details of the world, and me to do the actual writing.

One of my greatest challenges pre-OCD diagnosis was simply managing the complex details/consistency of my own world in The Wizard’s Circus (the sequel to The Wizard’s Way, still in progress). This way – with Jacob in charge of the basic foundation – if I had a question about the world, I could just ask him for the answer instead of trying to make up one and thus accidentally overcomplicate things.

I resisted the idea, partly because it felt like admitting defeat – that I couldn’t write a book on my own – and partly because we didn’t really have a concept that we wanted to collaborate on at the time.

Until I was formally diagnosed with OCD in late 2020.

Being able to put a name to the monster I faced changed how I approached the monster. I now had a specific lens through which to analyse my problem and as a result could pinpoint how it was manifesting in my writing, and how to fix it.

At the time, The Wizard’s Circus was a hot mess and I didn’t have the skills to address all its flaws. So I decided to rebuild my writing techniques and style from the ground up, keeping my OCD tendencies in mind and playing to my strengths. The result was Monster Punk Horizon.

However, around that time, Jacob and I also remembered his earlier suggestion – that he outline something for me to write. MPH was already well on its way by that point – and my confidence in my own writing back up, since it was wholly of my own imagination – and so I was more open to writing something that had already been laid out by someone else.

Plus there was something totally hilarious about collaborating with my husband on a harem novel.

And the sheer ridiculousness of that situation unlocked something inside my brain while I was writing it. The first draft of Titan Mage was done in less than a month, and it required very little editing from Jacob.

It showed me that, despite my years of struggling to finish a book, I had it in me to write quickly, and well.

Titan Mage, then, sure, started as a joke.

But it – and Jacob’s help through it – also played a pivotal role in helping me wrangle the monster that is my OCD.

So in a way, it’s also a strange little love letter. ā˜ŗļø

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: ads, adventure, book ads, Edie Skye, Fantasy, fantasy adventure, harem, marketing, Monster Punk Horizon, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, OCD, Seraphim Revival, The Wizard's Circus, The Wizard's Way, Titan Mage

H.P. has a new bestseller (on a spicy new pen name)!

July 2, 2022 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Edie Skye Banner

Well, that was a pleasant surprise! 😮

One of my recent background projects has been working on books under a new pen name – new because the content in those books is quite a bit šŸŒ¶ļø spicier šŸŒ¶ļø than my usual stuff, and I didn’t want YA readers who found me through The Wizard’s Way to be surprised by content that they weren’t ready to encounter.

I didn’t advertise the first one much at all outside of my personal Facebook page (intending to do so once more books in the series were out) …

… So you can imagine my surprise when the book rocketed to #1 on Amazon’s Steampunk Fiction bestseller list, lurked in the Top 10 on two other bestseller lists … and has been doing so since the book’s release 2 weeks ago. 😮😮😮

That said, if you’re into giant mechs, mages, and harem fantasy adventures, now’s the perfect time to check out Titan Mage, under my pen name Edie Skye!

Titan Mage Book Cover

Magic powers? His own mech? A whole airship of gorgeous women desperate for his genes? Yes, please!

Paralyzed by a drunk driver, let go from his job, and stuck in a sad, stagnant town in the middle of nowhere, Joseph Locke was having the worst day of his life.

And then heĀ died.

But considering that he wakes up with a brand new body, in the cockpit of a badass steampunk robot, on an airship of nothing but hot babes, his next life may not be all that bad. Especially when he learns that he’s a void mage—the rarest and most powerful of all mages on the world of Haven. And his shipmates want to help him makeĀ more.

As if that weren’t enough, they offer Locke a job piloting one of their mechs, which they call Titans. In the meantime, Locke has to learn his way around this exciting world, all while coming to grips with his new—andĀ dangerous—occupation. Will he be able to master his Titan? How can he best upgrade the machine to become as badass as possible? Why’s a strange parasitic sludge falling from the sky? And what’s up with the ghost of a space witch living in his Titan—and inside his head?

WARNING:Ā Titan MageĀ is a fun fantasy adventure containing steam both punk and smutty: raunchy sausage-obsessed mechanics, lusty airship captains, prurient mech pilots, and saucy language to match. (So don’t read it and then complain about the spice. Y’all know exactly what you’re getting into.)

Download Titan Mage Here

From here on, updates about the series will be posted over on the Edie Skye webpage, so be sure to check it out if this is your jam. You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok!

And, most importantly, you can join my newsletter for direct updates when new titles release – and get a free novella for signing up! šŸ˜€

Sign Up for the Edie Skye Newsletter Here

Reviews and ratings thus far have been spectacular, and I hope you’ll enjoy it just as much as my new readers! šŸ˜„

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: adventure, Edie Skye, Fantasy, fantasy adventure, Giant Robots, harem, mech, men's adventure, spicy, spicy books

It’s Isekai Skies’ Launch Week!

November 14, 2021 by hpholo 1 Comment

Monster Punk Horizon has been out in the wild a little over a month, which means that it’s almost time for Monster Punk Horizon #2: Isekai Skies to make its debut! šŸ˜€

Like last time, H.P. has planned a fun week of readings and chats to lead up to its release on Thursday, November 18th. Check out the schedule below to see what she has in store this time around, and be sure to follow us on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch to receive notifications when her videos go live!

And of course, don’t forget that you can preorder Isekai Skies now on Amazon – or read it starting Thursday on Kindle Unlimited! šŸ˜„

Isekai Skies Launch Week Events

  • Sunday, November 14th @ 8pm EST – H.P. Talks Isekai Skies
  • Monday, November 15th @ 8pm EST – H.P. Reads Isekai Skies: Chapter 1
  • Tuesday, November 16th @ 8pm EST – H.P. Reads Isekai Skies: Chapter 2
  • Wednesday, November 17th @ 8pm EST – H.P. Reads Isekai Skies: Chapter 3
  • Wednesday, November 17th @ 8:20pm EST – H.P. Reads Isekai Skies: Chapter 4
  • Thursday, November 18th @ 8pm EST – Isekai Skies Virtual Launch Party ✨ LIVE WITH PRIZES! ✨

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: action adventure, action comedy, action fantasy, adventure, Fantasy, fantasy adventure, fantasy comedy, Game Lit, GameLit, GamerLit, isekai, isekai anime, isekai skies, LitRPG, Monster Hunter, Monster Hunters, Monster Punk Horizon, Video Games

Listen to H.P. chat Monster Punk Horizon on the Blasters and Blades Podcast!

October 20, 2021 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Hey, Holo fans! šŸ˜€ The Blasters and Blades Podcast invited me on to chat Monster Punk Horizon, and it was one of the most fun interviews I’ve ever done.

If you’d like a deeper look into the Monster Punk Horizon universe, or just a general good time, give it a listen! šŸ˜„

Also, if you enjoyed what you heard, make sure to follow them on Anchor.fm, Facebook, and Twitter, and if you really enjoyed what you heard, you can support the show here! šŸ˜„

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: adventure, Blasters and Blades, Blasters and Blades Podcast, Fantasy, fantasy adventure, fantasy comedy, GameLit, GameLit Comedy, Interview, Monster Hunter, Monster Hunters, Monster Hunting, Monster Punk Horizon, Monsters, Podcast

It’s Monster Punk Horizon’s Launch Week!

October 12, 2021 by hpholo Leave a Comment

It’s almost time for Monster Punk Horizon to be unleashed upon the world, and H.P. has lots of fun stuff planned this week to lead up to and beyond the release day (Thursday, October 14th, BTW)! šŸ˜€

Be sure to follow us on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch to keep up with all she has planned! Each weeknight for the next two weeks, she’ll host an online video chat exploring a different corner of the Monster Punk Horizon world, taking reader questions – and sometimes giving out signed prizes! 😮 Check out the schedule below to see what’s in store. (Links below go to YouTube and will be updated as available.)

And of course, don’t forget that you can preorder Monster Punk Horizon now on Amazon – or read it starting Thursday on Kindle Unlimited!

Monster Punk Horizon Launch Week+ Events

  • Tuesday, October 12th @ 8pm EST – H.P. Talks Monster Punk Horizon
  • Wednesday, October 13th @ 8pm EST – H.P. Reads Monster Punk Horizon: Chapter 1
  • Thursday, October 14th @ 8pm EST – Monster Punk Horizon Virtual Launch Party ✨ WITH PRIZES! ✨
  • Friday, October 15th @ 8pm EST – The World of Monster Punk Horizon
  • Tuesday, October 19th @ 8pm EST – H.P. Reads Monster Punk Horizon: Chapter 2, H.P. Reads Monster Punk Horizon: Chapter 3
  • Wednesday, October 20th @ 8pm EST – The Monsters of Monster Punk Horizon
  • Thursday, October 21st @ 8pm EST – The Characters of Monster Punk Horizon

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: action adventure, action comedy, action fantasy, adventure, Fantasy, fantasy adventure, fantasy comedy, Game Lit, GameLit, GamerLit, LitRPG, Monster Hunter, Monster Hunters, Monster Punk Horizon, Video Games

Isekai Skies (Monster Punk Horizon #2) Cover Reveal!

August 9, 2021 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Last week, you saw a peek atĀ Book 1Ā in my new GameLit adventure comedy series,Ā Monster Punk Horizon. šŸ˜€

Now, since the secondĀ is going to crash-land soon after its release – a month, to be exact – here’s the cover reveal forĀ Book 2! 😮

Cover art by Jackson Tjota

Isekai SkiesĀ (Monster Punk Horizon #2)


🌟 GameLit 🌟 Portal Fantasy 🌟 Adventure 🌟 Comedy šŸŒŸ


✨ Coming November 18th, 2021 āœØ

Audio Release Date TBA

šŸ‰šŸ‰šŸ‰

I Got Engaged and Ended Up in Another World!

An epic convention. An epic cosplay. An epic engagement. It was the best night of Kaito’s life—until the ground opened up beneath him.

Well, technically, a portal did. Either way, it sucked.

Now, trapped in another world with rampaging monsters, he’ll have to learn to survive. Fortunately, this world is conveniently similar to his favorite video game. And he’s got monster hunting experts (?) Pix and Jaz to show him the ropes.

With their help, he might last long enough to find a way home.

But if not, at least he’ll have fun hunting monsters before he dies!

Preorder Here!
Or Read a Sample of Book One Here!

Last week, you met my series protagonists Pix and Jaz, two girls who just want to hunt monsters and pay off their college loans. They were born and raised in the monster-dominated world under the Dazzling Skies, so named because its sky is taken up by thousands of glittering portals to other worlds, which constantly dump interesting loot and monsters for them to hunt –

And sometimes people for them to save.

Which makes the Dazzling Skies a perfect setting for an isekai story.

If you’re unfamiliar with the word – “isekai” is a Japanese term meaning “different world” and refers specifically to light novels and anime in which a character is transported from their familiar world into a fantasy world, often with distinct video game trappings.

I was indifferent to the isekai genre when I first encountered it several years ago, but as the genre developed and began to play with and parody its own tropes, I grew to love it – especiallyĀ Overlord,Ā TheĀ Rising of the Shield HeroĀ and – I kid you not –Ā Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon (Review here, btw! šŸ˜€).

And, while I hadn’t set out to write isekai stories at the inception of this series, I quickly realized that the basic structure of the world I’d set up lent itself well to such stories. This structure, in turn, would allow me to show the bizarre world of the Dazzling Skies from an outsider’s perspective.

Book 2‘s protagonist,Ā Kaito,Ā is from a strange world himself – a far-future version of our world where everyone has hyper-advanced biotech altering their perception of reality, and where a particularly angry breed of cow changed the course of history – but the world under theĀ Dazzling SkiesĀ is far stranger than anything he’s ever encountered. Though, fortunately for him, it does share some similarities with his favorite Immersive Video Game series …Ā šŸ˜‰

Isekai Skies (Monster Punk Horizon #2) is set to release on Kindle Unlimited this November, and is already available for preorder.

And again,Ā if you’d like to be one of the lucky people to read it early, be sure to joinĀ the Pug Scouts – our VIP Street Team!Ā šŸ˜€ I’ll be sending out eARCs soon, and all you have to do in exchange for your free book is post a review once the book is live!

Join Our Street Team Here!

In the meantime, keep your eyes on the blog next week for the cover reveal ofĀ Monster Punk Horizon #3!Ā  šŸ˜€

***

Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: adventure, Anime, Another World, coming soon, Different World, fantasy adventure, GameLit, H.P. Holo, isekai, light novels, LitRPG, Monster Hunter, Monster Hunter Rise, Monster Hunter World, Monster Punk Horizon, New Series, Pokemon, Portal Fantasy, Tabletop Games

Introducing Monster Punk Horizon – a New GameLit Series from H.P. Holo!

August 2, 2021 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Yesterday’s blog post told you there’d be interesting book-and-monster-related news, and here it is!

It’s been aĀ looooongĀ time coming, but I’m excited to announce thatĀ IĀ finally haveĀ a new series coming out!Ā šŸ˜€

What new series is this, you ask? 😮 Well, read on!

Where my last bookĀ The Wizard’s WayĀ was a love letter to all things steampunk, this series is a love letter to all things monster – hunting, collecting, researching … and sometimes, befriending and bribing into badass kaiju battles.Ā šŸ˜„

See, while I was in the process of writing The (still-in-progress) Wizard’s Circus, I flipped through some of my early writing notebooks from middle school and junior high. Around that time, I was obsessed with PokĆ©mon, Digimon, Monster Rancher, and virtually every other monster franchise that was coming over from Japan at that time – and it showed in my writing. There were monsters and monster trainers/tamers/friends everywhere, and as I continued to flip through these notebooks, I realized that decades later, I’m still into these kinds of franchises.

After all, as of recently, Jacob and I have been spending our weekends competing inĀ Digimon Card GameĀ tournaments, and even before that we spent most evenings playingĀ Monster Hunter WorldĀ andĀ Monster HunterĀ RiseĀ together!

It was then that an idea hit me, and would not let go until I’d brought it to realization – a series that pays loving homage to all those monster franchises in much the same way The Wizard’s Way did to steampunk fantasy.

And so, without further ado, I present to youĀ Monster Punk Horizon,Ā a GameLit fantasy adventure comedyĀ coming soonĀ to Kindle Unlimited!Ā 

Cover art by Jackson Tjota

Monster Punk Horizon #1

🌟 GameLit 🌟 Fantasy 🌟 Adventure 🌟 Comedy 🌟

✨ Coming October 14th, 2021! ✨

Audio Release Date TBA

šŸ‰šŸ‰šŸ‰

Monster Hunting for Fun and Profit!

Pix and Jaz are two girls who just want to hunt monsters, craft armor, and pay off their college loans—but when a colossal new monster falls through the portals in the Dazzling Skies, it’ll take all their skills to survive it.

Their skill levels? Slightly above noob.

Fortunately, they have their oversized swords, a lot of sass … and one giant monster friend who might help them out.

For a price…

Preorder Here!
Or Read a Sample Here!

The eBook is already up for preorder on Amazon (and paperback and audio are coming), but if you’d like to be one of the lucky people to read it early, be sure to joinĀ the Pug Scouts – our VIP Street Team!Ā šŸ˜€

Join our Street Team Here!

I’ll be sending review copies out to Street Team members soon, and all you have to do in return for your free copy is post a review online once the book releases! šŸ˜€

In the meantime, keep an eye on the blog for next week’s cover reveal forĀ Monster Punk HorizonĀ #2! šŸ˜„

***

Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: adventure, Comedy, Digimon, Digimon Card Game, Fantasy, fantasy adventure, fantasy comedy, GameLit, Kaiju, LitRPG, Monster Hunter, Monster Hunter Rise, Monster Hunter World, Monster Hunting, Monster Rancher, Monsters, new book, Pokemon

Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon, Vol. 1 – Light Novel Review

May 9, 2021 by hpholo 1 Comment

We’ve established before that I’ll pick up books for the sheer WTFery of their titles alone.

That said, there was no way I was going to skip Hirukawa’s Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon, Volume 1 (illustrated by Ituwa Kato). šŸ˜„

In Reborn as a Vending Machine, our nameless protagonist is a vending machine enthusiast (yes), who’s crushed to death when he tries to catch a falling vending machine (yes), and wakes up in a fantasy world with the brand new body of … a vending machine (but you guessed that already).

He can’t move on his own. He can only talk in canned vending machine phrases like “Insert coins” or “Get one free with a winner.” And though he can convert money into magical points to fuel himself, he’s in the middle of a forest and running out of power. Fortunately, along comes the adventurer Lammis. She’s a cute, sweet girl, and despite her size, her Blessing of Might allows her to pick him up like it’s nothing and take him to her home settlement – where she and her fellow villagers are fascinated by this new magical item. 😯

And, well, being a vending machine enthusiast in a vending machine’s body, he decides to do the natural thing – and become the best darn vending machine he can possibly be. 😊

I’ve had such hit and miss experiences with light novels that my only real hope for this book was “Please be readable, 😬” so it was a delight to discover that the novel was not only readable, but unexpectedly charming (and followed by Volumes 2 and 3). šŸ˜€

I mean, you have to admit there’s something endearing and admirable about a character who wakes up as an inanimate object and goes “Welp, this is my life now. Might as well be good at it.” And as absurd as the setup is, in the context of its own world, it actually works quite well.

Like most isekai (“another world”) stories, this one features a character stat and magic system where characters can take special abilities (here called Blessings) and amass points to level up. This is how Boxxo, as he’s christened by Lammis and the others, gains his Force Field (ever useful when thieves and monsters try to break into him). He also uses his converted points not only to power himself, but to upgrade his vending machine body to become more durable, and to add new items for villagers to buy from him. He has access to any item he bought from a vending machine before he died, and they’re all novelties to the characters in this fantasy setting – not to mention useful. Soon he finds himself being taken on campaigns to feed adventuring parties in the field, being asked to provide unique items to help out in the settlement, and so on.

The story is a simple, almost slice-of-life one (the major problem at the climax is that Boxxo gets stolen and…well, he can’t move on his own) but Boxxo himself carries it with his upbeat characterization and resourcefulness. It’s fun to see how he solves problems by choosing what to offer his customers, and his past life as a vending machine enthusiast is evident in how he chooses the products. (Several sections go into minor detail about the manufacturers of certain products and why said products were designed the way they were.) The direr situations in which he finds himself also require him to think quickly, to determine how to best spend his limited magic points for defensive upgrades, often mid-danger.

The other characters are fun, too, but frankly they’re just anime archetypes, and in fact a lot of the episodic situations of the story follow similar familiar tropes. (There’s a bathhouse scene, naturally. And speaking of such content, some of the illustrations are pretty obviously aimed at readers who like boobs, but the novel itself never gets more scandalous than Boxxo being embarrassed about being in the presence of said boobs.)

All in all, for an isekai fan who’s looking for something light, fun, and just a little different, Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon, Volume 1 is worth a read. To my own surprise, I’ll be buying the next two volumes, because familiar as it may be, there’s something just that delightful about the story of little vending machine that could. 😊

***

Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Comedy, Fantasy, fantasy adventure, fantasy comedy, Hirukuma, ituwa kato, light novel, light novels, Now I Wander the Dungeon, Reborn as a Vending Machine, Reborn as a Vending Machine Now I Wander the Dungeon, Recommended

The Kidnap Plot – Book Review

October 4, 2020 by hpholo Leave a Comment

One of the benefits of having an overwhelmingly huge and ever-growing book pile is that sometimes, when you get bored, you can just dig to the bottom to see what’s been hiding there, and sometimes, you find little treasures you’d completely forgotten about.

This is one of those.

I happened upon Dave Butler’s The Kidnap Plot (The Extraordinary Journeys of Clockwork Charlie #1) several years ago after a particularly memorable LibertyCon panel which was supposed to be about The Best New YA Books…but, given that none of us had actually read any new YA books that year, ended up being about awesome YA in general (and also ended up being one of the most fun panels at that convention). This has nothing to do with the book, except that fellow panelist Butler was giving out copies at the end, and like heck am I gonna turn down any free steampunk reading, especially when the cover is as adorable as this:

Plus, in the con-less semi-apocalyptic landscape that is 2020, it’s nice to reflect on con memories, and that panel was one of my favorites.

The London of The Kidnap Plot is one soaked in steam and coated in grease, where airships dominate the sky and beneath them live overlapping cultures of humans, pixies, trolls, kobolds, shape-changers…and Charlie Pondicherry and his Bap. Charlie’s father runs Pondicherry’s Clockwork Invention and Repair, and never allows Charlie to venture far from it. But when his Bap is kidnapped by the aptly-named Sinister Man and his cronies, Charlie will have to venture further than he’s ever gone to rescue him–and in doing so, uncovers a plot that threatens Queen Victoria herself.

If you’re in the mood for a charming middle grade steampunk adventure with a whimsical storybook quality, The Kidnap Plot is it. Though some elements toward the end might seem overly familiar to anyone who consumes lots of steampunk, the characters that surround those elements are fun enough that I didn’t care (and frankly made me want to re-read/watch the stories it reminded me of, so win-win).

It’s the unfamiliar parts that make the book shine, anyway. Charlie’s is a setting where educated trolls can be lawyers, pixie duchesses-to-be can be their assistants, and kobolds help out in inventing shops. The aforementioned Grim Grumblesson, Natalie De Minimis, and Henry Clockswain join the ambitious chimney sweeps/potential aeronauts Oliver Chattelsworthy and Heaven-Bound Bob to shape the eclectic party that helps Charlie recover his dad. (Special second mention for Heaven-Bound Bob because I think his name is extra-fun to say.) It’s a large cast for such a comparatively simplistic rescue story, but the characters play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses with panache in such a way that much of the fun of the novel is not in seeing the characters succeed, but wondering what clever, audacious things they’ll have to do to get out of their absurd situations, which often have no obvious solution.

More than once, I actually started thinking of these twists and turns in terms of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, since so many of their challenges are complicated by the fact that one of them is super tiny, one is a big ol’ troll, and other such race-specific details. I doubt that was the author’s intent, but frankly now that I think of it, I’m totally down for a Clockwork Charlie RPG.

All in all, rip-roaring adventure and fun characters make The Kidnap Plot a delightful, exciting read. If you like whimsical steampunk stories, give it a try!

***

Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: airships, clockwork, clockwork charlie, dave butler, dj butler, Fantasy, fantasy adventure, gaslamp fantasy, kobolds, London, Middle Grade, pixies, shape-changers, Steampunk, the extraordinary journeys of clockwork charlie, the kidnap plot, trolls

Footer

Grab Some Free Books!

Thanks for swinging by our humble corner of the Internet. If this is your first time visiting our site – here, sign up and have some free reads on us!

Sign Up Now!

Copyright © 2025 Ā· Powered by ModFarm Ā· Log in

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Accept