Rating:

5 Small Stars
Forgotten Ruin

WoW as in World of WarCraft meets Wow, as in what a tremendously wonderful book! What can I say? This is one of the very best books I have read in a long, long time. And, remember, I don’t like fantasy science fiction which is pretty much this whole story, but this was so very well written that I couldn’t put it down. What a wonderfully exciting and fascinating book! The authors did themselves proud for writing this rather lengthy tome to the unassuming and relatively unknowable Army Ranger! I loved every bit of it!

If, after everything I wrote in the first paragraph didn’t convince you that I just loved this book then you’re not reading very well. Yes, it is about orcs, ogers, wizards, fairies, witches, and elves, with a few giants thrown in once in awhile! That is science fantasy and not my usual cup of tea. Still, mix that stuff in with constant combat by Army Ranges and you’ve got an amazing book that will keep you reading far into the night!

We start out with the story being told by one Army Ranger who, like most every day soldiers, doesn’t think of himself as very special. Still this guy, PFC Walker, a.k.a. “Talker”, is a linguist and not just any linguist. He’s got doctorates in languages. He’ll tell you his story and how he became part of this special Ranger unit and then he’ll tell the rest of the story just like you’re walking with him through it. And you’ve go one hell of a walk ahead of you. I learned a lot about Army Rangers, well, at least what this book wants to say about them. I, personally, have known of an Army Ranger or two, but if asked to pick them out of a formation mixed in with other soldiers, I probably couldn’t do it. That’s primarily because they don’t stand out when just standing still. But, when you get an Army Ranger moving, he’s going for the kill and he does it better than any other soldier.


“Be meaner than it, Talker.”

Anspach, Jason; Cole, Nick. Forgotten Ruin: An Epic Military Fantasy Thriller (p. 124). WarGate Books. Kindle Edition.

Who in their right mind would want to travel into the future to see if it’s just as badly messed up as is your present day? Well, someone put together a Ranger unit who did just that and they weren’t the only ones going. Earth is in bad shape in the present so someone needs to find out what the future is like, say two or three years from now, and if it’s better then great, you can be there to make it even better. If not, well, then you as Army Rangers kill everyone and start over, I guess. Anyway, this quantum gate thing didn’t throw this Ranger unit just two years forward, no, it threw them something like ten-thousand years into the future! Ain’t nothing going to be fixed that far out. So, you land in the land of orcs, goblins, giants, trolls, vampires, and witches and they are all trying to kill you, right now! Nothing you can do but fight, so that’s what these Army Rangers do, they fight and kill everything until they die themselves. Fortunately, they only have to fight at night, but three or four nights of this and there won’t be too many Rangers alive.

So, where do we go from here? Not sure and nether will this story completely tell you. It’s not finished just yet. See, PFC Talker isn’t dead at the end and that’s almost a miracle. While he doesn’t consider himself as “real” Ranger, he’s a linguist after all, he does Ranger things and does them very well. But, he’s not the only one. There are a number of characters in this book that I would love to have by my side and a fight. There has got to be guys like those in this book actually living their lives as real Rangers and they are dangerous. But, when an enemy needs killing, the a Ranger is what you want around. That’s what they do. Yeah, the fantasy part of this book is kind of hard to swallow, but it was so well written that I really enjoyed it along with the rest of the story. And, this book seems to go on for quite a long while, yet it wasn’t tiring to read. In fact, I really didn’t want it to end.


“Running into a room with nothing but a weapon and the training you had and the attitude that you were gonna be the winner today. Because that’s what a fight is. Winners and the dead. There are no participation awards. There are just winners. And the dead.”

Anspach, Jason; Cole, Nick. Forgotten Ruin: An Epic Military Fantasy Thriller (p. 132). WarGate Books. Kindle Edition.

I hope you do like this as well as I did. I don’t know if the words printed in this book is true version of a Ranger but, if it’s just a small picture of what makes up the Rangers, then they should be very proud of who they are. They are special and we need people like them to fight and kill all the orcs, giants, trolls and other nasty bad guys who seem to be just where you don’t want them to be. The book even has a copy of the Ranger Creed in the back and now I have a copy of that in my own personal tablet. It’s not a bad thing to know. And another good thing to know is that there’s a second book in this series, “Hit & Fade”, which should be out in April 2021. Get it!



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