Courage Iro will shatter the Gates of Power to protect his fleet.
Born talentless, Iro has all but resigned himself to a life of drudgery, watching his sister hop across to the massive space titan for supplies. But when the titan explodes and his sister is killed, Iro finds a new determination to take her place. He’s not about to let weakness prevent him.
When the fleet encounters a new titan, filled with powerful monsters, deadly traps, and mysterious cloaked figures, Iro is the first to spontaneously manifest a new talent. Now sent to a different ship, to train with others far beyond his strength, Iro will have to train twice as hard just to catch up.
To protect his fleet, and to uncover the mysteries of the titans, Iro won’t just open the Gates of Power. He’ll break them.
As of writing this review, I have read the first published book on Amazon. I am eagerly awaiting the release of book two.
There are two main reasons why I’ve rated this book so highly.
First, it does something new. I suppose it’s not new to the genre as a whole, in that I am familiar with books that have similar titan concepts, but this is the first one I’ve read in that style. It is different. Refreshing. After I-don’t-know-how-many variants of “single college-student-age white man appears in medieval fantasy world,” I needed something new. And I got it. Set far in the future, the fleet Iro lives on survives by scavenging fuel, material, food, and tech from the planet-sized mech known as a titan.
Things go to shit when the titan explodes, and there’s a Battlestar Galactica reminiscent “how will we survive” struggle as the fleet almost comes apart. Eventually (as you can guess from the title), they find another titan, and this is where Iro and his growth takes off. This isn’t a rapid “MC becomes OP in the first few chapters” style of book. Iro starts weak, and it takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears for him to develop and increase his personal power.
I’m digressing! The second reason why I love this book are its characters. Rob, you’ve done it again. Rich, detailed, flawed characters, each with their own mannerisms, desires, motivations, and complexities. In a genre where so many MCs are cardboard cutout inserts, Iro is his own character. But it’s the side characters that really shine. There’s a large cast, but they all feel incredibly distinct. Whether it’s their mentor (who I get strong Shota Aizawa vibes from — Erasure Head from My Hero Academia), or his ruthless, psychotic rival, it’s just so well done.
On the action and pacing side, fights are visceral and fast-paced. The book takes the first third to establish Iro, and I enjoyed the slower build up that showed how the fleet, crew, and technology all interact to create this sci-fi world.
Look, I really liked the book, and I plan on picking up Rob’s other works as well simply for the amazing character work I know they’ll have.
