Dan the Destructor - Barbarians of the Storm - Book I (2022)

Dan - an unassuming pussy from the Kingdom of South Florida - is zapped through a portal to another world and must team up with barbarian badass Fenrik in order to save the world from an evil sorcerer and maybe, just maybe, find a means of getting himself back home.

Dan the Destructor is a book that does not fuck around. We get the briefest of set-ups and then it's immediately into the adventure. I admit to being slightly thrown off by the present-tense style author Rob Rimes opted for here, but that feeling only lasted a page or two. The present-tense prose actually works in the book's favor and helps the story maintain its no nonsense quick pace. What we are left with is the epitome of a page turner.

In recent years I've become a big fan of creators who can successfully combine a bit of fantasy with science-fiction and still make their story work, so something I immediately appreciated about the Barbarians of the Storm setting Rob Rimes has created is he has zero fear of genre-bending. Barbarians, magic, undead fiends... it all co-exists with big guns, time portals, and post-apocalyptic brio. I can also appreciate how inserting what are ostensibly a few contemporary Earth characters into the mix allows the occasional well-placed pop culture reference to slip into the dialogue, be it pro wrestling or Death Wish 3 (the superior brand of Death Wish, I might add). I was half-expecting a cameo from the Beastmaster or Yor at a few points during the story...

Humor is also prevalent throughout Dan the Destructor, but it never overstays its welcome. For every moment of near-slapstick, there's a brutal fight scene to temper the tone. I would be remiss to not mention an extra short story at the end of the book that serves as a backstory for a character introduced towards the end of the adventure. This story leans even heavier into the brutal side of the scale and certainly concludes things on a strangely satisfying bloodthirsty note.

Perhaps the only minor quibble I can find is this story definitely has a case of sequel-bait syndrome. Of course, it's literally advertised as book one in the title, so I can't complain too much, but Dan the Destructor is obviously the start of a greater narrative and won't exactly be good standalone reading. As I said, it's a minor quibble and if you're anything like me you'll already be ordering the rest of the series before you're even finished with Dan the Destructor.