Turret Mage: An Isekai LitRPG

In My Defense, Book 1

De: J. Drude

Narrado por: Robb Moreira

A teenage mechanic must battle nightmarish creatures and create formidable weapons to defend his new home from dark forces in this thrilling portal fantasy.

When Ryan Kotes awakens on an alien planet, his mind is a complete mess. But even with his memories ground into a fine paste, he's pretty sure he would remember having a metal arm . . . not to mention the flashing messages that keep playing across his vision.

Anyone in Ryan's position would have a few questions. It's too bad the tutorial intelligence meant to guide him through the vulnerable start to his new life on Ralqir has gone slightly insane, and his arrival may have kicked off this world's version of the apocalypse.

Not everything is doom and gloom, though. Because Ryan discovers he's an Exotic: an ascended being with a connection to the great cosmic machine known as the System. What could stand in his way? Well, other than having a skill set that is not suited to combat. If things come down to fighting, his abilities to shape metal and infuse objects with mana won't cut it.

If Ryan wants to survive the coming end times, when the dead will walk and the darkness will feast on the living, he'll need to get creative, transforming his crafting Class into something deadly. Building fearsome munitions, he'll hone his mind itself into a weapon and use his mechanical know-how to usher in a new age of warfare.

The first volume of the hit LitRPG adventure series—with almost 900,000 views on Royal Road—now available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook!

©2025 Jonathan Pampell (P)2025 Podium Audio

Writing Qualities

I think there are, broadly, three main qualities to be a good writer:

1) Concept. Whatever you are writing drew the reader to it initially. Whether that was the front cover, the title, the description, whatever. That is supposed to draw the reader in to buy the ticket; the trick is to keep the reader interested with the theme or concept so they want to see the ride.

2) Prose. Your ability to write something engaging, provoking, emotionally investing, educational, etc. This is just basic writing quality. How you tie events and structure to the story, the emotion you want to convey, etc. This connects heavily with concept but shares ideas like the Heros Journey or the Story Circle, a la Dan Harmon, or other technical Dos and Donts for teaching via written instruction.

3) Perspective. This is where most writers die. It is the pitfall of writers everywhere. How well you can explain from other perspectives, their ideals and motivations. It relates to knowing how systems and people work, writing them effectively, and relaying them to your audience while not making something dry or stupid.

This is where the story fails. It has disconnected characters, bad dialogue, but most importantly, a world seemingly not centered in a consistent reality framework that draws people in. At no point did I feel connected to the character or their actions due to their actions that mattered being hand-waved, their ability to anticipate the world around them muted to point of figuratively being deaf, and true misunderstanding of how other people are motivated to actions to help or harm.

This story was not engaging on multiple fronts for me, perhaps it works for you. The narrator was not exceptional at providing an engaging quality outside of dialogue, which was not written all that well.

where is the next one.

this is a refreshing look at the turret world at large. it took a while to get to the turrets. but that builds the interest for what is next. Let's Go! I will take 20 or so of these. thanks.

Stupid, weak, and pathetic mc

you like to read a story where everyone gets the chance to beat up the MC then this is the book for you.

I hate cliffhangers

I love this book it has great potential of making a really good series but I hate cliffhangers

awesome story

Great story, fantastic world building. character is reasonable and makes good choices. strongly recommended 👌🏾 👍🏾