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Drivers? Where we Smash, we won't be needing drivers. The smashing will always take us where we need to go.
I recently took the time to burn through another request. Guardium by SeanScruffy. It is an ongoing story, but I have read 20 of the available 29 chapters.
TLDR; An interesting mix of scifi and fantasy, of ancient myths and future times, of religion and science, combined into a truly intriguing prospect.
Overall I'd rate it 3 smashing out of 5. Its strengths balance its weaknesses.
World Building - Semi-Smashing - The first and most obvious thing the story presents is the setting. It is a story that attempts to combine ancient myths, pagan religion, science, fantasy, and sci-fi all at the same time. It sounds odd, but I found it intriguing because the story takes itself seriously enough to establish this well. It gives a little bit of information as to how it works, and then doesn't think too much further in-depth and risk poking holes in its own world. The story does have information dumps, but it is scattered around as needed and necessary for a world that is this different. In some ways it reminds me of Mass Effect meets Thor. Could the method of showing the universe be better? Sure. But under the circumstances it is okay to get the information dumped crudely in order to more quickly bring you up to speed. The author also doesn't even bother explaining some alien things, but lets the context fill in the blanks or lets your own imagination decide what it means. Not every alien is described in detail, for example, beyond the specific details you need to know based on the event happening. Does the alien have scales? Don't know, don't care, don't matter, but it has multiple eyes on stalks and when one of them turns to look at ya, that's good to know. But in the end the story premise is a truly unique and untapped goldmine of potential, exploring a theme I have never, ever seen before, and the author succeeds in making it his own.
Main Characters - Semi-Smashing - The main character is a young man or teenager that is a would-be prophet to an ancient god that has awoken in the aftermath of earth's devistation. Right off the top the idea of what the MC is supposed to be and do is fascinating. As a Christian the idea of a MC that is a prophet, not a soldier or king or disney princess or whatever, is fascinating. It offers a special dynamic of role and relationships that is rarely explored well in stories. However there is what the character's role is, and then there is the character himself. Just because you got a prophet dude doesn't mean the dude is developed well outside of his job. So how does the MC do as a character? I would say well. The MC is not explored emotionally within the narrative nor internal dialogue, but by his actions mostly, and his actions show him to be an amazingly human and relatable person. Despite his role requiring he insert none of himself into his job to just be an empty mouthpiece to gods, he is full of assumptions, suspicions, fear, anxiety, impatience, and more so he really can't help but put himself into it. He wants to do the best he can do, but his own zeal is his worst enemy. Amazingly there is no bad guy for the longest time. His own humanity and flaws, as well as just general politics, is the antagonist. He has a bit of supernatural power, but the power is not of himself, but from his relationship with his god. He has the kind of relationship where he can become a vessel for his gods will or even extend his own soul-ghost-power-something like the Force. This can come across as being OP as crap, but the way the story handles it is by attributing it as a relationship privilege's rather than him just being superman who can go pew pew. So this brings that slight unspoken tension that if he ever angers god, his privileges go bye bye.
