Gunkata Isekai

Reviewing 'Gun Magus' by NR LaPoint - Kindle Edition

Low on luck, but not ammo

The last thing Kenneth Jericho needed was
a gunfight and car chase with human traffickers.
What started as a bad morning only got worse.

A flash of light sends Ken to a strange world
filled with magic, hideous monsters, beautiful women,
and seemingly unlimited ammo.

With pistol in hand,
Ken is thrown into a race against time
to stop a local ganglord's reign of terror.
But is the thug the brains behind the violence,
or is someone - or something - else
pulling his strings?

So goes the blurb for NR LaPoin’s Gun Magus, the promise is Isekai gun-fu action, but does it deliver?

Yeah, yeah it mostly does. It was entertaining, I was entertained, I felt I got my money’s worth from reading it, it was… fun. Fun, popcorn and bubblegum, these are the watchwords, like the anime source material, really. Thankfully, it’s good clean fun, our Ken Jericho is a boy scout, a Catholic boy scout. Good for him¹, that his soul hasn’t been worn raw by life in the barracks and humping a ruck for Uncle Sugar’s shilling.

Jericho defies genre and reader expectations and despite being surrounded by the makings of a typical ‘in another world with my harem’ well, harem, he picks one best girl, makes his intentions clear, and waits to find a priest so they make it official. Very proper like. Although the bit does start wear thin when you’re facing the final boss rush and not sure if either of you, if any of you will make it out again. Come on my man, posting your engagement on the Church door was good enough for Medieval Germans, and you were on a ship and had her captain right there…

But it was endearing all the same.

Less so was some of the fourth wall breaking antics with best girl giving a ‘v’ for victory like she’s literally an anime best girl, why would that gesture exist in the other world? But I get it, give the audience what they expect, it keeps them coming back.

I found the gun magic ill defined and vaguely clunky in execution, and I found my suspension of disbelief abused by the sky-tanks. But at no time did I stop having fun. Here and now, that’s high praise indeed.

The stakes are high, the heroes are heroic and committed to the end, and the villains are villainous.

And the Pandas are Catholic.

10/10 would read again.

1. JD, who do you mean, Ken Jericho or NR LaPoint? Yes.