THE RIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB One moment Conrad Schwartz was a hungover hiker in the mountains of modern Poland, the next he was running for his life from an angry Teutonic knight. At first Conrad just thought he'd stumbled across a mad hermit. But several days of ever stranger events convinced him that he had somehow been stranded in A.D 1231. And that meant Conrad had to turn Medieval Poland into the most powerful country in the world. Otherwise the Mongols were destined to destroy it--in just ten years! This was a fun series. He's transported back in time and uses his engineering skills to rule the realms. Heh.
Oh, sweet... has a Mark Twain Conneticut Yankee sound to it. Have read lots of people claiming they want more crafting LitRPG, but crafting portal world stories might be good enough.
He basically Spoiler invents Hooters hundreds of years earlier than happens in our timeline , but yeah, it's a rip-roaring tale as I recall. It's been many, many years. I read as a teen. Picked it up from my father who was a tool and die engineer and big science-fiction reader. Whole series, too. Kinda broke apart at the end as he becomes OP and doesn't have anything to stop him, but good from the get-go. Let us know what you think if you read! Your opinion is valued here, kind sir. No spoilers!
Outside of LitRPG I already have a bunch of sea-faring novels I wanted to give a try... saw the whaling movie In the Heart of the Sea and was impressed with the detail of the sets. Thought I should probably learn about them someday... it already sent me on a age of sail / steam-ship journey in wikipedia. Now I know naphta powered small craft were a thing. Also read some cool stories about British Merchant Marines going full neo during WW1 bomber runs: accelerating then turning sideways to avoid the bombs dropped. If I ever play Battle Ship again I won't feel so bad lying about hits. They also used fishing ships to detonate mines somehow, and I think the stuff I was reading might have inspired the Benjamin Button story. That or Merchant Marine's had a way more bad ass reputation in general than I ever knew and I just somehow missed out on that particular bit of knowledge growing up.
