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Chaos Seeds #7
The Land: Predators
ŷ Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Fantasy (2018)In The Land: Predators, the Mist Village has harnessed its power. With core buildings, professional fighters and now, their own Dungeon, the settlement is primed to grow into a kingdom of true power and magic. The path to power has not been without risk, however. The Mist Village has been noticed.
Evil nobles from the Kingdom of Law, bloodthirsty goblins from the Serrated Mountains, an undead lord with a penchant for human sacrifice, and fanatical kobolds from the Depths -- all plot the village's destruction. The predators are circling. Richter's people are horribly outnumbered by foes whose own power has been entrenched for thousands of years.
Richter and Sion need to be stronger than ever before. Luckily, they are. New skills have been learned, stronger enchantments have been wrought and the hundreds of villagers have answered the call to adventure. The Companions do not stand alone. While many eyes have turned towards the mists, wanting to take the treasures within, the Mist Village stares back with a simple message.
Come and get it!
Evil nobles from the Kingdom of Law, bloodthirsty goblins from the Serrated Mountains, an undead lord with a penchant for human sacrifice, and fanatical kobolds from the Depths -- all plot the village's destruction. The predators are circling. Richter's people are horribly outnumbered by foes whose own power has been entrenched for thousands of years.
Richter and Sion need to be stronger than ever before. Luckily, they are. New skills have been learned, stronger enchantments have been wrought and the hundreds of villagers have answered the call to adventure. The Companions do not stand alone. While many eyes have turned towards the mists, wanting to take the treasures within, the Mist Village stares back with a simple message.
Come and get it!
1150 pages, Hardcover
First published February 8, 2018
2,007 people are currently reading
3,970 people want to read
About the author
Aleron Kong
12books10.5kfollowersŷ HTML profile
Welcome to the Mist Village! I'm so glad you're here!
The Land Saga:
- Is a WSJ Best Seller
- Has sold over 1 MILLION copies
- Has more than 100,000 ⭐⭐⭐⭐� reviews
- Became Audibles Customer Favorite of the Year
- Reached the Top 5 on both Audible and Amazon out of the millions of books they sell
Find out why 🙂
You can start your adventure BELOW:
Please enjoy my book trailers:
And enjoy a FREE peak at my 1st Audiobook narrated by THE Nick Podehl! Just
I love hearing from my fans so feel free to reach out!
If you've read or listened to any of my work, PLEASE leave a and vote "Helpful" on the reviews you agree with 🙂
And I love making artwork for my wonderful fans. I hope you enjoy some! You can find more
I am a Internal Medicine Physician turned WSJ Best Selling Author. My lifetime goal of leaving the world a better place than I found it. I'm also extremely proud of my fans who have helped me raise over $125,000 for various charities over the past 5 years!
Gnomes Rule!
Welcome to the Mist Village! I'm so glad you're here!
The Land Saga:
- Is a WSJ Best Seller
- Has sold over 1 MILLION copies
- Has more than 100,000 ⭐⭐⭐⭐� reviews
- Became Audibles Customer Favorite of the Year
- Reached the Top 5 on both Audible and Amazon out of the millions of books they sell
Find out why 🙂
You can start your adventure BELOW:
Please enjoy my book trailers:
And enjoy a FREE peak at my 1st Audiobook narrated by THE Nick Podehl! Just
I love hearing from my fans so feel free to reach out!
If you've read or listened to any of my work, PLEASE leave a and vote "Helpful" on the reviews you agree with 🙂
And I love making artwork for my wonderful fans. I hope you enjoy some! You can find more
I am a Internal Medicine Physician turned WSJ Best Selling Author. My lifetime goal of leaving the world a better place than I found it. I'm also extremely proud of my fans who have helped me raise over $125,000 for various charities over the past 5 years!
Gnomes Rule!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 859 reviews
February 8, 2022
"TRING! TRING! TRING!"
"My name is Shine and I'm wonderful.'
Rounding up what felt like 4-stars to 5 solely for the sheer size of the book: Nearly 2000 pages! This made the rest of the series feel like a collection of short stories. Kong has really taken The Land to next level here, covering pretty much every aspect one could think of. Until now, the attention was usually given to either base-building elements OR battles, not both. But now we have a complete story with a nice balance. This is not to say the previous ones were bad by any means, for, I enjoyed every single one. However, while it does elevate the series, it does set up a difficult measuring stick to evaluate next installments. But this was as fun as ever, and opened some new potential directions to the future of the series.
"GNOWME RUUULLLLLEEEE!!!"
"My name is Shine and I'm wonderful.'
Rounding up what felt like 4-stars to 5 solely for the sheer size of the book: Nearly 2000 pages! This made the rest of the series feel like a collection of short stories. Kong has really taken The Land to next level here, covering pretty much every aspect one could think of. Until now, the attention was usually given to either base-building elements OR battles, not both. But now we have a complete story with a nice balance. This is not to say the previous ones were bad by any means, for, I enjoyed every single one. However, while it does elevate the series, it does set up a difficult measuring stick to evaluate next installments. But this was as fun as ever, and opened some new potential directions to the future of the series.
"GNOWME RUUULLLLLEEEE!!!"
April 13, 2018
First of all: Thank you Dr Kong for giving us a very long book which was just perfect lengthwise ,
This book is not for everyone, you have to be a gamer and a serious one at that to fully appreciate it and it's many hilarious references : "leeroy j" hhhhh.....
We now know a lot big-picture-wise, and some mysterious points in the previous novels were clarified and explained ...
I loved the Randy development , the Kiindir introduction and the Messeji form ...
I was confused as to why Richter started trusting the other chaos seed just like that, despite our hero's naivety and juvenile antiques he can be super paranoid and ruthless when he wants to "and super thrifty too :) " but i was able to contain myself until i knew the cause of the out of character behavior ....
And then there was freaking PUG: enough said ....
there is a lot to say but not enough time "already lost a lot reading as it is :)" but i can't wait for the next one....
This book is not for everyone, you have to be a gamer and a serious one at that to fully appreciate it and it's many hilarious references : "leeroy j" hhhhh.....
We now know a lot big-picture-wise, and some mysterious points in the previous novels were clarified and explained ...
I loved the Randy development , the Kiindir introduction and the Messeji form ...
I was confused as to why Richter started trusting the other chaos seed just like that, despite our hero's naivety and juvenile antiques he can be super paranoid and ruthless when he wants to "and super thrifty too :) " but i was able to contain myself until i knew the cause of the out of character behavior ....
And then there was freaking PUG: enough said ....
there is a lot to say but not enough time "already lost a lot reading as it is :)" but i can't wait for the next one....
February 20, 2018
What a freaking ride
What. A. Freaking. Ride.
Book 7 was everything I wanted and more. Quests were resolved. New ones taken up. People grew more badass. Other people died. Bad guys met their end. And tons more.
This is definitely Aleron's greatest writing achievement so far. It delivers on the promises of the first six books in ways that leave your mouth open and heart beating fast.
Someone get this man a beer! And then let's get him some paper for his typewriter so book 8 can get here asap :P
If you are even thinking about buying this book, do it and thank me later.
What. A. Freaking. Ride.
Book 7 was everything I wanted and more. Quests were resolved. New ones taken up. People grew more badass. Other people died. Bad guys met their end. And tons more.
This is definitely Aleron's greatest writing achievement so far. It delivers on the promises of the first six books in ways that leave your mouth open and heart beating fast.
Someone get this man a beer! And then let's get him some paper for his typewriter so book 8 can get here asap :P
If you are even thinking about buying this book, do it and thank me later.
February 21, 2018
I absolutely love this series. It's the details, that put books like this over the edge for me.
In most fantasy books when somebody gets bread, 3 months later they still have that last piece of bread at a poignant moment. In the Land when they talk about bread, the author takes into consideration how much grain will be grown in an acre, who is farming it, what other skills what are there Buffs what about the weather, the morale, what's sub skills do the hunters and the Bakers and the farmer have that and how did those stats affect the stats of the bread. Everything is thought through, everything's discussed in detail and then they include the graphs the charts and the numbers and the equations...
It's like that for everything. Good series. Most of the comedy is on par with a TV show for teenagers like Teen Titans, but he'll I like Teen Titans.
In most fantasy books when somebody gets bread, 3 months later they still have that last piece of bread at a poignant moment. In the Land when they talk about bread, the author takes into consideration how much grain will be grown in an acre, who is farming it, what other skills what are there Buffs what about the weather, the morale, what's sub skills do the hunters and the Bakers and the farmer have that and how did those stats affect the stats of the bread. Everything is thought through, everything's discussed in detail and then they include the graphs the charts and the numbers and the equations...
It's like that for everything. Good series. Most of the comedy is on par with a TV show for teenagers like Teen Titans, but he'll I like Teen Titans.
November 23, 2019
I read the book all the way through that is why it gets 3 stars. I won't suggest it to others and I probably will stop with the series from this point on. I might continue, depending on if Amazon suggests book 8 to me when it comes out, but I won't put forth the effort to find book 8 like I did for book 7.
But the actual review! Oh god, where do I begin? First of all, this feels like 3 books jammed into one. The world is built up more, that's good. The world is built up too much, that's bad. We find out about dungeons, how they work, and why they're a good/bad thing. The mid-piece spike is a dungeon invasion by creatures from "The Labyrinth" and as a quick note: The Labyrinth is what all dungeons connect to. Cool, didn't realize the dungeon leveled to the point where it connected to The Labyrinth BECAUSE WE WEREN'T TOLD but cool. Or maybe we were. I don't know. I kind of zoned out there for a while because the main character is a dick.
He started out as a dick you'd want to hang out with. I looked forward to seeing him mature and grow as the world forced him to confront certain juvenile traits and learn from past mistakes. NOPE! He's still a dick, only this time with more power. Does he learn from past mistakes? Only when other characters literally tell him how he should have learned from past mistakes. Does he actually progress in his motivations? Nope, he just kind of does things cuz its the latest quest he has.
And then he meets another Chaos Seed that wants to go hunting with him, alone, in the forest? I mean that screamed trap to me. And you know what it was? A TRAP! A trap that consists of the chaos seed telling Richter his evil plan of evilness so he could kill the familiar to protect his ass. I mean, why? Just complete your goal and move on. But no, he has to monologue like an evil villain. Richter survives and gains a cool new ability out of it and moves on to BE TOLD THE REASON BEHIND EVERYTHING. But it's ok because he won't remember.
I'm sorry, but why is that in the story? It adds nothing to it. It is just there so we get some more information about how amazing Richter is. Is it to add depth to Richter? He's still as shallow as a drop of water on a plate, having him find out the reason why he screwed everything up didn't fix that. Is it to find out more about the powers of Chaos? I didn't need to know more about it. I was perfectly fine with accepting that they exist because they exist.
So now we have 2 new concepts added in, Dungeons and The Lords of Chaos, why not add in a 3rd! Yes, Now cities of high enough levels can spend points to automatically create buildings because. I can accept that, but why is this in the book all of the sudden? And why does he spend the evening before a battle focused on city planning? Why does he move a building? Is it to just screw with his smiths? There is no reason to move the building, let's just have him waste points. But not too many points, just enough so he barely has enough to spend it on what he wants.
A part of Richter's powers is that he can trade XP for what are known as TP, basically XP for professions. He does it, gets an XP drain effect (I am SOOO tempted to calculate all his lost XP to show HOW FUCKING STUPID you have to be to trade XP for TP) and all of a sudden the XP drain stops. To give you an idea, he goes from -50,000 to perfectly fine in a chapter. That means, he earned over 100,000 XP between the two prompts and we don't find out about it till AFTER he starts earning XP as normal.
On XP and levels, what's the point? I mean he gets his ass kicked from a level 3 mob. He beats guys double his level. What is the point of levels? I have read all 6 book before and I can't tell if Richter will be fine going up against a level 10 mob or a level 50 mob because levels mean jack all. If I can't tell Richter's success based on his enemies level, why am I given this information?
I will admit, towards the end I was skipping pages and barely reading paragraphs. There's this huge battle and I went in knowing the Richter would almost die but then learn something or pull some shit out of his ass and he would be fine in the end. And the battle ends when Richter pulls some shit out of his ass and a bunch of characters died that I had to stop and think about before I remember who they were and I just didn't care.
On to supporting characters since I am just tearing into this book. This book's humor relies on the fact you know certain things about pop culture. There is a builder named Roswan. Read some reviews and it is supposed to refer to Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec. I thought that was clever. NOPE! Turns out IT IS Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec and we're given another character named Leslie Gnome. Look, before it was clever and a funny joke for those who got it. After it was like he was beating me with a stick yelling "DO YOU GET IT? DO YOU GET MY JOKE? DO YOU GET MY REFERENCE! ITS FUNNY CUZ IT WAS POPULAR."
This book just exemplifies my main complaints about the series. Richter is too scatterbrained. He levels but doesn't progress as a character. He doesn't really have goals and the goals he does have he doesn't really progress towards. There's this subplot about the light and dark courts and happens in the prologs and I don't know where it's going, nor do I care. He's not trying to grow his city. He's not trying to become a better lord. He's not even really trying to adventure. He just kind of does things. And they work out for him. And he becomes more powerful. And because we only have Richter's frame of reference all of this means nothing since we don't know what the average actually is.
But so I don't hate on the author too much because I do think he's done a good job and I like the world he's built, I have suggestions as to how to progress from here. Let Richter change. Let him learn from his past actions so he doesn't do the same thing again and again. The book ends with a ton of characters death. Let him feel that weight and grow from that weight. And keep the books focused. Have the next books in the series be about him completing this massive backlog of quests he has. Have one book focused on his blood oath. Have another focused on conquering the catacombs. Have one focused on beating the swarm.
If I was to continue the story from here, this is what I would do. Book 7 ends with the imp from book 1 coming to call in his favor. Book 8 starts with having the Imp require something that makes him need to clear the catacombs. My suggestion is to get all the Khans together. The imp drags him to the city to get him on its way, and he lets the kobold king hatch to help him on his quest. Together they create the new Kobold Kingdom that acts as his vassal. The trader comes back with more of the Khan coins and some other stuff. Clearing the catacombs gets him the rest. He clears two quests, and the book ends.
Book 9 is about him clearing the blood vow as his diplomat comes back with a dwarven contingent. Uses the hammer he has in his treasury as leverage to get help and the book ends with the kinder informing Richter the swarm is on its way. Book 10 is all about killing to swarm queen. By book 11 he has cleared up most of his dangling plot threads that he can focus on the main plot. He has physical, magical, political, structural, and environmental power at that point so when the dark and the light courts start making their moves he can use all those resources to try to survive.
I hope that Dr. Kong will take some suggestions to heart. If you got to the end of this, just give your books more focus. And let Richter grow and let us see his decisions change as he changes. Just don't tell us how he grows. Use the old adage, show don't tell. That way this lovely world you've built up can get used to its full potential.
But the actual review! Oh god, where do I begin? First of all, this feels like 3 books jammed into one. The world is built up more, that's good. The world is built up too much, that's bad. We find out about dungeons, how they work, and why they're a good/bad thing. The mid-piece spike is a dungeon invasion by creatures from "The Labyrinth" and as a quick note: The Labyrinth is what all dungeons connect to. Cool, didn't realize the dungeon leveled to the point where it connected to The Labyrinth BECAUSE WE WEREN'T TOLD but cool. Or maybe we were. I don't know. I kind of zoned out there for a while because the main character is a dick.
He started out as a dick you'd want to hang out with. I looked forward to seeing him mature and grow as the world forced him to confront certain juvenile traits and learn from past mistakes. NOPE! He's still a dick, only this time with more power. Does he learn from past mistakes? Only when other characters literally tell him how he should have learned from past mistakes. Does he actually progress in his motivations? Nope, he just kind of does things cuz its the latest quest he has.
And then he meets another Chaos Seed that wants to go hunting with him, alone, in the forest? I mean that screamed trap to me. And you know what it was? A TRAP! A trap that consists of the chaos seed telling Richter his evil plan of evilness so he could kill the familiar to protect his ass. I mean, why? Just complete your goal and move on. But no, he has to monologue like an evil villain. Richter survives and gains a cool new ability out of it and moves on to BE TOLD THE REASON BEHIND EVERYTHING. But it's ok because he won't remember.
I'm sorry, but why is that in the story? It adds nothing to it. It is just there so we get some more information about how amazing Richter is. Is it to add depth to Richter? He's still as shallow as a drop of water on a plate, having him find out the reason why he screwed everything up didn't fix that. Is it to find out more about the powers of Chaos? I didn't need to know more about it. I was perfectly fine with accepting that they exist because they exist.
So now we have 2 new concepts added in, Dungeons and The Lords of Chaos, why not add in a 3rd! Yes, Now cities of high enough levels can spend points to automatically create buildings because. I can accept that, but why is this in the book all of the sudden? And why does he spend the evening before a battle focused on city planning? Why does he move a building? Is it to just screw with his smiths? There is no reason to move the building, let's just have him waste points. But not too many points, just enough so he barely has enough to spend it on what he wants.
A part of Richter's powers is that he can trade XP for what are known as TP, basically XP for professions. He does it, gets an XP drain effect (I am SOOO tempted to calculate all his lost XP to show HOW FUCKING STUPID you have to be to trade XP for TP) and all of a sudden the XP drain stops. To give you an idea, he goes from -50,000 to perfectly fine in a chapter. That means, he earned over 100,000 XP between the two prompts and we don't find out about it till AFTER he starts earning XP as normal.
On XP and levels, what's the point? I mean he gets his ass kicked from a level 3 mob. He beats guys double his level. What is the point of levels? I have read all 6 book before and I can't tell if Richter will be fine going up against a level 10 mob or a level 50 mob because levels mean jack all. If I can't tell Richter's success based on his enemies level, why am I given this information?
I will admit, towards the end I was skipping pages and barely reading paragraphs. There's this huge battle and I went in knowing the Richter would almost die but then learn something or pull some shit out of his ass and he would be fine in the end. And the battle ends when Richter pulls some shit out of his ass and a bunch of characters died that I had to stop and think about before I remember who they were and I just didn't care.
On to supporting characters since I am just tearing into this book. This book's humor relies on the fact you know certain things about pop culture. There is a builder named Roswan. Read some reviews and it is supposed to refer to Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec. I thought that was clever. NOPE! Turns out IT IS Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec and we're given another character named Leslie Gnome. Look, before it was clever and a funny joke for those who got it. After it was like he was beating me with a stick yelling "DO YOU GET IT? DO YOU GET MY JOKE? DO YOU GET MY REFERENCE! ITS FUNNY CUZ IT WAS POPULAR."
This book just exemplifies my main complaints about the series. Richter is too scatterbrained. He levels but doesn't progress as a character. He doesn't really have goals and the goals he does have he doesn't really progress towards. There's this subplot about the light and dark courts and happens in the prologs and I don't know where it's going, nor do I care. He's not trying to grow his city. He's not trying to become a better lord. He's not even really trying to adventure. He just kind of does things. And they work out for him. And he becomes more powerful. And because we only have Richter's frame of reference all of this means nothing since we don't know what the average actually is.
But so I don't hate on the author too much because I do think he's done a good job and I like the world he's built, I have suggestions as to how to progress from here. Let Richter change. Let him learn from his past actions so he doesn't do the same thing again and again. The book ends with a ton of characters death. Let him feel that weight and grow from that weight. And keep the books focused. Have the next books in the series be about him completing this massive backlog of quests he has. Have one book focused on his blood oath. Have another focused on conquering the catacombs. Have one focused on beating the swarm.
If I was to continue the story from here, this is what I would do. Book 7 ends with the imp from book 1 coming to call in his favor. Book 8 starts with having the Imp require something that makes him need to clear the catacombs. My suggestion is to get all the Khans together. The imp drags him to the city to get him on its way, and he lets the kobold king hatch to help him on his quest. Together they create the new Kobold Kingdom that acts as his vassal. The trader comes back with more of the Khan coins and some other stuff. Clearing the catacombs gets him the rest. He clears two quests, and the book ends.
Book 9 is about him clearing the blood vow as his diplomat comes back with a dwarven contingent. Uses the hammer he has in his treasury as leverage to get help and the book ends with the kinder informing Richter the swarm is on its way. Book 10 is all about killing to swarm queen. By book 11 he has cleared up most of his dangling plot threads that he can focus on the main plot. He has physical, magical, political, structural, and environmental power at that point so when the dark and the light courts start making their moves he can use all those resources to try to survive.
I hope that Dr. Kong will take some suggestions to heart. If you got to the end of this, just give your books more focus. And let Richter grow and let us see his decisions change as he changes. Just don't tell us how he grows. Use the old adage, show don't tell. That way this lovely world you've built up can get used to its full potential.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 30, 2019
Oh lordy!
I totally fell hard for this book.
Like, I started saying things to myself like, "This was Totally written for me!" and "I don't care one bit about its length, I could keep reading this for several months straight without a single breather." and "NO F***ING WAY! THIS IS EPIC!"
I was already a big fan from the previous 6 books but when I finally got around to reading this 7th, I was a little intimidated by the length. What could have happened here to make it so long?
Muahahahahahahahahaha
Okay, folks, this is the literary equivalent of crack. If you like Skyrim, early Warcraft, any of the turn-based fantasy games OR the MMPRGs, just start shaking it up a bit and throwing all of the best features, including the delightful DING sounds of leveling-up along SO MANY skillsets (Yes, in this book,) getting into leveling jobs, classes, scalable items, dungeon leveling, CRAFTING EVERYTHING, including enchantments on your settlement and the buildings in it.
SO MUCH is focused on this and I didn't care in the slightest because I LOVE THIS STUFF it hardly mattered when the actual epic battles rolled in. :) TONS of epic battles, each using the skills and created enchantments and new spells learned and bonuses from the last battles. :) And we get to see TONS of breathtaking reversals, craziness, OP monsters and LEGENDARY boss battles.
And you know the best part? Very little time is actually lost on character building, except in the, you know... CHARACTER BUILDING. :) lol, I think we must have spent at least ten percent of the whole book time with the skills menu up. :)
But don't think this doesn't come with story. It does. It's an RPG in all the grand styles... and there are even a great deal of fantastic nerdy easter eggs. Just pay close attention to the Chaos skill menu. Or a certain OP magician from Feistland (no relation, indeed) popping up. :)
Seriously, folks, this has addiction level 92 written all over it. And I LOVE it. :)
Can I recommend it for anyone who hasn't played and loved any RPG game in existence?
Maybe. Maybe not. But if you have even a SLIGHT love for them, this series is pure cocaine.
I totally fell hard for this book.
Like, I started saying things to myself like, "This was Totally written for me!" and "I don't care one bit about its length, I could keep reading this for several months straight without a single breather." and "NO F***ING WAY! THIS IS EPIC!"
I was already a big fan from the previous 6 books but when I finally got around to reading this 7th, I was a little intimidated by the length. What could have happened here to make it so long?
Muahahahahahahahahaha
Okay, folks, this is the literary equivalent of crack. If you like Skyrim, early Warcraft, any of the turn-based fantasy games OR the MMPRGs, just start shaking it up a bit and throwing all of the best features, including the delightful DING sounds of leveling-up along SO MANY skillsets (Yes, in this book,) getting into leveling jobs, classes, scalable items, dungeon leveling, CRAFTING EVERYTHING, including enchantments on your settlement and the buildings in it.
SO MUCH is focused on this and I didn't care in the slightest because I LOVE THIS STUFF it hardly mattered when the actual epic battles rolled in. :) TONS of epic battles, each using the skills and created enchantments and new spells learned and bonuses from the last battles. :) And we get to see TONS of breathtaking reversals, craziness, OP monsters and LEGENDARY boss battles.
And you know the best part? Very little time is actually lost on character building, except in the, you know... CHARACTER BUILDING. :) lol, I think we must have spent at least ten percent of the whole book time with the skills menu up. :)
But don't think this doesn't come with story. It does. It's an RPG in all the grand styles... and there are even a great deal of fantastic nerdy easter eggs. Just pay close attention to the Chaos skill menu. Or a certain OP magician from Feistland (no relation, indeed) popping up. :)
Seriously, folks, this has addiction level 92 written all over it. And I LOVE it. :)
Can I recommend it for anyone who hasn't played and loved any RPG game in existence?
Maybe. Maybe not. But if you have even a SLIGHT love for them, this series is pure cocaine.
February 19, 2018
Book 8 where are you
Big fan of the series and like everyone been waiting on book 7 and now book 8! Think Aldrin was playing mind games with the book 7 will finish up a lot of quests. Man did say 50 books was the goal after all. So if your looking for closer this isn't the book for you. That said I liked it! Think he went a little too table top game geek with all the math for every battle. I mean I get that the different metals give more damage and more damage with different spells ECT... don't need a break down everytime. First few books were more plot focused he had quest this was trouble he got into completing it. As he got more quests and into more trouble the pace of book slowed down. Typically in game same thing happens have to level up before you can handle bigger problems. So I get that, the whole village building for all city crowd is well done too. But the time tables just a little off in my opinion. Book 6 was two days roughly find problem take everyone into huge fight. Book 7 is an evolution of this, in my opinion. Where are the darwf mercenaries ? The eaters that destroy whole forests? The bugbears who where raiding the forest? Kingdom of law forgot about all the other races sneaking away? Or the 2! Special ops teams sent by light & dark court. Or the signal flair and certain crazy assassin sent into the sky when she died and shot in the dark alert whole guild the contact wasn't completed. Year later was hoping at least a few of these would be addressed. But all 8 can say is
Big fan of the series and like everyone been waiting on book 7 and now book 8! Think Aldrin was playing mind games with the book 7 will finish up a lot of quests. Man did say 50 books was the goal after all. So if your looking for closer this isn't the book for you. That said I liked it! Think he went a little too table top game geek with all the math for every battle. I mean I get that the different metals give more damage and more damage with different spells ECT... don't need a break down everytime. First few books were more plot focused he had quest this was trouble he got into completing it. As he got more quests and into more trouble the pace of book slowed down. Typically in game same thing happens have to level up before you can handle bigger problems. So I get that, the whole village building for all city crowd is well done too. But the time tables just a little off in my opinion. Book 6 was two days roughly find problem take everyone into huge fight. Book 7 is an evolution of this, in my opinion. Where are the darwf mercenaries ? The eaters that destroy whole forests? The bugbears who where raiding the forest? Kingdom of law forgot about all the other races sneaking away? Or the 2! Special ops teams sent by light & dark court. Or the signal flair and certain crazy assassin sent into the sky when she died and shot in the dark alert whole guild the contact wasn't completed. Year later was hoping at least a few of these would be addressed. But all 8 can say is
October 28, 2019
I’m officially done with this series. The constant stats and internal monologue is just too much.
I’m assuming, since this is book 7 of the series that anyone who reads this book already knows what he’s capable of, who his friends are and allies. So why the constant repeat.
Also, to describe everything over and over again is just ugh...
Example
Congratulations you have found a Iron Nail Clippers
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Continues for a full page...
Internal babble follows
The Iron Nail Clipper is used to trim ones nail, either hands or feet or anywhere nail grows this will do the trick. Iron Nail Clipper can also be used on dogs, cats or other types of animal, but this is not recommended for you to do. Each animal need their own type of Nail Clippers.
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Continues for another page.
Plus the amount of information for mundane things is just outstanding.
Richter woke up, (full summary of what he is feeling) he washed his face (another summary of his feeling about that.
Also the time line doesn’t add up.
His friends were taken for their trials, the eggs hatched, now it’s been a month since the eggs have hatched but the 1 week trial for his friend Krom to come back is still not up.
Also, so much things that need to be done, battles that need to be fought, quest that need to be completed, and he is partying, sleeping with three woman and one guy. What the hell? Nothing is being accomplished just him checking his damn stats. I’m talking constantly checking his stats.
It’s like this,
I want to grow, be strong.
I join a gym.
I do one fucking push up and I stop
Take all my measurements and I mean all. Including the length of each individual fucking hair and write it all down for you to read.
Then I do another push up. And once again, check and measure every fucking inch.
Then I have an internal monologue about how much more I can progress and how faster I can do the sit up and if I do it faster will I grow faster. And then I do another push up and repeat the entire process all over again.
Honestly, several times throughout the series it felt like the amount of action and progression for the entire series can make up the entirety of one book.
It felt like the Author was just spewing garbage and trying to meet a quota or I don’t know, fill the book with nothing.
I’m at 29% of a 27 hour book and nothing has happened. Nothing. I mean, Nothing.
I’m done.
No offense but this is garbage. The first few books were okay, but 3 and above have been garbage.
I’ll say it again. Send this baby off to college already.
On that note, for those of you who love this series. I admire your determination and will power. It takes a lot of it to get past the book 3. I should know, I made to 6 and a quarter.
Good luck
For those of you looking to start this series, I’d say skip it. I’ve read better with less page fillers (in this case, chapters upon chapters upon chapters of fillers)
To author, don’t publish this book or any other books as a hard copy. Think about the trees. You’ll be giving them a pointless death. I think it would be better if those trees be used for MineCraft novellas. (FYI, I hate MineCraft Novellas)
I’m assuming, since this is book 7 of the series that anyone who reads this book already knows what he’s capable of, who his friends are and allies. So why the constant repeat.
Also, to describe everything over and over again is just ugh...
Example
Congratulations you have found a Iron Nail Clippers
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Continues for a full page...
Internal babble follows
The Iron Nail Clipper is used to trim ones nail, either hands or feet or anywhere nail grows this will do the trick. Iron Nail Clipper can also be used on dogs, cats or other types of animal, but this is not recommended for you to do. Each animal need their own type of Nail Clippers.
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Continues for another page.
Plus the amount of information for mundane things is just outstanding.
Richter woke up, (full summary of what he is feeling) he washed his face (another summary of his feeling about that.
Also the time line doesn’t add up.
His friends were taken for their trials, the eggs hatched, now it’s been a month since the eggs have hatched but the 1 week trial for his friend Krom to come back is still not up.
Also, so much things that need to be done, battles that need to be fought, quest that need to be completed, and he is partying, sleeping with three woman and one guy. What the hell? Nothing is being accomplished just him checking his damn stats. I’m talking constantly checking his stats.
It’s like this,
I want to grow, be strong.
I join a gym.
I do one fucking push up and I stop
Take all my measurements and I mean all. Including the length of each individual fucking hair and write it all down for you to read.
Then I do another push up. And once again, check and measure every fucking inch.
Then I have an internal monologue about how much more I can progress and how faster I can do the sit up and if I do it faster will I grow faster. And then I do another push up and repeat the entire process all over again.
Honestly, several times throughout the series it felt like the amount of action and progression for the entire series can make up the entirety of one book.
It felt like the Author was just spewing garbage and trying to meet a quota or I don’t know, fill the book with nothing.
I’m at 29% of a 27 hour book and nothing has happened. Nothing. I mean, Nothing.
I’m done.
No offense but this is garbage. The first few books were okay, but 3 and above have been garbage.
I’ll say it again. Send this baby off to college already.
On that note, for those of you who love this series. I admire your determination and will power. It takes a lot of it to get past the book 3. I should know, I made to 6 and a quarter.
Good luck
For those of you looking to start this series, I’d say skip it. I’ve read better with less page fillers (in this case, chapters upon chapters upon chapters of fillers)
To author, don’t publish this book or any other books as a hard copy. Think about the trees. You’ll be giving them a pointless death. I think it would be better if those trees be used for MineCraft novellas. (FYI, I hate MineCraft Novellas)
February 1, 2019
A great addition to The Land series, which I have come to expect from Aleron's other books. Predators is significantly longer than the other books in the series and the editing is very well done. I was very pleased with the story - it closed off some arcs, opened others and only hinted at some things which "make you go hmmm." I cannot give enough props to Al for the humor on this one - there were many times during the read through that I truly LOL at a particular scene or turn of phrase - I certainly expanded my repertoire a bit on this one. If you haven't read the series yet, I highly suggest giving it a read or even a listen, since the audiobooks are also extremely well done.
February 20, 2018
When an author claims to have produced their best work to date and you've already enjoyed their previous work so much it's natural to be sceptical. I am happy to report in this instance I have been thoroughly proven wrong in my scepticism! This latest book is indeed the best in the series to date. Without giving anything away many questions generated previously are answered and in a throughly enjoyable fashion. I don't hesitate to say that the series is worth picking up and reading just due to this installment. Well done!
February 19, 2018
Absolutely Amazing!
Once more Dr. Kong’s story pulls me into his world of fantasy and intrigue, of weapons and stats, an RPG of Legend. This book answered numerous questions while asking many more. It was an amazing ready and probably my favorite book in the series. I highly recommend this book to everyone who loves fantasy, RPGs, and just a touch of Chaos.
Thank you Aleron, this was worth the wait!
Gnomes Rule!
Once more Dr. Kong’s story pulls me into his world of fantasy and intrigue, of weapons and stats, an RPG of Legend. This book answered numerous questions while asking many more. It was an amazing ready and probably my favorite book in the series. I highly recommend this book to everyone who loves fantasy, RPGs, and just a touch of Chaos.
Thank you Aleron, this was worth the wait!
Gnomes Rule!
February 20, 2018
Strong continuation of a great series
Ricther continues to develop swiftly but not as fast as the world around him (the basic premise mod all litRPG). We start to the up some issues but the story ends with you wanting more. My only complaint for an otherwise great story is that I wanted to see more time pass instead of just over a week in the storyline. Definitely worth the read!!
Ricther continues to develop swiftly but not as fast as the world around him (the basic premise mod all litRPG). We start to the up some issues but the story ends with you wanting more. My only complaint for an otherwise great story is that I wanted to see more time pass instead of just over a week in the storyline. Definitely worth the read!!
February 22, 2018
Finally!
The long... long... vary long awaited book 7. It massive in size, something around 1600 to 1700 pages. A lot happened in this book and it was worth the wait... just please don’t take a year to write the next. I promise that we don’t mind normal sized books.
The long... long... vary long awaited book 7. It massive in size, something around 1600 to 1700 pages. A lot happened in this book and it was worth the wait... just please don’t take a year to write the next. I promise that we don’t mind normal sized books.
July 9, 2018
Wow this one a long book. Book 7 is about the same length as all 6 previous books combined... and it really didn't need to be.
I have a mixed feelings on this book. I'm a big fan of world mechanics, that was one of the initial draws I had to and others like , , and . This however, is worse than for pages and pages AND PAGES AND PAGES of status windows, item descriptions, and point allocations.
The first 1/2 to 2/3 of this book is Richter:
1. Upgrading his stats
2. Upgrading his profession
3 Upgrading his skills
4. Upgrading his spells
5. Upgrading alma's skills
6. Upgrading the dungeon loot
7. Upgrading the dungeon / dungeon mater bonus
8. Upgrading the dungeon rooms
9. Upgrading the Town with settlement points.
10. Upgrading the Town with research points.
11. Upgrading the Town with building points.
12. Evolving his creatures
13. Evolving his summons
14. Browsing the chaos points catalog
15. The town budget
16. Setting tax rates
and so, so much more fiddly details. The tax rates stuff, for example, was a full chapter on how treasuries worked and excruciating details on the banking system of the Land. Holy F*** Aleron, focus. You have way too many mechanics you're spending way too much time fiddling with, and this is from someone who loves that kind of thing.
Anyways, the story. If all the superfluous stuff is stripped away the book would probably be about the same lengths as all the other books (400ish pages) and... it would be really good. If you can push through the first 2/3rds of the book the story finally starts and it's actually really engaging. Aleron is guilty of over using the 'all is lost!' moment followed by a clutch hail marry, or last second rescue, or surprise new ability, or one in a million chance, or deus ex machina, ext. It's fine on occasion, but it seems like every engagement in this book has it happen 2 or 3 or even more times. The climax of this book has it happen about 10 times. Still, I did enjoyed the story and I'm really interested in seeing what happens next.
Conclusion: Aleron Kong desperately needs an editor. The man has some great ideas, and a mechanics based view of the world that I really identify with, but it's getting him lost in the weeds.
First half of the book 1/5 Stars.
Second half of the books 4/5 stars.
2.5/5 star average.
I have a mixed feelings on this book. I'm a big fan of world mechanics, that was one of the initial draws I had to and others like , , and . This however, is worse than for pages and pages AND PAGES AND PAGES of status windows, item descriptions, and point allocations.
The first 1/2 to 2/3 of this book is Richter:
1. Upgrading his stats
2. Upgrading his profession
3 Upgrading his skills
4. Upgrading his spells
5. Upgrading alma's skills
6. Upgrading the dungeon loot
7. Upgrading the dungeon / dungeon mater bonus
8. Upgrading the dungeon rooms
9. Upgrading the Town with settlement points.
10. Upgrading the Town with research points.
11. Upgrading the Town with building points.
12. Evolving his creatures
13. Evolving his summons
14. Browsing the chaos points catalog
15. The town budget
16. Setting tax rates
and so, so much more fiddly details. The tax rates stuff, for example, was a full chapter on how treasuries worked and excruciating details on the banking system of the Land. Holy F*** Aleron, focus. You have way too many mechanics you're spending way too much time fiddling with, and this is from someone who loves that kind of thing.
Anyways, the story. If all the superfluous stuff is stripped away the book would probably be about the same lengths as all the other books (400ish pages) and... it would be really good. If you can push through the first 2/3rds of the book the story finally starts and it's actually really engaging. Aleron is guilty of over using the 'all is lost!' moment followed by a clutch hail marry, or last second rescue, or surprise new ability, or one in a million chance, or deus ex machina, ext. It's fine on occasion, but it seems like every engagement in this book has it happen 2 or 3 or even more times. The climax of this book has it happen about 10 times. Still, I did enjoyed the story and I'm really interested in seeing what happens next.
Conclusion: Aleron Kong desperately needs an editor. The man has some great ideas, and a mechanics based view of the world that I really identify with, but it's getting him lost in the weeds.
First half of the book 1/5 Stars.
Second half of the books 4/5 stars.
2.5/5 star average.
February 22, 2018
It just an amazing story!
Come on you just have to read this. Full of adventures, love, betrayal, freedom, etc. Amzing writing style. I was glued to the book this whole time and finished in 5 days!
Come on you just have to read this. Full of adventures, love, betrayal, freedom, etc. Amzing writing style. I was glued to the book this whole time and finished in 5 days!
February 22, 2018
Badassery and Hijinks
I truly enjoyed this book! I will be buying the audio book just to experience it again in a new medium and have the pleasure it brought me re experienced. Lots of death, tons of fighting and GNOMES RULE
I truly enjoyed this book! I will be buying the audio book just to experience it again in a new medium and have the pleasure it brought me re experienced. Lots of death, tons of fighting and GNOMES RULE
February 21, 2018
A hands down thrill ride that will have your heart pumping faster and faster
Same ol' Dr. Kong, but this time he decided to bitch slap us around and let a monster loose upon us.
Same ol' Dr. Kong, but this time he decided to bitch slap us around and let a monster loose upon us.
February 19, 2018
Amazing, well worth the wait
Excellent book, brilliant addition to the series, richer, more varied and thrill to read. Thanks Aleron, I appreciate the hard work that went into this.
Excellent book, brilliant addition to the series, richer, more varied and thrill to read. Thanks Aleron, I appreciate the hard work that went into this.
February 22, 2018
Need next book now
Great book, skipped a few pages here and there, but can't wait for the next book to come out. 5/5
Great book, skipped a few pages here and there, but can't wait for the next book to come out. 5/5
March 15, 2020
Rating 4.5 stars.
Since this is book 7, you either love this series and there is nothing I can say that would make you change your mind, or you already know you don't like this series and there is nothing I can say that can make me change your mind. So, I guess this review is just for me then.
Overall, I really love this series. For whatever reason though this book was a little different than the previous books in the series. I have listened to them all on audiobook and before each book was between 9-17 hours. This book though was 47 hours long. I have no idea why there was such a change in the length, but I really did enjoy it. I did feel at times that the story dragged on a little bit, however, because I liked it so much it was only something that I noticed and not something to truly complain about. We did learn more about the Lords of Chaos in this book, as well as the Demon Prince's plan in bringing the Chaos Seeds to this world (this was something that was only hinted at in the first 2 books but never fully explored). Rictor keeps leveling up his skill level and his village, he goes on multiple quests and now has to learn about running a Dungeon. This sometimes felt a little muddled. I thought that there were to many things going on at the same time and that nobody could have enough time to complete everything (again something I noticed but it is only a minor complaint). We also get to meet another chaos seed in this story!
I thought is was a little crazy that Rictor kept fighting battles way above his head as well.
Overall I still really enjoy this book and this character. There were multiple pop culture references that I picked up on right away (So, I married an Axe Murderer) was awesome. If you liked the other books, I would highly recommend to read this one as well and let me know if you picked up on that movie reference as well.
Since this is book 7, you either love this series and there is nothing I can say that would make you change your mind, or you already know you don't like this series and there is nothing I can say that can make me change your mind. So, I guess this review is just for me then.
Overall, I really love this series. For whatever reason though this book was a little different than the previous books in the series. I have listened to them all on audiobook and before each book was between 9-17 hours. This book though was 47 hours long. I have no idea why there was such a change in the length, but I really did enjoy it. I did feel at times that the story dragged on a little bit, however, because I liked it so much it was only something that I noticed and not something to truly complain about. We did learn more about the Lords of Chaos in this book, as well as the Demon Prince's plan in bringing the Chaos Seeds to this world (this was something that was only hinted at in the first 2 books but never fully explored). Rictor keeps leveling up his skill level and his village, he goes on multiple quests and now has to learn about running a Dungeon. This sometimes felt a little muddled. I thought that there were to many things going on at the same time and that nobody could have enough time to complete everything (again something I noticed but it is only a minor complaint). We also get to meet another chaos seed in this story!
I thought is was a little crazy that Rictor kept fighting battles way above his head as well.
Overall I still really enjoy this book and this character. There were multiple pop culture references that I picked up on right away (So, I married an Axe Murderer) was awesome. If you liked the other books, I would highly recommend to read this one as well and let me know if you picked up on that movie reference as well.
February 23, 2018
Gnomes rule!!!
By far, the longest book I’ve ever read. That being said, words cannot describe how amazing this book is. If you haven’t read the land yet, you need to get on it. Harry Potter has always been my all time favorite series, but this series may just trump.
By far, the longest book I’ve ever read. That being said, words cannot describe how amazing this book is. If you haven’t read the land yet, you need to get on it. Harry Potter has always been my all time favorite series, but this series may just trump.
February 21, 2018
Awesome
Great book worth the wait and it's so long ! Only question now is when's book 8 coming out Lol
Great book worth the wait and it's so long ! Only question now is when's book 8 coming out Lol
February 22, 2018
Great book
It's a fun read and a good adventure. Answers some of the questions about the land. Can't wait for the next one
It's a fun read and a good adventure. Answers some of the questions about the land. Can't wait for the next one
July 24, 2018
Was not let down
Awesome book just like the others. Not looking forward to the wait again. If you have been following the series, you won't be let down.
Awesome book just like the others. Not looking forward to the wait again. If you have been following the series, you won't be let down.
March 12, 2018
I'll start with this. I think this book is an order of magnitude better than the last couple and I'll probably pick up the next.
But this being a the seventh book from an author, I would've expected a few things to have gotten better.
1. Editing - I get Aleron is an indie writer, and I get that budgets and resources are generally tight when it comes to that, but for the love of all that's holy, why do we need to be told 23 times that Hisako and Randy are the experts and that Richter should therefore listen to them. Why do we need to be told 12 times that the Cauldron is made of glass, but not really glass, because it's super strong. There's a lot of redundancies that could've been easily cleaned and tightened up and provided a much more enjoyable reading experience.
2. Tables - I don't read on a kindle, I use the iphone/ipad application and the hard-coded tables are impossible to read without the right number of pixel width configuration, a lot of times partially spilling into text below. Also, what's with all the fancy (not) colors? I read in dark mode, since it's easier on the eyes and keeps my wife happy, since the brightness doesn't wake her. This was the first book ever that I was unable to read in dark mode, because there's a cornucopia of tables, some of them expanding multiple pages.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for organization of data, but I'm definitely getting an "increase page count" vibe from what's happening here. If I'm wrong, then that's fine, but I feel sorry for the poor sob that will have to record this on audio.
3. 90/00's references - Come on... It was humorous at first, but by Wheadon and Abrams, cut it out. Also, Roswan and Lezlie are a bit too much on the nose, don't you think? I didn't like the "easter eggs" in RPO, I think they are there just to tug at the nostalgia of the reader, but at least they were done well and in context with the internal logic of the story. They don't make sense here, since these references are from as much as 50 years from the time Richter left Earth.
There's another couple of minor things, but I'll leave this at that. I could've seriously given this book 4 stars if any of these three major problems were fixed/better, but they aggravated me enough that they turned an decent story into a 3 star.
But this being a the seventh book from an author, I would've expected a few things to have gotten better.
1. Editing - I get Aleron is an indie writer, and I get that budgets and resources are generally tight when it comes to that, but for the love of all that's holy, why do we need to be told 23 times that Hisako and Randy are the experts and that Richter should therefore listen to them. Why do we need to be told 12 times that the Cauldron is made of glass, but not really glass, because it's super strong. There's a lot of redundancies that could've been easily cleaned and tightened up and provided a much more enjoyable reading experience.
2. Tables - I don't read on a kindle, I use the iphone/ipad application and the hard-coded tables are impossible to read without the right number of pixel width configuration, a lot of times partially spilling into text below. Also, what's with all the fancy (not) colors? I read in dark mode, since it's easier on the eyes and keeps my wife happy, since the brightness doesn't wake her. This was the first book ever that I was unable to read in dark mode, because there's a cornucopia of tables, some of them expanding multiple pages.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for organization of data, but I'm definitely getting an "increase page count" vibe from what's happening here. If I'm wrong, then that's fine, but I feel sorry for the poor sob that will have to record this on audio.
3. 90/00's references - Come on... It was humorous at first, but by Wheadon and Abrams, cut it out. Also, Roswan and Lezlie are a bit too much on the nose, don't you think? I didn't like the "easter eggs" in RPO, I think they are there just to tug at the nostalgia of the reader, but at least they were done well and in context with the internal logic of the story. They don't make sense here, since these references are from as much as 50 years from the time Richter left Earth.
There's another couple of minor things, but I'll leave this at that. I could've seriously given this book 4 stars if any of these three major problems were fixed/better, but they aggravated me enough that they turned an decent story into a 3 star.
February 21, 2018
Best in the Series so far
I loved this addition to The Land. Honestly this is more like two books worth of story, but you won’t find me complaining. The author has made a few choices here that I really liked: mostly how as the book went on the prompts were summarized more and more instead of just listed over and over. Towards the very end you just get recaps if certain prompts instead of a page worth of image, which I appreciated.
Can’t wait to see what happens next
I loved this addition to The Land. Honestly this is more like two books worth of story, but you won’t find me complaining. The author has made a few choices here that I really liked: mostly how as the book went on the prompts were summarized more and more instead of just listed over and over. Towards the very end you just get recaps if certain prompts instead of a page worth of image, which I appreciated.
Can’t wait to see what happens next
February 21, 2018
Another Great One
This is a thrilling adventure in The Land. I loved the journey and advancement of characters, village and story. Things are heating up in The Land and I can't wait to delve in again. Thanks Aleron King.
This is a thrilling adventure in The Land. I loved the journey and advancement of characters, village and story. Things are heating up in The Land and I can't wait to delve in again. Thanks Aleron King.
February 22, 2018
My new favorite book
An incredible world that is easy to get lost in. Loved to be able to see into the thoughts of some of the characters. So many parts made me laugh, angry, and even tear up a bit a true masterpiece. Thank you Mr. Kong.
An incredible world that is easy to get lost in. Loved to be able to see into the thoughts of some of the characters. So many parts made me laugh, angry, and even tear up a bit a true masterpiece. Thank you Mr. Kong.
February 22, 2018
Wozers!!
It was amazing I literally coudnt put it down had to take off a day from work because I couldnt concentrate 😁😁😁 I'm literally going to be wasting away while I wait for the next one. Bravo Sir Bravo!
It was amazing I literally coudnt put it down had to take off a day from work because I couldnt concentrate 😁😁😁 I'm literally going to be wasting away while I wait for the next one. Bravo Sir Bravo!
February 22, 2018
This book was great. I've been waiting for what seems like an eternity for this book. I only put it down to sleep. That being said let us dig into the meat of it.
One of the best aspects of this book is its length. The book definitely has some heft to it. Although there are points that are a bit slow these sections are necessary to fill in the groundwork for the overarching plot development and background of the world Aleron Kong has created. I love battle scenes and creative magic as much as the next person, but greatly respect and appreciate the time and effort that went into perfecting the game mechanics and building the world around the story.
I was very impressed with the worldbuilding. The world Aleron Kong has created reminds me of reading the Wheel of Time series and the King Killer Chronicles. The world feels almost tangible. Aleron obviously spent a good deal of time thinking about the world his story takes place in.
This particular book provides an overarching plot and structure to the series that the previous books have been lacking in.
If you've visited Aleron Kong's Patreon page, you'll know that a lot of his beta readers thought the book took on some darker tones, and they are absolutely right. Although the themes may unsettle some, the darker tones add a depth to the series that I think a lot of litrpgs lack. Most series focus on the fighting and quest completion. This leaves the main and secondary characters little more than cardboard cutouts with very little depth to them. The scenes that cast Ritcher in a darker light struck a chord in me that left me feeling both unsettled and vindicated. The ability to manifest these feelings is what makes Aleron Kong, in my opinion, a step above the rest and ahead of the pack. While I enjoy the battles and quests just as much as the next person, I also enjoy the thought-provoking and self-examination Aleron Kong's writing brings about.
In contrast to the dark tones are lighthearted references to many other books, tv shows, movies, cartoons and anime. I enjoyed piecing together where particular references came from and even did a couple searches to find the ones I didn't get. Having a somewhat corny sense of humor is an affliction that plagues every litrpg writer, and fingers crossed they never grow out of it.
I highly recommend this book to anyone.
One of the best aspects of this book is its length. The book definitely has some heft to it. Although there are points that are a bit slow these sections are necessary to fill in the groundwork for the overarching plot development and background of the world Aleron Kong has created. I love battle scenes and creative magic as much as the next person, but greatly respect and appreciate the time and effort that went into perfecting the game mechanics and building the world around the story.
I was very impressed with the worldbuilding. The world Aleron Kong has created reminds me of reading the Wheel of Time series and the King Killer Chronicles. The world feels almost tangible. Aleron obviously spent a good deal of time thinking about the world his story takes place in.
This particular book provides an overarching plot and structure to the series that the previous books have been lacking in.
If you've visited Aleron Kong's Patreon page, you'll know that a lot of his beta readers thought the book took on some darker tones, and they are absolutely right. Although the themes may unsettle some, the darker tones add a depth to the series that I think a lot of litrpgs lack. Most series focus on the fighting and quest completion. This leaves the main and secondary characters little more than cardboard cutouts with very little depth to them. The scenes that cast Ritcher in a darker light struck a chord in me that left me feeling both unsettled and vindicated. The ability to manifest these feelings is what makes Aleron Kong, in my opinion, a step above the rest and ahead of the pack. While I enjoy the battles and quests just as much as the next person, I also enjoy the thought-provoking and self-examination Aleron Kong's writing brings about.
In contrast to the dark tones are lighthearted references to many other books, tv shows, movies, cartoons and anime. I enjoyed piecing together where particular references came from and even did a couple searches to find the ones I didn't get. Having a somewhat corny sense of humor is an affliction that plagues every litrpg writer, and fingers crossed they never grow out of it.
I highly recommend this book to anyone.
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