I got bored. Trevor is isekai'd into a town where everyone is friendly, people give gifts to strangers for no reason, and everybody respects and aids I got bored. Trevor is isekai'd into a town where everyone is friendly, people give gifts to strangers for no reason, and everybody respects and aids those summoned from other worlds. There's even a Hero House where Trevor can stay for free and it has all the modern conveniences including magic refrigerators, magic trash cans, and magic microwaves. Sure, he got a lame "power" but I can't help thinking that at least some of that is the lame person who uses it lamely.
There's some creativity in the world building but the expression of it is sadly mundane. And paced slower than a snail in molasses. I don't actually know how slow that is, but I'd put money on the metaphor holding up with an impartial jury. And it doesn't help that the dialogue sounds like it was put together by eavesdropping a junior high school lunch. At the awkward kids' table.
One star for the dnf and lack of anything to care about....more
So a guy gets sucked into a magic world using dark powers he has been practicing all his life, more or less. So he's a bit creepy, but okay. At least So a guy gets sucked into a magic world using dark powers he has been practicing all his life, more or less. So he's a bit creepy, but okay. At least he's trying to help people. Sort of. As long as they go along with him.
There's a lot of power fantasy at play here, with a bit of a juvenile frame, but at least some attempt at being clever by inverting the moral axis. Our main character getting explicitly "evil" class powers while some of the chumps that are pulled in with him get explicitly "good" class powers is a conflict that might not suck. And our main character is at least trying to help folks. And then the main chump with "good" powers actually kills a helpless person pleading for help while cowarding his way to a treasure he's going to steal that just happens to have the perfect item to make him have even a small chance to continue his entitled whining. And that was my last straw.
Sure, play with the moral axis. I'm interested to see where you end up with a mostly good person using power coded bad to do good. But we get a couple of PoV sections in the weasel's perspective and giving that guy unearned wins was like thrusting sticks in my spokes. He's a prejudiced, entitled jerk who has authored all the bad things that have happened and he gets the free wins that guarantee that his whiny thrashings will haunt this story for way longer than I'm prepared to tolerate.
So one star and just yuck. I'm okay with a kind of simplistic take on morality and power fantasy if you at least make it interesting. Entitled whiners who win by author fiat will lose all that leeway right quick, though. At least for me....more
So in the first three percent (as far as I made it) we have gratuitous tripping, flinging a tiara away in denial, many inane questions/whining about "So in the first three percent (as far as I made it) we have gratuitous tripping, flinging a tiara away in denial, many inane questions/whining about "can't I go back" and a request to speak with a manager. So much thrash. Worse, it all felt performative. Like the author thought that's what a person might act like if whisked away to a peaceful setting where you have your own throne and fountains and glistening mirrors. Maybe she's right. I had a hard time taking it seriously. So I stopped. Mostly I figured that a character with that little volition isn't going to make for an interesting protagonist as she'll be forever acted upon (reactive) rather than working for anything she cares about....more
I made it about a third through before I decided I wasn't interested. I mean, the boredom had been building, but once we see the main bad guy and the I made it about a third through before I decided I wasn't interested. I mean, the boredom had been building, but once we see the main bad guy and the troll community response is to send Chod off on a multi-day quest that was as ill-defined as it was uninteresting I lost what little interest I still had. I mean, it wasn't named maguffin, but might as well have been.
Plus, Chad (the player, it's the character he's playing who is called Chod. Yes, that is as stupid as it sounds) is pretty basic for someone who is "a professional gamer". Could we see him make just one interesting or good choice? Maybe intuit an interaction or build ahead of time? Anything? He literally rage-fled from a slime.
I gave a pass for the stupid setup where we have laws that wouldn't pass a first amendment challenge made by a first-grader and even the defense lawyer who was both incompetent and visibly disinterested in a trial that was supposed to be public and highly anticipated. But the sentence and its execution were so devoid of creativity or interest it was like the author couldn't be bothered to story. Seriously, if you're that eager to get to the VR world, then just skip all that nonsense! If it doesn't matter enough to make it interesting, then why make your reader(s) go through it?!? Yeah, I should have seen the dnf coming from there.
Anyway, one star dnf. A potentially fun idea run aground on the shoals of the boredom archipelago. Tale as old as time, really....more
I picked this up because I've liked other works by the author. He has a great way with power fantasy in LitRPG. Unfortunately, this one is something oI picked this up because I've liked other works by the author. He has a great way with power fantasy in LitRPG. Unfortunately, this one is something of an exception with Lucas being tied to a dungeon. I've found Dungeon Core hit or miss with mostly miss in the past. This one actually does a great job with the characters and world building. But the major drawback to dungeons is that they are geographically static. Which means that all of the conflict has to become local (or at least have a local effect) to manifest meaningfully in the story. And here is where I had a hard time.
The thing is, big events are happening. It looks like there's a major world foe developing and Lucas has only defense available. Or, worse, proxies in the form of the adventurers that he's "training". Note, this is where the characters are so strong. I became attached to his relationships and his care for the people he encounters. But as proxies to the bigger fight? Yeah, not as interesting.
I stopped at about three-quarters through because big things were ramping up and I don't care for mindless fanatics as foes. I'm going to go with three stars even with the dnf mostly due to the strong writing and interesting characters that kept me going at least that long....more
This is third in a series that doesn't even have different titles for each book. Read in order.
This continues on the same vein, but the power curve isThis is third in a series that doesn't even have different titles for each book. Read in order.
This continues on the same vein, but the power curve is so steep that our main characters are pushing the boundaries of the Titans at the start. This picks up with them in Hell and I thought it'd be a long slog to full-on Titan status. Nope. That happens pretty quick. And they keep climbing. So that's some strong power fantasy right there.
Two things knocked me out about three-quarters in. First, all the alternate PoVs annoyed me beyond all reason. Pace-killing thread-shifting sucks anyway, but mix that with various plotting bad-guys and I found my patience wearing thin. Very thin.
Second, I stopped caring about the stakes. By the time they (view spoiler)[jump back in time chasing "Sapphire" to remake the timeline so the "gods" don't break into their current Titan form (hide spoiler)], I found myself completely disconnected from the story.
So I made my own ending in my head and quit. I'm going to give this 2陆 stars but I'll round up because I liked the characters and my ending didn't suck. Yeah, I'm being a bit capricious. But at least my head-ending stopped PoV hopping......more
So the system apocalypses the place up and a nerd becomes the champion of Earth. I mean obviously right? Talk about wish fulfillment. Maybe in a good So the system apocalypses the place up and a nerd becomes the champion of Earth. I mean obviously right? Talk about wish fulfillment. Maybe in a good way. Only...
So of the billions of people on Earth, we're asked to accept that nerd boy is faster and better than every special-ops candidate on the planet at learning to kill monsters. I mean, he'd have died in the initial challenge if he hadn't been setup to kill-or-be-killed against a soldier with a conscience who refused to attack an unarmed civilian. And then he fulfills his first quest through time-consuming ambush tactics and "clever" use of new powers. And once he completes this first quest, after nearly a full 24 hours, he's awarded super-rare titles for being the first guy on Earth to complete the kill everything quest? Seriously? Nerd boy is faster at killing invaders than all the trained killers on the planet? Soldiers? Gangbangers? Politicians? Really?
This had me break immersion badly enough that I started nitpicking everything else. Unfortunately, there's lots there to nitpick. Not least is his introverted "training" once he enters the tower waiting room that is indistinguishable from arrogance coupled with authorial fiat.
Unfortunately, the power fantasy takes back seat on this one with Max barely eeking out minor gains fThis is second in a LitRPG series. Read in order.
Unfortunately, the power fantasy takes back seat on this one with Max barely eeking out minor gains for most of it. Also, the pace bogs down into a lot of nerdery system bits with the safe zone build out in handyman, home construction porn. This part might have been more fun if it hadn't become survival documentary over system wonder.
And I might have pushed through that, but we get some extra spice in the form of bad-guy perspectives from other humans who are looking to do bad things only now backed by classes and skills. This includes Max's ex-wife who turns out to be nothing more than a thin pastiche of every anti-ex fantasy imaginable. It was one thing when she was depicted as a cunning antagonist to Max who withheld contact with his daughter. But once we see her, she's a pathetic junky in complete thrall to her user boyfriend. She even picks up a class in the quarantine zone of "prostitute". Because that was better than the other options she got from the system (it actually was, unless you think junkie, drone, or thrall (yes, actual thrall) are better options). At this point, she's a stand in for vicious pillory that makes me wonder what demons the author might be working out. And her boyfriend is even worse.
So my interest dribbled out. And then dribbled some more. Then crashed when it became obvious the story was aiming junky mom at the found family and I had had enough. Once I saw the depictions of the authorial puppet ex-wife it became more obvious that every character, even the good guys, were thin veneers of characterization with little depth and predictable through lines.
So yeah. Dnf with one star. I thought the story was going somewhere cool and I'm bitterly disappointed to have those hopes dashed....more
Sigh. This book is really dumb. The author really, really wants to explore a protagonist with an insane "Luck" stat and I actually admired the way theSigh. This book is really dumb. The author really, really wants to explore a protagonist with an insane "Luck" stat and I actually admired the way they got there, even if it was a little silly. I mean, no game I have ever seen rolls "skills" into some "advanced stat" mechanic. But hey, it gets Jane a bunch of free stat points through an exploit. That she squanders in a really stupid way. And I'm not talking about maxing the Luck stat.
This is an example of the dumb so I'm going to explain. Jane finds that her stats all start at 5. And then figures a way to amass over six hundred stat points. So she puts them all into Luck, leaving all her regular stats at 5. No systems thinker would do this (and her background is as a systematic thinker). I polled the gamers in my proximity (two) and both said the obvious: you bump all stats to at least ten, even if you want to go all-in on one of them. You'd still have over six hundred points to make your Luck play, after all.
Anyway, this is an example of the dumb. One more before it feels like I'm just piling on. She lands in a desert. With sand dunes. Her way of traversing said dunes? Climb up one side, fall down the other. That's right. She tumbles down the sand dunes. Repeatedly. Like this is how you desert.
Okay, one more. She goes at least a week in the desert without finding any water. She gets a "dehydrated" debuff that starts taking off health. Until she eats raw sand scorpion. That removes the "dehydrated" debuff. Because that's how you hydrate. With raw meat. Can I mention again how she maxed out her Luck stat? And the author doesn't seem to have considered that finding water in a desert when you're dying might be an opportunity to show how "luck" works. I mean besides having an automatic "I win" button in every fight...
I finally quit when she enslaved a bunch of demons accidentally and her thrashing around with that circumstance was just . . . weird.
One star. Which is sad because an isekai who maxes luck has potential to be interesting....more
The setup for this is pretty badly realized. I mean a system that creates a grouping of "heroes" where a fifth are sociopathic killers is bad enough. The setup for this is pretty badly realized. I mean a system that creates a grouping of "heroes" where a fifth are sociopathic killers is bad enough. Having those scum automatically group up and work together is just dumb. But saying they also pulled a fifth from the organized protector population (soldiers and cops) and make them a complete no-show is just sloppy. And don't get me started on the "subtle hints" (i.e. clues even Clouseau would notice) that the guy the system called out as a hero is a mind-controlling psychopath. Add that you get negative Karma (yeah, don't get me started on that's not what Karma is) for killing a murdering bastard while protecting innocents from predation and you have a setup that is actively evil and a complete transversal of the human community instinct and instinctive moral calculus.
I was enduring because the main character had found a couple of interesting companions and their teamwork and growing trust was at least engaging (even if the characterization was all over the place with the cute girl). And then the author chose to strip that away and make the main character be a loner in an area where obviously evil groups had managed to stay together. I'm sorry. That's a bit too stupidly manipulated. So I'm out....more
This is pretty much just arrant nonsense. And I don't just mean the weird disjointed anatomy (sounds entering your ear hole is just... don't). The dadThis is pretty much just arrant nonsense. And I don't just mean the weird disjointed anatomy (sounds entering your ear hole is just... don't). The dad sending his privileged daughter to the slums as a punishment? With a smirky retainer for a lone guard. I mean, I found my brain hurting every time I tried to pull the story into a world where it could happen.
I'll admit I didn't get far. But I got plenty far enough to recognize an unsalvageable mess....more
I got bored. Space aliens give a guy a starship factory that solves humanity's biggest problems while giving them a new one to face. Great potential cI got bored. Space aliens give a guy a starship factory that solves humanity's biggest problems while giving them a new one to face. Great potential conflict there. Completely squandered in minutiae. An entire chapter of crafting details for his space homestead was a representative pace killer. It's only one example of the author going into loving detail in a random nerd trope that displays their awesome grasp of science.
It is perhaps telling that the most interesting nerd trope moment was in a field I know a bit about. Jailbreaking the station AI was interesting and weaving in actual cracking technique in doing so didn't' bog down the pace or get too technical. For me. Which probably means it was exactly as boring as the rest of the nerd troping would be for everyone without a background in computer programming...
If I didn't dnf on boredom, I'd have probably gotten there eventually with the simplistic view of world politics. I mean, of course the African continent would finally find peace if you could give the world cheap energy and plentiful food (the MC explicitly makes this part long term forecast). I mean, corrupt warlords, tribal grudges, and a complete lack of infrastructure would disappear overnight if only you handed out free stuff. I can totally see a regional despot going "I have cheap energy and abundant food now? I'll totally give this to all my people equally and rule in righteous wisdom henceforth!" Sigh.
Anyway, one star for boring me enough to sap all my interest in building a space fleet for an eminent alien invasion....more
The author finally broke me on this one. I mean, I'm used to Juliet throwing herself into deadly peril for random strangers at this point, but a missiThe author finally broke me on this one. I mean, I'm used to Juliet throwing herself into deadly peril for random strangers at this point, but a mission to infiltrate some pirates in order to rescue someone's daughter that they're just convinced didn't really mean to run away from home to join those preying on innocents? It's just so far fetched. Infiltrating space pirates sounds like a lot of story elements I'm just not interested in and with a flimsy excuse for an author manipulation as the impetus, I'm just tired. Tired of the author thinking they don't need to try very hard to get Juliet to do something dumb.
And don't get me started on the cyborg hunting her. It was pure manipulation that had him surviving their confrontation in the last book and making him a threat in this one is just pissing me off.
I hadn't planned on a dnf, but I find myself reluctant to pick it back up. And that's always a sign that it's time to move on. One star because it took some work to make me this tired of going back to the random charity trough....more
LitRPG in space has been a strong draw for me lately. So this was a big disappointment. I don't know why the author thought to tag this as LitRPG, butLitRPG in space has been a strong draw for me lately. So this was a big disappointment. I don't know why the author thought to tag this as LitRPG, but there's no hint of game or system or mechanics (skills? class? stats? advancement? nothing) that are intrinsic to that subgenre. So I'm not sure if my negative reaction is from being lied to or because I just got bored.
If you're looking for a space survival story with an interesting protagonist, then this is probably just about right. Alex is engaging and her plight is dire. And I love how she knuckles down and gets things done and always looks for the good things while she's at it. It did get a little annoying when she was trying to befriend an enemy. I mean, I'm not saying just space the girl like the always pragmatic ship computer requests/demands. But I'm not not saying that, either...
Which sounds like I was interested in the story, but after the third or fourth time playing tag with hostile drones I found myself tired of the repetition. It might have helped if Alex had any hint of an overall goal, but she's really just wandering the space junkyard looking for scraps with no target or sense of external civilization anywhere. As far as she knows, this ship represents the last gasp of humanity and she has no starting point for digging further.
I'd have given this a second star because Alex was engaging even if I ended up bored with the story. The LitRPG lie costs it even that much consideration. So one star....more
Or don't. I mean, if you found the antagonists in the previous story frustratingly shallow, this takes that next step andIt's book two. Read in order.
Or don't. I mean, if you found the antagonists in the previous story frustratingly shallow, this takes that next step and makes the protagonists too stupid to see the obvious. Also, the alien "consensus" is a big pile of crap.
I'll make my notes public if you want to see my growing disdain for the "plot". One star. What a disappointment....more
A system apocalypse with a fantasy RPG feel. Not exactly an original premise, but I gave it a shot anyway. Unfortunately, I came to regret that. It's A system apocalypse with a fantasy RPG feel. Not exactly an original premise, but I gave it a shot anyway. Unfortunately, I came to regret that. It's not just that the author(s) crib wholesale from an existing game system (you know it's bad when I'm only trying to decide if it's actual Pathfinder or just generic D&D 3.0. it's worse when you suspect that it is being careful to leave ambiguity to have plausible deniability if called out/sued).
The thing about knowing the game system so well is that I disagree with a lot of his choices and hate his attitude towards other people. Oh, and also, I'd hate gaming with this guy. Who doesn't feel like naming their character until fifth level, let alone giving them a backstory? And his excuse is that they're too fragile and might die before they get that far? Yeah, that's someone who isn't gaming for the same reasons I am. Sure, I'm a shameless power fantasy dork, but even I find it uninteresting to just play a stat block for however long it takes to get to the "magic" level 5.
Also, if you can't keep a level two character alive in a normal, non-psychopathic GM campaign then might I suggest that the problem isn't the game? I'm just saying...
Anyway, I don't like the protagonist. And the post apocalyptic world seems kind of boring. Seriously, who does world building and thinks "let's have the world end and have the world be made into a straight-up D&D system 2陆 generations back and then throw lots of undead at everybody"? Boring people. That's who. One star. You could do better campaign design with random tables even before you tap into an AI for ideas......more
I've been in a bit of a power fantasy with space marines mood lately so I gave this a chance despite the harem vibe. I came to regret that. Harem storI've been in a bit of a power fantasy with space marines mood lately so I gave this a chance despite the harem vibe. I came to regret that. Harem stories can have great adventure and exciting plots outside of the male-centered sex thing. And exciting stories that don't rely on the sex thing to spiff them up. But this was just boring. And I don't mean just the adventure and plot being kinda meh. Even the harem thing was a stop-start waste of time.
Sometimes when I take a chance on something tangential to my mood I'll give it a ratings pass. This was boring enough I'm going to go ahead with the one-star. I wouldn't have liked this even if I were in the mood for a near-future harem story with a schlub having unearned success just because he's the protagonist....more
This is third in an ongoing series. Read in order.
This is more along the line of the first two, but enemies are piling up. Benning's choice to go fullThis is third in an ongoing series. Read in order.
This is more along the line of the first two, but enemies are piling up. Benning's choice to go full bad-guy makes sense from her perspective. It's rational, I mean. Two things lead to this being a dnf.
First, the embedded power structure turning it's full focus on her is as contrived as it ever was. The problem I have in this story is that they are making some unearned wins and I hate that a lot. It isn't helping that the author gives us some opponent PoV that tells us there's a mole in her close counsel and I hate how stupid that makes everything. The most likely suspects are people I like and I found it hard to continue in anticipation of the eventual betrayal.
Second, we learn in this one that (view spoiler)[the system itself is putting a thumb on the scale against her progress, deliberately limiting her choices until she catches it and forces a reveal. That and making Tiddly choose to sever ties with the Overnet further gimping one of Benning's most powerful tools just pissed me off on the way to that reveal (hide spoiler)]. And that meant I couldn't trust one of the bedrock principles of the setup. Meaning that literally anything could happen to cripple Benning and her plans and you wouldn't see it coming.
That put enough pressure on continuing that I found myself struggling to pick the story back up after putting it down. Eventually I chose to call it a wrap and just abandon the story where I was. It's not helping that the blurb from the next book guarantees more unearned story shenanigans along those same lines.
So no. Dnf. And one star for my disappointment in a story that stacked the odds against our protagonist with such weak rationale and no redress....more
This is a zombie story. I deeply dislike zombie stories. Sure, they're all borg-like and tech-enhanced, but they're still mindless enemies with no ratThis is a zombie story. I deeply dislike zombie stories. Sure, they're all borg-like and tech-enhanced, but they're still mindless enemies with no rationality beyond expansion. Boring.
I can't decide if it actually managed to make a magic future marine main character boring or if I was just resisting the premise. At any rate, it's one-star, but that's a personal taste-based rating and no indication of the actual merit (or not) of the book for anyone else....more
Really sloppy writing made this hard to get into. An example: Max and a friend find a settlement just before nightfall. No mention of them wandering tReally sloppy writing made this hard to get into. An example: Max and a friend find a settlement just before nightfall. No mention of them wandering through night or sleeping. And yet, it mentions a couple of times that it has been two days, somehow.
And don't get me started on all the times Max forgets he has a skill/power/ability. "Oh noes, I might break an ankle jumping down ten feet". Dude is a gravity mage. Making things lighter, including himself, was most of a chapter. This is only one example where he forgets to do something. Though most egregious may be forgetting to shoot a bug chasing him once he has space to do it (he literally thinks "maybe I should take a rest while it can't get at me" before it starts digging its way in).
And apparently everyone else in the budding human settlement can't find two brain cells to scrape together because it's one of Max's visits where he says "you know clay is a thing" followed later by Max going "hey, aren't bricks made of clay?!?" Seriously, thirty some laborers and artisans (those are literally the class names for them) can't think of how to build stuff? Really? It takes Max to innovate anything and everything?
The final straw was when Max finds a group of humanoids in the tunnels and thinks "they might be allies" even though he knows that this area has the other race they explicitly have to wipe out for humanity to make it to the next phase of the genocide they've been signed up for. I mean, it turns out they aren't the other team but he doesn't know that!!! Except he does because the author makes him intuit it somehow. So they can be buddies and give him phat lootz.
I made it about a third before crashing on this final mess. Frankly, I should have crashed on him not being able to figure out how to stop a guy kill stealing by using a spear to take out enemies before he could. I mentioned that Max does gravity right? There's at least three things I can think of that he could have tried before his "brilliant" notion to send the spear off target to anger something big.
Yeah. One star. I probably shouldn't have let it go the full third I let it. Frankly, I'm not sure why I did....more
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