J. P. Miehm

Annoying tosspot whines his way through the apocalypse

Revisado: 05-06-25

Obnoxious protagonist does nothing but whine and complain at every turn.

His omnidirectional misanthropic hatred of all of mankind pairs perfectly with a ridiculous sadsack backstory as he sprints from the lows of self doubt/loathing to the lows of hating and judging everyone around him.

I finally had to give up halfway through the second book, when the author goes on an extended anti-poor/anti-consumer rant during an extremely contrived black Friday analogy.

Stop writing bad gamelit and go see a therapist!

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Elementary school level writing

Revisado: 08-01-24

A good narrator can elevate an otherwise mediocre story, and a bad narrator can bring down an otherwise good story; but the combination of bad narration and bad writing is truly something awful to behold. The narrator's voices and delivery of the boring, ham-fisted, overly-expository writing is just incredibly grating. My 2nd grader brings home more nuanced and narratively complex books from his elementary school's library.

I would call this the amateurish effort of a young first time author, but they've already written several other books, and should really know better by now.

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Don't cut yourself on this very boring edge

Revisado: 05-09-24

The only horror you'll find here is the boring writing and bland, stilted delivery from the narrator.

The writer clearly wants to try to shock you with edgy violence and suffering, but the narrator comes across like a sleepy text to speech program, complete with bizarre mispronunciations.

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Needed another pass by an editor

Revisado: 11-30-23

I've listened to some other books by this author, and this is probably the most sloppily written of the bunch. The narrator is also ridiculously overdramatic, and puts weird emphasis on everything.

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A bit deeper than the average litrpg

Revisado: 03-17-23

It's fine overall, but I don't feel like it grabs me quite the way Jake's Magical Market did. Part of that is definitely due to the narration- the main character has a pretty dry, boring voice, although that makes sense for the character. The real problem is with everyone else- almost every other character either has a terrible lisp, an incomprehensible accent, or both. Fortunately, the vast majority of the story is delivered from the perspective of the (kinda dull) main character, but this can make the dialogue sections painful to listen to or just plain hard to follow.

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More than expected from a litrpg

Revisado: 03-10-23

At first, it seemed like a simple (if occasionally brutal) little slice of life story about a slacker running a general store in a magical world. If that had been it, then it probably would have been a fine (if forgettable) entry into the genre. Fortunately for all of us, this story puts in the work to go above and beyond the normal "loser gets strong and shows all of the mean bullies who's boss, and also maybe gets the hot girl" power fantasy tropes, and delves more into the philosophical and ethical considerations that are usually just glossed over in this sort of thing.

Don't get me wrong, it is still a litrpg power fantasy, and not some deep exploration of the nature of existence, consciousness, perception, and at what point the ends stop justifying the means. It's just refreshing to see some thought put into one of these things beyond a power system and a flimsy pretext for magic/game rules to exist in the world.

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Firefly knockoff with shiploads of Catholic guilt

Revisado: 03-07-23

The performance is decent, although it can sometimes be difficult to tell certain characters apart.

The first book is a perfectly serviceable "firefly, but with space wizards" story.

The problems really crop up in the second book in the collection, when the former nun becomes one of the main characters, and begins nagging the everloving hell out of everyone else, culminating in her giving away everyone else's money to the church. Everyone just treats this like it's some kind of expected outcome, and not like the huge betrayal that it actually is, because they're supposed to feel guilty about taking the money in the first place.

I noped out partway through the third book, when it became clear that it was going to turn into some morality play about the dangers of prescription medication or something.

This is a universe where magic is real, but it's a gift from the abrahamic god, and also every other alien civilization just happens to worship the same religion, thereby proving the bible right as far as they're concerned.

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Pathfinder Isekai, but boring

Revisado: 02-09-23

If I had to use one word to describe these books, that word would be "boring." It's a boring man playing a boring class in a boring way. He's a stick-in-the-mud paladin who prays to the general concept of "good," and has basically no motivations or aspirations beyond playing house with his surrogate mommy girlfriend and maybe going back to his even more boring normal life (and I'm pretty sure that last bit is only included because the author thinks that's what every Isekai protagonist is supposed to want).

But speaking of the girlfriend- has this author ever had a relationship with a woman who was not his mother? The main love interest (I say main, because it seems like the author feels obligated to periodically introduce random beautiful harem stereotypes, just because that's what he thinks is expected- don't let that fool you into thinking there is any kind of romantic conflict or anything) is literally the first girl he meets after wandering into town; and she spends all of her time either waiting on the protagonist hand and foot, throwing herself at him in the most pure and chaste ways possible, or crying. That's it, that's the extent of her character, and the entire stated basis of their relationship is that she was nice to him.

There is no intrigue, mystery, or nuance to the plot or characters. The story might occasionally think there is, but neither the author nor the characters seem all that interested in actually fleshing out or pursuing any of it. Every "good" character has the most over-the-top tragic backstory (if they have one at all), and every villain is insanely cartoonishly evil. Each book is relatively short, but still manages to feel like it drags on endlessly due to the general lack of plot and pacing. I've slogged through 12 of the 15 hours so far, and I don't really know if I can stand to see this through to the end.

The game system is clearly based on pathfinder 1st edition, but with enough little house rules and changes to be annoying to veteran players. Similarly, the group the protagonist plays with immediately before getting isekai'd is filled with annoying stereotypes and bad "well that's what my character would do" type players.

I suppose the joke will be on me if it eventually turns out that this whole world is just a badly written ttrpg campaign come to life, but I won't be sticking around long enough to find out.

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What the hell, Gaiman?

Revisado: 01-07-23

The foreword is just utterly bizarre, and I can't understand what either Gaiman or the publisher were thinking when they included it.

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It's a Craig Alanson book, for better or worse

Revisado: 01-07-23

Like the title says, it's a Craig Alanson book. The plot moves slowly, the narration is filled with typos and grammatical errors, conversations repeat over and over again, and the author clearly needed to take more meal breaks while writing.

If you were able to get through (or even enjoy) the mercilessly plodding pace of Expeditionary Force, then you'll probably be able to get through (or even enjoy) this.

Like Expeditionary Force, I feel like this doesn't quite live up to its potential, and definitely could have stood to have some of the meandering and padding cut down, but overall serves the purpose of filling time while I'm working.

Competent, but not great.

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