Max R

I love this series!

Revisado: 11-09-22

Glynn Stewart writes so many of my favorite Space operas. While Duchy of Terra is my absolute favorite, this series is just as compelling. Great story, great combat, impeccably performance by Eric Michael Summerer.... Just really enjoyed my time in this world.

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Engaging and thoughtful as always

Revisado: 09-22-22

I began this book with a bit of trepidation. Normally I start a Wandering Inn book on release day, but circumstances got in the way. The unfortunate part of that is I saw some of the early negative reviews and found myself worried as I began my listening journey.

I do hear what some of the reviews are saying, not enough Erin, really no Rioka at all, etc, but what IS here is a tremendous amount of care, interesting character arcs, great storylines, and interesting events that will play a significant role in future books.... and of course the typical brilliance of Andrea Parsneau.

Like all books in this series, it was an emotional book at times. I laughed, teared up at times, cheered audibly, and gasped in equal measure. This is a GOOD story... it's actually MANY good stories... I'm glad I listened, despite the misgivings of some others. If you liked the story at all to this point, you'll probably like it too.

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tons of fun!

Revisado: 09-27-21

This was a great less-crunchy litrpg. What a fun and novel game system! I don't know that I've listened to anything else particularly close to it Interesting mechanics, interesting world, and great characters abound. Travis Baldree did masterful job as well.

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May the story never end...

Revisado: 06-10-21

I love this series. Honestly it's not really even something I can explain if somebody asked me why. It's so easy to feel connected to the characters in the book. It's easy to care, easy to laugh, easy to get emotional when challenging things happen... it's just... I don't know if this is the right word or not, but it's just comfortable. I can't think of another series that I've ever listened to where the book just made me feel at ease (even when things are going wrong!). Wandering Inn does that for me, and I have no idea why.

**Minor Spoiler**
I think I had a particularly close connection with this book because my dad ran a community Shakespeare festival for most of my childhood. I was SO into it when Erin was teaching the others about plays and had them perform the works of the Bard. Made me think about being outside and performing many of those same words in front of hundreds of people every night in the summers. Those are very happy memories for me, and memories that this book gave me cause to reflect on.

Thanks to pirateaba for the perfect words, and Andrea Parsneau for the impeccable and otherworldly performance. It was a true gift...

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Another excellent installment

Revisado: 06-05-20

Man I enjoy this series. It's such a fun read. I didn't think it was possible for Dust to up the snark-level from the last book, but man did he in this one. Though I think he's starting to really understand the weight of his own choices a bit more... Don't make deals with any more demons Dustin... just don;t... I think the best part of this series is the interplay between Dust and Sterling. The love-hate, or maybe more specifically hate-hate, thing they have going is always the cause of great chuckling during my commutes.

Thanks for making another great read to get us through the monotony of COVID "safer-at-home" orders Nazri. You rocked it again!

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Interesting story with a cool concept that you day

Revisado: 06-03-20 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I enjoyed my time with Augmented Tycoon. It was a fun and easy listen that didn't ask much of its audience other than to enjoy the ride and not take it too seriously. Marcus Sloss builds an interesting future full of alien races, designer humans, big ships, and interesting romantic entanglements. Maximilian Breed did an admirable job with the narration and kept the story moving at a good clip. He's definitely on par with many of the other high-caliber narrators in the harem-lit space. That brings up an important point as well, if the book description and cover art don't give it away, this is DEFINITELY a harem-lit book. If that's not your thing, you'll probably dislike large chunks of the book, though it's not quite as in-your-face as it is in many other titles with similar tropes.

Here are 5 things I enjoyed about Augmented Tycoon and 5 things I didn't care for as much (FYI there may be very minor spoilers):

Things I liked:
1. I very much enjoyed the tier structure of the alien races and the drive to push humanity into the next tier. It made for a great engine of movement within the book.
2. The erotica, while graphic and prevalent, is never a distraction to the story. This can be a hard thing to do and the author is to be commended here.
3. The gladiatorial combat scenes on Lunish were pretty awesome.
4. The author does a really nice job of giving plenty of detail to the future tech to drive the story and keep us engaged without spending pages and pages on overblown and over-exaggerated technical specifications for stuff that doesn't exist.
5. The device the author used to imbue creatures with a pseudo-immortality was really cool. He also did an exceptional job describing what it feels like to return from death and wake up in a new place.

Things I didn't care for as much:
1. I had a bit of trouble throughout the book relating to or cheering for the MC. I'm not sure why, but he just wasn't relatable for me.
2. I feel like the augmentation mechanic in the book could have used more page time.
3. I feel like the author missed a bit of an opportunity to really immerse us in these great and powerful ships in the book. Navigating around by blue arrow sort of killed my understanding of the environment in which a sizable amount of the book takes place. I never really was able to get a good picture in my head of what any of the ships look like, and that bums me out because I'll bet they're really killer in the author's head.
4. I'm sure it's coming in book two, but the political fallout from a lot of what the MC winds up doing is sure to be huge. I feel like we didn't get enough of an understanding about the state of things when the book ended.
5. While the erotic scenes were not a distraction as I mentioned above, I don't feel like they really enhanced the story much either. They were definitely fun, and I enjoyed them, but they all just sort of feel like that drunken hookup you had in college that you know was a lot of fun, but were too drunk to remember most of it. In other words, they aren't written to be super-passionate or if they were, it didn't come across very well.

So there you have it. I enjoyed it for sure and will definitely keep an eye out for the next on in the series. It's worth a credit if you're into harem-lit with a sci-fi twist.

**NOTE: I was given a promotional copy of this book at no cost to me in exchange for the unbiased review you see above.**

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A nice continuation

Revisado: 01-09-20 El oyente recibió este título gratis

I really enjoyed the second book in the Towers series. Our time-traveling compendium of knowledge, Jason continues his ascent up the tower with his compatriots while trying to grow strong enough to take out Ba’al on the top floor once more. The book itself is written quite well and the narration is spot-on, just as it was in the first book. The characters get a little bit of growth, the lore expands a bit more, and some unforeseen challenges for Jason arise along the way.

As has become my practice, here are 5 things I enjoyed and 5 pieces of constructive criticism. I’ll try to be as generic and spoiler-free as possible, while still giving a feel for the book.

 

5 things I liked-

This book really is a multi-platform, multi-genre gamer’s dream. There is a little bit of RPG, a little bit of grand strategy, a little bit of fighting/brawling, and if you squint hard enough, you’ll get a bit of flight sim with the glider sequences!

One of the floors functions kind of like an empire building game ala Age of Empires or Rise of Nations. This was a super-cool segment of the book for me, as I love these types of games.

Every guild needs a guild hall… especially one that is well furnished! (you’ll see…)

I really liked the tactical elements in the grand competition near the end of the book. The author gave us some very cool and unique fight sequences.

The developing camaraderie between the guildmates makes the book to me. It’s interesting to hear Jason wrestle with getting to know the newest incarnations of people that he knew well in the original timeline. He gets to discover and craft those relationships over again.

5 bits of constructive criticism-

While I loved the many different gaming elements of the book, having so many genres represented muddied the waters a little bit. One of my favorite parts of the book was the RTS/Empire building floor, but it felt a little out of place with the rest of the story.

This book doesn’t have the same sort of pressure to rise and grow stronger that made the tone of the original book so captivating for me. It sort of felt like the book got a little bit bogged down in progression, sort of like grinding levels in Stranglethorn Vale in vanilla WoW.

I felt like the way the guild hall went up was a little too “pay-to-win” for me. That resource grind could have been a cooler story arc than it wound up being after getting the cores.

Crafting deserves more page time. The author sets up the crafting system beautifully, but never takes full advantage.

The storyline with the “gods” gets a little lost in the book. I feel like we need a little more understanding of their motives and machinations in the next book.

 

So, this one is definitely a worthy continuation of the first book. If you liked the premise of the original, you’ll enjoy seeing the next layer in this one. While there are many game elements in the book, you don’t need to be a core gamer to enjoy it, so branch out a little bit! Try some LitRPG!

I’m looking forward to the next installment!

 **Note: I was given a promotional copy of this book in exchange for the unbiased review above**

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Fantastic litRPG inside!

Revisado: 12-04-19 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Wow… A+ litRPG here! I really enjoyed Dominion of Blades. The story felt fresh, the characters were interesting, and the world felt both familiar and exciting. I feel like Matt Dinniman did an excellent job pacing the book and the choice to have Andrea Parsneau do the narration gave the world and its characters a great deal of depth. There are few other narrators who can pull you into a world quite like she does, especially when it’s a litRPG tale. From a stats perspective, this book is fairly lite in terms of “crunch”. You won’t find exhaustive stat lists and major segments of min/maxing like you would in The Land. The stats are there, and they matter, but it’s not something that feels omnipresent in this particular book. The game-lit elements are definitely here and are quite satisfying and play well within the broader context of the story. It’s always a balancing act in litRPG and Dinniman does a fantastic job.

As has become my custom, here are 5 things I liked about the book and 5 things I didn’t care for as much…

 

5 Things I liked:

This is one of the few times when I feel like the temporary amnesia story device worked for me. I actually really enjoyed the gradual unfolding of the MCs memories. There were some excellent revelations in the memory sequences that added a lot of depth to the character.

I thought it was a cool idea to have the game world be a mirror of Earth and then have a cartographer by profession be the main character.

The curse is NASTY business and drove a lot of tension into every combat encounter. A+ mechanic there.

The interpersonal interactions between the main characters is phenomenal in this book. I really enjoyed how you have a total novice as a MC and two kind of “core” gamers to back him up. It made for some fun sequences throughout the book.

Andrea owned these characters and this world. So much depth. So much care for how she said every word. She’s truly one of the best around.

 

5 Things I didn’t care for as much:

I feel like there were a few missed opportunities to delve a little deeper into the mythos of the world that I wish Dinniman would have taken, specifically around the pantheon and the history of the in-game world.

While I feel like the fight scenes are good, the potential exists for them to be top-of-class just because of how cool the MCs weapon is. I’m sure that’ll be explored in later books, but I wanted more.

…I wanted Summon Leviathan to happen SO BAD for the entire book.

There should have been 5x as many hippocorn gorings in the book. Alice needs more time to shine in book 2!

While I liked the balancing of game elements and the choice to be less crunchy, I feel like the book didn’t give me enough when it came to gearing up from a defensive perspective. A fair bit of attention was put on the weapons and trinkets (like the pocket watch), but we didn’t nearly the same level of understanding of the armor the characters were wearing from a stats/damage mitigation perspective.

 

This one is definitely on the "would recommend to friends list"!

**Note: I was given a promotional copy of this book by the author in exchange for the ubiassed review above.***

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Arden starts to find his footing

Revisado: 10-16-19

Building a temple and a community is hard... I certainly couldn't do it, so kudos to Arden for even trying! Nevermind the early brewings of a grand adventure to contend with! It's a good thing he has such... pleasant?... Yeah, we'll go with pleasant,.. company on his adventures.
As has become my custom, here are 5 things I enjoyed about the book and 5 things that I didn't care for as much:

Things I enjoyed:
1. The bureaucrat character is a nice foil for Arden. He's such a stickler!
2. Many of the secondary characters get their chance to shine more so than in the first book.
3. I really appreciate that each chapter in the book feels like it contributes something to the main story. Stone did an excellent job with pacing on this one.
4. Chris Graves is a fantastic choice for LitRPG/HaremLit, he definitely proves that again here.
5. The city-building elements in this book provide an even grander scale than simply focusing on the character stat sheets.
*Bonus* Donkey Hotay? A+ on that one...

Things I didn't care for as much:
1. I really want more from the deities in this whole series. It often feels like they're just waiting for Duel to take them over instead of actively trying to prevent chaos from winning.
2. I feel like there is a little bit of refinement that needs to happen with the magic and leveling systems. Most critical items are explained well, but some ancillary skills, or skills that Arden's crew have, could be fleshed out a bit. It's definitely hard with Arden Skillmeistering everybody all the time. Too much and the book will feel way crunchier than it needs to, but a little more expansion wouldn't hurt. It's a tricky balance to be sure.
3. Adventurers are jerks... I don't like how this makes me feel about every character that I've ever played in any RPG ever...
4. I wanted way more from the labyrinth scenes. There were way more opportunities for crazy stuff to happen.
5. The premonition skill that Nola has should be a much bigger game-changer than it is, though I suspect that's coming in the future.

I'm definitely looking forward to what Stone has in store for us next!

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The shadows can't protect you forever Dust...

Revisado: 08-22-19 El oyente recibió este título gratis

This series scratches a big itch for me. I'm a big fan of urban fantasy and with several mainstays wrapping up and Peace Talks still months away, Nazri Noor comes along and delivers exactly what I needed to get me through. I absolutely loved the first book in the series and, while the story here is a complete one that more than stands on its own, you would do well to listen to the first book in order to fully appreciate this one. The action is here, the suspense is here, the wise-assness is here, It's everything you could want from an Urban Fantasy setting less the romance plot.

As has become my custom for reviews, here is my 5 and 5 list:

Things I liked:
1. Character growth. Dust gets some much-needed humble pie in the early and mid-stages of this book that force him to grow and adapt. It was really well done.
2. Sterling makes me laugh... a lot
3. The interplay between Dust and the gods is really fun to listen to because you never quite know what they think or what they want. Nazri Noor does a great job keeping them mysterious yet approachable.
4. COMBAT. Just like the last book, the magical combat in this one is extremely satisfying.
5. The story felt complete. There wasn't a super-dramatic cliffhanger ending that forces you to buy the next one to figure out what happened. Noor is justifiably confident that you'll want to continue Dust's tale without having to be really heavy-handed like some others in the space.

Things I didn't care for as much:
1. Habitual recall to the fact that "somebody should have written a book about it" regarding actions from the first book. The first time was funny, the second was less-so, the third felt excessive.
2. At times Dust gets a little too snarky/juvenile given the reality of what's happening to him in the book. To quote Wayne from the TV show Letterkenny, "Why don't you take about 15% off the top there Squirly Dan".
3. I feel like Carver needs some more page time. Often you know he's doing something really awesome, but we only get glimpses of his power. Sometimes it feels like he could actually solve some of the problems Dust gets into in about 5 seconds.... though that is kind of the point of some of the book.
4. A couple of times in combat things feel a little too convenient for Dust to leverage his unique skills.
5. Dust needs a better foil than Bastion. I'm hoping that Sterling kind of becomes more of the foil-in-chief going forward.

So there you have it, friends. The book is so much fun that I didn't even have to talk about how amazing Luke Daniels is in the things I like section (but he does a great job too!). The series as a whole is on my "would recommend to friends list and I can't wait to see what shenanigans Dust et al get themselves into next!

**Note I asked for and received a promotional copy of this book from the author in exchange for the unbiassed review above**

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