Doro626

I was disappointed. 55 hours and I may return it.

Revisado: 03-25-24

I assume this is a YA novel because most of the characters do the dumbest thing possible for practically genius intelligence people. That is a shame actually if writing for younger people means characters have to be dumb. I have to assume most of this is an allegory for politics and how dumb the writer thinks society is? Books one through four were weak and drawn out, but more or less interesting if nothing else. Book five was a complete waste of time. I am on Book Six and its more characters doing the dumbest things possible. In every way its only to move the story in certain directions. Just once I would like to see a character do something smart and someone else out maneuvers them. I have not finished the last book yet, but I doubt it will be so amazing that it makes up for the rest ( I hit a section that was so foolish, I had to write a review while it was all on my mind). There is a reason this 55 hours book is one credit. Not sure if someone compared this to Bobiverse, but its nothing like Bobiverse. I see many ( maybe all) of this authors books are offered as huge sets. I like a deal but if this is as good as he can write, then its a waste for me.

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This is not a direct sequel to 14

Revisado: 01-25-24

I am glad that Clines gets to write books and people read them. His Ex heroes series about zombies and Superheroes is not bad. Clines unfortunately has two problems in all his work. 1) His characters dont do what makes sense, they do what is needed to more the plot in the direction CLINES needs it to go. 2) He borrows heavily from pop culture so he sometimes write caricatures and archetypes, rather than fully fleshed out characters that the audience understands.

Personally I figured out the secret of the fold in the first maybe hour of the book when they tell Mic his assignment and then when he first arrives. This is what I mentioned about Clines and borrowing from popular culture. Anyone that has seen the same movies , read the same comics and books as he has will see where he is going pretty quickly.

I hate to give this a "It's OK" rather than a " pretty good" but this is the same story as 14 in a different skin. Two problems, ONE this doesnt advance the story of the first book and TWO this doesnt really advance the Koturovic story of creatures from outside. Just gives a little more weirdness in that universe.

Other than accents, memory powers and the fact that a character went from dont touch me, to lets have sex all the time, these are not memorable characters. If the reader didnt change his voice, most of the time I would have no idea who a character is from their actions. Ray Porter carries this series on his voice.

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Finally a good use for my credit.

Revisado: 09-07-23

After B Sanderson, J Butcher, L Correia, RRMartin,D Taylor, K Hearne, SA Corey and D Hayes, I was looking for an adventurous story with a larger than life lean. There were a lot of middle of the road stories that just were not doing it for me, some from authors work I loved previously.

When this story stared I thought it was like the Expanse. Downtrodden humans being used by Earth to mine on Mars, while they benefitted. Then it became enders game meets Hunger games with a tiny sprinkle of the Mistborne ( give the down trodden a chance and they may actually be better than the ones in charge).

Im not sure if this is YA because the tropes are there, but the way they abuse certain characters may not be YA friendly.

In any case I loved it even though I saw a few plot points coming from a mile away. I already picked up book two and it does not disappoint.

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Not as good as Powered or villains

Revisado: 08-22-23

The people who said manage expectations were correct. This kind of fits into the litRPG genre with a twist. The characters were varied enough to kind of enjoy them. The Gnome is definitely the main character. The story was pretty basic and ended faster and in a neater bow than I was expecting. I see he made a few sequels. Maybe I will give the second a try?

I personally wanted higher stakes, More for the characters to do. I think the second book may be more of that. If this was a stand alone book it would NOT work for me. The fact that it continues is its saving grace storywise.

Narrator did a great job. His gnome sounded like a character Kyle voices for Superpowereds, but one of his characters also sounds a bit like Sean Connery, so its probably just archetypes I'm hearing.

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BLAH BLAH BLAH

Revisado: 08-03-23

Hard to believe this was written by the same guy that did Monster Hunter and The Grimnoir chronicles. This felt like he was trying to do a Game of Thrones style adventure, but he left out all of the humor and fun that we love.

This story had demons, but you barely see them. This story has magic, but other than travelling with it, its barely used. The plot almost reminded me of Mistborn beginning, but not half as fun.

I wont be following this series any longer and If I find a better one, my credit will be going to that author. Its a shame because I adore the Grimnoir stories. Eat them up. This was dragged out beyond belief. The book could have been possibly a third shorter and had a more interesting ending. The villain and their goals are pretty basic.

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HORRIBLE EXPOSITION

Revisado: 08-03-23

Shame on you Audible. Unless you give a book three stars or more they lock your ability to write a review. Once you rate it you can go back and change it, but that is disgraceful. Almost as disgraceful as this book.

FIRST let me say this character is NOTHING like Harry Dresden or Atticus O'Sullivan because this writer is nothing like Jim Butcher or Kevin Hearne. His character antagonizes people like he's a child. Dresden snarks the villains. i guess Atticus can be this juvenile, but at least things happen in his story

Every character you meet will projectile Exposit their entire back story. Nothing is organic. They meet the main character and immediately tell him their origin story. Second complaint, this book is 90% about everyone telling the MC and a female Valkyrie that they should be a couple, how much they hate her current boyfriend and the MC and the current boyfriend spiting vitriol at one another. Vampires, barely used, Other magical creatures. Barely used.

The magic system is fairly well detailed at the beginning and sounded interesting, There are a hand full of likeable characters, but then it becomes an 80's movie where the cool main character takes the girl away from her stuffy boyfriend. This writers strength seems to be characters and not story or events. If the exposition wasn't delivered so horribly, maybe that would have been enough

The narrator is mostly fine. He does a few good voices and he varies characters well. Not sure if he missed a few inflections of dialogue but it didnt matter in the end.

There is no big villain in this story. They steam roll over every obstacle. No one is in danger for more than a few minutes.

Other than an encounter at the beginning, the book is pretty dry on Urban Fantasy content until the last 40 minutes. Some people here may use audible books as their chief form of entertainment and have a higher tolerance for middle of the road content. I dont waste my credits on mediocre books. I use them on amazing stories. Maybe the author gets better later, since the series continues, but I wont find out, unless I get these from the library. I rarely ask for credit refunds, but I will on this book.

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The pacing is uneven, but the narrator makes this

Revisado: 05-04-23

I mainly look for superhero stories like Super Powereds and Forging Hephaestus or urban fantasy Like Dresden Files and Iron Druid Chronicles. This story could not be farther from either of those, but it has a gruff but likable protagonist placed in a larger than life situation. The entire time I was listening , I kept comparing it to the comic Fear Agent which is 50% the same base story.

The description and book itself tells you that Humanity is on the wrong side at the beginning of the story and it feels like it takes a pretty long time for that to resolve itself in story The first few hours of the book are just standard troop procedures that get compared to US soldiers in Africa. Pretty standard and would have been boring, but the narrator is one of those guys that just really knows how to tell a story. In what feels like the last THIRD of the book, they introduce a new character and then the story gets really funny ( especially if you like the Great Gazoo). Then it settles once again into a routine.

Book one tells a mostly complete story and I wasnt going to get the next book, I thought I had enough, but after searching for a new series to spend credits on , unsuccessfully, I think I will give book two a try. Maybe the author has better pacing. At the very least, I should still have that great narrator to enjoy.

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Slow start, quick finish.

Revisado: 02-17-23

My only other Litrpg book series was The Way of the Shaman. That series is not perfect, however with a combination of humor and the narration ( As a former World of Warcraft player),I enjoyed that series enough to finish the whole thing. I cant help but compare this to that series, because they are both about dark shamans and both have some behind the scene conspiracy ( that second part, may just be a part of the LitRPG genre though).

I want to be really fair to this author ( he got published after all) but his opening from coffee, to the real world , to the character selection was boring me to tears. Maybe its the narrator as well. He can sound monotone and humdrum at times. Once the story gets started in earnest, it gets better, but its never great. I got the book for free and I will listen to the second to give it a real try, but so far, Im a about 2 hours into the second book and its pretty much the same.

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Slow start, quick finish.

Revisado: 02-17-23

My only other Litrpg book series was The Way of the Shaman. That series is not perfect, however with a combination of humor and the narration ( As a former World of Warcraft player),I enjoyed that series enough to finish the whole thing. I cant help but compare this to that series, because they are both about dark shamans and both have some behind the scene conspiracy ( that second part, may just be a part of the LitRPG genre though).

I want to be really fair to this author ( he got published after all) but his opening from coffee, to the real world , to the character selection was boring me to tears. Maybe its the narrator as well. He can sound monotone and humdrum at times. Once the story gets started in earnest, it gets better, but its never great. I got the book for free and I will listen to the second to give it a real try, but so far, Im a about 2 hours into the second book and its pretty much the same.

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Really boring due to superfluous exposition

Revisado: 03-14-22

I like Dresden files, Reckoners, The Expanse , Hard magic, The Iron druid chronicles, Foundation, The Halo forerunner series and Enders game so I will admit that this isn't my normal sub-genre of story. Its science fiction, so how far off the mark can it be? I'll say Im glad it was narrated, because all the boring exposition would have made me put the book down. The extensive history of the character that has nothing do with the immediate story, history of what a person would have said but didn't say in this instance. What a person would have normally done but didn't do in this instance.

Im not used to authors writing a parallel telling of both what happened and then what could have happened but didn't ( but I assume they thought the joke was so funny that they had to still tell you about it?) Normally we would have done this, but today we did that instead. Would have told them this (which would have sounded funny but embarrassed them), but waited for later and just said that. Would have done this to him, but he's lucky we only did this other thing. It was like all the stuff they tell you NOT to do, when writing.

I got the impression that the author was in the military or really loves the military procedure and just had to break it all down to you , to let you know how it really happens. Too bad there wasnt an enjoyable story to go along with it.

Usually a novella is a great way to get people introduced to your overall story of characters and adventure while telling a self contained story in the greater universe for the main series fans. Maybe the main story is amazing, but this is a poor representation of it, to this new listener.

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