Connor Patterson

It gets better after a few Chapters.

Revisado: 11-09-24

I actually really enjoyed the book. The story has energy, a good pacing and plenty of snarky humor. Afternoon about chapter 6 or so, when their training started, I started to enjoy the narrator. Christian just can't do little girls' voices I think, cuz Luke's sister and all the scenes with his family sounded like amateur narrator work. Afterwords though he really found his groove and the story got good.

Low detail plot spoilers:

The story can be summed up as: three village teens that are subjected to decades of hard, arguably inhumane, training that changes each drastically. Sanity levels and morals take a hit. The fourth teen is acting as the narrator and we don't really experience his training in this book. None of the four are fond of the kingdom that has magicaly bound them to it's service, but it is worth saying that none becomes subjectively evil. The four were once friends, but after reuniting later in the book for a cross country quest they learn that they aren't who they use to be.

The story was good: 5 stars
A snarky action fantasy with just enough details to be entertaining, low fantasy

I'd give the narrator a 4.5 star if I could, but those first couple chapter almost made me put this down. got 4 stars

4 star overall

I'll definitely be finishing this trilogy

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Cooking show + Underdeveloped relationships.

Revisado: 08-24-24

The narrator was above average, stayed consistent with which voices he used for which characters and had just enough of them for this small group of characters.

As with the previous book, better than 50% by content of this book was an excuse for the author to show us how to cook some of their favorite dishes and to expound about preserving food. A man conveniently ends up with an inordinate amount of free time and a nearly free source of income. Stick him in a house with two food loving companions who ask all the obvious questions you'd want from an audience, and poof cooking show.

Despite that, the world building and cultural backstory are well developed and compelling. everything from the political situation to the history of the beast folk has been thought through. *side note: Mitochondrial DNA, is probably a good fantasy answer for the whole beast folk following the Mother's line thing.

In all of it, the part that really kept me from enjoying this simple slow story centered around cooking was the way the author conducted the relationship between Mikura (MC) and Techi (love interest). The trope of a cultural misunderstanding leading to a relationship is completely fine, but not actually committing any time to discussing feelings between them like actual adults was not. Any time after the misunderstanding would have worked. Rather than feeling like it was a natural progression of the situation, their relationship just felt like something that the author wanted to happen so it did. I fear an element of Japanese culture that I do not understand may be keeping me from understanding the MC's reasons here. I thought when his mother told him to pull his head out of his butt and think about things that that would be the time, but no. When a secret about his childhood and his memories is later revealed you could see further elements of their childhoods that could have played well into a deep well-developed relationship, but that wasn't how the author chose to do it.

If you enjoy hearing someone talk about cooking, learning about preserving food, and don't mind a little bit of a fantasy-esque story to string it all together then this book is for you.

If on the other hand you're very much in it for the characters and the relationships I believe you will find this to be an okay read but not very satisfying.

4 stars overall for world building
4 stars for the excellent narrator
3 stars for a relationship that just sorta happened

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Numbtongue time, River farm problems, Erin humble

Revisado: 06-21-24

Writing quality is still high, but story feels like it's plateauing. It's taken a bit to get here, but now it just feels like we're in a pattern of ups and downs with no climax or clear direction in sight. There were a few awesome fights, and we saw more than a few characters experiencing note worthy development. Overall though, the energy level this round was less.
Also, there be Witches!, one in particular.

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Like 5 mini books in one, Excellent

Revisado: 12-27-23

A perfect continuation. So much happens in this book. She just keeps progressing from place to place and from conflict to confict. Many new faces are introduced, but even they become old friends quickly with the pacing of this book which covers roughly 2 year of time. With all that the writing and pacing remain organic and character development is constant. We see the MC grapple with both new and old fears and moral dilemmas over the course of this one and she, as usual, comes out stronger. So, basically a great Story that I really couldn't put down.
The voice performance was exceptional; Narrator had variation between characters, consistency with each character, and appropriate emotional inflections.

I'm eager for the next listen; Hope 4 comes out fast.

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Keeps on Delivering - Best Modern Isekai Fantasy!!!

Revisado: 11-25-23

If you don't already love this series I don't know how you found this review. With an Author and Narrator of such skill the quality was never in question. This Series is without a doubt in my top 5 for writing quality. Plot and concept consistency ✓, character development that feels natural ✓, World that's just complicated enough but isn't too much ✓, doing old Tropes in New ways ✓, Making fantastic characters and situations feel "real" by making them flawed ✓. My only complaints with the series are fundament and unavoidable; (1) it's long; which means you don't really get to enjoy it as a whole, but more as an evolution over time. It also means more content for me to listen to. And (2) It's written like reality; nothing is truly certain, failure and success are interchangable and subjective, characters can die, old pain doesn't just go away, and the dead don't usually come back. The reality of it makes me invested, but also hurts.

This book we visited many of the more enjoyable characters and places. The Horns made waves in Celum, Ryoka made a new friend and matured some, The Titan and his students played a game, The Doctor and UN Company made new friends, Lionete and Celise matured, Erin Solstice took a staycation, Liscore got political, and Erin created chaos between Palace and Liscore to bring both a bit closer together.

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The Story continues.

Revisado: 09-17-23

It was a good addition to the story. Overall it was a bit more like grinding than in the previous book. Not so much whole cast development and more focused in Sam alone. Near the end, I got that time skip I thought would be needed for our heros to meet the challenge...sort of.
Still no romance in sight. He more or less just stopped talking about girls after he got that star on his hand. Unless he final meets a certain silver haired, green eyed, little women.....,but no.....she'd be too old, and soon everyone else will be too young. Oh well, guess we'll see in books 5 and 6.
The 10 minute seek peek of book 5 included at the end was also a pleasant surprise that indicates we'll be getting that one sooner rather than later. I can't wait!

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Excellent Quality! Binged books 2-3, Read at 1.10x

Revisado: 09-09-23

I've been waiting for a follow-up on the audio book of the first book for a while. My thanks to the two narrators that came together for these next two books. I more or less binge listened to books 2 and 3 over a few days. I love how things in the story are progressing. The first book's style continued but the author has really flushed out the history, magic system, and even some of the world/inter-dimensional politics for us. Some characters don't get as much development as others, and romance doesn't seem to be a thing we're going to get here, but that doesn't stop these books from being captivating. The depth of some concepts and the editing for consistency are top notch and I love that.
There was a point there where I wondered if we were getting a demon looking version of the Avatar from the last airbender, but no worries now. Despite the typical development path feel of a leveling based system, the MC, Sam, is actually one of the more unique, well-rounded characters I've ever followed. His build uses multiple magic systems, aspects of multiple races, and he is intelligent enough to see when he's out of balance and correct it. The use of charisma as a mental balancing trait deserves a shout out, as does the development of the Guardian Star into more than just a throw away story element. The last big shout out goes to the timescale; the author has given us a large problem to fix here, but also given us a system that seems to extend lifespans based on power and race. The problem took 100s of thousands of yrs to get this bad, and with a few well done time skips, I feel like our main characters can grow naturally to fix it over a few hundred yrs or less (Maybe a few decades).
I really want to ding this review by a star, but won't because as a story this one is in a balanced place with very little overreach by the author. I want to ding it on lack of any romantic interest or deep-seated suspense/thrill. I never feel that these characters are truly in danger or that the story will be derailed. And, I get the feeling our tall horned hero is the type to get lost in his crafting instead of a love life. Not all stories can be everything and in this case it feels like it was the right call. I just wants what I wants.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed these two books (2-3) and can't wait for the next few books to become audio books. I found these two audio productions extremely well produced, the story to be well edited and well thought out, and the characters to be developing at a comfortable pace and to a reasonable degree based on focus relative to the main character, who got the most. I recommend listening at 1.10x speed as it makes the voices sound more natural, but maybe that's just me.
Thank you Mr. North for the story so far.

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Simple, Human, Real, Lovely

Revisado: 03-05-23

It wasn't complicated and the style was that of someone recounting their past in an incomplete way. Because of this it gets away with telling a nice little story about people, all imperfections and awkward humaness intact, without the overall story feeling lacking; It just was, and it and it's characters were lovely and...real. Give it a listen. It's worth it.

I give it 5 stars in Overall, in Performance, and in Story. Though something about it's shortness rubs the wrong way and leaves you feeling like there's more in there left untold - might have said 4 stars on the story for that, but ultimately this short story seems to have been all it was ever supposed to be and it did it expertly enough that 5s all around also feels right.

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Exactly what you think will happen...Does.

Revisado: 02-03-23

The writing and editing are excellent and apart from the male voices sounding a bit off (like when a female narrator tries to do a man's voice for instance) the performance was also top notch.
The story was well done, but it is completely predictable and is exactly what anyone whose ever seen a romantic comedy or drama on TV expects. That being said I enjoyed the vast majority of it despite knowing what was likely going to happen.
The sex is often once it starts and is explicit, but not vulgar. It's well done and an arousing listen.

But be warned, the Irish Catholic patriarchy is a bit strong with this one. As an average American man and atheist I can say it's not over powering. But seriously, it feels contrived; a "perfect" drop dead gorgeous dark haired Catholic virgin women meets a incomparably "flawless" Irish man with possessive alpha male tendencies and through what felt like mostly the power of sex they overcome their serious emotional and phycological issues...it was like a catholic wet dream to be honest. On top of that, they both cook, sing, and play instruments.....almost too much for a very average listener to take if you know what I mean.

The story elements that made me cringe a bit inside were the relatively short 3 month period from first meeting to soul-mate talk, and all the "She's mine", "Your mine", "You belonging to me", talk coming from the Male MC even before they were a thing. The way she submitted and all her objections melted away every time also didn't help.

I recommend it to anyone who likes romance, consensual sex, mutual love and needs a listen with some emotional substance.
4 stars across the board.

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Excellent!!

Revisado: 12-23-22

Overall, one of the best litrpg audiobooks I've listened to. I easily place this book along side series like the "Wandering Inn", "Awaken Online", and "He Who Fights With Monsters" for quality of writing and narrator performance (Andrea Parsneau does the Wandering Inn series also). The female MC is extremely driven in her I'm a hammer in a world of nails sort of way which leads to a somewhat straight forward, almost predictable plot progression. The more she fights the stronger she gets. But the author did break things up with some curve balls that really helped develop the character and create something more organic/natural overall. I saw some of the criticisms before buying this book, So I'll just confirm that the "ding" before each stat update item is a little annoying if you focus on it, but it's also not really that bad since the author gave us the gift of only listing currently relevant stat changes or only the ones that actually changed, with only a few instances of full stat reading. I also happen to have enjoyed the amount of cursing and foul language used. All expletives were correctly employed and in just the right amount - completely believe for any adult person I know.
5 star overall - Get it, Seriously worth it!
5 star performance - it's Parsneau!!!
4 star story - it's not original at core, but is good

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