Eric Kimball

Not very exciting

Revisado: 04-11-25

This isn't a bad book. There's not wrong with it. Its just not very engaging. The problem is the protagonists. You have the main character, Axia who only has memories from the last 3 years of her life, which makes her kind of bland. She don't really care about much, have opinions on much, or really have any real goals, because for all practical sense she got the mind of a three year old, just with a better vocabulary. And like a three year old, she generically thinks bad things are bad and good things are good. So she is a good person, but in a very simplistic and childish way.

And then there is Kori and Nia, who are married and want to be rich. And that's about it. Their marriage is the most passionless thing I've seen put to paper. Yes they kiss occasionally, and they dance once. Or at least we are told they dance and kiss. Because any time things get romantic, the focus immediately shift to the internal monolog of another character thinking about unrelated stuff. They never have heated argument or times where they are in sync with one another. They just feel like they are married for tax reason.

And yes, they want to be rich. But who doesn't.

So you have a set of character who are not unlikeable, but not particularly likable either, doing adventure things. There are lot of fights but not a lot of stakes to the fights. If you like spelljammer, it has lot of spelljammer stuff in it. So you can listen to it for the easter eggs. But if you are looking for character drama you are going to be disappointed.

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Ridiculously violent book (not for everyone)

Revisado: 03-17-25

This is a very silly book. Not silly in that its humorous, the book takes itself very seriously. But silly in the sense that the violence is so over the top and excessive it looses all emotional weight and just become sort of strange bloody poetry.

If you are looking for magic powers - you will be disappointed. There is a unique and interesting magic system but it is rarely used.

If you are looking for epic dragon battles - you will be disappointed. There is a dynamic dragon culture linked to the magic system but again it is rarely used.

If you are looking for a fascinating political intrigue plot - you will be disappointed. The political backdrop to the story is very rich and interesting but it only lightly touched on.

If you are looking for romance -You will loath this book. It is not a romance.

But, if you are looking for bloody street battle where the protagonists tear through faceless guards with all manner of bladed weapons while clinging to the edge of life like its a comic book written by Robert Kirkman - This is the book for you.

This book does violence and it does it well, varying the situation, combatants, and stakes to keep it interesting. As I hinted at, there is more to the book than violence and those part are good too, and keep the book from becoming monotonous. But if you are talking merely percentage the violent sword fights are the vast majority of the book.

It's a fun listen, if you don't try to take it too seriously and aren't that squeamish.

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Had potential but ruined by bland protagonist

Revisado: 03-16-25

I wanted to like this book. I really did. There are some good ideas in here, but they are pushed aside for really boring protagonist. Tessalynde is a young woman who wants "more." More of what you ask? That's not really explored. So, she's basically a Disney Princess without the Prince or any sort of romance.

We are TOLD she is a master planer. We are TOLD this a repeatedly. So, what master plans do we see her do? Her two go to plans are to ether to yell at at another character to think of a way to save the day, or to just cause chaos and hope it works out in the parties favor. Neither "Person, do something" or "How abut we make things worse" are what I would call "master plans."

And it's a shame, because the other characters in the party are interesting with uniquely D&D back stories and some real pathos. But every time we get a even a little bit interesting with them Tessalynde swoops in to drain all the drama out of the situation. And then remind us that she is a master planner. Because demonic possession, broken families, covering crippling self loathing with arrogance, or gambling with demons and gods, is not nearly as important as the fact that Tessalynde is a master planer. Tessalynde master planning is what you are supposed to take away from this book.

You know when someone bring a significant other to a gaming group. Someone who really doesn't get what role playing is and makes a bland stock character with no real adventure hooks. And then they make a scene over not being the leader of the group because their character has has the highest intelligence score. Imagine that person transcribed the game sessions from their perspective. You would get this novel.

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Falls apart in the last thrid

Revisado: 02-20-25

This started off really strong but then last third of the book ruined it. At first I liked the narrator but in the last third of the book everything that made him likable crumbled away. I liked the "antagonist" in the first part of the book and then everything that made her interesting was undone. Characters do things that make no sense and aren't consistent with their motivations or just basic human logic. The author hand is so visible it might as well be watching finger puppets. I'm actually more annoyed because the book was pretty good in the beginning and to have all that potential waisted is frustrating.

...Mild Spoilers...

The breaking point in the book is when the main character, a strictly moral marshal, starts following around a murderous outlaw like a lost puppy for no other reason than he has to follow her for the force romance to happen. And the outlaw, who started out as this interestingly complex gray character gets retconed into a paragon of virtue, even having actual historical figures show up to vouch for how great she is. And yes, It is as hackney and shoehorned as it sounds. It's is so frustrating. It really feels like the last third of this book was written by a different person.

The missed potential and squandered talent of this book really makes me angry. It could have been so great and instead it dissolves into nonsensical slop at the end.

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Servable LITRPG - Expertly performance

Revisado: 02-10-25

Bought this one by accident. LITRPGs are not really my thing. That being said, I did not hate this, and listened all the way through. Which, I suppose, is high praise for someone who is not a fan of the genera.

But make no mistake, this is, very much, a LITRPG. You have the schlubly every man, a "legally" 18 year old that acts like a 14 year old, who suddenly gets god like powers by hacking a skill tree system. But he is a nice so he doesn't abuse his sudden power. And because he is nice, he quickly finds himself in a harem situation with multiple extremely hot women being his best friends, with vague "benefits" being teased at, but never really delivered for that would disrupt the delicate harem balance. There are villains who act like middle school bullies, and are quickly delt with by leveling up. There are some very polite eldritch horrors that swing by on occasion to ask if now would be a convenient moment to go mad and then respect the protagonist choice when he say he kind of busy now, check back next week.

It is all silly and inconsequential. But it is generally well written. The protagonist is immature, but not in an unlikeable way. The pop culture references are not incessant and generally feel natural. The world building is inconsistent but not in a way that really breaks the story. And there is a certain fun in the insane world with narratively quantum bigger on the inside trains and a government hierarchy set up to cause superhero/supervillain battles for no other reason than battles are cool.

My one complaint is the magic system. In that its not a magic system, it technology with funny names. The main character is supposed to be merging magic and technology but it really is just all technology. Later in the book there is a sort of magic system added in with symbiotic sprits, but its added about half way through and has nothing to do with the "magic" the main character has already been doing, so it feels more like an after though than a system. The people who are posting that this is a unique magic system are off their gourd and should not be trusted to operate heavy machinery.

If you are looking for some inconsequential fluff to keep you company on a long drive or boring work day, this is not a bad choice.

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Not a book about superheroes

Revisado: 07-24-19

This is not a bad book, but it's definitely not a superhero book. It's about an wealthy, highly educated young man who gets bored with his high-paying investment banking job. After reenacting the pool scene from The Graduate, he uses the money and connection he has to create, essentially, the A-Team. There are no radioactive spider here, no strange visitors from another world. At it's core, this book is an entrepreneur's fable about starting up your own business instead of working for other people. If you are into that, you will love this book. It's well written, fun and has a real sense of place and character.

But it is not a superhero book. If you are looking for the tropes and spectacle of superheroes you will be very disappointed.

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Play at 1.75 speed! And only buy with a credit.

Revisado: 04-17-19

I bought this book and returned it, thinking it was dreadfully dull. Then I noticed in the comments that someone mention you should play the book at a higher speed. I gave that a shot and found that I actually like this book. Turns out that Kyle McCarely is the slowest talking man on the planet. He starts out painfully slow, and then, anytime there is a chapter where not much is going on, he slows down even more, carefully pronouncing every banal word. To make the book bearable you have to play it at 1.75 speed and in some parts you will need to but that number up to 2.10 at least.

On that note. Never buy this book with money. See that 26 hour run time. That is a bloody lie. When played at a reasonable speed the book will clock in at about 11 hours. Since the cash price is based on the run time of the book, your being really cheated if you pay cash.

As for the book itself. It's pretty fun. Kind of a high school soapopera with super powers. The character are enjoyable and engaging. Not much happens in the book but the melodrama is enough to move it along. If your into the interpersonal drama of comic books this novel will scratch that itch for you.

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Hero kidnapped = Gasp! For the forth time = meh.

Revisado: 11-05-18

This book started out strong and then ran out of ideas and started repeating itself. The idea that space ship are run by mystical ley-line like bands of Platonic Forms is a cool one. And the set up of a self taught protagonist who has a unique way of interacting with these line is fun. I was very engaged as he was kidnapped from his life forced into service for a government he hated.

And then that theme just got repeated over an over again. Spoilers ahead...






After being bought into bondage our hero get caught up in a kidnapping attempt of on of the royal princesses.

Fortunately he is able to use his unique power to make a daring escape.

And then he is kidnapped again for that unique power.

And then in the middle of that kidnapping there was a coup and he's taken hostage by the by the the people over throwing his kidnappers.

Fortunately he is able to use his unique power to make a daring escape.

But hes still with his kidnappers and they threat him as bargaining chip.

Fortunately he is able to use his unique power to save his life.

And then there's a Star War Phantom Menace negotiation scene where alliances are change so that instead of two powerful space fairing power at odds with each other their are now two differently named power space fairing power at odds with each other.

And then the hero is told because of his power that he will never be free and must serve the original group who bought him into bondage forever.

And then the book ends. There are interesting mysteries in this book, but they are never solved or really addressed. It's just a constant repeating cycle of kidnapping and daring escapes accomplishing nothing with the hero's power solving everything when he remembers to use it.

It's not a bad book. I just wish it had a bit more meat in it and the author didn't lean on the same trope over and over again. If your looking for some fun sci-fi pulp action is not a bad book to pick up. But just like the Flash Gordan serials of old it doesn't stray very far from formula or resolve anything.

A solidly meh book. Not bad but not much to recommend. I enjoy it, but I'm not going to pick up anything else in the series.

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If Douglas Adams wrote a book of just footnotes.

Revisado: 06-19-18

This book is bad in the worst possible way. It's boring. It's all asides and back story without having an actual story. At the sentence level it's fine. But those sentences never add up to much. And frankly the asides are not really that clever. The writing thinks it's clever, but "observations" are more something a tween would tweet out while not paying attention in a Calc class than any real insights. There none technology and science obsession of an Adams or the newspaper man's social/political insight of Pratchett. The book copies their style with out having the knowledge or narrative structure to back it up.

In the first 5 chapters of the Hitchhikers guide; The earth was blown up, We learned who the Vogons are and experience their poetry, the protagonists were flushed into space, The heroes were rescued by the infinite probability drive, We learned the meaning of life the universe and everything.

In the first 5 chapters of Space Opera: We learn that the main character has a fear of commitment and a space bird shows up and say they might destroy the planet if we don't sing well.

Notice the difference? This book is a lot of talking without saying much of anything. Definitely not worth the credit.

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Andrea Vernon, efficient cog in a corrup machine.

Revisado: 04-04-18

This is a good book, and I hated it. More accurately I hated the main character. The book was funny, set in a interesting and well written world . I just found myself wishing the main character would be hit with a falling piano through the entirety of it.

Andrea Vernon is a childish, judgmental, narcissistic, idiot who learns to set aside her unrealistic self-centered dream to focus on building a career as a soulless cog in a corrupt cooperation. It's a type of character growth. Frankly, the only type someone like Andrea capable of. She is the good guy in the story or at least she's as good as she can get.

Kane's tongue is firmly planted in his check for this novel. It's clear your not supposed to take Andrea too seriously. That the horribleness of "C.U.P." and Andrea's inability or unwillingness to see it is part of the joke. Kane is expertly employing the tools of farce with this story.

It's a good book, but just I hated Andrea so much!

If you are looking for a funny super hero story that maintains the up beat four color feel of golden age comics while still having a subtext of moral gray woven through out, this book is for you.

If you looking for a story where the hero acts like a hero, maybe pass on this one.

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