Jacob W.

Wayne Mitchell *facepalm*

Revisado: 02-19-25

Seriously. The narrator messes with the accent of the MC a lot. And there's no reason for every second to be that intense.

The story started out kinda lame, surprisingly. I'm only halfway through but I can't finish it. The narrator is killing it for me.

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Whoa!

Revisado: 11-13-24

The new narrator crushed it!

Some of the abilities were a little confusing but the story seems to really try to make it all make sense.

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Arrogance

Revisado: 09-23-24

The absolute arrogance of the MC is off-putting. He's condescending to kids his own age who were just as tortured as he was. He also freed peons/slaves and wanted them to find their own way home in an area where death was certain. He openly admitted that they wouldn't make it but also tries to take credit for freeing them. "Be grateful, if not for me, how would ever have had the chance to die in this hellhole?" Okay bud.

I'm done with this series because of this book specifically. It was the most boring and most frustrating.

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Joey is...unlikeable.

Revisado: 08-16-24

Meh. Edgy 18yr old with a power trip.

He gets all these powers and doesn't bat an eye when he slaughters monsters and adventurers. The blood, gore, and morality of killing - no problem. it wasn't until he killed non-adventurers that he had a slight conscience. "Great adventurers" are fawned over by everyone but the "normal" adventurers and it makes no sense. The only clarifying difference between the two types of adventurers was mindset. Speaking of mindset, this nobody from another world somehow learns to be an actual rogue at heart and deceive people with truth, yada-yada. Except...it doesn’t really make sense. He learns to be that way from who? Books? No. He just thought it all up because he's a 18yr old genius psychopath. All the sirens in the first area of the book all wanted his babies because, reasons. This is some of the most shallow storytelling I've heard in a long while.

The world seems really cool though.

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Um.

Revisado: 07-17-24

The dialog is clunky and the romance interactions are downright awful. The MC and his girlfriend have this unrealistic relationship that takes you out of the story. Her "jealousy" over Tim helping a woman get out of a prostitution debt makes no sense. The MC is randomly awkward for no reason. MC also wants to be a healer but willingly puts more effort into assassin stats. MC makes broad assumptions about the game yet constantly reminds himself that it's not like other games. The good/evil paradigm is cartoony. The bad guys are cartoony. MC makes pop culture references that are either too old for him to know or they don't feel like something the character would know based on his life experience. The short battle sequences cheapen the build up and grim demeanor of the characters. The fact that the healing temple (or whatever) gave the MC (a "healer") rogue-like quests makes no sense — especially when the MC accepts those quests with hardly a second thought. The "death" scene of the tank was really, really dumb. They were crying and sobbing and heaving for...what? An in-game avatar that would come back to life? Wtf. Tim boasting about the kill record of his week-old guild is just sad. The other characters keep talking about Tim's whacky plans when they're just...normal-ass plans. It seems to be written for 12yr olds with too much swearing.

Narrator was...middling at best. The side characters had good voices but he makes the narration unnecessarily awkward at random times. It's almost like he's never had a conversation with another human. Or he's the guy Virtual Voice learned from.

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"magic in space done right" Yeah, for an 8yr old.

Revisado: 07-01-23

This is from the publisher's summary:
“If you grew up playing D&D, Rifts, Spelljammer, or Starcraft, and want to see magic in space done right, then get ready to lose the next sixty hours of your life.” — The Author’s Totally Biased Friend

^Reading that is what hooked me. And boy was I deceived. If you like the above, proceed in the book with caution.

Magitech Chronicles is a mess. It's a good listen to throw on in the background and not really pay much attention to but it doesn't hold up to any level of scrutiny. Chris Fox seems to have read Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles and tried to create something like it...but also failed quite miserably.

I made it to book 2 chapter 44 and I had to stop. (SPOILERS) A god just gives the MCs what they need - magic, power, knowledge, a ship, etc...makes no sense.

Everything happening in the story is because "gods" set these things in motion dozens of millenia ago and have been pulling the strings on the lives of individuals ever since. The gods are still in a bit of a cold war but need lesser beings like the MCs to do...things. Why? If all the gods see the world through a nebulous lens of past, present, and future possibility, then there would be no point in having mortals do anything because the the gods would just follow the same formula that the others are following.

While I'm on the topic of gods, wtf are gods in this world? A god named Nefarious...really? There are gods and older gods? But there's very old gods too? They created various races and ruled over their own planets but...they're just really old wyrms? And wyrms are just young gods? The Krox are just young wyrms? I don't really get it. It seems too focused on shoehorning dragonlike entities. Yeah, I get it, space-dragons are cool. But, dragons/wyrms/krox/dragon gods seem to be everywhere in these small books.

The loose magic system kind of makes sense. I have many questions about it but it's not nearly as important as the story.

Main characters.
Aran is boring. Says some witty things and is generally an agreeable MC. But he literally accepts that he's a puppet with open arms.
Voria. She's at least a little interesting in that she doesn't blindly do things and voices her calculus.
Cruz (sp?). He seemed like the stereotypical description of a sergeant. Fine. But then his character was changed in an odd way during the second book.
Nara. She's about as exciting as Aran.

Character development. None. And that's probably the biggest thing, IF there is any character development, it wasn't earned. Nothing happens because it's what they were aiming for or as a direct result of their actions. Instead, it's given to them because PLOT. They constantly react and have virtually no will of their own.

Just found out that there's an RPG for this...so now it makes more sense why things make zero sense in the context of a story.

Also, the narrator needs to pick up a dictionary when he sees a word he doesn't know. He also seems to do all of the dragons/wyrms in the same voice so it's a bit confusing.

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Immediately confusing.

Revisado: 10-19-22

I'm only a few hours into the book and it looks like there are two main POV's, several side character POV's, and two time periods to keep track of. The prologue was very unusual and mostly unnecessary.

There's absolutely no reason to bounce around in a story this often. Is the book a giant flashback or are you trying to tell an evolving story...because you can't do both. Half of the book is about the past. Why wouldn't you just write the past and then write the present after? This style of writing serves no purpose and makes it difficult to stay interested.

The characters so far are completely one dimensional and are not compelling enough to keep me interested.

The premise of the book is cool enough and the narrator isn't terrible but I was let down by the quality of the writing.

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Uhh...

Revisado: 01-24-22

So, I loved Harmon Cooper's Pilgrim books. But this one seemed like there was less effort being put into the story. The premise is easy enough and actually enjoyable but the execution of it all was lacking. The personal interactions between characters was also not believable in the slightest and most of it was either vulgar, juvenile, or sexually derived. Having something here and there is okay but when it's all the time, I wonder who this was written for.

Most of my gripe lies with the narrators. I've listened to Justin Thomas James before and he wasn't this bad. The "accent" (if one can call it that) is spontaneously used and sounds like he's making fun of the writing. I felt Sam's first love interest was played way too aggressive sounding even during normal conversation.

It's just really hard to listen to and care about the story overall.

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It's actually fun.

Revisado: 11-14-21

Even though the sense of a danger throughout the book is very lacking, the book is actually pretty decent. I enjoyed how the main character thought he was way behind everyone else when he was actually the only one going solo and far ahead of the others in the group.

The concept of the book I think is pretty good, but the execution is lacking. The title, "Level Up or Die!" seems very misleading because it makes it seem like there will be a lot of death surrounding the main character. There doesn't seem to be much at all. I don't remember anyone actually dying until the end where two armies clash.

I think the magic system is pretty good. The leveling system...awful. Not only do levels not matter, but the progression from level 1 to level 210 in such a short period really cheapened the experience.

I marked down the performance of the book because I don't think the narrator was a good fit for the story. I marked the story down heavily because there's very little to the actually story. It's just following a guy's adventures as he gets progressively more wary of those in power over him. There doesn't really seem to be an end goal yet - though, the author did elude to something of that effect.

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There's a disconnect. (Spoiler free)

Revisado: 11-13-21

(I've only made it through the first 3 books because they are included in the Audible Membership.)

There's a real disconnect between what the main character's thinking and what he does. He'll be thinking something like, "I knew I was about to die if I didn't get out of the way." But then he'll not only stand in the way, but the universe decides that he's achieved something and rewards him for it. Another aspect of this issue is that his line of reasoning is really disjointed and often illogical. It honestly turned me off from the series very early on.

There were a couple of cool concepts in the game-world that other LitRPG types don't have but the cons outweighed them. Plot-armor seems to be the only answer to any issues that crop up.
"But Jack, it'll never work!" - side character
"It has to." - Jack
"But we only have two hours to make 3,600 cannons! It's just not possible!" - side character
"That's what you think." - The Universe

There's a surprising lack of tension despite all of the moments that get intense for the characters. At no point did I get the sense that the characters weren't going to make it through something.

It also baffles me how much further ahead one of the villains got compared to the main character. Not only that, but the villain had strategies targeting the main character's very specific (and secret) class...how??

There's a lot more to say, including the terrible romance setup, but you'll have to pardon me while I listen to something else. Not saying it's awful, but It's not that great either. Easy enough to put it on in the background while you concentrate on something else.

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