Tal

The writing is flawed and philosophy creepy

Revisado: 02-07-25

I've been told to read this for years, but it is very disappointing. I've only finished the entire book to see if, somehow, it gets better and I am missing something. It onlu got worse.

As for the writing, while Niven is determined to show every minor rational exchange (resulting in "10^6 in 8-base is--" "yes, I know, I'm used to that conversion"), he staunchly refuses to show some very basic, important emotional exchanges (such as "don't do that! you scared me to death" being replaced with "he reproached them"), rendering even some very important scenes soulless.

As for the writer's philosophy? He created a universe where twenty-year-olds are mentally children, then paired them off with (fit) 200-year-old men who have slept with their ancestors. He created a world where some people have no free will, and where some people's entire life is defined by who they marry and/or sleep with. Some of his characters aren't even allowed to be angry or hurt when betrayed or demeaned.

Then there's manipulation using sex, manipulation for sex, unimportant sex as filler and not a plot or emotion centered scene...

I had the visceral urge to barf at least fove distinct times while listening. All of them because of poor writing, not because of a horror or disgust-centered scene.

In short, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK.

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Good cast. Kudos to them.

Revisado: 12-12-24

The cast are great, and you can really feel that they love being voice actors. Sadly, the story leaves some to be desired especially in the way of meaningful conflicts, and the narrator/main character was written so annoyingly that I couldn't keep from hating his existence.

The actors did the best they could with such rough, one-note characters and simplistic story based only on shonen tropes played straight. Kudos to them for managing to make me smile a couple times. Especially in the cake scene. I am sorry I couldn't recommend this more highly.

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A bit too spicy for me at times

Revisado: 07-17-23

Amazing book! Goes on my favorites list, and have already listened to it thrice before this review. Great worldbuilding, great writing, only a couple notes:

1. There's an autistic character who isn't consistently written accurately, and also the idea of "bypassing" the autism is senseless, though the resulting interactions are interesting.

2. This book is far too spicy for me, especially as a WLW why isn't much interested in men. I knew that going in, though, so it's on me. That being said, it's not a porn book (as in, half the book is sex), but actually a great novel with some sex scenes (usually plot-relevant) interspersed.

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Dreadful, but not in the fun zombie way

Revisado: 05-29-23

I have no idea what the story is about. It was recommended to me a while ago, so I forced myself to go past chapter 2. That might've been a mistake though.

I don't love giving bad reviews to books that might have been well written, but I really have no clue if it is well written or poorly so. No matter what I try, I hear the bored, uninterested voice of a narrator who is seemingly suffering gravely. I try to listen to the meaning, but there is no intonation to mark important phrases or emotions, so it just sounds like a computer voice reading an encyclopedia. Someone died, I think, and there were guns pointing to heads and people died, and the only thing I retained from a whole action chapter with presumably high stakes (people died maybe?), is that the narrator is really tired. The only thought or emotion I had was concern that he's in some kind of purgatory, and wondering how he could be saved.

TL;DR so devoid of intonation or any interest by the narrator recording this, that listening was painful. I doubt I'll be able to force myself to get to cheaper 10.

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An abysmal book with the wrong narrator

Revisado: 11-17-22

I bought this book because while I'm not an avid litRPG fan, I've enjoyed some with special worlds (such as Ritualist series/Dakota Krout) and some others with special takes (NPCs series/Drew Hayes) or good parodies (Orconomics series/J. Zachary Pike) and the unique idea of a little boy as a summons, especially as the viewpoint character, seemed to be at least one, possibly all three.

Instead, this story has nothing to say. It has no humor or any note, out has it's own unique world but nothing is remotely interesting about it or it's magic system, which isn't even fully consistent or coherent ¹, and worse - not even one of the characters is interesting or relatable for more than their first 3 chapters.

The narrator is good enough, but he has the voice and cadence of a history instructor or the narrator in lectures. I don't have anything against him, but his (valid) style just happened to highlight the worst, most boring faults in the writer's own skills.

¹example: a skill doesn't work for one character against a certain opponent, is described as if it "cannot", then one minute later works for a similar character against an identical opponent

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emotionless performance, seemingly good story

Revisado: 10-05-21

I'm less than halfway through, and seriously considering a refund. the story sounds good, but it's extremely hard to judge when the narrator recounts conversations about maps, the fear of death, and sexual attraction all with the same intonation. the best way to describe it is that she reads everything like a small detail that might be relevant later but probably wouldn't.

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bad idea

Revisado: 12-16-18

the book starts with two separate, very interesting book ideas, each with their own world and concept that have such potential. but as soon as those worlds interact, they lose all integrity and intrigue.

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The narrator is just not good for this book

Revisado: 08-24-18

Great book! When I read it physically, I loved it. RC Bray is not a good fit for this sort of book. He ruined most of the jokes, mispronounces names, and just narrates in a style that doesn't fit this book. I enjoyed his narration of other books, but this one... I really didn't.

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Instant Favorite!

Revisado: 08-13-18

One of the best books I've read in a very long time! Written amazingly and poetically, very raw and real, relatable and well read - I'll be recommending this to people.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Uninteresting and inaccurate. Sub-par.

Revisado: 06-20-18

Could not tolerate any mention of mental health in this book. The supposed therapist is as unprofessional as they come, and seems uneducated both in operational procedure and in medicine, just handing a wide variety of perscription drugs to a minor, without making any attempt to assess their actual effects.

Other than that, the book was uninteresting and predictable. Any other notable parts are notable for being low quality in some way or another, including the narrator, who emphasizes three words every sentence on average, more than 50% of them in a way that I found annoying. His accents are horrible and it seems he has barely worked on them.

That being said, the narrator was adequate. The book was just abominable, and I think did not warrant any note of it, never mind the publicity it got in my circles.

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