Steven

Meh

Revisado: 11-05-24

The narration is bland and not much really stands out about the story. I can say it isn’t bad, but it really isn’t very good either. The protagonist doesn’t seem to have qualities that make me feel he is a hero, he does have some perseverance, but the flat narration doesn’t show any personality. The antagonist is just as flat, and there’s not enough back story to justify or explain why hunting the summoned humans is worth the effort to the elves. A more lively narration may help, but I would not waste the money on a second copy of the book, even if it was a great narrator since the story just feels like the author was going through the motion of writing without putting much effort into it.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Op protagonist

Revisado: 03-05-24

I prefer an underdog fighting against overwhelming odds, winning conflicts with skill and ingenuity, and learning lessons from each defeat. The protagonist comes from a different time, has ancient knowledge that trumps anything thrown at him. Most of the conflicts seemed like the armies were pointless, Lark powered his way through with overwhelming power and skill. He never had to learn anything new or use better strategy because he started so far above everyone else. Even the issues he had to deal with, a lowered capacity for mana and a bad reputation felt insignificant, he could still overpower his opponents with raw power and his poor reputation was no hindrance to anything he tried to do either.

That being said, I do like the main character, he felt like a genuine guy; his ambitions are simple, with no desires to rule others. Not a bad story.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Better that I could write, but…

Revisado: 11-02-23

I need to start by saying this is way better than I think I could do, Jamie and C.J. Davis have accomplished quite a bit by writing and publishing this story.

Now, on to the critique. The story does not seem very well known planned or thought out. There are inconsistencies, contradictions, and the characters are not very deep. Some of the contradictions occur in the same scene - when Hal needs to select a magic field to specialize, Tilde says he should select all, nobody has been able to specialize in all 4 fields, but then she says in order to cast spirit magic he needs to master all 4 fields. I believe she also says no one has been able to cast spirit magic in thousands of years (or something along those line). If it’s not a contradiction, the story needs to make it clear why the statements align with each other (preferably in the same book, I don’t want to wait for a prequel that explains how someone else cast spirit magic without specializing and mastering the other 4 fields).

I don’t like how the ‘luck’ stat was used in this story. It strikes me as just lazy, and not even relevant for the overall story arc. In my mind, luck is a gamble, it comes into play during random times and situations, and will skew results without overwhelming planning, skill, raw ability, etc. every time I heard the slot machines starting up, I would inwardly groan; a boost in someone’s luck should not allow them to be successful at any endeavor. I would use the luck stat to allow the character to stumble across a critical item, not be seen, avoiding a critical hit, or something seemingly minor but still within the realm of a random result. Luck should not allow the character to outfight a better trained fighter, cause the villain to make poor choices, or some other major event that is not based on a random outcome. It pointed out how incompetent the villains were, that they made terrible choices that contradicted logic, did not follow plans or orders that were already in place because the main character had a high luck stat. I’ve read another book that used a high luck stat very effectively- tweaking loot tables, causing the enemies to choose another opponent to focus on (when it was just a random choice), and tweaking results so the character falls into a pond, instead of crashing into the ground after a fall.

The villains are incompetent, stupid, and not very logical or consistent. You don’t become arch villain without being powerful, smart, and either charismatic or very scary. In the first book, it made no sense to me that Hal was able to cause the rebellion so quickly. He should not have been able to defeat any of the wardens while still essentially a low level noob. Once again, the luck stat was used to allow lazy storytelling. Hal should have started small, low level thugs or guards to begin, and worked his way up to more and more difficult foes. By killing the wardens, one after another -the first were killed when he was still effectively a low level character- he was killing what should have been dungeon bosses while also taking out all the adds; without the skill set or abilities to justify his success. He did not have clever plans, or anything to explain why he could do so. He appeared to be constantly beating opponents that should have been more powerful -and only his luck stat to justify it.

There were so many parts of the story where I was tempted to move on to the next book, but I stuck it out anyway. I am impressed that the authors wrote these books, as critical as I am being; this is a huge accomplishment and they should be proud of what they have done. I would love to see them put out some more books, only with some better stories.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

No sense of danger

Revisado: 12-27-22

This story has the potential of being a 5 star book, but some areas just fall flat. There is no sense of danger or risk to the main character, there are some awkward leveling mechanisms that leave a poor taste to my brain, and I do not feel connected or have any real empathy for the main character.

I like the concept of the story, even though the story skips a lot of background, potential character development, and establishing any reason why the system (or systems) exist or care about the earth. I don’t like stories that start in the middle or the end, with a high level and recognized main character. I like to see who the character is, and why they are who they are. I want to understand why he was chosen to enter the portal, why saving the people was important, and what it means for the introductory period to end.

The main protagonist starts the story as a powerhouse in his world, with high stats, abilities, and skills. When he gets trapped, there is no sense of danger, not even a good feel of the effects of eternal isolation and boredom having any lasting effects after he is around people again. When he enters another system, he has not really lost anything, he may have restarted at level 0, but once he acquires a skill it is bumped to the previous skill level. The Mobs in the area he ‘spawned’ into cannot even break his skin so he takes hits left and right with no danger or possibility of being injured. This book is essentially an overpowered PC with level 200 equivalent stats in a newbie area, still able to gain experience and bonuses from the content, while power leveling others.

I do not care for the idea of regular class changes as a result of reaching milestone levels, when making that change means losing class abilities of the previous class. Class changes should require special conditions to prompt aside from reaching a specific level; they should build on each other, not be a total loss (there are ways to make this element more palatable, maybe inability to improve old skills or double cost to increase previous class skills). Having to spend skill points to gain class skills if the PC does change classes makes me wonder why they use skill points in the early classes at all, I would use 1 or 2 to gain critical skills and sandbag as many as I could for future classes (unless there was a game element for getting some points back for classes that do not transfer); or the story needs to force the character to buy skills to survive.

The main character presents himself as a solo mercenary out for himself, takes on saving people, out of what feels like boredom or curiosity. He seems like he is probably a good person, but the lack of caring or empathy he exhibits makes him feel almost like a sociopath to me. I think he mainly is hiding his feelings but without an extensive back story to show why he is this way, I am unwilling to ‘like’ him as a person.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Not a story I can get into

Revisado: 01-28-22

The story is just lacking in my mind in several areas. The characters are not in a game, and yet there are leveling mechanics without enough explanation why and how it works. Training or killing seems to earn levels at an undisclosed rate with no quantification of relevance, difficulty, or anything - the author may have it balanced and figured out, but I don’t get any sense of it from the book. Leveling increases skills from a skill tree, but there is no connection to why the skills are not all available or programmable from the start. I can assume it is based on the characters “attuning” to the armor, but that doesn’t explain the lack of connection between actions and reactions building those skills, it’s almost like “beat an opponent over the head with a club and you can choose walking on walls as the skill from that experience”. Not quite that simple, but I am using hyperbole. Samantha is selected to be the leader of the shadow corps, but she never showed any leadership before that, is the youngest and least experienced of the group, and continues to be told what to do afterward. Samantha is played up to be special, and while she does have d at one powers she struggles with, she appears to be the weakest member of the team throughout the book.

I am impressed Justin wrote this book, and I’m sure it would bear anything I would be able to write. I enjoy sword and sorcery and lit rpg, so I’m sure I will come across more books from Justin in the future, although I am unlikely to continue with this series.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Great Listen

Revisado: 09-24-12

The 4 races in the world, humans, vampires, demons and witches have a delicate balance. The magical races only survive by staying hidden from the humans, and the covenant is the agreement between the races that keeps and enforces that rule. When a Vampire (Mathew deClaremont) and witch (Dianna Bishop) meet while searching for the magical tome rumored to be the original grimoire by the witches, the book that explained where the demons come from by the demons, and the book that could explain and give the power to destroy vampires by the vampires; all the races strive to keep them apart and prevent the budding relationship between them, as well as trying to force Dianna into getting the book and opening the secrets for them.

There are aspects of the story that seem a little of a let down to me -no werewolves- and the heroine seems to be a bit too helpless for being a very powerful witch, but those aspects are not enough to detract from the story line. There are also some issues that come up with interactions between races and for the races supposedly having to stay separate to avoid calling notice, it seems the only ones really effected by this rule are the hero and heroine. It is still a powerful story, and has a lot to offer. I am curious how much historical research Deborah Harkness has done, I am fascinated by how she depicts historical events and people and also the legends and lore she brings up with the races. Everything seems to fit my limited knowledge, but I prefer to enjoy the story than try to pick apart anything that deviates from actual events, but it does cross my mind.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Rich and Exciting read

Revisado: 06-27-12

I enjoyed this whole series, well thought out and consistent magic system, different races all have their own customs and histories. There are some things that bothered me, but not enough to really take away from the story line, the relative power and magics of the good and evil races seemed unbalanced. As underpowered as the good races seemed to be, it seems as if the evil races could have easily overrun the good races, and the people that could have balanced that feeling did not seem to have relevant roles in order to actually prevent that from happening; but it all works out ok somehow any way. There are way too many evil minion races that seem way overpowered to also have such great numbers to not have just overrun the good forces they came up against, and yet somehow even though they seem to constantly overwhelm; they are not as devastating as they should have been for the numbers and relative power they did have. The dragon was not as powerful as I would have hoped -I liked how the bond and magic worked for the dragon and its bonded mage- but I would have expected it to be fierce and dangerous even when it did lose its ability to use magic. The dragon should have dominated the lessor creatures it came up against easily, it should have taken bigger and tougher foes to keep it occupied and effectively neutralize it during battles.

All the things that bothered me were very minor compared to the richness of the story and the great character development, so this is still a definite must read for any one that likes fantasy.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

I enjoyed this series

Revisado: 06-27-12

I enjoyed this whole series, well thought out and consistent magic system, different races all have their own customs and histories. There are some things that bothered me, but not enough to really take away from the story line, the relative power and magics of the good and evil races seemed unbalanced. As underpowered as the good races seemed to be, it seems as if the evil races could have easily overrun the good races, and the people that could have balanced that feeling did not seem to have relevant roles in order to actually prevent that from happening; but it all works out ok somehow any way. There are way too many evil minion races that seem way overpowered to also have such great numbers to not have just overrun the good forces they came up against, and yet somehow even though they seem to constantly overwhelm; they are not as devastating as they should have been for the numbers and relative power they did have. The dragon was not as powerful as I would have hoped -I liked how the bond and magic worked for the dragon and its bonded mage- but I would have expected it to be fierce and dangerous even when it did lose its ability to use magic. The dragon should have dominated the lessor creatures it came up against easily, it should have taken bigger and tougher foes to keep it occupied and effectively neutralize it during battles.

All the things that bothered me were very minor compared to the richness of the story and the great character development, so this is still a definite must read for any one that likes fantasy.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Great series

Revisado: 06-27-12

I enjoyed this whole series, well thought out and consistent magic system, different races all have their own customs and histories. There are some things that bothered me, but not enough to really take away from the story line, the relative power and magics of the good and evil races seemed unbalanced. As underpowered as the good races seemed to be, it seems as if the evil races could have easily overrun the good races, and the people that could have balanced that feeling did not seem to have relevant roles in order to actually prevent that from happening; but it all works out ok somehow any way. There are way too many evil minion races that seem way overpowered to also have such great numbers to not have just overrun the good forces they came up against, and yet somehow even though they seem to constantly overwhelm; they are not as devastating as they should have been for the numbers and relative power they did have. The dragon was not as powerful as I would have hoped -I liked how the bond and magic worked for the dragon and its bonded mage- but I would have expected it to be fierce and dangerous even when it did lose its ability to use magic. The dragon should have dominated the lessor creatures it came up against easily, it should have taken bigger and tougher foes to keep it occupied and effectively neutralize it during battles.

All the things that bothered me were very minor compared to the richness of the story and the great character development, so this is still a definite must read for any one that likes fantasy.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Did not live up to the Potential for me

Revisado: 06-27-12

After seeing the title, and reading the pop up from scrolling over the book, I thought I had to read this book. The story was ok, but there are just too many leaps of faith that seem too convenient. The back story on the main character is weak and s=does not explain why he is able to make quick judgements on others and make great and trustworthy friends quickly. There is nothing in the story to explain or show why he can be so forgiving and so understanding. There are also issues of minor characters being too conveniently and easily overcome, and the villains were inconsistent in how they felt with the bodies afterwards compared to how they dealt with bodies of previous victims. One of the lessor antagonists (deputy sheriff) is distant, distracted, and unconcerned during an interview with the media about crimes in his jurisdiction, how would he achieve his current position and how would he have a chance at all of being elected sheriff with his arrogant and unconcerned attitude without a backstory explaining why he can blow off the media and still have a career. I did enjoy the story, but I think the unjustified leaps of faith that always pay off are unjustified and unexplained, and it bothers me that the main character can make no mistakes. It makes the story seem too easy and convenient.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 3 personas