AmzSelzBasura

Easily the worst LitRPG I’ve ever read. Worst written. Worst narrated.

Revisado: 04-04-25

Series like this and their ratings are proof 90% of people reading these pulp series have zero taste whatsoever.

First let’s start with this absolutely awful narration. This guy’s cadence is so stop and start that it makes everything being read, whether action or dialogue or whatever, just seem so all over the place and poorly paced. But a part of that is the writing itself. It’s about to the level I’d expect of an enterprising 6th grader. And not just any 6th grader, a heavily bullied one who’s now borderline sociopathic.

Everything about how this is written is bad. It is difficult to keep track of who the MC is with, what they are doing and why, where they are. The magic is all over the place and yet the MC always knows exactly how to use it in every situation. The combat is the worst I’ve ever read. Besides the fact all the fights are usually the same monster type, it reads like an outline. There’s no flow to any of it, no environment either.

The MC is wholly and completely boring and intolerable. First he’s OP AF, and I don’t usually complain about that, this is power fantasy but the sum total effort of challenging him is the essentially totally arbitrary “Hell” difficulty and losing an arm. Except it doesn’t seem difficult or hellish whatsoever. And after losing his arm it never inconveniences him and is hardly mentioned except when trying to fix it. You’d think the author would at least think about maybe showing his day to day struggles. You know like trying to cook and slice food or something. Nah…

The worst part of the MC is his personality. He’s like a robot or a Vulcan. Totally devoid of emotion and has no comprehension of why people do things nice for him. The reason for this is so the author can have an emotionally maturity growth arc down the line, how original. That’s about as low a bar as an author can set for themselves. Write a character with zero emotions and then eventually let him have some, wow wow wow… wow.

But not like I will be along for the ride. Seriously folks, have some standards. A creepy dog what talks and has tentacles isn’t cute. It’s weird. I can’t imagine what my dogs would say if they could speak, the things they’ve seen …

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Story is getting better and better with each book.

Revisado: 04-02-25

Lots of issues with the first book. Second book was a big step up but still had some issues. This book is the best yet.

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Interesting and unique ideas, poorly executed. The author’s worst book in my opinion.

Revisado: 03-02-25

One, there’s like five different magic systems now. Not a bad idea, it’s just the way it’s done is so confusing and Jake seems to randomly abandon skills and abilities he had last book when they would be useful for no conceivable reasons. Isn’t addressed, just moving on.

Two, the first book was a roller coaster, too fast paced, of one plot bulldozing into the next with no time for reflection or payoffs. This book all takes place in one city, the same place we left last book. And the whole book all of zero of the eight bad guys Jake needs to take out before he goes home were dealt with. It’s like the exact opposite.

I really like the world building, the imaginative plot elements, I just don’t think the author knows how to bring it together, or knows what to leave out and what to keep it. I hear he’s got a long editing process, but maybe there’s too many chefs in the kitchen and this is the result?

The author throws so many ideas at the wall, it makes me wonder how he’ll write more in the future, it’s just an idea dump of a book. Some great ideas, just wasted in this manner.

Not sure if I’d recommend this series to curious readers. It really will depend on how it’s wrapped up in book 3.

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Should be called “Jake Just Wants to Be a Shopkeeper”, more accurate.

Revisado: 02-27-25

I don’t hate this book, it’s definitely odd but not necessarily in bad ways. I like that there’s no system, I enjoy progression magic like that that. I like the plot, it’s expansive and engaging with a lot of interesting elements.

But it’s not slice of life, it’s nothing like the title, the blurb or the cover art implies. For instance, the stakes of this series are as high as they get in this genre. So maybe the pacing is the issue. I feel like I’m a snowball tossed off a hill and I’m just gathering steam and going faster and faster and getting bigger and bigger with no end in sight.

But, that said, I know this is a complete series, a trilogy. How refreshing for this genre to have a short series, and with these stakes. So I’ll take a Star because this is good, definitely better than many of the most popular ongoing series in this genre. But it’s not great.

Recommend for anyone who enjoys progression fantasy with interesting and unique magic systems, engaging plots, and huge stakes.

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A real slog. A massive step back, by far the worst book in the series.

Revisado: 02-08-25

Well, I’m quite disappointed. Despite some minor problems I had with some of the world building that didn’t make sense, such as the constant contradictions of the purpose of the Path, overall I had this series ranked number two of my favorite ongoing progressive fantasy series.

It has likable characters, an interesting plot and world building, a detail rich magic system and lots of combat and variety of combat. So what happened?

This book has none of that. We had one filler before, I forget which book, four or something. But at least in that book we were in context for most of the story, we weren’t summarizing every single thing. We spent a lot of time delving and creating rifts. It was fun even if it was a filler without any real plot movement, more plot framework for the follow up novels.

I came into this book with a bad taste in my mouth from the end of the last book, where they get out of the dungeon planet and it just ends. We don’t get any chance as a reader to revel in the payoff of our team completing the dungeon as tier 11s. We don’t get Luna’s reaction, we don’t go through the loot and progression. The latter we could push to this book, as the author did, but not the former!

And so I expect this entry to start there. Nope. We get a massive first chapter, a full five percent of the novel, full of short perspectives of various characters throughout the universe/galaxy/whatever without any context to who or what they are other than what they say. It requires a lot of attention and even then I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Then we finally get back to our team in chapter 2 and we skip the whole celebratory scene. And this is where the book starts down a really unfortunate trend that continues the entire time. That is instead of actually brining us into scenes with real conversations and reactions, we get a summary of what was being discussed interspersed with short sections of dialogue. And this just goes on and on for years and years of book time. They went here and this happened and this happened, here’s a brief in context movement then back out to summarizing again.

There’s no real overarching plot or climax or typical act narrative structure to this book at all. It is entirely filler, and unlike the previous filler novel, this one outright phoned in. It seems very uninspired and lazy frankly.

And the big twist is so obvious since the author’s version of foreshadowing is to bring it up as a possibility about a hundred times throughout the book. And guess what, I already know how it’s gonna get resolved. That’s how see through this plotting is.

I guess I am being a bit harsh. I just hold this series on high regard for its previous ability to do everything about this genre right. Being the characters, the progression, the magic system, the story and the payoffs. Other than the detailed magic system stuff, it feels like someone else wrote this or maybe the author just didn’t know how to get from the dungeon arc to this next arc (won’t name it and spoil) and tell a story within a story that meets the word length his fans have come to expect. Well then he should have added this to the end of the last novel. We get the payoffs and not this page after page of meaningless summarizing of useless information.

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

One of the best progression fantasy series out there! Period!

Revisado: 02-03-25

Virtually nothing to dislike about this series. The pace, the characters, the story, the growth, the combat, all better than 99% of other progression series out there. I’ve read over a dozen of them. This better than DCC and Primal Hunter. It’s a 100x better than Unbound. It’s 100000x better than Defiance of the Fall. Anyone who’s a fan of those series, read these to see how you should feel when you read progression fantasy!

My other favorite series that I think nails those same points better than 99% of everyone else is The Path of Ascension, but I may like Berserker even better because the payoffs are so top tier.

Once again, I want to praise the author for his work. He’s truly talented. He clearly has a vision for how this plays out and he starts those threads so early, it’s just very refreshing in this genre to see it done at all and done so well. I’m praying you get the recognition you deserve and start selling these at the top of the genre, cause that’s where they deserve to be! Don’t just put your kids through college, get em a house too!

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This series SLAPS! One of THE BEST in the progression fantasy genre.

Revisado: 02-02-25

It’s easier to list what I don’t like about this series than what I like, there’s so much to like. But maybe what I like most is how this author brings some unpredictability to a genre where we all know the good guy’s are gonna win. Drawing us, the readers or listeners, into his story with engaging and palpable stakes and tension for characters we have come to really care for.

I have read at least a dozen of these progression series the last couple of years. Some giving up on at some point either at the beginning, because of the lack of relatability to characters or interesting plot, and sometimes because the authors tend to drift over the course of many novels into forgetting what genre they are writing for. Looking at you He Who Fights With Monsters. Or they have numerous filler novels where no progression in levels, combat, or plot occurs. Looking at you Defiance of the Fall and Primal Hunter, though more so for the former since the latter has very likable characters and comedy at least. Or they drag what is an otherwise fantastic series out book after book with no real character growth or end in sight. Looking at you Carl and Donut.

Progression fantasy is a burgeoning genre, but it’s a subset of the power fantasy genre first. We read these series because we want to be there while the good guys get powerful and WIN. Say what you want about the psychology of this, but it’s really that simple.

There are a number of ways for which an author in progression fantasy can achieve this. They can focus mainly on a powerful and engaging story, or on combat and/or a complicated and niche-tickling magic system, or they can focus mainly on the characters themselves. Some series add other elements such as Iseki, base building, comedy, slice of life, etc, and add their own unique niches to the genre and have value in that manner. But there are only two series I have read so far that really do all of the above primary three factors well, that is this series Path of the Berserker and another coincidentally similarly named series The Path of Ascension.

Both of these series capture all these main elements of progression and craft engaging tales with riveting pace and payoffs for their audiences to revel in. Constant progression, even if this series is a little off brand with the lack of a system and numeric levels style. Tons of combat. An actually interesting plot told well. This series elevates that even further with the clever ways the author lays the foreshadowing of what you think is going to happen, and then subverts it by bringing you the wins we seek in unforeseen ways and more on top. And finally the likable characters, so many of these popular series have rather unlikable or shrug-inducing main characters.

My only real gripe was a few times in this book I was literally talking out loud about what they are obviously going to end up needing to do all while the MC stumbles around before figuring it out or someone else figuring it out for him. Like, okay, I can give some grace for that, our MC isn’t maybe as great at problem solving as us readers. The other thing is the repetitive cycles of combat when facing overpowered opponents. Max ALWAYS finds himself on the brink of defeat, then digs deep and pulls out the dub. I’d wish just once he’d step to someone and crush them in an instant. I know the author wrote in their blurbs for this series that the MC is “not overpowered”, making a point that this is a criticism he may have of other series. But I’d argue that shows a lack of self awareness of what power fantasy is. I know a lot of Reddit level critics love to throw down this card to show their literary superiority like with say “character development” but it rings hollow in the face of reality. I find it MORE contrived for the author to nerf their MC for the sake of this alone, when we all know they’re gonna win.

So to me, what sets the great series apart for the pack, is how despite knowing as we do that they MC will win going in, we are still engaged enough to be on the edge of our seats. This series does that in spades. And if the author is ever so graceful to come down to my lowly level and read this humble review, I’d only say to him, you don’t need to contrive reasons to level the battlefield of every fight. But other than that small gripe, your writing is exceptional. I especially love the long foreshadowing of future events and the way the MC’s path looms over his future. Xoxo 😘

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A rough around the edges but otherwise thrilling and MUST READ progressive fantasy novel.

Revisado: 01-28-25

I have sampled or completely read a couple of dozen progression fantasy series. For the most part, they are pulp-level power fantasies that you can’t take too seriously. Some have very generic plots, but have interesting and rewarding progression systems and combat, some the other way around. Some are character focused, or they could be focused on a subset of the genre like slice of life or base building. The worst series do none of these things well or over time fall into a pattern of losing touch with those aspects that made the series great at the beginning. The best series do all of it well: likable characters, interesting plot, and interesting progression system with lots of combat. I think Path of the Berserker has the potential to be one of those best series.

The Berserker Path is something I haven’t personally seen explored yet in this genre. I really like the specific path the MC, Max, has chosen for himself, total revenge against the entire galactic empire. Even though I usually hate the contrived over the top stakes of some of these series, in this one it feels more daunting, because it looms over every advancement, every victory, and every relationship Max has. That he will have to move on, he will have to continually test his limits, or he will fail and die. I love that. Fantastic writing decision, very refreshing for this genre.

That being said, there’s an obvious rule in power fantasy, it’s that the good guys win. So, my indulgence in the stakes only goes so far. Maybe the author will surprise us and his MC will fall short. That would be truly against the grain of these tropish series. But it also contradicts why people read them. We read them to win vicariously through our protagonists. That’s why I hesitated when reading the blurb on this book of the MC “not being overpowered”, like that is a bad thing. Like we aren’t here to see exactly that. And believe me, Max is 1000% overpowered. But that’s all easily forgivable, lots of authors think they know better when they write the same story essentially.

Really though, I have no serious gripes about the series. If I had to choose something, I would say the pattern of combat seems repetitive. I know this is because of the nature of how Max cultivates and advances, but that’s only because the author chose for that to be the nature. He could have formed other methods to make combat less repetitive, meaning Max is pushed to the edge then suddenly digs deep and pulls it off. The author does well attempting to mix this up by having different reasons for Max to handicap himself in tournament fights as opposed to monster fights, or fights behind closed doors. He also has a fight where Max doesn’t win but does survive.

As for narration, I enjoy the emotion the narrator brings to the story and characters, but I can’t stand his voices for women. They all sound like variations on an elderly woman with a lisp, and it kind of breaks your immersion when the speaker is supposed to be some goddess whose beauty would be unparalleled in our world.

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No action, very little cultivation, very little slice of life, just as boring as book 2.

Revisado: 01-23-25

It’s crazy how good Book 1 and 3 are contrasted with how little I care for Book 2 and this Book. I’m sure the author would lecture me on his specific subgenre and that I have unreasonable expectations, but I don’t care.

I like the slice of life part with regard to base building, sowing and harvesting, etc…, but it is glossed over that in this book. We didn’t get any details on the farm being expanded or whatever. I don’t even know where most of the people sleep in this story.

Another gripe is the names, they are difficult to follow. I often have to wait for context clues to guess at who is being followed. They just simply sound to similar and are monosyllabic on top of that.

Third is the lack of action. I understand and admire the MCs path but I still want to see him tested, and not just every other book. The author substituted action for our MC in the first novel with his rooster and disciples, and did so very well. In the second book, it’s just his rooster on a boring quest. In the third book, he gets in on the action finally plus the whole tournament thing, awesome. This book, there’s no action other than what is summarized in the crystal flashback. A clever substitute for action, but still boring.

Finally, this is a genre thing, but the whole pending end of the world stakes this plot is building towards are too much too fast. We should build to that with more than these fillers that are comprised with 90% this disciple or that disciple “sighed” and a reparation of there all remarkably similar personalities, motivations and feelings.

This series has a lot of potential, but it’s cashing out a few rungs short of that potential with this entry.

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Best “base building” Iseki series out there.

Revisado: 01-09-25

My first foray into this sub-genre of fantasy novels, outside of manga and anime of course, was the Heretical Fishing series… which I absolutely hated because of a myriad of reasons that you can read my review of it you actually care. So it took me some time to pull the trigger on this series which has similar praise. But frankly most people who read and rate books don’t have a clue what good even is, so that can only get you so far.

That said, maybe I don’t know what good is either, so receive this review in that context, or don’t. I don’t care. Well maybe a little bit, I am writing this. Anyway…

This series is how you do it. Likable characters with dimension. Even the companions have their own unique flavors, such as the rooster’s prodigious vocabulary. We see why the MC is the way he is slowly, unveiled over the course of the story rather than explained up front. His romantic interest isn’t just some perfect woman who somehow never married like in Heretical Fishing, she’s the skinny girl living in her sister’s shadow with a sharp wit and tongue. Easily understandable why she’s unwed.

Just a few examples of what I love about this book. It hits all the genre notes, and of course Baldree is a great narrator. Can’t wait to get into the next one.

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