Sarah Lin

The book is much less dark than the synopsis made it seem. The reader is reminded a few times how much the protagonist is a dark and twisted hero, which seems.. really not to come through in his dialog and behavior?

That said, the friendly vibes don't bother me either.

I love the idea of grounding the cultivation/soul concepts within a very concrete (literal) structure. It makes the mental "work" and decisions they're making easy to visualize and provides a great framework to (again, show more literally) build upon.

Solid intro, interested to see where the series goes next. show less

This is my first LitRPG, and one of only a handful of self-published books I've actually finished. To sum it up at the beginning: this was a really fun read, and I burned through it way faster than I thought I would.

Since I'm not overly familiar with the tropes of the genre, I can't really say how representative this one is. It has things that seem pretty standard, though, with the main character becoming aware of his stats and levels, and coming to grips with his life as a character in an show more RPG. That was all rather fun in its way. As a long time fan of RPGs it brought a smile to my face watching the character struggle with fetch quests and trying to game the system for some easy leveling.

But what really made this book stand out for me were the characterization and the natural feel of the relationships. The three primary characters really seemed to inhabit their roles, and the use of natural, modern language did a good job of avoiding the stilted prose of many traditionally published fantasies.

There are some minor quibbles I have. The beginning of the book seems to spend too much time on pointing out, and then waving away, the illogic of certain game systems. I don't really get why it was pointed out that Bloodwraith wasn't familiar with the money system, only for that fact to be ignored for the rest of the book, either. Also, I feel like Meara's change from existential despair to wise-cracking sidekick was kind of abrupt.

However, over all the book is well written, well paced, and fun to read.

One more thing I would like to point out in particular: The editing was surprisingly professional. There were no real typos that I noticed, although I a couple of places a non-standard use of hyphens made some sentences hard to parse. But this was head and shoulders above about 95% of the self pubbed books I've read thus far, and indeed better than some professional publishers put out. show less

This book introduces an interesting world. The conflict at times seems forced but I highly enjoy the setting and fight to keep going against the odds.

Progression fantasy. Tried to read it twice and abandoned both times. Too slow; not enough connection to protagonists; plot felt unlikely. Probably also too high magic for my taste.

"Deconstructs the "Chosen One" trope, focusing on Tani, a warrior on a coming-of-age journey (Farwalk), and Slaten, a disguised killer, amidst a tense occupation by the otherworldly Mansthein. It explores the cultural misunderstandings and horrors of war as the world awaits a prophesied hero."