Seth Ring

The book hit a nice series end point, tying up the critical points and the MC previously stating he wanted to retire at this point. Past that it keeps going with more plot points, none of which are very fleshed out or relevant to the larger series unless the author wants to keep going.

It has a long epilogue to try to tie up most important characters' life. Which I honestly think added little to the book.

Series Info/Source: This is the 3rd book in the Battle Mage Farmer series. I borrowed this on audiobook from Audible.

Thoughts: This series continues to be excruciatingly slow. I like the world, the magic, and the characters. However, Ring spends so much time over-explaining small details we just do not need to spend time on, and it really drags the story out. Really, these books should be half the length and two books should be combined in to one.

This continues the story of John and Ellie. show more John is trying to figure out how to stop the apocalypse, and Ellie is learning to harness her new powers. They end up taking on a undead threat as the number of undead plaguing the valley starts to increase.

My husband has been enjoying these a bit more than me, but for this book even he was getting frustrated. We've been listening to these together in the car, but I decided not to continue with the series after this one. He was going to give it one more book...however...we were getting these through the Audible Plus catalog and it looks like all but the first three books have been removed from there. So we would have to use credits to get the audiobooks or buy them outright. After finding that out, he was like, "Never mind, totally not worth it."

It's really a pity that the pacing isn't better here. I do love the characters, and I find the world intriguing. There are some good battle scenes, and some new characters have entered the story. Things are just explained in such long, excruciating detail that you can miss hours of this audiobook without really missing anything. I know; I've fallen asleep a couple of times and will wake up and be "Are they still talking to the raiders?",my husband will be "Yep and that is pretty much all that has been going on for the last hour."

We originally started this after loving Dungeon Crawler Carl and looking for some other good LitRPG. Our search will continue.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this series has some strong points but the slow pace of the story and over-explanation of things in the story are outweighing the good parts for me. I really love these characters and find the world intriguing. However, I don't need things to be so over-explained and find it frustrating to stay engaged. I won't be continuing this series. show less

I have two main complaints that led to a one-star review. One of these complaints is the fault of the audiobook narrator and the other the fault of the book author.

First, the audio narration contains two character voices: grizzled cowboy and annoying anime boy. Every character in the story is given one of these two treatments. It rarely works.

Second, the main character is invincible, omnipotent, and also a whiny bitch. He literally has max stats in everything. He has no actual motivation to show more do anything. And what does he do with his unlimited power? Very sketchily recreates modern plumbing, I guess. Goes on a pointless adventure with his enemies because he's bored. Fights some things with one hand tied behind his back so that the drama seems more realistic. I dunno. There really is no point at all.

I really don't get this overpowered main character thing that's going on recently. It's really boring and I would very much like it to stop. show less

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Battle Mage Farmer series. I borrowed this from Audible on audiobook.

Thoughts: I was looking for another LitRPG book series to listen to with my husband during driving (after finishing Dungeon Crawler Carl) and this came up in Audible. This is okay. It starts off super slow but does eventually get pretty entertaining. The RPG system and world is never explained very well. We also don't get much information on how the main character, John show more Sutton, ends up in this world or about his life before ending up here.

The story follows a character named John Sutton who has been given a quest "to retire" from the RPG system on the world he found himself sent to ten years ago. He has spent his last 10 years as a battle mage in a world on the brink of destruction and is looking forward to the down time. Additionally, he has a persistent quest to "prevent the apocalypse" that he is struggling to figure out. He finds himself awarded a parcel of farmland to retire to that has two young people squatting on it and a bunch of bandits lusting after it. John must navigate the politics of this place and get the farm working, all while hiding his mage powers (because mages are outlawed now).

As I said, this moves slow...really slow especially at the beginning. However, there is some fun, dry humor throughout and the characters end up being pretty intriguing. Added to that is some adventuring to uncover lost artifacts and some decent action scenes as well. More than anything though this book is about John trying to rescue this dilapidated farm and "grow wheat" (another quest from the system). Along the way he starts to form a sort of family with the young woman and her brother that were squatting on the farm. Despite John being determined to hide from his past on this world, people from his past keep being drawn to him.

I liked the magic and the idea of balance. I also like that there are strong male and female characters in here. Some of the events that happen with the mana enhanced farm animals are pretty funny. This seems to be kind of a cozy fantasy LitRPG.

We listened to this on audiobook and struggled with it a bit because the narrator's character voices aren't very well balanced. John's voice is very low and soft, while Eillie and her brother's voice are much louder and strident. We kept having to turn the sound up and down in the car as the book was read. I would recommend reading this rather than listening to it. Hopefully future books in the series do a better job of balancing sound.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I am bit conflicted about this one. The story is very, very slow. However, I really grew to love the characters and the bits of humor in here. I like the magic system as well and am intrigued by John's odd quests that he gets throughout. I just found myself wishing the story would speed up a bit the whole time I was listening to this. We have started listening to book 2 and it seems to be staying at this same slow pace; we will see if it speeds up at all. I would recommend readers looking for a more cozy LitRPG that don't mind deliberate story pacing. show less