LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 051 -God of Gnomes, Ball of Light, The Fifth Survivor, Peaks of Power, Rexus
LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 051 -God of Gnomes, Ball of Light, The Fifth Survivor, Peaks of Power, Rexus
You can read the full reviews and show notes if you visit us at:
https://litrpgpodcast.com/litrpg-audiobook-podcast-051
“Hello everyone. Welcome to the LitRPG Audiobook Podcast. I’m Ray. I’ll be reviewing some recent and classic LitRPG Audiobooks for you. I’ll begin with: ”
God of Gnomes -God Core, Book 1 (A Dungeon Core LitRPG Series) (00:44)
Score: 7.4 out of 10
Ball of Light: Evolution (14:50)
Score: 7.9 out of 10
The Fifth Survivor: Episode 1 -The Fifth Survivor Series, Book 1 (26:44)
Score: 7.6 out of 10
Peaks of Power: Beginnings (38:09)
Score: 8 out of 10
Rexus: Side Quest - The Completionist Chronicles, Book 3 (52:29)
Score: 8.4 out of 10
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God of Gnomes
God Core, Book 1 (A Dungeon Core LitRPG Series)
By: Demi Harper
Narrated by: Adam Sims
Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
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God of gnomes is a step away from the standard dungeon core novels. It does a lot of things to differentiate itself from those books while keeping some of the, no pun intended, core elements of the dungeon genre. This is its strength and biggest weakness.
The book had a few issues which I’ll go into first. My main problem was that I didn’t find the MC very likable. Normally, I would overlook such a thing if there were other characters that could override the characterization of the MC, but there was no one that could do that. Why? Because we were never allowed to get to know the gnomes beyond a superficial “Here is the role they play in the village” glance. Yes, some personality shone through, but it was all thumbnail type stuff. I get that Harper/Hughes didn’t want to overload characters into the book and focus solely on the core, but when your book is basically about town building it would have been nice to see the villagers go about their day to day lives and how they viewed their god. We got more from the rando adventurers than we did Gneil the gnome, Corey’s high priest. This is because Corey cannot directly interact with his faithful. The only real “character” we get that has any personality is the god’s Avatar, who also does not speak. It was really frustrating and I have to wonder if Harper dislikes dialogue.
Also, the core didn’t really have much going on aside from directing the gnomes in a manner that felt a lot like the original World of Warcraft games where you directed your people to cut trees, explore, and build stuff. In fact, that was exactly the characterization level you get. As a god, I would have liked to see Corey affect his environment by building traps, false passages, and mazes to confuse their kobold invaders. All we got were evolutions of various monsters, and even that aspect was limited in both number and evolutions.
In spite of what I just said, I did enjoy the book. It had a lot of good qualities, and did set itself apart in a very familiar genre. The gnomes were a good choice, as they come across as about the most helpless humanoids go, and the dungeon monsters were fun. I just wish we had more. Hell, I should have known the tone of the book would be mild just by the badger on the cover. It’s an English badger, and those are made for tea parties more than anything. American badgers are all attitude and teeth.
Overall, the book does have some flaws, but it is interesting, it kept my interest and I would read the next book in the series when it comes out. Final score 7.4 stars. Thankfully, there is a lot of room for improvement.
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Ball of Light: Evolution
By: A. R. Chen
Narrated by: Scott Ellis
Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
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Ball of light fights right in with this episode since it deals with another god not a god MC. AS in God of gnomes a ball of light, rather than a gem, comes into sapience and begins getting schooled by a mystical entity. Steven, the ball of light pretty much wakes up somewhere he’s not familiar with and wonders about how he’s a ball of light, because he has very little memory. He finds that he has an unseen helping guide who advises him on the do’s and don’ts of his new life. The entire point of what he is doing is to evolve. Evolution depends on points he earns, and his evolution choices are pretty varied, going from a turtle to a god.
There are a couple of questions that I have, because out of the choices, none really intrigued me. There were pros and cons to all of them, but it seemed to me that in the long run the Ball of Light was the best form to take and keep. Why would you opt to become something else? If you have to choose I understand, but honestly the other choices for what to become were kind of lame. Also, one drawback that sort of drove me a little crazy was that all of the evolution bits were repeated over and over, as in every time he looked to see what other options appeared we got to hear the same thing for the dozenth time. It has been over a week or more since I listened to this and I still can hear the vampire’s description when I close my eyes and strain to hear silence as I sleep. Only slightly kidding there.
The book does take its time to get going, almost light it was just searching for its footing, but once it does it is really good. The big battles were fun, and I liked the POV shifts during the fights, it reminded me of how Quentin Tarentino shoots his movies. That sort of back and forth time jumpy stuff without being really bad about it. Steve is an interesting MC, and I liked how he kind of cottoned onto being considered a god by the people he found. I could see myself doing that, but then I have delusions of grandeur. My best friend once made me a tee shirt that had the words God who walks as a mortal embroidered on it because that was my attitude in my twenties. I was too cool for school. Steve somehow touches on that kind of attitude but manages to quell it for the most part. He has a pretty good handle on who he is even if he doesn’t know himself all that well. Does that make sense? There are some clues as to what is going on, and I think it all comes down to what his father talked to him about keeping secret. Honestly, if you think about it that scene is one giant clue, so keep your ears open.
Scott Ellis not only narrates but he plays drums and lead bass in this orchestra of fun. Actually, I liked him and think he did a pretty decent job. I actually know him from a book called See you Later, Ralphie which helps kids deal with grief and grieving. I’ve got a ton of books on the subject and try to check out anything new, and something for kids is fantastic. So I was surprised that I had the same guy narrating this book as that one. I think a few more of these kinds of books and he’d be a great fit for the community.
Over all score: 7.9 The repetition really got to me after a while, and the story kind of wandered about in the first bit, but was good once it figured out what it was supposed to do. I think it is like this because it was a web serial, so I’m trying not to hold it against it.
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The Fifth Survivor: Episode 1
The Fifth Survivor Series, Book 1
By: Angel Ramon
Narrated by: M.P. Marchinuke
Series: The Fifth Survivor, Book 1
Length: 2 hrs and 58 mins
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Ok, Guys and Gals you know that I am a horror nut, and lust after all things zombies especially. Secondly, I pretty much adore short stories. To me a good story that is short is hard to tell. There’s a lot you have to trim away and yet still tell a tale and get some sort of impact out of it. Put the two of those things together and you have one happy funeral director.
The fifth survivor comes across like a real-life resident evil combined with some James Bond type elements. Angel Ramon has taken who I believe to be his real life hero, George Fisher, an all around cool cat who like to write, and acting as a literary agent who has a license to kill. In the novel George is rough, tough, and sneaky as Pete. He is as good with a gun as he is a disguise and is out to solve a question about some place called Hybrid. In the process he encounters zombies, mutants, corporate bad guys, and an unkillable foe called Mr. Z. I guessing the Z is for zombie, but I’m not all that smart.
The concept is well executed, but for me it was a little difficult to listen to because it is that present tense stuff that makes it hard for me to get into. Full disclosure on that. I have to look at it beyond that point to be fair, but that style of writing is really hard for me to listen to or just read. It’s my personal baggage. So, skipping the style the other issue I had is that there were some scenes that could have been more fleshed out, as in some more description rather than telling us what happened.
The story is pretty wild and pure cheesy fun, sort of reminding me of the Return of the Living Dead. There are plenty of zombies, bacon, and badass George to keep you interested as man-eating frogs try to swallow you whole, and zombies try to swallow your soul. This definitely has the crazy camp of Evil Dead mashed up with Resident Evil. To be honest I would love to see Angel take on a combo of his 5th survivor novels and the old Playstation game, Dino Crisis. I know he loves dinos, and if we could get some friggin zombie fossils for George to contend with all would be right in the world. The story is pure crazy over the top fun mixed with undead cannibals, what’s not to like.
The narration by MP is pretty good. I think he did a great job and played everything straight. He clearly had fun with the material but didn’t treat it like so many people do horror in general, like it is something beneath them. Horror is the purest piece of writing. It taps into something primal that we cannot hide from or disguise as something else. M.P. is an MVP for how he took care of this book.
Final score: 7.6 Stars. I think Angel captures the mood and atmosphere well, but does have a few parts where the show don’t tell rule applies. Still the book is buckets of blood fun. If you like dead guys, creepy mutants and hardcore grumpy old guys then this is something you want to check out.
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Peaks of Power: Beginnings
By: Paul Campbell Jr.
Narrated by: Christian J. Gilliland
Series: Peaks of Power, Book 1
Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
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So I got this book and had no expectations other than what I could glean from the cover. Looks like a coupla guys are in it up to their necks. They are Ryan and Dmitri, and they agree to something and get more than they expected, finding themselves fighting for their lives.
One of my favorite things about the book, and there are several things that I liked about it is that the MC, Ryan, is not all that great a person. In fact he is a jerk. I don’t know if I would classify him as a D-bag or not, but he is not the most likeable dude you’ll ever read about. Why do I like this? Why after I complain that the MC in say, God of Gnomes isn’t very likeable and that it detracted from the story? A coupla reasons. 1) Not every one is likeable, sometimes good guys aren’t all that nice. 2) While we are supposed to get character growth Ryan pretty much stays the same. Well, people really don’t change, do they? We get life lessons but rarely shift our personalities because of them. 3) The personality works here. The story can handle a not so nice good guy. 4) There is evidence of growth and change in the MC by the end of the book. He just happens to remain a jerk. Plus, I just like A-hole characters and I think that noble people or goody two-shoes are a little boring.
The book is very well written and is packed to the rim with action. The fight scenes are incredibly done and there are times this has a wuxia feel to it as much as it does a litrpg. The story flows and takes you along with it like a momma lion carrying her cub you don’t know where you’re going, but you know it will be a safe place. I really think Mr. Campbell did an excellent job. I never lost interest and really anticipate book 2. That is all I really need to know about a book. I had fun and want more.
The narration is pretty good. I think Gilliland fits the genre well and elevates the story. I mean you get Ryan’s attitude come through, and can even see why Dmitri hangs out with him even though he is an insufferable cuss. Gilliland has done mostly fantasy novels, written and narrated one of his own books, and has another Litrpg novel on the shelf, so the guy pretty much fits here like a glove. Keep an eye out for this dude.
Final score 8 stars. I most certainly want to see what comes next and figure out if Ryan remains a first class jerkwad or if he loosens up a little. This series has a lot of potential. Give it a look.
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Rexus: Side Quest
The Completionist Chronicles, Book 3
By: Dakota Krout
Narrated by: Luke Daniels
Series: The Completionist Chronicles, Book 4
Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
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Rexus is just an amazing sidequest novel. On the whole I am not a fan of sidequest books, which is ironic because I have a short story in the VGO side quest anthology, but I prefer my main stories to stay on point. For example, Awaken Online lost me as it started drifting from the main character and giving us books about secondary characters. Why did it lose me? Because I didn’t give a crap about the secondaries, they weren’t that interesting and they all seemed to have some issue with their homelife/parents.
Why don’t I feel that way about Rexus? Because Jaxon is an interesting character, he has internal flaws and flawed game mechanics give his situation a humorous edge. He is also very different from the series main MC, Joe so I don’t feel like the characters just swapped places. Jaxon is an absolute riot and his attitude and reactions are uniquely his own. While this is just a sidequest book it is also a great stand alone novel and could continue on exactly as it is with Jax in the lead. I would have no problem with that as Rexus is a big exception because it is not a story that sidelines a main story, but enhances it. The book focuses on everyone’s favorite chiropractor from the completionist series, Jaxon, who ends up going on a quest he receives/learns about from the wolfmen.
Again, having finished the Divine Dungeon series I am now far more aware of the wolfmen and the implications of them almost being wiped out. So, not only does this book kind of continue the Completionist story in an interesting way it also manages to tie itself nicely to the Double D universe as well.
Overall the story is funny, and I have to give Krout credit for taking what is basically an insulting jerk and making him a sympathetic character. That, my friends is not an easy task. The book taught me a lot about bones, as in how to break them, and the joys of chiropracty. In all fairness and full disclosure I view chiropractors as being just a step below witch doctors and faith healers. At least with they don’t carry medical degrees to convince me they know what they are doing.
As I said in my Divine Dungeon review, it is terribly sad that Adams is out, but the more I think about it the happier I am. Just saying that with Adams constant work, and willingness to take on new series by unknown first timers it becomes clearer that the issues with narration do not lie at Dakota’s feet. While I don’t think Daniels fit as well in the DD universe (characters were too established and identifiable vocally) for a side mission book like this with one character who didn’t have an overwhelming amount of “screen time” in the main series he works well here. Also, I think the pattern of jokes fit him better here as it reminded me of his work in Magic 2.0. However, I am still not sold on him doing the main series, and I’ll have to check out Raze before I come to a conclusion about that. Either way, Daniels works his magic to great effect and makes the funny bits funny.
Final score: 8.4 stars You have to admire a writer who can take a concept like getting dinosaur heads for hands and making it work. Not just work, but work well.
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For LitRPG Audiobook Podcast, I’m Ray. Keep listening!!!
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