LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 058 - Melee, The Culling of Man, Shadow Sun Expansion, One in the Gut, Excise
LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 058 - Melee, The Culling of Man, Shadow Sun Expansion, One in the Gut, Excise
“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: ”
Melee, Book 1 (03:16)
Score: 8.2 out of 10
The Culling of Man (13:47)
A LitRPG Apocalypse (Peril's Prodigy, Book 1)
Score: 7.6 out of 10
One in the Gut (27:20)
A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG (Headshot, Book 1)
Score: 7.1 out of 10
Excise (A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG) (39:23)
Ether Collapse, Book 2
Score: 8.3 out of 10
Soundbooth Theater Spotlight (47:45)
Score: 8.4 out of 10
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Melee, Book 1
By: Wyatt Savage
Narrated by: Luke McKeel
Series: Melee, Book 1
Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
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I just finished this book, and I have to say that it was not what I was expecting. I enjoyed this novel a lot, and a good deal of the credit can go to Luke McKeel. A narrator that I cannot find any other work from so either he is an incredibly talented newcomer or he has operated under a pseudonym. Either way it was treat listening to him.
First though I have to say that Savage is just that. A savage. The book is not for the faint of heart, and features things like children dying in pretty grotesque manners, and man vs man at his most feral. I found the book to be very believable in the way that some people worked together and others went solo or only banded with others so long as it was convenient for them to do so. The fights were exquisitely brutal and unrelenting and the gaming system was pretty hardcore.
There were a few things I did find hard to swallow. The first being that every man, woman, and creature was worth a mere twenty five experience points. Some monsters were really difficult to kill and should have had more experience than they provided, similarly, many humans were weak and feeble and provided too much XP in my opinion. Other than that the system is brutally easy to follow and sort of fun when you remember that there are no rules to the melee and the alien overlords who are instituting the great battle can reset, pause, and cheat any time they want to.
My only significant issue with the book is the amount of time it takes to get into the melee. I pretty much believe that you should get into the action as soon as possible, and it takes a goodly bit of tie to get there. Which basically means that there is some character building that actually lets you get to know the characters pretty well. And that is a bonus because the characters are well fleshed out and you get to care about them and their loses as the melee continues. What I liked best was that the portrayal of human character is done very well running the gamut of outright bloodlust to betrayal and on the opposite side compassion and unity in the face of adversity. Savage writes one hell of a compelling story.
McKeel really amazed me for the first time hearing him. He told the story so that it flowed, and had excellent pacing and didn’t suffer a lot of that mid-sentence break that some narrators seem to suffer
from, where it is like they think the sentence is over, and then realize there is more to it. He did a good job portraying various people and did a decent job on the ladies voices, although there really weren’t enough women characters for me to do a side by side comparison as to how different they were so he skates on that issue for now. What really impressed me was that I only heard one mispronounced word in the book. He said chi-tin rather than ki-tin when talking about a carapace. That was it. He helped make this an experience and I enjoyed listening to him.
Final score 8.25 stars. I need more melee in my life.
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The Culling of Man
A LitRPG Apocalypse (Peril's Prodigy, Book 1)
By: Craig Kobayashi
Narrated by: Michael Norman Johnson
Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
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Here is a book that was fun, and featured a new system with some unique classes. I enjoyed it, but it did have some hiccups, so let me talk about the hiccups that Johnson’s narration had.
Michael Norman Johnson is a pretty good narrator, but he did two things that made me lower the score of the book a little. He clearly has a difficulty doing female voices, a common ailment suffered by even the great Luke Daniels. He only seemed to have two, one young and one old. And it was the old part that got to me because in the story there is an old woman who suddenly becomes young, but throughout the rest of the book she speaks like she is still eighty. I get that her vernacular mannerisms hadn’t shifted, as she still called the MC “young man” and acted like an exasperated old lady, but her voice should have changed so I have to call him out on that. The other thing that he did was to mispronounce common words, or at least words that I would expect him to be able to pronounce and I actually wondered for a brief moment if English was his first language. While that might be an exaggeration I can recall at least 20 times he mispronounced a word. And that is where I took off some points. If you is gonna talk for a living, know how to say what you is talkin about.
My only beef with the writing came with the unending series of rounds the culling had take place. They were one after the other, and while the battles were very descriptive and graphic I found it to be too rapid fire. I think a fight scene should progress the story a little, and giving the reader/listener a breather would have allowed for some character interaction and thereby growth, rather than the power saw that the characters endured. That said, I think the system that Kobayashi came up with was pretty fun and I liked that the MC, a necrologist, actually had negative side-effects from using his body, and that the earning of XP became very addictive and enticing.
The upside is after the gauntlet of the initial Culling the book settles into a good grove and has the room to expand in both character development and story elements. Once that hump is hurdled the story has a nice pace and becomes really interesting. I enjoyed it a great deal and believe that the next book will be even better now that all the initial set-up is over with.
So, while the writing and narration were both pretty good, again I can’t fault a guy for not being able to do lady’s voices, but I can shake my head at numerous mispronunciations. The story flows really well up to and after the Culling, but there is a long stretch of battle that overwhelmed me and I really think spreading the Culling out a little and inserting some breathers for the reader would have helped.
Over all I really enjoyed the book and it is just a mixture of these things coming together to cause me to take off some points of an otherwise amazing story. My final score is 7.6 out of 10 stars. It’s a fun book. If you like apoc stories, or just good stories give it a listen. It really comes together.
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One in the Gut
A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG (Headshot, Book 1)
By: Matthew Siege
Narrated by: Vikas Adam
Series: Headshot, Book 1
Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
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Well true believers, if you know me at all then you know that there are two things I really truly and deeply love. One is Litrpg and the other is horror. One in the gut looked tobe a perfect melding of the two and I just had to grab it.
Now, I have to say that I really enjoyed Save point, an earlier work by Siege and could not wait to put my grubby hands on this book. It has a cool premise, but there was more than a few things that I felt made the book drag when it should have flown.
The premise is simple there’s a new horror game that is free to the public if they play zombies, and those wealthy enough get to play survivors. Zombies advance by eating survivors, not killing them, and survivors get points in some other way. I assume by finding gear or killing zeds. The premise is that the game opens up for public consumption and everyone and their mother shut down the country to play. People call in sick or don’t show up at all. The MC manages to survive a little longer and has to figure out how to keep going. As he continues his undead existence he begins to figure out little secrets of advancement and enjoys the game.
The story had a lot of potential, but the unclear game mechanics on both sides took away a little bit, but the main drag on the story was the way in which the MC constantly whines and cries about economic inequality unendingly. It was more of an inditement on class than it was about a game. Honestly, the MC bemoaned how the survivors had the easy life in every way. They could miss work because they have money, they got the best gear, had advantages zombies couldn’t get all the while stumbling upon new and cool zombie classes. Honestly it wore thin with me, and the way that the MC basically stumbled into everything took away a lot of his agency. Truthfully, there were a lot of aspects of the book the just didn’t jibe with me, or drove me nuts.
This story had a ton of potential, and it was fun in spots, but what seemed to be a rail on modern society’s haves vs the have nots detracted from the game quite a bit. The other thing that I found hard to swallow was that people was that the game reset at the end of the week. Why would anyone want to play a game where all your progress was lost week after week? Even if playing for free it would be frustrating, and if you paid to play then one of two things would happen. Either they made you reset too, which would really suck, or you got to keep all your advancements and gear, which would make the survivors OP pretty quickly. For me, Save Point is much better and far superior.
This is the part where I say that if you like Vikas Adams you’ll enjoy his work. He produces the same caliber of work and professionalism that he always does.
Final score …7.1 out of 10. The writing is good, and the kills graphic but it seemed to wander like a lost zombie rather than going for the throat.
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Excise (A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG)
Ether Collapse, Book 2
By: Ryan DeBruyn
Narrated by: Luke Daniels
Series: Ether Collapse, Book 2
Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins
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There are some big names in the post apoc category of litrpg including Schinoffen, Willmarth, and Wong. I would love to add one more name to that list, Debruyn. His Ether collapse series is a top notch post apoc series that is well thought out, detailed, has a unique system, and even incorporates dungeons into the sci-fi styled series. It has a broad appeal with a sort of something for every one kind of deal while still maintaining its Lit roots. Seriously, where else do you get aliens, cybermen, golems, and dungeons in the same book?
The book does have a neat little system involving ether, and the MC Rockland is a fun MC. There is a lot going on in book two, with Rocky trying to get the people he rescued in book one back into his territory. Along the way we get dragons, necromancers, and storm mutated humans that builds into a great tale of danger.
Ryan has a really fun concept, and creates a very vivid and detailed world that comes after the earth goddess Gaia reawakens. We finally, get a reason for why swearing is very limited in the after apocalypse, too. Like I say, the book is fun, fast paced, and has great characters. The book is also a little longer than book one, so that’s a plus. The world building is astounding, and the book even has a town building component. I really like the world that Debruyn is crafting.
The story centers on Rocky, the MC, trying to build his territory as he is beset by ether storms and minions of a nihilistic god. This leads him into forging bonds in the market, some golems, dungeons, and so forth while other factions start taking a good long look at Earth. There is a lot of set up for the third novel, and surprising some groundwork that was laid in book one is put on hold for later still. So, the series is building to something really big in the future. The romantic overtones between Rockland and his ancestral guide continue to simmer, but I better see something substantial in book three. Z’all I’m saying. I think that the biggest issue I had with the story is that there is not a lot of progression. Rocky doesn’t more than defend his people and create allies. His territory doesn’t expand, but it does get some powerful allies that will do more in future books. That’s the issue with 2nd novels in a series, they generally make their characters “shore up defenses” rather than going for more. That is the appeal to Shadow Sun, as Willmarth keeps his people continually expanding their territory as often as possible. I would have liked to have seen Rocky gain some more land.
Luke Daniels does an amazing job, per the usual. I feel that he fits the tone of this book more than he does a book like the Completionist Chronicles. This is more his speed, he is made less for pun based fun and more for exasperation and disbelief that plays out here. I think his best work is portraying frustration. Which Rocky has a lot of.
The story keeps its lit roots well watered, and we get updates and notifications frequently, the action is solid, and the story keeps your interest enough that you won’t want to stop listening. Personally, I can’t wait for book three.
Final score 8.3 out of 10.
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Shadow Sun Expansion
By: Dave Willmarth
Narrated by: Will M. Watt, Annie Ellicott, Andrea Parsneau, Jeff Hays
Series: Shadow Sun, Book 2
Length: 17 hrs and 21 mins
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Here we are, back with another Dave Willmarth story. We seem to go long bouts without anything new in audible format and then get clobbered all at once with his catalog. So, SSE picks up with the MC, Alistar, continuing to build his bases and mangle monsters and madmen while rescuing various groups of survivors.
If you liked the first book you should love this one. Willmarth has a penchant for doling out justice like he was the one-handed norse god, Tyr. People are given chances and when they fail to take the opportunity for redemption they pay like they never heard of Geiko which can save them 15% or more.
Willmarth can craft a battle scene that makes the pages bleed and give the reader paper cuts. Which is why I like my audible account. He also is not afraid to whack characters right and left, but I am waiting for someone really close to Alistar to biff it the hard way. He needs a bit of a bite in the arse.
My only issue storywise is that we progress to the end of the year cut off to the alien arrival pretty quickly after a certain point, and I get that things needed to advance, but we basically had a play by play going on and then skip a few months ahead. Alistar really builds his power base up, and is ready to take on the aliens when they arrive in book three. I’m really hoping that he finds out that they aren’t as ready as they’d hoped and get their butts kicked. If you want to know the only real issue I have is that the MC and his lady friend ranger don’t have romantic feelings for one another. They are far too close and not only travel everywhere, but have also saved each other’s lives so often that there has to be more to their story even if they themselves don’t realize it. I just don’t believe that men can just be friends with women. There is always an ulterior motive, sort of like a back up. I just don’t see Missus Ranger putting him in the friend zone. Their obliviousness to one another is just not realistic. In my eyes.
SBT has a stellar cast, and Mister Watt proves he really can tell an incredible story yet again. I have to say, though, that there were a few times where the ladies sounded like they had recorded earlier and been added in, as the sound quality did not match the rest of the narration. Might have just been my ears, but a couple of times it came off like someone calling into a radio show for an interview. It wasn’t terrible or frequent, but it was something I noticed. It was nice to have Andrea Parsenau added in with the Amazing Annie Ellicott and Jeff Hays.
Score: 8.4 out of 10
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For LitRPG Audiobook Podcast, I’m Ray. Keep listening!!!
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