LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 063 - Starter Zone, Mythian, Dungeon World 5, Star Nova Online
LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 063 - Starter Zone, Mythian, Dungeon World 5, Star Nova Online
“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: ”
Starter Zone -The Revelation Chronicles, Book 1 (00:49)
Score: 6.3 out of 10
Mythian - Chronicles of Ethan, Book 1 (25:31)
Score: 7.8 out of 10
Dungeon World Book 5 - A Dungeon Core Experience (37:49)
Score: 8.0 out of 10
Star Nova Online: Book 0 - Closed Beta (52:54)
Score: 7.8 out of 10
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Starter Zone
The Revelation Chronicles, Book 1
By: Chris Pavesic
Narrated by: Natalie Heng
Series: The Revelation Chronicles, Book 1
Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
Pause
Here’s another book that is hampered by the narrator. Heng speaks clearly and enunciates just fine, although there are multiple times that she mispronounces very basic, or at least what I felt to be basic English words. That could be forgiven, but she reads the book like one of the old original books on CD readers back when audio was in its infancy. Just listen to this clip.
Now do the book audio promo portion here please. Can you start around 3:20 at the promo portion?
Heng infuses zero emotion or life into her reading, and it completely drains the tale of all its power. When she says “Would it be better to make a dash for it or hug the sides?” it doesn’t feel like she’s concerned or gives a damn. She is just reading words and stringing sentences together. She does a good job at that, but it isn’t enough. The entire time I listened it felt like this book’s audio portion was on a respirator and vitals were dropping. Heng doesn’t kill the story, but she does nothing to give it life. She was given a color by numbers painting and choose blue for all the numbers.
Now, I’m going to do something I’ve never done, I’m going to read the book blurb and add in my thoughts as I go.
When hydrologists inscribe the consciousness of a human mind onto a single drop of water, a Revelation sweeps the land. The wealthy race to upload their minds into self-contained virtual realities nicknamed Aquariums. In these containers people achieve every hope, dream, and desire. But governments wage war for control of the technology. Terrorist attacks cause massive destruction. The Aquariums fail. Inscribed human minds leech into the water cycle, wreaking havoc.
This is a cool concept, and one that I would have liked fleshed out a bit more. It is never said how personalities living in said water can take over a body, nor is there any real exposition on how the mind into water tech works other than. … Because. Like I say, neat concept but needs fleshed out a touch.
Street gangs rule the cities during the three years since the fall of civilization. Sixteen-year-old Cami and her younger sister Alby struggle to survive. Every drop of untreated water puts their lives in peril. Caught and imprisoned by soldiers who plan to sell them into slavery, Cami will do anything to escape and rescue her sister. Even if it means leaving the real word for a life in the realms, a new game-like reality created by the hydrologists for the chosen few.
This is one of the few stories where the real world is more oppressive than that of the game world. The only one that readily springs to mind is Dave Willmarth’s Dark Elf series, and that was a bleak and unrelenting universe of hopelessness where the game was the only thing to keep survivors going. Here the girls almost luck into the game world, because getting there the way they did was a real stretch.
In fact, I’ll say this. The issues in the real world are infinitely more intriguing and riveting that what happens in the gaming side of the book. This showed a lot of premise and creativity, and I was really hoping that it would carry over to the game section.
But life in the realms isn't as simple as it seems. Magic, combat, gear scores, quests, and dungeons are all puzzles to be solved as the sisters navigate their new surroundings. And they encounter more dangerous enemies than any they faced in the real world.
Time to play the game.
That would be great if the game rules were consistent, but they really aren’t. This is a post apoc world type of setting, and I should have been slavering to stay there, but by the time the first third of the book was gone I really wanted to get into the game ASAP. Thankfully, that is where the gaming part starts, as in they enter the game, but things have no consistency there and it kind of takes away from the overall enjoyment.
I’ll give you an example of something that made no sense to me. When I played World of Warcraft or Everquest or any rpg or even the video game I might get an item that was beyond my level. I couldn’t equip it until I got stronger. Most games are like that to keep balance. The Lady of the Lake didn’t give a 15 year old Excalibur. Arthur had to get Clarent, the sword that he pulled from the stone and anvil, to become king. The lady of the lake later gave Arthur the sword in order to defeat Mordred, when he was ready and in need. He had to level up and face a crisis. Most games operate on this premise. In order to get the loot you have to struggle through a series of challenges and earn it. Here, some OP stuff is dished out and disrupts the whole vibe of the game.
I think of a lot the issues the biggest storywise is that the book is fairly short, it’s under five hours long and takes more than an hour and a half to get into the game portion. That is 1.6 hours that sets up everything, and by that point I was wondering if I cared. I don’t know, if I read the book maybe it wouldn’t seem so long, but for an audible credit a five hour book better blast my socks off, not turn my lights off. The book has a good premise, and some cool stuff that you may not want to miss. If I had one complaint about the writing style, it would just be that it was written in first person, and it takes a great narrator to help me overcome that. System of Apocalypse by Tao Wong, for example, has a narrator that moves the story along. Munster Hunters Inc, first person, great narrator. Pavesic is hamstrung by Heng.
Final score? 6.8 stars. The story does have some heart and a lot of promise, but the lengthy time it takes to get into the game and the lackluster narration stunts its possibilities before they can take root in our minds.
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Mythian
Chronicles of Ethan, Book 1
By: John L. Monk
Narrated by: Travis Baldree
Series: Chronicles of Ethan, Book 1
Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
Pause
Ok, now here’s how its done. I just reviewed Starter Zone, and said about how the book length influenced my score, and I stand by that. I am a firm believer in getting into the action or the game quickly. Most times I don’t care about the real world, and if I actually like your real world portions more than your game stuff then you are writing the wrong story. Now, I do like short stories, I love them. I grew up reading Anthos and novellas of numerous genre, and firmly believe that you can tell a good story in 60K words or less. That GOOD part is the kicker. Luck Stat Strategy: Secret of the Old Ones by Blaise Corvin is under 5 hours length and is one of the best novels I’ve ever listened to. So, I know it can be done.
First of all, I have to say that I am loving Travis Baldtree finding his way into this genre. I really came to respect his work in a book he did called DogWalker. It’s another five hour novel that grips you from the second you start listening, and is a powerful indicator that Baldtree has some serious chops. The man can tell a tale. He brings his bountiful bag of vocal skills to bear on Monk’s work and the man doesn’t just do it justice; he cracks that gavel better than Judge Wopner, sigh, look it up young’uns. It was a good joke, just dated for more older folks. Anyway, Baldtree animates the tale the way a good story should be told, and in audio that is like gold pressed latinum.
Monk’s tale, not the OCD detective, but John Monk, will feel familiar to you if you have recently watched or seen promos for Amazon’s new series, Upload. Monk came first, BTW. In his world you can retire into a gaming world, or even worlds if you opt, for the rest of eternity. There are bazillions of different places one can go to, but the MC opts for a world called Mythian, because his wife is rumored to be stuck there. I don’t want to give away more, so that’s about all I will say.
The book then revolves around the MC, Ethan, acclimating to his new world and looking for clues to his wife’s whereabouts. My only complaint is that this is very much a slice of life story. Yes, Ethan has goals such as finding his wife, but most of the book is just him trying to figure out how to level up. So, essentially he is just grinding. I did like the party he acquires, and I found it humorous that the NPC are utterly fed up with having to do their jobs. I suppose dealing with noobs day in and day out would become irritating.
The one thing I have to warn you about is that the book ends on one hell of a cliffhanger, and sort of deviates from where you would expect the story to go after some build up. Personally, I don’t mind cliffhangers, but generally expect them in slice of life stuff.
I’m giving this a 7.8. I am very much intrigued as to what is going on, but wish it had been more of an accomplish this task and then move on kind of story.
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Dungeon World, Book 5
A Dungeon Core Experience
By: Jonathan Brooks
Narrated by: Miles Meili
Series: Dungeon World, Book 5
Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
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Well, we wrap up another series, and I find it simultaneously sad and yet satisfying. Brooks has taken us on a nice little journey through the life of Fred Winklemossering, and his quest to finally bring peace to the dungeons and humans for so long. I have to say that his explanation of what happened to cause such rifts in the two races was very well crafted. There were a few things that I really loved, and a few that I didn’t, but first I want to talk about Miles Meili.
Meili has really carried this series, and I appreciate his skill and aplomb was what made the story fun. He was a perfect fit, here, and he displayed excellence at every turn. I love listening to him. Great Job, and good on you Miles.
As for the story I want to talk about a few things. One thing that bothers me, and it isn’t just Brooks that does this, a lot of authors do this too, is to skip over older supporting cast members in favor of new ones. I’ll give you an example, the three people closest to Fred, especially early on in his life were Deecee, Esa, and the man who first took him in and taught him about what it meant to be human. These last two books, Esa, Fred’s love interest is barely there other than Fred worrying about her. Deecee pops up periodically to help supply some thoughts on dungeon matters and fight but otherwise is almost a shadow in the books, and his first friend is all but overlooked in favor of the newest shards. Now, I get that the new people need some attention, but it seems like the people Fred is closest too get very little time to do more than fight or worry over poor Fred. I would have liked to have seen a few larger scenes with them and really develop them for the end of the series. Just a few thousand more words and all of that could have easily been achieved. I guess I took three books getting attached to them, and by the fourth I started to see a decline in their importance to the story. Don’t make me love a character and then hide them away. That would be like keeping Murphy out of the last Harry Dresden novel ever written.
Secondly, a lot of the dungeon war stuff felt a little repetitious. I believe Fred started defending his territory about two books back, and the style of battle never really changed. One type of dungeon enters, is shunted through various rooms, gets their numbers whittled down, and they are stopped. It was a sort of was, rinse, repeat and was fine when it first happened but I had been there before and would have liked to have seen something different. Yes, Fred does create some cool new monsters and managed to suss out a lot of things about mana vs essence but that might have been better served out in the field, without collapsing his territory giving the battle a hint of freshness.
As for the good stuff, Fred’s revelations about the past, the damage done therein, and his role in attempting to heal both the wounds of the world, as well as those of the humans and dungeons. Fred coming to terms with his role in the world, and the sacrifices that he was willing, and did, make was heartwarming as everything he did he did for others and not himself. The crafting off various spells, and the way that they figured out how Fred could “see” an air spell at work was cool as ice. They were all great moments.
So, final score is 8 stars. The book was really good, and had an excellent ended and even left open the possibilities of further books in this universe in the future. Still, I would have liked a bit of a bigger bang somewhere in the book, so while it was excellent and ended well I think with just a little more character development/appearance and a different style of dungeon fighting the book would have really blazed.
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Star Nova Online: Book 0 - Closed Beta
By: Noah Barnett
Narrated by: Justin Thomas James, Annie Ellicott, Jeff Hays
Series: Star Nova Online, Book 0
Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
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I have to be honest. This book was a bit of a surprise for me in a lot of ways. First, it is short. Gun Meister Online was over fourteen hours long. This book clocks in at under four. I like short stories, but a four hour book, that is a sort of sequel of a larger story needs a bit more. It basically felt like all the focus was on the gameplay, and not the characters. You can only do so much with a battle, and when you win the war that’s the end of the book. SO, yeah, some character growth and development to fluff out the book if nothing else would have been appreciate.
Secondly, the book is a complete departure from Gun Meister Online. Honestly, if you changed the names and a few minor details then it would make no difference to the story at all. Gun Meister, for example had numerous characters that the MC had to struggle to earn (as in the guns) or struggle to earn as friends. The cast here is pared down significantly, and runs as a bare bones type of story.
Third, a lot of the stuff in GMO is wiped out. GMO was a heavily adult styled story, and if you get SNO hoping for more of the same you will be let down. The stuff that made GMO standout gets shoved in a box and forgotten.
The new stuff. SNO is very reminiscent to Ender’s Game insofar as the MC needs to learn to lead his squadron properly to defeat alien invaders, has a rival that doesn’t like him, and has a learning curve that feels like a roller coaster. Rather than having gunfights, all the players upgrade to dog fights in space. They do not have sex with their space ships. Odd to say that, but with GMO that would not only have been a possibility, it would have been a likelihood.
SNO, for me, seems to lose all of the cool stuff and in depth characterizations that Gun Meister Online had in order to basically alter the course of the series completely. I actually think it would have worked better if it had been a part of GMO, the true ending. Then book two wouldn’t feel like such an abrupt departure.
For what it’s worth, the book is good. It tells a compelling, if somewhat succinct tale. The problem is that it is very stripped down and deviates so much from its predecessor. If you can overlook that aspect then you will probably love it. Newcomers, uninitiated to GMO, will have no problem sinking into this story; in fact, I suspect that they may enjoy this more since they won’t know what came before. Like I saw GMO is really good, and Star Nova is good, but it feels less like a continuation than a reenvisioning.
Final score is 7.8 stars.
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For LitRPG Audiobook Podcast, I’m Ray. Keep listening!!!
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