LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 068 - Afterlife Online 4, Completionist Chronicles 5, Adventurer Academy

“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: ”

Deadline - Afterlife Online Book 4 (00:27)

Score: 8.4 out of 10

https://amzn.to/2U8DR52

Ruthless - The Completionist Chronicles, Book 5 (09:36)

Score: 8.4 out of 10

https://amzn.to/36ke7Iv

Soundbooth Spotlight

Adventurer Academy - Greyblood Book 1 (21:01)

Score: 8.1 out of 10

https://amzn.to/2ImhHKc

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Deadline

Afterlife Online, Book 4

By: Domino Finn

Narrated by: Justin Thomas James

Series: Afterlife Online, Book 4

Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins

Pause

When I first listened to Book one of the Afterlife series I said that the writing was so good that I could have literally listened to the MC hunting simple rabbits and been happy if the whole book had just been about grinding out XP, and I meant that. Thank fully, the book was good enough that that wasn’t the case and it rapidly evolved into something grand and spectacular along the way. You would worry that after 4 books the writing would have gotten weaker. That could not be further from the truth.

Book four may or may not be the end of the series. Ostensibly it is, and if so I can live with that because I firmly believe that all stories need an ending, but I will still be sad. To that end, if you are jonesing for more from Finn dig his Urban Fantasy Black Magic Outlaw novels they are absolutely incredible. That said, book four doesn’t let the reader off easy. The book is action packed, and emotionally fueled. Unfortunately, that fuel just might be your tears if you are too attached to some characters. I like the idea of Talon and Tad working together to help save the game world.

The book is fast paced and I literally struggle to find places that I could stop to have some family time. The book also is packed with copious amounts of humor, too. Like I said I almost crashed my car laughing as some of the antics in an earlier book.

A lot of that laughter comes from the suave and yet silly stylings of Justin Thomas James. The man is a master craftsman whose voice is like whisky. This storyline has his fingerprints all over it, because there is no one else who could have told this story better.

I will miss this tale, and can happily say that Finn clears up all plotlines and storylines so that nothing is left unanswered. That is always a bonus. Final score 8.4 stars

Hell of a way to end a series. Kuddos.

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Ruthless

The Completionist Chronicles, Book 5

By: Dakota Krout

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Series: The Completionist Chronicles, Book 5

Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins

Pause

Ruthless may just be my moistest favorites took in the Completionist saga so far. I have loved the series up till now, and really liked the spin-off Bibliomancer and so was happy to see Joe go toe to toe with his full head of hair wolfman rival a few times. Also, the change over from the narrator is a hoop that I’ve gotten over and firmly believe that Luke is doing a fine job now.

This time around the story isn’t a play on the words of the title, Ruthless does have a meaning, but its not about an NPC or even PC named Ruth who goes missing at the end. Krout has pulled some slick ones, such as Regicide but not this time around.

The story is dialogue heavy, which is a good thing since Dakota definitely knows how to have people chat, and it really worked for me. There was only one time that there was a pun that made me groan, and felt kinda like a stretch and that was the “Like a good neighbor” Insurance bit. That needed some serious polish. Otherwise, the book is about Joe dealing with some debuffs of his own, getting blueprints, and stopping a horde of hungry newly minted PC’s who want to take over Joe’s new town. I think my favorite tertiary character is the ritualist who wants to use their powers to become an evil overlord and has no problem telling everyone what her intentions are. That’s the thing with Krout. Third tier characters have a vibrancy all of their own.

As I said earlier, Daniels has smoothly moved into his slot as the series narrator and I got into his groove right off the bat. He does a great job, and handles Dakota’s humor pretty well.

Final score 8.4 stars.

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Adventurer Academy

Greyblood, Book 1

By: Daniel Prince

Narrated by: Gary Furlong, Jeff Hays, Aurelia Vazquez, Will M. Watt

Series: Greyblood, Book 1

Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins

Pause

Double A is one of those books that gives us a nice guy protagonist who has a questionable heritage that could be a big problem is he is discovered for what he is. He also wants to become an adventurer and sneaks off every night against his mother’s wishes to do whatever he can to build up his experience. Which is the one real issue I had with the novel that I wasn’t clear on.

The way the experience points worked was that they only register AFTER you have a class, and the only way to get a class is to go into a dungeon and clear monsters and get a scroll that will grant you your class. I wasn’t clear on how the scroll system worked because it seemed to be a completely random drop, and you had a take it or leave it option no matter what you found. The MC gets a really rare class in a manner that few other people do, and it seemed to be one that he really wanted so he gets lucky.

Aside from the whole class thing the book is pretty seamless, and has a nice flow to it; even if it does sort of have lot of similarities to harry Potter, what with the MC being Harry, the necromancer girl being Hermione, and the dwarf that’s afraid to go underground as a stand in for Ron. Turns out, the MC even has a Voldemort horcrux in his soul that he has to deal with. Only difference here is that Hermione and Harry kind of like each other. It does touch on issues like acceptance, bullying, perseverance, and hope.

Overall the book is fun and keeps your attention. Prince does a good job with the academy teachers, each has a distinct personality and easily defined mannerisms. The MC’s trials and tribulations are worth the time, and you will be rooting for the greyblood, Lugar as he comes into his role as a champion.

SBT does a great job here, and I will repeat myself, I can’t wait to see Aurelia Vazquez get a book of her own, she was great as the necromancer. The rest of the team absolutely rock this novel, and its funny I listened to the Dresden file Battlegrounds, a big budget player still had mistakes as one scene literally repeated itself, and its nice to see SBT putting out high quality audio. Solid and yet fun work by the SBT team.

Final score 8.1 stars

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Thanks oh so very much for watching everyone, I do appreciate you taking the time to watch or listen to the show. If you want to support us, you can like the LitRPG Podcast facebook page or the YouTube Page, or just share and like the video. I’m going to ask for more suggestions for the ‘Is it LIT’ segment, I’ve got a good one for next time, but will always need ideas. Please leave comments or suggestions in the comments below, and feel free to tell me whatever you like. I enjoy the feedback.

Check out Ray Johnson’s new book The Nightmare Game, out Nov. 3rd, 2020.

https://amzn.to/3mJCy8U

For LitRPG Audiobook Podcast, I’m Ray. Keep listening!!!

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