LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 070 - Altered Realms, Bad Guys Books 1-4, The Good Guys Books 5-9

“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: ”

Altered Realms - A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure (Ascension, Book 1) (20:29)

Score: 7.9 out of 10

https://amzn.to/3pn91mI

Bad Guys Book 1-4 (32:06)

Score: 8.1 out of 10

https://amzn.to/2WRg3UB

The Good Guys Series Books 5-9 (46:13)

Score: 8.4 out of 10

https://amzn.to/2Kx1V0x

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Altered Realms

A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure (Ascension, Book 1)

By: B.F. Rockriver

Narrated by: Maximillian Breed

Series: Altered Realms, Book 1

Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins

BF is my new BF because he penned one hell of a tale. It is about an NPC who rather unhappily becomes a player. You often wonder how NPC’s would feel if they learned that they were just background people and that their world was literally made for the players, or at least I ponder that. Well, Rockriver answers that question. They wouldn’t be happy about it. I mean imagine you make donuts. Nothing wrong with that, and suddenly you have to go fight dragons, pick a new race, and you’ll never see a donut again. That would be pretty terrifying. And that is what happens to poor Eli. He is forced to become a player and struggles with that reality for most of the book.

Eli gets into it fairly often, and discovers a blight that is destroying his world, so naturally he has to do something and does everything in his power to stop it. And I mean that. The fights are unrelenting and run the gamut of standard fights to mental challenges. The world building aspects were smashing, and it had a vibe of genuiness that I could easily visualize the places Eli traveled and even heard about. The book has an irony in so far that Eli, who doesn’t like the Wolf-kin people, literally becomes a hybrid wolf-kin for his race. See, this is how messages and social commentary are supposed to be done.

The one issue I have with this novel is the narration.

RAMON: PLEASE DO THE AUDIO CLIP HERE

To be fair I have to shave off some points because of it. I have, on occasion, wondered if English was a first language for some narrators. In Breed’s case I sincerely have to ask if he has hearing issues, because he consistently mispronounces words that are fairly easy to say. UNSURE sounds like ONSHORE, for example, and its like that all through the book. Plus, he’s one of those narrators who sounds like he reads every single sentence separate from the ones following or preceding the one he is currently speaking. I found it to be distracting. I loved the book, but Breed really gave me fits in spots. Fits I should not have been having.

The story is great. It holds your interest and can convey a few messages along the way, PTSD is even touched upon; which is bloody brilliant, I mean Eli is basically glitched into being a fighter, and he was not mentally prepared for that. It fit the story well. Don’t miss out on this book, it is fun and meaningful.

Final score 7.9 stars. I had to slice off points just for Breeds inability to say simple words. Other wise, I do recommend the book. Rockriver kills it for his first time out, and I can’t wait for book 2.

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Bad Guys, Book 1-4

Scamps & Scoundrels

Second Story Man

Skull and Thrones

War of the Posers

By: Eric Ugland

Narrated by: Neil Hellegers

Length: Roughly 40 ½ hours

Release date: 01-02-20

Eric Ugland writes one of my favorite series, the good guys, and I actually was afraid to step into his secondary series based in the same world, the Bad Guys. You be honest, I had been told that it wasn’t as good and that I would be disappointed and so I stayed away. But my curiosity got to me. I didn’t hear a lot about the bad guys much at all after that initial bit of gossip. After a while I decided to give the series a go. What could it hurt, I figured.

The answer was nothing. I loved it. It gave me an alternate perspective on the world uglan had created and it made me ask more questions. Is Balimeer really evil or is he misunderstood? Is Montana doing the right thing? That sort of stuff.

Now before I go and say how I felt about the series I need to disclose something. I listened to the whole and complete run in one go after I finished the first book. So, I clearly enjoyed it. It does come with some baggage though.

First off, there are a lot of similarities between the MC’s of both series. They both speak and act in a practically identical manner. I mean, I know a lotta folks, but the phrase You do You has never come out of any of their mouths, and yet both Clyde and Montana use the phrase. Both act like complete idiots most of the time, although I think Clyde is a little less of a dope most of the time, he should be smarter acting than he is. Both have the gift of gab, which allows them to gain a new language after hearing three words of it spoken. And so on, so if you don’t mind a book that basically mirrors another series this is actually great for you. If not, I can see where some of the issues originated from when Book one was first released.

Like I said, I really had fun with the series. It is funny and fast paced even when people are sitting down to talk to one another. The only real umbrage I had with the entire series was when Clyde ended up getting a quest to build a guild, and then everyone he wanted to join gave him a request, re-quest? That they needed him to complete before hooking up. It reminded me of the old Loony tunes Henry Hawk toon in which the hawk had to get a fish for a cat, and cheese for a mouse, and so on until the dog knocks the rooster out with a bone that the hawk had given him. It was unnecessarily convoluted, but I still enjoyed it.

Helligers really nails every one liner and plays the smart ass perfectly and so he propels good bits that would have been humerous on the page into snicker, snort, and even guffaw material. He’s one of my star narrators, but I do have to wonder if a different narrator wouldn’t have been more useful in setting the series apart from the Good Guys. I am glad that there wasn’t helligers just kills ugland’s material. They have a great relationship from words on the page into words spoken.

I am going to say that I love this series, but I am going to just give it an 8.1 star. I wish Clyde wasn’t so quick to mouth off and annoy people in power exactly like Montana Cogshall, and a few other things that are like a Ven Diagram laid out over the two series. Otherwise my score would have been much higher.

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The Good Guys Series, Books 5-9

Dukes and Ladders

Home, Siege Home

The Bare Hunt

Eastbound and Town

Four Beheadings and a Funeral

By: Eric Ugland

Narrated by: Neil Hellegers

Length: roughly 44 hours

Release date: 09-10-19

OK, so this is kind of a cheat. I mean I did this with Uglands bad guy series, and the way a look at this is these are all just one really long book. Each one flows right into the other and takes off running like a cat with its tail on fire. Plus, Ugland releases a ton a books a year, and it isn’t fair for me to just jam him in there every couple of episodes of the podcast, so this way I can tell you about the series without shorting any other others or series, so if you don’t like it suck it! Ha!

Any way, I’m going to talk Neil helligers first. I think he is prime example of a narrator who “gets” his author. I mean he has the patter and cadence for ugland’s jokes down to a science and while Neil is good in other series he shines like a supernova here. It is a perfect symbiosis that is rare in audiobooks. I often point out that some narrators own their characters, but Neil owns this series.

Books 5-9 simpy follow our good guy, Montana Cogshall, as he does everything he can to improve his holding as enemies creep in. Some are external, such as from other countries, and some are internal, but he faces them all with the same dopey optimism that we love to see him pull off. For me, the only real hiccup in the series was Bare Hunt; which was a bit of a slow point for me. The ending made up for the meh pacing, though. As it stands Cogshall continues to improve himself, gain allies and enemies as he builds his burgeoning forest home into what looks to be a new capital city for the empire. Or maybe just a really nice home for himself if the things in Bad guys should come to pass.

Over all the series is a steady 8.4 event. It keeps me laughing and interested and those two things are key. Personally, I think the 2 funniest authors in the genre right now are ugland and Ryan Rimmel. So if some funny business is what you are looking for I suggest you turn to them.

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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.

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

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