LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 073 - CivCEO, Cole Blooded, The Forgotten Faithful

You can read the full reviews and show notes if you visit us at:

https://litrpgpodcast.com/litrpg-audiobook-podcast-073

“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: ”

CivCEO - Accidental Champion Series, Book 1 (2:44)

Score: 8 out of 10

https://amzn.to/3qNIgZt

Cole Blooded - Cole Blooded, Book 1 (16:31)

Score: 7.5 out of 10

https://amzn.to/2NnISXh

The Forgotten Faithful - UnderVerse Series, Book 2 (32:25)

Score: 8 out of 10

https://amzn.to/3od6wmg

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CivCEO

Accidental Champion Series, Book 1

By: Andrew Karevik

Narrated by: Neil Hellegers

Series: Accidental Champion, Book 1

Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins

Pause

CivCeo is a rare book, insofar as it has a compelling story with minimal battle included. What the book is about is an 80 year old man accidentally gets snagged and taken to a fantasy world. He was standing beside the person who was meant to be the hero of a god. The old man, who had just retired as the head of a company after turning 80, finds himself discarded by the god in a new world. Thankfully, he now has a body in the prime of his life, and an attitude of getting things done. He’s taken in by a village to be their champion and it becomes his responsibility to grow the village, increase its prosperity, and protect it from outside forces.

That said, the book will sound dull when I tell you it has a lot of economic lessons and focuses mainly on town building. That’s it. IN fact, there are really few other things you normally get in a book, such as a love interest, or a main bad guy/antagonist. Here the opposition is a group called the tradesmen who have a strangle hold over who can buy and sell, and they decide what they pay for goods and how much they get paid. It is up to Charles Morris, the protag, to break their stranglehold.

Here's the deal, in spite of major players on the side of the opposition, in spite of the fact that Charles really doesn’t get to know a lot of people deeply, and despite the dearth of armed conflict this book really kept my attention. It shows that you don’t need in depth relationships or swordfights to tell a story. You just need to tell a story well. You get to know Charles’s attitude towards others, and the only thing I found a little less than believable was the fact that Charles wasn’t greedy or ruthless. He cared about his village, their lives, etc and everything he did was for their betterment. I don’t believe there is a CEO like that in the world. Philanthropy is good press, but it doesn’t get you a golden toilet. I do want to point out that Charles does build some relationships along the way, that I think will be explored and expounded upon later. The book holds your attention, and it is the way Charles makes deals or copes with the people around him that makes it fun.

Neil Hellegers, whom you have probably heard me rave about for the job that he does on the good guy and bad guys series has the narration reigns firmly in hand as he tells this tale. If you’ve heard Neil before then you know he is one of the best out there and that continues with this book. What I love about him the most is that he has a strong and distinctive voice that once you hear him speak you will never forget it.

Final score: 8 Stars. The book has fantastic and clean narration, and a well-told tale with a likable character. The only real drawback for me was the lack of real conflict. I don’t mean bloodshed, I mean that when Charles walks into a situation he has it well in hand before he realizes that he does. I would have liked to have seen a stumble or trip as he went along, maybe not everything working out as well as it did, then it would have been more believable. Still, there is a book 2, and I will be getting it in spite of my low funds at the moment. As tightly as I grip onto my audible credits I will spend on one the next book.

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Cole Blooded

Cole Blooded, Book 1

By: Blaise Corvin, Outspan Foster

Narrated by: Ryan Burke

Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins

Pause

It’s funny. I can remember listening to Cole Blooded prior to a service, listening to it on the car ride back, and then it was over. The book flew by, but it is also short being just over 6 hours long.

I am a big Ludus fan, and I cheer for Dolos more than I do the heroes most of the time, so I was down with checking out a book n which he decides to try out something different from the standard Dolos orbs. Here he grabs a group of people who were destined to die and saves them, powers them up, and then tells them they only have so long to get to point on the island they are on to escape. Oh, and only one of them can escape. And they are going to be burning energy and their bodies as they go so they need to eat in order to keep from burning out. Good premise, but the book felt a little wonky.

It never feels real to me when I see a movie in which a protagonist is put in a terrible position and then doesn’t do everything it takes to stay alive. The survival instinct it really powerful and should never be underestimated. As an example my wife and I just watched the series Hunters on Amazon, and there were bits where one character was forced to kill other prisoners to keep his girlfriend alive. We talked about it. The gf was shouting for him not to do it, and she probably meant it on the surface, but deep down she was relieved to still be alive because all she had to do to stop everything was to attack the nazi that was holding her. He would have put a bullet in her and ended everything right there. Cole Blooded has characters who flip from being altruistic to self serving pretty quickly. Out of all of them, Cole is the only one who actively plans to save another member of his party, but then he also has a girlfriend and a buddy to think of, too. The question then comes down to do you save a stranger, a loved one, or yourself?

The books pacing is pretty frantic, as the island collapses around the groups, and people begin killing one another. The Dolos items give everyone different abilities, but also amps up their metabolisms. So we get a range of powers that fly thick and heavy when the groups clash. The story was good, and I enjoyed the glimpse of Dolos beta testing variations of his power pills, but the story kind of lacked a tinge of believability in some spots. For example, put me on that island, and I am soloing my way through as fast as I can, hidden dangers or no. I don’t want to get chummy with the others, as I’m going to have to kill or abandon them at some point anyway. Family is different, but new girlfriends and disconnected friends are another matter entirely. Sticking together leaves you open for betrayal, backstabbing, and sadness. I would rather risk the dangers alone than have to watch my back at all times. Out of everyone, Cole is the only person who genuinely cares more about a stranger surviving than himself, and he knows this as people keep saying things like “you’re right,” but never really seem to mean it.

Ryan Burke’s narration was clean and smooth. I know him from the Tower of Power series, and the Magitech chronicles by Chris Fox, who I did an Izzit Lit segment on a while back. I also know that he’s doing a book for Tim kaiver so he’s busy for a reason, he does a great job. I enjoyed him here and I think that you will too. He’s done a lot of audio and it shows. Top notch job.

Final score 7.5 stars, the writing is good and the story fast paced but it isn’t really hard to figure out how the book ends and who the last person standing is going to be, and that takes a bit of the fun out of it. I would have liked to have seen this written from two peoples perspectives, so that you had no idea who the MC really was, and if it had a different title, like Battle Royale or Countdown to death to hide that even more. As it was I was basically just ticking off characters until we got to the end.

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The Forgotten Faithful

UnderVerse Series, Book 2

By: Jez Cajiao

Narrated by: Wayne Mitchell

Series: UnderVerse, Book 2

Length: 21 hrs and 5 mins

Pause

Wow, back so soon to this world. I really enjoyed the world that Jez created in book one, and was glad to see it grow in book two.

I will say that the fight scenes are pretty graphic and intense, so it’s written the way it should be with appropriate blood and gore. Once more I will say that I love the character of Jax and his crew.

That said, I think there were a couple of things that need addressing. First there was one or two points were the narration repeated itself, it said something and then repeated it again verbatim, so there was a recording error. Nothing major but it is there and need noticed. Otherwise, the narration by Wayne Mitchell is, for me, great. I think he can read the words on the page well and translate that into coherent and viable tones that people use when talking, in other words he adds to the story by reading it well and believably. This is the second book of his I have heard him on and he is now on my listen list.

Another issue I have is that the premise of the book is to get to a specific place and do a specific task on a limited timeline. Like, originally, it was all going to be there and back with in under a week. After that the story seemed to do everything but go in that direction. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the new race of water people and the back story on the old emperor who Jax is carrying around, but if you set a goal to get to Himmel then get to Himmel. It was very frustrating as I kept wondering when the big raid was going to take place, and just when I thought it was going to happen I saw I only had an hour left and knew that it wasn’t going to get there in this book. Don’t misconstrue what I’m saying, I liked the book, but it set goals and then seemed to try not to get there. Otherwise, the story plays out well, the characters are fun, and I listened attentively. It’s well crafted.

My final score is going to be 8 stars, so It gets a slight drop but still delivers a good story.

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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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