Uriel is having a bad day.
Ambushed by pirates, the legendary Valiant finds herself wrecked and alone on a hostile planet.
Bairn is having a bad day.
Lost on some strange, backwater planet, this inexperienced adventurer finds himself at death's door, surrounded by strange beasts and monsters.
Together, these two must join forces to survive on this unforgiving planet. Which means Uriel must take the inexperienced Bairn under her wing and try to level the fool up before he gets the two of them killed.
Can the two set aside their differences to overcome secrets of their pasts and new, overwhelming enemies to conquer the Wild Worlds?
My Opinion: 245 page, $3.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
This is a multi-narrative novel that feels more Sci-fan than LitRPG.
Ok, this is technically LitRPG since one of the two main characters (MC), Bairn, does gain some levels at some point and having combat levels is part of the novel’s universe. Unfortunately, that’s about the extent of any RPG stuff in the novel. Yes, other RPG words are mentioned in a couple of places: HP, stats, AR, stamina, mana, but nothing is ever shown to the reader. All of the details are hidden away. The only exception would be Bairn’s class Gadgeteer, which is only explained so that the reader understands why he can fix a ship and why bad people want him. The class could really be called a job though, and would actually make more sense since he literally has no levels in that class but can still use special abilities and magically knows how to repair complicated ships he’s never seen before. The story feels more like a sci-fan story that was modified to include MMO terms or the author wanted to write LitRPG but just didn't want to deal with any real RPG mechanics.
The story was predictable and without any real tension. The two main characters Uriel and Bairn train for almost half the book and it honestly doesn’t matter to the story. Not even to the plotline to get Bairn levels, since he ultimately doesn’t earn them himself but gets power leveled by the Uriel who is infinitely more powerful than anyone else in the story. Which is also how all the story problems are solved, by the overpowered Uriel. There’s never any tension, because she is so powerful that there’s no real risk of her ever losing and the story unfolds just like you’d think once the pirates are even mentioned.
Overall, the story isn’t badly written on a technical level. But as LitRPG it left much to be desired. There’s a serious lack of any detail to the RPG mechanics and I felt like they were really hidden from the reader. Some of the fights are good, but up till the 45% mark it feels like filler and it’s hard to push past that without seeing why it’s important in the story. So I, like other reviewers, got bored. While I pushed myself to finish the story and it improved a little, it wasn’t enough because Uriel was just so OP there wasn’t tension or real risk she’d ever lose.
Score: 5 out of 10