LitRPG Podcast 205 - Everything is Worth Killing, Path of Darkness, The Good Guys Book 7, Leap of Faith
LitRPG Podcast 205 - Everything is Worth Killing, Path of Darkness, The Good Guys Book 7, Leap of Faith
Dec. 20th, 2019
Hello everyone, welcome to episode 205 of the LitRPG podcast.
I’m Ramon Mejia. I’m here to bring you the latest LitRPG news, reviews, and author interviews. We have 6 new reviews just for you and a couple Wuxia recommends
New Releases and Reviews:
Everything is Worth Killing: Isaac's Tale (An Apocalyptic LitRPG) (08:31)
Light LitRPG, after 25% mark it gets interesting and dark
Score: 7.2 out of 10
Path of Darkness: BlackFlame Online Litrpg/Gamelit Universe (Glory of Formation Emperor Book 1) (15:18)
Interesting game stuff sometimes, but other issues make it a miss
Score : 6 out of 10
The Bare Hunt: A LitRPG/GameLit Novel (The Good Guys Book 7) (19:45)
Another good aventure
Score: 7.4 out of 10
Leap of Faith (Anura Rising: Book One): A Kingdom Building Fantasy LitRPG Series (23:02)
It has town building at the end, the rest is meh
Score: 6 out of 10
Ian’s (Eye-Ann) Picks of the Week (35:12)
(Pic 0)
New Segment from Ian Mitchell a long time LitRPG community member who reads and reviews as much as me. He was nice enough to agree to join the LitRPG Podcast family as a new reviewer.
Dungeon Core Academy: Book 2 (A Dungeon Crafting series)
His second second life
Score: 7.8 out of 10
Dragon Heart: Sea of Sand. LitRPG Wuxia Series: Book 4
Two heroes from legend
Score: 9.7 out of 10
Non-LitRPG recommendations. Wuxia on KU. These aren’t LitRPG (so they don’t need to go in the database). I gave them scores.
Run for your lives
Score: 8.9 out of 10
From a tournament to a new sect
Score: 8.0 out of 10
(Play Music 2)
LitRPG News
Stonehaven League - Book 1 is FREE until Dec. 23rd
Out Now!
War Aeternus 5 - End of the Faithful
Karma's Touch: A LitRPG and GameLit Fantasy Series (Chronicles of Ethan Book 3)
New LitRPG Audiobooks
World Unbound - The System Apocalypse, Book 6
Bone Dungeon: Elemental Dungeon Book 1
The Kingdom Rises: Station Cores Book Four
The Heroic Villain 2 - The Heroic Villain Book 2
Eight-Bit Bastards: Levels One and Two
Karma's Touch - Chronicles of Ethan Book 3
Homebrew - Metagamer Chronicles Book 1
Upcoming LitRPG:
The Wastes (Underdog Book #2): LitRPG Series (Dec. 23rd, 2019)
Echoes of the System: A LitRPG Adventure (Stonehaven League Book 7) (Dec. 24th, 2019)
Shroud Of The Wahrsager: A LitRPG GameLit Fantasy Adventure (Enora Book 6) (Dec. 26th, 2019)
Resist: The Scourge Wars Book 3 (Dec. 27th, 2019)
The Land: Monsters: A LitRPG Saga (Chaos Seeds Book 8) (Jan. 1st, 2020)
No Mistakes (World of the Changed Book #1): LitRPG Series (Jan. 6th, 2020)
The Destroying Plague (Disgardium Book #3): LitRPG Series (Jan. 9th, 2020)
Dungeons of Strata (Deepest Dungeon 1) (Jan. 20th, 2019)
Quest for Dominion: A LitRPG Saga (Hero Online Book 4) (Jan. 24th, 2020)
Viridian Gate Online: Darkling Siege (The Viridian Gate Archives Book 7) (Jan. 28th, 2020)
Endless Fantasy Online: The Elk Kingdom (Jan. 31st, 2020)
Ultima : A LitRPG Journey (Legends Online Book 4) (Jan. 31st, 2019) https://amzn.to/2sl315R
Battle Master: The Blood Crown Book 1 (A LitRPG Adventure) (Feb. 4th, 2020)
Skull and Thrones: A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure (The Bad Guys Book 3) (Feb. 6th, 2020)
An Equation with One Unknown (Invasion Book #2): LitRPG Series (Feb. 10th, 2020)
Gods of Ash and Amber: A Gamelit Novel (Seeds of Chaos Book 4) (Feb. 29th, 2020)
The Incarnator (Project Stellar Book 1): LitRPG Series (March 9th, 2020)
Onto New Releases and Reviews
(Play Music 3)
New Releases and Reviews
(Picture 1)
Everything is Worth Killing: Isaac's Tale (An Apocalyptic LitRPG)
Two wingless, rock-spitting dragons. Dozens of warmongering ogres. Hundreds of dynamite-wielding gnomes.
And one normal guy in the middle of it all.
Bad mornings. We've all had 'em. But what if you woke up in a post-apocalyptic land filled with wizards, dragons, and ogres? Not only that, but you woke up as a prisoner of a clan of mages who don’t even speak your language? What if these guys expected you to know magic, but left you to figure out for yourself how to cast it?
These are the problems Isaac must solve. And what's he going to do when death knocks on his door?
He's going to blast a fireball through the letterbox and send death running.
But first...he just needs to learn how to even cast a fireball.
Follow his journey through a land filled with creatures that want to kill him, and watch as he refuses to let them. Accompany him into a land of mystery and danger, where life is tough and learning spells and skills takes work. A land where Isaac is determined to stop being the prey and become the predator.
This is his journey to make allies and friends in this new world. A journey through battles against slaver ogres and wingless dragons and gnome dictators. Through experimentation and adaptation, where he learns that killing one enemy helps him against the next. It’s also his journey to find a warm, comfy bed.
This is the tale of a someone who used to be a normal guy. It's Isaac’s tale of adapting to a world where everything is worth killing.
My Opinion: 502 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
This is a very light LitRPG story that feels more like straight portal fiction early in the story. Much of the first 25% of the novel feels more like a goblin language lesson, with the main character (MC) trying to learn the language of the green people that saved him from the wild. It’s something that becomes important as he learns their magic and eventually makes it his own. But it also makes that first quarter of the story a little tedious as he’s essentially talking to himself the entire time. After that first quarter of the story and a good months time jump into the future, the goblins start speaking broken english, or more accurately, the MC automatically translates their speech. It’s really here that the story gets interesting as the MC finally knows enough to experiment with their magic system, learn the rules, and even the culture of the local tribes. From there on its a cycle of training, magical practice, and a bit of action now and then as the tribe faces several threats.
The progression in power is denoted by notifications and there is a clear magic system but that aspect is really minor and could be removed from the story completely with little or no impact on the story. There is sometimes 10-15% of the story that passes without any kind of notification. But it does exist and is consistent, so it’s very light LitRPG.
The magic system on the other hand was interesting and well thought out. There were clear rules that the MC worked out through experimentation and intelligent deduction. I think this is the part many readers will enjoy the most.
Overall, I eventually liked the story. Once it got past the first 25% and the MC could actually talk to other people, there was some very interesting world building. Sometimes very dark, but interesting. But I did have to push through that first part and much of the story felt very slice of life with the reader just following along as the MC went through life. Yes, there are conflicts in the story and a bit of action now and again, but the plot meandered a bit. Still, more enjoyable than not.
Score: 7.2 out of 10
Everything is Worth Killing: Isaac's Tale (An Apocalyptic LitRPG)
Path of Darkness: BlackFlame Online Litrpg/Gamelit Universe (Glory of Formation Emperor Book 1)
Jon's days are numbered.
The mine will consume his life any day.
Will this offer to farm inside a game be any better?
He wants nothing but to farm in the real world, and he’s given that chance in a VRMMORPG. With a new lease on life, he accepts it.
But when he’s robbed of his only tool to farm sufficient quota, he has no other option but to enter the deadliest forest of the region and die at the hands of a druid to obtain a skill that will help him reach his goals.
However.
Death awaits at every step in the forest, and he can’t die more than thrice.
What will Jon do?
Find out more about Jon's epic journey in BlackFlame Online.
You can expect below things from this book series.
1) Farming.
2) Unique Classes.
3) Town Building.
4) Epic large scale battles.
5) Forbidden Spells.
My Opinion: 231 pages, $2.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
If you are going to have a hope of enjoying this novel, be aware that like all the other stuff the authors’ have written, this novel has a lot of technical writing errors. If you can accept that, you have a hope of enjoying this. It still has other issues that might not work for you, but it also has some neat ideas.
Personally, I liked some of the RPG stuff going on in the story. The main character gets several classes, like Arch Druid, that I haven’t read about before and the authors make use of some interesting class powers. There are lots of item, skill, and power descriptions and plenty of numbers for those that like a crunchy story. There is also some town building here, so fans of that game mechanic may enjoy that aspect.
However, there are lots of plot holes in the story and I noted many times that a story twist just didn’t make sense. It sometimes felt that the authors thought of some game mechanic they thought would be cool or appeal to a reader and created all the rules for it, then sort of just shoved it into the story. Also, combat in the story isn’t great just ok.
Overall, the novel just misses the mark for me. It is an improvement over some of the authors’ earlier works though. I wasn’t bored and had a good time reading about some of the RPG progression, the use of farming and town building. But the story itself didn’t make sense and the regular technical writing issues dropped my enjoyment. However, if those issues don’t bother you, then you may enjoy the story more than me.
Score : 6 out of 10
Path of Darkness: BlackFlame Online Litrpg/Gamelit Universe (Glory of Formation Emperor Book 1)
The Bare Hunt: A LitRPG/GameLit Novel (The Good Guys Book 7)
As usual, Montana Coggeshall is hell-bent on doing what’s right, even if what’s right isn’t exactly what’s wise. So he embarks on a quest to vanquish the corrupted ursus, a threat so large they could destroy the entire world of iNcarn8. Does Montana head out after months of training for cold weather conditions, amassing an army, and strategizing with his top aides? Not really. It’s more like he just walks out of his holding one day with a guide and the members of his hirð. They’re just a bunch of angry teddy bears, right?
Montana is acting on pure instinct, tinged with a healthy dose of rage. He’s stripped bare, and soon finds himself without food, supplies, a key magic weapon, or even his most loyal friends. Still, he continues.
Montana Coggeshall is on the hunt.
My Opinion: 364 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
This is another good entry in the series. I’ll point out that the story does seem to meanders in the beginning and middle of the novel and feels a little like setup for future conflicts. But the action-adventure is really good throughout the entire book, there’s a bit more RPG progression, and a good ending.
Score: 7.4 out of 10
The Bare Hunt: A LitRPG/GameLit Novel (The Good Guys Book 7)
Leap of Faith (Anura Rising: Book One): A Kingdom Building Fantasy LitRPG Series
Every Frog Has His Day
Deep in the bayou of Louisiana, Henry’s life has been shattered. He never expected a second chance, a way to redeem himself. He’s been given an opportunity to return to his family, if he can fight off the evil threatening to take over Anura.
All Henry has to do is understand his new abilities, build a kingdom, and form an army to stand against the impending doom in this new fantasy world.
Just one problem.
He has to do it as a frog.
Leap of Faith is Book 1 of Anura Rising, a kingdom building LitRPG series that combines fantasy elements along with game mechanics.
This series contains elements of games like enchanted gear, skill trees, experience points, material gathering, building creation, character leveling, two-headed plague hounds, anthropomorphic fantasy races, magic, and intense battle sequences. Does not include harems, but does include some profanity.
My Opinion: 370 pages, $3.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
End has town building, rest is kinda meh
The story has good action that is well described and has a good visceral feel. There are plenty of notifications, item descriptions, character sheets after a certain point in the story. If you like town building it’s well done and when it does appear in the story is well thought out and planned. You can tell its planned though.
However, that’s about all I liked about the story. It has similar issues to the author’s other work Quest Accepted. The first 23% of the novel reads more like a fantasy story than LitRPG with only three notifications and little other game stuff. The rest of the novel has more and the RPG game mechanics come into play after that point, with the majority of the town building mechanics showing up after the 50% mark. But even with larger parts of the story where the main character (MC) chooses skills, stat increases as he levels, sometimes the game mechanics don’t feel like they impact the story. Stats in particular, while they increase, don’t feel like they have an impact. That’s mostly because there is no frame of reference for their impact. There’s no HP, levels, or other game information for enemies and no damage notifications so even though items are given damage numbers there’s no reference point for how that actually plays out in combat. Instead, the fights feel more like fantasy description.
Storywise, things feel forced for most of the story. I actively disliked the first 5%, where the MC commits suicide and is brought back by an immortal diety on an RPG world. It came off a little bit preachy with the deity claiming dangling the hope of the MC seeing his dead family in exchange for him doing tasks that will improve his terrible, negative, selfish outlook on life. However, once the story actually gets to the RPG world, that aspect is minimized and the story gets a bit better. There’s lots of good action about every 5% of the story, but most of the first half of the novel seems setup to justify the town building in the last half. Then a bit of town building in the 2nd half of the novel mixed with more action, and a big showdown with the big bad guy.
The main character is a bit of a jerk for most of the story and I found it hard to root for him. He also very loudly and repeatedly does not want to be on the world he’s sent to. It also feels like he has little agency. He is forced into a leadership role and early on gains as skill called Noble Obligation, which forces him to take followers and if he loses them all or they die, he dies. It's not a skill he chose from his character sheet or one he gained from a skill book, the only two ways to gain skills according to the game mechanics. So, it really does feel forced upon the MC and shows up to justify his ability to lead and build a town later.
One of the big differentiating points of the story, that he’s not a human but a frog person, isn’t as good as I’d hoped. I’m a big fan when an author chooses a race other than human. It’s a good opportunity to create unique cultures, skills, and relationships. Unfortunately, besides a different physical description and a few skills, all the races in the story come off as human. There are no unique cultural differences, behaviors, or moral stances to make them stand out.
Overall, the story didn’t work for me. However, if you liked Quest Accepted, the author’s other LitRPG work, you’ll probably like this one. It has similar story telling, good action, and a few interesting twists. You may also like it if you’re hard up for some decent RPG town building. For me though, the forced storyline, few game mechanic issue, and issues with the character just made it a miss.
Score: 6 out of 10
Leap of Faith (Anura Rising: Book One): A Kingdom Building Fantasy LitRPG Series
Ian’s (Eye-Ann) Picks of the Week - New Segment
New Segment from Ian Mitchell a long time LitRPG community member who reads and reviews as much as me. He was nice enough to agree to join the LitRPG Podcast family as a new reviewer.
(Pic 6)
Dungeon Core Academy: Book 2 (A Dungeon Crafting series)
His second second life
Short easy read dungeon core story. Beno the core is chatty with the reader. It's worked in both this and the previous book. Most of the fighting is implied. The story advances.
Score: 7.8 out of 10
Dragon Heart: Sea of Sand. LitRPG Wuxia Series: Book 4
Two heroes from legend
Wow! Both the story and translation are incredible. While I really like the larger than life Hadjar the dragonheart, the world and the adventure sucked me in and wouldn't let go until the last page. Epic and Legendary are apt descriptions. Dragon Heart keeps getting stronger and has surpassed the Cradle series for me. I like the myth-like quality of the prose and the slow reveal keeps me hungry for the next book.
Score: 9.7 out of 10
Non-LitRPG recommendations. Wuxia on KU. These aren’t LitRPG (so they don’t need to go in the database). I gave them scores.
Run for your lives
That was exciting! I love all the interesting worlds within worlds in the Zen series. Everyone is living in the inner world of a divine being and the high level cultivators have inner worlds of their own. Unlike some other series I've read this isn't just a rinse and repeat at every new cultivating level. Each volume brings new places and activities. Having a great time and hoping this keeps going a while longer.
Score: 8.9 out of 10
From a tournament to a new sect
Austin's in the Divine land now and not the strongest anymore. Ok he still has some OP gear and can fight above his cultivation realm. I'm glad he's getting closer to the queen. Boy he moves slow. Pretty good volume.
Score: 8.0 out of 10
That’s it everyone!
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(Music 4)
Music Credits
"Blip Stream" "Mighty Like Us" "Big Shift" "Vivacity"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/