LitRPG Podcast 216 - Aether's Blessing, Dragon's Mist, Waking Up in Arcania, The Dungeon Fairy, Universe Storage Box: Volume 9
LitRPG Podcast 216 - Aether's Blessing, Dragon's Mist, Waking Up in Arcania, The Dungeon Fairy, Universe Storage Box: Volume 9
March 6th, 2020
Hello everyone, welcome to episode 216 of the LitRPG podcast.
I’m Ramon Mejia. I’m here to bring you the latest LitRPG news, reviews, and author interviews. We have 5 new reviews just for you.
For the full show notes visit us at: https://litrpgpodcast.com/litrpg-podcast-216
New Releases and Reviews:
Aether's Blessing (Aether's Revival Book 1)
Didn’t want to put it down
Score: 8.0 out of 10
Dragon's Mist: A 4X Strategy LitRPG Series (Warlords of the Circle Sea Book 1)
Good RPG strategy elements
Score: 7.5 out of 10
Waking Up in Arcania: A LitRPG GameLit Fantasy Adventure series (Non-Player Character Book 1)
Cyberpunk aspect didn’t make sense
Score: 6 out of 10
Ian’s Picks Of the Week
The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1)
Fairy Punk
Score: 8.5 out of 10
Universe Storage Box: Volume 9
Into the game world
Score: 7.8 out of 10
(Play Music 2)
LitRPG News
The World of Valdira series by Dem Mikhailov is being republished after getting picked up by my Magic Dome Books. The series is getting new cover art and a whole new round of translation and editing. So, if you haven’t had a chance to read the series, this is a Russian LitRPG story that even many Russian authors point to as the series that got them into the genre. Book 1 is out now and book 2 has a pre-order release of May 29th, 2020.
Audiofile magazine awarded Death’s Mantle, by Harmon Cooper and Read by Andrea Parsneau, a Earphones Award in the science fiction category. Congrats!
Out Now!
Gods of Ash and Amber: A Gamelit Novel (Seeds of Chaos Book 4)
Path of Soul: BlackFlame Online Litrpg/Gamelit Universe (Glory of Formation Emperor Book 3)
The Last Time Loop: Max of the Rebellion (Volume 2): A Time Travel LitRPG Series
Caym: A Fantasy LitRPG (Enora Online Book 7)
Neon Dark: A LitRPG Adventure (Zero.Hero Book 1)
Journey Never Ends: A Dystopian GameLit Adventure (Project Chrysalis Book 5)
New LitRPG Audiobooks
Imprisoned Online (Gaming the System) - A LitRPG Adventure, Book 1
Dinosaurs! - Forger of Worlds, Book 3
Upcoming LitRPG:
First Song, Book Two (Anthem of Infinity 2) (March 8th, 2020)
The Incarnator (Project Stellar Book 1): LitRPG Series (March 9th, 2020)
Viridian Gate Online: Insurrection (The Alchemic Weaponeer Book 3) (March 10th, 2020)
Into the Darkness: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Axe Druid Book 4) (March 13th, 2020)
Traveling the Dungeon (Dungeon Travels Book 2) (March 14th, 2020)
The Hive [LitRPG series:The Beetle] Book 2 (March 17th, 2020)
Darkworlds Paris: A Cthulhu LitRPG (March 19th, 2020)
The Dark Continent (Underdog Book #3): LitRPG Series (March 20th, 2020)
The Starlight Sword (Rogue Merchant Book #1): LitRPG Series (March 23rd, 2020)
Dark: Reincarnate (Dark LitRPG book 2) (March 23rd, 2020)
Stranger is Coming [LitRPG Series: Class Neutral] Book 1 (March 25th, 2020)
Sense: A Fantasy LitRPG Saga (A Touch of Power Book 3) (March 27th, 2020)
Quest for Freedom: A LitRPG Saga (Hero Online Book 5) (March 30th, 2020)
Sentenced to Troll 3 (April 1st, 2020)
Noa in the Flesh (World of the Changed Book #3): LitRPG Series (April 2nd, 2020)
Eastbound and Town: A LitRPG/Gamelit Adventure (The Good Guys Book 8) (April 2nd, 2020)
Expedition Newb (Sun & Shadow Online Book 2) (April 10th, 2020)
Dragon Heart: Sea of Sorrow. LitRPG wuxia series: Book 5 (April 15th, 2020)
Resistance (Disgardium Book #4): LitRPG Series (April 29th, 2020)
Player Reached the Top. LitRPG Series. Book III (April 29th, 2020)
Gauntlet: A LitRPG Journey (Legends Online Book 5) (April 30th, 2020)
Warsinger: A LitRPG Dragonrider Adventure (The Archemi Online Chronicles Book 4) (May 1st, 2020)
Aberrant Quest: The Blood Crown Book 2 (A LitRPG Adventure) (May 5th, 2020)
Path of Alchemy: BlackFlame Online Litrpg/Gamelit Universe (Glory of Formation Emperor Book 4) (May 31st, 2020)
Aces High (Reality Benders Book #6): LitRPG Series (June 9th, 2020)
Onto New Releases and Reviews
(Play Music 3)
New Releases and Reviews
(Picture 1)
Aether's Blessing (Aether's Revival Book 1)
Every year, the empire administers the rite of passage into adulthood. That rite serves to identify those blessed by Aether to become magi. The new magi are shipped to the academy to learn the arts of magic.
The academy is a dangerous place; the tournaments held twice each year can cripple or kill the students, and the clans of the empire will go to great lengths to recruit the students they want.
Gregory had one dream: to become a magi like the legends of old. Though he was ridiculed by the residents of the village and his unsupportive father, he never wavered from his dream. Would his age day bring the fruition of his dreams, or would reality come crashing down on him?
(This book contains some adult themes.)
My Opinion: 596 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
Full disclosure: I received an advanced copy for review. I purchased a copy when it became available.
This is a great slice of life cultivation and magical academy story with light RPG progression for the cultivation. As soon as I started reading it, I did not want to put it down.
What really made this great story for me was the top notch world and character building. From the first pages, the author takes the time to describe the rich cultural, political, and personal histories without bogging the ready with dense text. Instead it all flows naturally as the main character (MC) learns more about the world outside his village and what it means to be able to cultivate aether in the Empire.
While world and character building were the things that made me bump the story to ‘great’, that doesn’t mean the other aspects of the novel are lacking. While the early portions of the novel mostly do developmental stuff, and the mid story is about the academy, there is still regular action with a big bump happening in the last quarter. There are also elements of intrigue and faction politics that should be familiar to anyone that has read wuxia or cultivation stories.
The progression system takes a good bit to show up with most of the details coming out after the 15% mark as the magical academy comes into play. There are attributes like Body, Spirit, and Mind, each with a training path and sub-paths like specific elemental powers or shadow magic. There’s a good bit of depth here developed as the MC researches and trains. There are also tiers and circles for students that show their level of cultivation progression. However, that’s it as far as RPG progression aspects go. It’s light, but still pulls from familiar systems.
Overall a great story. Though I should warn that like most of the author’s writing there are some graphic sex scenes that are skippable ( less than 5% of the story). They make sense as part of the story is about the MC, a young man, exploring the world, finding love, and his place in it.
Score: 8.0 out of 10
Aether's Blessing (Aether's Revival Book 1)
Dragon's Mist: A 4X Strategy LitRPG Series (Warlords of the Circle Sea Book 1)
Build your kingdom – Destroy your enemies
What would you do if you woke up in a strange land?
What if you had no idea why?
Would you fight, or would you curl up into a ball and cry?
What if your fate was sealed by a booming announcement that cracked across the vast blue skies?
“Greetings, welcome to The Land of The Lessermen. You have arrived in the nick of time. War looms, its dire thunderheads crowding our once glorious sky. This land needs a strong hand such as yours. A hundred must battle for victory, and at the end, there can be only one.”
You’ve played the games, now read the book!
For Connor O’Grady this nightmare comes true. He wakes in a land and is propelled into an age called Legendary, where he has to fight his way up from nothing, literally nothing, not even a pair of pants. He must learn to survive, to fight, and to enlist the help of others in order to build a civilization capable of winning.
Because there is no other option.
This is a LitRPG – Civ building fantasy tale and includes progression stats and settlement stats.
For lovers of 4X strategy MMORPG civilization building games who enjoy a tale woven in the lands they spend far too much time in.
Warning: Contains curse words.
My Opinion: 739 pages, $3.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
Right from the first paragraph the story is unabashedly LitRPG. There's an immediate trapped in the game scenario with promises of PvP, crafting, and town building. And the story delivers. From the get go the main character fights monsters to gain Lord Levels and resources to cover his nakedness and make weapons. As he advances he gets new powers geared towards survival and kingdom building.
Game mechanics are pulled from strategy games with a mix of simplified crafting, town building, assigning kingdom jobs, and strategy combat. The crafting is simple. The MC collects fragments and is rewarded with random clothing or weapons. It's a neat way to give the MC stuff he wouldn't have thought of to make. Kingdom roles like scholar and economist are given to other kidnapped earthlings who must be recruited. Kingdom's citizens are recruited which unlocks more development paths. Lots of good strategy game stuff mixed with a storyline of competing player kingdoms.
Overall a good story with only minor forced moments.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
Dragon's Mist: A 4X Strategy LitRPG Series (Warlords of the Circle Sea Book 1)
Waking Up in Arcania: A LitRPG GameLit Fantasy Adventure series (Non-Player Character Book 1)
Sometimes, self-awareness isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
My name’s Joe, and I’ve died over ninety-thousand times. Until recently, that didn’t bother me one bit. After all, I’m a non-player character in a virtual fantasy game. Or at least I was.
Now, I’m not sure what I am.
I used to do whatever the programmers told me to do. But since becoming self-aware about a week ago, I’ve decided I’d rather not die. Especially since it’ll likely be permanent for me. So, yeah, dying now would completely suck.
But I’m not the only one with problems. Arcania itself is dying, infected by a virus that’s impacting all creatures, from orcs to humans to dragons. Nobody is safe, including those outside the game – in the so-called real world.
The only hope? With a small party of fellow adventurers (both PCs and NPCs alike), I must journey across Arcania, find the cure, stop the spread of this terrible plague, and, hopefully, save both worlds.
Waking Up in Arcania is the first book of the Non-Player Character series, a LitRPG GameLit fantasy adventure filled with heart-stopping battles, unlikely friendships, far-reaching revelations, and snarky humor.
Follow Joe’s thrilling quest and explore Waking Up in Arcania today!
My Opinion: 400 pg??, $3.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
This is a LitRPG cyberpunk story from the perspective of a newly awakened NPC.
The first 5% is the main character (MC) complaining about the ineptitude of the groups trying his quest and his inability to do anything not pre-programmed. Then when an update gives him autonomy the story describes all the things he’d never done: like eat, sleep, buy a weapon, or have a random fight. Not exactly riveting stuff. From there it’s the MC trying to solve the mystery of why he became self aware and why the game world is changing.
I’ll be honest, I’ve yet to read a LitRPG story that mixed well with cyberpunk. This is no different. The cyberpunk element: a virus that is harming players IRL and can only be cured by something in game which can only be found through a series of high level quests. So, people are getting sick and dying from something to do with the game (not explained how this works) but instead of sending the cure to the police or the game company or a trusted source the programmer of the game makes self aware AI NPCs and asks them to risk their lives to find it? The cyberpunk premise just doesn’t make sense to me.
I did genuinely like the idea of reading a LitRPG story from the perspective of an NPC. But the MC never really felt like a newly awoken NPC. His speech patterns and knowledge of the real world make him feel like a regular player.
On the game mechanic side of things, this is LitRPG. There are character sheets, damage and loot notifications, classes, stat points, etc. Fairly standard stuff. The game world is supposed to be an MMO but the mechanics described feel more tabletop inspired with lower HP values, combat rounds, and success/failed attacks. Though some of that disappears after the 33% mark when the game enters ‘real world mode’ or as I suspect, the author got tired of writing combat notifications.
The technical writing and action scenes in the story were fine and there is a snarky sense of humor. But the cyberpunk storyline didn’t make sense and predictably led to some wand wavy moments to advance that aspect. Which is a pet peeve for me.
Score: 6 out of 10
Waking Up in Arcania: A LitRPG GameLit Fantasy Adventure series (Non-Player Character Book 1)
Ian’s (Eye-Ann) Picks of the Week
(Pic 0)
Ian Mitchell is 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 4)
The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1)
Fairy Punk
Customer rating 5.0/5.0
March 1, 2020 By Ian Mitchell
Jonathan Brooks is making great variations on dungeon core stories. I like the writing. This is interesting and I'm curious about what's next. Wonderful start to the series. Not a lot of combat this time. I found not including hit points a great move.
Score: 8.5 out of 10
The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1)
Universe Storage Box: Volume 9
Into the game world
**Note: Translation issues**
Huang Feng finally gets to visit the game world. Pretty much a total cheat character. We never see a stat sheet. But he levels, starts in a beginner village, makes a guild. All this happens mid book. The obvious harem is finally starting. No explicit sexual content or language (other than violence). I've enjoyed the series. His magic box trades items with other worlds (largely based in on popular stories).
Score: 7.8 out of 10
Universe Storage Box: Volume 9
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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/