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Chaos Seeds #1
The Land: Founding
An alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.
Welcome back my friends!
Welcome back... to "The Land!"
Tricked into a world of banished gods, demons,goblins, sprites and magic, Richter must learn to meet the perils of The Landand begin to forge his own kingdom. Actions have consequences across The Land,with powerful creatures and factions now hell-bent on Richter's destruction.
Can Richter forge allegiances to survive thisharsh and unforgiving world or will he fall to the dark denizens of thisancient and unforgiving realm?
A tale to shake "The Land" itself,measuring 10/10 on the Richter scale, how will Richter's choices shape thefuture of The Land and all who reside in it? Can he grow his power to meet thedeadliest of beings of the land? When choices are often a shade of grey, howwill Richter ensure he does not become what he seeks to destroy?
ps - Gnomes Rule
Welcome back my friends!
Welcome back... to "The Land!"
Tricked into a world of banished gods, demons,goblins, sprites and magic, Richter must learn to meet the perils of The Landand begin to forge his own kingdom. Actions have consequences across The Land,with powerful creatures and factions now hell-bent on Richter's destruction.
Can Richter forge allegiances to survive thisharsh and unforgiving world or will he fall to the dark denizens of thisancient and unforgiving realm?
A tale to shake "The Land" itself,measuring 10/10 on the Richter scale, how will Richter's choices shape thefuture of The Land and all who reside in it? Can he grow his power to meet thedeadliest of beings of the land? When choices are often a shade of grey, howwill Richter ensure he does not become what he seeks to destroy?
ps - Gnomes Rule
456 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 15, 2015
About the author
Aleron Kong
11 books10.5k followersGoodreads HTML profile
Welcome to the Mist Village! I'm so glad you're here!
The Land Saga:
- Is a WSJ Best Seller
- Has sold over 1 MILLION copies
- Has more than 100,000 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reviews
- Became Audibles Customer Favorite of the Year
- Reached the Top 5 on both Audible and Amazon out of the millions of books they sell
Find out why 🙂
You can start your adventure BELOW:
Please enjoy my book trailers:
And enjoy a FREE peak at my 1st Audiobook narrated by THE Nick Podehl! Just CLICK HERE
I love hearing from my fans so feel free to reach out!
If you've read or listened to any of my work, PLEASE leave a REVIEW and vote "Helpful" on the reviews you agree with 🙂
And I love making artwork for my wonderful fans. I hope you enjoy some! You can find more HERE
I am a Internal Medicine Physician turned WSJ Best Selling Author. My lifetime goal of leaving the world a better place than I found it. I'm also extremely proud of my fans who have helped me raise over $125,000 for various charities over the past 5 years!
Gnomes Rule!
Welcome to the Mist Village! I'm so glad you're here!
The Land Saga:
- Is a WSJ Best Seller
- Has sold over 1 MILLION copies
- Has more than 100,000 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reviews
- Became Audibles Customer Favorite of the Year
- Reached the Top 5 on both Audible and Amazon out of the millions of books they sell
Find out why 🙂
You can start your adventure BELOW:
Please enjoy my book trailers:
And enjoy a FREE peak at my 1st Audiobook narrated by THE Nick Podehl! Just CLICK HERE
I love hearing from my fans so feel free to reach out!
If you've read or listened to any of my work, PLEASE leave a REVIEW and vote "Helpful" on the reviews you agree with 🙂
And I love making artwork for my wonderful fans. I hope you enjoy some! You can find more HERE
I am a Internal Medicine Physician turned WSJ Best Selling Author. My lifetime goal of leaving the world a better place than I found it. I'm also extremely proud of my fans who have helped me raise over $125,000 for various charities over the past 5 years!
Gnomes Rule!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,607 reviews
October 16, 2021
"Thrice heard and witnessed!"
Chaos Seeds is my first LitRPG book. To be honest, I didn't even know such a genre existed until I started reading this one. Though, with majority of the enthusiastic gaming types probably not being that interested in reading, it's hard to imagine there being a large audience belonging to this genre. But boy am I'm glad to be in that group! Never for once I had thought those long hours I put into Skyrim, NWN, and Witcher would make reading a book this much enjoyable.
"Excuses are monuments of nothing that build bridges to nowhere."
Though LitRPG is new to me, it seems that the genre is well understood among many readers. So, I think there is little requirement of explaining what the overall idea behind a book like this is: The protagonist levels up in the fantasy world, while learning different skills, establishing relationships and developing his Kingdom with the assistant of a group of companions. The main character here, Richter, (so far or for now) appears to be growing along a stealthy archer/ light armor path, which also happens to be one of my favorites in RPGs. There's an awesome group of supporting characters led by Sion, whose humor complements Richter's journey quite nicely. And the detailed base building is the icing on cake! The author is off to an excellent start here with this first book.
"Quests to be completed. Enemies to be stopped. People to be rescued. Items to be identified, and weapons to forged."
However, I believe, how much you get to enjoy this book most likely depends on your background in different RPG games for a couple of reasons. First, the world building, character development and the writing itself are nothing special compared to most fantasy series. You're not going to be blown away by prose or anything like that here. Secondly, if you haven't tried or heard of an RPG game before, I don't think the statistical nature of this story would give a pleasurable reading experience. I mean, for me, it felt great coming across the identical, yet ever growing statistics page of Ritcher many times but I'm sure it would not be the case for most non-gamers. Although, I guess it'd be interesting to know the feedback from non-gamers on this book.
"Tomorrow, we hunt goblins!"
Chaos Seeds is my first LitRPG book. To be honest, I didn't even know such a genre existed until I started reading this one. Though, with majority of the enthusiastic gaming types probably not being that interested in reading, it's hard to imagine there being a large audience belonging to this genre. But boy am I'm glad to be in that group! Never for once I had thought those long hours I put into Skyrim, NWN, and Witcher would make reading a book this much enjoyable.
"Excuses are monuments of nothing that build bridges to nowhere."
Though LitRPG is new to me, it seems that the genre is well understood among many readers. So, I think there is little requirement of explaining what the overall idea behind a book like this is: The protagonist levels up in the fantasy world, while learning different skills, establishing relationships and developing his Kingdom with the assistant of a group of companions. The main character here, Richter, (so far or for now) appears to be growing along a stealthy archer/ light armor path, which also happens to be one of my favorites in RPGs. There's an awesome group of supporting characters led by Sion, whose humor complements Richter's journey quite nicely. And the detailed base building is the icing on cake! The author is off to an excellent start here with this first book.
"Quests to be completed. Enemies to be stopped. People to be rescued. Items to be identified, and weapons to forged."
However, I believe, how much you get to enjoy this book most likely depends on your background in different RPG games for a couple of reasons. First, the world building, character development and the writing itself are nothing special compared to most fantasy series. You're not going to be blown away by prose or anything like that here. Secondly, if you haven't tried or heard of an RPG game before, I don't think the statistical nature of this story would give a pleasurable reading experience. I mean, for me, it felt great coming across the identical, yet ever growing statistics page of Ritcher many times but I'm sure it would not be the case for most non-gamers. Although, I guess it'd be interesting to know the feedback from non-gamers on this book.
"Tomorrow, we hunt goblins!"
February 15, 2017
Warning: this is a review of the whole series published so far (books 1–6), not just the first book.
I guess the story was supposed to be about an inexperienced and careless character who gradually grows into a wise ruler, but damn. The protagonist not only has a rather annoying personality and impulsive behaviour, he also makes one stupid mistake after another and very often doesn’t learn anything from his mistakes, repeating the same ones over and over again. Worse than that, the universe often rewards him for such poorly made decisions, retroactively making them look like somewhat good ones.
Overall, even though this series had some good elements, it would greatly benefit from an editorial proofreading and overhaul (if not even a total revamp). I’ll divide the problems into writing-related and plot-related categories.
Plot-related problems this series has:
* I’ve counted at least 25 extremely powerful artefacts and abilities that the low-level protagonist keeps finding for himself.
* Too many WhatAnIdiot and IdiotBall moments to mention any of them specifically.
* The protag doesn’t think even once about devising some fail-safe mechanism for ensuring that he can’t be captured and tortured. Same with the Absolute Soul Stones, which he himself thinks could be useful for capturing entities like him who are able to resurrect.
* given how relatively easy it is to get to level 10–15 and the benefits that each level-up could give (e.g. bump in profession, charisma, vitality, etc), it’s strange that ordinary people do not try to secure some level-ups for themselves more often.
* the protagonist changes in personality from a videogame player to a local lord too quickly.
* the protagonist never gets bothered by the fact that his thoughts and emotions can directly get affected and even changed by both active spells and passive RPG mechanics at work (e.g. by opponent’s Battle Cry ability, Charisma stat, trade skill, etc). He himself also never takes the initiative to find out how such effects can be negated.
* the Brain-drain’s memory capturing property activates only when it’s plot-relevant, and the captured memories themselves are always plot-relevant as well.
* protag never bothers to max his analyse skill even though it was later shown that just analysing some 100-200 people would be enough to significantly boost that skill in levels, and often doesn’t use the best available attacks during fights, concentrating too much on ineffective sword-wielding and arrow-shooting.
* some monsters and opponents were ridiculously easy to kill, given the differences between them and the protagonist in level and species-quality. Such enemies include the Crypt Mistress, the ~lv30 human duo, the Crystal Guardian, the Rock Giant, the Decaemur Knight, etc.
* lack of deconstruction elements and experimentation with the universe, also almost no attempts to introduce sci-tech from his native world — the only thing he tried creating was an alcohol still.
* from the get-go, the protag somehow knows how to decently use a bow.
* soul bonds and destiny are a thing.
Writing-related problems this series has:
* missing commas, apostrophes, questions marks, words, etc.
* needless over-explanations, repetitions, and reiterations — Often whole sentences and even paragraphs could be cut out from the story without damaging it whatsoever. 1. When faced with a choice, the protag will often go over the list of all available options and describe why he thinks each of them would be good or bad to choose. This commentary usually doesn’t involve any smart or extraordinary reasoning or even just straight-out repeats what the flavour-text has just been telling. 2. Especially in the later books, there is an annoyingly large amount of PreviouslyOn moments, when the narrator reminds about one event or another that has happened earlier in the story.
* a whole bunch of pop-culture references that are not only annoying by themselves, but also would be out of character for someone from 2037.
* some of the times, when the narrator’s describing protagonist’s train of thought, it generates inane commentary like this:
** “He had followed George Takei on facebook, and one day it had showed a pressure point called ‘Shen Men.’”
** “it still didn’t make sense to him why one type of person could research something that another group could not. That was the entire point of science. It was immutable and indiscriminate. Of course, that was based upon his view of Earth science. The same science that would say waving his hand and speaking an incantation shouldn’t make fire shoot from his fingers, [..]. Ultimately, he decided not to pull too hard on the logic thread. Scientists back home couldn’t even explain how a bumblebee could fly.”
* too much empty talking, frat-boy shit-talk and bickering, lame sex innuendoes and jokes.
* America-related grandstanding and chest-beating.
* prejudice against women in form of derogatory and condescending comments — again, nothing severe enough to be “offending” material, but it’s still rather annoying.
* conversion of the in-game property value to monetary value equivalent back on earth — it’s mentioned that back when the protag was playing a VRMMORPG and had not yet been transported into the real RPG universe, the VR game had in-game currency that could be purchased with real-life money. For some reason though, even after getting transported into the RPG universe, the protag often keeps calculating the hypothetical amount of US dollars that items in his possession would be worth of and being impressed with the results.
* biased flavour-texts — in several cases the flavour-texts are either clearly being biased against some of the game’s inhabitants (e.g. goblins) or just are written in such a way that makes you think their author has a specific personality. Both of these are not what one usually associates with a RPG’s flavour text.
* in the later books especially, too often does the narrator refer to protag as to “the chaos seed”. It gets old pretty fast.
Good things about this story:
* nice environment and creature descriptions;
* nice character designs and descriptions;
* nice and specific formulaic descriptions of game mechanics (spells, exp, char properties, etc), although the plot armour often trumps it and makes it meaningless;
** self-consistent exp-per-level grid, though I’d expect for the higher-quality creatures to need more exp than lower-tier monsters for reaching the same level. For instance the Crypt Mistress at level 26 had almost as much exp accumulated as a level 26 Bugbear Ranger; same with lvl15 Rock Giant compared to lvl15 River Skath.
* nice description of social dynamics, corruption, and slavery in the city of Law, though once the protag gets a village of his own, most of the realism in this regard gets poured down the drain.
Miscellaneous but noteworthy things:
* the narrative had a weird way of distinguishing between creatures that were supposed to have basic rights and creatures that were not. One example of this is the protag’s interaction with kobolds, when he shows having no qualms about mind-controlling and killing them even when other options were available, compared to his interaction with forest wild game, when he suddenly starts having questions about his morality and possibly deteriorating principles.
* the logic of the magic in this world, as well as of the thinking process of its inhabitants is more akin to D&D universe than a VRRPG
* the effects of the RPG mechanics themselves are not reconstructed well enough to make them blend well with the literary format of storytelling. Among some other thing, this also results in many opponents having poor videogame-AI level intelligence and lack of cunning.
* the story features many scenes and descriptions of gore, violence, and rape.
I guess the story was supposed to be about an inexperienced and careless character who gradually grows into a wise ruler, but damn. The protagonist not only has a rather annoying personality and impulsive behaviour, he also makes one stupid mistake after another and very often doesn’t learn anything from his mistakes, repeating the same ones over and over again. Worse than that, the universe often rewards him for such poorly made decisions, retroactively making them look like somewhat good ones.
Overall, even though this series had some good elements, it would greatly benefit from an editorial proofreading and overhaul (if not even a total revamp). I’ll divide the problems into writing-related and plot-related categories.
Plot-related problems this series has:
* I’ve counted at least 25 extremely powerful artefacts and abilities that the low-level protagonist keeps finding for himself.
* Too many WhatAnIdiot and IdiotBall moments to mention any of them specifically.
* The protag doesn’t think even once about devising some fail-safe mechanism for ensuring that he can’t be captured and tortured. Same with the Absolute Soul Stones, which he himself thinks could be useful for capturing entities like him who are able to resurrect.
* given how relatively easy it is to get to level 10–15 and the benefits that each level-up could give (e.g. bump in profession, charisma, vitality, etc), it’s strange that ordinary people do not try to secure some level-ups for themselves more often.
* the protagonist changes in personality from a videogame player to a local lord too quickly.
* the protagonist never gets bothered by the fact that his thoughts and emotions can directly get affected and even changed by both active spells and passive RPG mechanics at work (e.g. by opponent’s Battle Cry ability, Charisma stat, trade skill, etc). He himself also never takes the initiative to find out how such effects can be negated.
* the Brain-drain’s memory capturing property activates only when it’s plot-relevant, and the captured memories themselves are always plot-relevant as well.
* protag never bothers to max his analyse skill even though it was later shown that just analysing some 100-200 people would be enough to significantly boost that skill in levels, and often doesn’t use the best available attacks during fights, concentrating too much on ineffective sword-wielding and arrow-shooting.
* some monsters and opponents were ridiculously easy to kill, given the differences between them and the protagonist in level and species-quality. Such enemies include the Crypt Mistress, the ~lv30 human duo, the Crystal Guardian, the Rock Giant, the Decaemur Knight, etc.
* lack of deconstruction elements and experimentation with the universe, also almost no attempts to introduce sci-tech from his native world — the only thing he tried creating was an alcohol still.
* from the get-go, the protag somehow knows how to decently use a bow.
* soul bonds and destiny are a thing.
Writing-related problems this series has:
* missing commas, apostrophes, questions marks, words, etc.
* needless over-explanations, repetitions, and reiterations — Often whole sentences and even paragraphs could be cut out from the story without damaging it whatsoever. 1. When faced with a choice, the protag will often go over the list of all available options and describe why he thinks each of them would be good or bad to choose. This commentary usually doesn’t involve any smart or extraordinary reasoning or even just straight-out repeats what the flavour-text has just been telling. 2. Especially in the later books, there is an annoyingly large amount of PreviouslyOn moments, when the narrator reminds about one event or another that has happened earlier in the story.
* a whole bunch of pop-culture references that are not only annoying by themselves, but also would be out of character for someone from 2037.
* some of the times, when the narrator’s describing protagonist’s train of thought, it generates inane commentary like this:
** “He had followed George Takei on facebook, and one day it had showed a pressure point called ‘Shen Men.’”
** “it still didn’t make sense to him why one type of person could research something that another group could not. That was the entire point of science. It was immutable and indiscriminate. Of course, that was based upon his view of Earth science. The same science that would say waving his hand and speaking an incantation shouldn’t make fire shoot from his fingers, [..]. Ultimately, he decided not to pull too hard on the logic thread. Scientists back home couldn’t even explain how a bumblebee could fly.”
* too much empty talking, frat-boy shit-talk and bickering, lame sex innuendoes and jokes.
* America-related grandstanding and chest-beating.
* prejudice against women in form of derogatory and condescending comments — again, nothing severe enough to be “offending” material, but it’s still rather annoying.
* conversion of the in-game property value to monetary value equivalent back on earth — it’s mentioned that back when the protag was playing a VRMMORPG and had not yet been transported into the real RPG universe, the VR game had in-game currency that could be purchased with real-life money. For some reason though, even after getting transported into the RPG universe, the protag often keeps calculating the hypothetical amount of US dollars that items in his possession would be worth of and being impressed with the results.
* biased flavour-texts — in several cases the flavour-texts are either clearly being biased against some of the game’s inhabitants (e.g. goblins) or just are written in such a way that makes you think their author has a specific personality. Both of these are not what one usually associates with a RPG’s flavour text.
* in the later books especially, too often does the narrator refer to protag as to “the chaos seed”. It gets old pretty fast.
Good things about this story:
* nice environment and creature descriptions;
* nice character designs and descriptions;
* nice and specific formulaic descriptions of game mechanics (spells, exp, char properties, etc), although the plot armour often trumps it and makes it meaningless;
** self-consistent exp-per-level grid, though I’d expect for the higher-quality creatures to need more exp than lower-tier monsters for reaching the same level. For instance the Crypt Mistress at level 26 had almost as much exp accumulated as a level 26 Bugbear Ranger; same with lvl15 Rock Giant compared to lvl15 River Skath.
* nice description of social dynamics, corruption, and slavery in the city of Law, though once the protag gets a village of his own, most of the realism in this regard gets poured down the drain.
Miscellaneous but noteworthy things:
* the narrative had a weird way of distinguishing between creatures that were supposed to have basic rights and creatures that were not. One example of this is the protag’s interaction with kobolds, when he shows having no qualms about mind-controlling and killing them even when other options were available, compared to his interaction with forest wild game, when he suddenly starts having questions about his morality and possibly deteriorating principles.
* the logic of the magic in this world, as well as of the thinking process of its inhabitants is more akin to D&D universe than a VRRPG
* the effects of the RPG mechanics themselves are not reconstructed well enough to make them blend well with the literary format of storytelling. Among some other thing, this also results in many opponents having poor videogame-AI level intelligence and lack of cunning.
* the story features many scenes and descriptions of gore, violence, and rape.
January 6, 2018
In the age-old spirit of reading some of the easiest and most enjoyable popcorn fiction ever designed for old RPG gamers like myself, I've fallen off the wagon of anything normally regarded as "proper" fiction and now I'm wallowing like a pig in the mud.
I'm in heaven.
Okay, I've been reading LitRPG novels for some time now and I've loved them ever since I first turned on the TV back in the 80's. Do you remember that old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon? Yeah. That one. Let's get transported away into a wide world of adventure, dragging us out of our everyday slog. But most of all...
LET'S LEVEL UP!
I think that's the main draw for people like me. The stories in the games and in this book, in particular, are all boilerplate standard quest stuff, but who cares. The joy is in the challenge, the discovery, and the enhancement of our skills. If we get to destroy a tribe of goblins or get embroiled in deeper and darker intrigues, it's all bonus. :)
From Matthew Stover and Cline's Ready Player One I'm thrilled to see that this is now a thing. The fact that I've already read a few more along the pure popcorn lines of a whole new established genre just means that it's not a one-off.
I'm beginning to think that I can expect to enjoy this kind of thing forever! WOOO! And to think I once thought it would be trash. :) The quality of everything I've read, all the way up to this novel, has been quite good. I now can ignore dystopias, sparkly vampires, and all those other flavors of the day. I've got myself a new flavor. :)
*giddy dance*
And there's so much to choose from, too! They're all pretty much the same, of course, but that's okay. I'm not sick of it. 30 years of these games in RL has pretty much made me become an insta-fan. :)
And yes, I brought up a few authors and such in this review for a particular reason: I've come to the easy realization that Aleron Kong, the "Father" LitRPG is entirely sardonic and the unmitigated level of ego has got to be level 20. I can appreciate that. A woman as a father is pretty telling, after all. :) Go Aleron! :)
I'm in heaven.
Okay, I've been reading LitRPG novels for some time now and I've loved them ever since I first turned on the TV back in the 80's. Do you remember that old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon? Yeah. That one. Let's get transported away into a wide world of adventure, dragging us out of our everyday slog. But most of all...
LET'S LEVEL UP!
I think that's the main draw for people like me. The stories in the games and in this book, in particular, are all boilerplate standard quest stuff, but who cares. The joy is in the challenge, the discovery, and the enhancement of our skills. If we get to destroy a tribe of goblins or get embroiled in deeper and darker intrigues, it's all bonus. :)
From Matthew Stover and Cline's Ready Player One I'm thrilled to see that this is now a thing. The fact that I've already read a few more along the pure popcorn lines of a whole new established genre just means that it's not a one-off.
I'm beginning to think that I can expect to enjoy this kind of thing forever! WOOO! And to think I once thought it would be trash. :) The quality of everything I've read, all the way up to this novel, has been quite good. I now can ignore dystopias, sparkly vampires, and all those other flavors of the day. I've got myself a new flavor. :)
*giddy dance*
And there's so much to choose from, too! They're all pretty much the same, of course, but that's okay. I'm not sick of it. 30 years of these games in RL has pretty much made me become an insta-fan. :)
And yes, I brought up a few authors and such in this review for a particular reason: I've come to the easy realization that Aleron Kong, the "Father" LitRPG is entirely sardonic and the unmitigated level of ego has got to be level 20. I can appreciate that. A woman as a father is pretty telling, after all. :) Go Aleron! :)
Currently reading
October 17, 2021Hello! I'm the author of this book. Don't worry, I'm not going to review/rate it lol. I'm just using this space to talk to you wonderful people!
All of my social media links are here :)
www.LitRPG.com/links
Update: 10/17/21
The 1st ever LitRPG Convention has come!
www.LitCON.net
Oct23-26
Over FIFTY Authors and narrators participating!
And check out The Land webcomic!
Free episodes on my site!
www.LitRPG.com/comic
GNOMES RULE!
All of my social media links are here :)
www.LitRPG.com/links
Update: 10/17/21
The 1st ever LitRPG Convention has come!
www.LitCON.net
Oct23-26
Over FIFTY Authors and narrators participating!
And check out The Land webcomic!
Free episodes on my site!
www.LitRPG.com/comic
GNOMES RULE!
February 15, 2016
I really enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. As an rpg player, I loved getting all the info & stats on all the loot & seeing character level progression. Oddly satisfying. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more where this came from. Definitely recommended for any fans of the mmo/rpg/adventure genres.
November 9, 2016
"Feeling like a moron, Richter just gave a short nod"
Indeed, meet the moron Richter who most likely failed primary school and is now at the age 24 in another world. Recommended for readers between age 10-15.
Why the writer didn't place the MC in the age bracket of 14-16 I will never know. It would have been the perfect excuse for the character´s ignorance.
Indeed, meet the moron Richter who most likely failed primary school and is now at the age 24 in another world. Recommended for readers between age 10-15.
Why the writer didn't place the MC in the age bracket of 14-16 I will never know. It would have been the perfect excuse for the character´s ignorance.
March 1, 2016
Fun
This is a pleasant romp for anyone that's played Everquest or D&D. The leveling,spells and npc's are well thought out. I was unsure about the village part,but it did add to the story.
This is a pleasant romp for anyone that's played Everquest or D&D. The leveling,spells and npc's are well thought out. I was unsure about the village part,but it did add to the story.
December 8, 2017
This entire series is definitely worth a read. I had a lot of fun with it, and am eagerly anticipating the 7th. This isn't the first LitRPG I've read, but it's definitely one of the best. Kong captures the spirit and magic of RPGs, and this book should appeal to most red-blooded gamers out there.
June 6, 2016
Amazing
Sucks you into this dream like world were the worst might be occurring in the background but nothing but limitless potential stirs on the surface
Sucks you into this dream like world were the worst might be occurring in the background but nothing but limitless potential stirs on the surface
October 1, 2017
First I must mention, that I use to play a lot of D&D and this is almost as fun. Having said that I feel I enjoy LitRPG titles because they remind me of good times plus work those corners of my mind that keep tallies on scores, attributes, races, etc.
The book is simply a lot of fun, had I started reading in a weekend I might have marathon through it. As it is I think I went to fast wish I could go straight to book 2 in the series but my promise to not do that because I like switching genres often enough keeps the challenges fun.
So how does this book compare to others. Its a typical fantasy story with the hero getting about in a fantasy location but the added RPG and the constant reminder that this is so much like D&D. As the story and characters grow on you they grow in stats in page. The inner voice of the characters makes a lot of sense, not only his actions. This is for the action junkie, little happens that is not action related and when its not he is building or growing his character.
I mentioned it to a fellow player and I have to now send him the book so he can have at it.
Highly recommended if you liked Dungeons and Dragons or RPG games in general.
A solid 20/20 roll.
The book is simply a lot of fun, had I started reading in a weekend I might have marathon through it. As it is I think I went to fast wish I could go straight to book 2 in the series but my promise to not do that because I like switching genres often enough keeps the challenges fun.
So how does this book compare to others. Its a typical fantasy story with the hero getting about in a fantasy location but the added RPG and the constant reminder that this is so much like D&D. As the story and characters grow on you they grow in stats in page. The inner voice of the characters makes a lot of sense, not only his actions. This is for the action junkie, little happens that is not action related and when its not he is building or growing his character.
I mentioned it to a fellow player and I have to now send him the book so he can have at it.
Highly recommended if you liked Dungeons and Dragons or RPG games in general.
A solid 20/20 roll.
July 1, 2016
Good fantasy read
A slightly off-beat fantasy book that is one of the best things I have read in quite a while. Congratulations to Mr Kong, someone's finally written a storyline that I feel compelled to follow.
A slightly off-beat fantasy book that is one of the best things I have read in quite a while. Congratulations to Mr Kong, someone's finally written a storyline that I feel compelled to follow.
August 14, 2016
Truthfully, I bought the book when I had just finished Awaken Online: Catharsis and I wanted, needed more! Nice of the Awaken Online author to recomment this book, and so I went and bought it.
So I might have started reading with too high expectations, yes. But then, I might also have not as this is far from my first Litrpg ride and there are lots of okay to very enjoyable books out there.
Sadly, this wasn't one of them to me.
The reason is simple: While the setting with the gods and the game is interesting and the writing is okay too, the main character as the emotional response of a cardboard cut out.
So yeah, transported to a different world? Sucked out of a game into somewhere else? Reaction: Zero. Thinking about family, friends? Nope. Wondering about returning home? As if. He didn't even waste a thought towards the game group he had just left.
It was such a wasted potential for some real angst, for some character development, for being more than average even. Instead there was just nothing. But I read on, after all many in the litrpg genre became better.
Hope dies last, right? In this case, the character died with it. Seriously, crying on the floor in pain and then suddenly homicidal rage? It came so out of the blue I was tempted to laugh.
Instead I read a few more pages on and then started to skip - and skip - and skip.
Until the book was over and I was left wondering how an author like the one from Awaken Online could think this on one level with his own work.
Recommended: Nope.
So I might have started reading with too high expectations, yes. But then, I might also have not as this is far from my first Litrpg ride and there are lots of okay to very enjoyable books out there.
Sadly, this wasn't one of them to me.
The reason is simple: While the setting with the gods and the game is interesting and the writing is okay too, the main character as the emotional response of a cardboard cut out.
So yeah, transported to a different world? Sucked out of a game into somewhere else? Reaction: Zero. Thinking about family, friends? Nope. Wondering about returning home? As if. He didn't even waste a thought towards the game group he had just left.
It was such a wasted potential for some real angst, for some character development, for being more than average even. Instead there was just nothing. But I read on, after all many in the litrpg genre became better.
Hope dies last, right? In this case, the character died with it. Seriously, crying on the floor in pain and then suddenly homicidal rage? It came so out of the blue I was tempted to laugh.
Instead I read a few more pages on and then started to skip - and skip - and skip.
Until the book was over and I was left wondering how an author like the one from Awaken Online could think this on one level with his own work.
Recommended: Nope.
November 6, 2016
I burned through this book in hours, while it had its flaws i needed my fix after Awaken Online, so i continued to read and finished all 5 books. My interest waned more and more after each book only skimmed the 5th one since it was more of the same.
So the biggest flaws:
Protagonist is immortal and limitless (not spoilers since you find that out in the first couple chapters), so author makes it clear that his protagonist will be Mary-Sue, there's no tension that something bad will happen to him since hes immortal.
Skills. OMFG how many skills everything has a skill, page after page of skill description and WAIT that's not all there are subskills for subskills and i'm not hyperbolizing.
Quest. Here have a quest for that quest so you can complete that quest. And all of them are so linear and without any meaningful choice, do this and get massive reward or do this or you'll get a massive disadvantage.
Humor. Dick jokes. More dick jokes. Some meme's from our time with no explanation why protagonist knows them since it should be like 2030something. And i doubt that classics like "What the fox says?" will survive the test of time.
The books have no structure no tension no resolution. They just end. And the next one starts from there. And cliches so many cliches.
Wow that was a huge rant.
tl;dr Excellent series would recommend for family and friends.
So the biggest flaws:
Protagonist is immortal and limitless (not spoilers since you find that out in the first couple chapters), so author makes it clear that his protagonist will be Mary-Sue, there's no tension that something bad will happen to him since hes immortal.
Skills. OMFG how many skills everything has a skill, page after page of skill description and WAIT that's not all there are subskills for subskills and i'm not hyperbolizing.
Quest. Here have a quest for that quest so you can complete that quest. And all of them are so linear and without any meaningful choice, do this and get massive reward or do this or you'll get a massive disadvantage.
Humor. Dick jokes. More dick jokes. Some meme's from our time with no explanation why protagonist knows them since it should be like 2030something. And i doubt that classics like "What the fox says?" will survive the test of time.
The books have no structure no tension no resolution. They just end. And the next one starts from there. And cliches so many cliches.
Wow that was a huge rant.
tl;dr Excellent series would recommend for family and friends.
November 25, 2018
I was surprised
When I heard "father of LitRPG" and some of the other things I've heard about the author I was a bit skeptical. I read the free sample. Still skeptical. When I saw a promo in the back of another fantastic (but too short) series, Divine Dungeon, and that this book happened to be free that day (July 1st, 2017), I figured "what the hell? What have I got to lose?"
I need to stop being such a cynic sometimes...
This book was AMAZING. Great flow, great humor, lots of fun references (loved that Firefly callback), exciting but not at a breakneck speed so that we actually got some story, and the fact that we didn't always win the first time through. I really enjoy seeing challenges overcome in a semi-realistic manner.
Also helps I was really in the mood for an ARPG with some town building mechanics and this book scratched that itch (except that I want to play this book now).
Diving into book 2 now...
When I heard "father of LitRPG" and some of the other things I've heard about the author I was a bit skeptical. I read the free sample. Still skeptical. When I saw a promo in the back of another fantastic (but too short) series, Divine Dungeon, and that this book happened to be free that day (July 1st, 2017), I figured "what the hell? What have I got to lose?"
I need to stop being such a cynic sometimes...
This book was AMAZING. Great flow, great humor, lots of fun references (loved that Firefly callback), exciting but not at a breakneck speed so that we actually got some story, and the fact that we didn't always win the first time through. I really enjoy seeing challenges overcome in a semi-realistic manner.
Also helps I was really in the mood for an ARPG with some town building mechanics and this book scratched that itch (except that I want to play this book now).
Diving into book 2 now...
March 2, 2018
It will reduce your I.Q.
February 13, 2017
This was my first book in the LitRPG Genre and I couldn't be more happy.
I was lucky enough to happen upon this through a free promotion (I don't remember which one as I signed up for many) but I was pleasantly surprised.
I love fantasy and world-building and the added concept of leveling up and the game mechanics made it more enjoyable. When I was young I would play these games all the time and get lost in them for days. Although I may come back to them time again when I'm older, I find reading a more enjoyable (and thought provoking) past time.
5/5 without a second thought and would recommend to everyone that likes fantasy but wants to try something 'a little different'.
The characters were well written and the plot flowed extremely well.
I was lucky enough to happen upon this through a free promotion (I don't remember which one as I signed up for many) but I was pleasantly surprised.
I love fantasy and world-building and the added concept of leveling up and the game mechanics made it more enjoyable. When I was young I would play these games all the time and get lost in them for days. Although I may come back to them time again when I'm older, I find reading a more enjoyable (and thought provoking) past time.
5/5 without a second thought and would recommend to everyone that likes fantasy but wants to try something 'a little different'.
The characters were well written and the plot flowed extremely well.
March 5, 2016
I LOVE IT!!!!!
July 3, 2017
LitRPG is by far my favorite genre, so I tried hard to like this book . . . very hard. In the end, the best praise I can give it is that the premise is moderately interesting and the grammar is reasonably good.
My biggest turnoff was that the main character simply wasn't likeable (or hate-able for that matter). He was juvenile and flat, a noob-hating, immature 11-year-old, passed off as a 20-something gamer with no real back story, connections, motivations, or drive.
The humor was constant and cheap, not once even bringing me a smile. It consisted mostly of fart jokes, outdated meme references, and pretentious, snide comments that fell short because it was unclear if the main character was attempting humor or really that full of himself.
The juvenile humor alone, however, couldn't have accounted for my dislike. I love some humor thrown into a LitRPG (see Ready Player One) and even quite enjoyed Robert Bevan's Caverns and Creatures, which is pretty much all immature potty humor. Bevan's humor though, at least made me chuckle, and it at least fit his characters, who had enough of a personality to pull it off. It also fit the emotions of their reactions to their experiences, another thing that Kong's character lacked.
How do you have no emotional reaction to being plucked--life and soul--from your world and permanently put into an RPG? Some people might be terrified, others might grieve the loss of the family and friends they'll never see again. Some people might be excited, caught up in the wonder of the fantasy. Some might even hold evil ambitions of making that world their "bitch." He could have at least been momentarily angry at his predicament, suspicious of the reasons he was placed the game, skeptical with regards to whether it was all a dream. Instead his only reaction is “Oh, I’m here forever, with no idea why? Cool, let’s go farm some XP and looks for opportunities to allude to my preference for Apple over Microsoft.”
Overall, I was unimpressed and won't be reading more from "The Father of American LitRPG."
My biggest turnoff was that the main character simply wasn't likeable (or hate-able for that matter). He was juvenile and flat, a noob-hating, immature 11-year-old, passed off as a 20-something gamer with no real back story, connections, motivations, or drive.
The humor was constant and cheap, not once even bringing me a smile. It consisted mostly of fart jokes, outdated meme references, and pretentious, snide comments that fell short because it was unclear if the main character was attempting humor or really that full of himself.
The juvenile humor alone, however, couldn't have accounted for my dislike. I love some humor thrown into a LitRPG (see Ready Player One) and even quite enjoyed Robert Bevan's Caverns and Creatures, which is pretty much all immature potty humor. Bevan's humor though, at least made me chuckle, and it at least fit his characters, who had enough of a personality to pull it off. It also fit the emotions of their reactions to their experiences, another thing that Kong's character lacked.
How do you have no emotional reaction to being plucked--life and soul--from your world and permanently put into an RPG? Some people might be terrified, others might grieve the loss of the family and friends they'll never see again. Some people might be excited, caught up in the wonder of the fantasy. Some might even hold evil ambitions of making that world their "bitch." He could have at least been momentarily angry at his predicament, suspicious of the reasons he was placed the game, skeptical with regards to whether it was all a dream. Instead his only reaction is “Oh, I’m here forever, with no idea why? Cool, let’s go farm some XP and looks for opportunities to allude to my preference for Apple over Microsoft.”
Overall, I was unimpressed and won't be reading more from "The Father of American LitRPG."
November 12, 2019
SOMETIMES TRYING SOMETHING NEW IS NOT A GOOD IDEA
✨ Popsugar Reading Challenge 2019✨
✨✨A LitRPG book✨✨
As a part of this year's Popsugar Challenge I had to read a LitRPG book and this was the one I chose. However, I think I just have just foregone that challenge, because this did not speak to me at all and I almost feel bad for reviewing it...
👎 WHAT I DISLIKED 👎
Genre: Sorry guys, but this genre just doesn't do it for me. It wasn't quite fantasy, it wasn't a game. It was somewhere in between and that diminished the experience for me.
Writing: You know how, when you're writing something specific, and you think it has to sound a particular way? That how I felt about the writing in this book. As if the author was trying to live up to some ideal that didn't quite suit him or the story.
Women: I will keep this short, because this one alone could start a major rant for me. Why is it, that the only women in this story are minor characters, that are inactive, non-participating and passive stick figures?
Direction: The story was, like RPG's are, told through a series of quests. This could have worked, I think, if only the quests were tied into something bigger. I felt that the story lacked a sense of direction and I thought it was super annoying that I didn't get any more information about why Richter came to The Land.
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✨ Popsugar Reading Challenge 2019✨
✨✨A LitRPG book✨✨
As a part of this year's Popsugar Challenge I had to read a LitRPG book and this was the one I chose. However, I think I just have just foregone that challenge, because this did not speak to me at all and I almost feel bad for reviewing it...
👎 WHAT I DISLIKED 👎
Genre: Sorry guys, but this genre just doesn't do it for me. It wasn't quite fantasy, it wasn't a game. It was somewhere in between and that diminished the experience for me.
Writing: You know how, when you're writing something specific, and you think it has to sound a particular way? That how I felt about the writing in this book. As if the author was trying to live up to some ideal that didn't quite suit him or the story.
Women: I will keep this short, because this one alone could start a major rant for me. Why is it, that the only women in this story are minor characters, that are inactive, non-participating and passive stick figures?
Direction: The story was, like RPG's are, told through a series of quests. This could have worked, I think, if only the quests were tied into something bigger. I felt that the story lacked a sense of direction and I thought it was super annoying that I didn't get any more information about why Richter came to The Land.
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January 19, 2018
I wanted to like this book - this entire series, in fact - but it's just impossible, and it's completely because of the author. Aleron is the reason I joined Goodreads and am writing a review right now. Reading this insufferable writing is really that unpleasant.
Obviously, if you don't have a history with gaming, this book probably won't really resonate with you. The gaming part is the appeal, and it's what I'm here for. I love the LitRPG genre. The stats and optimizing are nice, the progression and quantifiable improvement are what keep me around. For that reason, I've made it through the first three books and am going to make a heroic effort to finish this thing. But with every page, I'll hate Aleron, because he sucks. The following are my issues with the author and how those issues affect the book, in no particular order.
-He's trying to copyright the term 'LitRPG', for some reason.
-He's clearly inserted himself into a fantasy written for his own consumption. The characters flaws are his flaws (aw darn, he didn't think about what he was doing and there were negative consequences. But he's fantastic, so he stupendously dealt with the fallout and emerged all the better for it. Woo go infallible main character.)
-The moral issues are a joke. Ranging from the treatment of non-humans (yet another setting where non-humans are second class citizens. It's not new, but there's nothing wrong with it in principle. But it's so goddamn binary in this. All humans are bad except like four freedom fighters who think this is bad, all non-humans are victims, and it was just so direct. No subtlety. Just a weird look from a guard, then an in-depth explanation.) to the consideration of the lives of sentient beings to the treatment of his villagers, it all feels fake and forced and in no way authentic. He wonders if it's okay to kill kobolds, since they're a fully sentient race with an established language and apparently a particular talent for mapmaking, but then just kinda stops caring pretty quickly.
-Spelling/grammar - really just awful. Inexcusably bad. Like in high school when you'd turn in a paper without proof-reading it. Get an editor. How do you not have an editor?
-Descriptions - he's overly in-depth about everything. He'll ramble forever about absolutely nothing. Half of these books are filler.
-The fight scenes are about what you'd expect overall, but there's an annoying tendency to look at things from the soon-to-be-dead opponent's POV, as if to add intensity. And it comes off as cheesy and distracting every time.
-Aleron is also calling himself the "Father of American LitRPG". What? Literally no one thinks this. He's written crummy series. He's neither the first nor best to do it. There's absolutely no basis for this statement, just sheer ego. He's just aggressively monetizing this whole thing. It's transparent and shameless and shitty.
-Probably the biggest issue in this book is how hard Aleron tries to inject his personality into this book. And his personality sucks. An odd amalgamation of childish sex jokes, random profanity, sidebar commentary of absolutely no significance or wit, and pop culture references all take you out of the moment, waste space on the page, and broadly just suck. Absolutely none of it is funny. It's awkward and forced and cringey - you can tell this guy's writing this book exclusively for himself.
-General logicky things with backstory. The character pretty much never wonders if this is a dream or tries to get home or anything, he just takes the whole thing in stride. So, sure, you assume he was a loser back home and this is a blissful escape and all he's ever dreamed of, that's fine. After all, he's introduced as one of the highest leveled players in the game in the prologue. But NOPE. He's in med school. Has Aleron ever met someone in med school? Where does he find the time? It's like his back story just generated this entire arbitrary lifetime of pursuit of medical knowledge to justify Richter performing a minor healing on someone one time. Then later, the character specifically states that all he used to worry about was video games and getting laid - med school has completely left the list of concerns. At no point does he express an interest in being a paladin or cleric or any such thing. He's got healing spells, but they're far from his focus. I cannot fathom why med school was introduced. Plus his home life was great! All these references to his loving mother in Atlanta pepper the book as well, none of it for any reason. And my did Richter have a lot of girlfriends in his few short years of life. None of it was given any thought by the author.
-Enemy strength consistency/levels. One of the greatest failures of RPGs is that you can never make things quite as realistic as you'd like. It's tough to capture fighting a giant ogre, to give it quantifiable health and strength and such, but then let a standard human go toe to toe with it and take a hit despite reality. But what else can you do, if this human will indeed progress to become a god? Basically just give it a high level and call it a day, typically. Fair enough. But not here! Levels don't actually seem to mean much. Level 15 Richter vs a level 33 assassin? Richter pulls it out with some minor trickery. Level 20 Richter vs a level 13 rock giant? Richter gets OBLITERATED. He's getting knocked out in single hits, he runs for his life for like three nights and eventually has to hide from the thing. Why is it level 13? What do levels mean, if not a representation of an enemy's relative strength? This is just lazy. On this note, seemingly every townsperson is in single digit levels. Levels seem helpful, provided you don't distribute stat points as arbitrarily as the least personable protagonist in the world. You're telling me that a 40-year old man in this game is level six because he runs a shop and he never did much fighting? Fine, I guess. Except you get major experience for leveling skills, and you've gotta assume our boy has pretty fantastic cooking/trading/hunting/horseriding/knife wielding/sewing/what the hell ever else skills, since he's been doing them his whole life. After all, Richter soars through the levels in just a few months. Single fights send him up multiple levels, but people that have existed in this world for decades are level-averse. It's annoying. Put some thought into your opus, father of litRPG. Just explain it away reasonably, that's all you have to do. But he does not.
There's so much more. The way he talks to his pet, the way he flirts, the way the world conspires for things to go right for the main character. He finds legendary items of incalculable value on a daily basis guarded by the most minimal and beatable of opponents. The way the author refers to him as "the Master of the Mist Village" and "The Chaos Seed" as if he's writing the damned Iliad. Everything about this book screams talentless amateur, and the only reason it's had any success is because it's a field so desperate for content and this guy markets himself so shamelessly. Despite all of this I'm going to read through all of these books, because at this point I'm owed a payoff, but I'd prefer not having started. For my money, go read Worth the Candle. It's not done yet, but it reads like a book written by an author who cares about creating a quality product. This has been a rant. I hoped that he was a brand new author and he'd start improving as I progressed through the books, but he has not. So frustrating.
Obviously, if you don't have a history with gaming, this book probably won't really resonate with you. The gaming part is the appeal, and it's what I'm here for. I love the LitRPG genre. The stats and optimizing are nice, the progression and quantifiable improvement are what keep me around. For that reason, I've made it through the first three books and am going to make a heroic effort to finish this thing. But with every page, I'll hate Aleron, because he sucks. The following are my issues with the author and how those issues affect the book, in no particular order.
-He's trying to copyright the term 'LitRPG', for some reason.
-He's clearly inserted himself into a fantasy written for his own consumption. The characters flaws are his flaws (aw darn, he didn't think about what he was doing and there were negative consequences. But he's fantastic, so he stupendously dealt with the fallout and emerged all the better for it. Woo go infallible main character.)
-The moral issues are a joke. Ranging from the treatment of non-humans (yet another setting where non-humans are second class citizens. It's not new, but there's nothing wrong with it in principle. But it's so goddamn binary in this. All humans are bad except like four freedom fighters who think this is bad, all non-humans are victims, and it was just so direct. No subtlety. Just a weird look from a guard, then an in-depth explanation.) to the consideration of the lives of sentient beings to the treatment of his villagers, it all feels fake and forced and in no way authentic. He wonders if it's okay to kill kobolds, since they're a fully sentient race with an established language and apparently a particular talent for mapmaking, but then just kinda stops caring pretty quickly.
-Spelling/grammar - really just awful. Inexcusably bad. Like in high school when you'd turn in a paper without proof-reading it. Get an editor. How do you not have an editor?
-Descriptions - he's overly in-depth about everything. He'll ramble forever about absolutely nothing. Half of these books are filler.
-The fight scenes are about what you'd expect overall, but there's an annoying tendency to look at things from the soon-to-be-dead opponent's POV, as if to add intensity. And it comes off as cheesy and distracting every time.
-Aleron is also calling himself the "Father of American LitRPG". What? Literally no one thinks this. He's written crummy series. He's neither the first nor best to do it. There's absolutely no basis for this statement, just sheer ego. He's just aggressively monetizing this whole thing. It's transparent and shameless and shitty.
-Probably the biggest issue in this book is how hard Aleron tries to inject his personality into this book. And his personality sucks. An odd amalgamation of childish sex jokes, random profanity, sidebar commentary of absolutely no significance or wit, and pop culture references all take you out of the moment, waste space on the page, and broadly just suck. Absolutely none of it is funny. It's awkward and forced and cringey - you can tell this guy's writing this book exclusively for himself.
-General logicky things with backstory. The character pretty much never wonders if this is a dream or tries to get home or anything, he just takes the whole thing in stride. So, sure, you assume he was a loser back home and this is a blissful escape and all he's ever dreamed of, that's fine. After all, he's introduced as one of the highest leveled players in the game in the prologue. But NOPE. He's in med school. Has Aleron ever met someone in med school? Where does he find the time? It's like his back story just generated this entire arbitrary lifetime of pursuit of medical knowledge to justify Richter performing a minor healing on someone one time. Then later, the character specifically states that all he used to worry about was video games and getting laid - med school has completely left the list of concerns. At no point does he express an interest in being a paladin or cleric or any such thing. He's got healing spells, but they're far from his focus. I cannot fathom why med school was introduced. Plus his home life was great! All these references to his loving mother in Atlanta pepper the book as well, none of it for any reason. And my did Richter have a lot of girlfriends in his few short years of life. None of it was given any thought by the author.
-Enemy strength consistency/levels. One of the greatest failures of RPGs is that you can never make things quite as realistic as you'd like. It's tough to capture fighting a giant ogre, to give it quantifiable health and strength and such, but then let a standard human go toe to toe with it and take a hit despite reality. But what else can you do, if this human will indeed progress to become a god? Basically just give it a high level and call it a day, typically. Fair enough. But not here! Levels don't actually seem to mean much. Level 15 Richter vs a level 33 assassin? Richter pulls it out with some minor trickery. Level 20 Richter vs a level 13 rock giant? Richter gets OBLITERATED. He's getting knocked out in single hits, he runs for his life for like three nights and eventually has to hide from the thing. Why is it level 13? What do levels mean, if not a representation of an enemy's relative strength? This is just lazy. On this note, seemingly every townsperson is in single digit levels. Levels seem helpful, provided you don't distribute stat points as arbitrarily as the least personable protagonist in the world. You're telling me that a 40-year old man in this game is level six because he runs a shop and he never did much fighting? Fine, I guess. Except you get major experience for leveling skills, and you've gotta assume our boy has pretty fantastic cooking/trading/hunting/horseriding/knife wielding/sewing/what the hell ever else skills, since he's been doing them his whole life. After all, Richter soars through the levels in just a few months. Single fights send him up multiple levels, but people that have existed in this world for decades are level-averse. It's annoying. Put some thought into your opus, father of litRPG. Just explain it away reasonably, that's all you have to do. But he does not.
There's so much more. The way he talks to his pet, the way he flirts, the way the world conspires for things to go right for the main character. He finds legendary items of incalculable value on a daily basis guarded by the most minimal and beatable of opponents. The way the author refers to him as "the Master of the Mist Village" and "The Chaos Seed" as if he's writing the damned Iliad. Everything about this book screams talentless amateur, and the only reason it's had any success is because it's a field so desperate for content and this guy markets himself so shamelessly. Despite all of this I'm going to read through all of these books, because at this point I'm owed a payoff, but I'd prefer not having started. For my money, go read Worth the Candle. It's not done yet, but it reads like a book written by an author who cares about creating a quality product. This has been a rant. I hoped that he was a brand new author and he'd start improving as I progressed through the books, but he has not. So frustrating.
January 17, 2017
Full disclosure I did not read beyond the first few chapters. I love the idea and the direction of the plot but I couldn't stand the writing style. Mostly ruined by an overuse of exclamation points.
January 30, 2017
This book is written enthusiastically, I'll give it that, though the writing is also full of typos and punctuation errors. But the plot, such as it is, is pretty poor stuff. A gaming enthusiast is transported to a world that's a near-exact replica of his favourite game. He's greeted by an imp who tells him, very forcibly, that he is no longer playing a game...but from there on, it stops making sense, because the remainder of the book shows very clearly that he is definitely still playing a game. The hero, Richter, is constantly receiving game messages and reading stat blocks for himself and anyone else he meets; and when he dies, he is instantly reborn. Whatever the underlying nature of this new world, its mechanics are exactly those of a game. Richter faces no real consequences for failure.
Reading the remainder of the book is about as interesting as reading a transcript of an actual computer game. Richter isn't a typical 'perfect' Mary-Sue; in fact he's quite arrogant and a bit of an asshole. But he faces no significant challenges in this book. The only hint of a real overarching plot is in the prologue…but the prologue, while giving a hint of why Richter has been thrown into this game-world, otherwise bears no visible relationship to the main story.
The further books of this series may improve matters; but this first book is bad enough that I doubt I'll check them out.
Reading the remainder of the book is about as interesting as reading a transcript of an actual computer game. Richter isn't a typical 'perfect' Mary-Sue; in fact he's quite arrogant and a bit of an asshole. But he faces no significant challenges in this book. The only hint of a real overarching plot is in the prologue…but the prologue, while giving a hint of why Richter has been thrown into this game-world, otherwise bears no visible relationship to the main story.
The further books of this series may improve matters; but this first book is bad enough that I doubt I'll check them out.
March 24, 2018
Really enjoyed this opening book to the series. Not very experienced with LitRPG but this one gave a very realistic vibe to the game world whereas other LitRPG stories I've read might present in more of a 'virtual' world feel. Planning on continuing with the series.
July 25, 2016
First half 3 stars and second half five stars.
Excellent world building. And good characters. Decent story.
A must read for litrpg lovers.
Excellent world building. And good characters. Decent story.
A must read for litrpg lovers.
July 29, 2021
I'm a bit torn on what to rate this book. On one hand, I absolutely devoured this book. On the other hand, it's not a very well written book. You won't find any memorable quotes or life lessons here. It won't alter your perspective or make you think. It's popcorn fiction. My biggest take away from completing it is my renewal of love and appreciation for RPGs.
All the self hype Aleron Kong is spewing on the cover and on his website is a huge turn off. I was very reluctant to even give it a try. Also please stop with the whole "father of american litrpg" when your first book was published in 2015.
The humor in this book was a miss every time for me. It was middle school childish. This book is very light hearted, so it may match that mood. I didn't cringe, but I didn't enjoy it. I will not be continuing this series.
All the self hype Aleron Kong is spewing on the cover and on his website is a huge turn off. I was very reluctant to even give it a try. Also please stop with the whole "father of american litrpg" when your first book was published in 2015.
The humor in this book was a miss every time for me. It was middle school childish. This book is very light hearted, so it may match that mood. I didn't cringe, but I didn't enjoy it. I will not be continuing this series.
May 3, 2018
Bookshelf pollution.
I’ll give anyone who bothers to read this review two words to describe this series: self published. Ok, I’m feeling generous so how about two more? Self edited. Couple those two facts and mix with a grade five writing level and a matching level of humour then stir in a healthy dose unchecked self-promotion and you’ve pretty much got the gist of why this series appeared on any top-10 list (other than the top-10 ways to waste your book budget perhaps).
It’s rather difficult to understand who the intended audience is due to the pre-teen writing style versus the seemingly endless stupid sexual references and near constant, unnecessary profanity. The ideas and lack of complexity such as anything resembling a basic plot twist lend to a younger reader category but the so called “shit talking” in this series is often machismo, homophobic nonsense and is unfunny to the adult intelligence. The inter-personal relationships between the main character and his minions seems to mainly consist of either this inane crude banter or them saving each other’s lives and not much in between which doesn’t lend to verisimilitude. Tiresome, god-like, predictable characters in tiresome, predictable combat scenarios that rarely leave the reader wondering if the hero will prevail.
The main character’s utter arrogance, lack of humility, and overall cockiness destroys the author’s attempts to add any fathomable depth to him. I won't get started on the message threaded throughout the series that communist dictatorships can flourish... but here's the spoilers: we see the protagonist threatening the lives of other characters if they don't give away the secrets of their trades to other citizens. The only one that seems to be allowed to accumulate wealth is the hero who spends it as he sees fit.
If this book were a video game, then this hero has the game on its easiest setting and the player buys currency, power-ups, and legendary items: pay to win. Every reward that the protagonist receives is too spectacular, too rare, too inconceivably amazing. Borrrrring.
The most entertaining thing I found about this series wasn’t a part of the story at all: the publisher’s notes for this book actually compares it to Game of Thrones and Ready Player One. Laughable arrogance! Anyone who would dare compare Dr. Kong’s writing with the likes of Ernest Cline’s probably just went and watched the movie and has never laid eyes on the book. George R.R. Martin's stories routinely puts characters in all sorts of awful, unpredictable situations which many don't survive. Score one more advantage of being your own publisher: no pesky editors to point out your flaws and another platform to shamelessly self-promote yourself as the ‘father’ of a splinter genre. Win, win!
Demand more from your book budget: this is the kind of nonsensical degradation of the fantasy genre that is ruining it.
I’ll give anyone who bothers to read this review two words to describe this series: self published. Ok, I’m feeling generous so how about two more? Self edited. Couple those two facts and mix with a grade five writing level and a matching level of humour then stir in a healthy dose unchecked self-promotion and you’ve pretty much got the gist of why this series appeared on any top-10 list (other than the top-10 ways to waste your book budget perhaps).
It’s rather difficult to understand who the intended audience is due to the pre-teen writing style versus the seemingly endless stupid sexual references and near constant, unnecessary profanity. The ideas and lack of complexity such as anything resembling a basic plot twist lend to a younger reader category but the so called “shit talking” in this series is often machismo, homophobic nonsense and is unfunny to the adult intelligence. The inter-personal relationships between the main character and his minions seems to mainly consist of either this inane crude banter or them saving each other’s lives and not much in between which doesn’t lend to verisimilitude. Tiresome, god-like, predictable characters in tiresome, predictable combat scenarios that rarely leave the reader wondering if the hero will prevail.
The main character’s utter arrogance, lack of humility, and overall cockiness destroys the author’s attempts to add any fathomable depth to him. I won't get started on the message threaded throughout the series that communist dictatorships can flourish... but here's the spoilers: we see the protagonist threatening the lives of other characters if they don't give away the secrets of their trades to other citizens. The only one that seems to be allowed to accumulate wealth is the hero who spends it as he sees fit.
If this book were a video game, then this hero has the game on its easiest setting and the player buys currency, power-ups, and legendary items: pay to win. Every reward that the protagonist receives is too spectacular, too rare, too inconceivably amazing. Borrrrring.
The most entertaining thing I found about this series wasn’t a part of the story at all: the publisher’s notes for this book actually compares it to Game of Thrones and Ready Player One. Laughable arrogance! Anyone who would dare compare Dr. Kong’s writing with the likes of Ernest Cline’s probably just went and watched the movie and has never laid eyes on the book. George R.R. Martin's stories routinely puts characters in all sorts of awful, unpredictable situations which many don't survive. Score one more advantage of being your own publisher: no pesky editors to point out your flaws and another platform to shamelessly self-promote yourself as the ‘father’ of a splinter genre. Win, win!
Demand more from your book budget: this is the kind of nonsensical degradation of the fantasy genre that is ruining it.
August 8, 2016
Every now and then you come across one of those books you just can't put down until you have read it from cover page to the end. This is one of those for me. I do not know why the LitRpg genre has caught my attention as hard as it has..But i will say this..This series has me chomping at the bit wanting more. The series just has that 'Stuff' that makes it a good read, don't ask me to articulate what exactly that 'stuff' is because i don't have the words.
Looking forward to more in this series, WILL read them all AGAIN.
Looking forward to more in this series, WILL read them all AGAIN.
June 26, 2020
The Land was one of my most anticipated unread LitRPG series because it is so popular and because it has come highly recommended to me by a few Goodreads friends. It also has a great narrator at the helm for the audio! That made it all the more disappointing that this first book in the series turned out to be a fairly dull and average read. It was run of the mill stuff for a LitRPG and definitely nothing special.
The premise was fine. It was basic stuff for a LitRPG but that is not necessarily a negative. The initial set-up was actually pretty intriguing as the prologue showed us a bunch of bored Dark and Light immortal supernatural creatures plotting to escape their prison realm by flooding it with humans. They do this by luring unwitting humans to the world by having them sign the consent form for their souls in the small print of the sign up to their VR reality game. I thought that set-up was pretty fun! From there we followed the tale of Richter, a human, who signed up for the game and ended up having his soul sucked into The Land. The Land was basically just like an ultra realistic version of the VR game Richter had been playing. Which is to say it was a typical D&D style fantasy world with all the basic levelling up elements of the average LitRPG story. The plot basically just followed Richter as he adjusted to his new reality and as he set about going on some quests to level up his power.
The story was OK but it was hindered by the fact that the action was very dull and the characters made zero impact on me. Richter was the only real character and he was just about likeable enough that I was able to root for him. He did not do much wrong over the course of the story but despite that I never really managed to overly warm to him as a character as his, and Kong's, sense of humour was just a touch juvenile for my liking. I think the fact that I failed to connect with Kong's sense of humour in general was a big issue for me. So while Richter did not do much wrong he still gave off the vibe that he was a bit of a frat boy tool. The quest and action scenes were just dull. The fantasy world seemed OK but there was zero tension to any of the action or adventure scenes as Richter just re-spawned when he died and none of the secondary characters, all creatures from The Land as far as I could tell, made zero impression on me so it did not feel like it mattered much if they actually died. It was a big weakness for sure that all of the secondary characters had a throwaway feel to them. I could not even rustle up much emotional connection to the most significant of them, a wood sprite, that ended up as Richter's new best pal.
The intriguing stuff from the prologue with the Dark and Light immortals was also completely squandered as after the prologue and Richter's initial arrival to The Land nothing else happened with this part of the story. I like a slow burn story arc but as this book had little else going for it I felt it needed a bit more help from the one aspect of the tale that did seem really fun!
Another flaw for the series was the fact that little was mentioned about the "real" world that Richter came from. Not once did he give much thought about his life back on Earth and we learned absolutely nothing about what sort of world or place his future Earth was or much about it at all outside of the fact that fully immersive VR games were a thing there. It was a pity as it wasted a potentially fun element of the story while also making Richter's character seem ultra shallow.
The pacing of the story was hurt by all the chronic stat bleating. We got hit with so much of them that they not only got boringly repetitive but because there was so many different ones they were impossible to remember so ended up being pretty meaningless outside of the few "special" abilities that made Richter a special snowflake in his new world.
All in all I ended up quite disappointed by this run of the mill LitRPG. I think a lot of that had to do with my high expectations going into the story. This was fairly average for the genre. I've read worse but I've read a lot better. By the end of the story it was struggling to hold my attention. I'm not sure if I'll give the second book in the series a go or not. I'm tempted to because the series is so popular and has tons of books published in it and because I can get it fairly cheap but I'm just not very enthusiastic about it so I guess time will tell in that regard!
Rating: 2.5 stars. I'll round up to 3 stars.
Audio Note: Nick Podehl is one of the best narrators there is and he gave a typically good performance of this one.
The premise was fine. It was basic stuff for a LitRPG but that is not necessarily a negative. The initial set-up was actually pretty intriguing as the prologue showed us a bunch of bored Dark and Light immortal supernatural creatures plotting to escape their prison realm by flooding it with humans. They do this by luring unwitting humans to the world by having them sign the consent form for their souls in the small print of the sign up to their VR reality game. I thought that set-up was pretty fun! From there we followed the tale of Richter, a human, who signed up for the game and ended up having his soul sucked into The Land. The Land was basically just like an ultra realistic version of the VR game Richter had been playing. Which is to say it was a typical D&D style fantasy world with all the basic levelling up elements of the average LitRPG story. The plot basically just followed Richter as he adjusted to his new reality and as he set about going on some quests to level up his power.
The story was OK but it was hindered by the fact that the action was very dull and the characters made zero impact on me. Richter was the only real character and he was just about likeable enough that I was able to root for him. He did not do much wrong over the course of the story but despite that I never really managed to overly warm to him as a character as his, and Kong's, sense of humour was just a touch juvenile for my liking. I think the fact that I failed to connect with Kong's sense of humour in general was a big issue for me. So while Richter did not do much wrong he still gave off the vibe that he was a bit of a frat boy tool. The quest and action scenes were just dull. The fantasy world seemed OK but there was zero tension to any of the action or adventure scenes as Richter just re-spawned when he died and none of the secondary characters, all creatures from The Land as far as I could tell, made zero impression on me so it did not feel like it mattered much if they actually died. It was a big weakness for sure that all of the secondary characters had a throwaway feel to them. I could not even rustle up much emotional connection to the most significant of them, a wood sprite, that ended up as Richter's new best pal.
The intriguing stuff from the prologue with the Dark and Light immortals was also completely squandered as after the prologue and Richter's initial arrival to The Land nothing else happened with this part of the story. I like a slow burn story arc but as this book had little else going for it I felt it needed a bit more help from the one aspect of the tale that did seem really fun!
Another flaw for the series was the fact that little was mentioned about the "real" world that Richter came from. Not once did he give much thought about his life back on Earth and we learned absolutely nothing about what sort of world or place his future Earth was or much about it at all outside of the fact that fully immersive VR games were a thing there. It was a pity as it wasted a potentially fun element of the story while also making Richter's character seem ultra shallow.
The pacing of the story was hurt by all the chronic stat bleating. We got hit with so much of them that they not only got boringly repetitive but because there was so many different ones they were impossible to remember so ended up being pretty meaningless outside of the few "special" abilities that made Richter a special snowflake in his new world.
All in all I ended up quite disappointed by this run of the mill LitRPG. I think a lot of that had to do with my high expectations going into the story. This was fairly average for the genre. I've read worse but I've read a lot better. By the end of the story it was struggling to hold my attention. I'm not sure if I'll give the second book in the series a go or not. I'm tempted to because the series is so popular and has tons of books published in it and because I can get it fairly cheap but I'm just not very enthusiastic about it so I guess time will tell in that regard!
Rating: 2.5 stars. I'll round up to 3 stars.
Audio Note: Nick Podehl is one of the best narrators there is and he gave a typically good performance of this one.
February 18, 2018
Executive Summary: Not great, but still entertaining. 3.5 stars.
Audiobook: I haven't listened to much by Nick Podehl, but I've always considered him a great narrator. This book is no different. He speaks clearly with good volume and inflection and does a variety of voices that make for an excellent audiobook.
I do however have some reservations. One of the drawbacks to Unabridged can be that some text is meant to be scanned/skimmed in a book, but must be read its entirety for the audio version. This books suffers from that. I feel it's also made worse by adding audio dings/music like you're leveling up in a game. In a game I appreciate it. In this book, I found that a bit irritating, especially when most of the text that followed was long and tedious.
None of this is the narrator's fault and he does a great job despite the source material not always translating 100% well in an audio format. None of this was enough to put me off of continuing the series in audio because Mr. Podehl does that good of a job and this otherwise is the type of book that works well in audio.
Full Review
I first heard of "LitRPG" on the Sword & Laser podcast a few months ago. Mr. Kong labels himself as "The Father of American LitRPG". American is a key word here because Japanese Manga and Anime has been telling this kind of story for over a decade. I also have read other books that are very close in style to this, albeit maybe less explicit on including all the stats/character sheets of everyone involved.
I'd put this book in a similar vein as books like Ready Player One or NPCs, both of which I enjoyed more than this book. The idea of being trapped in a fantasy video game first crossed my radar in the early 2000s with the anime .hack//Sign.
That all said, after nearly 2 decades as a D&D player and over 13 years playing World of Warcraft, this style of story really appeals to me.
This book has many of the usual tropes present in any number of animes of this genre. The main character is a "dude-bro" although thankfully not 100% of the time. The book also severely lacks in female characters. The few that there are serve mostly as quest givers or providers of information with no real agency to speak of.
Richter comes off as your stereo-typical "elite" gamer dude part of the time, and someone who actually seems to genuinely care about the people of The Land the rest of the time. He grew on me as a character, but I could stand fewer of his lame jokes and sexist comments.
Overall the writing is fine, but not great. Some of the dialogue (beyond the aforementioned jokes and sexist comments) can be cringeworthy. It's important to note however that I wasn't reading this book for a deep wow factor. It's one of those popcorn books where you just turn your brain off and enjoy the ride.
The ride was pretty good. The setting was established, some mysteries were set-up for the series and mostly our protagonist did what any new RPG player does: complete quests, explore, fight stuff and level up.
I found the book entertaining enough that I not only picked up the second book right away, but I rolled a new character in WoW because it really got me itching to level my own character. If you're into the whole RPG/leveling thing and aren't put off by the dude-bro stuff, this book may be worth checking out. I hope as it goes on we get some more depth to our protagonist and some actual female characters with some agency.
Audiobook: I haven't listened to much by Nick Podehl, but I've always considered him a great narrator. This book is no different. He speaks clearly with good volume and inflection and does a variety of voices that make for an excellent audiobook.
I do however have some reservations. One of the drawbacks to Unabridged can be that some text is meant to be scanned/skimmed in a book, but must be read its entirety for the audio version. This books suffers from that. I feel it's also made worse by adding audio dings/music like you're leveling up in a game. In a game I appreciate it. In this book, I found that a bit irritating, especially when most of the text that followed was long and tedious.
None of this is the narrator's fault and he does a great job despite the source material not always translating 100% well in an audio format. None of this was enough to put me off of continuing the series in audio because Mr. Podehl does that good of a job and this otherwise is the type of book that works well in audio.
Full Review
I first heard of "LitRPG" on the Sword & Laser podcast a few months ago. Mr. Kong labels himself as "The Father of American LitRPG". American is a key word here because Japanese Manga and Anime has been telling this kind of story for over a decade. I also have read other books that are very close in style to this, albeit maybe less explicit on including all the stats/character sheets of everyone involved.
I'd put this book in a similar vein as books like Ready Player One or NPCs, both of which I enjoyed more than this book. The idea of being trapped in a fantasy video game first crossed my radar in the early 2000s with the anime .hack//Sign.
That all said, after nearly 2 decades as a D&D player and over 13 years playing World of Warcraft, this style of story really appeals to me.
This book has many of the usual tropes present in any number of animes of this genre. The main character is a "dude-bro" although thankfully not 100% of the time. The book also severely lacks in female characters. The few that there are serve mostly as quest givers or providers of information with no real agency to speak of.
Richter comes off as your stereo-typical "elite" gamer dude part of the time, and someone who actually seems to genuinely care about the people of The Land the rest of the time. He grew on me as a character, but I could stand fewer of his lame jokes and sexist comments.
Overall the writing is fine, but not great. Some of the dialogue (beyond the aforementioned jokes and sexist comments) can be cringeworthy. It's important to note however that I wasn't reading this book for a deep wow factor. It's one of those popcorn books where you just turn your brain off and enjoy the ride.
The ride was pretty good. The setting was established, some mysteries were set-up for the series and mostly our protagonist did what any new RPG player does: complete quests, explore, fight stuff and level up.
I found the book entertaining enough that I not only picked up the second book right away, but I rolled a new character in WoW because it really got me itching to level my own character. If you're into the whole RPG/leveling thing and aren't put off by the dude-bro stuff, this book may be worth checking out. I hope as it goes on we get some more depth to our protagonist and some actual female characters with some agency.
November 18, 2017
There is something refreshing
Nostalgia does not begin to explain my feelings. There I was reading a novel and then bang I am experiencing an adventure. Thank-you for the amazing work that brought back to life the very books / games and just overall childhood memories. I will be gifting this work to my close friends as I am sure they will enjoy it, love it, build fond memories with it.
Nostalgia does not begin to explain my feelings. There I was reading a novel and then bang I am experiencing an adventure. Thank-you for the amazing work that brought back to life the very books / games and just overall childhood memories. I will be gifting this work to my close friends as I am sure they will enjoy it, love it, build fond memories with it.
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