I really don't know what to say. I finished listening to it. I got lost early on and tried to understand the book. But was honestly really confused while listening to it.

I received an audio copy of this book from Net Galley and Tantor Audio for an honest review.

well this one was available to me and then archived at the same time so I was not able to read it but the premise seemed very interesting

I received an audio ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.
I went into this with somewhat high hopes, it sounded like it was going to be a great story. I thought the author was able to build a good world, it wasn’t over or under explained but we get the gist of how the world works. This is really the only positive I found though.

The story is a mix of Fantasy and LitRPG which I was not expecting and I could have done with the LitRPG side. Mages in this world can see their mana bar and see the effects of these special stones with a full on heads up display. Going between the two different genres was too much as nether one was able to be focused on. So when the author tries to focus on the Fantasy side of things the LitRPG side would suffer and vise-versa.

I also didn’t really find any of the characters likable/unlikeable. Even the main character who has unlikable qualities I just felt indifferent about, not because he had any likable qualities but because it was like “here is his unlikable quality” and moves on.

The story is also told in the fist person pov from our main character. But without notice, it would ether change to a different character or go third person throughout the whole story thus making it hard to follow at sometimes.

This was a really cool plot and premise that kept me hooked on it as I listened. The story telling was well done and there was a clear indication of where the plot was headed within book one. It's very sci-fi/fantasy pulp heavy, creating an interesting world with interesting characters, however where it did well in those aspects, it lacked in the magic systems that felt like it held the book back a little bit.

Overall, it was really interesting and I'll be looking out for book two to see where the story goes!

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story was told from the first-person POV of Maximilian interspersed with smaller chapters told from the third-person POV of adjacent or background characters that helped to provide context for the bigger picture of what was going on. However, there was a general lack of worldbuilding incorporated into this read. For the most part, we’re thrown into the story and get some hints of other things going on, but there’s nothing that brought the world or setting to life.

The book was also more analytical of events/fights than emotional. This may have been a stylistic choice, but it certainly made it difficult to become invested in the story or the characters. Much of the book read as “I did this. Then I did this. I thought this.” As it was told from Maximilian’s POV, it kept there from being any emotional connection to the character or the story. His family was slaughtered at the beginning of the book, and he didn’t think about it or have any emotional reaction other than the initial “Oh, wasn’t expecting that!” In fact, he thought about the two barmaids he used to sleep with more than his family during this book.

There were aspects of this work that ended up being more like a LitRPG read. This included the concept that mages had ability stones that popped up grids showing the stats of the stone, such as information concerning the available mana and slots that could be upgraded with other abilities. It also got into details about grid sizes, other upgrades, etc. and even used the word “newbie.” It was odd and unexpected. I didn’t particularly like this as it felt like it kept the read awkwardly between the two genres, which made it less engaging. For example, the interruption of the listing of stats and the fluctuations in mana levels kept it from reading like a full fantasy, breaking the immersion of the story. I guess the author just wanted the magic system to operate this way, but it didn’t work well for me.

This work is a translation of the original. There were instances when that was evident, as the wording was awkward or felt unnatural. This also included use of some modern language in the dialogue that was jarring in this high fantasy world. And there were modern items mentioned in this high fantasy world (washing machines, for example) – I don’t know if this was due to translation error, if this was supposed to be a post-apocalyptic-long-into-the-future fantasy read, or if there were just randomly some modern items. There were also many instances where the prose unintentionally fluctuated between past and present tense, even within the same paragraph.

I did like that the main character wasn’t overpowered or special or unique. It just so happened that he found strong magical stones from being in the right place at the right time. There were also many fight scenes with interesting monsters – while the fighting wasn’t written to be engaging, the beasts of this world were fun to hear about.

With how long this book is, I expected at least a little emotional connection to something and some dimensional characters. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this fantasy/LitRPG and can’t recommend it. My thanks to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for allowing me to read this work, which will be published June 27, 2023. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.