Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for me to review!

Caveat at the beginning that did not influence my review:
This book was originally tagged in Netgalley as a graphic novel. It is not a graphic novel. It would be a GORGEOUS graphic novel, based on the cover art. Maybe make it a graphic novel.

Okay, on to the review:

<spoiler>This was... not a well written book. It's polished enough, but it reads like a college kid's first draft for a sci-fi epic that falls flat due to the extensive, unnecessary exposition regarding the world-building that tries to cram itself in throughout the entire narrative. Mark is incredibly naive beyond the point of idiocy, yet never seems to learn. The jumps to omnipotent point of view are jarring and feel out of place for the rest of the storyline. There were also more than a few grammatical errors that were missed during editing, along with inconsistencies in capitalizations. Hire a copy editor, please.

Mime is perfect and can do no wrong. Give her all the treats ever.</spoiler>

4/10, could use some work, not a bad start but lacking in consistency and finesse.

This was an excellent book. It started out somewhat slow but eventually it picked up the pace and interest and I could not put the book down. The story is split among many different plot lines, that in the end all intersect. Mark, the main character, is forced to adapt to changing situations: his brother comes home and stay; he joins a military training camp; he gets a new job; and most importantly he gets a cat and weird powers. Overall, I loved this book and cannot wait for the next one in the series.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Contradictions in the Setup Drive Absolute Confusion

Seth Ring started life traveling between the US and Ghana. It is unclear what else he did for work before starting to write novels. He is known for LitRPG, or Literary Role Playing Games, or a combination of role-playing gaming and the science-fiction or fantasy genre; these worlds are game-like. His series include Titan and Battle Mage Farmer. “Advent is the first in an epic new series of alien contact, fast-paced military action, and thrilling adventure…”
All his life, Mark Fields has dreamed of joining the Defense Force to fight the vicious, alien Exlian, just like the rest of his renowned family.” Several pages in, there is a note that this Force is “the most prestigious of the three branches of the military”. But this note does not explain why the character wants to join this agency, or I guess it’s simply the army… A bit later, there’s an explanation that he had failed to get in, not because of his scores, but rather because of his “finances”, on his first try a couple of years earlier. Why would he need to pay the army to get in? This is not explained.
“So far, he’s… a dishwasher, trapped in a dead-end job with no powers, no money, and even fewer friends. Then an encounter with a dying woman changes everything—granting him the abilities he needs to join the training camps—and his life finally feels like it’s turning around, faster than a movie martial-arts montage (just ignore the weird cat).” This note that what he needs is “abilities” contradicts the idea that his “finances” were the reason he failed to get in earlier. A search for “abilities” leads to one explanation dozens of pages into this book: “Most Empowered had one skill per rank of their power as soon as they awakened, and every time they would add or develop another skill…” As this paragraph goes on, it just confuses whatever clarify this sentence achieved. It concludes that he should have had “four skills… Trait Selection, Material Transformation, Characteristic Absorption, and Non-displacement”, but “instead, he didn’t have any skills at all…” What? He has gained a new skill? But he is skill-less? And he had four, but needs one new one? This is just pure nonsense.
“…But the Exlian are voracious and myriad, and there’s more to Mark’s new powers than just leveling up. With the pressure mounting, it doesn’t take him long to realize the Exlian aren’t the only sinister threat lurking within the city…” There is a requirement in formulaic fiction that a bigger monster, devil or villain must emerge leading up to the climax, as the danger the hero faces must reach a high-point before the resolution. This must be why there is another “threat lurking”. “…You must fight the monsters … or become one yourself.” This is a different spin on the older monster-conquering formula. But it is not entirely novel in modern pop fiction for the hero to be an anti-hero.
This novel has a great illustration for its cover. It uses a rainbow of colors in creating a suitable for a video-game superhero imagery, with wolves looking up ahead. I hope to learn how to do these types of covers in the future. It’s something to aspire to.
Chapter “One” opens very dully with a ride on a train. The character looks at a strange city, but barely explains why it’s special. Are we in the future? In space? The first pages don’t really answer these basic questions. Things can be happening anywhere. It starts badly, and it keeps going badly.
—Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Fall 2024: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/plj/plj-excerpts/book-reviews-fall-2024

Although it started off a bit rocky, this was a fun novel to read. The first few chapters had some clunky prose and didn't explain much about the world. However, after a while, the story really took off and became exciting and filled with action. I'm looking forward to the next books!

I received Advent by Seth Ring as an eArc through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I think as for as LITRPG's go, this is done well. I've never read anything from Seth Ring before, but I will definitely be checking out his other series. I did really enjoy the dream sequence scenes and that was super intriguing for me, as well as the mystery behind a few of the characters and how that will play out in the future.

As far as the characters go, I do like them. However I don't feel really super attached to anyone other than the protagonist, Mark. I don't really feel any emotional depth or connection for some of the side characters other than a few of them, but at this point in the series, it's really lacking depth of characters for me.

It felt like some of the storyline was just bouncing around a lot, sometimes things felt like they were apart of the story, other times it felt like it was just happening, I thought the beginning of the book was really strong, and drew me in, but for the middle of the book, the random storylines and such that were going on felt a little forced. I thought the conclusion of the book is satisfying.

In the future, I will most definitely check out the next book in this series when it comes.