an excellent blend of Sci-fi and action that will appeal to many fans. What else do you need to hear!

I love Battle Mage Farmer by the same author, and so I got incredibly excited when I saw this book on Net Galley.
I love the concept and storyline of Advent and feel it could definitely become just as good as BMF, but it isn't quite there. Character development is somewhat lacking. Many opportunities were given to develop character relationships, which then would have helped overall character development. Instead, it had several times where the party happened, and everyone went home. My man, what happened at the party? Who spoke to Mark and gained friendship points? I want to know more about Pheonix, Noah, Danny, etc. WHO are they? Are they jealous, kind, angry, or passionate?
Mark could also use a bit more development, I feel like we are only seeing a few layers to him and not who he is as a soul inside.
Mime is amazing!!! I can't wait to see her arc as well as Mark's master, I need a backstory on him ASAP!
Thank you so much for the ARC and I will 100% be keeping an eye out for book 2.
Even with the critiques given I highly recommend.

Genre Status: Scifi; LitRPG; Progression Fantasy

Rank: B

Worldbuilding: A

Characterization: C-

Grammar: C

Fun: S

This was a fun read. It was an advance reader copy so the polish seemed a bit rough at times. I really liked the world building and the power leveling system and how the main character subverted that system. I’m interested to see what other twists there will be in future installments. I loved the level of crunch to the mechanics of how powers and I am interested to see that develop as well.

The interactions between the main character and other characters seemed a bit two-dimensional at times (especially with the other characters that were women). The characters seemed to be based on archetypes and didn’t really defy those archetypes much. Though the character Noah did surprise me by turning out to be an OK dude instead of the privileged bully that he might have been if he played into the trope.

Overall this book was a really fun experience and I look forward to the next one. I would totally recommend it to other fans of the genre. By the end of it I was totally hooked.

I received this DRC from NetGalley.

The story and the world were interesting. I would've rated it higher than 3.5 stars had it had a better conclusion. There are so many questions presented, and none of them get answered. Instead, it's left on a To Be Continued moment, making it feel like I didn't get to read a full book. Leaving threads unanswered is fine, but it was just too many things. I don't like when books in a series expect you to have to read all of them to fully get some satisfaction. I would have been happy even with just more hints about Mime. And make it plausible why the cat doing what it does doesn't freak them out.

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.