Kurt

DNF at 60%. I enjoyed the first book because it was full of discovery and building and creating. It was interesting to watch the MC chart his course in a new world, create new inventions and find success in his new environment.

This book has far less of that and instead we get politicking, weddings and a bunch of emotional soul searching in a slow and plodding manner. I forced myself to get to the 60% mark in the hopes of things picking up again, but I finally gave up.

I can see why others might enjoy this book, but it's a solid miss for me.

I made a mistake by not researching the author before picking up this recommendation. I can see why a lot of people love the book - the author writes some truly gifted prose and, if you like getting lost in language, then this book might be for you.

However, the author is also (apparently) of the belief that you should never take one paragraph to describe something when three will do instead. Also, the prose, while beautiful, is very dense (something the author is known for and something I should have realized before picking up the book). As a consequence, I found myself reading and re-reading sentences and entire paragraphs to look beyond the poetic language to figure out what actually was happening in the story.

This book will be great for people who prefer Literature-with-a-capital-L. For a knuckle dragger like myself, however, I found it to be a slog.

This book is solid, if you're willing to look past the initial setup. It's translated Russian LitRPG and carries much of the trademarks of that genre - things will feel a bit off about character interactions, especially and there are also a few translation errors as well. (noted in my highlights section)

That said, it's a fun, fast-paced book with lots of action and a reasonable system in place. It's not going to win a bunch of awards, but I certainly found it to be an enjoyable read.

If you look past the atrocious number of grammatical errors, the story itself continues to be interesting and compelling.

Unfortunately, you can't look past the atrocious number of grammatical errors because they're too numerous. Commas in the wrong place, incorrect words used (it's ‘abdicate the throne', not ‘advocate the throne') and numerous inconsistencies in stats. LitRPG is infamous for having poorly edited books, but this one is easily the worst I've ever seen. It's that bad.

It's patently obvious the author didn't even do the most basic skimming of his own manuscript before publishing it. He really needs to pull down the book, fix the (atrocious) grammatical errors and then re-publish it.

This is a difficult review to write. If the book was marketed as a straight fantasy, I'd give it a solid 4 stars. It has a great story line, the world building is interesting and the author does a good job of moving the plot along smartly.

But this book isn't marketed as a straight fantasy. It's marketed as an Isekai LitRPG novel and, looking at it through that lens, it's two stars on a good day. The system is weak to the point of almost being non-existant. If you took the system and any semblance of LitRPG elements out of the story, almost nothing consequential would be lost.

Furthermore, the author doesn't really demonstrate a solid grasp of basic LitRPG mechanics. Stats are gained in an entirely opaque fashion. Sometimes there are drops, other times there are none. The protagonist gains levels in a seemingly-arbitrary manner. Almost as if the author wanted to cash in on the LitRPG market without actually understanding it.

Lastly, the editing on this book was awful - far worse than most other books in the genre.

The book is billed as a “progression fantasy”, which is a problem considering there's very little actual progression of any kind.

The MC is basically worthless and brings nothing to the table. Nearly all of the other characters in the book are more interesting and compelling than the MC, almost as though he exists just to give them a stage. And he makes almost no actual progress throughout the book, in a system that is, to put it nicely, very loosely defined by the author.

There are too many other, better books in this space to spend more time on this series. Dropping the series here.

This book is Dollar Store Dungeon Crawler Carl.

There are books that take inspiration from other books. There are books that pay homage to other books. And then there are books that unabashedly copy the template of other books. Discount Dan falls into this third category.

If you have read DCC, it is impossible to miss the glaring similarities between them. The author clearly saw the success of DCC and said, “I want some of that”. Which, cool I suppose, but then you better be at least as good as DCC and that's where this falls flat.

DCC has an easy grace to the writing style. Things flow together almost effortlessly. The character interplay is natural and believable. This book feels much more forced and contrived, like someone who is trying just a little too hard.

It's just not good enough to hold up in comparison - I wish the author had tried to chart a more unique path with the book as there are elements that I found intriguing. Alas, I will not be continuing with the series.

Read via the author's Patreon page. Solid installment, but perhaps a touch less than the last few books. Part of that might be the polishing that this pre-release book has yet to go through.

Still, the author moves the plot along and meaningful things happen in the book. If you've made it this far in the series, it's worth a read. (Also, book 12 is the last book in the series)

Another book that could have been so much better. I really like the world building and the alternate system environment the author came up with. It's also reasonably well edited, with very few typos.

The system itself, however, is very poorly developed. There's zero transparency into how levels or stats are gained. The MC just does stuff and, after a period of time, the author decides what his new stats are as a result. it feels very loosey goosey and, frankly, lazy.

I will not be continuing with the series.

Decent, but a bit slow

This book starts out as a slow, plodding struggle session. It picks up towards the end, however.

That said, it's an interesting twist on the genre and I enjoyed the world building. Hoping the second book is a bit faster paced.

DNF. If you switch between first person and third person IN THE SAME CHAPTER, I'm dropping your book. Incredibly distracting and the rest of the story wasn't nearly good enough to make up for it. This book had a decent (if vanilla) premise and could have been much more, but the execution was terrible.

DNF. I just couldn't get into this book. The system set out by the author was good in theory but poor in execution. He cheesed the leveling mechanics and hand waved a bunch of otherwise-hard stuff away. I generally enjoy stories with OP MCs, but this one just didn't grab me. it felt like the MCs were just putting in another day at the office.

I think most readers will find their way to this book through Dungeon Crawler Carl. I am certainly no exception. And many of those readers will draw comparisons between the two. Again, I am no exception.

I love DCC and consider it one of my favorite all-time series. OBH is solid. It's good. It's entertaining. It's...fine. But it just doesn't have the magic that DCC brings. Specifically, while OBH has many obvious similarities to DCC, it's a bit darker and grimmer. DCC does a masterful job, in my opinion, of balancing the darkness with levity and humor. OBH has some of that, but it's not nearly as balanced, and there were spots in the book where I felt like I got punched in the gut.

That said, it's a solid book. As with DCC, he makes the characters seem real and believable. His ability to humanize his characters is top tier and that comes across clearly in this story. The pacing is good - I never felt like it dragged in certain places. The overall content length is good too.

If you like DCC, definitely give this book a read. Just don't be surprised if it doesn't quite meet the same standard.

Solid book in the genre. It requires you to suspend a whole lotta disbelief in the beginning and also starts off a little slow, but it picked up nicely and was a fun read. Combination of different magic/tech systems was unique and made it an enjoyable book.

Overall, the book is a mixed bag for me. On one hand, it's well-written, fast paced and interesting. On the other hand, it lacks any semblance of a plot. The entire book is basically the protagonist meandering around, doing whatever she feels like doing. It isn't bad, per se, but it also means the story lacks direction. Like, at all.

So, not terrible, but definitely not amazing, either. Just...meh.

DNF at 12%. this book is not for me. first, the author's writing style is hyperbolic in the extreme, to the point where it comes across as forced or inauthentic.

second, and perhaps a bigger issue: the author over-describes, well, everything. you don't need to spend 14 pages (not an exaggeration, btw) describing a pre-jump systems check for a starship. it doesn't “add to the realism” or whatever the author thought they were accomplishing. it just drags things out unnecessarily and caused people like me to lose interest in the book altogether.

pass.

DNF at 66%. This book was marketed as a LitRPG book, and while it may have sat on the shelf next to one, that's about as close as it comes to the genre.

This is basically a straight fantasy story with only the barest dusting of gamelit atop of it. and, as a fantasy story, I just didn't find it compelling or engaging in the slightest. I didn't care about the characters, the challenges they faced or the outcome of their efforts. it was just bland.

DNF at 37%. This book just isn't written well. The prose is clunky and utilitarian. The plot progresses with lots of hand waving and “just trust me, bro” vibes and in a way that doesn't build credibility with the reader.

This isn't really a LitRPG story. It's more of a traditional science fiction story, where the author loosely tried to bolt on some semblance of LitRPG to the plot. If “crunchy” LitRPG means lots of stats and detailed progression summaries, then this is the exact opposite of that. Characters gain levels via a hand wave and there's very little to tie their stats to their day-to-day abilities, at least when compared to more traditional LitRPG novels.

And the powers/abilities that the characters have are never really explained, at least not in detail. You can sort of infer what their abilities are, but there's nothing like stat sheets for most of the characters. The protagonist has SOME stat sheets here and there, but again, they aren't tied tightly into the story at all.

Overall a disappointing book and I won't be continuing with the series.

This book isn't LitRPG so much as it is a therapy/self-help book. it felt like over half the pages were devoted to the main characters having struggle sessions with each other about their childhood trauma. Like, we get it, they had hard lives. But the therapy aspect dominated the plot line to the point you just wanted to slap the characters halfway through the book and tell them to grow tf up.

This book is mainly about the characters talking about their feelings, and there's some fighting and world building sprinkled in for flavor.

Not a fan, obviously.

Beginning starts out a little rough, but quickly gets better. Overall, I enjoyed the system the author created, even if the story is fairly tried-and-true and doesn't break any new ground.

That said, the author decided to crowbar in some political statements around gender ideology that completely broke the immersion for me and spoiled what was otherwise a solid book. I read fiction to escape from the drama of day-to-day reality. I don't need authors dragging that back into their stories.

This book was not as good as the previous two, primarily because the author spent a lot more time this book telling us what happened instead of showing us what happened. Large sections of plot were handled by a couple of sentences.

Just not written to the same caliber as the prior two installments.

I can see why this book is so polarizing. You're either going to like the MC or hate him. There is no in between. For myself, I enjoyed reading about a MC that makes the most cold, logical, self-serving decisions (most of the time) vs. one who is driven by morals, ethics and honor. The MC who is always selfless, looking out for others and altruistic is good and all, but it's been done. Repeatedly. This MC takes a unique approach of putting himself first, almost all of the time.

There are some cracks in the armor that lend humanity to the character, but by and large, the MC looks out for himself first, and F everyone else. It's a unique take in a genre full of tropes and repetitiveness. For that reason, I give it 4 stars.

If you're reading this review, you must have already read the other books in the series. So, I'll keep it short: this is the best book by far IMO. Too many series drop off in quality as they get this deep into the progression (looking at you, Eric Ugland), but Dinniman just keeps getting better.

Get the book. Read it. You won't be disappointed.

This book is full of errors. Not the typo kind - the “MC starts out fighting badgers and then it later in the same fight it says wolves” errors. There was one scene where, on one page the MC has 20HP remaining and, two pages later, he's hit for 25HP and somehow survives.

Add onto that the generally weak writing and this is one to skip imo. Too many other, better options out there.