The Land: Alliances

Executive Summary: I'm torn on this. It has many of the elements that first interested me in the story, but the main character is so off-putting that I'm not sure I want to continue anymore. I'd probably give this a 2.5 stars. I've rounded down. I may decide to round up later, but probably not.

Audiobook: Nick Podehl does an excellent job as always, however the audiobook is not without its flaws despite that. This series spends a ton of time on the game stats aspect of the main character.

This results in a lot of repetitive dialog. I found this is made worse by the inclusion of sound effects. I think some listeners may enjoy those additions, as it gives the audio a bit more of a video game feel. For me personally however, I find myself more annoyed than anything at them.

If I was reading the book instead of listening, I'd probably skim all of those sections. If you're big on the details of the gaming, you may feel differently.

Full Review
I'd categorize this series as guilty pleasure reading. I know it's not exactly the best written or offers deep characters. That said I've enjoyed each book less than the previous.

Richter is a total dude-bro. I've been encountering these kind of gamers for as long as I can remember. I don't like playing with them, so I really don't want to follow the adventure of one in what might otherwise be a pretty interesting world/game. For the last two books the world building/gameplay aspects of the story has been enough to keep me enjoying it.

This book may have hit my threshold for it. I often found every time I was settling in and just enjoying the story, Richter would say something obnoxious. Sometimes it was just lame jokes, but more often than not he's making some stupid sexist comment. I can't tell if this is meant to be satire/commentary on people Mr. Kong has gamed with, or if he truly thinks Richter is “cool”. I suspect it's the latter.

At this point, I'm torn on the series. Part of me wants to know what happens next with the village in the mist and the world its part of, but I'm not sure I can stand Richter enough to continue on. Maybe I'll change my mind the next time I'm looking for a guilty pleasure read. We'll see.