Up until this book I would say this series was one of my favorite litrpgs of all time. Definitely in the top 5 which is saying a lot based on how many litrpgs I’ve read so far. There was just so much to like about it – the style, the prose, the battles, the systems, the dialog, the overall story, the village build up, etc. If litrpgs were ranked like games I would put the first two books at the AAA game level. Which makes me wonder what the hell happened with this 3rd book.
Warning: spoilers ahead…
At first glance, it would seem like this book simply was another in the series where the main character is still trying to build out his village and get stronger in order to gain this Tier 4 boss rank and ultimately escape the game. In that regard his side quest to another city in order to gain access to veridium to make golems and build out his village makes sense. It’s all part of the continued strategy that has been a constant theme (and a great one) in the first two books. So I didn’t mind his side journey. It was still entertaining to me. Also, the parallel story of taking the fight to the enemy before they can regroup and come in force while the village is still recovering made sense too, A surprise strike back at the guild would have been a great finale of the book, assuming they only did enough damage to stop them for a little bit. And that would have been at great ending to the book in the end: the main character gets his trade route, the village gets stronger, he cripples the enemy and buys himself some more time in order to keep growing and stay consistent with the goals and theme that was established in the first two books. Yet for whatever reason the author simply decided to tank all of that and choose a totally different ending and finale, cutting major threads that have been highly anticipated from the start. Wtf?
Honestly I can’t figure out why. The best I can reason is those parts about the world ending and Shiva being created was supposed to be from a book later on in the series, a final conclusion to everything. It was supposed to be written AFTER the character finally attained Tier 4 and AFTER Nihilator had been released, two things I was eagerly hoping to see happen. The sudden cutting of those two main threads was jarring. I can think of no reason to kill them other than the author simply didn’t want to write anymore about it and so just hacked on that totally alternate ending path from the final book. And sadly it DOESN’T WORK. Yes, there has been the side goal of Vick to replace the main AI, but it was very easy to see that was something that was supposed to happen FAR into the future of the series, not suddenly rushed into being in this installment. Unfortunately by doing so the author leaves a very empty hole, and the disappointment at the lost potential of what could have been and what should have been.
I don’t know if there will be another book where Orrin goes back into the game and perhaps completes those objectives, it did seem as if the author sort of left it open, but even if he did it wouldn’t really matter since the original reasons for those objectives are now gone. I can only hope this series might be salvaged with further books, but for me this installment has made me change my opinion from having it as an essential litrpg that any fan put on their must read list, to only a slightly recommended litrpg with two great first books but ultimately a broken series.