I love Azure Dreams, An old, obscure JPRG from PS1 that involved turning a dying town into a metropolis while slowly expanding the power you can take with you into an randomized tower. This book reminds me immensely of that, in all the best ways, and makes me want to listen to roughly 6 more books in the series right now. As an audio-only reader for years, I am supremely tempted to go grab the Kindle version of the next book…but SBT did a truly excellent job performing this book. One of my favorite performances I’ve heard from the cast, alongside a well-orchestrated use of music and sound effects that added to the book in quiet and smart ways, without distracting from the narration.
The only con I can think of is the gear lists get a bit long towards the end…it was hard to follow all the values, and I barely cared- the story is excellent even with minimal attention paid to the crunch (genre term for the hard numbers in LitRPG). I imagine if I was reading it, the numbers and values would be around the sweet spot for frequency and info- and tables are easily glanced over and absorbed from the page-, but it did remind me of my wish that LitRPGs be edited separately for their audiobook performances. Overall, a minor quibble on a fun, clever book that left me wanting the next book ASAP!