I have to say that this series is rather infuriating. I read the author Pathways first two books but this series seems like it was written by an entirely different person.
Alex, our MC, is a young adult of an indeterminate age who is the son of a CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation, he is a new immersion tester in their most popular MMO. His mother was unfortunately killed several years ago by a terrorist organization. His Father took it upon himself to enact vengeance and showed his son a recording of the execution of said criminals, as a teenager, and told his son “No Mercy”. This seems to have shaped our MC into a man with a sick sense of justice.
In the first book our MC runs across a group with red-skulls over their heads, indicating they are Player Killers, immediately judges them as two-bit-scum, and decides to basically torture them by killing them over and over. No one in the party is particularly concerned except Lainey, but after she is brought aside and told about his mother, she is immediately okay with it. He adopts his fathers “No mercy policy”. This theme of execution, complete mockery, and humiliation continues for every Player Killer member throughout both books. Almost all the npc’s and players LAUGH at the torture and humiliation. This is in no way justified, even if they are later revealed to be terrorists.
Wrong is Wrong. No human, no kind elderly, no innocent child, NOT A SINGLE PERSON ever tells him he is wrong.
There are bound to be different people with differing viewpoints that, like most of us, see that the MC is sick in his sense of twisted justice. Everything is written as if it is black and white. The MC is “charismatic”, charitable, intelligent, and forward thinking. The bad guys are all apparently idiots, who despite playing the game for years to support themselves, get their asses handed to them at every turn and can’t help but spout profanity. There is no smart villian that gets the upper hand. There is no dumb, good guy who makes a mistake. The only character I really enjoy is Fibble. Pew Pew.
Other things that upset me is that all the Dwarves are cookie-cutter characters. They all sound the same, act the same, and talk the same. The BWAHAHAHA! that each dwarve makes is literally copied and pasted into each of their conversations. The King, The Dwarves King, A 6000 year old wizard, and a LITERAL DRAGON all love and help the MC and all hold the same dispositions. They all have the same personalities, lovable, kind, and just. The “Seee Ya” catchphrase is incredibly annoying. Everyone laughs when talking to Alex. The MC has the a literal god on his side. (Along with the rest of the pantheon)
Speeches. Speeches everywhere.
The MC reiterates information several times to separate party members or NPC’s, such as the attack in the real world. An Author should never repeat information that the readers all ready know, definitely not in the same way. The MC hands out gold, money, jewels, and artifacts like they are candy. Everyone boggles at his “charitable” nature and initially refuse but don’t take much convincing. It feels like he is buying them to me. (For all he doesn’t want to be treated differently)
The STAT system and Litrpg elements don’t matter. The MC can create new spells, enchant Epic level items and build an entire town in 4 days around level 20. When he is level 40 he still has 27 unused attribute points. What kind of gamer does that? An OP one. He wipes the floor with level 50’s 70’s and 80’s. Mostly because the bad guys are stupid.
There are no real challenges, no near escapes or any real losses.
Also, the narrator switched from Laurie to Jeff Hays somewhere along the way. Personally I love Jeff Hays. Soundbooth Theatre is always great and I feel the need to give them a shout-out. Unfortunately, they couldn’t save this series for me.
I feel the need to go on for so long because while most reviews I read either praise the book without any real mention of its content, or berate the book but don’t go into enough detail. With this I hope that you can at least be informed with what you will be buying.
This book is a great example of writing and character development you should NOT do. I do not recommend this series. There are plenty of good LITRPG’s on audible that you can listen to instead. I cannot understand why there are so many positive reviews. Maybe you will enjoy this book and love all the little quirks it has. But I have said my piece and will let you decide.