The Good:
I like the theme in the book, ‘what qualifies as human?’ It’s a fun idea to play with in a litrpg and it can be shown in many different lights in this novel. At times Runner thinks his comrades are just NPCs and not valid. Other times he sees them as fully human and more than not it’s blurred. I really like that.
The female cast that surround him are all pretty basic NPC tropes but that fits in this setting because that’s the point. That is the major conflict. They are all decently strong characters and they each spend time with Runner to pose as different morality lenses. And with all the main female characters I never got the feeling that one character was more or less important. All the party members have distinct personalities.
I like the plot device that Runner has a set goal, and the theme directly clashes with ti. It makes for an interesting dynamic but will also admit it probably could have been better explained to the audience. I didn’t really understand his goals full scope till the ending.
The dialogue in this novel varies but I always really enjoyed the exchanges. I think it was very fun and had a lot of laughter at certain ongoing jokes. The verbal clash of characters was also rather fun. I think it made the humanizing element believable.
The Bad:
Character development is very…. minimal. Runner starts off with memory loss but a fun personality. I kept waiting for his flaws to show up but they never really did. He knows what he needs and will occasionally make rude remarks his party doesn’t like…. but no flaw. He has a central conflict but nothing that gets in the way of it. He might be called arrogant but he is always right. There’s never a point where his OP game knowledge is wrong. In fact he makes a point to abuse and change the game system all the time with little to no backfire.
The amount of sexism and just…women being seen as objects in this story is huge. There’s a lot of layers to the sexism in it too. 1. Runner sees his party as being ‘his’ and that made me rather dislike him from time to time. I would have liked more scenes where he was listening to the other characters without him interrupting. Or them deciding what they want. I would have like them to show that they aren’t just his lackeys. 2. Runner dismisses his party and seems to call all the shots. This happens on small things like him giving directions, to major things like when he alone decides on where the party is going. 3. Every male player character they run into with a name, seems to want to sexually abuse, harass, slander, or hurt women NPCs. This sets up a truly disgusting element in the book that kinda illustrates that Runner is the “good” male player and the others are all “bad” male player characters. Also there is only one woman player character, which…. yeah. 4. Runner says that his party is all better than him in their fields, but then he seems to outclass them. He intimidated and stunned the barbarian…. He was the captor of the rogue for a long while…. He knows elemental magic like the mage….. He sells knives instead of the merchant he picked up….. It can be explained away but at the same time…. this is still a thing. 5. The ending of the book (explained later). 6. This is very specific but, Runner goes with the disfigured merchant to sell wares and the buyer is disgusted by the disfigurement. So Runner makes a huge show of being a “white knight” and defending her…. even though she has been disfigured her entire life and probably knows how to use this to her advantage. It really felt pandering and just gross. In summary, there is a lot problematic sexism. If this is a thing that bothers you a lot then I’d skip this book. It’s not gonna go away.
Moving on, the ending part was very weird and felt oddly rushed compared to the rest of the book. The party gets to this castle and there’s just…. mountains of dead women strewn about. Even a wall of them. We meet this random character that is very much into necrophilia and a hoarder. It’s implied he made this…. mess. Then Runner records him…. having ….’fun’ with one of the bodies. This upsets Runner of course, who leaps out and questions the man instead of a stealth attack. And the evil…. male player escapes. I don’t understand why this is in the book? I don’t know how it connects to the plot. I don’t know why there are so many corpses or why it was something we as an audience needed to see. I really just…. don’t know. I don’t know if this was supposed to be connected to the theme. I just… really don’t know.
tl;dr: I think this book overall is a fun lighthearted read that you can enjoy if you don’t think too hard on it. There’s a few things I didn’t like and other scenes I find absolutely hilarious. Ending is weird and a bit rushed.