This is one of the best series I’ve listened to. It’s definitely rated top 10 for me. The performance is also top tier. Characters are easily identifiable and animated uniquely. I love everything about this series except 2 things. First, like most other litrpg, the magnificence of the story is cheapened by the baseline attitudes of all the males. Every single female that they encounter is reduced to looks and their level of attraction to them even after marriage. I get it. Men are sexual but they have to be deeper than this. At least for storytelling purposes. John Wick is an excellent example of how to tell a kickass story without being a horn dog who is basically trying to live out harem fantasies.
Next, and for me this is even worse than the first, I cringed so damn hard every time Henry’s race (“the Asian man”) and Thirsty’s race (“the Black man”) was said. For Henry, it had absolutely no relevance to who he was because his life is even before being isekai’d could have happened to anybody. Thirsty’s race was only initially relevant as a baseline description but after that, it had no bearing on who he is or his story. Worse yet, not once was Jason’s race mentioned in the is way. Not once was Jason called “the white man” or “the caucasian man”. Why? It’s like Jason’s race is the default while the other races were treated an anomaly. The problem with this is that for every single character, you could switch out their race and their stories wouldn’t change at all. Even Thirsty’s story would only be mildly impacted because his history of being bullied and shunned could happen within any culture. So what was the purpose of that? I don’t get it.
These things really started to the ruin the story for me. So much so that I am hesitant to purchase the next book in this series.