As of this review, I’ve listened to the first 5 books in this series.

Jeff Hays knocked this one out of the park. His narration is excellent throughout the entire series. No complaints at all.

Matt Dinniman delivered a fantastic story with this series. Each book has been wonderful and I’ll likely continue to read the entire series.

While this series doesn’t top Defiance of the Fall in my personal list, it’s still such a great series that I think everyone should pick it up. I normally can’t stand the introduction of “cute” pets and companions in LitRPG/Cultivation stories, and I was worried Donut would be the same, but I was very happily surprised with her character. The only thing better than Dinniman’s portrayal of these characters is Hays’ narration of them.

Following are some minor gripes I have with the series as a whole.

Buy this book!

In the first book there are some minor gripes I have with some of the choices the characters made (not enough explanation, some leaps in judgment, taking unnecessary risks, etc) but overall I love it. Further into the series I noticed the author using “Donut being naive and impulsive (only it’s secretly part of a master plan)” as a plot device, and I felt that lacking, but it’s an easy and effective method to include new elements and puzzle pieces into their toolkit.

I only have 2 issues with the overall series so far:

1) As the series progresses, there is a much heavier feeling of insurmountable lurking doom, in much the same way Hunger Games felt. The characters are in immediate danger from the dungeon, but they are also completely at the mercy of a vast interstellar society with zero recourse. This is an issue only because it doesn’t present as easy-listening as I would like from this genre, and I feel it tends to weigh in the listener in a way that takes away from the otherwise enjoyable story. Don’t get me wrong, this is a hard feeling to capture and it reflects well on Dinniman’s skill as an author.

2) Again as the series progresses, the author turns away from the frantic and frenetic combat that you’d expect from this genre and the main characters and from the style presented in book 1, and instead writes the climax of each arc as a slow unveiling of the protagonists’ plans. This results in the feeling that everything is choreographed rather than organic, and while there is still reaction and disruption of plans, it doesn’t have the same feeling as it used to. I LOVE the “how’s he going to get out of it this time” feeling that Dinniman captures so well, but I’d rather feel there was spontaneity to his actions rather than planning and execution. I love the unique and ingenious ways the characters problem-solve, and I feel that the impossible situations the characters are places in sometimes seem written to require these ultra-complicated plans.