As always, don’t trust the 5 star reviews. Most aren’t reflective of the actual content of the review and a bulk were provided free copies.

As always, a book series is really hard to screw up if you have a modicum of talent. The intrigue and mystery of where things well lead allow an author enough time to establish world building to a degree that keep the listener/read engaged.

The second book in any series is the true obstacle an author must overcome and this book feels as though it fails at that endeavor. Our MC is a jaded child jealous of a division of society that is inherently better. The author essentially outlines a superior species enhanced by another symbiotic race of nano machines plus those that are not enhanced. This creates a society of ‘Supers’ and ‘Regs’.

The outline of the story has the potential to be great but is weighed down by conflicting morals where our MC’s emotional immaturity really shines. He isn’t okay with killing pirates who have raped and murdered for easy money but is okay with fundamentally altering their brains to basically punish them for their crimes until eventually a court deems them guilty and kills them anyways? He is okay with stripping other Supers of their powers simply for doing their jobs? The MC is practically handed a facility that makes him the most powerful person on planet Earth but can’t spare any extra resources helping the only person who has offered him aid, hoarding everything for himself.

Add in the fact that the MC acts like a whiney child all the time and when confronted about his world view, it becomes clear the author never actually has plans on challenging him as a hero. Instead of giving the character room to grow emotionally the MC believes his way is the best. Our MC is NOT a good person. He also isn’t a bad person either but will go out of his way to point out how ‘good’ he is. Everything he has gained he has either stolen or been handed to him.

In truth, the series attempts to do power fantasy with a litrpg superhero twist but fails at everything it tries to establish in the second book. The MC becomes too strong to quickly so to create false tension the author simply makes the protagonist ‘forget’ much of his strength. He will even address this being saying different variations of ‘Well, I am so used to being oppressed and weak I forget I’m actually super strong’. He isn’t a Jack of All Trades but a Master of All Trades.

Travis does an amazing job as always.