So I wanted to like this series. I’m listening to book 3 and, overall, the series is entertaining enough so long as you don’t think too hard. Plot holes and inconsistencies litter the entirety of the system the author sets up and that’s just unfortunate. The plot, the system, the mechanics, the spells…it all has tremendously great structure for a deep LITRPG story that could be reasonably crunchy while still keeping a depth for characters and villainy that is rarely seen in the LITRPG landscape. Unfortunately, it’s a missed opportunity.

There are a lot of issues I could list, but I’ll try to keep it to the most annoying and plot devolving.

1) The main character is offered the option of setting up a stronghold. It’s never explained why he got the option and nobody else did. Furthermore, you’d think he’d get the option for an outpost first. This is the biggest issue in a series of dominos that just tilt things in the MC’s favor.

2) The MC survives a fight with a 60 ft void titan while being super close to the giant. His luck stat is pretty much rock bottom at this point, but that never seems to prevent the MC from coming out on top. The Void Titan being the same mob that pretty much destroyed a city of thousands down to a few dozen doesn’t show itself to be much of a threat at all. Throughout the story, he’s surrounded by the almighty PLOT ARMOR.

3) Fights are all the same. Mobs are nearly all the same. They have obscenely large teeth and sharp claws. The MC gets shredded to hell, but is always fine in the end. Not a single mob uses magic until the end of book 2.

4) LITRPG elements are a mixed bag. It’s like the author wasn’t sure what direction to take the system. The MC wears crap gear for the longest time even after having someone that’s the equivalent of an enchanter that can add +5 to a stat on gear/items. That’s the equivalent of 2 and 1/2 levels of stats. In fact, as of book 3, this enchanter has not made a single item for anyone that we’ve been told about. He’s researching stuff in the background and growing crystals, but … the profession is mostly MIA.

5) Stats are on gear are largely MIA until most of the way through book 2.

6) The MC does an amazing job abusing the market kiosk to make tons of money, but doesn’t really buy anything truly overpowered with the money. By the time he buys plasma rifles, they do only somewhat better damage than regular firearms. Granted, this would break the challenge for the MC if he could just solve all of his problems through money, but it’s really weird that, despite his large wealth, the kiosk, finances, and city management aspects of this LITRPG are largely slap dash.

7) Establishing outposts and strongholds are pretty much free. Not only that, but they often award the MC money. This should have been reversed.

8) Villains. Wow. Just…wow. Every human villain is a copy paste of “The strong rule the weak. And I’m a rapist and very, very bad man and deserve to die. Just hear how my bravado is begging for you to put a bullet in my head.” They’re all scarecrows. There were SOOOOO many chances to have human villains that are smart, not rapists, care for their people, while also fundamentally opposing or disagreeing with Allistor. The remnants of the military are prime candidates for this sort of character. Instead, all villains are bad. If you disagree with the MC, you’re bad and deserve to be shot. All of this leads to probably the biggest issue with the entire series.

9) There is zero tension. The MC will always survive no matter what. Threats will be eliminated almost as soon as they’re introduced. The MC will always discover things before the other humans. The MC will always need to “educate” the non-gamers of the world. That’s a huge issue for me. This idea that only gamers will survive is just idiotic and completely defies suspension of disbelief. The MC NEVER learns a single new things from ANY OTHER HUMAN that isn’t already part of his collective.

10) Not a single human villain save for one figures out how to establish a stronghold. And none of them or their people use magic. Ever. Nope, that’s only reserved for the MC.

11) The class system might as well not exist. The MC gets what sounds like an awesome class at level 10. The only change this comes with is 2 spells. By level 35 or so, there is zero news of his class progressing or evolving.

12) Magic is slapdash. At first it seems like the intricate details of the magics the people learn is embedded in their minds. I was really hoping for people to be able to take that knowledge and evolve the spell mechanics. For example, I half expected the MC to combine his flame burst with erupt and get a sort of magma burst thing going. No such luck. All but the best spells have no cooldown. So why isn’t the MC just slapping barrier on top of barrier on himself? Or duel casting? For all the times he uses Barrier, we never get details of it evolving to absorb more than 1K damage. Sure spells level up and get stronger, but all of that is left vague. Furthermore, the spell Restraint is just utterly broken. It’s a 3 to 10 second stun with no cooldown. The only reason all the villains weren’t constantly stunlocked is due to the whim of the MC. Furthermore, that nobody that opposed the MC got this spell and used it in conflict with the MC is just lame. YAY! PLOT ARMOR!

With more work, this story could have been amazing. If the villains and litrpg mechanics had been fleshed out more, this could have rivaled most of LITRPG out there. Sadly, it’s a missed opportunity. I know this sounds harsh and it is. I sure as heck couldn’t have written this story. I know nothing about writing. Still, I’ve read A LOT of litrpg out there and it saddens me to know how much better this could have been had it cooked a bit longer in the drafting phase.