(No Spoilers)

I have long said that in many great series, especially coming of age or revolutionary stories, there is a turning point; a point in which the tone and attention shifts to highlight and begin the next (and often final) stretch of growth and development. At this time, we see the characters come together and really show their prime, we have passed the beginning stages and now is the time where the author really shows their audience what their characters and their world is capable of. The easiest example of this is the Harry Potter movies, the first two introduce you to the world and you see the lighter side of the that makes it special and great, with a few noteworthy glimpses of the darker side. But it is the 3rd and 4th movies where that new and inexperienced tone shifts and sets the stage for the final 3/4 movies where all that build up really pays off. We are no longer children in need of finding our footing, we are capable and need to face this very real grim danger, and we see both the character growth start to peak and we see more of the deeper and darker parts of the world. All of which are made possible by the initial build up, and that turning point that marked the transition from promising prospect to true greatness. This book is that transition point for the Life Reset Series.

Having been a fan of the series since the 1st book came out, I have followed each release and the accompanying audiobook development. And after the time between the release of the 2nd and 3rd book, and the initial mixed reception, I decided to go back and reread the first 2 books so I could be fully prepared for this one. I was not disappointed. This series was my introduction to the Lit-Rpg genre and opened my eyes to the possibilities. I loved the world and the characters, and absolutely adored the delightful and talented narration of Jeff Hays and the rest of the soundbooth theater family. And since beginning this series i have gone on to complete several other books of the genre and other books narrated by soundbooth theater. Having gone there and back again as Bilbo would say, I can say the first two books of Life Reset are some of the bests in the entire genre. So naturally, I came into this book with high expectations, and admittedly some worries from the mixed responses I was hearing.

We start this book immediately after the end of the 2nd book, picking up at full speed without losing the energy built up with the last book’s finale. Which I will say, this type of start definitely lends well to readers like me who like to read an entire series from start to finish with few gaps in-between. Immediately you will notice that the direction of the Green Piece Clan has shifted from desperate defense to tactical and determined development. This change in tone I found to be incredibly interesting and I was very engaged throughout its entirety trying to figure out the best way to grow the clan and reach these goals that have been building up this entire time. The stakes get high in this book, and they build in a natural way that fits with everything going on. No part of the story felt forced or hand-fisted, and the progression of the plot, Oren, and the clan felt fluid and powerful. Especially towards the end you get the sense that the time and effort Oren and the other players put in is really starting to pay off without becoming overpowered to a game breaking extent. Yes, our clan members are getting powerful, but you see many times where they are legitimately vulnerable or outclassed and need to act cleverly rather than just brute force their way through every situation. Handling that power and skill scaling is a difficult thing to manage as an author, and often leads to main characters in other stories either feeling too weak or unkillable by the end of the first book. This humbling stance on progression makes you feel like Oren is getting quite powerful, but still needs to be smart and think out what he does because there are consequences that can be drastic, and we see a few of those occur throughout the book.

Overall, the story progresses in a way that feels very natural and more like the 2nd half of book 2 with how fluid it is. The writing has overall become more concise and allows for more content and more dynamic content to happen with fewer words, which is why this book is several hours shorter than its predecessors, which was a concern of mine. I was worried with the shorter length that it meant there would be less story, when in reality, it ended up being the opposite. Just as much happens in this book as the prior books without needing to spend as much time to get to the point. Which brings me to my next statement, do not go into this book expecting the direction to be the same as the last book. This world is a video game and video games have side quests, and this book spends around 75% of its time handling a few very important side quests that have major implications on the overall goal Oren has had since book 1. The impacts of these events you will see throughout the rest of the entire series, which I will get back to shortly.

Oren makes a lot of mistakes and comes up with some very clever ideas that really highlight the dynamic and more rounded character he is, lending to him feeling like a clever though sometimes impulsive human that makes mistakes. His dynamic nature and the lived-in feeling of the world of NEO is brought to life expertly by Jeff Hays, Annie Ellicott, and Lauren Catherine Winkle. Each of them shows off their ability to bring energy, charisma, and emotion to each of the characters they voice. Especially Jeff who shows off more of his large dynamic range with many of the new characters brought into this book. You can tell they love what they do and put in a lot of effort to take what they did in the beginning of the series and improve upon it.

This leads me to one of my only complaints or warnings about this book. With the expansion of the cast of characters, and the overhaul soundbooth theater did to expand their narration of the story, there were a few minor changes to the sound that might throw some people off. In the first two books there were only a few sound effects added, primarily used to accent or separate the in-game system sounds, like the ring that plays when you hear “Level Up.” In this book however, there are a lot more sound effects added throughout, both used on character voices and as background music/sounds. Most of these I felt added to the story and overall production, but there are a few instances where I felt the volume was a little too loud and made it hard to hear the narration itself. Additionally, they added a slight computerized filter on Vick when he does the system notifications and stats, when it originally sounded the same as his character talking normally. For me, having started this book immediately after finishing book 2, the change stuck out drastically at first, but quickly faded out of notice and ended up actually helping me discern what was Vick talking and what was a system notification in the moments of heavy dialogue and stat management. Which has definitely been increased in this book, we are seeing a lot of new places, people, and powers in this book and with that comes a lot of stats and numbers being read off. While I know some struggle with these, I never found them to get too taxing or hard to follow in this book, I do believe the few changes to the sound do help with following along.

(Minor Spoilers in this paragraph)

My biggest acknowledgement and word of caution to anyone looking to read this book is that it is not the end of the series. When it first came out many people thought this was the end of a trilogy, when there are in fact 3 other books out now that continue the story. The ending of this book Is extremely impactful and is a large part of what shifts the direction of the rest of the series from following its beginning path to having all of the elements built up come together in full force. It is also the reason I waited to publish this review until after I had reached the end of the series to confirm that this major impact would be worth reading past this point, and it most certainly is.

In conclusion, Life Reset: Hobnobbing, New Era Online Book 3 by Shemer Kuznits and narrated by Soundbooth Theater is an amazing read. The world is exciting and rich, the characters are dynamic, funny, and interesting, and the story really builds up and sets the stage for the rest of the series, which has much more to come. It is one of the best Lit-Rpg stories with some of the most immersive narration I have ever heard. I highly recommend it to people who enjoyed the first two books and highly recommend the series to anyone who enjoys Lit-Rpg or has wanted to try it for the first time.