Dawn Chapman is one of the first LITRPG authors I ever read. She is among Blaise Corvin, Dakota Krout, and William D. Arand; which, in my eyes is some fantastic company to keep. The first three books of Putera were really different than your standard LITRPG fare, in so far that it focused on an NPC, named Maddie who was just trying to get by and keep some people she held near and dear safe.
Then Dawn did something crazy. First, she slips away from Maddie in her new book. Then, she triples the length of this book compared to the first three Putera stories. Finally, she ditches Andrea Parsneau in favor of a new narrator. Now, if you knew Mr. Ray, that’s me, you’d say Mr. Ray, out of respect, I know that leaving behind characters and narrators who have done beautiful work in the past behind in favor of some new characters and narrative perspectives is just plain craziness. You just don’t do that. That’ll upset your stomach. And, I’m touched that you’d be so concerned for me and aware of my feelings, but I have to say this. I really like the longer book length. The first three Putera novels had a serial feel to them, and it worked. This is one cohesive uninterrupted tale. Secondly, in order to get this perspective, we needed a new character, and if you HAVE to replace Andrea, well, Anneliese Rennie is a good choice. She gives the series a new voice, figuratively and literally, and I like Maddie belonging to Andrea.
The story itself is already centered in a familiar place, and so we flow into the story rather than being swept away. Emma/Akilla the MC is a complete noobie, and she is one of those clichés in that she is special, but considering the populations size of the other players It isn’t so hard to swallow. I have always appreciated that Chapman keeps the crunchy stuff to a minimum in her books, I think that spouting numbers would just break the flow that she achieves, and she plays this riff out with the constant pings that Akilla receives. The really nice thing is that the world building is pretty much done at this point, and all she needs to do is tell an amazing story, which is exactly what she does. Chapman’s attention to detail is pretty legendary, and she never fails to make the detail interesting rather than verbose and boring. The whole story is well written and full of adventure.
Anneliese Rennie is not Andrea P., but she manages to hold her own. She does give each character their own distinctive voice. But there are a couple of audio nibblets or hiccups that I noticed, nothing major though. I really liked her characterization as Akilla, and can see why Chapman opted to give the new spinoff series a distinctive voice. This is my first time listening to her, and I think I would be happy to hear her again in the future.
A great way to continue Puatera, but bring back Maddie soon!!! Needs my Mads. Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. Getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.
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