This is a book that tries a little too hard to be a lot of things, or at least jam a lot of things into it. It is a Litrpg book that is sort of mashed up with cowboys and aliens. To me, some of the best and worst parts of the book is the MC. Chuck is a marine who suddenly finds himself in a new world and dies pretty quickly. Second time around he starts to get things right. I like how readily Chuck acclimates to his new life, he almost never even considers looking back in many ways. But Chuck is pretty plain as leads go, he isn’t great at making decisions, and he goes out of his way to be rude to people or at least stand off from them. IN fact, the other characters end to outshine the MC in every scene.

The book, I don’t know, didn’t feel like it was a harem book at first but it gradually grew into one, and the whole time I kept wondering how the MC got all the babes being the way he was. Chuck never opens up about anything and he has no problem giving others a sort of false or weak hope and in his relationships there are a lot of things that he never really resolves from his actions.

Mayer’s narration was middle of the road stuff. There were parts that he was good and parts I just wanted him to talk a little faster and blow his nose or something. I absolutely hated the music that is added in. The MC even says that it distracted him! I like mariachi, , and loved the movie but it just did not fly here. I think it was too loud and came a cross like the El Degüello while it should have been fun. BTW, the El Degüello is he throat cutting song that means no quarter will be given, and is what was played every night all night long outside the Alamo before they were wiped out. While I’m sure it fits the tale it did not please my ears. I really think a manlier tone would have helped.

Overall bits of the book worked and bits didn’t. Truly, giving the MC a different personality would have shifted the gears quite a bit it would have changed the whole dynamic of the story, but he is sort of an anchor to everyone around him. There is a lot of good stuff to this book but the combo of the MC and narration (I think Mayer would be great in another book but is weak here) don’t do the tale real justice.

Final score 7 stars, it is a decent tale and has a ton of potential if the MC has a personality implant in the next book. It does well in the world building and the secondary characters are fun, and the action is excellent.