First of all, I’d like to give props to the performer who reads out this story, he is quite amazing in his own right. The characters pop out and are portrayed well by his voice acting as if you really are in this epic story. The world is vast and varied and lots of ideas and lore and thoughts go into this story that makes the futuristic galaxy of Proxima a great addition to any book collection, and that is ultimately what draws me into the world. The bad part comes in with the main character of the story, and the main character to my surprise is not the isekai hero we all know and love.
You know the isekai hero trope, right? Weak guy, who doesn’t know what’s going on, etc and becomes super strong and super useful and unique in the end. They turn that idea on its head by making what you thought was the main character into this but then they pull the rug out from under you complete with the true main character of the story. The Goblin everyone keeps talking about.
I am 100% mixed on this being the main character of the series and it has soured me on liking this series 3/5 or and it’s simply because the interesting characters to me are overshadowed by the writer’s love of this meme culture goblin and his people. It just gets away from anything deep or compelling and instead goes for fart gags, goblin whining for five minutes, and everyone is annoyed by the goblin but never being brave enough to do anything tangible about the goblin. The closest you get is rude swears, some slapstick hits, etc for this cantankerous character. I am a big fan of humor myself, and I appreciate a good funny guy to break up the serious tone of a story once in a while but…this goblin is too much.
You even get side stories starring the goblin, the goblin makes choices for sotiatopms and they go along with it after saying they shouldn’t trust him, people hate him, few respect him, and even if he is a mostly rounded character he steals the show in a bad way. I am not a writer myself, but I do know passion for characters and story angles and this seems to be that the goblin is just getting 60-70% of the love and press for this story rather than the dozens of other characters who have stories of their own. Maybe its a way to subtly promote other books? I am not sure but one thing is for sure.
This story is not about an isekai hero, this is about an isekai hero’s ally who is comic relief becoming the Main character halfway through the first few chapters and trying to keep up with all the memes and pop culture references that get shotgunned at you constantly and religiously like its the purpose of the story. The other 30% of the story is great, great characters, combat, plotlines, and magic…but this goblin? Just rename the story “Goblin Legends” because we get 300% more goblin lore and humor than we will ever get in actual litrpg lore. Sorry for the rant. A warning for those seeking more litrpg goodness.