I listen to a new title every day or two at work. Many, many LitRPG’s in the stack. This one stands tall among my favourites. But when i found out that this was Shemer’s first book… and he still has a normal job… Holy Crap.
This book is epic, clocking in at over 24 hours. And I can’t tell you how many times i glanced down at the time remaining in dread as the elapsed time ticked down to the end. I didn’t want the story to end.
Despite the genre being pretty well-tread ground recently, Shemer manages to introduce quite a few original ideas and mechanics to his world, with a constant and consistent flow of new and interesting challenges.
The book us a lot of fun, well paced, engaging, brilliant story arcs, and possibly one of the best battle scenes I’ve seen (heard?) in LitRPG.
And as far as Jeff Hays narrating? You really can’t lose. The book seems to have been made for him. He has incredible talent and a keen knack for capturing the essence of the characters and their personalities, and truly bringing them to life in your minds eye. And he’s a lot of fun.
Five stars. Someone go lock Shemer in a room with his laptop so he finishes the next 10 books in the series quick like bunny.