Dungeon Configure Book Review

Dungeon Configure is the first book in the Dark Exchange series. Currently there are two books out, but this is just my review on the first. Book one was published on December 5, 2019.

I've read quite a few dungeon core stories, but none that I've read have actually taken place on our modern day Earth. When David gets in a brutal car crash with some unworldly beast he wakes up to see his own body, lying broken in the wreckage of his prized car. Before long his fairy guide shows up to teach him the ways of being a dungeon core, which he promptly kills with a bug zapper. And every other wannabe guide that comes after. Using the corpses of those fairies he is able to make his own minions to revive his damaged body. Now David has two consciousnesses, one is his physical body and the other is the dungeon. They are both separate but with the ability to send his body out into the world the opportunities are limitless, that is until David's body becomes horribly disfigured in a terrible accident. Now on the run David tries to repair his body. Meanwhile David's dungeon sentience is fighting a core on another world. Before long dungeon David is overrun and "human" David must try to reclaim his territory from an ancient and powerful core, else he dies in seven days.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. Parts were good, I was reading and like, okay, this is getting good. 30 minutes of reading later and the author suddenly introduces something new without explaining it well, which made it bad again. It went on like that until the end of the book, it was not very consistent. For instance, a new system to David's interface was added, and that wasn't well explained. How he got many different creatures and learned how to access certain parts of his interface weren't explained either. It made it really difficult to enjoy all of the book, and I just had to accept that for half of the additions to keep the story interesting they made no sense. Another issue I had with the book was a lot of vulgar comments. They were totally unnecessary and just made me annoyed at the author. I also found myself annoyed that the authors characters criticized LitRPG as being a vulgar genre and disliking that. There were two reasons I had issues with that, that you kind of half to go searching for that (you don't really stumble upon it, and if you do you can avoid it) and the author was writing a book with many vulgar comments. It was very hypocritical in that way and just annoyed me, because many times when the genre was brought up that was mentioned. My final issue with the book was it didn't switch between dungeon David and "human" David well. It did switch between them often but usually not in the smoothest manner where I knew I was suddenly reading about the other David. Aside side from those things though, I did really enjoy parts of the story. It was violent, but it was an interesting book and I enjoyed reading it for the most part. I don't know how much of a dungeon core book it is though. Most of the story focused on "human" David, and while he had dungeon core powers nobody was delving that dungeon. It was still LitRPG but it definitely is not exclusively dungeon core. Overall, parts of the book were very good but others were just hopelessly confusing and I don't feel like I can recommend it to read or to stay away from, I had very mixed feelings about the book. For those that have read the book, please let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Personally, I don't think I will continue the series because although it wasn't bad, it wasn't good enough to make me want to read more.

Azarinth Healer Book Review

This is a book that I have heard about for a long time. Azarinth Healer is supposed to be one of the Royal Road greats. The book is still ongoing with over 5,000 pages having been written since about two years ago. The author is Rhaegar.

Ilia is a normal college student. essentially, broke and working at a minimum wage job. And like most she has a hobby, in her case that is kickboxing. When she goes to bed one night and wakes up in the middle of a forest filled with drakes and other things that want to eat her, she's freaked out. However she quickly learns to love this new world that gifted her with an overpowered class that she can use to destroy anything that stands in her path. Her class is a merger of a brawler and a healer, both parts about as strong as a full time one. While strong Ilia is definitely not the strongest and the battle junkie will do her best to work her way up the levels and take on stronger and stronger opponents.

I think it is best to disclose that I was not able to get through the entire book. I got through 28 percent or about 1450 pages. I attempted to do 5,200 pages in 7 days but about 2 and a half days in I realized no matter how much I love reading I would be able to read 750 pages a day without going insane. That being said though, most of what I read I loved. The main character is overpowered, but in one of the best ways. She goes into situations where she is fighting something hundreds of levels above her because she is DPS, Tank, and Healer all rolled into one. It is great to read. She mainly adventures and fights alone in what I read, however near the end that changed to a team based one. This is something I didn't enjoy. I really liked the insane battle junkie healer of death but when she went on a team I felt like that took away what I really loved about the story. Maybe this goes back to what it was later on but the last few hundred pages I read didn't have the same appeal as the first 1200. Regardless though those 1200 pages were amazing. The class may not have been balanced but she still struggled because she was taking on opponents hundreds of levels above and it was a joy to read. I do plan to hopefully one day finish the book, but if any of you have read past page 1500 let me, and the other people who read this know if she goes back to being the insane battle junkie that kept me reading that first chunk. I may write an updated review in the future on the next 3500 pages.

Second Chance- A Battle Mage Reborn Book Review

Second Chance- A Battle Mage Reborn is the first book in the EndWorld Everlasting Saga. The book is by R. Brady Frost. Currently there is only one book in the series, which was published on October 17th of this year.

Denton Wade is an aging older man dying from cancer. He also distrusts new technology with a passion. For those nearing the end of their life though there is an opportunity for a guaranteed afterlife, which is similar to a video game. Even though Denton doesn't trust technology at the urging of his children he and his eldest daughters look at the facilities. While there Denton pretty much decides he isn't going to do it, however he finds himself in the game world before he even leaves the place. It turns out he died two weeks after that visit, and had changed his mind and decided to upload his consciousness. However before that could happen he had passed away, the only reason he was in the game now was that they had scanned him when he first visited. Now in a game world he begrudgingly accepts the new level one player will set out to save the virtual world.

The writing in this book was good, however, the story was not. There wasn't much that was unique to the story, I felt like it was just a generic book that didn't stand out from any others in the genre. The book wasn't bad, but it didn't make me want to read it. I had to push myself to finish the book as it couldn't keep my attention. Practically everything I read was done before, the best parts seemed to be ideas taken from other books. While that isn't necessarily bad it didn't keep my interest because I felt like I was reading something that I had before. The story hadn't added anything unique to itself. The character was lucky enough to be spawned with a rare relic which he temporarily traded for a sword that was very overpowered for his level. I didn't really like that, it meant that his power was more given to him instead of earned. He also had allies that were more powerful than him so while there was a couple pages of him working himself most of it was him fighting with the more experienced, it felt like the character never earned much himself. One example of that were some rare drops he found, the more experienced person told him exactly what to do in order to profit off of it. There wasn't much that I enjoyed about the book, but there were a few things. The dialogue was fun to read and two of the characters were intriguing, neither of those being the main one. One such example was a guy who got cheated out of all of his money and went from a weapon combatant to a brawler with metal pants. While that seemed odd his story was very interesting and I think if the book was written from his point of view it would be much more entertaining, funny, and a more enjoyable read. The other was a woman who's main quest was to protect and save some dire wolf pups, I would have loved to hear more of her story and the other guy's. I feel like the story had promising characters, but the main character and the general basic world made it so the story just wasn't that interesting. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book but I hope the author's next series can tap into more of his own ideas, like metal pants and the dire wolf protector.

He Who Fights With Monsters Book Review #2

I reviewed this series a few months ago, but a good chunk more of that book has been released. If you haven't seen that review, check that out first because this will include spoilers for some of the newer parts. Last I reviewed this it had 166 chapters, it is now up to almost the mid 250s. The review for the first part is here: http://dragons-lair-book-blog.blogspot.com/2020/02/he-who-fights-with-monsters-book-review.html

I won't recap the story because I did that in the last review. However, I feel like the writing style has changed a little. In the more recent part of the book, lots has changed in the story. I feel like Jason is becoming less of a bizarre and strange politician and more of a person hardened by his experiences. This is both good and bad though. I feel like it does make the story less hilarious and goes to more serious tones. That isn't a bad thing but it does contrast the original opinion of Jason that we saw in the first chunk of the book. I have really enjoyed reading the increased synergy between Jason's adventuring group. They obviously become closer, less guarded, and work together well which is really good to see. One thing I don't enjoy though is the fact that Jason's team seems relatively untouchable. Jason gets damaged a fair bit, however his team always seems to be relatively unscathed. There are "close calls" but you never get the feeling of Jason's team really being at risk. For being hurt for more than a chapter. This is a little frustrating as danger makes books more interesting, and even though the book is great the lack of danger concerning Jason's team makes things a little less excited. Overall though, the book is still funny, albeit not as much as it used to be. The book has taken on more of a serious tone, however it seems like only Jason is still at risk. However, it is still a very enjoyable book and I still recommend it. The length of the book, over 2,000 pages, also makes it a great read while we do our best to stay inside.

Alpha Test Book Review

Well, I did say I would eventually break my resolution. It's been a few months but I do have another book review and I hope to get back on track. I read Alpha Test by David R. Pendleton. The book was published on March 30, 2018. 

Alpha Test has a certain gimmick when compared to other LitRPG books. The main character, Devon, has never been able to walk. When he is given the chance to alpha test the hyper realistic world of Angromoria he was excited at the prospect and signed up immediately. Sleepless nights are what follow as he anxiously awaits the delivery of the pod that will take him to a world where anything is possible. When the system finally arrives he is taken to a world where anything is possible, and he can do what he never could have hoped for before. He can run, walk, climb, and sort of skip. He made himself a Gnome and goes by the name Gnobody. After his first play session he attempts to log out, only to find he can't. He learns his mind doesn't want to go back to that crippled body and he must make a new life for himself in Angromoria. He is labled an alpha because of that, there are a few other alphas as well. None able to log out, all disabled in real life, all with a large bounty on their head. The people to get a first kill on an alpha get a lot of real life money, life changing amounts. With the whole game hunting for alphas like him and with a non combat oriented class, Devon is going to do his best to survive the onslaught coming for him. 

Overall the story of this book was really good, I enjoyed it and it made a good read. The dialogue was well written and seemed like they could be real conversations. I did have a few issues with the book though. The first of which was how quickly Devon learned to utilize his new legs, he had trouble walking and running at first but within the first few minutes of playing the game he is climbing trees and the fact that he had never been able to run or walk before is pretty much forgotten after the first couple chapters. I also thought the reason he couldn't get out was not a good one. I think it was kind of a dumb reason and the author could have handled it better. I also thought the time in the game had lots of plot holes. For example, there is a countdown that happens somewhere in the book and every two lines of dialogue a minute has gone by. Another example of a time plothole is the fact that in game time progresses much slower than in real life. You can live a day in the game which equates to an hour in life. My issue is not with that, many other books have utilized that same idea, my issue is that there is a real life stream of all the players that is only behind a few hours. However, that shouldn't be possible because the stream would have to be running at 24x speed. Another issue I had with the book was the main character had a romantic relationship but within a week that other character had left everything in her life behind to travel the world with the main character. I think that relationship moved way too fast in that aspect. My final issue with the book was the stats. They were way too in depth. There would be incredibly obscure and specific stats like dancing, or drug tolerance, or politician, or any other number of obscure stats. There were so many and none were well explained. They did not format well Kindle or on a computer so I pretty much skipped the games stats. They definitely needed to be trimmed down because nobody needs to read the value of 50 different stats. I know I listed a lot of negatives but I just felt like those were things that could be ironed out, overall I enjoyed the book and found it to be a good read. My criticisms weren't really anything to major throughout the story just little plot holes I found or things I didn't like that could have been fixed with a more thorough proofreader. The stats were my only major criticism but overall the book had good dialogue, a great story, creative takes on LitRPG, and a unique crafting system. I do recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed reading LitRPG or fantasy novels in the past. 

The whole idea of the series is that there are multiple different rounds of testing the game has to go through before release. My guess is that the author intended for those different testing rounds to each have their own books. Sadly though, the author passed away soon after publishing this book. It sounds like he had started book two and they hoped to finish and release that book within a year, but the book was published over two years ago. Please check out this book because it was a really enjoyable read, even as a standalone, and I wish the Pendleton family the best.

Thieves' Dungeon Book Review

Thieves' Dungeon is another Royal Road book that I recently read. The book is written by NoDragons, the author first started writing the book 5 months ago. Since there the book has been finished, its actually the only complete book that I've read on Royal Road. Here is the link: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/27261/thieves-dungeon

This is a dungeon core book, for those that don't know what I dungeon core book is I'll elaborate. Basically, a dungeon core book is an entity that creates a dungeon, traps, monsters, environment, the whole deal. The dungeon gets stronger with each adventurer's struggles or death, and the adventurers get stronger by fighting in the dungeon. There are many dungeon core books out there but each have slight differences. For this book there were quite a few differences from the typical book. First difference, there isn't one elemental choice, the dungeon builds upon each attunement, as they're called. I liked this a lot, it gave the dungeon a lot of versatility. Second difference, there isn't a guiding sprite/fairy/guide, the dungeon is all alone. This was a negative part about the story for me, usually the guide is funny and keeps the story interesting with dialogue between the core and guide. Because of that, I felt the story fizzles out.Third difference was every adventurer actually posed a threat to the core. This made tensions higher, in a good way. The last main difference is, in my opinion, another bad thing. The only way the dungeon really gets stronger in this book is by killing adventurers. This balances with the fact that every adventurer poses a threat to the core, but I still didn't like how it actually changed the story. Many core books, for instance Elemental Dungeon, has adventurers that return and grow with each delve along with the dungeon. Through that, you gain the entertainment of dungeon and core. This book was different, the dungeon tried with all its power to kill every adventurer that entered. Overall, there were some positive takes on cores and there were some negative takes on cores in book.

I thought the book started out promising, but it went on too long and it just became mundane and boring. There were conflicts that I felt the author just forgot about. The core was "fighting" with the gods and the author seemed to forget about that for the majority of the book. I felt like the same thing happened with many secondary characters, the dungeons creations. One was his creation's creation, a mini golem that the author only revisited twice. I wanted to read more about that little guy and the rest of those characters. Overall, I felt like I disliked this series more and more as it went on and do not recommend it, the initial promise sadly dissipates.

The Wayward Bard Book Review

So sorry that this is late, completely slipped my mind yesterday. I should be back to the norm for next week. For this week, I read The Wayward Bard, a series by Lars M. The book was published on April 21, 2018 and there are two total books in the series. Both books can be found on Kindle Unlimited.

Daniel works a boring desk job, but one day he sees a huge amount of money soon to be transferred to his company's account. Dirty money sent by the mafia. The 8,000,000-ish euros have not been transferred yet though, and Daniel jumps at the opportunity. Rerouting it through many different places, the money eventually ends up in Daniel's account. Before being discovered, Daniel decides to take a 2 year vacation in the exclusive, expensive, and incredibly realistic experience of 5D (all five senses). His plan is to roll a bard, max charisma, and have his 2 year vacation be filled with music, women, alcohol, and gambling. He ends up arriving in the middle of nowhere though, only one village in sight. He tries to access his money to buy a portal, can't get it, and pisses the banker/mayor off with all his anger directed at her. Now, Daniel is stuck. He has no money, no combat ability, no skills other than music, and a town that hates him. That wayward bard will have a lot of work ahead of him.

I really enjoyed this series. From the author's disclaimers I guess bards are a stereotype for harem and stuff like that, but thank goodness there wasn't any in this. This series had a really unique magic system, which I really enjoyed reading about. I have yet to read any others with a system like it, and it was well explained too. The book was funny and had great characters as well. The characters were, for the most part, all pretty likable and fun to read about. The book was filled with great bad puns, which are always fun. The characters all developed and grew in their own way as well. One of the negatives I saw was that the author contradicted himself a few times. Nothing big, but the author said Daniel didn't lose his temper much, not true. It was smaller things like that, but like I said, nothing major. Another thing I didn't like was it seemed like the author forgot about things. For instance the main character gets something special in book 2, and while the book focuses on it a lot at first, it isn't really mentioned too much after, much to my disappointment. I felt like the author could have come up with a better explanation rather than just not focus on it too much. Overall though, I really recommend this book as I really enjoyed it, and none of the negatives were major ones.

Vainqueur the Dragon Book Review

This is another book review for a royal road book, however it also has part of it out on Amazon. It seems like there is a new chapter roughly every three days. The book started six months ago and is still currently being updated with new chapters, and the author is Void Herald. Here is the link: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/26534/vainqueur-the-dragon

Vainqueur was a mighty dragon, the best in the land a while ago. Then after just a brief 50 year nap he wakes up and sees a thief trying to steal from him, and his Goblin protectors of the hoard are nowhere in sight. Dismayed and angry, Vainqueur toys with his food, only for his food to reveal an incredible secret, the system. The system makes it so that people can level and grow in different classes, all you need to access it is to be knowledgeable of said system. Never before had any dragon, much less one as great as VAINqueur discovered such an incredible secret. Vainqueur blesses Victor with the chance to become his chief of staff and he sets out to amass the greatest hoard ever know to man, er, dragon that is.

I loved this book. Vainqueur is very pompous and egotistical, but not in a knowing way, which makes it really fun to read. All the characters are funny, except for one of the races, the economics of the world is hilarious and awesome. All around, it is just a really funny and good book. I can't tell you how many times I laughed aloud. For as funny as it is though, the characters don't really grow or change too much, but for a story like this that wasn't an issue. The book was obviously meant to be comedic, and it excelled at what it was meant to do. I loved the world setup, but I do wish there had been a bit more background to some of the things, and there were a few parts I wish the book hadn't skipped. For instance hopefully hilarious training "montages." Overall though, great book, really funny, but needed a but more background and less skipping around. If you are looking for a good read though, I can wholeheartedly guarantee you will enjoy it.

He Who Fights With Monsters Book Review

Previously I have been told that I should review something on Royal Road or other sites like that. Now, 1,465 pages (or 166 chapters) later I am up to date on the free, open version of He Who Fights With Monsters. He Who Fights With Monsters is written by Shirtaloon on Royal Road and ScribbleHub. For those of you who aren't aware, those are both sites where authors can post their books, usually a chapter at a time. If you read on Kindle or something like that, I suggest using WebToEPub to turn the story into a PDF then send that to your Kindle. He Who Fights With Monsters has a new chapter on every weekday, Monday through Friday, and has been going on for about six months. Here is the link: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/26294/he-who-fights-with-monsters

He Who Fights With Monsters begins with the main character, Jason, waking up naked in the middle of a hedge maze with no recollection of how he got there. Soon after he fights some mutated gerbils, kills a cannibal trying to find his next meal, gets magical abilities from some rocks, and kills some more cannibals. All in all, quite eventful. The main character Jason tries to make the best of this new world he finds himself in, his outrageous personality and political mind quickly putting him near the tops of some different social circles. Throughout the book Jason meets a wide variety of people and monsters, and kills a variety as well. Jason ends up creating a very dark and evil seeming power set, which is always fun to read about.

I really liked this book. It started off really great and slowly it lost some appeal but it was still a good book, within the last little bit the story has definitely picked up and is great once more. There wasn't ever a time where I did not enjoy reading the book, I just preferred the start and the more recent parts. Jason is an awesome character, he keeps the story funny and interesting. He is accomplishes many things through manipulation, which is really fun to read. He uses his innate weirdness to push someone else into doing what he wants, but it is always in an outrageous and funny way. I really enjoy the main character and the other characters are great as well. The book is LitRPG but doesn't really show damage or anything like that. I like how it is used however I do have one complaint about the LitRPG aspect. Spells and abilities will have different costs, but it never really gives it a numeric value or compares it to Jason's overall mana capacity. You don't know how much more a moderate mana spell costs compared to a minor, and you don't know how many times Jason can use it. For all I know, Jason can either use a moderate spell anywhere from five times to five hundred or more. The book never really gave an amount for that and I don't think it will, which is an annoyance. I like how the combat is written, but I don't like that I don't know how many times Jason can use something and I found that annoying when reading. Jason does have character growth, which I appreciate, and so do the people around him. The dialogue was believably written and usually witty and funny. I loved how the abilities fit together, especially for Jason, however it did seem like it made him overpowered. The story had good development as well and the book was always kept interesting and kept me wanting to read more. Overall, it was a really good book with a good story and even better dialogue however, the combat and abilities could use some refining. I will keep reading this book with each new chapter that comes out and it is definitely a book I can recommend.

Please let me know if you like me reviewing Kindle, Royal Road, or yet to be published books in the comments below.

Sufficiently Advanced Magic Book Review

Sufficiently Advanced Magic is a book written by Andrew Rowe. It is part of a two book series called Arcane Ascension. The first book was published on February 26th.

Arcane Ascension takes place in a world filled with magic. Upon reaching a certain age, one enters a spire for their judgement, where they go through battles and puzzles. They either die, or finish and receive an attunement. Attunments allow you to use specialized magic. There are guardians, given special strength and defense. There are shapers, given the ability to create and manipulate objects. There are elementalists, who can control fire, wind, and electricity. There are dozens more, each with unique abilities. Corin is the son of a low class noble, years ago his older brother took his judgement and never returned. Now, Corin has made it his mission to get a great attunement and climb to the top of the spire to ask the goddess herself to bring back his brother. For Corin though, it becomes much harder with a support oriented crafting attunement and the strongest people on the continent hunting him because he saw more than he should have.

I really liked this book. I loved the development of Corin. As it is crafting based, there was very good progression but Corin was also unique in the fact that he wasn't afraid to battle. He would make cool trinkets that would give him the upper hand in any type of battle he was in. I liked his friends as well. There was believable, and witty, dialogue that made reading the book fun. I also really enjoyed the world the author crafted, I'm sure there are others similar to it but it still felt unique, and I doubt anyone else executed it in the way Rowe has. I really enjoyed the variety of powers others had, the challenges Corin faced, and the variety of what Corin could make. It all fit together in the coolest way and made this a great book. The book was more of a Gamelit book though. There weren't really statistics, save for mana capacity and amount, which wasn't shown often. However, the book definitely had the concrete statistics feel, the abilities and items were well described and had obvious limits. I didn't really find much wrong with this book except for the ending and the passage of time. To elaborate, the ending was bad. It ended on an odd note and left the story hanging open. Amazon calls it a finished series, which I hope it isn't but maybe it is, and the author has started writing other books for different character origin stories. There are now two books for one of those characters, and I am wondering if he is going to return to this series. That second point was the time. There are close to 1400 pages in the series, but everything takes place in about six months of time. It is a busy six months, but it still seems like it would be longer. There isn't a dull moment for the book but I think the book makes the time pass weird. What I would think would be over a year, only happens in six months. That is the thing I don't like about it, I think the author tried to just say that it all happened in six months, when in actuality it would have taken much longer. Overall, great book. Great story, good character development, witty dialogue, and well defined abilities and skills. I definitely recommend this book, I think you will enjoy it.

The President Street Boys: Growing Up Mafia Book Review

The President Street Boys: Growing Up Mafia is a memoir written by Frank DiMatteo. It was first self published in November 2014 as Lion in the Basement but was later picked up by a publisher and published as The President Street Boys: Growing Up Mafia on July 26, 2016.

Like I said before, this book is a memoir. It tells of Frank DiMatteo's life growing up in the mob. It reads like just a bunch of really short, one page stories about different things that happened in DiMatteo's life. Whether it is about meeting his wife, a failed robbery, his good friends, bar fights, or something else, there is always an interesting story. The book deals with death, hate, guns, drugs, and family. The majority of the book was about other people that made an impact on DiMatteo's life, but the rest was DiMatteo's life and different famous mafia hits. There isn't always a clear direction that the story is going, in fact there isn't that much of a story at all, just page long accounts of DiMatteo's life. Throughout the book DiMatteo runs with the Gallo family, a new family with smaller resources, but one that isn't afraid to start a war with the big names.

I did enjoy the book, but it wasn't a page turner, it was just good. However, I would recommend it if you are interested in the mafia, gangs, or other organized crime. I did learn some interesting stuff by reading this book, and I am glad I read it. It wasn't the most captivating book, but because most of the parts were just a page long it made it very easy to just read a page or two at a time here and there. I did feel like I knew some of the main people well enough though, and some of them were surprisingly sweet for violent criminals. However, as much as I felt like I knew a few, there were twice as many that I had no idea who they were, there were new characters being introduced almost constantly. The little page long stories usually had an connection to the rest of the chapter, but because it was the most interesting parts it made it an interesting book. Overall, the book was well written and entertaining, but not a page turner, with over half of the characters being hard to trace. If anything I mentioned sounds interesting it might be worth a read, and it is on Kindle Unlimited.

Rayne Book Review

Rayne is an origin story in the Davincia series. I did a review on book one here. Rayne is an origin story for the character Rayne (shocking, I know), who will appear in book two. The book was published on December 23, 2019. This book can supposedly be read as a standalone "short" story (the book is still around 240 pages).

Rayne lives in the same world as the rest of the Dravincia series. The same mechanics, same rules, same benefits, but most importantly, the same problems. Rayne lives in an impoverished area, he is 14 years old and to not to starve he turned to thieving. He is now well on his way to being a master thief and thriving under his mentor's tutelage. All that matters for him is caring for his sister, and keeping his abusive father away from the both of them. After a failed mission Rayne must go on the lam, take his sister with him, and leave the somewhat comfortable world he knew behind.

Overall this was an awesome book. The writing was similar to book one, but the story much different, so if you liked the first book you will like this one as well. I really enjoyed this book, it was definitely lighter on the skills and abilities, however stats, damage, and other things like that were all still there. There was a part halfway through the book that was kind of cheesy and unoriginal, but overall that didn't last for more than a few pages before the author put his own spin on it. I really enjoyed this book because of the story and because I knew about each of the characters. Some authors forget to build characters up because they are too busy focusing on action, but I really felt like I knew the characters in this book. Personally, I would still read the first book first, even though this is supposed to be readable as a standalone. The book is still great, but some of the overarching stuff that happens in the book would be a little confusing to a person who hadn't read book one. Overall, it is a great book and great read, it has an awesome world and great world mechanics. If any of what I said sounds interesting, I recommend you look at this book because it is a great read.

Battle Avatars Book Review

Battle Avatars by Ed White was published on September 18th, 2019. There are two books in the series so far. I have no idea if there will be more books to come. This is just a review on book one.

The story starts off predictably enough, David is in a job he does not like and nothing is really going too well for him. This is a pretty normal starting for LitRPG books so I wasn't too shocked when his friend convinces him to try a new VRMMORPG game. This game is called Lenscape. This is where the story gets more interesting and shows its own unique take on LitRPG. In this world you can be any race in the game and you get starter/end-game weapons that you have to advance into items of total destruction with cores or seeds. Classes are also an optional part of the game, but many feel they are too constricting. David starts playing a little, but not much longer than an hour after starting, he runs into some hackers. Because of that David is recruited to be an undercover mod, with a real world salary. He still has to start the game from scratch but he gets to do it with his friend (the one who invited him) and his friend's gamer group. They all had to remort to be able to play the game as undercover mods. The story will follow David trying to progress through the game, with him bettering his character, while also trying to find some mysterious hackers.

This was not a good book, but nor was it a bad book. I feel bad because lately I have written less than positive reviews. I feel like I have hit a bit of a dry spot but the next one should be more positive, so there's that. The reason I did not like this book though, well, I also didn't dislike it, was because it just never really held my attention for long. There were times for a page or two where I was getting excited, hoping it was about to get better, but that never did not last long. At the end I felt like the author tried to leave the book on a cliffhanger but did not do it well. I'll give an example of what this cliffhanger sounded like, "the hackers had blue uniforms, and what else is blue? The sky! The sky has white clouds... oh! Polar bears are white... so maybe these bad guys use the cold to freeze the environment and hack the game." The real one made a little more sense, but not by much more. I felt like the author wanted to add a big twist at the end so people would read the next book in the series when it comes out, but it just did not work for me. I won't continue with this book, like I said it was just okay but the last few chapters got worse because of the weird nonsensical theories and other things like that. Some aspects of the story were just silly though, paid to be a mod, a possible conspiracy involving a connection between in-game souls and real world souls, possibly a family trying to create this game for hundreds of years. It just wasn't good because there were so many secrets the author was setting up in the future but not enough happening now. Maybe in the future everything comes together and it all makes sense, but I can't see that it will make reading through these 361 mediocre pages worth it, not when there are much better series out there. If you can't tell I don't recommend this book. The author has potential but I feel like this book wasn't interesting enough, the author is saving too much for later and not using enough now. If he ever comes out with another series I will try that and see if he mixes in a little more action for book one in a series.

Blood of Fate Book Review

Before you read the review I would like to say a few things. This is not a positive review, however many others enjoyed this book... but I did not. The author is Dan Sugralinov, one of my all time favorites, if not my favorite, and he has written great books. In fact the review I wrote before this was an update on how great book three for one of his other series is. This book was disappointing but the rest of this author's work is so good. His other series are Level Up and Disgardium if you want to look at my review for those, as they will not disappoint.

Blood of Fate is book one in the World 99 series. The series is written by Dan Sugralinov and was first published on November 19th, 2019. So far there is only one book in the series.

Luca is a paralyzed boy. His legs are useless and his arms are barely strong enough to push his wheelchair forwards. When taunted by bullies throwing stones at him, one kills him. An inter-dimensional traveler reincarnates in Luca's body, heals his paralysis, and sits back to watch. This is this traveler's last reincarnation and he is tired of life. Giving up his life is the last thing he does, Luca is flooded with knowledge and a healed body, and he uses the traveler's perks to gain an unbelievable power. Luca, however, is sentenced to slavery after retaliating against his attackers, he is not not able to claim self defense because the traveler healed all his wounds. Luca must now find his own way in this decrepit world he finds himself in.

Some who have read my other reviews may have realized that Dan Sugralinov is one of my favorite authors, however I was very disappointed when reading this. I have loved his other two series and couldn't stop reading them but this one just didn't impress me. The story was kind of bland and time seemed too disjointed. Luca's power had nothing to do with time, by the way. Time just seemed erratic, months between paragraphs or a day between them and you would read a section and only later realize that was a month after the past part instead of a day after, or that section you just read was a few days before the other event you just read about. This just gets worse as the story goes on. The whole book could span a fortnight or years, but I have no idea which. Another issue is Luca's rise to power was way too fast, there didn't really seem to be too much struggle on his part. He didn't use his power to its full potential and almost every character, even Luca himself, seemed like a stranger. The story had potential but I felt like it could have been carried out much better. At the end of the book it did make it seem like the author will have a chance to redeem it in the next book, if he chooses to do so. When the next book comes out, I will probably read it in the hopes that it gets better, because I know this author can write so much better, but I don't know if it will for sure. The LitRPG aspects/Gamelit aspects were also way too light. The ability Luca had wasn't well defined, or well used, and the "experience" system he had made no sense. When Luca acted in self defense he would be penalized, which was odd with how the rest of the story went. The power and abilities were also never well developed, he did not actively search for ways to increase his power and didn't work to better himself. The power Luca possessed was also not used the best way it could be. I don't recommend this book but I will make an update after I read the second book. Like I said at the start of this review I want to say though that although I was unhappy with this book, his other series Disgardium and Level Up are some of my all-time favorites. Going back to this book though, if you already don't feel like reading it, read below for some start-of-the-book spoilers that may change your mind depending on the kind of books you enjoy.

Luca becomes the emperor, but his struggle to get there is pretty much nonexistent and it doesn't seem as if he deserves it. A lot of the book focuses on the ruling of the kingdom, which you may find interesting but it wasn't my thing. This would involve different decisions and things like that that you may find really interesting but I just couldn't get behind it. If that changes your mind and you decide to read this book, let me know as I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

Disgardium Book Review- Update

Disgardium (or Class-A Threat) is a series that I have reviewed before (if you haven’t already read that review before do so before reading this at https://dragons-lair-book-blog.blogspot.com/2019/11/class-threat-book-series-review.html), however since then I have changed the way my reviews are written. Now I go into a more in-depth explanation on why I like the book and what I don't like about it. Based on the fact that Disgardium is one of my favorite series and the next book is coming out soon I felt like I should give it more of a chance and explain what really makes the book special. Book 3 comes out on the 9th and it was a great book. I had the opportunity to read it early and loved it, but here is why I love the series as a whole.

To start off, I am going to say a little more about the world of Disgardium. In Disgardium players who become very overpowered through a special ability or a combination of abilities become threats. Threats can be necromancers, they can be seemingly invincible, have a demon pet, or anything in between, but whatever it is they have an unfair advantage over other players. Other people want to hunt and kill threats for incredible rewards. Our main character, Alex is an incredibly overpowered threat, but it is actually balanced because he is being hunted by the entire game world and he is, in most cases, hundreds of levels below them. This is what makes this book so awesome, it is a balanced overpowered character which adds a very cool dynamic to the story. Another thing I really enjoy with this book is the author takes his time to make it so you know the characters, it doesn’t progress too quickly or too slowly. In the book Dungeon World, the author progresses the story too fast and you don’t really feel like you know the characters as well. In contrast, when reading this book you know each character and many things about each one. I love this series but I have had two issues with it. Issue one is names, the names themselves are fine but when new people or names are introduced there are two many at one time. For example, 10 people might be introduced at once and I get confused, I wonder things like, “Wait, who?” The other issue is some of the characters are too similar. Two of the main people have very similar personalities and when taking a break from the book, because not all were released yet, and continuing the books later it is hard to remember which is which. To sum it all up, the story and dynamic of the book far far outweigh two smaller negatives and I encourage you to try this book out as it is a great read.

Dravincia Book Review

Hello all! This isn't part of the review but I would like to let you know of my New Year's Resolution. That Resolution is to write a review a week, whether for a novel or a whole series. For that reason you can expect regular reviews until February (just kidding... hopefully). Also, please leave comments, let me know if you agree or if you don't. I'd love to hear from people who read my reviews, like the one below.

The Dimensional Wars series starts with book one, Dravincia. This is a series written by Blake Severson, the first book came out on October 13th, 2019. So far, there is only one book out but another is on the way.

There isn’t too much special about Arthur, he has a well paying job, but not much in his life other than his parents. At 35-ish the most exciting thing that will happen to him is going to be the last. Lounging around his house he looks at the window to see a husband yelling at his wife then he starts to hit her. Arthur jumps into action and gets stabbed trying to save that woman. He doesn’t make it. He wakes up in a vast emptiness and a goddess appears to him, because of the circumstances of his death he will be reincarnated in a new world, which naturally functions with RPG-like mechanics. He wakes up in a new body, finding himself about ten years younger and in a world stricken with poverty, famine, corrupt lords and corrupt kings. Arthur must use his knowledge and power to liberate these people from these oppressive forces, it will be one man uniting a weak village to fight an army.

I really enjoyed this book. I took a little to get into it but once I did it got really good. It is a longer book but it was definitely kept interesting. There was some magic in the world which was good, however it is maddening when you see a way the character could use the magic better. That is something I found quite annoying with this book, there were a few times I saw a solution that would have worked really well but the author didn’t think to include it. The other issue is sometimes the dialogue is written in a very one two one two way, by that I mean it is very obvious the author is steering the conversation and the dialogue falls into a rhythmic patter, not in a good way. Throughout the book I think the author gets better at writing dialogue and making it have less of that obvious steering of the conversation. Overall, both of those are pretty minor issues and the story is very good, well written, and even has some plot twists and turns. I did like the way the magic worked as it was very uniquely done, even if it did annoy me a little. I would like to caution though there are some slight sexual part but it is more fade to black, it doesn’t really say too much. I do recommend buying and reading this book because the only issues I had were minor and the story was really great and well written.

The Carnelian Fox Book Review

The Carnelian Fox is book one is the new series Maiyamon by Kay MacLeod. The book was first published on November 9th, 2019. Only book one is out so far and I am not sure of how many other books there will be.

This book takes place in a Pokémon-esque world. After college people can choose to get a gem (basically a Pokémon) and go on an adventure to get their gem licence. There are two types of gems, shows and battles. Shows are for the beauty pageants and battles are for, surprise surprise, battling. Each gem can evolve three times and one per team can become an elder gem, which is much more powerful. The main character is named Sam and she is close friends with Callum, the son of the most popular battle gems. They both aspire to become the best battle gem and upon choosing their gems they set off together to try and become the very best, like no one ever was. Shortly after starting their journey, Sam has to go it along and go to each challenge and complete them, without Callum's help. Sam is soon wrapped up in a fight against a secret organization that thinks gems are a menace and need to be eradicated. Does any of that sound familiar?

This novel is just a textbook Pokémon story in novel form, which did make an interesting story, even though the plot was going to be pretty obvious. The story was good, but I did have some major issues. One of those was this wasn't LitRPG, it was gamelit. Because of that, there were no stats, or moves, or the clear outlines of power that appear in the games. The battles described then seemed much more non-structured, and not in a good way. I would have loved to see stats, experience, moves, etc. in this book. It would have made the book infinitely better. Another issue I had is for most of the book, except the last few chapters, is it ended with the characters thoughts, even though the book was already first person. The thoughts at the start were very ominous and got old very very quickly, I grew to despise the "If only I knew that..." or "I wish I had done ___ instead" and things like that. Later though it just told what happened in the space between one chapter and another, which was also annoying because it would skip most of the gem's training. Had it been there you would have gotten a better understanding on the main character's personality, the gem's personalities and skills, and the travel partner's personalities and their gems skills and abilities. This was something I really wished the author would have left in because it made it feel like most of the people in the book were total strangers. I feel like those three things, no stats, the thoughts at the end of chapters, and skipping the gem's growth, really ruined this story and left it as just an okay book. If it still sounds interesting and like something for you, it may be worth it to try because it wasn't a bad story, it just isn't something I would recommend as a good one.

Dungeon World Series Review

The first Dungeon World book was published on March 2, 2019. There are now four books in the series and it seems like another one may be on the way. The series is written by Jonathan Brooks. I read the first three books over the summer and then got my hands on the most recently published book this week. It looks like there will be at least one more book in the series.

Fredwynklemossering (please excuse me if I spelled that wrong), or Fred, is the son of two dungeon cores. Usually, when one dungeon core loves another dungeon core, they make a baby dungeon core, but in Fred's case, they made a seemingly normal baby human. Fred is somewhat lonely, but content. Once he is older though, he goes out into the wild for his first trip outside his parent's dungeon to see the surrounding forest. He sees the world for the first time, but upon return to his parents' dungeon he finds his parents were murdered by the dungeon core supreme counsel. Vowing to take revenge in his parents' name, Fred ventures out into the wild and confusing world of humans to gain strength and skill, but he also finds friends and enemies. Throughout his journey Fred will discover he has abilities unlike any human or dungeon core before him and it is up to him to learn how to harness those abilities as well as control them.

I enjoyed this book series a few months ago and I enjoyed it these week. The books tend to be a little longer, but they do keep your attention. The main focus of these books are epic and huge battles, which is both bad and good. I felt like that was such a crucial part of the story, the author sometimes ended up neglecting character development and really introducing new characters. For the most part, the first book was pretty good at that but I feel like the other books lagged behind in that a bit. The battles were really cool but I just felt that some of that character attachment you get in other books you read where you watch the character grow with the story was missing. One thing I did enjoy was how the main character, Fred, didn't quite understand social cues very well. That could be attributed to the fact that he had only been around his un-moving and expressionless dungeon core parents all his life. This created comedic moments and gave the story some comic relief when it needed it. This was a LitRPG book and it had pretty detailed stats which I really liked as it just gave a very concrete sense of strength and power. Another thing I really enjoyed was at the start of each book it had a pretty in-depth summary with all the major points about the previous books.This reminded me what happened in the previous books and it made it much easier to pick up right where I left off, which was really helpful for me as I couldn't read the books back to back. Overall this was a series I have enjoyed and would recommend, I just wish there was some more character development taking place. That being said however, the epic fights which made up the vast majority of the books were really cool and something that I haven't really found in other books before. If any of that sounds interesting to you, I would give it a try and it is on Kindle Unlimited.

Dungeons of Strata Book Review

Dungeons of Strata is a soon to be released book by author G.D. Penman. This book will be released on the 20th of January. I got this book because I am member of Portal Book's (the publisher) Street Team, but all opinions and thoughts are wholly my own.

Martin has a boring day job, with a boss that doesn't like him, low pay, no family near him, no significant other, there is a lot he does not have, but he does have Dracolich Online and a trashy VR Headset. That is, he had Dracolich Online until they decided to not update the game anymore. It is all worthless now, the incredible gear he had, the top clan status, his character. Now, there isn't really much there for him, until he finds a new game, Strata. Strata is a high tech neuro-transmitted world with technology far superior to everyone else and Martin gets to play it. The first to beat the game gets a prize everyone wants, the game has been out a month and nobody has gotten past the halfway point, but Martin and the best members from his old clan feel they are up to the task. Their group is going to try to beat this seemingly sentient world and claim the prize.

This was a good book. The book started a little slow but eventually gained momentum and became a very enjoyable read. Martin wasn't the strongest, but he was smarter than the average player and much more strategic so it made for a welcome change of pace. A lot of LitRPG books can be very power based but Martin's advantage in this book was his intellect. I really enjoyed all the different tactics his group used and even though the book was a little slow to start it eventually redeemed itself. The main character had an interesting perk of choosing a more jack of all trades, master of none type class so it was interesting to see how he utilized that in different situations. One thing I did wish was in the book though was a little more "mundane" time, just to get to know the characters better so you can really root for them. This was a good book though, and I don't regret reading it, I don't think you will either.

The Knockout Series Review

The Knockout series currently has two books in it. The series is written by Max Lagno and Dan Sugralinov. The books are a spin-off of Sugralinov's Level Up book series, but are still quite different. The first book was published on January 9th of this year and the second book will be published within a few days, December 9th. The first book is on Kindle Unlimited.

The Knockout takes place in the same world that Sugralinov's Level Up series does, and it has many of the same characteristics. The main character, Mike Hagen. Mike is pretty much a weak child, even though he is 30 years old. He is barely over 5 feet, single, and very little money. He works in a tech store, repairing and troubleshooting, one of his few skills. He isn't the smartest and below average in every way, but he always dreamed of becoming an MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter. His intense fear of pain, lack of physical strength, lack of training, etc. hasn't really helped him though. Soon after the story starts, similarly to Phil in Level Up, he receives an interface, or, as he calls it, the system. Every system/interface is different though, and Mike's is tailored to developing his fighting skill and strength. Now, fighting people much stronger than him who have been training a lot longer, Mike's life will not be easy even with his system.

This was a really great book. Both this book and the main series were similar in mechanics, but made so much differences because of the main characters. In the main series, the main character was going towards building a company and making money, but in The Knockout the main focus was strength and skill in fighting. This made it seem a lot different, not in a better or worse way, just different. I really liked this book though, it was just as good as the main series. The Knockout has great character development and the fighting really mixes up the pace. I would definitely recommend the book, especially if you enjoyed the main series. I would read the main series first, but it isn't necessary to read this book, but it does help for the second. Great read though, and I just love the way it is written. It had some unexpectedly funny parts as well where I just chuckled aloud, which for me doesn't happen that often. This is really something I would recommend though, you will not regret reading it.