City of the Dead cover art

City of the Dead

Alchemist Series, Book 1

 Preview

Audible Standard 1-month free trial

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo + applicable tax after 30-day trial. Cancel Anytime
Try for $0.00
More purchase options

City of the Dead

Written by: Vasily Mahanenko, Jared Firth - translator
Narrated by: Henry W. Kramer
Try for $0.00

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.87

Buy Now for $21.87

There are whole anthologies of stories out there about what humankind does when a game enters their world. But what about when they're living in one where a game arrived thousands of years before? What if they're the survivors of a bloody struggle, having fought for and earned their place on the planet?  

Tailyn Vlashich was a young nobody far away from all those grander issues. All he cared about was one thing: making his way through a harsh world where the emperor, evil foes, and an impartial god held sway. And the god, of course, demanded nothing less than that all things were done in accordance with its divine will.

©2020 V. Mahanenko; English translation copyright 2020 by Jared Firth (P)2020 Tantor Cyberpunk Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction Survival
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Continue the series
Forest of Desire cover art
Forest of Desire Written by: Vasily Mahanenko, and others
Tears of Alron cover art
Tears of Alron Written by: Vasily Mahanenko, and others
Isr Kale's Journal cover art
Isr Kale's Journal Written by: Vasily Mahanenko, and others
Tartila Mine cover art
Tartila Mine Written by: Vasily Mahanenko, and others
All stars
Most Relevant
Decent story concept. Game literature with character leveling without actual main character leveling.
I like the world lore that is hinted at and the way the explanation gets slowly trickled in. Hope it continues with future books.

But. These are KIDS. The young age is mandatory for much of the character interactions. But am I really supposed to relate with these pre-puberty children’s semi lewd feelings? I just feel wrong now. Hope it doesn’t continue in the next book. Or that we time jump a few years at least. Or that we step back to a more innocent relationship

Decent story. Interesting lore. But I feel uncomfortable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a Great start a new story and to /new characters! Just a little short!

Great story with lovable heros

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
GameLit genre pioneer Vasily Maharenko offers the First Book in his 'Alchemist' Series.. a tale about 10-year-old Tailyn Vlashich - learning to make his way in a harsh Fantasy World. The characters are realistic, the worldbuilding is impressive, and the Magic System - using Charge-holding Cards & Decks in the place of Spellbooks and Memorized Incantations - is original.
My main complaint with the book is the immaturity of the story (the naivety of Tailyn eventually gets pretty annoying). This book is clearly aimed at 12-year-old kids.. which is fine, I guess, but I'm not in that demographic. I found it to be frustratingly unsophisticated.

As to presentation: I assume that translator Jared Firth captures the tone that the Russian author intended.. because Henry W. Kramer does an impressive job delivering it to listeners. Mr. Kramer's voice-acting is occasionally cartoonish.. but his diction, timbre, cadence, and pacing are decisively above average. The lighthearted narration approach to a kid-friendly story that doesn't take itself too seriously is *pitch-perfect*. I would listen to more from Kramer any day (in fact, I recently downloaded a book just because he is on the project).

It is unfortunate that LitRPG entries don't format well on the audiobook platform - repeated metagame Character Sheet updates are often intrusive & interruptive - because the story in this book is an exemplary combination of Game Mechanics, Adventure, and Coming-Of-Age sentiments. 'City Of The Dead' rates 7 stars out of 10. It's not the best of these books that I have read, but it's definitely serviceable - particularly if you're listening with future Fantasy fans on a long car ride or something. Save your Credit for something else if they ask for one.. but this audiobook is a reasonable distraction if you find it available on the 'Plus' menu.

[Incidentally: I didn't find the sexual tension between pre-teen characters disturbing. Yes, it's sometimes a little bit uncomfortable.. but never gets explicit]

Somewhat Sophomoric.. But Entertaining

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
nothing new every turn in story was predictable. with reading reviews for next books I won't be picking up the other books in the series as I have already read way of the shaman and the pacing and events are book for book the same.

feels like a reskin if the way of shaman story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a great LitRPG but it comes with one ICK that kills it in my brain. The use of a romance arc between a pre-pubescent child and another child of similar age kills it for me. Had it been a common school boy kind of trope I guess it would have been fine. But the author eluding to "strange feelings" coming from his nether region was where I decided that this book was going to be the only one I read out of the entire series.. To clarify they don't do anything that would get this book banned but it was enough for me to cringe and think it wasn't appropriate. Otherwise it's actually a pretty decent story, it's just really that single aspect that made me say "nope".

Decent Story but it definitely comes with an Ick

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews