It was alright...

This book was ok. In spite of excellent narration by Nick Podehl I often found my mind wandering. I’m not sure if it’s the translation, the fact that a lot of the cultural references were from a society that I’m not very familiar with, or the chronological setting, but overall the plotting of the story felt clunky and disjointed.

Unfortunately, this is one of those books that starts out in the middle of the main character’s storyline. By which I mean that the MC has already spent 25 years battling his way up to the pinnacle of his power and the book begins as he is facing the ultimate fight at the end of those 25 years. So you spend the rest of the book trying to get enough backstory for the character’s motivations and personality to become apparent.

In my experience this plot device is a pretty big pitfall for most authors and Mr or Mrs Road Warrior definitely spent a fair amount of time digging the story out of that hole. It’s especially problematic because the author doesn’t use flashbacks or dialog with other characters to present what appears to be an entire book series worth of backstory. Instead they just make random declarative statements about what the MC did or what skills he acquired but they certainly don’t relate the information with any drama or storytelling devices.

Moreover this MC is extremely uncomplicated and his personality lacks nuance. Add this to the fact that this is the most OP character that I have ever encountered in this genre. And I mean that literally... in this book it’s stated several times that no living being on the planet has any hopes of challenging him whatsoever.

Normally I have no problem with OP characters, but in this instance all the drama is removed because the MC, in spite of being in the most dangerous situations that one could imagine, is never even slightly challenged nor is he ever confronted with any true peril.

With all this said, the vast majority of gamelit and LitRPG on Audible is so unquestionably unlistenable that this story is still worth checking out. When held up against the poorly written and sometimes tragically poorly performed (see anything narrated by Wayne Mitchell, Jack Voraces, Daniel Wisniewski, etc), this is probably one of the better LitRPGs to come out in the last couple months on Audible, which is a bummer.



In an unrelated note, after listing the three narrators who are at the bottom of the list of really not very good Audible performers I realized something... Somebody should call Ember Lane and tell them that they really need to be more discerning with who they get to perform their audiobooks. Half of their releases are performed by those three over-acting, ear-molesting hacks. Which is a shame because I really dig Ember Lane’s writing, but I’m not willing to put myself through the torture of listening to Wayne Mitchell ruin another audiobook via the literal worst-affected accents in the history of recorded literature. ...Somebody should also call that dude and tell him to just use his normal speaking voice.

20 people found this helpful

Who has a problem with too much power?

The Enemy Of The World was Amazing. At first you have that overwhelming guy who radiates an oppressive presence, but then you see all these restrictions limiting him. The story is awesome and I sure as hell want the a second part as soon as possible.

6 people found this helpful

Awesome listen

Very fun book from start to finish. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up.

3 people found this helpful

This book is an Incel's deluded fever dream.

Pros:

Decent world building and an interesting premise.
Narrated by Nick Podehl.

Cons:

Main character is a clearly the author's idealized version of himself. All powerful, all knowing, and lacking in any flaws. He never has any tough decisions or character growth. There are plenty of ways to make an overpowered MC interesting. This author doesn't accomplish any of them.

Every female is portrayed as condescending and snobby. They scorn the MC until they realize his true power, at which time they throw themselves at him and beg for his mercy/favor. This is clearly the deluded fantasy of a clearly disturbed individual who has absolutely no understanding of people and is incapable of imagining other people as anything other than what his jealous and hateful self sees in those who have rejected him.

Every male is also cocky and rude. They all push the MC around until he "punishes" them. Then they all worship him and grovel at his feet (if he decides to grant them mercy with his infinite power). The author even takes the time to show and stereotype different classes of people that he clearly envies for having at least a modicum of social skill. His portrayal of college students as all burnt out stoners and partiers with no redeeming qualities also stands out.

In all, I picked up this book since my favorite narrator performed it. I wasnt expecting too much from the title, but I have to say that this turned out to be the worst book that I have ever read. It reads like the deluded manifesto of a pathetic person who dreams of lashing out at society but is too much of a coward to actually do anything about it. Whoever "Road Warrior" is, I hope that they get some professional help. They need some serious therapy.

2 people found this helpful

Good start.

As a translation of a Korean work, the story is solid, given enough translation and work to make sense without falling into any of the pitfalls translated works can have.

Nick puts a lot of flair and work into the story, and does a great job not only narrating, but making the characters feel distinct and alive.

The story is. . . Well, it is. It's fairly typical isekai/litrpg fair, with a lot of emphasis on societal corruption. So our jaded protagonist has decided he'll just do it all himself. Which has it's own set of problems with him having already become a social pariah and outlaw for the way he goes about rocking both the societal boat and just outright stealing things he needs since others won't help him. It starts in the middle of the story, but it seems like it starts where he'll actually have human interactions after an eight year period of being on his own, which likely wouldn't have been interesting from a character development perspective. The Other World (Which is kind of a terrible name, but descriptive) seems like a pretty dark and terrible place.

Looking forward to volume two.

2 people found this helpful

Not worth the time

Not even Podehl could salvage this experience for me, which is rare. All the whams squeaking and squaking in the action sequences ruins emersion. The characters have no personalities, just exaggerated traits and mc comes off as a weird edgelord. Not a fan.

1 person found this helpful

Great book

loved it from beginning to end.
can't wait for the next book to come out.

1 person found this helpful

👍👍👍

If you are looking for an OP MC this it. Bring on the next book!

1 person found this helpful

I REALLY Wanted to Love This

When I first saw authentic foreign names, I got so pumped to listen. It was also by my favorite narrator, so I immediately bought it.
Feedback on the Story: Boy oh boy. The main character is a sociopathically anti-social man who spurns responsibility. Even though he has so much knowledge and strength, he keeps it all to himself while literally letting thousands die. The plot is too weak to sustain the belief that he's trying to hide his abilities. Additionally, we learn very little of his big bad mission to save the world. Overall, I'm guessing this is a self-published book because the plot doesn't have a consistent atmosphere. We go from a super violent survival of the fittest "plaza" to a school where Sungchul just reads a book. The only continuity is that none of the characters ever want to do their jobs. The pessimism really takes its toll after a while. For instance, everything is terrible, even the almighty great school is terrible. The only positive I can think of is for people who find it easier to put themselves in a character's shoes, because there's no unique characteristic to Sungchul.
Feedback on Translations and Cultural Differences: I'm guessing onomatopoeia is a big part of the Korean language, but there's an excessive use of "Wham!" and "Bam!" in this book. But the biggest thing that didn't translate well was the "ye-yo" after every sentence from the homunculi. It was novel and cool the first couple of times, but got old really quick.
Feedback on the narrator: Nick Podehl is just amazing. He nails the colloquial tones and emphasis of an asian speaker without the accent. Like how? I can't tell how accurate it is to Korean, but it really pulls you into the character. He even manages to make the flood of "Whams" sound like it new every single time. It sounds like it hurts.

Ehhh

Listening to this made me feel like there were two MCs, one had a rational mind and was able to accomplish objectives using what he knew and another who was just there to be an edge lord. 75% of the cast hindered the story and made it a chore to get through with intolerable and irrelevant whining and those are the ones he kept around. all around meh, a great narration couldn't save this abomination.