The author tries awfully hard to be hip and modern

The author likes to talk about using gender-neutral pronouns, and mixes in our cultural biases without any explanation of how it fits into the fantasy society. It's often distracting and haphazard at best. Sarah seems more likable than our main protagonist. Other than that the story is good for the most part. Neat ideas and directions are taken that makes the story still enjoyable. I just wish our author introduced the society a little better, it just takes away from the story when you add in random modern day political beliefs into a fantasy story without even doing it smoothly. I read these kinda of books to get away from all the political stuff on TV today. Not be reminded of it again in a random way that doesn't even fit with a medievalish society.

130 people found this helpful

A great continuation, just as good as the first.

First off, I think that the other readers who are giving this story 2-3 and even some 1 stars because they are complaining about the political view on genders have completely allowed their prejudice to cloud the splendor of the story. To be clear I am a straight man and literally could not care less about gender politics. For people on the fence about this because of those reviews, I would like to offer that the entire portion other people are complaining about is all of 3-5 minutes long and is literally talked about twice for less than 3 minutes each time. Although I can clearly see how this reflects the authors views and the current political climate I am amazed that people are giving this excellent story such low reviews for all of 4 minutes of audio and one character being nonchalantly referred to as they or them instead of him or her (literally completely unobtrusively) and in addition to that although it was not the most graceful way to include a quick opinion the author does use an at least semi viable way to bring the subject up and uses it in the context of the story. It still feels a little bit forced but I don't think it is as horrible as some reviewers would like you to believe. If you are like me and don't care much for what people want to call themselves or don't really care about politics and other peoples made up problems then i think the story is well worth listening to and is a great successor to the first, and the issue that other reviewers are bringing up is not even enough to make this 4 stars instead of 5. It's like literally .00001% of the story.

As for the actual book, if you liked the first one, you will like this one. More of the mystery unraveled! More mysteries introduced! Epic battles! Structured magic! If you liked the first one this is easily 5-stars. I love that the main character uses intelligence to solve issues with a limited set of hard rules and tools. It's so different compared to some books where the character has a ton of unfair advantages. I have listened to tons and tons of litrpg and although this is a bit more light-rpg I think that this is one of the top books and is very entertaining on top of being well-written, much moreso than many other books in this sphere. Highly recommend.

98 people found this helpful

I really dislike the chapter on gender neutrality. it felt fake and nearly ruined the entire story. focusing so heavily on one religion of the society and breezing over the many other religions make it seem as a ploy to express the writers whim or real world beliefs. I dont want a book with a sprinkling style of writing to force political beliefs down my thought all at once but by slowly dispersing the information threw out the book building to a clear picture like all the other aspects of the world so far.

60 people found this helpful

Eh...

This book was disappointing after the first one. Never hooked my interest. Also I am all for characters with diverse sexual orientations, but I do not think that that should be a characters defining characteristic. It feels like the author would rather push a agenda rather than tell a story.

59 people found this helpful

Fills a void.

I was super excited for the second book in the series with the ramp up of the previous. I just couldn't get into this one the same way. There was interesting magic, a few exciting scenes, but it was also very fluffy and dragged in many parts. Corin can get very annoying, and it starts to grate on you. I'm not saying to skip it, but don't expect the same excitement as the first book.

57 people found this helpful

Great Story. Distracting elements.

Author deeply interested in pressing an agenda within the story. It was very distracting.

Ending seemed rushed and a bit inconsistent with some of the "power level" rules established throughout.

Nick could read me a cookbook and I'll sit for every word.

48 people found this helpful

Great series but pushes unnecessary politics

So I loved the story. The things I don't love are the unnecessary addition of lgbtq politics. In the first book the author basically made one of the most mysterious characters into a stupid love interest and that character hasn't found a way back into the story in real vigor because of it, way to ruin a great character making them senselessly gay. Now there's another character who "identifies" as a man/woman but it was done with that being a character quirk and not even a real aspect of her character, just that she is to be referred to as "they". I can live with that because it doesn't take from the story, like the first lgbtq injection, but the author doesn't stop cratering and has to re explain the politics multiple times. As a reader it's takes you out of the immersion to see an author that already recites things multiple times because the main character has the confidence of a shrew but to have to push through bs modern politics in a book that doesn't need them or just feeling as if the author thinks you're an idiot needing to include flash backs from the previous chapter.

Overall I really like the story and the characters. My gripes are the injection of LGBTQ politics senselessly and the authors disbelief that readers can remember what happened a chapter before. The series reminds me og a Korean manga called tower of God a lot. Would recommend to those who can stomach useless lgbtq politics.

39 people found this helpful

I signed up for fantasy.

I’m not a bigot but I want some damn fantasy not the social politics that are going on in 2019. I don’t even right reviews but this just upsets me.

36 people found this helpful

Really wanted to love this

World building is great, characters are unessessarily annoying. That's what makes it really difficult to review this book. There're many times in throughout these first two books where I just mentally cringe at what the main character says and does thinking to myself what? That's not something anyone would actually do or say especially if they are supposed to be some super shy introvert who doesn't like other people. It feels like every other thought he had was thinking about how someone was gonna feel about him doing something which really contradicts his whole supposed introvert persona. Also on the thought on contradictions there are many things that just absolutely made me stop listening and think "wait did he say that he was an unfit bookworm when he had been supposedly training for the past 3 years" only then to have him say later in book 2 that he was fit from training his whole life. It's just things like that, that absolutely ruins and takes you out of the world. Overall characters are one dimensional and hoping for that to change in the next book because the world and magic system has alot of potential to be interesting.

35 people found this helpful

Too bloody political.

I didn't have a problem with the main character possibly being gay or whatnot. However when the non gender specific pronouns shit began. I lost it.
I love the story, but the need for some people to push this kinda shit into their books, I just lose hope in humanity.

26 people found this helpful