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  • The Beginning

  • Dark Paladin Series, Book 1
  • Written by: Vasily Mahanenko
  • Narrated by: Kevin Kraft
  • Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
  • 3.6 out of 5 stars (8 ratings)

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The Beginning cover art

The Beginning

Written by: Vasily Mahanenko
Narrated by: Kevin Kraft
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Publisher's Summary

Is it easy to survive in the game world? You could say yes, if you didn't know what the additional conditions were. They are unusual: it's the real world in which you have lived all your life. The enemy, craving to destroy you. Your own class who couldn't care less about you. Are you still sure that survival is easy? Then welcome to The Game! It will prove you wrong.

©2017 V. Mahanenko; English translation copyright 2017 by Alexandra Tussing (P)2017 Tantor

What listeners say about The Beginning

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

the fact that it is free explains it all

story has to be the most boring introduction of all time. the mc is a brainless oaf to the extreme extent. he is suppose to he 23, yet sounds like he has less intelligence then a toddler. also was suppose to be this "huge" game addic that he had to go as far as enlist in the military to keep away from games. lmao yet he can't pick up on anything about the game mechanics he now sees.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Bittersweet

This novel's potential is one of the highest I've seen for this genre, at least in the Plus Catalogue. The story development, and characters were done pretty well imo. Unfortunately, there were just a few too many instances where the book fell short. The MC's major slip-ups have too large an impact on the story, and they happen a little too frequently to ignore. The saving grace for the MC, is that his maturity and intellect doesn't fall into negativity.
There were a few more examples, but I don't wanna spoil.
The most disappointing thing about this novel, is the narrator 🙅‍♂️. I'm tired of seeing this happen way too often. What little potential the novel had after the above writing/translation mayhem, were completely massacred by the narrator. His performance was confusing, annoying, and just plain abysmal. His usage of tone and emotion felt inappropriate way too often. And the most frustrating thing, is that his attempts at voice manipulation kept failing for a good half of the book. His ability to switch between already determined character voices were unsuccessful too often. Even the MC at times had two to three different voices attached to him back to back during dialogues.
Well, this novel was still quite entertaining and interesting, that's why I said it was bittersweet. Overall, I would still recommend giving it a read, it's worth a shot for sure 👍. Just be mindful of the narrator's performance 👀, and the MC's questionable moments 🤷‍♂️.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Mediocre Translation

Overall I just didn't have a good experience. I didn't care for the MC's moral fortitude. I found the world building dark and bleak which is not to my taste. And there were many times things just didn't translate well culturally and/or grammatically.
The game elements are it's saving grace. Love the unique system and build the MC went for. Character progression was very enjoyable when he wasn't making morally questionable progression choices.

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