Mary Sue watch out, Richter is in town!

First of let me say that the story itself, the world, the concepts, the side characters, everything else in this series is great.

I gave this series 3 extra tries knowing full well that each book was cut in half to sell more of them. The main character is absolute trash. I've never hated a main character more. Doesn't grow or develop. No changes as experience is acquired. Nothing. The same childish awkward humor as the first book and outdated "how goes it my fellow teenagers" style of comedy. It takes place in the future but references 2010's, so the main character is also a hipster douchbag.

All the characters "selfless" motivations are thinly veiled excuses to be greedy, power hungry, and self centered. Never learning from mistakes and not accepting responsibility. A flash of morality to show he's a deep thinker then boom, doesn't matter cause loot! But he's such a good guy because this one sentence says he is! And he's so cool and always wins! And he can't die even though it really hurts! Oh also he slays so much puss. And is totally not myself that I wrote into the story. - the author probably

Besides having the most hated protagonist in literature, the story follows the exact formula of the last 3 books to the letter. And each book is the same story arc repeated 3 times with a cliff hanger at the end. Compound that with plot armor so thick he may as well have a plot bunker and you have yourself some sloppy writing.

Other than random deux ex machinas randomly popping up as a writers convenience, the world is amazing. I love everything about it. That's why I'm so incredibly disappointed.

The final nail is the whole self proclaimed father of LITRPG is a little much when all your blogs, bios, and even story synopsis is an ad to go to the Facebook page so you can be told to buy more of his books.

Read the first book, make your own judgement call, but don't say I didn't warn you.

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46 people found this helpful

Incredibly Addicting

Just like the first 3 books, this one will captivate you and keep you wanting more. Highly recommend

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40 people found this helpful

Frat boy in a Fantasy world

I want to love this series, a lot of cool stuff happens and some of the characters are genuinely likable, but the main character is a bit of a douche. I stopped here to take a break from the series, the MC's inner monologue make me cringe all the time and although he has gotten pretty strong throughout the books .. this guy remains the same d-bag we've been given in book 1, he hasn't developed as a person at all. Most characters he interacts with feel like they are just a means to an end, with no real substance, and it's the same with his leadership and advancements. He doesn't really learn, just kind of goes with the flow and let's other people do everything, while obtaining overly valuable resources. Check out Dakota Krout, he's a perfect example of excellent character development, both his series have me looking back in wonder how each major character changed throughout their journeys .. but that just isn't here.

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28 people found this helpful

Least favorite book in my favorite LitRPG series.

I enjoyed this performance and the characters (especially the Ron Swanson parody character) as I've enjoyed the previous three books, but for a few things.

1) The title suggested the character would be plumbing the depths of The Catacombs...but never did. He mentioned wanting to go there...and then changed his mind. Wtf clickbait title?

2) Nothing from the overarching storyline was progressed or resolved. Literally nothing. All problem solved we're problems artificially introduced within this book itself, as we're all goals furthered only made goals within this book. Goals, storylines, quests, and character development started in earlier books were totally absent.

3) This book saw genital humor replace almost all other humor, and focused more on pop culture references and vulgarity to carry the dialogue, which was very disappointing.

All that said, I'm still invested and just hope hings get back on track with subsequent books. I really love the world and want to see more of it. I'm just disappointed hat this book felt like a "filler episode".

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23 people found this helpful

An unfortunate turn in the series

The first three books, leading into this book, have steadily become more juvenile and crass. What began with a sense of allusion simply became a cheap explicit potty mouth book. It is like a comedian that relies on shock rather than cleverness. What makes this an unfortunate turn is that the series is good/entertaining now feels like I'm hanging out with a teenager who is trying swear words for the first time and is proud of the new accomplishment. I'm not sure the benefit of the crass immaturity does to sales, but the demographic has narrowed to exclude me.

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21 people found this helpful

Catacombs?

What the hell just happened? This book felt like it was all of a sudden written by a frat boy with non stop horrible dick jokes. And the title doesn’t make any sense. They don’t even go into the Catacombs. This entire series just took a horrible turn. I thought the first three books were enjoyable and was looking forward to the rest. But wow was this book bad.

Beyond the title the author just keeps inventing new story lines. None of the ongoing lines get addressed at all. The author has made a big world and his writing has gotten lost. His writing also turned very juvenile. Maybe if there is some sort of sale I’ll pick up the next book, but I don’t have high hopes for it after listing to this one.

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20 people found this helpful

It's Aleron Kong & Nick Podehl narrating...

What made the experience of listening to The Land: Catacombs the most enjoyable?

I love the way Aleron Kong writes... so the stories themselves would be good enough for me... but when you throw in Nick Podehl's narration? It's just this combination that makes you feel like you cant get enough...

What other book might you compare The Land: Catacombs to and why?

I'm new to LITRPG's and The Land is really the first one I've gotten into...

Which character – as performed by Nick Podehl – was your favorite?

Probably the main character Richter... since he has to be such a strange read sometimes... he goes from talking all medieval to talking about goofy 2010 nerd culture stuff. So much fun.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The series has definitely been built up for me... there's such a high level of excitement inside me as I listen just because I know how good it's going to be because I've been so pleased with the previous 3 books. The majority of the book makes me laugh.... it hasnt made me cry yet.

Any additional comments?

If you like these books you need to join the litrpg facebook group and find out more about these books :)

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20 people found this helpful

Stop with the terrible jokes and references

Self proclaimed "Father of American LitRPG" cannot write a story to save his life. The jokes and pop culture references makes me cringe as every turn. I can space out for 2 hours and still be in the same spot after he talks about his one night stands and how his mother raised him. The only thing keeping this together is the Narrarator who is amazing.

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14 people found this helpful

The books continue to degenerate.

In what was acceptable in the first book or two the constant reading of statistics and items that has grown to fill a more and more significant portion of the stories. Beyond that, there are other aspects of the book that are getting to be just downright annoying. every female ex-girlfriend, wife, random passerby is regularly referred to as "fun sacks", or implied to be nothing more than a set of holes waiting to be stuffed. The constant references to ex-girlfriends, wives, etc and the huge phallus of every character in the story makes the books feel more and more like a Fratboy diary than a story. The icing on the cake was the author clearly trying to be inclusive by having lesbians in his story , then referring to them as a nice way to get a three-way.

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12 people found this helpful

amazing

I love this series and I can't wait till y'all finish the next books in it

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12 people found this helpful