Reviews and Comments

It came highly recommended, but I think I just really don't like litrpg.

DNF. I didn't buy into the characters, the politics, or the combat. The narrative styles felt forced. I made it about 70% and just couldn't do it anymore.

I struggled with the second half of this. The pacing was frustrating and some of the character decisions made little sense or felt forced by plot more than their own personalities. Even so, it ended in an interesting way that I enjoyed.

Wil Wheaton's audio narration was a big help. I don't think I'd have stuck with it the whole way without that.

The main characters, now well established, carry this story well. We get a new setting and increased world-building and leave more of the juvenile plot behind. Magical development scratches the same itch as a cultivation novel.

Fairly formulaic and quite a bit of exposition, but a nice simple read.

Not as strong as Tess of the Road but it carried a lot of the same quiet strength. I need to read more of these books.

Still no Cradle, but cultivation books are kinda neat.

What a heist!

These books are a really interesting blend of highly political and highly action-packed, with a preference for close-in move-by-move sequences that draw you close to the battles. I'm really enjoying those but the political relationships and histories of thousands of years is what makes it special.

I think these books are legitimately getting better. The plots entwine a tiny bit more and there's far less incidence of the author forgetting rules she established earlier. This one was enjoyable as always, but a total tease in terms of the larger hinted plot.

Murderbot has settled into its new life on Preservation Station. This sixth book has also settled nicely into the setting. There's action, adventure, and a nice mystery. It's a solid continuation of the series.

I wanted to read this since it was the inspiration for much of the original dungeons and dragons. I see now that it's mostly in the world building, and that being pulled from Welsh mythology leaves little credit to the book itself.

There are some funny moments but ultimately the dialog felt forced and overly formal, the plot moved more due to accident and coincidence than the efforts of the characters, and the characters themselves felt flat. It's a product of it's time, I suppose.

Dale Whitehead is back at it again. The poor guy deserves a whole Chinese buffet after the crazy events at the tech/sci-fi convention.

Book two brought the familiar sympathies of a tech geek wishing for just a moment for the dream to be real while simultaneously fending off your own endless insecurities. There's plenty of drama in the pages but perhaps the greatest of all is Dale's internal one. Without that earnest interior these books could easily be cliche. Instead they are (sometimes painfully) relatable, entertaining, and thrilling mysteries.

There's a certain level of tech-geek required to get full enjoyment. If you know what IPv6 is, or how to rebase in git, and you like a good mystery then you're going to love this.