Grim Beginnings

The Ashen Plane, A LitRPG Series, Book 1

By: Maxwell Farmer

Narrated by: Armen Taylor

Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Twenty-five-year-old janitor-turned-professional gamer John is so good at the latest virtual reality fantasy game that he attracts the attention of an imprisoned, undead magical beast while competing in the Kingdoms & Valor World Championship.

Murdered in his gaming chair and summoned to another world full of magic and wonder, John is given a choice: inherit the beast’s power and work to free it, or die. Accepting the undead creature’s power and a second chance at life, John is given a new name: Grim.

As a new man with the ability to use death magic, Grim sets off into the Ashen Plane to fulfill his quest. Join him as he befriends a mutated orc, fights an army of gnolls, and works to free his patron in this first book of the LitRPG series The Ashen Plane.

©2019 Max Farmer (P)2020 Max Farmer

Suffers from stat-bane

A fairly entertaining story that would have been rated higher if not for the drudgery of listening through heavily-laden stat recitals that offers the listener very little useful information and a lot of internal deliberation on "should I go through the back&forth ff/rewind cycle until I get to the end of the stat dump section?". This follows a number of other litRPG novels where the MC has the ability to acquire all sorts of skills beyond what other players experience which ends up assisting him against much higher level enemies. As mentioned, the story isn't really bad; just not very good either. Worth the listen if you've got a spare credit burning a hole in your pocket.

warning it's a slow start

I like books like this when the story takes some time to let you get to know the characters and understand the world it's not an amazing story or something brand new but its it's pretty good.

A fun and quick listen

Exciting and funny story. Following Grim on his a quest feels like I'm reading a great D&D adventure. The book has fun heroes and awful villains, an interesting setting and it's an easy/short read. check it out.

Loved It

It's a well written story that's easy to follow with an intriguing plot line. Definitely recommend!

Holy crap

Holy Crap my dude. What an awesome adventure I just went on listening to this. I highly recommend it and can not wait for the next one!

Grim and (polar) Bear it.

Really good portal LitRPG book. The story moves along well, if slow on leveling, with well rounded characters. The book can get a bit crunchy on stats, but no more than any other LitRPG series.

Armen Taylor did an amazing job narrating.

Simply A Good Listen!

Alright everyone, I've finished my listen through of Max Farmer's "Grim Beginnings" here are my highlights :)

Portal fantasy (already makes it higher on my list then most, i'm a fan of portals personally). With an extremely interesting premise, a fascinating big bad / big... good? We will find out in later books, that is the impetus for the entire "portal" thing.

MC gets into the world and gets thrown in the middle of a war between Bad - A Orcs and some real nasty Knolls. savagery ensues, along with some hijinks.

Over all the book is a fantastic addition to the genre, a fun romp through a game world, with some high stakes and awesome fights. All with a fascinating backdrop of an epic fantasy game system esq world that the story doesn't lose sight of which can sometimes be a problem in portal fantasies. Particularly for new writers in the genre.

I'm not going to give it a score, because I'm not a 'professional' reviewer I'm just sharing stuff with y'all I really enjoyed :)

So go pick this one up if you get a chance or are looking for another portal fantasy.

PS: Bonus points for being PG-13 Max, thanks for that bro :) Doesn't shy away from adult topics and subjects, but addresses them in a tactful way that I personally appreciated.

PPS: The narrator, Armen Taylor knocked this out of the PARK! Great job!

wow just WOW !!!

This book is amazing the characters lovable and the hooks that you will never see coming

WARNING: HAREM ELEMENTS

I really enjoyed this first book and despite my headline it had no overt warning signs of the hated harem. It wasn't until I got to the second book that the harem elements really started rearing their horribly unrealistic head. I chose to write this review on the first book in order to spare anyone who, like me, finds them so unrealistic and juvenile as to instantly turn me off to any book with them in it. Ah yes, a woman who has been rescued from slavery and repeated sexual abuse would definitely become sexually obsessed with her rescuer within days, not weeks or years, but days after her rescue. And not only that but decide to share her chosen partner with another rescued slave who weirdly days after being rescued from weeks or months of slavery with sexual abuse involved is immediately sexually attracted to her rescuer. It's very disappointing because I did genuinely enjoy the first book because it doesn't have the obsessive stat analysis and need to read the entire character sheet every other chapter that so many other LitRPG's do. And I was looking forward to the further development of the character and the city/nation building aspects included.

Solid good book

It's a solid good book. Narration is good. Story is very good. It's good to hear a story about an actual good guy who is willing to do what it takes.