A Game of Villains

World of Karik, Book 1

De: Anton Emelianov, Sergei Savinov

Narrado por: Tristan Morris

They lied, they lie, they will lie. This world is built on deception.

Our hero entered the store that fateful evening and became involved in a life-or-death game arranged by a mysterious creature. He survived, but instead of being on Earth, he now appeared to be in a different world, with other people who had passed a similarly deadly test. Some made it through by using force, some by using their cunning.... Everyone has their own story, but they all have one thing in common - there are no good people among them.

The world of Karik turned out to be akin to a game. In it, one can level up, grow stronger, even resurrect in case of failure. But if one makes a mistake of believing the wrong person, they will die for good. Will the magic that he needs to conceal, or maybe his patron, who seems incapable of telling the truth, help him? Who can say?

©2019 Anton Emelianov and Sergei Savinov (P)2020 Podium Publishing

Lifeless but eh ??

I somewhat liked the story and the main character but everyone including the main character is very inhuman like they do one thing they had to do to survive and they just stop caring about anyone but them selves and you think sometimes the main character cares cause he thinks about it but really he just like everyone else in the new lifeless world which can get kinda annoying for me but other than that I enjoyed his smarts before he got stuck into doin alchemy half the book instead of leveling when he could of lol

addicting but twisted

This is a story of twisted morality and inhuman struggles. The gods themselves pit these amoral beings against not only each other but the world they now find themselves struggling in.

enjoyed it

I enjoyed the book alot and am looking forward to the next one in the series.

save yourself!

the narrator is awful in this. he gives every character a... 'Russian' accent. that wouldn't normally be an issue but the narrators poor attempt at a stereotypical Russian accent sounds like a harsh Count Dracula from sesame street. I barely made it through chapter 2.

I can't vouch for the quality of the writing because I didn't suffer through enough narration but if the synopsis tweaked your interest then I suggest the eBook over the audio book.

Try out this dark post apocalyptic novel

A dark post apocalyptic world. A different pace for me but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

great story, good performance, iffy accents

Look, it's good, real good, I think everyone should give it a shot because it's really good.

You get used to the accents, arguably easier that that of Jax in another author's audiobook, but I gotta say it...Tristan, you got talent brother, great voices, unique and easily discernable from one another...but to me the Russian came off a bit like campy Hollywood Transylvanian.

Is it bad?

Hell no. Tristan has that talent thing, and he great material from Sergei and Anton. If anything it's just a nitpicky thing that I probably would have overlooked if my non LitRPG/gamelit/progression fantasy wife hadn't rode with me in the car and said, "Ooh this one has vampires!" I ain't mad at her though, it's still a damned fine story.

---Joe Walling---

Really enjoyable listen, pleasantly surprised

I didn't know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. I would recommend if your looking for something to engage yourself with.

I have no idea what this is...

I bought this book based on the summary and a couple of reviews. I guess that I was expecting a grim litrpg in a dog-eat-dog fantasy world. All the characters are definitely villains or at least antiheroes but its definitely not what I expected. The plot is really confusing, either by design or because of the translation, and your left with very little backstory on any characters and that includes the MC. There isnt any world building either which is what finally pushed me to abandon the book.

Too convoluted for me

It might be a spoiler review so be warned...

I liked the book summary and the plot sounded interesting. Since I love the fantasy genre and especially litrpg, I figured it was right up my ally. Unfortunately it turned out to be more of a chore to listen to.

except for a couple of cannon fodder they all gain rare/immense powers (and master its usage) easier and faster than I gain weight during the holidays... and that’s saying something. It just got too convoluted, like a criminal version of a daytime soap. I listened to the whole thing because I’m sick and got nothing else to do other than lying in the couch listening via Alexa and too tired to get up and get my phone to find a different book. It still took me nearly a week to finish it since I’d play it when I got tired of Alexa playing music.

Hmmmm

Seemed like this could have possibly been a decent listen. I was in and out. I just couldn’t get into it. Seemed like there were some missing parts. Too much going on