The Last Abyssal Heir: First Steps

The Last Abyssal Heir: A LitRPG Tournament Adventure, Book 1

De: Nathan Gregg

Narrado por: Griffin Puatu

Jay never believed in gods. Right up until they kidnapped him.

Being an IT tech and surviving the lower parts of NYC was all Jay had ever known. So when he’s snatched away to a strange world by so-called “gods”, well... imagine his surprise.

Jay had never cared about gods before, but now he must compete to become one in the Celestial Tournament. He just has to make sure he doesn’t die to bloodthirsty monsters, deadly dark chasms, and morally bankrupt humans along the way. Good thing this world operates like the RPGs he’s always played, complete with magic powers and a creepy System keeping tabs on him.

Only one problem: losing means death, and there are no restarts. The only way out is to win, and the only way to win is to spill blood. Both others and his own.

At least, that’s what the mysterious voice stuck in Jay’s head keeps telling him. A voice whose presence might be against the rules...

This book contains a lot of violence, mentions of sexual assault, and people in a bad situation doing what they must to survive. Listener discretion advised.

©2023 Nathan Gregg (P)2025 Nathan Gregg

Great new story that kept me engaged throughout

I've got to say that Griffin has knocked it out of the park again on the narration of this book! His enunciation is clear and precise and his voicing of different characters is consistent. He does a great job of bringing this story to life and helps keep the listener engaged in the story as it unfolds.

One thing that I noticed when I first read the book was the fairly rapid-fire placement of several stat blocks, after which it seemed as if the author went another direction with no more stat blocks until the end. As LitRPG, stat blocks are part of the story but the placement in this book was a little odd with so many heavily at the front and then nothing until the end. With the audio book, these seemed to interrupt the flow of the story more than I cared for, unfortunately, although once we got past them the story flowed more smoothly.

Some people might think differently but I'd love to see this story edited some day to adjust the density and placement of these stat blocks. As I mentioned before, for an audio book, they seem to interrupt the flow and I found myself almost wishing that the stat blocks had been skipped and instead replaced with more succinct text quickly summarizing changes since the last stat block.

My final thoughts on this is that this is a well-written and engaging story and I can heartily recommend it to you. The audiobook narration is excellent and really brings the story to life and is an audiobook that I think is definitely worth getting. Having read the print version some time back, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it this time around and reacquainting myself with the story as Griffin brought them to life. I don't want to give any spoilers, so just get the book already and give it a listen - you won't regret it!

Young adult Jason asano whining and mopping

everyone except the mc acclimated to the situation and what is on going. So much time crying about not killing a human but he completely genocide any non human it doesn't matter if the human was a murdering sexual abusing cannibal. I get a few chapters to lock in and do what it takes. boohoo I can't kill humans, boohoo I have killed a human I am a murderer. mc is a professional victim. After that a portion of the story is dedicated to his crush and puppy love and to monologue about his past life. I wont get the next, I refuse to suffer, not a masochist.