Arena Manager

An Isekai LitRPG Teambuilder

By: Chad Opo

Narrated by: Actors Everywhere, Marcus Jahn, Alexa Roosevelt

Length: 24 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Assemble, train, compete, dominate.

Frank lived for his three sons, busting his back to see that they thrived in comfort. His good-for-nothing wife, she made him the happiest man in the world when she finally agreed to his divorce terms. His glorious day became ruined when a bomber sent him through an unformed portal connection.

Lost to eternity and stuck in the void, a happenstance encounter allows him to relocate to the fantasy world of Dorbin. There's a drawback to Dorbin. It's a violent planet filled with ruthless cutthroats, hideous mythical creatures, and all the activities a heathen could ever wish for. Even the national militaries turn a blind eye to the atrocities, only enforcing the laws when they see fit.

The ruler of Dorbin calls themselves the Creator. The Creator established a system of kiosks for trading, point tracking, and quest rewards. The being is all-powerful and incredibly uncaring, and yet, they gave him a second chance. He arrives marred from the explosion, unable to speak the local language, and about infinitely cleaner than anyone else on the planet.

The challenges for Frank will be steep, the learning curve arduous, and the chances of going home slim to none. It doesn't take long for Frank to realize there's no place in Dorbin for the weak or the meek. If he wants to survive, he will have to earn it, and the ends sure as hell justify the means, especially when he selects to become an arena manager - a dominus of the pits.

Warning: This book is set in a brutal fantasy world that predates modern society's values. It contains violence, gore, slavery, and other grimdark traits, along with fantastical beings and LitRPG elements. Think Game of Thrones with bloody gladiator fighting and mercenary team-building, set from one man's perspective. If you don't have the stomach for such content, have a nice day. If you want action, violence, and to be entertained, welcome to Team Zeppelin.

©2021 Chad Opo (P)2022 Royal Guard Publishing

Good story with lots of tweets.

When you are looking for a book story. I believe you just found it. The MC is not the all powerful hero but a good man. who try to find a good life for him and the people around him.

I hope the story will make it to all three books and I love the audio performances.

suprisingly good

I got this book expecting very little and just looking to fill some time. it turned out to be really great. good pacing. decent plot path and some good hooks. I'm looking forward to more of the series.

Don't believe the negative reviews

I suggest buying this listening to it making your own decision the first few hours were a little bit hard but after 5 hours I was really into it do not think the negative reviews understand but this is supposed to be a dark fantasy someone said insensitive or something like that and I feel that it's actually reality because bad things still happen on Earth and women are treated like third class citizens in this book. Now ask for the complaints about the narrators they are both pretty new to this and yes they're not perfect but most narrators are not instead of just being negative I was just giving positive criticism and understand that without new narrators and new people willing to give it a chance at narrating we would not have the amount of audiobooks in this genre as we do sorry for my Long rant I've honestly been thinking about this all day try it I was just buying it if you don't like it you can always return it

Man I really enjoyed this book!!

Loved pretty much everything about this story. The imperfect MC, his unique gift, his decisions and the whole process of his building his world around him. Very well done and am looking forward to the next!!

Delectably Dark

A lot of books claim to be dark fantasy but this one actually delivers a gritty yet fun experience. Chad Opo pulls no punches on creating a brutal fantasy world for us to enjoy, but if you're faint of heart, this one isn't for you. If you like Joe Abercrombie's work, then this is probably right up your alley. The MC has been traumatized into being fairly heartless, but he's not exactly evil, just a bit narcissistic. I enjoyed the MC being morally uninhibited by his Earth sensibilities when thrust into the brutal setting in which he finds himself. It's rare to find this in LitRPG Isikai and even rarer to find it done so well.

Some reviewers have accused this of being a smutty harem book, it definitely isn't. The MC doesn't really care about conventional relationships, but this is a far cry from harem smut. Any scene that could be written as sexually indulgent is fade-do-black and the cast isn't composed of love interests. All the characters are grounded and have their own motivations and perspectives.

The plot doesn't drag despite the book's very satisfying length. The action is well written and fast-paced. The politics are well thought out and robust. It's just a fantastic if dark, adventure. The MC is largely unable to fight his own battles due to a lingering injury and relies on cunning to win the day, which is super refreshing in a genre that is dominated by overpowered morons.

Overall, I can't recommend the book highly enough.

Slow going, but good.

Slow going for the first few hours, but starts to speed up by the end. looking forward to the next book.

This might be a new favorite for me.

Honestly there is too much to talk about. I will say that the story is totally captivating. Now add a full sleepless day of listening, great characters and character development and you have a sensational book. I'm not really a fan of Marcus Jahn but he did a very good job narration this book. I was really pleasantly surprised by his performance. Alexa was really good as well. This was a great first book and is more than worth the credit.

Harem

Really should have harem in the summary. Every female character the protagonist sees is immediately described by their breast, curves, and other sexual features. Protag sleeps with or engages in sexual innuendo with every female character he comes across. The protag is fine with enslaving sentient beings and sending them to their deaths in the arena, but whenever a female is in trouble he feels the need to save them immediately. (Then likely sleep with them later). I’m sure this kind of thing appeals to some people, but not me. The premise of the arena management in this dark and gritty world is very interesting, but the harem elements just kind of ruins the mood and tone of the story.

in a class of its own!

Great story and narration!

After experiencing an explosion just as he transitions through a portal, our MC wakes up in a strange new world. Prompted to choose a class with thousands of choices, arena manager jumps out at him. He must now learn how to survive in a new world that he doesn't fully understand all while battling for glory in the arena.

Alexa and Marcus do a wonderful job with the narration!

This audiobook was so much more than I expected it to be!

I loved the story and can't wait to find out what happened next!

Chonkers of a litrpg book that doesn't disappoint!

It took me a while to get through this massive book, but I absolutely loved every minute of it. I never heard of the male narrator before but he did a wonderful job with all of the voices. The female they were on the other hand, I've heard at other stories that is excellent. This is probably one of her best performances.

I definitely enjoyed the progression system and the story grabbed me. I would absolutely recommend it.