Inflame

The Completionist Chronicles, Book 6

By: Dakota Krout

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Invasions and sabotage. Two civilizations doing anything to exist. War crimes are the norm.

Joe takes his first step into exile, and is promptly unable to breathe. This new Zone has a higher concentration of power, magnitudes denser. His first task is to survive, but mere survival is the least of his concerns.

The Zone he has landed on has been in a state of constant war for thousands of years, a tug of war between the Elven and Dwarven societies. Not choosing a side is the same as declaring both to be your personal enemy. Though he is resistant, Joe reluctantly decides to go with the group he thinks will help him grow the most - and is instantly plunged into their bitter war. To gain the freedom he desires, Joe needs to turn to the less savory aspects of his class.

Engulfed by darkness, Joe can only hope he’ll be able to snuff out the light.

©2021 Dakota Krout (P)2022 Mountaindale Press

It was okay

The story wasn’t the best and it wasn’t the worst. The injection of some mayhem was nice towards the end but still it felt like a general setup and a bit of fan service. The book also filled in some major plot holes, added some new characters, brought back a fan favorite, and introduced the reader/listener to the new zone and the way it works. Only this time it was faster than books 1 and 2 at that so he’s getting into the flow of writing this series more which is great to see. Still doesn’t change the fact that I hate filler books and this very much felt like one. Feel free to disagree and it was nice to see some quests finished and plot holes filled but in the end I was underwhelmed with the story on the whole. There were parts that were fun and I won’t deny that you should make up your mind in the end about the story.

Daniels’ performance on the other hand was superb as always. Getting used to him as the replacement narrator for this series was jarring at first and still is to some degree but he’s still incredible at his job. Also that bloopers reel at the end was well worth the cost of the book alone. There are some new voices and some clever inflection at the right times I hefted just enough humor to capture the silly nature of this series. I mean sure the races are in death games that end in subjugation but the story at its heart is about a socially inept guy making waves wherever he goes, and Daniels does a fine job of showing both the whimsical side and the serious side of the text.

Listen for a good story - great audio performance

It took me a while but this series has slowly gotten to the top of my list of favorite audio books. This is 90% due to the narrator "Luke Daniels" who I'll now seek out. His inflections, voices and ability to make a story very engaging, where you recognize characters etc is unique. With the only 'exception" that at times I go "hey, that's X from this other story" - I guess there are limits to the number of different voices anyone can have :D

This and the audio book before it comes with a special bonus - bloopers! Even if you don't like this genre, the last 10 minutes is worth the entire price of the book! Dying laughing every time!

As to the story, RPG type stories aren't my favorite. Perhaps because I didn't find the actual games in this genre very appealing - mostly because you have to spend a lot of time in the game daily for it to be fun - and as this type of genre proves - you always have a main character who cannot leave the game - so realism is out the window from the get go but if you ever wonder why a lot of people spend a lot of time in MMORPG games - stories like this will help you understand. So you can spend hours understanding why some people have invested months and years into games like what this series portrays. When you play with others, the game stop feeling like a game, but reality or a alnternative universe where what happens in the game is real. This whole story line is relatively faithful to typical open world games and the complexities added to them - particular those unseen which this whole book is about - this is nothing but a "game gone amok" in a fun way.

There are great characters outside of the hero of the story (Joe). One even got a whole side-quest dedicated to him (book 2.5). Character building in other words is very nuanced, not everyone is just good or bad (our hero kills millions of players for instance - which is the pre-story to this book as he deals with the consequences of that action). The characters aren't simple and predictable outside of a few exceptions, they're complex and grow as the story lines continues.

But fair warning - don't let this be your first book in the series. It doesn't stand alone very well. Well, except for the bloopers that is.

I see this final book as a "short story" retelling the same basic line as the first 4 books do - player comes in not understanding the rules of the game, gets very lucky and start playing the game well; player sets goal of "getting the highest status/reward possible" and for a first time player, eventually overcomes obsticles and becomes the strongest player in the game. Because of this, I took one star off the 'story reward" - but it's not a bad story line. It's just a repeat. Yes the characters at this new "level" are different, are driven by other goals than we're used to, getting to know two new "cultures" and more - but in the end, it's the same story we just spend 4 books to get to know.

The story is funny and engaging. The great narration improves on an already readable book so if fantasy and particular gaming fantasy books is your thing, this is a must-have.

bloopers at the end, brilliant just brilliant!

by book five or six I'm usually burnt out. this is still tons of fun!

Enough with the monologue

I have been a fan of this series even while hating the main character. For the most part that just means the writing is good. However, the monologuing in this one absolutely killed it for me. The narration was great, and I would still be interested in other books.

Let the Bros and Dudettes live forever!

This was one of the funniest part of the series so far. As always Dakota Krout has added to the already great series and Luke Daniels has voiced it perfectly.