Armsmaster's Summons

De: James Solomon

Narrado por: Benjamin Fife

Asa Ward is a reasonably content man. He was working at his own small town gunsmithing shop and is caught unaware when he was summoned to a different world.

Now he must cope with what to do in this strange new world of magic where people and even gods are after him for his knowledge of weaponry. All he wants now is to find a way home. Forced to learn the magic system in his newfound world if he wants a way home, he never knows when others are watching to steal his knowledge of non-magical weapons.

Armsmaster's Summons is a fantasy isekai adventure featuring some LitRPG elements, a unique magic system, and a protagonist watched by the gods themselves as they all begin to uncover the very nature of their authority.

©2022 James Solomon (P)2023 James Solomon

Ok first start

So, to start with the narration was the best part of this book. The story was average for the isekai/cultivation style books. The biggest drawback was the several instances of the MC begging for God to help him, and then a literal deus ex happens. I was fully into the story when it just seemed like the author realized he wanted to make it into a series and just fast forwarded thru the ending.
Most of the book was paced pretty well. It's just right at the end that it sped up to the point that I had to re-listen to the last about 5 chapters to figure out why it ended so abruptly.
I would buy the next book just to figure out what happens. But if the next book speeds up right at the end when the story's really firing up, I would have to very much reconsider any more after that

Gunsmith in a Fantasy World

A bit of a slow start, but solid world building. This was a pleasant surprise.

Outstanding

The book is outstanding. As a Christian myself, I generally don’t care for Christian stories as they are typically full of cliched tropes done poorly, preachy sermons in the form of dialogue that don’t fit the plot, etc., but this book was SO well done. Seriously one of my favorite reads all year! Extremely interesting magic system. Well thought out main character. Satisfying ending while leaving me excited for book two.

In the category of Christian fiction, this book takes the gold medal and makes it look easy, but that category aside, this is genuinely one of the best books I have read all year long. I enjoyed this right up there with Mistborn, Ender’s Game, and Bobiverse. Outstanding book.

The performance was well done, the narrator did a great job with the characters. Had to speed it up to 1.35, but that’s not uncommon for me. My only real complaint with the narration is there are a number of recording mistakes later in the book where sentences in the same flow of narration have obvious cuts and sound very different in quality. That said - great narration and I have literally no idea how difficult to fix that minor complaint would even be. It also did not pull me from the story.

Excellent story with lite LitRPG elements

I really enjoyed the story. Like most LitRPG the MC experiences isekai into a new world/universe, there a plenty nerdy quips and sly nods to cultural references that no one from the new world understand.

Unlike other LitRPG that I’ve read, the MC doesn’t fall into a quest to level up and become the strongest. Asa’s goal is simply, figure out a way to get home to his wife and kids. Asa maintains his fundamental beliefs and principles throughout the story despite some intimidating trials.

The narrator’s pacing and cadence was pleasant and didn’t detract from the story at all. There were a couple points that I felt could have used better inflection to play up the emotional aspect of the story which is why I gave the performance 4 stars.

A little heavy on the christian crap

Overall the concept story and pacing was great. the constant christian fan boy babble was a bit off-putting.

give it a shot

Asa has a realistic "pov" of being isekai'd. I enjoyed the fact that he doesn't automatically understand how things work in the new world. For example, he isn't an instant pro using his inventory. The start is a bit slow but gets better as the story progresses. The narrator does a decent enough job, and to be honest, he grows on you but I'm still not sure if I like him or not. Also, I like the star wars mentions.

Family Man's Isekai

I got the feeling through most of the book that it would be a one and done kind of story. That changed near the end when suddenly, that was not the case. All that said, though, I felt like the pacing was pretty good.

I've noticed a few other reviews touch on a few things that I also found notable: The MC is very Christian. While I think there's certainly an argument to be made that the character's application of said faith can be a tad heavy handed at times, I also think it was a very important addition to the story. Often, I feel like in an isekai style story, as soon as the character is in the new world, they allow their original world to simply slough off them like a second skin the not only no longer need, but never wanted to begin with. Unlike other stories, while this one was a tad rough around the edges, keeping to a character that actually seeks to return to their world, to reunite with their family, and to regain normalcy is a pretty big thing. For such a character, holding onto their faith in a world filled with an alternate pantheon feels pretty important.

Heavy handed also was the pop-culture referencing. That said, if you're reading this style of book, you're going to get them all. You'll either smile or roll your eyes, but the book as a whole feels pretty tongue-in-cheek, so even if you do, it's kind of what you expect and at the very least for me, I embraced it wholeheartedly.

As far as the voice acting goes, I think overall it was pretty consistent, and generally pleasant. There were a few rough spots in the beginning, but I couldn't tell if that was direction, or actor choice. The voice effects used for some characters were very offputting, though. Had they been more prevalent, I'd be inclined to rate something lower, but would be inclined to not have it ding the Performance score as I'm sure that's something production had more of a hand in.

All in all, I'll look forward to the next book, but I'd have been far happier with this one had it been about an hour longer and finished up in this one, I think. It felt like it had the potential to resolve soon, but decided not to.

Amazing start with a good cliff hanger and a good

Amazing start with a good cliff hanger and in between it shows a lot of promise for this writer it shows how being single minded Can be departmental to what you want And the importance of allies He has good pacing Cultivation isn't fully developed but at the same time that It's not fully developed it is part of the story they don't really know everything but they think they do so hopefully he will be able to get them to a new understand that his We'll be able to get what he wants When it comes to finding his home and having the people he wants to be there If I have anything to say that's negative about this book it's the marketing The person who all of this needs to find out about the different groups and market this

Slow start and builds from there. Really enjoyable

Worth a credit. Well written. I have approxm1300 audio books and counting. Many I just could not publish a review. More a don't bother to publish a review that could harm type of guy. Will definitely buy book 2.

Enjoyable read could not put it down

Asa’s beginnings pulls you in, you can see how his character grows instead of stagnating halfway through. I enjoyed seeing a character who wasn’t a teen or even early adult navigate a new world. Especially him as someone who plays video games he wasn’t out of the box a Tony sue.

What really made me love the character is his strong morals. Hoping as the story progresses if there is more (please let there be) that he continued to be what drew me in to get. Of course with struggles.

Thank you for sharing the story and the world with the rest of us.