Battle Spire: A Crafting LitRPG Book

Hundred Kingdoms, 1

By: Michael R. Miller, Portal Books

Narrated by: Justin Thomas James, Jeff Hays, Annie Ellicott

Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Jack Kross only wanted to play the game. Now he’s fighting for his life.

When a mysterious hacker takes control of Hundred Kingdoms, Jack is trapped inside the fantasy VR world along with millions of other players. But Jack is in a worse predicament. He’s cornered in the very tower the terrorists have taken as their base; the only free player left within its walls. Even worse, in the real world, his body lies in a sweltering room with no hope of relief.

Playing the profession-based Scavenger class, and at a low level, Jack’s prospects of fighting his way out are next to impossible. Crafting gear, traps, and weapons, allying with a deadly dungeon master and an AI he can’t fully trust, Jack is in a race against time to save not just himself but the millions of players held hostage.

Battle Spire is a meeting of World of Warcraft and Die Hard, using crunchy LitRPG mechanics with a heavy focus on crafting. Listeners can expect to find in depth item and spell descriptions, along with stat tables and profession recipes.

Note: strong language is used throughout.

©2019 Michael Robert Miller (P)2019 Michael Miller

A Surprise and Treat

A hidden jewel for now at least. I missed out on the reddit giveaway but bought it anyway and boy am I glad I did. The action is fantastically well done and the character went in a direction I wasn’t expecting. He managed to come up with many exploits, items and abilities that were realistic to an RPG yet interesting and new. There were a few moments when the plot was pushed in a particular direction that stretched my suspension of belief in order to shoehorn in more drama but the redeeming qualities of the rest of the story far outweighed this. I’m personally looking forward to how this author develops in the future because I can see him having a AAA release in the near future if he continues to hone his craft. It also has great voice acting and sound design.

Read this book now

One of the best litrpgs I've had the pleasure to read it your trying to be into this type of book Battle Slide is a grate way to start.

pretty good.

interesting story with cool concept. a few moments of cliche lines that we're kinda cringey but it was still good.

Does not Suffer from LITRPG Book 1 Syndrome

I was quite surprised by this author's work. I have come to expect that LITRPG book1's are quite formulaic. This was a difference maker. I enjoyed that we got to see both the real world and the game world. The game world does become the "real world" in many senses that we have come to expect. We have an AI and the question of whether if it looks smells and feels real, is it not real? We also get inklings into the WHY we game and how others perceive us gamers. I like that the author pointed out that the gamer character saw negative consequences because of his gaming addiction and made that a part of the plotline.

Great book! Cannot wait for the next one. Oh, and it goes without saying Soundbooth Theater has a great team. Annie is marvelous, as is Justin Thomas James. It's kinda neat to see Jeff playing an evil role as well. If you have listened to these folks they definitely ADD something to the quality of the production. I love it when they tag team projects like this, and the effects and sounds they are using more and more definitely bring something to the game.

An Annoying AI

I think James is a great voice actor being able to capture the frustration or desperation of our MC. Jeff Hays is great as well playing the villain in this case. Annie Ellicott however, leaves much to be desired.

If I am being completely honest and truthful, I never really like any of Ellicott's voice acting, at least I haven't liked it in the Life Reset Series or War Aeternus series. But she did a decent job in the Dungeon Lord series which is why I am so upset. I feel like she has potential and I know she can do better voices but it just didn't happen here. It was too cheesy.

Let me explain. Ellicott plays an AI that is called ELLE. She helps Zorin and is the most prominent character beside Zorin himself. The ambience and sound effects generated by sound booth theater affect her voice making it be more robotic in nature. It is interesting to hear but also kind of grating on my ears. But the main problem his with her acting.

ELLE tries to psycho analyze Zorin and keeps pulling his strings to get him to be the hero. This is usually what we want with a supporting character. But Ellicott's acting makes the AI sound condescending, patronizing, insincere, and fake. This wouldn't be a problem if the AI was supposed to be this way but she is actually trying to encourage Zorin, making this very hard for me to listen to.

Overall, the book was good. The crafting and upgrading aspects were fun. Zorin felt like a real person that I could relate to. I enjoyed the story. The leveling seemed a little slow but thats alright. I'd still recommend this book since I am kind of biased when it comes to voice actors.

Fun

Not going to lie, this book definitely has me laughing because it’s like a fantasy version of Die Hard. The torturer on the other hand sounds like Doofenshmirtz and I love it.

Narration++

Excellent narration always makes the story better. this was an interesting Twist on the litrpg genre. one of the best parts about this story was that there were no harems. A+ on all aspects.

Classic GameLit!!!

Great story and Narration!

Jack is a collage student. Jack sneaks into a seedy part of town to get his game fix without his family finding out. Unfortunatly his plans get highjacked when terrorists take over the game and disable the logout feature. What else can go wrong, and what can Jack do about it?

The Soundbooth crew do a great job with the narration!

The the MC starts off whiny, he show great personal development and growth throughout the book.

I loved this book, and cant wait for more from this author!

do you like video games? and fantasy?

this story put me in the middle of a MMO RPG and had me guesting tell the end. it did a good just at putting me in the middle of the crazy fast paced story and made me feel what the character felt. if you like fantasy and video games and MMO RPG's you will love this story hands down.

Just as good the fifth time around.

This is the fifth time I’ve listened to this story, and it definitely won’t be the last. I honestly wish Michael R. Miller made a sequel.