Ciphercraft: A LitRPG Omnibus

Ciphercraft, Books 1-3

By: Tim Kaiver

Narrated by: Ryan Kennard Burke

Length: 40 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

The system that time forgot suddenly shows back up.

The Cipher ran the universe with its game-like rules, and it has chosen Cullen, an exiled bounty hunter, to be the method of its return. He's given a quest to free a telepathic mother and son from wrongful imprisonment. If he can break his targets out of prison, they'll have to level up, learn new skills, and hunt down the prophecy's clues. All while facing down berserkers and EMP-hurling tigers, in a jungle that offers no succor.

The promised reward is that the Cipher will grant access and the associated power to all of his embattled people, turning the tide in the galactic war that's ravaging the cosmos.

The Ciphercraft series is influenced by party-building, multi-class RPG games like Final Fantasy, town builders like Age of Empires, and a mashup of classic novels like Dune and Dragonlance. You'll experience a story of hope-filled, dog-tough adventurers gaining extraordinary powers right when their people need them the most.

©2021 Tim Kaiver (P)2021 Podium Audio

Aaaaaaand we're off....

I'm not quite finished with Book 3 yet, but will update later...

The first book is indeed a slow going setup and this is not a bad thing as it takes a biiiiit for the narrator to get up and running. Characters need the time and adventure to realize the realities and necessities of their new existence parameters.

It is ambitious to start from zero game existence to universe wide game strategy existence and build upon, but there is definite potential. I love the mixing and blending of different genres to create a cohesive story combining gaming and fantasy talents, skills, spirit qualities, and character builds. Really quite ingenious!



Upon finishing I am very glad its over. It did not deliver much other than frustration at the ends of Books 2 and 3.

A fair trilogy

I did not care for the game mechanics format in the book, but I did enjoy the story. A family trying to make there way in the universe and surviving against oppression.

Fair review

Completed the series including book 4. If you are looking for nonstop action this is your kinda book. Good luck following along with the fighting scenes though..


Pros:
-tons of action and fighting scenes
-characters can have multiple classes
-series has a relatively definitive ending
-civilization building

Cons:
-hard to follow along with fight scenes
-weird religious element running throughout the novel
-GameLit aspects can be hard to follow at times

Awesome MMO. I'll take WindWalker and telepath!

Well, the story is not fully finished. Waiting for next books.. It was like playing an MMO in my head while I worked. Awesome book

Jesus save all others take full damage

honestly this series has no idea what it wants to be the setting and tone jump around like a cricket on meth. one minute it's a space opera the next a 90s disaster then a high fantasy all with a terrible inconsistent techno flavored magic system. but the worst is the heavy handed religious allegory. magic only works with faith unless you are evil. the characters a flat and generic. the believe everything they are told by any other characters. they remember things they were not present for and there are so many that keeping them strait is like tracking rice in a field.

Uneven, difficult to connect with characters

I've listened to 100s of books. I'm a fan of pretty much anything fantasy, Sci-fi or mystery, including LitRPG. For the most part, I consider myself an easy audience. That said, this might be the first book/series I don't finish. I am struggling to listen. It is so poorly paced and uneven, I don't have the ability to embrace any portion of the story or characters. Many of the details of the story are either glazed over or go into too many details on meaningless subjects. The character development is so bad that I don't care who wins or dies. I find myself thinking, "I just want this to over." The narration is better than the storyline. But it's not enough to save it.

don't bother with this one

I'm honestly struggling to just get threw the first book..
i think it might have been different being narrated by someone else...
honestly this so far feels like a cheep book for kids...
honestly I'm gonna try to get my credit back.. and you should save yourself the time and not buy this at all..

Great series Worth the credit!

Hey this was a wonderful book series to listen to. Love book 2 and 3 more because they had what I was looking. However if you can get through the first 2 hours of book one then you will start to enjoy the series! Hope that another book is on the way.