Dissonance

A LitRPG Adventure (Unbound Book 1)

De: Nicoli Gonnella

Narrado por: Travis Baldree

A new world. A thousand threats. Welcome to The Continent.

Felix's life on Earth had become a series of dead-end jobs, ruined relationships, and rotating apartments smaller than most postage stamps. By all accounts, even his own, he was a coward. Too afraid to move forward, to take risks. Yet when given the chance to choose between risking his life or walking away from a deadly encounter, he didn't hesitate.

Moments before his untimely demise, Felix was snatched from earth and thrust into a magical world known only as "The Continent". Empowered by the "System", he learns that he can strengthen himself through combat and dedication. To survive, he'll have to push himself beyond his limits, or else fall to the monsters all around him.

Levels, stats, and magic. Death is the start of a terrible fate, but if he lives...no one knows what he will become.

©2022 Nicoli Gonnella (P)2022 Mountaindale Press

Baldree brings Gonnella's masterpiece to life

I discovered this story on RR when it originally started and got sucked into it pretty hard to the point that I've had the Patreon sub ever since. Between the great writing, heart clenching cliff hangers and non stop action, Felix's story was really hard to pull down and led to many readings way too late into the night.

I was a bit anxious about the audiobook because I wasn't sure how it would translate to the litrpg feel and I am happy to say Baldree nailed it. Even though I've already read this initial part of the story, the audio book really pulled me in and added an extra depth to the world that I didn't know was there. From Felix's survival struggles in the beginning to his advances later on, the audiobook is just pure joy to listen to.

If you're looking for a great story with an awesome narration, this is the one for sure.

Lot's of Fun

I am beginning to hate Travis Baldree. After listening to him, other narrators fall flat. He is a genius at bringing characters to life. Half of my enjoyment of this book is due to Baldree.
That being said, this book is a lot of fun. It is not the best book I have ever listened to, and the story is a little uneven. But I am not going to nitpick this work to death. This is Gonnellas first book and it is a blast. I really enjoyed myself and will be returning for the sequel no questions asked.

Mostly good

Generally everything you want LitRPG to be. My only complaint is too much focus on our MC rolling on the ground in agony, which went on for pages, and then to be repeated throughout the book. This was in spite of his ever-climbing pain tolerance, which should have spared the reader the ordeal of listening to a thousand ways to describe pain.

Same thing for his fear. His "mental fortress" type skills should have protected him from fear and the narrative has him invoking it on a regular basis, yet the reader is still inundated with descriptions of his fear. I guess the author wanted to have it both ways: having a cool skill and ignoring it as needed to ratchet up the tension.

As others have noted, the book ends on a cliffhanger, but only a little one. It's really just a setup for book 2.

amazing storyline

the story is pretty amazing where the hero is op but gets thrown into constant situations that utterly destroy him. even so much as losing himself and being internally attacked. with only a good luck.

Average story. Hard to care about the protagonist

I've listened to a lot of series in this genre, and generally speaking my feeling all the way through was that the main character is hard to care about more than fleetingly. If in a situation where you are pulled out of your world and dumped into a new land, there would be deeper emotional conflict than is apparent anywhere throughout. The main character feels more like a tumbleweed with powers than a person at times. He essentially just takes everything that happens on the chin with no real personal impact and growth as the story progresses. He's a good guy, his interactions with others are always calm and restrained, people around him are always calm and restrained. His interactions with the world are calm and restrained. Its just hard to be very compelled to care about what's going on compared to other main characters in other series.