Fateless: Book One

By: Martin McKenzie

Narrated by: Neil Hellegers

Graeme only wanted a pint.

He'd even have taken one of those fruity craft beers in a pinch, but it seemed Fate had other plans...which is strange, because as it turns out, Graeme is possibly the only being in the universe unaffected by the otherwise divine and tangible force of destiny. Immune to its machinations, he is Fateless.

So, when he inadvertently disrupts his best friends summoning into another world, the Gods offer him a choice. Fix the mistake, or sentence said friend and world he's destined to save to a particularly nasty end.

Reborn into a new world in the body of Minotaur, Graeme will have to survive frozen wastes, vicious slavers, and perilous dungeons. All whilst adapting to strange game-like powers, delivered and explained to him by an overly enthusiastic voice in his head.

It's not all bad news though. Sure he might be the only Scotsman he knows with horns, but this lack of Fate seems to come with some benefits. The ability to wreak havoc with the pre-ordained plans of the Gods might just give him the edge he needs.

Guess the pint will have to wait.

©2023 Martin McKenzie (P)2023 Portal Books

Good start

In some ways this is your typical isekai-style LitRPG but it scores some novelty points with its protagonist. Our MC is a Scottish Minotaur, which is a first for me. He brings some humor, especially with his interaction with the snarky system. The first part was mired down with him being a slave. I wish that part wasn’t so long. It got a lot better when it got to some of the dungeon diving. Overall, this is a fun, fate fulfilling vs fate breaking story. The narration was good.

Nice to have a minotaur MC.

As some of the other reviews have stated, this book is a bit of a slow starter. Quite a bit of info before it gets into the substance and action.
Two good friends die and get sent to another world in different and more powerful bodies than they had before, on Earth.
Our MC, the minotaur, needs to find his friend to protect him, but he has to find him first, and he doesn't even know what his friend looks like or what he's calling himself.
The MC starts off in chains as a slave and escapes with some others so he can get started finding his buddy. One big problem is that he's having serious issues figuring out his powers and stats.
Pretty good book. I'm definitely going to get book 2.

Great Start

I came into this with an open mind. LITRPG has basically become the only genre I read any new books in lately so I was interested to see one where the main character was something other than a human or goblin. The minotaur concept was great as I have always loved them in mythology. Combining that mythology with a burly Scotsman looking for his friend just made it that much better. While he chose to name his character after Bran gotta say he gives off more of a Wallace vibe. Overall, I liked the story even if it got a little jumbled sometimes. This was the first time I had heard Neil Hellegers do something other than The Realm Between series so that was strange for me. The only things I would change would be more of an alignment in the timeframes when jumping between Graham and Angus. Because the difference in time is so jarring by the end you feel like you missed huge parts of the story. Also as a LITRPG person I wish it were a little more "Crunchy" with the stats and skills. Otherwise, nothing to complain about and I will happily be picking up book two whenever it is released!

pretty good

I'll be honest based on the description. I didn't have high hopes for this book. But I was presently surprised at how much I got into it. I hope there's a next book soon.

An MC I could drink with.

Awesome narrator! This book left me thinking I need a Scottish drinking buddy to keep me out of trouble hehe. The MC is working his way up the OP charts to save a buddy. I will need more!