He Who Fights with Monsters: A LitRPG Adventure

He Who Fights with Monsters, Book 1

By: Shirtaloon

Narrated by: Heath Miller

Length: 28 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's Summary

Jason wakes up in a mysterious world of magic and monsters.

It’s not easy making the career jump from office-supplies-store middle manager to heroic interdimensional adventurer. At least, Jason tries to be heroic, but it's hard to be good when all your powers are evil.

He’ll face off against cannibals, cultists, wizards, monsters...and that’s just on the first day. He’s going to need courage, he’s going to need wit, and he’s going to need some magic powers of his own. But first, he’s going to need pants.

After cementing itself as one of the best-rated serial novels on Royal Road with an astonishing 13 million views, He Who Fights with Monsters is now brought to you in professionally formatted audio.

©2021 Shirtaloon (P)2021 Podium Audio

Great!

Took a flyer on a new title. This is one that I'm going to keep.

I'm liking the the character development. We see (at least somewhat) believable characters who have moments of insensitivity, moments of apology, and who grow. We have a good-natured protagonist (23 years old, male, Australian) with lots of personality, perhaps fitting some Australian character tropes. I like the way that interactions between teammates are handled.

I'm liking the worldbuilding. Our character has entered a new world. While I do read books with intense worldbuilding, this one has a deft touch. Cities and locations are described in an accessible level of detail, enough to picture the locations without being swamped with details.

Although this is a LitRPG, we really and truly are not inundated with lists of stats. The character receives a new ability. It's named, and that's about it - up until we need to learn more about it. We see sections of his character sheet when they are relevant, we're not inundated with character sheet reviews. It's quite refreshing.

I think the narration's truly great. It's a good performance, easy to listen to, with characters coming to life.

This is well above average for the genre, a book full of personality. 4.5 to 5 stars.

LITRPG at its absolute best!

I don't know what exactly I can say that would do this book the credit its due. I will say that it's probably the very best LITRPG I've ever listened to, bar none. To put that into perspective, I have listened to at least 200 hours of varied LITRPG. I've enjoyed much of it.

The things I love about this book are numerous. Let's start with the main character. Jason is relatable and down to earth. He's got a clever mind and a sharp tongue. The later gets him into vast amounts of trouble while the former just barely helps him manage it, if only by the skin of his teeth. His abilities are unique and quite powerful, but not to the degree that he can just waltz through every circumstance. His power is earned and his skills are gained through a combination of dumb luck, good advice, and a tireless work ethic to become more. Additionally, Jason has friends that are both on his level and above it.

The characters, dialogue, humor, places, and plot arcs are all written incredibly well. In fact, the prose in the book is written so well, it's in a class of it's own in the LITRPG genre. I'm sure many of you are screaming at me "What about The Land? That's some good stuff, right?" Sure, "The Land" is good. This is better in most respects with the exception of 1 thing, which brings me to the only "not the best ever" thing I can say regarding this book: the LITRPG aspects are not very crunchy.

I, for one, am fine with that. There's still loot, inventory, combat logs, health bars, abilities, etc, etc. The book is still LITRPG, but specifics are glossed over. This was done in such a way that I'm sure it was an intentional choice by the author. You see, Shirtaloon avoids numbers. There are no values for health, manage, stamina, or damage. While I do enjoy crunchy LITRPG, doing it right is pretty difficult as the pitfalls of overly verbose repetition, consistency, development trees, etc, etc are numerous. "The Land" is a prime example of a series that suffers from overly repeating itself. (I'm not trying to knock The Land, specifically. I'm merely using it as the basis of comparison regarding LITRPG as it's probably the most well known.)

I haven't listened to any books narrated by Heath Miller prior to this book. I almost didn't use the credit because of that. After listening to the preview and the rest of the book, I can say that Miller nails the narration with all the credit this book is due.

If you like LITRPG, clever main characters, good dialogue, and a book that's just amazingly well written, spend the credit. You won't regret it.

A great litrpg

This book is a great start to what maybe a topshelf litrpg book. I loved the pacing and character development. I also love that it's long and tells a great story without needing 3 books to do that. One of the things I think is a problem with most litrpgs is that they are like dime novels and are short needing multiple books to finish a story ark. That is not the case for this book if you are a fan of "The Land", "Edens Gate", of "Bushido online", than this book is a great read.

I really like the start of the book But goes downhill

There’s some parts in the book where Jason the main Character Goes on these rants about Political and religious beliefs It seems like it happens over and over again he just keeps bringing it up Which is just annoying another problem with the Story is it seems like every character comes in Contact with Jason becomes new version of Jason. starts off great
I really like the Magic system in place. But Want to say again those rants about political religious views it’s OK to have one or two of those in a Fantasy book I’m not reading or Listening to fantasy books for super deep Thought on power structures of the wealthy and the poor Also It’s a totally different scenario in this universe we don’t have super powers

Comprehensive Review

The quick summery is that, if you like LitRPGs, this is a great edition to the genre of LitRPGs while not technically being/behaving like one. This reads more as an adventure-super power epic tale. No detailed gameplay stat pages, no AI run world with NPCs, and no developers. This book has an interesting leveling system, well written protagonist, good worldbuilding, and excellent development of supporting characters.

Reviewing the plot, protagonist, and supporting characters in more detail:

The plot is good, while not being riveting. Our main character essentially is coming into the world and establishing himself in this first book of the series. He is leveling, learning about the world, and finding his place as an adventurer in the political and social power structure. He goes on a few smaller adventures and a couple big ones but the author does a great job making each one flow into the next.

Our protagonist is a really sharp guy. But to be honest, while well written, he was the biggest con of the book after 28 hours of listening to him. At times you love his wit and snarky tone coupled with his courage to always be himself; at other times it feels like the author is trying to make a point that is too heavy for light fantasy reading. Jason has two sore spots that get old fast and begin to feel like talking points for the author outside the story: 1st is the socio-economical and political state of the world. Jason will literally go on rants about inequality and power again and again, acknowledging himself as the privileged class but excusing himself because he isn't the guy at the very top. 2nd is the protagonists overly clear atheism while he was on earth and obvious utter disrespect for theists. In Jason's new world Gods are real, but despite accepting less familiar concepts at face value he demeans and mocks priests and their religious orders, as well as normal people who venerate them. On one hand our protagonist having these annoying qualities makes him seem more human and real, especially because the world around him often checks him or proves him wrong. However, these pints come up enough and with enough emphasis to seem like the author is going out of his/her way to express a view to the detriment of the plot.

Lastly, the supporting characters are absolutely excellent and our protagonist's interactions with them are superb. By far one of my favorite aspects of this story was how real and important characters that Jason meets in the world feel. Indeed, without giving away too much, Sofia and Belinda's sub plot is worked in really well and builds excellently into the final chapters of the book. I kept wanting to learn more about these supporting characters around Jason, where they are from, their families, what powers they have, and what was driving them.

I am strongly looking forward to the next book in the series!

Can’t take any more

This is the weakest and most inept MC I have ever seen. I get and appreciate the authors attempt to make his transition, into a new world and the pain of losing everything, more realistic. But, he went to far the other way. In addition the MCs personality is so annoying I couldn’t even listen to the book for more than an hour at a time before yelling at my Alexa to stop. The MC handles every conversation with snark, which is funny in small doses, but after hours of the same dang thing over and over and over. I literally yelled out loud “shut up”.
In addition the MC is made to be a side kick, is always a side kick and seems to be lacking anything that makes me want to connect with him. I like almost every other character in the book more than him.
In conclusion this story, world etc has potential but it’s all ruined by the MC

a lot of parts are rushed.

overall I liked this book but it has random time skips and doesn't cover a lot of what is going on. the ending is also rushed.

Boring

6 hours in and nothing is going on. They spent like 2 hours on nothing but debate on essence which could’ve been done in maybe half an hour

Outstanding!

Follows the normal tropes, but once the banter between characters start I was hooked.

One last thing...this is the longest audio book I've listened to in a while....took me days instead of a single day like the normal 8/9 hour books take.

well worth the credit or the price of the book.

Amao

Book is amazing and narration... I wish I had a higher level of vocabulary cause its even better.

Wow.

Alright, not much of a reviewer but come on this was just amazing.

If your reading this to see if the book is worth listening to, I'll make it simple, the stories is as fun as its complex, the narration is diverse as well as top notch, and the characters are 4 dimensional. Also if your looking for something that not only latches onto your attention like a leach but also lasts for a ridiculous long time...

Haveing said this, I can still think of one problem-

THE FACT THAT AM GONNA HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT BOOK

Excellent audiobook version of the first arc

To give a little background: He Who Fights With Monsters is an ongoing webnovel (or series... I'm not sure of the correct term), and this is the first 113 chapters of that novel.

Heath Miller does an excellent job of narration, including the readings of the various abilities and other pop-ups the main character, Jason Asano, gets during his adventures in a new world. If I had one, minor complaint, it's that sometimes these pop-ups create run-on segments that are hard to listen to; they work better in a visual format.

For the story itself - your mileage may vary, but for me it's an engaging exploration of a new world with magic and monsters. Itsmain flaw comes from its roots as a webnovel - several times, a concept or event covered in one chapter will be re-explained in a later chapter, sometimes even in the next chapter. As long as you can put up with that happening from time to time, it's a fun listen :D

: )

Long ; which I always like ; and entertaining . A great take on the genre .

Sooooo Good!

This is one of the best Litrpg's I have read and I have read a lot. An interesting world with interesting characters. The author could probs have got away with splitting the book into 3 parts but I am really glad they did not as being so long really helped immerse me.

I really enjoy having a smart MC that not only adapts to the world fairly quickly but is also socially and politically adept. MC getting on his high horse felt like the book was being a bit heavy handed with its moral point of view at first but over time it felt more like it was a character flaw than an issue with the writing.

My only real complaint and it is a petty one is the silly incantations the MC uses, they really pull me out of the book for some reason and while over people might have used them in the book I dont remember anyone else doing so which makes it more jarring.

Can't wait for the next one!

I want to be friends with the main character.

While not strictly the best book or plot in the world, it had me laughing out loud and smiling constantly. The main character is someone I would genuinely like to meet at buy a drink. Most litrpg tends to be shameless power fantasies often surrounding objectively terrible people, however Jason is not so much a white screen to project the readers wish fulfilment on to but instead comes across as a genuine person in his own right who I personally would like to have a beer with.

Great fun!

Amy laugh out loud moments, good fun story and I was totally left wanting more.

Roll on May!

Great fun!

I was worried first couple of chapters that this was another long listen but poor....I was pleasantly surprised. it's great fun and I really took to it. Imbued with Aussie irreverence for authority and at the same time examines morality in a refreshing way; but primarily great fun! Heath Miller does a brilliant job of narration and I'm looking forward to the next instalment.

Interesting story, good world building

Very happy with this e-book. I would've given it a five if it wasn't for all the repetitions on effects and statuses, probably 15% of the time in this book is just repeated words of things the listener should already know, and if they don't then they probably aren't listening that carefully and probably don't care for that information to be heard in a very monotone way for the 100th time. We get it.

But I loved the characters, the world, the magic and both the mix of light and dark humor.

This has me in constant stitches.

I seriously loved this book. I could not stop listening to it and virtually finished it in one go. it's hilarious, thought provoking, and plain good fun all throughout.

dosent start well but it sucks you in

honestly I almost stopped at the start it sounded like a screen play and I wasn't impressed with the narration .
I pushed through and got hooked on the story by part 2 I was in and found it hard to turn off it had me laughing out loud and the world wondering what is going on around me.

i believe it started as a web novel with chapters being released in stages and with that the authors skills improved over time

I think the audio could of been better but for a good story I can get past that if you can to give it a go