Life Reset: EvP (Environment vs. Player)

New Era Online Series, Book 2

By: Shemer Kuznits

Narrated by: Jeff Hays, Laurie Catherine Winkel, Annie Ellicott

Length: 21 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

After defeating the hobgoblin threat, Oren is now faced with an even more tenacious enemy: the players themselves.

His old guild have discovered his village's location and a deadly strike force is closing in. With time running out, Oren must build up his clan and recruit an army of monsters if he's to have any hope of withstanding the coming attack.

The Soundbooth Theater Team for this production:

• Jeff Hays - Narration, music, and sound design
• Laurie Catherine Winkel - Raystia and Yulli
• Annie Ellicott - Misa and Kusitesh
• Dalton Lynne - Editing and proofing
• Griffin Malnar - Editing and mastering

©2018 Shemer Kuznits (P)2018 Jeff Hays

I've reset my life again!!!

This is this week’s Soundbooth Spotlight, and man was it fun. Practically 22 hours of goblin goodness to gnaw on. Orin, the MC who is trapped in the game world, is a goblin Dread Totem who is running a goblinish village. The book plays out a lot like the original world of Warcraft orcs vs humans game. He creates new peons who do jobs assigned to them, builds and upgrades vital facilities for the advancement of the tribe, and fights off invaders with his limited militia. I enjoy this aspect more than anything. Granted, I like watching Orin level up and get new powers, but I really love to hear how he adds a new building or upgrades one. Like I say, Tamer by MSE has my attention because the characters are building a fort. The book really deals with a ton of things happening to Orin and his village after the events of the first book. It seems that no matter what Orin does nothing is going to prepare him for the trials to come.

Orin is in deep trouble as his ex-guild members are looking for him, and he has limited time to prepare for their arrival. To top it off new monster players have begun showing up, and it seems that one of them is a traitor. Somebody is going around ganking hapless goblin workers, and stealing vital potion supplies. The urgency of the need to expand, gain experience, and leveling his troops is palpable. To top it off, Orin now struggles to retain his identity as a player. He is sinking more and more into his role as the Dread Totem and losing bits of himself in the process. One of my favorite bits that got added this time around is the mandibled brain eating seneschal that made me envision a hobgobliny Predator. He was a fun character, and Kuznits uses him quite effectively to demonstrate the importance and dangers of reputation in a very slick way.

Another impressive thing is the way that SBT handled this book. Last go around, Jeff Hays did the whole thing himself, now he’s added some of the Sound Booth ladies into the mix, but quite wisely keeps himself on the voices that he did the last time. Annie and Laurie both bring their A game and the sisters of Soundbooth supercharge the story with their sublime storytelling. Jeff is the man, handling more characters than a juggling guillotine operator during the French revolution, I just don’t know how he does it but he has impeccable pacing and knows how to wrap a chapter or add life into a battle scene. He definitely infuses a sense of urgency into everything that Orin does, and lets his smugness play out oh so very well that you cringe when Orin says something so snide that you know whatever it is is going to come back and bite him on the rump. One thing that sort of surprised me was that Jeff didn’t figure out a way to sound fx to the shadow magic. I would have loved to have heard a light wind to a full breeze blowing when Orin used his shadow powers, but that is really just my own personal desires, SBT really nailed the book down and provided some top notch high quality narration.


My final score on this book is 8.3 stars. I like that Kuznits doesn’t spit out shorter books, and that he knows the proper thing to do is to put his MC through the wringer as often as possible. The narration is on a nuclear level, and the overall story is a fun fast paced ride of leveling, struggling to become stronger, and preparing for a point when PC’s will invade the village. This is slick and smooth, and will sucker you in for more hours than you realize. Get this book and enjoy it.


Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. Getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.

If this review helped, please press the YES below. Thank you immensely!!!

As seen on the LITRPG AUDIOBOOK PODCAST, please check it out on Youtube.com

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Another great job by the writer, and reader. This series has it all, building, character skills and traits, and chaos! The race to strengthen the Clan before the travelers arrive comes through to the listener and makes for actual tense anticipation. I hope this series goes on for a few more books at least!

good read

so in the second book the Dread totem seems to start acting more like a npc or not is the game getting to him. also shows more of the dark side since the annihilator religion. more travelers ah players joined the clan but one of them is a spy. great end for action while he fights off his old clan. a big suprice at the end off the book have to read to see what that is.

And I thought Nick Podehl was good...

Jeff Hays, I dont know how you do it. Your amazing, man. Thanks for bringing such greater depth to these stories; there is no way I could even read these kinds of books myself with such additional context that your voice acting brings.

Not "Play to Live" but a fun read

I liked it, it kept the pace of the first book and did a good job. Keeps you interested.

amazing

read a few so so reviews om book 2 but i loved it just as much as the first

Loved it

Light hearted, entertaining and enjoyable. Its well read and you will actually hold your breath to figure out how the hero will overcome the odds.

Couldn't put it down.

Loved it. Can't wait for the next one. Highly recommended for the Lit RPG fans.

Great book!

Book is amazing I need book 3 now! I think this is approaching my top litrpg series. Jeff Hays also deserves a special shout-out I tend to buy more books he has voiced. Shermer I definitely love the series please write faster!

Progressive forward movement throughout

Shemer Kuznits creates another thrilling addition to the series. Oren finds himself falling in and out of his human self and ends up making cocky decisions because of it almost dooming his hunting team and even his entire klan a couple of times. If not for his trusty sidekick, Vic, things came close to collapse a number of times. As the title implies, there is lots of progression on environment building that while a bit tedious, was understandable to anyone familiar with civilization-guilding gaming. Again, more stat-bane spewing than I preferred but, as with book 1, not intolerable.

One thing I found particularly enjoyable was the traitor-in-the-midst story-arc. The author took care to develop several characters ahead of time in such a way that their allegiance remained dubious throughout the story, allowing one to place bets with themself as to which one was the traitor. It was not until near the end that their identity became known. This was a particularly well-crafted bit of intrigue trajectory.

Jeff Hays, Laurie Catherine Winkel and Annie Ellicott performed quite well but I have to give Jeff Hays added recognition for his ability to add just the right inflections with various moments of character surprise and embarrassing moments.

A thoroughly enjoyable book.