Modern Paladin: Publisher's Pack

Modern Paladin, Books 1-2

By: Arthur A. Bramlett

Narrated by: Pavi Proczko

Length: 16 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's Summary

Contains books one and two of the Modern Paladin, a LitRPG adventure series.

Modern Paladin, book one

William Shawcro is an ordinary young man, living an ordinary life, when out of nowhere he finds himself in the body of his longtime character, Archaeus. Constrained by a strict Paladin code, he must navigate this shocking new world of magic all the while questioning whether it's just a dream.

After facing frightening conflicts and becoming entangled in this new world's politics, William quickly realizes the life may not be all it's cracked up to be. While he is quite overpowered - having made it to level 20 - brute force can't resolve some situations.... All he can do is keep pushing forward and discover the truth of why he is here and if he can ever return home. Forced to play as a righteous paladin, he'll have to watch his mouth and kill orcs. Lots of orcs.

Allies, book two

Settling into the game takes time. Even after several months of living in the body of Archaeus, William is still coming to terms with what life is like in this strange new world as his tabletop Paladin. But he quickly finds that he has only scratched the surface of what is going on....

Things are looking up, until the town he is charged with falls under attack. His might alone cannot protect his people, and he takes on several new protégés on his way to discovering the truths that surround him.

William does his best to meet these new challenges and finds out that he is not alone in the trials he is working to overcome. Unfortunately, he quickly realizes that playing as Archaeus with Dice and Paper and actually being Archaeus are two very different things - and he has a long way to go if he’s going to walk the road that lies ahead.

©2020 Aethon Books (P)2020 Podium Audio

not very well done paladin

probably the worst paladin in any series seems more like a pathetic 12 your old with raging hormones who falls for the first female that is nice. it's very boring and cliché.

It was good until the last three hours

It was good until it wasn’t good for me anymore pretty sure I just don’t have a heart for it.

too much lovey-dovey stuff

Our MC falls for the first woman he meets and they spend way too much time agonizing about their relationship. No one buys books like this for that sort of thing. I found myself fast forwarding through that.

The MC starts out way OP and so there isn't much focus on progression. I quit listening after about 6 hours.

annoyingly effeminate beta and not terribly bright

It wasnt horrible.

it was annoyingly simpy, girls great, guys dumb. spends the 1st half just terribly idiotic. like grow a spine. or anything that might have some grey matter attached that could do some thinking.

the writing wasnt international, funny, or anything beyond competent. it was included with membership and I just didnt care about anyone after 6plus hours in.

truly amazing unique story of a girl kinda falling for rich overpowered guy and hes still a self-deprecating loser. seriously had more game then this dude at my first middle school dance.

its cute for 5 minutes but after the 5th hour you kinda wanna see him get his ass kicked.

If you think masculinity is toxic & the root of all evil, this heros for you! dont worry im sure his sword always remains soft until mutually agreed upon proactive .... yawn whatever.

Too muddled

he’s changed realms, but only part way. He can’t seem to figure out what he wants, dithers about killing, but then decimates goblin hordes with abandon. And now, we get guns along side swords and sorcery. Make a choice and stick with it. Not getting the next in the series

Writer's Love Gone too far

Great writing, of course, but the key element of LITRPG is death! Fake death! Character reborn! On with the battle! Be a gamer! This is the element that makes this kind of writing different. Give us a good setting and working plot and let the writing go on. But Arthor the Author likes himself. His two characters, a growing boy and a stern father, (makes me think he is a new father.), with variations spread out over other names, are glowingly pictured (or (at least) I could picture his set scenes well, he is no Zelazny when portraying action, but comic book scenes are okay if you imagine the big "POW" printed. But, like most writers who run around with characters in their heads, pretending to be normal in society, they fall in love with this creation of theirs so much that the idea of emotionally hurting their imagined loved ones (even in a place where real death should be faked)
is lost to the soap opera plot.

Like filler none stop but is enjoyable

I tried to listen to chapters but I continue to find myself skipping... however when i do hit a good spot i really enjoy

painful really painful

The voice actor was great. The story not so much.

I don't think Americans should write isekai, or at least this American.

A great story... So far..

I'm glad I didn't let the review I read stop me from listening to this book.. honestly I have no clue who can not like this story.. sure the characters are pretty straight forward and lack depth and the storyline and fight scenes could use a little "Bob Salvatore" but over all a pleasurable listen.. I can't wait for the main character to link up with all his friends.. so I'll keep listening.

great book

really loved this as a massive D&D player and someone who does it for part of what I do for a living I really enjoyed this book I really hope that the series continues and I am looking forward to the next one in the series

Well worth a listen

It is what it is, an interesting premise for the litrpg genre and told well enough to interest fans of same.

If anything lets it down it is the characterisations, which are fairly simple and in places annoying. The protagonist, for example, is silenced from talking about the real world, which seems to be a mere gimmick so far. Also, for an experienced tabletop roleplayer he's pretty clueless at times and it just doesn't make sense. Logically, he would not be dithering over what his character would think or do and certainly he wouldn't be concerned over how his character might phrase something because he's the person who's been playing that character since he conceived of it. The author even made a point of telling us at the start that this guy likes to roleplay even the day to day stuff on his character so why doesn't he know it inside and out? He's the only person who could know. given it's the character he and ONLY he played or, if you prefer, brought to life. I don't think the author thought this through properly.

That and the fact that this book has been out almost 2 years with no indication of more books to come is why I dropped a star overall. If the story ends unfinished then it can be nothing but disappointing.

As for the narration, I may have been able to read this particular book for free with membership but I have bought several titles simply because Pavi was narrating. One might call me a fan of his, with just one minor criticism - he is to Scottish accents what Dick Van Dyke is to Cockney accents. It's a small country though (cliche fans take note, not a country of the small) so probably most listeners won't notice :P

Typical litrpg scenario with small twist

This follows the fairly standard path of gamers experiencing the game world for real.
The small twist:
Instead of the typical PC gamers, this is about D&D board gamers.
So no futuristic full immersion pod IT glitch explanation of how they end up living the game. Actually it's not explained at all!
This may of course be explained in future books in series?
A group of D&D friends just appear as their characters in a fantasy world, ridiculously OP, they are also separated so the story focuses primarily on the Paladin. They find out they are strictly restrained to play by the rules of their characters and cannot talk about real life or act outside of characters normal behaviour patterns.
The publishers pack which was included in my membership is all focused on the OP paladin and an unknown threat to the fantasy world he now finds himself in, a bit of a romance, yawn, and 2 of the players finding each other but unable to talk about their situation and not quite a cliff-hanger when evidence that their friend the Dungeon Master, who has no character, is also in the game!
If the next book comes out relatively soon, yes I will probably get it just to see what happens next but if not, I will probably forget all about this storyline?
It's OK but my biggest criticism is the OP of characters, you don't ever feel they are challenged although there does seem to be some emotional character development of the paladin but he can't seem to lose and is successful in everything, yawn.
Worth a listen, it might be your bag?

interesting

interesting characters and a pretty good story. I'm also really enjoying that it's based on d&d rather than computer game stats.

a romance masquerading as a game lit

if you are in the mood for a romance with a game lot background this is the book for yoy

Good but his ignorance was too oblivious

Good story and premise but the main character was too ignorant. It got a little annoying

Not bad, not good just meh.

I gave up about half way through. The premise wasn't bad, but I just couldn't connect with the characters at all. The mc is your typical isekai fantasy a nerd becomes overpowered but with a slight twist. He has to act like his character would in every situation. Except for when he doesn't want to and then he seems to do whatever he pleases with no repercussions. Not really sure why they include that part when the writer can't be bothered to stick to his own premise.
But probably the most annoying thing in this book and the reason I stopped listening is the love intrest Christine. Honestly one of if not the most boring and unnecessary characters in any book I've read or listened to. She honestly has no redeeming qualities. She is just a flat lifeless shell of a person who seems to exist just to either fawn over or complain at the mc.
All in all not a terrible book, if your interested in YA isekai fantasy you might enjoy this but just not for me.

Enjoyable Story

I really enjoyed this story and look forward to reading the next book and continuing the story.

Pretty good

Not really into teenage fantasy litrpg but this one was a pleasant surprise. Easy listening, good for a long car journey. Could even listen to it in front of the kids.

Very good

Loved the whole story and performance. Now looking for next book. Could not stop listening.

not a bad book

overall it was a good book but the whole good guy thing was a little to much some times