Mythian

Chronicles of Ethan, Book 1

By: John L. Monk

Narrated by: Travis Baldree

Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Retirement means immortality. Immortality means adventure. Life begins at 70.

Running on the world's fastest quantum computer is a very special game: one where retirees leave their flesh-and-blood lives in search of endless adventure. Weapons, spells, gold, experience points.... These are the marks by which life is now measured. 

Ethan Crane wants none of it. In fact, he never wanted to retire at all, let alone play a game for all eternity. But now he's on a mission to find his wife - a wife he just discovered is still alive and inside the game. 

Nothing will stop him from reaching her. Not even himself.

©2019 John L. Monk (P)2019 Mountaindale Press

Unrealistic even for a fake world

Yeah, so there are just so many stupid things that would never really happen because one, there is no real reason for it, Two people would just stop playing and transfer to a different game, three there would be other repercussions.

Example: Now there are safe zones. All Cities are safe zones. But when you start this game you spawn not in a safe zone you spawn in a spot that all new players spawn where you can be killed.... why? there is no reason why. SOOO At the start when he first loads in he is insta-robbed and killed. This is repeated three times because your first three spawns you spawn with money. The other player is "farming" the incoming new players. He is killed by someone doing some stupid number of damage like 30k dmg.

Now let us say that is "realistic" this would mean that there is a spot that new people ALWAYS spawn in and that you can farm them.

One there is no reason for this mechanic to be in the game as it serves no function. Why spawn new people in to feed people in the game money? They don't have much money but if they did then Logically, since farming incoming new players is profitable, large groups or guilds would have people stationed there doing just that, they are not. So new players can't have large sums of money otherwise there would be a big operation of doing this.

Two so if it isn't profitable to farm this little amount of money then why would a high level character in full armor that can do insane numbers of damage needs the starting money? They wouldn't because if you could buy a full set of awesome gear or upgrades just by farming incoming new players again bigger groups would be doing it. Mid level players wouldn't do this because they would be killed by the highest level players who would be doing this.

Three, if this happens to all the new players who log in why bother giving them money in the first place knowing that they won't be getting it? You wouldn't do that, as it teaching nothing to the new player and gives paltry amounts of money to other players while not encouraging the other players to actually go out and play this game.


This is just one of the many really bad fake things that would never happen in this book. If you can get over it and just not care the book is just decent.

Performance was great though good job Travis Baldree

Oh you got me...

now I NEED to know what will happen next. CURSE YOU WELL WRITTEN BOOK. no seriously... cant wait to start the next in the series

An Interesting Take on GameLit

Good story and narration.

A man has his consciousness transferred into a game in search of his dead wife. With little to no game savvy, and unknown lurkers in the dark, he must level up to get to the second realm and save his wife.

Solid story - the protagonist is unfamiliar with games and as a result struggles through some situations that he otherwise might not, but the story is well written and thought out.

Ready For the Next One

Great Book, I love the take on retirement. Ready for the next book to come out (next month)!

Expect some twists...

I've read the Jenkins cycle books from this author and liked their quirky, unique story. I was looking forward to how the author would tackle LitRPG and I wasn't disappointed. While I did get frustrated that he wanted to be nice to the enemies that immediately turned on him and battle, I think ultimately it was a little more believable and true to Ethan's character. This guy is not a gamer by nature and to him, these are lucids exactly like him. And even though they both can respawn, it doesn't mean it won't hurt! He still has to adjust to life in the game, and his morality wouldn't just evaporate overnight. Made Ethan a little more genuine to me, even with his flaws.

I think some people are going to be surprised by the ending, but knowing that there are two more books coming soon, I'm going to give Monk the benefit of the doubt that overall it's part of the story arc and that there's more in store. Fortunately book 2 comes out soon so I won't be hanging for long!

All in all, I enjoyed it. I've seen other people found it slow in the beginning, but I zipped to 50% mark in one day and didn't have any issues getting into the story. I'd recommend trying it out.

Highly derivative, with tired old cliches!

Had to stop listening after only a few chapters. Tired old litrpg situations, Nothing new to see here, story telling was was sufficient to gloss over the cliche story tropes.

Leaves you wanting more.

Didn't know what to expect with this new author new to me. But I wasn't disappointed although short this book is a great read and leaves you wanting to dive into the next installment in the series. I know I can't wait to read what happens next with Ethan.

GLORIOUS!

This book is the first in a series I cant wait to devour. The characters are lovely, and the world is amazing! Scifi and fantasy blend together seamlessly to take you on a journey with vivid imagination and I cant wait for more!

A Decent Beginning, but....

I bought this book knowing full well that it was less than 6hrs long. Therefore, I was worried about the pacing of the story despite it being part of a series. I was right to worry. The beginning was well developed with a good character introduction and setting. However, around the middle of the book is when character development started to feel rushed and the plot began to unravel. The MC's goal is to find his wife and the only way to do that is too power level. Yet he constantly gets distracted and it's like the author has to quickly pull him back on track with some half-baked reasoning. At some point in the middle of this novel, I lost all interest in the MC. However by the end of the novel, I hated the MC. He forsakes all his morality and human decency for shortcuts to power. We are constantly reminded of his goal to find his wife, but the lack of urgency paints the MC actions in a distasteful light. I was hoping for a fresh take on Litrpg but this just wasn't my cup of tea. P.S. Travis Baldree is an amazing narrator!

to short, mash the three "books"

ok, this is a complaint I have been having a lot recently, good but short.

leaves you wanting for more

loved this book. time passed by so quickly while listening to Mythian. It's written well and the narration is on point.

review

I loved the narrator of this book. His voice keeps a nice cadence while story telling and does a very recognizable impression of each character.

the story builds up in a nice pace. it could have been a bit more in depth seeing that you only trully get to know 3 people.

overal I'm looking forward to start book 2

Narrative draws you in.

Narrated with a steady flow. Characters are greatly presented with different voice and accent. Cliffhanger at the end makes you look forward to the next book. Great performance!

I love this series

I enjoyed this book, i think you might as well! try it out - its worth it.

Different

I was pleasantly surprised by this book, it's quite funny in places. the characters are easily likeable, with plenty of depth to them, the concept is pretty good too.
It's nicely written, very well paced and performed brilliantly.
The narration it apt, Travis give each character a unique quality bring everything to life.

really good read

love this series of books so far, well worth a listen John l. monk has captured something special in this litrpg novel roll on the next one

Great world builder

Great start to what hopefully will be an amazing series. This book set the ground work of the game world, classes and characters.

You can alway tell it a good book when it ends and you did not realize how long you been lieseting for.

Solid Performer

In this increasingly busy LitRPG world its hard to stand out but the story of a complete noob [newbie] in search of his wife stuck in a online world gives a little bit more character to the story.
The characters and their interactions with each other and the clueless MC gives some good action and points to follow up on.
This was a little slow and may not be every listeners cup of tea but it was fairly decent and the ending did leave me wanting to continue further on with this series.
A solid 4 stars from me , I requested this audio and have decided to leave my thoughts.