Respawn: An Epic Fantasy LitRPG

Killstreak, Book One

By: Stuart Thaman

Narrated by: J. Scott Bennett

Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Lord Kadorax Darkarrow was born on Earth, but in Agglor, he's the highest-level assassin anyone can find. The leader of the famed Blackened Blades, he's made a name for himself, built a kingdom of sorts, and only had to respawn once along the way.

Then a rogue band of jackals sends him all the way back to a dreary tavern in a tiny village to start over at level one.

Hellbent on revenge, Kadorax sets out on a path littered with bodies - level up, find the jackals, slay their god!

©2018 Stuart Thaman (P)2018 Stuart Thaman

Good story

It was a good story it does leave a lot for the reader to ignore such as how or why the MC is in this world. It is a topic that is pretty much skirted by in order to focus on the story the author wants to tell. Also why are some NPC able to respawn but others arent?

A good LitRPG Story

I think the story was decent, but I never really felt like I was immersed in it. I'm not sure if it was anything that either Thaman or Bennett did in the execution of the story I just couldn't seem to buy into the world.

Your experience might be completely different.

Love it!!

More! MORE! MORE!!!! I must have more! Please come out with the next audiobook SOOOOON!
(If you like litrpg you will love this book! If u don’t know what litrpg is read-listen to this book and fined out!!! I want a snake person friend!

Read well

Read well, the story on the other hand just did peak my interest. Would make a fun game.

Great Read and Listen

Amazing series and concept. Isn't the usual protagonist gets everything he wants. Voice acting really makes it that much better.

enjoyable l i t RPG

not my favorite narrator but story got the job done and looking forward to the sequel

A fun diversion in an interesting MMO style world

Overall this was a quick and enjoyable story, this world has an interesting game system and the mechanics are satisfying but the leveling and power scope is less defined than I would like. We have no idea what a level 73, 45, or 10 means in the grand scheme when we don’t know the level cap or if it is an open ended leveling system.

I found the characters to be difficult to connect to, the main character’s backstory is disappointingly left unexplored, and the sidekicks are not really developed beyond sidekicks. Since the nature of the game world is not clearly defined (is it a game, another planet, or a parallel dimension?) it makes it hard to understand if people like Brina are supposed to be scripted NPCs, players, or natives of another world. I believe the emotional detachment to death and how quickly people get over tragedy stems from the respawn feature of the world. Near the end of the book we do begin to explore more into these points but I feel it would be more helpful near the set-up.

The plot is pretty simple the liner summary basically gives you everything you need, this isn’t really a bad thing as it actually conveys the experience you get in a single player RPG or even a MSQ focused MMO. My biggest complaint is simply that the book ends too soon and it doesn’t quite feel finished it’s unfortunately anticlimactic in that aspect
Now, it seems like I have a lot of negative things to say but I really did enjoy it and got exactly what I expected from this novel and exactly what I expect from a litRPG; It is a solid entry in the genre and if you, like I do, enjoy a bit of video game inspired fiction and don’t really mind not over analyzing the writing then this is what you’re looking for.

As for the narrator, it took some getting used to the man’s tone. It isn’t bad it’s just quite dissimilar to many of the narrators I listen to. I found his pacing and deliver steady and reasonably quick, my main complaint is that I felt some dialogue was lacking the emphasis that the description presented. A good example of this is when he says in a normal emphasis or volume” ‘we need to run’ She Yelled.” Those small annoyances aside I enjoyed the performance and felt it was adequate for the material.

This is the author’s first entry in the series and I think there is a lot of room for growth and a lot of potential in this world and the characters, particularly in the main character’s mysterious new class. The author has left quite a few options open so I am interested in seeing what direction this takes.
Disclosure: I was given this title in return for my review

A different spin on LitRPG

Respawn was a nice change up in the LitRPG genre. Many other books focus on why/how a character got pulled into the game world, and provide little, if any drawback to dying. Not in this world. Our main character has been in this world for 30 years, and death means starting from scratch with a new blank character sheet.

Seeing how a once prolific, household named assassin picks up the pieces of his shattered life to start anew all the while pursuing a jackal menace was great.

Looking forward to the next one!

Entertaining

I have found that, although I am not a gamer, I do enjoy this genre of book. I found this one entertaining, however, I had a few difficulties with this one. The main character, Kaddorax, is at a high level but was killed and had to go back to level 1 in the 1st chapter. I found it interesting that he was able to keep his memories, if not his skill, from his previous life, but unfortunately, being a book 1, there was not enough background information for him to have had a previous life before the respawn. I did not understand how he became to be IN the game in the first place.
All that to say, I DID enjoy the story and would like to read book 2.
I listened to the audio book version of this book and, love Scott Bennett. He is so talented in everything he does, the ebb and flow of his story telling, the development of the characters and the all around excellent narration keeps me coming back for his work.

Excellent Story!

I received this audio book for free in exchange for my honest review. I absolutely loved this story! The writing and narration are both fantastic. I'm hoping I get the opportunity to review the 2nd installment.