Rexus: Side Quest

The Completionist Chronicles, Book 3

By: Dakota Krout

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Vengeful assassins. A treacherous companion. T-Rex Head Hands.

After the Wolfman nation is shattered, Jaxon has enough spare time to advance his skills and specialize into a better class. Since Joe and his other teammates are either incapacitated or on a mission Jaxon does not believe in, the misunderstood chiropractor-turned-gamer strikes out on his own.

The issue with creating your own path is that you have no idea what awaits you, especially when low charisma guarantees legendary misunderstandings. For Jaxon, that’s half the fun.

Rexus is a Completionist Chronicles side quest focused on Jaxon and is meant to be heard following Regicide.

©2019 Mountaindale Press (P)2019 Mountaindale Press

Rexus? Nearly killed us!

Rexus is just an amazing sidequest novel. On the whole I am not a fan of sidequest books, which is ironic because I have a short story in the VGO side quest anthology, but I prefer my main stories to stay on point. For example, Awaken Online lost me as it started drifting from the main character and giving us books about secondary characters. Why did it lose me? Because I didn’t give a crap about the secondaries, they weren’t that interesting and they all seemed to have some issue with their homelife/parents.

Why don’t I feel that way about Rexus? Because Jaxon is an interesting character, he has internal flaws and flawed game mechanics give his situation a humorous edge. He is also very different from the series main MC, Joe so I don’t feel like the characters just swapped places. Jaxon is an absolute riot and his attitude and reactions are uniquely his own. While this is just a sidequest book it is also a great stand alone novel and could continue on exactly as it is with Jax in the lead. I would have no problem with that as Rexus is a big exception because it is not a story that sidelines a main story, but enhances it. The book focuses on everyone’s favorite chiropractor from the completionist series, Jaxon, who ends up going on a quest he receieves/learns about from the wolfmen.

Again, having finished the Divine Dungeon series I am now far more aware of the wolfmen and the implications of them almost being wiped out. So, not only does this book kind of continue the Completionist story in an interesting way it also manages to tie itself nicely to the Double D universe as well.

Overall the story is funny, and I have to give Krout credit for taking what is basically an insulting jerk and making him a sympathetic character. That, my friends is not an easy task. The book taught me a lot about bones, as in how to break them, and the joys of chiropracty. In all fairness and full disclosure I view chiropractors as being just a step below witch doctors and faith healers. At least with they don’t carry medical degrees to convince me they know what they are doing.

As I said in my Divine Dungeon review, it is terribly sad that Adams is out, but the more I think about it the happier I am. Just saying that with Adams constant work, and willingness to take on new series by unknown first timers it becomes clearer that the issues with narration do not lie at Dakota’s feet. While I don’t think Daniels fit as well in the DD universe (characters were too established and identifiable vocally) for a side mission book like this with one character who didn’t have an overwhelming amount of “screen time” in the main series he works well here. Also, I think the pattern of jokes fit him better here as it reminded me of his work in Magic 2.0. However, I am still not sold on him doing the main series, and I’ll have to check out Raze before I come to a conclusion about that. Either way, Daniels works his magic to great effect and makes the funny bits funny.


Final score: 8.4 stars You have to admire a writer who can take a concept like getting dinosaur heads for hands and making it work. Not just work, but work well.

Keep reading it is worth it!

At first I hated the new narrator.. and that is not to say I hated him.. i hated the changes to the voices I grew to love. That being said after listening to the whole book I found that the story over powered my issues. And Luke did a good job with the narrations and look forward to the next book.

Fun Side Story

Fun story in The Completionist Chronicles. Normally love Luke Daniels, but Vikas Adam (narrator of first two books in the series) does a better job with the voices and characters. Had to drop one star overall as the narration was not Mr. Daniel's best or match up with voices from original narrator.

It should be against the law to change narrators

It grows on you the longer you listen, but wow is it hard to adjust to a new narrator in a series. I am praying the voice for Joe changes before the next book in the series. I adjusted to Jackson, but I don't think I'll ever acclimate to the voice Joe was given at the end of this one.

Story is continually delightful, of course, and still well worth the listen.

Another Great Story!

You know, I rarely expect such poignant life lessons from characters I’m not a fan of, and admittedly almost skipped “Rexus” due to this (Jaxon isn’t bad. The character is quite well written. Just he grated on my nerves at times.). But he’s got a great line, that I’ll paraphrase: I don’t hate people. I either like you, or I don’t bother thinking about you. Dakota, kudos to you.

Great book. The pacing was good, the character growth was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Perfect 5/7.

Great (side) Story, New Narrator

Was happy to see Jackson on a solo quest and story. Great funny character, low charisma but wants to help people. If Kramer from seinfeld made a video game character, it would be Jackson-like.

The voice actor switch though, caught me off guard. I thought I loaded up an old book I was listening to that was also narrated by Luke Daniels! (off to be a wizard series)
I think it's just initial shock, this has happened to other audiobook series. We'll all get over it eventually as long as they don't switch voice actors again. :D

Luke Daniels is not terrible what so ever.

Although Mr. Daniels is getting a bad rap on the reviews, this shouldnt dissuade you from this enterntaining book. His performance and energy is electrifying and entertaining!

Daniels voice for Jaxon should be seen as how Jaxon hears himself. The rest of the party's new voices can be heard at the end of the book.

Luke did fantastic, though i will miss Vikas' voice, Luke should not be discredited for his efforts.

great book

great book that I really enjoyed. would suggest this book to any one to get.

Good but enjoyed original voices better

I did like the story but I feel that the change in voices from the new reader did not help, but hindered. I think it would have been nice if the new reader had at least had similar voices for the main characters.

Great addition, great transition

Absolutely loves this side story involving Jackson from the main series. You REALLY begin to understand all the misfortune Jackson unknowingly endures. Not only does Jackson have a lot charisma stat but he also has a care free attitude. He is definitely smarter then he lets on and there is something very charming to the character. Jess is also an interesting addition that oddly fits right in beside Jackson.

Some of my favorite parts include seeing Jackson's thought process while fighting, Jackson discovering his class specialty, and the A.I. manipulating what Jackson hears other people saying, which causes him to look at them oddly and say the wrong thing to them.

The changing of narrator to Luke Daniels is actually refreshing here as we see these events from his perspective. I am a fan of Daniels other works and I feel he does an amazing job here as well. Though, I will say that Joe sounds VERY off, but since Joe only has a small presence here this book makes for a great transition book as far as narrators go.