The Heroic Villain

By: Charles Dean

Narrated by: Jeff Hays, Annie Ellicott, Justin Thomas James, Anneliese Rennie

Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's Summary

Although he was once the promising young CEO of a successful corporation, Lucas abandoned everything he knew and retreated from both the real world and his demanding life following a horrific accident. In order to cope with tragic loss, he began spending his time in virtual reality, lazing about in the sun, and living a carefree life.

When he learns that his escapist paradise is being threatened and is about to disappear, however, Lucas is once again forced to take action and do what he does best: take charge. With newfound purpose, Lucas desperately begins making plans that will not only save the world that he has come to love but also propel him back into the spotlight once again - only this time as the villain.

In this GameLit LitRPG adventure, Lucas overthrows local lords, assumes command of the evil Imperium’s forces, and begins designing a dungeon that no player would ever want to miss out on. As he struggles to evolve his monsters and create an entourage of minions in order to become the greatest villain ever, however, Lucas realizes that things aren’t going to be as easy as they initially seemed.

Dave Willmarth, writer of the Greystone Chronicles: "A great start to a new series from a master storyteller! The MC being more of an anti-hero is a new twist for Charles, and I’m really enjoying it!"

This book is brought to you from the author of the Litrpg series War Aeternus, The Bathrobe Knight and Merchant of Tiqpa.

©2019 Charles Dean (P)2019 Charles Dean

Do we need or want bongos?

The story was slow. the sound effects are cheesy at best. the music was so loud at times you couldn't hear the narrator. the characters are annoying and I had to just drop this one I gave it a try sound booth dropped the ball on this.

World not thought out

I’m always getting older. So I don’t have time or tolerance anymore for stories that don’t have well-thought out worlds. When it’s said he was the *only* player to *ever* fall into the negatives, I was like ‘okay sounds good’. When it said after that that the game had been out for eight years, given the previous fact I was like ‘well... ok... not impossible I guess but highly unlikely.’ When he discovered the bug, I was like ‘I’ll begrudge you that one given the first fact but I don’t like it.’ When she said that the devs *knew* about the bug, I was like, ‘okay super lazy for a futuristic tech but sure— human incompetence transcends time.’ Then. Then! It says that he is the *first* player to *ever* take the villain route. Nope. Fuck that.

Plus, through all of this, it danced weirdly around the protag’s background and never mentions nor demonstrates his personality as CEO-like, as provided in the synopsis.

Also the sounds engineering is pretty distracting. There are some parts where the effects are so loud it drones out the narrator. It could have grown on me though.

Doesn't deliver on premise

This book had so many good ideas, which made it all the more annoying when it failed to deliver on them at all.

Lucas is just a terrible villain, and the author didn't make me believe he was some ruthless CEO at all. He comes off as a regular ass litrpg protag that is just playing the game for a different faction. To use Warcraft as an example, he's more the first Horde playable character than he is the ruthless, cunning, diabolical Onyxia.

One of his companions is a straight up spymaster. Instead of sending her into enemy territories to sow discord and make his enemies fight amongst each other from within...he has her healing in most fights. I'm not joking.

A story like this doesn't actually need many fight scenes, but they are littered throughout and fought in the most uncunning way imaginable. Honestly, I just started skipping them entirely because the thought of him acting like the regular protagonist that proclaims he despises just got annoying.

I should add, I'm not complaining that Lucas wasn't cartoonishlt 'evil' enough. I'm disappointed that he lacked the cunning and charisma I wanted from a truly memorable antagonist... the kind the in-universe game actually needed.

Performance was stellar, as usual. However, SB have a habit of making spider monsters completely unintelligible that I wish they'd stop.

I like my LITRPG's without wine and cheese, thanks

I actually listened to this one twice. First time, I was distracted, so I didn't really get to notice how bad this one was. I guess I was distracted by all the pretty noises, the overused drum track and the other noises.

Before I year this a new asshole, I have to point out that the supporting characters were actually fantastic with their own personalities and I found myself caring for them more than the main character.

Now, lets talk about the overloaded MC.

First, a CEO; ok, so that's a trope to make the reader believe he is smart without actually having to prove it. Got it.
Second, he likes wine and cheese: which in our society somehow conveys sophistication? Got it...
Third, he somehow accidentally was the only person to stumble upon a cheat in the system. Ok?
Alright, so we have smart, sophisticated and lucky. Got it.

Then we go through the rest of the book and not only are those three traits completely ignored, the main character actually conveys opposite characteristics than those he was supposedly created to embody. Ugg.

This book was trying to be too many things at once. It was trying to be a love story, a tragedy a lit rog and a fantasy/sifi all smashed into one, yet it failed miserably at them all. It actually had terrible game mechanics that were built upon not so we'll thought out world progression, with trope mechanics that were only meant to scare the reader into thinking the main character was about to lose it all if he died.

Then there is the ending... Talk about an anti clamactic ending. Without spoiling it for those who.might be interested after all this, the ending resolution is explained away by his main love interest, for the most retarded of reasons. Basically, the main bad guy is a bad guy in IRL and his actions in and out of the game would land him in some serious shit, yet like true Asian anime style, lets just pretend it didn't happen and it will go away...

Yep, this is truly a trash story that could have been better if the writer had cared about the book. The writer knows nothing of gamers to think that people who played a game for eight years would not know every in and out of every quest line, event and character in a game. It's an insult to people who actually play games and I am surprised people are eating this so highly because it has sound effects.

Fucking melinnials!

Good, but it could have been great

I'll say this much. I have very high standards for a litrpg novel and like all readers; my tastes are specific. LITRPG works are particular in that they seem to attract a more teenage level form of stimulation. That's kind of how this book read for me. It was close. The MC does struggle with real, adult grief; and the class and progression system was interesting as well. The MC is also intelligent, and he doesn't suffer from the complete belligerence, some juvenile writers force on their usually male MC's. The issues with the book lie for me mainly in the dynamics between the MC and the side characters. It's pretty much like 4 different females who all seem to have the hots for the MC. There is also this annoying way that the book sort of out of the blue drops this super corny loop (with sad music attached lol), wherein the MC "finally understands" something sad about someone else. It's a bit too melodramatic for me, and something that could be garnered from conversations he has with his side characters to make it more natural and frankly realistic. All in all not bad; may come back to it.

Confused

Minor spoilers

How can all but the Main Character max out their levels? Advantage of MC's negitive level status is quick leveling. So how does all his party members max out with him gaining 20 level or so? Makes no sense!

I would have rather got to know the characters in the MC's party then those which oppose him. There really is little character growth and relationship development.

I'm getting tried of the naive, clueless and even pathetic main character. How much more obvious does someone have to be to show they are interested? This none recognition is growing tiresome. It's becoming more and more common in books. What happened to the strong male character?

It’s like the Anime Overlord

Its almost like the anime Overlord only the MC isn’t overpowering & broken or trapped in another world. The story is pretty good as the MC makes his way towards the top, Jeff & co. did a really awesome job on the voices, I rather enjoyed it & can’t really say anything otherwise it might spoil the story. All in all it’s a really great book!

liked it, but didn't love it

Lucas is kinda...boring. there is a lack of focus on any one thing, though there are passable attempts at leveling and character mechanics. I didnt find there to be a real antagonist, and most of the characters were pretty forgettable. not bad, just not great. soundbooth theatre is always top tier though. 10/10 narrator.

A Thorough Audio Adventure

This story follows a traditional LitRPG troupe, but doesn't say within the virtual realm (though not enough for my taste for these types of voluntary litrpg inclusion-type stories). It follows a former higher-up in a company who helped create a vrmmo game but loses his wife and then his meaning for living. He spends months and months after her death by hiding and "dying" in the game in order to escape from the real world. Something that many people can relate to. The story touches on some aspects of depression and how it affects the families as a whole. It handles this subject well.

The story from there goes as expected. But what sets this audio book apart is the audio producers and the audio artists who give their all to this story. There are sound effects galore that DO NOT get in the way of the story. In my opinion it adds a much desired dimension to the narration.

I can not but recommend this book if you are in to litRPG. There is no harem. There are some strong sexual innuendos and situations however.

Decent narration marred by amateur writing

The audiobook production quality on this is pretty good and there are a handful of interesting concepts marred by poor writing and storytelling.

The characters are unengaging and almost universally unlikeable. The backstory of the main character is bizarre and unconvincing, and the rest of the characters are walking anime tropes. The attempts at humor are sophomoric and lead to cringing about every five minutes like clockwork. Deus ex machina is the primary plot device and my eyes rolled so hard I was afraid my corneas would detach every time the author used the word "Philistine", which was often.

The worst part of it all is the main character seems desperate to not be labeled a white knight to the extent that he's pretty much a walking cliche of a white knight.

I'm really not trying to be mean, but this was really bad. I think masochism is all that drove me to the end.

Decent story and exceptional production quality

Short

The book is worth a listen if you are willing to suspend your disbelief a little more than usual and accept that the story is there to facilitate it.

Narration

The narration is exceptional. Different characters are "read" by different voice actors and all are top quality marked especially by Jeff's brilliant voice narration.

Story

The main character is an X CEO of his own company that after his wife died retreated into the game. It's an alright premise, but so many plot devices are used throughout the story, where things are done and explained in a rather convenient and illogical manner to move along the story. The main characters tragedy being used as a primary but thin motivation. The book also sort becomes a parody of itself at times, by falling into many tropes it makes fun of.


World

The book doesn't cover a world ending scenario, which is rather refreshing and the mechanics of the game world are interesting and well described.

The characters themselves are also pretty good, if their motivation again rather thin. 1 character needs alot of money for hinted reasons, but could clearly be better of in many other ways.

If i could I would rate the book 3.5 stars. The game aspect of the book is interesting and characters well written. However personally I found much of the book light on well constructed story aspects.

The heroic villain.

I enjoyed this book, as a LITRPG fan, I'd class this as a softer side, really enjoyable though.
The main character Luke is really likable, his side kicks are great and compliment the whole story.
I'm quite sure there will more to come from the Heroic Villain.
Great narration.

more of an audio drama than book.

this is an interesting audio book as its more like a drama with multiple voice actors and background music. I really liked it as it gave it a feeling of it being more than your usual audio book.
I look forward to the next book in the series.

villian but not really

a good book with a good blend of litrpg elements. not too much of one thing. if the sound effects weren't too loud in a couple of places it wood have been perfect.

great performance

really enjoyed the story. Loved the use of sound effects and music. I see there are a some people in the reviews that wernt that into it but Imo it was fantastic. I felt it really added to the emersion for me at least. Hope to hear more like it in the future.

Ok-ish story, poor audio

Has some cool ideas, but the execution is a bit off.

The author adds too much exposition here, and too little elsewhere. Also the main character seems only half motivated to do something, the other half of the time he is just 'forced' to do something by the 'game rules' of the world.

The audio is what really dragged this down. The audio special effects try a little too hard, often making it hard to follow the narrator. Also the audio compression/ mixing is really poorly done, audio can actually become 'choppy', like a poorly ripped mp3 from the 90's. Not sure if this is audible phone app fault, but its horrendous.

Shame, really tried to like it.

Pretty good

I'm not sure how to categorize this book. It starts off as a standard VRMMORPG LitRPG story but then delves into a dungeon master book. More of a dungeon master lite book. It doesn't get into great detail regarding the dungeon. The MC has is a pretty strong character from a literary standpoint. He has a good backstory and is well-fleshed out. Same with the secondary characters. I like that the author only deals with the character sheet at the end of each chapter so if you're not into those you can skip them easily.

Great performance

Big fan of Charles Dean, he always writes a great story and this is up to his usual standard. As for Jeff Hays and the Soundbooth crew, some of the best actors around and always bring more to the story.

superb

really, really enjoyed this audiobook.

great characters and a very engaging story.

hoping for more of the same in volume two!

a great read.

I'm not claiming this to be one of the best game/RPG stories out there but if you overlook some stuff you get a enjoyable read and the performance is awesome. It's almost worth 5/5 just for the performance.