The LitRPG Ale-Chemist

Homebrew Tales of the Ale-Chemist Series, Book 1

By: Paul Bellow

Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan

Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Beer, buds, and beards...

In the year 2042, Aaron Maxim creates fully immersive virtual reality LitRPG experiences in the cloud. His latest creation, Therion Online, contains a unique character class - the Ale-Chemist.

As he gets ready to launch his latest project, forces beyond his control take him in strange new directions. He is trapped inside Therion Online with his memory wiped, playing the Ale-Chemist character class he created.

Can he and the friends he meets along the way solve the mystery before it's too late? Follow along as Aaron learns more about the popularity of LitRPG and why beer, beards, and buds are the most important thing in the universe.

©2021 Paul Bellow (P)2021 Tantor

Not worth the trouble

Consistent repetition, and missing lead-ins make the story slow and dreary. Takes way too long to get to the point of the story, only to be a rip off of a world renowned anime series (artistic license not withstanding)

trying to do too much

Started with a fun and interesting concept with the different class. Took way to long to try and explain how the Main character gets into the world. Story line jumps around a lot without ever satisfyingly finish a story arc. Author need to cut down on the I said, she said for the dialog. The last few chapters were odd and a bit confusing, but interesting I guess.

Okay but....

I like what the author was aiming for with this novel but just like the MC's first draft of the game it felt rushed. First off, there were just way too many concurrency errors like the "you will do this tomorrow" to only have the MC then depart for said meeting less than a minute later...... Also, I have come to the conclusion the MC just loves any woman that looks nice and will say more than 2 words to him. Not a huge flaw but the MC even made me recoil from the overpowering creeper vibes he gives off. Outside of this, I can say much more as I just could not finish it, again I will say I like what Paul was going for but just had too many pitfalls for me to keep going.

the author ran out of ideas

some spoilers ahead! the story starts off interesting and it builds up a world and relationships between a group as they move towards their goal but then you get to the ending ajd it just feels like the author just didnt know how to continue the story so he wrote this horribly bad ending that doesnt fit into the story at all, of this would've been the ending it should've been hinted towards. likeit literally ends "but nothing was real and they all lived happily ever after, the end"
the main character didnt even struggle with grasping his crazy situation.. the ending made me going from "would definitely recommend" to "dont bother with this crap its not worth your time"

I did not finish

Honestly I couldn’t get far into this book. It was kind of random and really didn’t seem to have a coherent storyline. Nothing really made sense, it kind of felt like I was hearing only half of a conversation.

A fun adventure story in a LitRPG setting

I picked the book up because of its name, and was surprised to find a delightful story in the style of old school adventure novels with LitRPG elements. It starts off setting the scene with the game designer and his near future world, then dives into a straightforward adventure plot for survival. The ending tied up a bunch of questions that I had during the novel in a very novel manner.