The Meaning of Life: A LitRPG Adventure

Edge Cases, Book 3

De: Silver Linings

Narrado por: Travis Baldree

Monsters and mysteries challenge everything four friends think they know about their crumbling magical world as this fantasy-adventure series continues.

There's a crisis in Elyra, and the Adventurers' Guild has dispatched a team of four heroes to address it. With both magic and the system that dictates the nature of everything malfunctioning, the world is in jeopardy. Unfortunately for the world, the heroes aren't doing so well either.

Following a challenging battle, the foursome is regrouping in a reality not unlike their own, where magic, instead of the system, saved the world. Sev, the team's human priest, is still trying to figure out how his history plays into everything that's been happening. The normally brave half-orc Misa is grappling with failure and fear. Lizardkin wizard Vex is haunted by his past as he works to pave a path to the future. And sentient suit of armor Derivan must navigate both the mysteries of days gone by and his new relationship with Vex. At least they're closer to discovering the root of Elyra's troubles—if only they could get back there.

Meanwhile in Elyra, the seeds of resistance are beginning to sprout. Not everyone—even amongst the nobles—is fine with the status quo. But can a rebellion succeed when the kingdom itself is on the verge of falling apart?

The third volume of the hit LitRPG adventure series—with almost two million views on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

©2024 Christopher Seck Choa Hong (P)2024 Podium Audio

Focused too much on the odd romance.

I think the plot is original and the story is good. Unfortunately, the author is focused way too much on this romance between a suit of armor and a lizard, which of itself doesn’t make sense, but I don’t care if it was a man and a woman the story just seems to go on and on about their connection and their attraction among other things. Please focus on the story because it is a good one.

It's an adventuring party that doesn't adventure.

Do you like adventure? Go elsewhere. This book spend easily 10 hours of its unusually short 12 talking about how much everyone likes everyone else. Don't get me wrong, character development is great - but we really don't need to spend litteral hours explaining that the lizard and the armor are dating happily. There is no tension or development they just really like each other.

Oh, but baldree is great as always.

Major Direction Change

I started this book two months ago, and dropped it because I wasn't connecting with it. Having finished the book. I'm glad I did; I found it much more entertaining this time around.

I think I understand the problem I had: this was nominally a light and cozy LitRPG series, but with this volume, it has become more of a surrealistic, apocalyptic story.

The challenges facing the characters have completely changed, and this is now a book about a universal existential threat. That switch in tone caught me out, and I found myself in entirely the wrong mindset for reading it.

The first half (2/3? more?) of this book is functionally an extended training montage in what is basically a dreamscape (though it's more complicated than that). Only in the last part of the book do we get back to the world of the first two books, and with that return, every relationship that was previously established has radically changed.

I'm planning to read book 4, but I definitely wouldn't recommend this series for every LitRPG reader. It has the indicia of LitRPG, but the style is something very different. For some, that will be a wonderful thing, but it's best to know that before starting, I think.