The Ruined Temple (A LitRPG Adventure)

Eternal Online, Book 2

By: TJ Reynolds

Narrated by: Andrea Parsneau

Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

A tide of war. A tyrant king. Will Dahlia and her allies be strong enough to withstand the storm of foes? 

Given a short reprieve from debt collectors, Dahlia must focus on finding the source of a world boss’s power. She’ll have to rely on Madi and Alysand to help her endure a wave of enemies from every direction. And level up fast enough to survive.

Slay a God-Tier boss? Done. 

Convince allies to join the cause? Working on it. 

But when Dahlia discovers that an army is marching on the quaint town of Taelman’s Pond, she’ll need her wits and will to fortify its defenses and fight. It isn’t a question of bravery, but rather one of numbers: How can few stand against many?

Continue this epic LitRPG adventure, perfect for readers of Luke Chmilenko, Carrie Summers, and Tao Wong.

©2020 Aethon Books (P)2020 Aethon Audio

My gut said don't buy this...

After listening to the first book I was very torn as to whether I could continue with this series. I wrote a review that said as much. I thoroughly enjoy most LITRPG books. This one had a strong start but leaned heavily on the emo teenager part of the book and was light on the game mechanics, story arc, character development and almost zero tension building. I thought "Its the first book, the author will get legs and this could take off." I was wrong. If anything, this is much worse than the first book because it doesn't even have the strong introduction and there isn't a new hook for me to latch onto to carry me through the rough writing. It picks right up with the issues from book 1 and amplifies them by adding 1st person perspective swapping OUT OF THE BLUE.

The Good: The narrator's voice when doing the MC.

The Bad:
Zero tension building.
Fantasy Tropes ham-fisted into the book.
First person perspective jumping.
Comically evil Gargamel-like bad guys.
Power creep out of the gate.
Complete personality swap within a month of starting the game (forgivable I suppose but mixed with the other glaring issues it is amplified).
Unimaginative writing after the intro from the first book.
Voice actress has two male voices - country bumpkin or British Lord. Its.. .not pleasant.
Voice of Mari is TERRIBLE. (yes - I know that these are my opinions and you may like them - that's how opinions work)

This series feels like it should be targeted at Young Adults or even kids, but I wouldn't recommend it to either my 11 year old daughter or my 7 year old daughter. Neither would enjoy it.

Building to something

The first book did a good job of introducing the main characters and the world. This one continues the adventure (and leveling), but mainly it is setting the stage for some grander quest/saga/adventure.

For the author... I’d recommend a look at your damage vs HP stats. It feels as if way too often, weapons that do max a few hundred damage kill creatures with thousands of HP in very few hits.

Good continuation!

Good story and narration!

Dahlia is back and still struggling to get out from underneath her father's debt. Meanwhile things are progressing in the game world she needs to get more pieces of her sword and protect her town from an army that is soon to March against it! She will have to think fast and be tricky to deal with the vast numbers arrayed against her!

Andrea does a fantastic job with the narration!

This is a great second book and I can't wait for the third to come out!

Enjoyed it

Is it a Grand adventure! I'm horrible at reviews though I enjoyed those enough to put something down here. Looking forward to what might be next!

Amazing Series

This series has rich and full characters. perfect balance of real world/game world dynamics and the narration is amazing

Fabulous Story

World events are starting to heat up as we follow the adventures of our online friends while they grow into the heroes they need to be. Lots of engaging adventures to be had in the amazing world of EO. On to book 3

more please

the story and pace is kept from one book to the next Very well and the way the world keeps growing around the characters is amazing...
not a lot of the action is surprising, but it's still well written and well told on top so I won't complain

narration confusion

rule of thumb. if you narrate the thoughts in the tone of the character. DONT use that same voice for another character and expect us to know who's thoughts we are listening to... specially since the written doesn't dictate who.
also the will they won't they dance of wasting time commenting on "the beautiful goddess is resting" was annoying. like you want to make it a sexual book when it could do without it.

loving it so far!

I found it is really easy to get trapped listing to this series! I would recommend all of these books

This book didn't live up to my expectations!

I was excited to start the second book in this Eternal Online series... but to my dismay I found, a story that just didn't quite live  up to the standards  set by Shattered Sword (book 1 in the series)! What I particularly enjoyed about the first book was the story threads that co-mingled Dalila's real life dilemma, with the in-game story of Hana (her game character's name). These two storylines gave her a purpose and balance in an atypical kinda way, and in my opinion, really made the book! This book didn't spend much time IRL, though... and so it almost feels like it's not in the same story arc as book 1.
Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy all of the action and fight scenes that Eternal provided! I also loved all the story threads, and the set-up as the Ruined Temple came to a close, but it made me think that book 2 was just an odd bridge to get us from the end of Shattered Sword, to the beginning of the final book, Fallen God!
This is a story told from many different view-points, and Andrea Parsneau's narration performance was spot on! 😊👍 

Another fantastic book!

Yes, this book is pretty good. The story line is believable even if they do seem to luck out with some very OP enemies. I like the way the relationship between the characters is working out as well.

Sweet

I was waiting for this and oh yes it didn't disappointment me at all .An excellent follow-up to the first book in the series. Hana, and now Madi and Alysand, are excellent storytellers.
Andrea Parsneau she is just fab. Soo now I need to wait for the next one .... ;)

a tale told from 3 perspectives

I enjoyed this a lot but was thrown by the change to various peoples perspective other than Hannah's. being irish the irish accents always amuse me lol. if you like fantasy like lord of the rings this is for you as well as d n d