To Play with Magic

The Forerunner Initiative, Book 1

By: Draith

Narrated by: Andrea Emmes

Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

"With a onesie, and the ability to stop time, anything is possible."

Dragons, catgirls, guns, and magic—oh, and the ability to stop time. What more could a modern gal want?

Well... If my past would stay locked in a dark corner back on Earth, that'd be nice.

Right, there was that one other thing: finding a way home before the world ends. But hey, that's what my mom would call the last step in your five-year plan.

The first? Play with magic.

©2023 Draith aka D. F. Kirtzinger (P)2023 Podium Audio

Read it on Royal Road

I read this initially on Royal Road, and am currently on book 6. If it wasn't obvious based off my progress in the series, this is among my favorite series I have listened to, leading to me purchasing the book to support the author, and to hear what voices the narrator would use for the cast.
While there were a few flaws in the Audio version, they were all minor enough to not be noticable for most people who aren't utterly obsessed. (Roberts's Matrix Resource accidentally being called Umbra rather than Reprieve)
As for the story it's self, it is a slow burn Progression Fantasy through a well designed world. Most pieces of world building are well placed and integrated into the pacing well, and are fairly logical in their design. The slow pace however, does mean that the story develops pretty slowly, though there's still progression and action, there's just additional focus on the moments of downtime, compared to other LitRPG authors.
My only real complaint, is in regards to the System, as the Forerunners are antagonistic towards the system, but it's not specifically noted what their grievances are. There are some subtle hints as to whats wrong with the System, most notably birth control but I feel that's a fair exchange for immortality, and the System only seems to use it to prevent overpopulation.
The characters are well designed, if a tad flat in the early books, and Alexis' sense of humor is hilarious. Which is quite entertaining, seeing as the book is written as though it was Alexis telling the story herself. Also, Smoulder is absolutely adorable, and is definitely the best Doom-Bunny.

Fun and unique story

This was a very interesting and enjoyable story. The litRPG elements were outside the norm making them interesting. The author made all characters unique, including having different resources for magic, and it gave them all a lot of room to grow. In a way, it felt like it was setting them up to be a combination of a system style litRPG and a superhero book. Each character was growing and progressing well, and I felt like the story could definitely be longer, but as the first book in a series that's a good feeling to have.

Andrea Emmes did a fantastic job with narration and bringing the story to life. Each character felt distinct and she did a very good job of making all scenes feel realistic to how the characters were feeling and adding ambience to every scene. The pacing made sure the story was easy to follow even with the more complicated than usual magic system.

Promising start!

This is a very promising start to a series. The story is emotionally, rich, as well as having decently developed characters. The path to progression is a little bit complicated… But not overly so. As long as you pay attention and have a reasonably decent memory, you’ll pick it up quickly. The one problem that I have with the story is that while on her own, Alexis does pretty well… However, when she returns to her companions, she pretty much immediately falls into the people pleasing role. I hope this trend doesn’t continue in future books, or at least gets broken by her. She is an amazing and dynamic character.

Takes a bit to get used to

This series is written in first person which isnt too unusual however what takes a bit to get used to is that it's written in present tense.

Normally that would make me drop the book but I gave it a shot and its decent. Which makes me think it would be amazing in another tense. instead of " I head outside " I know I'd prefer "I headed outside"

I dont know if its authors preference or perhaps wanting it to feel more uncertain it the MC will survive. After all first person past tense always makes it feel like they survive since the story is set as if it happened so they must survive to tell it in first person, while present tense takes away that feeling.

As for the story, its interesting take on fight the system storyline. The MC is a bit of a air head. Not that shes stupid but she gets lost in her own head. It's less in book 2 but in book 1 shes constantly doing magic to the point she blocks out the whole world. It might have a bit to do with past trauma because once she resolves some of it she seems to focus more. Though she is still one track mind to the point of not taking in whole rooms shes in until later as If she can only see one thing at a time and not register the broader picture.

3.5 rounded up

I got real sick of the word “onesie,” the too frequent full stat reads, and the overly complicated system. But, I did like the story enough that I will be reading the next one.

Terrible

I have to return this. The writing is terrible and so far it's just an hour or so of an awkward teen talking about lots of game mechanics that I will never, ever understand or care about.

Did not Finish

There were parts where I thought I was going to like the book. Then I just lost all interest and didn’t want to finish. Sort of a waste of money since I didn’t even get a quarter of the way through. Maybe I’ll try it again later but I doubt it.

Sexist Fanfiction Knock Off.

Good reading, but the source material is just cringily bad. It sounds like a sexist, autistic highschool nerd girls fanfiction knockoff of Shadow run needs Albion Online .

overly complicated and super confusing

Honestly if i made an effort i might eventually catch on on the system and world, but it is so over done that i am certain the author will probably lose track of it pretty quickly, so there isn't much point in paying attention. This is something that i have seen many times when the System in a litrpg gets too convoluted , which is super annoying. You would think that if you were writing a litrpg you would at the very least keep track of the system elements, but alas it so often is not true. Beyond that i am getting really tired of the over dramatized versions of social anxiety/awkwardness, at some point this chick starts talking like a cave man because she is sooooo embarrassed. it is really stupid and insulting and shows that the author has no real idea what they are doing. There is also the usual prodigy/lucky stuff that turns these stories into nothing more than wish fulfillment . Sorry but as i went on i just kept seeing more and more litrpg troupes that have become trigger warmings for a real bad time. I'm dropping this before i have to spend a night grinding my teeth trying to get through something i so clearly don't like

P.S. Doing the Canadian accent for the MC was a bad call in my opinion

First book is decent but then it goes downhill

There are some things to like here but in the end it just turns to disappointment.
The first issue i would raise is present in all the books, and comes from the fact that the books are written from the perspective of a main character that clearly has ADHD, I as the listener get to experience this inability to focus and jumping from thing to thing in a second hand manner in many of the conversations and scenery descriptions. And to be frank this is just an uncomfortable way to experience the story while it adds nothing for me.
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The second issue i have is with the characters, and the fact that they are just not consistent in the way they react, think and deal with the situations that occur throughout the story, This is especially true for Beth that supposedly has years of experience with *redacted*, In the first book she is consistently presented in a competent manner, Later on she acts like she has no competence or experience in these things, and even if there is growing emotional duress from how the story develops Beth is just no longer a believable character because even when an experienced character makes bad decisions they don't do this in a way that completely discards their way of dealing with things, nor do they forget the experience they have, they would still use all their available tools even if they were to become hyper focused on one thing above all else. While this type of character disconnect is not so jarringly present with the others, it is present and i have come to the point that i will now stop listening to this series because the experience is just hollow.