Through Adversity: A LitRPG Adventure

Worth the Candle, Book 1

By: Alexander Wales

Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer

Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Always the Dungeon Master, never the player.

Juniper Smith was always a creator of worlds rather than the one who walked within them…until now.

Somehow, the tables have turned in the most dramatic way possible. Juniper finds himself in a world filled with the wildest fantasies a mind could come up with, and his fingerprints are all over it.

Throughout this world, echoes of his own ideas and plots leave him feeling like he’s always one step behind. He finds bits and pieces of ancient influence strewn about every town he goes through. One thing is clear, though: Juniper walks this magical new world in someone else’s shadow.

It might all add up to something vital...if only he can survive long enough to figure it out.

This top-rated Royal Road-hit with over 3 million views is now brought to you in professionally formatted audio available exclusively on Audible.

©2022 Alexander Wales (P)2022 Podium Audio

wow an adult litrpg thats not all sex and 10 hours

extremely well written and written for a reader above highschool graduate. amazing world building. a main character that is actually relatable. just an overall great book

A great start to a series!

It has characters that feel very real and not like fantastical extremes. I really appreciated the development of relationships. How they felt like they were naturally developed in the narrative and were not forced by the narrative. Also the romance feels realistic and not rushed considering the age of the characters. All together a great book that I feel works for young adult readers and adults.

Great start to a great series

I read the original web serial and enjoyed it all the way through. I've never had the chance to seriously play DnD but Juniper and his story made me a lot more interested in getting around to it one day. I can't wait to have the entire story in audiobook format.

Awesome!

Loved it! What an amazing imagination with the right amount of humour! Great characters and worldbuilding, definitely want to listen to what comes next :)

Isekai and litRPG with everything done right.

"Everything done right" is obviously subjective. But there are a lot of things that this kind of story can get wrong, and it doesn't.

The protagonist COULD be a bland cookie-cutter character, whose personality alters nothing and whose history is irrelevant. Here, the protagonist's history shaped who they are, and informs what they do.

The world COULD be stock fantasy without texture, or the game system could be exactly what you expect. Here, the world is an interesting and eclectic blend of ideas that weren't designed to work together, forced to coexist. Even more rare, the game system isn't a barely-legally-distinct D&D clone, or a series of overpowered perks handed out at narrative behest.

Characters COULD make sloppy decisions in order to drive the plot. Here, the protagonist thinks things through and arrives at sensible conclusions. Characters around him act on their own motivations, to accomplish their goals. There is introspection and discussion.

Obviously, it's not enough to just "avoid missteps". Worth the Candle is also fun and satisfying. That's the sort of thing that's a lot harder to explain why, but it's also a big part of what the star ratings are for. The narrator is an excellent fit, able to give lively and distinct voices to male and female characters alike. I'll be impatiently waiting for the next audiobook, even having read the original.

the best of what Litrpg has to offer

This is what I think about when I think about what an isekai litrpg should look like. While this type of story is not my favorite, I can very much appreciate how well executed this is by the author. Alexander Wales understands the essence of what makes tabletop role-playing games entertaining, and he skillfully entwines all of those elements in the pages of this book.

Great Web Serial

The easiest part of reviewing this audiobook is to say that Eric Michael Summerer, the narrator, does a fantastic job. Really no criticisms. The production, too, is top notch. This is a totally professional modern audiobook.

The harder part to review is the book itself, largely because it's not really a book; it's the first part of a long web serial. It doesn't have the normal structure of a story with rising action, climax, and conclusion. Or at the very least those things aren't here in just this volume, there's hints at them coming later but I've not actually read the web series.

Instead, this book has an excellent introduction and from there reads as a sequence of events and adventures that just flow from one to the next. If you go into it understanding this and ok with it, then you're probably going to have a good time.

The author is excellent and the world building is just wonderful. The primary conceit of the book, that the main character is stuck in some kind of game, is played very entertainingly with lots of well designed subversions of all kinds of fantasy and game tropes. There's only a few characters, but they all feel distinct and real (which is in itself a subversion as they begin to question their own agency). The free flow from adventure to adventure does leave the book somewhat lacking in well developed villains, but there's setup to indicate that they are likely coming in future installments.

I blasted through this book quickly, it never felt like a slog or a chore. It was breezy and fun the whole way through which is really just how I like it.

I really wasn't planning on listening to the whole web serial, but now I'm really into it and am at least going to check out the second book. I definitely recommend this to anyone who understands what they're getting into and is still interested.

A definitive litrpg work

Worth the candle contains the works for all litrpg stories you'd ever want: action, adventure, leveling, progression, world-building, munchkinnery, casts of characters, backstories, romance etc etc etc etc.

I love this series

Best characters and writing in progression fantasy, by a lot. Eric Michael Summerer does great work with the voices too.

I took a chance on this one…

With my cue bereft of “sure things,” I decided to take a risk on a new author and audiobook without enough reviews to guess what I was in for.

But I was pleasantly surprised… while this audiobook was not the best I’ve read in the genre it was well written and realized. The plot was interesting and expansive and the mysteries were more than good enough to keep me engaged.

It wasn’t perfect. EMS isn’t always my favorite narrator but his performance was more than adequate here. The author also has a tendency to break up the flow of the story with asides and backstory. However, for the most part those interludes were relevant enough to keep from feeling like filler. I just might have liked them to be placed so as not to interrupt the action.

On the whole I believe this is worth the credit. The author managed to bring a lot of table-top gaming into the story without succumbing to the temptation to include dice rolls into the combat and interaction systems.

This made this LitRPG feel unique and different from the ho-hum, average GameLit that audible keeps recommending.