LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 070 - Altered Realms, Bad Guys Books 1-4, The Good Guys Books 5-9 You can read the full reviews and show notes if you visit us at: https://litrpgpodcast.com/litrpg-audiobook-podcast-070 “Hello everyone. Welcome to the LitRPG Audiobook Podcast. I’m Ray. I’ll be reviewing some recent and classic LitRPG Audiobooks for you. I’ll begin with: ” Altered Realms - A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure (Ascension, Book 1) (20:29) Score: 7.9 out of 10 https://amzn.to/3pn91mI Bad Guys Book 1-4 (32:06) Score: 8.1 out of 10 https://amzn.to/2WRg3UB The Good Guys Series Books 5-9 (46:13) Score: 8.4 out of 10 https://amzn.to/2Kx1V0x ------------------------- Altered Realms A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure (Ascension, Book 1) By: B.F. Rockriver Narrated by: Maximillian Breed Series: Altered Realms, Book 1 Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins BF is my new BF because he penned one hell of a tale. It is about an NPC who rather unhappily becomes a player. You often wonder how NPC’s would feel if they learned that they were just background people and that their world was literally made for the players, or at least I ponder that. Well, Rockriver answers that question. They wouldn’t be happy about it. I mean imagine you make donuts. Nothing wrong with that, and suddenly you have to go fight dragons, pick a new race, and you’ll never see a donut again. That would be pretty terrifying. And that is what happens to poor Eli. He is forced to become a player and struggles with that reality for most of the book. Eli gets into it fairly often, and discovers a blight that is destroying his world, so naturally he has to do something and does everything in his power to stop it. And I mean that. The fights are unrelenting and run the gamut of standard fights to mental challenges. The world building aspects were smashing, and it had a vibe of genuiness that I could easily visualize the places Eli traveled and even heard about. The book has an irony in so far that Eli, who doesn’t like the Wolf-kin people, literally becomes a hybrid wolf-kin for his race. See, this is how messages and social commentary are supposed to be done. The one issue I have with this novel is the narration. RAMON: PLEASE DO THE AUDIO CLIP HERE To be fair I have to shave off some points because of it. I have, on occasion, wondered if English was a first language for some narrators. In Breed’s case I sincerely have to ask if he has hearing issues, because he consistently mispronounces words that are fairly easy to say. UNSURE sounds like ONSHORE, for example, and its like that all through the book. Plus, he’s one of those narrators who sounds like he reads every single sentence separate from the ones following or preceding the one he is currently speaking. I found it to be distracting. I loved the book, but Breed really gave me fits in spots. Fits I should not have been having. The story is great. It holds your interest and can convey a few messages along the way, PTSD is even touched upon; which is bloody brilliant, I mean Eli is basically glitched into being a fighter, and he was not mentally prepared for that. It fit the story well. Don’t miss out on this book, it is fun and meaningful. Final score 7.9 stars. I had to slice off points just for Breeds inability to say simple words. Other wise, I do recommend the book. Rockriver kills it for his first time out, and I can’t wait for book 2. ------------------------ Bad Guys, Book 1-4 Scamps & Scoundrels Second Story Man Skull and Thrones War of the Posers By: Eric Ugland Narrated by: Neil Hellegers Length: Roughly 40 ½ hours Release date: 01-02-20 Eric Ugland writes one of my favorite series, the good guys, and I actually was afraid to step into his secondary series based in the same world, the Bad Guys. You be honest, I had been told that it wasn’t as good and that I would be disappointed and so I stayed away. But my curiosity got to me. I didn’t hear a lot about the bad guys much at all after that initial bit of gossip. After a while I decided to give the series a go. What could it hurt, I figured. The answer was nothing. I loved it. It gave me an alternate perspective on the world uglan had created and it made me ask more questions. Is Balimeer really evil or is he misunderstood? Is Montana doing the right thing? That sort of stuff. Now before I go and say how I felt about the series I need to disclose something. I listened to the whole and complete run in one go after I finished the first book. So, I clearly enjoyed it. It does come with some baggage though. First off, there are a lot of similarities between the MC’s of both series. They both speak and act in a practically identical manner. I mean, I know a lotta folks, but the phrase You do You has never come out of any of their mouths, and yet both Clyde and Montana use the...
