Episodes

  • LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_076.mp3

    LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_076.mp3
    Aug 10 2021
    LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 076 - Noobtown Book 5, Mixed Martial Cultivator, Dungeon Crawler Carl   You can read the full reviews and show notes if you visit us at:  https://litrpgpodcast.com/litrpg-audiobook-podcast-075  “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: ”   Noob Game Plus - Noobtown Book 5 (02:08) Score: 8.6 out of 10 https://amzn.to/3s0r98w    Mixed Martial Cultivator Series Complete Box Set (14:31) Score: 8.4 out of 10 https://amzn.to/3juuZ5W    Soundbooth Spotlight   Dungeon Crawler Carl (25:40) Score: 8.6 out of 10 https://amzn.to/37qEtcY    ------------------   Noob Game Plus By: Ryan Rimmel Narrated by: Johnathan McClain Series: Noobtown, Book 5 Length: 17 hrs and 23 mins Book five in the series, and this series is only getting better.  I often cite this series in conjunction with Ugland’s Guy series, whereas that series and its companion pieces remain steady, I can’t help but feel that Noobtown improves every time I get a new book.  That, by the way, is not a knock on either of the Guy series which I feel are completely amazing, only that Noobtown seems to have no problem hitting new notes and is not afraid to takes risks. For example, the intrepid mayor Jim, pretty much eschews most of his supporting cast as he ends up remorting in Flacon Crest with a completely new class and few of his old skills.  Shart is still trapped in limbo and Badgerlore is leagues away.  Jim is pretty much on his own and makes one hell of an escape.  Things just get wilder from there.  One of the best parts of the series is the reuse of running gags, particularly the fecking pumas and puma checks.  The line, “Wait, there are pumas too?” literally made me do a spit take and I wasn’t drinking anything at all.  Thankfully, the humor isn’t just limited to that little bit, like when Jim surfs on an unconscious bear he has to keep beaning to keep in unconscious made my ribs hurt.  Rimmel makes me jealous of his ability to take a scene and make it utterly kill with just a subtle few words or actions.  For instance, the assassin the keeps getting her face messed up and talks with a lisp due to broken teeth was one of the best bits I’ve read in a long time. One of the things I feared was that with the remort there were going to be too many changes and a new direction for the series.  One this book first came out, i.e. pre-audio, I talked to a guy who absolutely hated it due to all the changes.  I now question whether he actually read the book at all, since the “changes” were necessary and a part of the overall story for some time.  Jim always had to remort.  It was inevitable.  Some unexpected things is that Jim does do is to get a new new name, Oh Really, you ask?  And I say, yes, really.  It is a great introspection into his character, and helps show just how shattered he is from the fight with the dark overlord.  Additionally, Rimmel breaks the 4th wall, aka Deadpool, no more like She-Hulk, and also takes a moment to pay some homage to his narrator.  Personally, I just don’t get how you can have a narrator named John McClain and not have some character say Yippie Ki-ayy or Come out the coast and have a few laughs.  When we met the orcs I thought that moment was nigh, but alas!  Not. Speaking of Johnathan McClain, can I just say his contribution to this series cannot be overemphasized or overstated.  The man knows how to do a table reading, and his malicious lisping killer was wonderful.  I was heartbroken when she got to a dentist “off screen”.  Also, the aforementioned, “Wait, there are pumas, too!?!” line was interrobanged with perfection.  McClain only elevates, and interjects even more into the humor when he reads his lines.  There are damn few narrators who can do what he does. Overall, the book was a more than pleasant surprise.  It was action packed, pulsed with humor, had character growth, and served to move the story ahead in a neat little package.  My final score is an easy 8.6 stars.  I hated to see this book end. -------------------------   Mixed Martial Cultivator Series Complete Box Set By: Austin Beck Narrated by: Robert West, Erin Bateman Length: 22 hrs and 39 mins Here’s one I held off on for a while.  Why?  I figured you’d ask me that.  Well, if I’m honest I will tell you that the narration done in book one was lacking, and it was so lacking that it stood out and I didn’t want to pull the equivalent of slashing a narrator’s tires, so I opted not to review.  That being said, others noticed this as well, and I guess enough people mentioned it that they went back and rerecorded lines with a different narrator.  It was a nice save.  So let me start there. The original narration was on a bumpy road, but after a work crew came in, they fixed the problem.  Thankfully, it doesn’t sound like ...
    Show more Show less
    41 mins
  • LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_075.mp3

    LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_075.mp3
    Apr 19 2021
    LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 075 -Critical Failures IV, Tower of Ruin, Delvers LLC: Golden Handcuffs   You can read the full reviews and show notes if you visit us at:  https://litrpgpodcast.com/litrpg-audiobook-podcast-075  “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: ”   Critical Failures IV: The Phantom Pinas (01:03) Score: 6.5 out of 10 https://amzn.to/3swePvk    Tower of Ruin: Volume I  (14:56) Score: 8.2 out of 10 https://amzn.to/3mZuXEB    Soundbooth Spotlight   Delvers LLC: Golden Handcuffs (22:56) Score: 7.6 out of 10 https://amzn.to/3mYi3Xu    ------------------   Critical Failures IV: The Phantom Pinas Caverns and Creatures, Book 4 By: Robert Bevan Narrated by: Jonathan Sleep Series: Caverns and Creatures, Book 4 Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins   Pause This is going to be a series review up to book four. Have reviewed other books in the series, but I’m going to talk about the over all arch and my thoughts on why I am done with this series in general.   Bevan starts of with one of my favorite concepts.  Gamers sucked into their gaming world.  They inhabit the bodies of their characters, but keep their minds as players.  There is an evil DM who they have to outwit, and the perils of the new world that is a combo of the player’s disbelief in where they are to the machinations of the nerdy DM.   Premise and initial novel were great, and who doesn’t like an orc that craps himself everytime he turns around?  Third book actually has a pretty cool vampire subplot, and the heroes figure out a way back home, before inevitably going back to where they came from with some other folks in tow.   The problem is the series went from humorous to, and God forgive me for using this phrase, utterly cringe.  I don’t even know if I’m using that term correctly, but I cringed throughout most of book 4.  The short jokes, the poop jokes, the gay jokes are nothing new, and there were points where it just felt super forced an completely unfunny.  I actually stopped halfway through book 4 and let it sit for a long time before coming back to it in the hopes that I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind, but no.   What happened?  What changed?  First of all, the humor remained the same juvenile bunch of fart jokes without the humor.  Kinda like how Stephen King does nothing but write novels around characters who pick boogers and bottles farts and adding in monsters or whatever.  His stuff isn’t funny and neither is Bevan’s after the 7,000th time Horse is used.   What else?  The characters all of them, literally become dumber in this book.  Maybe dimension hopping adversely affects brains, but no one acts like that have a bit of sense in their heads in this book.  The only interesting part was the invention of a new god.  Had I read this it would have felt like I had scrubbed my eyes with sandpaper, having listened to it it felt like I cleaned out my ears with a sewing needle.   That wasn’t the fault of Jonathan Sleep, though. He is the one bright spot, and he does his best to make this book work.  Too bad Bevan does nothing to help him succeed.   Honestly, I’m done with the series, and you want to know the bad part?  I have all the short story audiobooks and up to book 6, because I grabbed them all waaaaay back when I first read book one and have been parsing them out.  And I will never finish them, and I have had them so long I can’t even turn them in for a refund, not that I would.  I bought them, and I’m stuck with them.  It’s on me for being so foolish.   Up until now this series was a solid seven and a half, but this book is a 6.5.  I didn’t enjoy, but you might, and I know the series has some staunch fans, so someone has to like it but I am through with uninspired and unoriginal “humor”. You want funny, get Noobtown or the Good/Bad guys series.  You’ll be happier.  6.5 stars.   -----------------------   Tower of Ruin: Volume I By: Wolfe Locke Narrated by: Travis Baldree Series: Pandemonium - Afterlife, Book 1 Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins Pause My biggest complaint is that this book is far too short, and I mean that in you are left wanting so much more.  IN that sense, I suppose it reminds me of the Luck Stat Strategy by Blaise Corvin, as that too was a concise but impactful novel.   The book is a tower climb novel, so fans of that subgenre will rejoice and it is also one of those sort of time travel back to the start novels that seems to get paired up with tower climbing. Basically, the MC exists in a tower that resets you when you die, but you start out completely new.  The MC, Daniel, gets to keep his memory and gets a cool weapon when he goes back and has a chance to make changes and a difference, the problem is the tower has overseers and they were unstoppable the first time around, so if you couldn’t stop them the ...
    Show more Show less
    49 mins
  • LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_074.mp3

    LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_074.mp3
    Mar 22 2021

    LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 074 - The Naughty Episode III

     

    You can read the full reviews and show notes if you visit us at: 

    https://litrpgpodcast.com/litrpg-audiobook-podcast-074 



    “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: ”

     

    The Swordsman - A Pulp Harem Fantasy Adventure (01:39)

    Score: 8.3 out of 10

    https://amzn.to/38XgVNZ 

     

    My Girlfriends Are Pirate Elves! Book 1 (07:46)

    Score: 8.3 out of 10

    https://amzn.to/3cP0bcL 

     

    Gryff the Griffin Rider - A Fantastic Harem, Book 1 (14:29)

    Score: 8 out of 10

    https://amzn.to/2OLBVjX 

     

    Sketch (21:59)

    Score: 7.5 out of 10

    https://amzn.to/3eTye6o 

     

    The Harem at the End of the Galaxy, Book 1-5 (32:25)

    Score: 7 out of 10

    https://amzn.to/3s6fX9K 

     

    Monster Girl Galaxy, Book One (39:05)

    Score: 8.2 out of 10

    https://amzn.to/3bXCQqm 

     

    Soundbooth Spotlight

    Psychobitches: Tear It Up (48:21)

    Score: 8.4 out of 10

    https://amzn.to/30XTQX2 

     

    ------------------

     

    Thanks oh so very much for watching everyone, I do appreciate you taking the time to watch or listen to the show. If you want to support us, you can like the LitRPG Podcast facebook page or the YouTube Page, or just share and like the video.  I’m going to ask for more suggestions for the ‘Is it LIT’ segment, I’ve got a good one for next time, but will always need ideas.  Please leave comments or suggestions in the comments below, and feel free to tell me whatever you like. I enjoy the feedback.



    For LitRPG Audiobook Podcast, I’m Ray. Keep listening!!!



    This podcast is sponsored by Soundbooth Theater, makers of great audiobooks. 

    http://www.soundbooththeater.com/ 

    https://www.facebook.com/SoundBoothTheater/ 

     

    You can follow us on

    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/litrpgpodcast/

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/LitRPGPodcast 

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3-eBvpm-g7IkjfVktObGAA 

    Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/geekbytespodcast 

    Our Webpage: www.litrpgpodcast.com  

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ExkDvdkcZ3xOg4IIwgwI2 

    Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/litrpg-audiobook-podcast-Podcast/B08K56J7CL 

     

    Some other LitRPG facebook pages:

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPG.books 

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGsociety/ 

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheFantasyNation/ 

     

    If you enjoy the podcast and want to support us you can also find all the other ways to support the podcast at www.litrpgpodcast.com/support  

     
    Show more Show less
    1 hr
  • LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_073.mp3

    LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_073.mp3
    Jan 25 2021
    LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 073 - CivCEO, Cole Blooded, The Forgotten Faithful   You can read the full reviews and show notes if you visit us at:  https://litrpgpodcast.com/litrpg-audiobook-podcast-073  “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: ”   CivCEO - Accidental Champion Series, Book 1 (2:44) Score: 8 out of 10 https://amzn.to/3qNIgZt    Cole Blooded - Cole Blooded, Book 1 (16:31) Score: 7.5 out of 10 https://amzn.to/2NnISXh    The Forgotten Faithful - UnderVerse Series, Book 2 (32:25) Score: 8 out of 10 https://amzn.to/3od6wmg  ------------------------   CivCEO Accidental Champion Series, Book 1 By: Andrew Karevik Narrated by: Neil Hellegers Series: Accidental Champion, Book 1 Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins   Pause   CivCeo is a rare book, insofar as it has a compelling story with minimal battle included.  What the book is about is an 80 year old man accidentally gets snagged and taken to a fantasy world.  He was standing beside the person who was meant to be the hero of a god.  The old man, who had just retired as the head of a company after turning 80, finds himself discarded by the god in a new world.  Thankfully, he now has a body in the prime of his life, and an attitude of getting things done.  He’s taken in by a village to be their champion and it becomes his responsibility to grow the village, increase its prosperity, and protect it from outside forces.   That said, the book will sound dull when I tell you it has a lot of economic lessons and focuses mainly on town building.  That’s it.  IN fact, there are really few other things you normally get in a book, such as a love interest, or a main bad guy/antagonist.  Here the opposition is a group called the tradesmen who have a strangle hold over who can buy and sell, and they decide what they pay for goods and how much they get paid.  It is up to Charles Morris, the protag, to break their stranglehold.   Here's the deal, in spite of major players on the side of the opposition, in spite of the fact that Charles really doesn’t get to know a lot of people deeply, and despite the dearth of armed conflict this book really kept my attention.  It shows that you don’t need in depth relationships or swordfights to tell a story.  You just need to tell a story well.  You get to know Charles’s attitude towards others, and the only thing I found a little less than believable was the fact that Charles wasn’t greedy or ruthless.  He cared about his village, their lives, etc and everything he did was for their betterment.  I don’t believe there is a CEO like that in the world.  Philanthropy is good press, but it doesn’t get you a golden toilet.  I do want to point out that Charles does build some relationships along the way, that I think will be explored and expounded upon later.  The book holds your attention, and it is the way Charles makes deals or copes with the people around him that makes it fun.   Neil Hellegers, whom you have probably heard me rave about for the job that he does on the good guy and bad guys series has the narration reigns firmly in hand as he tells this tale.  If you’ve heard Neil before then you know he is one of the best out there and that continues with this book.  What I love about him the most is that he has a strong and distinctive voice that once you hear him speak you will never forget it.   Final score:  8 Stars.  The book has fantastic and clean narration, and a well-told tale with a likable character.  The only real drawback for me was the lack of real conflict.  I don’t mean bloodshed, I mean that when Charles walks into a situation he has it well in hand before he realizes that he does.  I would have liked to have seen a stumble or trip as he went along, maybe not everything working out as well as it did, then it would have been more believable.  Still, there is a book 2, and I will be getting it in spite of my low funds at the moment.  As tightly as I grip onto my audible credits I will spend on one the next book. --------------------   Cole Blooded Cole Blooded, Book 1 By: Blaise Corvin, Outspan Foster Narrated by: Ryan Burke Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins   Pause   It’s funny.  I can remember listening to Cole Blooded prior to a service, listening to it on the car ride back, and then it was over.  The book flew by, but it is also short being just over 6 hours long.   I am a big Ludus fan, and I cheer for Dolos more than I do the heroes most of the time, so I was down with checking out a book n which he decides to try out something different from the standard Dolos orbs.  Here he grabs a group of people who were destined to die and saves them, powers them up, and then tells them they only have so long to get to point on the island they are on to escape.  Oh, and only one of them can escape.  And they are going to be burning energy and...
    Show more Show less
    46 mins
  • LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_072.mp3

    LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_072.mp3
    Jan 11 2021
    LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 072 -  Homebrew, Shattered Sword, Irrelevant Jack 2 You can read the full reviews and show notes if you visit us at:  https://litrpgpodcast.com/litrpg-audiobook-podcast-072  “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: ”   Homebrew- Metagamer Chronicles Book 1 (00:53) Score: 7.6 out of 10 https://amzn.to/3hZym3T    Shattered Sword (A LitRPG Adventure) Eternal Online Book 1 (12:00) Score: 8.2 out of 10 https://amzn.to/39htuDj    Irrelevant Jack 2 (21:09) Score: 8 out of 10 https://amzn.to/3oxStsn  ------------------------   Homebrew Metagamer Chronicles, Book 1 By: Xavier P. Hunter Narrated by: Mikael Naramore Series: Metagamer Chronicles, Book 1 Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins This is the kind of book that I love.  One of my favorite series is Joel Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame series, as well as Terry Irvin, Jr’s triple M series monster, maces, and magic.  Both of which center around rpg players who get sent into the world of the game they are playing.  Each of them assume the role of their characters, and some live, some die, but the books are intense and I love them.   Homebrew follows this concept with a slight twist.  The Game master enters the world as himself, and the others all BECOME their characters.  Unlike Gary, who remembers everything and knows he is a trespasser in this new world he finds himself in, the others believe they are the characters they made up.   It’s an interesting concept that was fun, but it also led the book in a path that weakened Gary.  As the GM, Gary knows exactly what is going on and who each person is as they appear and this strips him of his agency since he really can’t do squat in order to help as it could alter the plans he laid out.  Thus, what could make for a killer character, the omniscient overseer he becomes a milquetoast bystander most of the time forced to slip in small hints to help his friends.   Otherwise, I enjoyed the book.  This is the kind of style that I relish, and Hunter really does a great job with it.  I just wish it didn’t feel like Gary was shackled for the entirety of the book.  The characters have  lot of depth and each situation carries a lot of weight in numerous ways.   Michael Naramore is a narrator who I haven’t heard in a while, been about 2 years, and I have missed him.  He does an incredible job here.  I know him from the Kevin Hardman superhero series, and he hasn’t missed a beat.  This fella is a five star narrator in a 4 star world.   Over all, I really loved this book.  It has a great narrator and some wonderful storytelling going on, but that lack of agency smothered me.  A lot.  In fact, I really docked a few points off because of it.  It would have been a completely different book if he reigns had been taken off, and that was all I could think about.   7.6 stars.  I highly suggest you check this book out.   --------------------------   Shattered Sword (A LitRPG Adventure) Eternal Online, Book 1 By: TJ Reynolds Narrated by: Andrea Parsneau Series: Eternal Online, Book 1 Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins Shattered sword is an interesting book in which a young girl inherits her father’s debt and in order to avoid becoming an indentured servant she joins a game in the hope of earning enough money there in order to stave off the collectors.   There are several things that struck me as odd.  First, once in game she really doesn’t do a lot to earn cash, and then suddenly she has what she needs.  That seems to be what should have been her driving force throughout the book.  Secondly, and this was my biggest conundrum, was that when she entered the game she brought her only family heirloom, an ancient sword, with her.  You could bring in real world items so long as they fit the game’s theme, and the sword did.  For some reason the game considers the family’s weapon to be some superpowered OP item of mass destruction and shatters the sword (Hence the title) into several pieces that the girl has to collect.   This would make you think the series was going be about Dhalia, the MC, searching for coin that could be used IRL and collecting the pieces of the sword.  And that’s really not what the book is about.  The weapon issue is that Dhalia starts off with one piece of the sword and can useit, just not very safely or effectively.  Then she sort of stumbles into a couple of pieces, but not because she is actively looking.   As harsh as I make this sound I loved the book.  Dhalia was interesting, the world was vibrant, and the emotions were genuine.  You have a 16 year old trying not to become a slave, finds herself in a hostile land without the one weapon she was counting on having and she isn’t a Mary Sue who can defeat all comers.  She’s scared, she’s shy.  She struggles.  This is what makes the book.   Andrea ...
    Show more Show less
    34 mins
  • LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_071.mp3

    LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_071.mp3
    Jan 4 2021
    LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 071 -  The Wandering Inn Volume 2, The One-Armed Warlock: Book One, Battleborne You can read the full reviews and show notes if you visit us at:  https://litrpgpodcast.com/litrpg-audiobook-podcast-071  “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: ”   Battleborne (01:35) Score: 8.5 out of 10 https://amzn.to/3rPp4fk    The Wandering Inn Volume 2 (09:36) Score: 8 out of 10 https://amzn.to/2KPcNHe    The One-Armed Warlock: Book One (22:27) Score: 7 out of 10 https://amzn.to/2X9H0mN    ------------------------   Battleborne By: Dave Willmarth Narrated by: Daniel Wisniewski, Jessica Threet Length: 17 hrs and 14 mins Release date: 09-19-20 I have been a Willmarth fan since the Graystone Guild first came about.  I am sorry to see that series and, and the Undying land series go the way of the dinosaur, but Shadow Sun has been a rocking my world until battle born came along, and now my world is rocking so hard I can barely stand.   The book is about a soldier whose squad is blown to pieces as they try to avoid getting killed in horrible ways.  The leader of the squad is offered a second chance at life in a new world as what is known as a Battle Born.  Those are worthy warriors who are given a second chance at a new life in a fantasy world.  The MC, Max, opts to become a Chimera character, which means he is a blend of several races including monsters ones.  He gets some Valkyries who wanna smash him so hard that they hook him up with some cool things before he even steps forth into the new world.  From there, things look up for our former merc/soldier.  He hooks up with some dwarves and befriends some goblins, and gets on a kill list by some orcs.   The book is a basic progression of Max going from a noob to a badgrass mofo.  One thing I will say.  Willmarth has a certain style that sucks you in and in the end leaves you wanting more, so if you have enjoyed any of his earlier works you will love this.  For me, Shadow Sun is still my favorite, but this is a very close second.   The vocal stylings of Daniel Wisniewski and Jessica Threet are absolutely phenomenal.  Daniel does some vocals that are riffs that are stunning, and Threet absolutely does a smashing job as the female half of the duo.  You can feel their joy, grief, and anger (not their emotional range limitations by any means) firmly.  I enjoyed them as much as Willmarth’s writing.   The work is fun, exciting, and full o fighting.  8.5 stars easily some of his best stuff to date, and with a bone crushing tag team of narrators this book is a beast!   -------------------------   The Wandering Inn, Volume 2 By: pirate aba Narrated by: Andrea Parsneau Length: 61 hrs and 4 mins This book is basically 18 hours longer than book one.  You don’t know how impressive and yet scary that is, because once you start in you won’t want to stop.  There were a few things that sort of took me out of my immersion, and I’m going to talk about that first.   There is a part of the book that seems to come out just so the author can espouse their political views on events as they were happening. Basically part of it was about the muslim ban that Trump instituted.  Now, I have no problem with authors whose political views align or don’t align with my own viewpoints.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion and belief system, but when I listen to  a book, particularly a fantasy book I do so to escape the mundane everyday things like politics.  I don’t even care that you do it, IF you cover it up, like the Star trek episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”, where two people hate each other, even though they are both black and white, split vertically down their center.  The issue is that one is white on the right side and the other if white on the left.  Subtle, since you never see them on screen together until the final shots.  So, you can do commentary, you just have to disguise it.   So, I still hate the runner, Rioka.  And if you didn’t like Erin the first time around you won’t like her, as neither has changed all that much.  I would have expected some character growth, but, no.  Not so much.  Erin is still ditzy and Rioka is still arrogant.  My biggest issue is that unlike book one there really isn’t any major story that would require the book to be so long.  It could have been trimmed down and broken into more chewable parts.  That’s the bad.  If you liked book one, and don’t mind the infusion of real world issues into your tales then you will adore book two.  Personally, it had a lot going for it, but even I got winded towards the end.  I didn’t take a break, but I listened to a few hours a day.  I couldn’t do a nonstop run through like I did for book one.   Other than that Andrea Parsnau proves that no only is she highly talented, but that she ...
    Show more Show less
    38 mins
  • LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_070.mp3

    LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_070.mp3
    Dec 29 2020
    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...
    Show more Show less
    55 mins
  • LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_069.mp3

    LitRPG_Audiobook_Podcast_069.mp3
    Dec 22 2020
    LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 069 -  Noobtown Book 4, UnderVerse,  Hero of Thera 2 You can read the full reviews and show notes if you visit us at:  https://litrpgpodcast.com/litrpg-audiobook-podcast-069  “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: ”   Dungeons and Noobs - Noobtown, Book 4 (01:24) Score: 8.3 out of 10 https://amzn.to/2LPJwMq    A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Series, Book 1) (07:45) Score: 8.2 out of 10 https://amzn.to/3axrLvK    A Thousand Drunken Monkeys: Book 2 in the Hero of Thera Series (14:07) Score: 7.9 out of 10 https://amzn.to/3h9oHqR    ------------------------- Dungeons and Noobs Noobtown, Book 4 By: Ryan Rimmel Narrated by: Johnathan McClain Series: Noobtown, Book 4 Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins If you have enjoyed the Noobtown series thus far then you will love book four.  It is a total blast with revelations and resolutions finally occurring, and while some doors are definitely closed one or two really big doors open.  I mean really big doors, like those of the Castle Church in Wittenberg , Germany where martin Luthor nailed his paper that held his 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation.  Lil history there for ya.   BTW, the doors really aren’t that big.  Even more history for you.  Would you be intrigued if I said that you might finally get to see what happened to Charles?  That Badgelor is basically Santa claus?  That there might be a demon door involved and may Jim goes through it?  Well all that and more might be revealed!   Honestly, it was a fun ride and I wish that Rimmel cranked out books like Ugland, because those to guys are fekking funny, and I appreciate great humor in my novels.  Truly, though, there is some grief and struggles that Jim must endure.  There might even be a bit of betrayals going on, yes, with a plural s at the end.   Over all it seems like the series may be getting a refresh in the next book, as we finally get to see the big bad come to town and Jim is determined to meet the man head on.  Badgelore is in the groove as well, and any of the team that made it out of the dungeon will be down to help.  Am I saying not everyone makes it?  No that would be spoilers, but the people who make it out would certainly be motivated to stop the inevitable doom that is coming.   McClain is in sync with Rimmel in much the same way that Helligers is with Ugland.  He does one hell of a portrayal of not only the various characters, but the world around them as well.  He has perfect timing.  And the bit about a lotta things being pumas made me crack up from just the way he said it, and from now on, I’m not going to use the word plethora.  I’m using puma instead.  Score one for the noobs!   Final score 8.3 stars!  Good things are here, but better are coming!   -------------------------- Brightblade A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Series, Book 1) By: Jez Cajiao Narrated by: Wayne Mitchell Series: UnderVerse, Book 1 Length: 20 hrs and 4 mins   Holy Moley.  Where do I start with this??  This book felt massive.  I mean there is a ton of world building and character set up that brings a depth that you don’t often get in Litrpg just because of the way that you have to get into the game and then start trying to level up.   Don’t get me wrong.  I have some hard and fast rules that I live by, and one of those rules is getting into the game ASAP!  Brightblade doesn’t do that.  In fact, it takes its sweet time getting there, but in this case I can say that it is legit world building as it does so.  We don’t get corporations or programmers in the background, instead we meet Jax, a gruff but well meaning guy whose life is sort of passing him by as he coasts along.  Jax has an attitude and terrible dreams in which he kills and is killed every so often.  Back thing is, he wakes up with actual wounds from his dreams.  Turns out he is a rare individual who can cross over into another world, and in doing so he can maybe reopen the portal for all the refugees of a cataclysm in the magic realm allowing them to go home.   Jax is an intricate and interesting character who is quick tempered and anti-authority.  He then is placed into a position to help the very people he hates, and he eats a crap sandwich so he can potentially find his missing brother.  When Jax finally makes his way to the magic realm he ends up doing a tower crawl.  The book itself is like a punch in the face, or a sucker punch, because it never lets up, much like Jax.  The world is so rich and vivid that I could literally see a real RPG based on it working incredibly well.  The violence is fairly graphic, as it should be, sword cuts aren’t boo boos after all, Jax swears a little less than me, and the sexual situations are a little low, but enough that I wouldn’t let my kids listen.   The narration...
    Show more Show less
    22 mins