Adventures in Godok by Always RollsAOne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Strangely enough, this one was only slightly less impressive than the ones before it, but that's mostly because it wandered and explored fairly aimlessly, although still interestingly, in several locations. One being the enormous city of Godok, with a distinctive Arabic flavor with tones of Chinese fighting schools.

Fun, familiar, and fascinating, but without the deep thread of impetus, be it survival or quest, that usually graced the previous books.

But make no mistake, I'm still fully invested and can't put these books down.


Unfortunately, I now need to wait months for the next book. SIGH.

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The Boutan Caliphate by Always RollsAOne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had a great time escaping the empire and seeing the Elves and the Goblin empire. It's been pretty refreshing to see yet more relatively civilized goblin races in fiction. But damn, they do play some nasty Honor games.

All across the board, I loved the storytelling. No drop in quality from the rest of the series.

Of course, we're heading into main MC OP issue territory by now, but there's still plenty of snags (damn those titans) to keep it interesting. And there are a few great worldbuilding reveals.

It's hard to believe where we began in the series to how far we've gone. Travel the world, meet and kill new people. Alas. But this is far from a murderhobo series, thank goodness.



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The Hounds by Always RollsAOne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So good. Good writing always feels different than simple workmanlike writing. Any normal subject can become sublime in the right hands.

This LitRPG is reaching one of those heights. Epic fantasy with tons of LitRPG elements, but the weight of the storytelling is ON the storytelling.

In this case, the noose is coming to a close and while I absolutely loved the time in the capitol working as a personal guard for the Chancellor, needing to join the Hounds to escape the noose only made the noose lock in place. Great storytelling.

And what happens later? Peak. We knew it was on the horizon. We didn't know that it would happen so brutally, so quick, so final.

The fact is, normal average fiction probably would have milked a lot of this for two or three books, but this just came like a storm.

This is one of the best LitRPGs out there. Or fantasies, period.

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The Shimmering Labyrinth by Always RollsAOne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazingly strong series. These truly live or die on their stomachs and pacing, and damn, it's damn overflowing with the meat and potatoes of great storytelling.

Every plot choice is tied to massive amounts of plausibility, and better, we're given a whole city of the dead and a truly massive labyrinth/dungeon beneath it, with an insanely powerful summoner hounding these poor soldiers. Survival and sacrifice is everything. And so is secrecy.

It's rare that I get this invested in a story, but when I do, it's making me lose some serious sleep. :)

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Sobral City by Always RollsAOne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This still has wonderful pacing and I'm thoroughly enjoying the writing as a whole. As a fantasy that resembles High Fantasy while being a thoroughly LitRPG tale, complete with soldierly comradery, gritty action, AND sneaky, if limited, OP magic, it is highly amusing a real page-turner.

It's satisfying me on so many levels. It feels like a long haul that I could read forever, and that's the very best kind of book there is.

It doesn't hurt that this underestimated guy keeps on killing WAY above his pay grade and still doesn't want to attract any more attention than necessary.

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A Soldier's Life by Always RollsAOne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A lot of people recommended this series, but I was skeptical. I mean, Roman-type LitRPG, with a focus on fighting rather than the normal OP always-magic-leaning types?

Consider this my apology. The writing is excellent and the pacing is fantastic. The plot is wonderfully varied and the directions consistently surprise. And while our MC DOES have the potential for quite a bit, he's extremely limited with MP, so the restraint is actually rather beautiful from a story-view.

And there's the obvious need to keep it all secret or his essence will probably be the Emperor's snack. Details. So, a lowly soldier's life it is.

As I was reading it, I was reminded nicely of the Recluse Saga by Modesitt. A balance of soldier-life and magic and steady progress and remarkably little true angst, just hardship.

It's extremely enjoyable. It caught 100% of my attention. Great escapism.

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A House Reborn by Mark Arrows
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well, I wanted to like this more than I did.

What I did like was the tech and magic and a bit of the exploration of it. What I didn't really connect with was the whole clan stuff nor the baddies of the book. It was just okay, but rather generic.

Paradoxically, I miss the deep exploration and the mystery and the machines which took up the majority of the first book. This one was... building a legend that I didn't quite believe? Alas.

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