Kyle

1 dimensional MC

Reviewed: 03-12-25

I wanted to like the book, but the MC is just boring. He's super nice and laid back, even respectful of wildlife. Given that he's not just the son of a rich business man, but essentially the son of equivalent Elon Musk, there's no grounds for why he should care. There's a romance subplot, and I'm thoroughly so sick of romance being tacked on to every litrpg story as an afterthought.

The escalation of power makes no sense, and how power is gained isn't explained. God tier creatures are created from common mobs over the course of weeks. Also a house appears out of nowhere. No explanation, it's just there, and it's the MC's, it has plumbing.

The book is unique, but suffers from lackluster development at times.

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Nothing burger with potential

Reviewed: 06-05-24

I wanted to like this book, and to be fair it does a few things very well. I love the authors intimate knowledge of anatomy and physiology. I love the animal MC, and the character growth, but just not enough happens in the book.

Some mild non-specific spoilers, most of the book has the MC wandering through the Dungeon, vaugly trying to get out? And it's just that for more than half the book. Travel, kill a thing, drag human, upgrade/heal, repeat. The most interesting parts were at the beginning and end where things really started happening.

Being boring is the first sin, the poor use of cruelty. R@pe is not flavor text. Just like torture, these are not things normal people do, and shouldn't be added without good reason. In the story however, it's used to show "this person bad, okay if they die". Generally, it's a sad book with the main characters constantly suffering.

Fleabag has potential, but I really think needs to be reworked.

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Wild, confusing, turbulent ride,

Reviewed: 02-27-24

I wanna give compliments before criticism. the author has a lot of good ideas, and a lot of inspiration from Everybody Loves Large Chests. World building is good but under developed. Creative, but poorly executed. This story has a lot of potential, but as it stands, it's like easy reading junk food, not bad, but not great.

The pacing in this book is all over and it feels confusing to read, jumping from lighthearted, to really sad, to lighthearted again. It could be done well, but feel like whiplash.

Sometimes things just happen, Elements are introduced and I dont know where the plot is headed. The power saturation in this game is both too much and poorly explained. I think the MC is ridiculously powerful? but severely limited? I don't know what a very weak character is vs. an intensely strong character. Currency system could use expanding.

Characters do not seem to make smart decisions, and I often found myself thinking "well that was drastic, couldn't you have done something far more reasonable?" I think more thought should have been put into character motivations.

Good luck in your endeavors.

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1 person found this helpful

A genuinely fascinating tale.

Reviewed: 06-13-23

I was first told of the crystal castle from an old hippy in a roadside art gallery while vacationing in the Poconos, PA. It is one of the best book recommendations I've ever gotten, and learning about the strangeness of this unassuming man who created a stone garden was incredible.

The author does an excellent job compiling stories, accounts, and theories, sharing the validity of the claims, both likely and unlikely. I'll definitely mark the Crystal Castle as my next vacation destination.

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It's missing something.

Reviewed: 03-08-23

The story itself is very creative, but I feel like it utilizes it poorly. The narrator is monotonous when not doing a voice, and it's sometimes difficult to tell which character is which.

But the main thing, is MC never in any real danger, never feels much loss after the prolog. He comes up with new and interesting ideas all the time, and struggles with none of it. Becomes really strong very quickly, and, there's never an accurate feeling of exactly how strong he is, because nearly everyone is either much weaker or much stronger.

The story plays out without any significant conflict. Any hardship feels like nothing more than a speed bump. There's absolutely no tension. or suspense. In a fight? shoot it. Too hard? Run or use tour determination to win.

The people of Nova Roma are pathetically weak, when they really shouldn't be. There's what feels like a tacked on excuse as to why, but it's full of plot holes.

This doesn't feel like a story, it feels like things just happen.

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1 person found this helpful

What a terrible world to create.

Reviewed: 02-08-23

There is no beauty, there is hardly any decency, death is so so so cheap. This is a miserable world where everyone save for a handful of people are deeply oppressed. maybe it's not for me, but this was a bad listen.

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Big nothing burger

Reviewed: 12-15-22

The world council meeting could have been an email.

Nothing of substance ever happens. Jake kills things without too much trouble, does alchemy, gets more stupidly powerful rare skills; its all boring. No danger feels real, any plot conflict resolves itself in minutes. No stat or skill gains feel meaningful, this story is power saturated with Jake being the best boy ever, which all the characters constantly reinforce.

Every character loves him, he always has the best ideas, they all approve of his choices, (a character actually said "Jake is better than me in every way" to herself) even though he follows a self-admitted evil God. Jake's morality goes from questionable, to terrifying, to inconsistent.

Jake's Morality: "I don't like slavery". Cool, nobody does. "It's actually the slave's fault for being a slave because they are weak." wtf
"You are weak, so you don't matter. Only strength matters." Yet Jake saves characters when they are in trouble from a higher level enemy. Strength is all that matters, unless Jake likes you, then it doesn't.

I kept wondering if Jake would grow as a person, have any of his beliefs challenged, see ANY depth or ANY world building. But no, Jake is a battle robot who's only function is get stronger and play with a bird. His stupid bloodline is a poor excuse to make him great at everything, even over trivial matters. He tried signing a contract that was literally "Be my friend" and His bloodline moved Cosmic forces beyond his comprehension because he didn't like authority. cringe.

My curiosity has been exhausted, there's nothing of substance here. The side stories were the most interesting and there's barely an hour total of it.

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What you see is what you get

Reviewed: 11-27-22

I'm four books in and I'm done waiting for the book to get better. 80% of all these books is spent killing, brewing alchemy, or being told how monsterous Jake is. The first two are okay, but the remainder has little of substance. Any effort to deviate beyond that is a token effort that impacts the story little. It's a book about an antisocial murder hobo, where everyone loves him despite a lot of red flags.

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Divine dungeon, but bad

Reviewed: 11-21-22

This book was heavily inspired by Divine dungeon. The main character is haughty, unlikable, completely overpowered, and a Gary Sue. He would have had people to rein him in, but everyone damn near worships him. He is amazing at everything and with only a bit of hard work, surpasses his own expectations. There is no meaningful conflict. The dungeon is barely a few months old, and the unexplained ranking system says C rank adventurers can't beat it. His limits were never tested.

There's an unwritten rule in making a story, that if you don't have to include r*pe, then don't. The author needlessly adds it in for flavor text. There's nothing in this book you can't get in another book.

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4 people found this helpful

Points for originality

Reviewed: 10-27-22

Movie is loosely based on the book. The book can be summarized up in "opportunity falls into multi-savant's lap time and time again". Halfway through, I went from genuinely enjoying the book, to wondering what the hell is going on. After I'm done, I still can't decide how I feel about it.

I will say, at least it's not a humdrum book.

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