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DoktorKruel

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Off-Brand Narrator

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
1 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 04-25-24

How can one be a professional voice actor and not look-up to he pronunciation of unfamiliar words? Every time he spoke “trebuchet”as “trebu-SHET” I shook my head. His voice is just awful and grating. I don’t know about the other reviewers who gave “performance” five stars. Story was alright, though. Like a lot of lit-RPG it was overly and unnecessarily dramatic.

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Woke AF

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-20-24

I’m not a fan of this format. The sound effects and cast of characters is a distraction. Otherwise, the trope of an uneducated, unintelligent conservative antagonist was introduced in the first few minutes of the book. (His dad was a blue collar worker rather than an academic, so of course he knocked his kid around.) It was no surprise when we got to atheism, “dead naming,” and ultimately shaming people who opted-out the COVID vaccine later into the story. It seemed forced. Not my cup of tea.

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Bad narration; great story

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
2 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 04-13-23

The narrator… phew. All his voices sound the same, his pace and tone are identical throughout, no matter what’s happening in the text. I almost quit listening and returned the book.

But the story was awesome! Something totally different. I wish there was a sequel.

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Mixed Feelings

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-25-23

It’s an interesting story, an interesting world, interesting magic, and interesting characters. The writing is alright—not great, but alright. On one hand, I’m curious where the story goes in book two, but on the other, I’ve never so detested a protagonist. Maybe Ponyboy in The Outsiders, and for the same reasons I dislike Jason: he’s a both a loser and an asshole. There are enough of those in the world that I don’t want to spend my free time reading stories about them. Doubly true for stories where, despite their self-inflicted faults, and through no effort of their own, they get ahead.

We’re led to believe that Jason is in a dead-end life: no job, no woman (she left him for his brother), no money, no relationship with his family, and no plan. It’s obvious why. Then he’s randomly teleported to another world and instantly—without even a couple pages to explain the 180-degree change in his character, he’s smart, handsome, strong and agile, cleverer than everyone else, powerful. sophisticated, wealthy, connected, well-liked, and excels at everything he tried. He disrespects and mouths-off to everyone, and never gets his comeuppance. Nobody likes those people, and nobody likes it when those people randomly (and without any effort or intent) achieve greatness.

Maybe that’s the hidden story here: an observation on what happens when someone plays an RPG. When a neckbeard logs-onto an RPG, they’re instantly transformed into the best version of themselves. And while they do great things in-game, they know (and we know) that they’re still the same person underneath. Perhaps that’s Jason’s story. Great and exciting things happen to him, but he hasn’t actually changed—or at least he hasn’t changed by the end of this book—into a better person worthy of his adventures and successes. If he ports back to our world, which one will he be?

I’m curious about the story in book two, but I’m not rushing out to buy it. I’m sure Jason continues to rank-up, lead heroes, defeat incredible enemies, gain wealth and connections… and be a jerk. If there’s some assurance that Jason would get laid-out or taken down a couple notches, I’d prioritize the read.

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4 people found this helpful

Cliché

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 06-02-22

I was a big fan of Daemon, Freedom, and even Delta-V, but man oh man, this book is “not good.” I actually wonder whether Suarez was trying to find out how cliche he can make a book without anyone realizing it was a gag. Some of the tropes are so bad I chuckled. I won’t write any spoilers, but you don’t need me to tell you how the story goes: it’s totally transparent. The hero is the same guy from a thousand other contemporary thrillers: the baddest badass operator ever. A rugged, handsome man with a “strong jaw” and “grey-blue” eyes. He’s a loner, but he trusts his small team implicitly, and they follow his orders instantly and without question.He will sacrifice everything including his life for the mission—any mission. He’s the strongest, smartest, and most tactically-proficient operator on the team of subject-matter experts. Enemies fear him… and he loves Mexican orphans, cuddly animals, and of course, the helpless, swooning, much younger female lead. (He’s also a “gentle/generous lover,” and the sex scene is gross and gratuitous.)

If you’ve ever served in the military, you’ll grin at the notion of a high-tech, cross-border a-team commanded by a master sergeant with no officers anywhere and (less-credibly!) no civilians managing the money. Even as the team fights *against the military* they have unlimited military funds for everything from C-130s, experimental tech, “disappearing” world-class scientists, underground lairs, and every type of gadget.

The villains are carbon copies from every other tech thriller: the shadowy and power-hungry cabal that pulls the puppet strings of the military industrial complex.

I can almost hear Suarez’ vertebrae popping as he bends over backward to name-drop technologies and tactical equipment: everything from the brand name of “the best boots money can buy” to someone calling for an extra mag for their “HK-416” in the middle of a gunfight, someone yelling about a “Lapua 338” round while under sniper fire, and a reference to the “AK74-U” rifles that a random NPC was carrying. The technobabble doesn’t do much for me.

I enjoyed the brief but interesting dialogue about how the advent of how autonomous drone combat will affect the need for “consent of the governed” in political science. I liked the hypothesis of the book. I really enjoyed the narration. But unfortunately, based on my experience with this book, I won’t be in a hurry to pick up Suarez’ next title.

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Worst Narration I’ve Ever Heard

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
1 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 05-16-22

I thought the narrator’s voice was weird on the sample, but I bought it anyway. I shouldn’t have. There’s something very wrong with his voice, it almost sounds like he’s not a native English speaker. His “ancient philosopher” voice is ridiculous, too, like a child’s impression of what an ancient philosopher would sound like. It totally distracted me throughout the whole book . . . it basically ruined the book for me. Otherwise, I found the content to be average. There’s some good advice and some good summaries of stoic perspective, but the techniques for applying stoicism to one’s life are pretty routine.

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Amazing, but sadly exclusive

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 05-01-22

I REALLY enjoyed this lecture. It turned me onto a number of different philosophies and world views with which I am unfamiliar: stoicism, Buddhism, Taoism, Hindu, and even Native American, even atheist. I’ve really noticed myself thinking about these topics lately, and I’ve already bought some other lectures on some of the philosophies I want to study more. The reading is also great.

But for some reason, Professor Garfield didn’t find a chapter to discuss the Christian (or Islamic) beliefs concerning the meaning of life. Since billions of people globally lead their lives in accordance with those philosophies, I think that’s a major oversight.

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Getting real slow

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 04-27-22

This is the worst book in the series (except for the weird audio play, which I returned because it was so bad). The story’s getting reeeeeeeeally slow. There are nearly entire chapters that consist of irrelevant dialogue. The Alanson’s stretching, and it shows. Bray is on-point as always!

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Skip it

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
2 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-17-22

Liked the first book well enough, but I had to Will myself through this one. Wish I hadn’t bought it. The narrator’s voice is like eggshell paint—it’s there, but not interesting at all, all the characters sound like, and I still don’t know what the bot is called—autofabian, artoffabian, r2fabian? The story was okay, but jumped around too much, had too many monologues, and not enough action. I literally had to listen to some of the chapters three or more times because my mind wandered to work tasks, or what other books were waiting for me in my queue. I’ll pass on whatever titles follow.

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Excellent Story, Well-Narrated

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 05-14-21

I am so pleased to have found this book! The story is fantastic, and the narration is some of the best I’ve come across. I gave it five-stars across the board.

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22 people found this helpful