Sean

This is far and away the best (and biggest) King Henry book to date, and I could go on and on about all the great parts, but I'll leave that to others. Let's get right to the most important point, the point where Richard Raley's career could have really taken off and become a household name if he hadn't totally screwed it all up.

Sure, King Henry is a riveting character, and Richard Raley has done a phenomenal job of creating some of the most powerful and captivating female characters I have ever read, blah blah blah. Ceinwyn, Val, and Annie B in particular (though sadly not present in this book) are possibly some of the best characters anywhere. So he's a great writer who deserves more attention, and everyone should buy his books if they want to be blown away by the depth and complexity of his world, yadda yadda yadda.

Master Guard Sean Watson entered the narrative like a titan among dwarves, and dominated the story-landscape around him every time he appeared. Which, sadly, was not as much as it should have been. These are King Henry's books, after all, so it is slightly understandable, but upon finishing the book and seeing that there were no plans for a re-branding of the current series, or at the very least a spinoff series, to follow the continuing adventures of the vastly more intelligent, handsome, and debonair Sean Watson...well, you can imagine my disappointment. And if you've read the book, you probably share that disappointment. This is the character that could have graced not only book covers but future movie posters, appealing to both male and female moviegoers alike. I like to envision him being played by someone with the looks of a young Arnold Schwarzenegger and the acting prowess of Leonardo DiCaprio or Daniel Day Lewis. Maybe the problem is that the actor needed to portray this god-like character doesn't exist yet?

Annie B would have immediately gravitated to this pillar of manliness, and the series could have continued with the two of them kicking ass and taking names while solving all of the complications that appear to be piling up in front of King Henry and his companions. Master Guard Sean Watson, soon to be God Emperor Sean Watson if Raley had played his cards right, would have strode through the morass of intrigue and outer realms alike, cutting through all obstacles with his sharp wit and rogue-ish good charm, and when that didn't work, his two mighty fists. Or just as likely, the two fists of the alluring and seductive Annie B. Followed by a few romps in the hay, if you know what I mean!

But alas, Raley chose the path well-traveled and stuck with reliable and rock-steady King Henry instead. Oh, what might have been!

–Sean Watson

I don't enjoy crapping all over an author's work, particularly since I might not ever be able to do any better myself. Furthermore, it is an incredibly difficult thing to put yourself out there by showing what you write to the world, so having people hate it is probably very disheartening. Clearly I'm in the minority since this currently has a 4.24 rating somehow, but even still, negative reviews probably sting no matter what.

Ok, to get right to it: this is essentially what you would get if you told the Twilight author to write a fantasy book from Edward's perspective. Rezkin (this story's Edward) is literally perfect in every way except for his sheltered upbringing. Men want to be him and women want to be with him. ALL of them. Every single situation he finds himself in, he utterly dominates. And he does it with style and panache. He fights off overwhelming odds or performs feats of astounding strength and we are expressly told that he isn't even breathing hard. He manipulates situations expertly despite never actually dealing with anyone but his trainers for his entire life. He has memorized the floorplans of obscure buildings hundreds of miles away, because he was trained to do so for some reason. I could go on and on.

And yet, we are to believe that in all those years of training, the concept of “friends” was never once raised, let alone explained in passing. Someone says, “We're friends, right?” and he literally assumes that there is some list of his friends somewhere that he's not aware of, but these people apparently know who is on it, so he will be their friend.

Oh, and the use of italics for multiple words all throughout the book was about to drive me insane. To me, italics is either used to indicate some foreign word or concept (maybe magical terms, for instance), or in casual conversation it is used to put a stress on a particular word. As in, “That guy is weird.” So every time I encountered an italicized word (often many, many times per page) that wasn't some obscure word, I kept wanting to stress it in my mind, but it wasn't meant to be so it kept annoying me. Perhaps that nitpick is all me, but I'm not the one that italicized hundreds, maybe thousands, of words over the course of the book.

To go along with the fact that the main character is literally perfect, and all of the other characters are boring and worthless other than to show how awesome he is or to fawn over him, there is zero tension in anything that happens. We know before he even starts that he's going to succeed at every single thing. Kill 15 master warriors all at once? Super easy, barely an inconvenience. Infiltrate and take over every thieves guild in the city? Super easy, barely an inconvenience. Like, not even an hour to do it kind of easy. Not breathing hard either, I'm sure.

Without any thought whatsoever that he might fail at something, all we are doing is following along and seeing events being told to us. Aside from slowly (way more slowly than someone supposedly this intelligent should be, but it is 100% so the author can keep up the ridiculousness) picking up on some of the social cues he lacks, he is never going to get better at anything, because he has mastered everything. I mean, unless he ascends to godhood or something. Which, given how it started, might not be out of the realm of possibility.

I know what a Mary Sue and a Harry Stu are, but what do you call it when the (female) author creates a character that embodies everything the author wants in an ideal male? Lacking a better term, I'm going to call it an Edward.

I have convinced myself to read the next book. If this continues I won't be finishing the series. I have no idea why people love this so much, unless it somehow came to the attention of all the people that loved Twilight. That's the only way I can justify it in my head.

I really, really liked the writing and the characters in this book. And I feel that I get the overall premise...but maybe I'm just not smart enough to understand what the whole point of it was? I don't want to go into spoilers, and again I really liked the book overall. It was easy for me to pick up and keep reading, unlike some books where it is a struggle to finish. But I feel like I'm missing some integral part that is preventing me from really understanding what is going on, and thus truly enjoying it.

Every new volume I keep thinking they can't keep getting better, but every time they do. This is one of my favorite series of all time, and my anticipation for each new book is about as high as it can get. I haven't been let down yet.

If you aren't reading this series, you really need to be. Unless you are concerned about political correctness or social justice. It's not that those things would necessarily preclude you from enjoying the book, I just don't want you to read it, because it is perfect for me and people like me.

How does an author write this many books and still type “distain” instead of “disdain?” Not once, but multiple times, since the main character, Keith, is an asshole that has that feeling all the time about everyone around him.

That's just one of many, many wrong word typos in this book. Real words, just the wrong ones for where they are written. Ask for beta readers or something, if you don't have an editor (you can't).

More of the same. Numbers go up, monsters get harder but still lose because of some ridiculously OP skills. Girls fawn over Keith, but he hates the attention and wishes they would all just go away. He is literally only nice to people because it gets him what he wants faster; if he could get what he wanted more easily via threats or intimidation or murder he would do that, because he's a sociopathic asshole. I hate him with every fiber of my being. Oh, but he's supposed to be relatable because he...is an asshole when he drives like a maniac, and is an asshole when he demands his monkey friend eat healthy...both things that I think are supposed to be funny/endearing? Spoiler alert, they aren't.

Honestly I just want to see it through to the end at this point, and it doesn't have any core-building bull like so many others in this genre, so I stay like an abused spouse. I don't know why I do, but I do.

Literally the only good thing about this series now is Tac and all of his stories about his relatives. It just sucks that such a good idea is ruined by the main character being such a jerk. I am actively hoping that the Trickster screws him at the end of the story for being such an ass.

I changed my mind. I initially gave this a 3 star rating because it was ok, nothing special. But I've removed a star for that absolutely unnecessary and shitty cliffhanger ending. Litrpg doesn't need that kind of ending; we're reading for the progression and story (no matter how sparse that usually is) anyway.

Be better.

-1 star because I wish the main character would get smacked down and humbled for once. He's a massive asshole, and I hate him. I'm no psychologist (nor do I wish to be one), but I'm pretty sure Keith is some manner of -path, probably a sociopath. He uses everyone like they are disposable tools, treats them like shit, and literally doesn't care about anything but his own goals.

I said it in my review of the last book, I get that he has reasons for being that way, but it isn't fun to read. At all. The author is clearly aware that Keith is a major asshole too, as characters in world periodically tell him so, but Keith doesn't care. And I hate him for it.

Against my better judgment I will probably continue reading, but I am starting to root for the ending of the series to be that The Trickster screws him and his family hates him because they know about all of the horrible things he's done and the shitty way he's treated people.

To all authors out there: stop making your characters unlikable assholes that we can't root for. Jesus, even Dexter was easier to feel some sympathy for than protagonists like Keith, and Dexter murdered people for fun!

Oh look, Keith uses a bunch of invulnerability and damage reflect skills to beat another world boss. Who could have seen that coming?

And he's a massive dick while doing it. I'm shocked! I have no idea why people follow him. The chance at loot can't be enough to risk instant death and listening to him be an asshole.

He really didn't even need anyone else anyway. My prediction for the final world boss is that he solos it. I'm serious, why wouldn't he? I doubt the entire rest of the raid even did 10% of the damage, so give him another couple vastly ridiculous skills like he gets every book and it should be barely an inconvenience.

And then the Trickster can screw him in the end. That's my dream anyway, because anyone that's this big of a jerk doesn't deserve a happy ending.

DNF at 66%. Trigger warning, I was super triggered when writing this.

I muddled through the first book despite it being fairly uninspired and clearly derivative of Dungeon Crawler Carl (at least he admitted in the forward that he literally talked to DCC's author, so that was expected I guess). My complaints then were that the rpg part of litrpg was incredibly lacking. A quest would reward +1 to some stat, a stat which we had never heard of up until this point, and we still, to this day, probably don't even know what it does. I get that the point of this “system” is to be hostile towards the players, but it is like the author was just making up the system as he went along, and there was zero reason for the reader to care about it at all beyond it forcing the characters to do stuff for the author to send them where he wanted.

But even still, I finished it and didn't hate it, and I was willing to read more. Well, this book fixed that mistake. I was already growing bored and tired of the ENDLESS moralizing and monologuing by the main character, Brad. Did you know he was bullied as a kid? Did you know that he almost killed himself because of it? Did you know that a teacher talked to him and convinced him to get jacked, and Brad used that to bully the bullies, only to later regret being such a meany? Did you know he was in the Air Force, and apparently every superior office there was a bully too? Did you know that Brad has to be careful not to “go to a dark place” whenever he loses his temper? Did you know that Slash (his dog) means the world to him, and the very thought of losing him or him getting hurt risks sending Brad into one of those rages?

Well, if you somehow didn't know all of that after the first book, you can't help but pick up on it after every single one of those facts being repeated about a dozen times during the course of this book. Because that's what this book is. Not lots of cool litrpg questing and skill increasing and gaining cool powers all the other stuff common to the genre. No, this book is about Brad telling us those things over and over again, with a couple of incidental things the system forces him to do mixed in (along with a huge helping of Brad telling us just how much he hates this antagonistic system). Sure, maybe the final third of the book that I didn't read turns things around completely, but I don't care, you lost me already.

Now, all of that wasn't enough to make me quit, but it was getting close. The exact point I quit is when Kira, the Strong Black Woman he teams up with, tells an absolutely pointless and ridiculous story that is clearly nothing but the author trying to either virtue signal or somehow develop her character in the worst way possible. Look, we already knew she was strong and independent, and I honestly had no problem with her character. I've said it before, some of my favorite characters are strong females. The Lady from The Black Company is perhaps my favorite of all time. But she's strong because she took it. Which was how I viewed Kira for the most part, up until this absolutely ridiculous “let's generate sympathy” story.

This isn't a spoiler because it has zero to do with the actual story. Apparently Kira had an uncle who was a misogynist (she thankfully didn't use that term, but that's what he was). Her family tried to shelter her from that fact, and when she was around 14 her father had it out with him at a family picnic and ended with the smackdown of telling him to “fucking evolve,” and the entire rest of the family backed her father, telling her uncle what a piece of shit he was. I can only imagine what a day for women's rights that was. But somehow, despite her never telling us how her uncle might have somehow stunted her emotional growth or victimized her or anything, and despite her being only 14 when this verbal beatdown from her very own father took place, and her being I dunno, 30 or so now, and a successful business owner no less, apparently just thinking about that day makes her cry and has made her life oh so difficult ever since. What?? Even if somehow her uncle made her feel inferior as a kid, she literally watched him get the comeuppance he deserved and had her entire family invalidating the way he treated women. Shouldn't that have done the exact opposite of ruining her life? Shouldn't it have empowered her? It is literally the dumbest, most pointless story I can remember reading in a book like this. I feel like somehow an entire segment of the story was left out, because I am just not getting what was so traumatizing about this relative that had very little to do with her life up to that point being a dick, and then getting blasted in front of everyone about it. He never did anything to her specifically that we are told. What am I missing? (EDIT: Is it as simple as the fact that some men still think like her uncle, and that fact alone is enough to trigger her decades later?? That's the only thing I can think of, honestly. And if that's it...suck it up, buttercup.)

On top of that, the clear references to real world political events is just stupid. You're the author, you can do whatever you want, but if you decide to make your characters have opinions about REAL events that I disagree with, then I am entitled to shit all over your book in a review. If I were an author I might be tempted to put stuff in to trigger people like Paul Sating just for fun, but if I actually wanted to make money, why would I risk alienating a large percentage of my potential audience? I want your money even if I hate your politics. Unless my job is actually to give political opinions, why do you want to hear mine, and why do I want to make you decide not to give me your money? I've never understood that with celebrities, movie directors, authors, etc. Is virtue signaling to others more important than making a product that everyone likes and thus spends money on?? Apparently it is. Which is why I stopped watching/purchasing the vast majority of movies and shows that I used to enjoy. And I will never give another even fraction of a penny to authors like this one via reading on KU, much less buying their books.

If you made it all the way to the end of this review, and you honestly don't care about the author saying stupid shit that doesn't need to be there, just read the first part of my review and realize that there are about a thousand or more litrpg books that are more entertaining than this one. You know how they say “show, don't tell” in writing? I view endless, endless character thoughts as the very definition of telling, and that's all this book is. Even worse, they are just the same ones repeated over and over and over. To be fair, the dialogue is usually fine, and I sort of like Slash and the way he talks, but that is about 1% of the total word count in the book. The rest are Brad telling us about how he used to be bullied and then worked out. Shut up.

I feel like I'm being Punk'd.

Does anyone actually enjoy the endless infodumps of cultivation, “solidifying gains,” endowing his axe with the dao, unleashing his skills and domains, etc? I get that Zac has moved past simply swinging his axe really hard at stuff, but I find absolutely zero enjoyment from reading laborious descriptions of every single little cultivation thing that happens. If you removed all of the core forming and dao braiding and skill upgrading and solidifying gains from this book, there would be about 14 total pages of interesting stuff. Unfortunately, those parts are there, and they are an endless slog to get through. I can't imagine how listening to this in audio version would be. I suppose it would help put me to sleep if nothing else.

I feel like the author is just sniffing his own farts, reveling in the endless descriptions like he's some anime superhero growing in power with every obscure power description and cultivation session that no one but he cares about. Or maybe I'm just an outlier and people actually like this stuff. I'm nearing the point where I can't bear to pick up the next book, but I keep going because each one seems like it will be more exciting like the first few were. I thought entering the Perennial Vastness would be one huge adventure like Abyssal Shores, but it was absolutely horrible and I hated almost every word of it. Now I'm still hoping that the next book will involve more adventure with the Ultom thing, but if it turns into yet another cultivation-fest, I think that will be it.

Give me a full book of Ogras and Catheya and Iz and LITERALLY ANYONE THAT ISN'T ZAC. Except the author would ruin that too and make their stories nothing but endless cultivation too, so I guess don't ruin those characters for me.

Someone that has read the chapters ahead, please give me hope that it gets better! I can't take more books like this one, I just can't!

Surprisingly less annoying than some of the previous books. I only sometimes wanted Matt to die horribly. I skimmed all the worthless stuff like building pathways to repair a core and blah blah, because a) you know it is going to work, and b) no one cares. But it wasn't terrible this time. And it is about time he finally remembered poor Jack. I've been annoyed about that for several books.

Still convinced this author is the same as the Backyard Dungeon guy, even more now that he couldn't resist describing women's clothing in some detail. Still cringey pointless sex scenes (although thankfully not explicit this time), still constantly calls enemies “fuckers,” so just a few more descriptions of what women are wearing and we'll have a 100% match.

Boring Training Montage

This book is literally one big training montage. Without Eye of the Tiger to make it interesting.

Super boooooooring.

Also, lots of typos, sometimes several on the same page.

Somehow I didn't review this the first time around. (EDIT: Apparently I did review it the first time like I thought, but I'm going to keep this second one anyway, because it just reiterates my point.) Yes, this is my second time reading the series, because it is that good.

This is probably my favorite of the series, although books 3-5 are all pretty comparable in quality. The main reason this is my favorite is because it brings back Annie B. I'm just going to admit my love for Annie B right here in public. She's my favorite character (besides King Henry obviously) and she's awesome. I worship at the altar of Annie B.

And this book is all about her. That's all you need to know to pick it up if you haven't already.

What in the...?

I'll admit the writing in this series wasn't Shakespeare, but it was nothing that made me notice it either. While it doesn't show it here on Goodreads, my copy says it is co-written by someone named Austin Rising. I sure hope the next one isn't as well.

DNF at 16%, immediately after reading multiple pages of crap like this (full disclosure, paragraph breaks did get lost in the paste):

‘She nodded. Wheeled the scooter around and headed back the way we'd come. We reached the restaurant. There were no necrotons. No people on the street. The restaurant was empty and silent. There were streaks of blood. Torn articles of clothing. Broken tables. The people were gone. Hannah hissed. “They killed everyone and took them.” “Yeah.” I stared back down the street toward the canals. Imagined the fresh bodies being piled on the floor. A necromancer looking at them. Deciding which ones to reanimate first.'

Did your comma key break?? There is no f-ing way I am reading an entire book written in short, choppy sentences like this. Sure, some authors might be able to pull it off, but these guys aren't it. I'm going to read a plot summary and then move on to the next one. If it continues like this, I'm done. The main characters are already unlikable jerks, so no reason to keep torturing myself.

This is a reasonably entertaining series, but I'm starting to actively dislike the main character a lot. I get why he acts the way he does in terms of rudeness, abruptness, “everything for the mission,” etc. And why he doesn't want to form any attachments to people. He has a valid reason for all of that in the world in which the story takes place.

That doesn't mean it is fun to read. He's a dick, and he uses people with very little regard for their feelings. You would think that someone with as much interpersonal experience as he has would know that being nice to people is often more effective than being a jerk, but apparently the author has chosen to make him ignore all of that experience and sprint for the finish line of his “quest” despite having spent so long on it already.

Speaking of that, if you've read to this point none of this will be spoilers, but the being is literally named The Trickster. You just know the ending isn't going to be a happy one. Either all of that time he has been alive will have elapsed and his family is long dead, or something else will bamboozle him. Assuming that no actual time elapses, why is he in such a rush now? I get being frustrated at spending like 400 years apart, but what are a few more at this point? Same with his refusal to get into any sort of relationship. I get how having to watch people grow old and die time after time is probably horrible, but he's turned into an unfeeling asshole because of it, and his family isn't going to recognize him if they ever are actually reunited.

I don't know man, I'm getting really tired of reading characters that are difficult to sympathize with. Would it have killed him to form relationships with people? I really liked Alicia, and pushed ahead to the books where she'd be in them...but no, she's barely there and he treated her like shit when she was. Again, I see that he has valid reasons that he gives in the books, but they absolutely suck to deal with as a reader. It feels like I'm being dragged down into being miserable along with him. Hell, his companions ALL tell him what a jerk he is, and maybe he eases up for 3 minutes, but then right back to being a jerk. I'll keep reading, but I am starting to hope The Trickster really screws him at the end just because he's clearly not learned how to be a better person.

I wonder if the author realizes that many of us only keep reading for the side characters and events, and if Keith were to die and somehow the story kept going on, we'd probably be happier?

Oh, and the maniac driving thing...ugh. I hate every moment of it, and it is beyond stupid. It is too late to end it without feeling weird, but come on. It is just as dumb as his other philosophies on life, that no matter how much anyone gives him advice on, he ignores. He's the dumbest 400 year old person ever, and I am starting to actively hate him. Please stop, and lighten him up just a little.

DNF about 40% in.

On the one hand I feel bad, because it is clear the author really loves this stuff. And putting out a book a month is respectable...but that might be part of the problem. There's literally nothing meaty in these books to really hold onto. I'm bored, I don't really care about any of it, and if I had anything else to read I would have quit before this book. Since I made it to 6 I can say I really did try, but I just don't care if I ever read more about these characters. I thought for a few moments throughout the series that I might enjoy more of Princess Maylolee, but now that they are married she is literally just a drone for his desires. Oh, and that whole dragon hoard thing annoyed me from the start, and even though it is supposedly gone (but really not) it still annoys me.

Finally, not trying to be mean, but despite what the bio says I am pretty sure the author is a teenage virgin. How else can you explain a married couple of 18 and 19 years old doing nothing more than head pats and occasional kisses? I get that he likes anime, but come on! It is ridiculously awkward how far the author goes to try to avoid having them do anything even vaguely adult. Don't describe it, just admit that they did it and move on. This is just dumb.

Of course, if any of these things get rectified I'll never know, because there is no reason for me to ever consider reading them again.

tl;dr booooooooring, read something else.

I have to give credit where credit is due.

I hated the first book of his that I ever read, The Path of Flames. It was so bad that I intended to never read anything more by him. By accident I read Bastion (the first in this series) without realizing it was the same author because I'm a sucker for anything Hell/demon related. It was good enough to forgive him and continue the series.

Now I've finished the third book, and I'm sad that there aren't more to read yet. He went from me actively not caring about any characters, main or side, in Path of Flames, (and legitimately hating several of them) to really really liking many of the characters in this series and being actually sad when some of them died.

So, bravo to Phil Tucker for vastly improving as an author and writing a series that I would recommend to friends, and here's hoping that he writes the next novel(s) in the series very quickly!

Revised my original 4* down to 3* after trying to articulate to a friend what I thought of this book.

I liked it, and will read more. The main character and his dog are appealing and fun to follow, although highly reminiscent of Carl and Donut (the author at least admits to picking that author's brain, so I'm not going to fault him for it either). The game world is completely lame at this point, to the point that it is almost annoying how bland it is. Aside from the seemingly required snarky “system” there is no life to it except for the guide, Fortune. I really like her, and it is clear there is going to be more content involving her in the future, but if I take just what is present in this book...meh.

I like Brad. I like Slash. I like the fact that Judas Priest was a foundational part of Slash growing up. I like the Easter eggs in the chapter titles. But I am bored with the game world and mechanics, and Brad railing against them to no effect. I feel his despair and his anger at being told almost nothing about what to expect, because I feel despair about not knowing anything either. It is fine to keep the reader and characters in the dark, but something has to be exciting, otherwise it is just boring and why would I keep reading? So far, my reason to keep reading are the characters, but eventually I'll give up on them too if nothing interesting happens. And when I say interesting, I don't mean completing quests and building shelters and such. I mean learning about the world and the reason for it. The inspiration, Dungeon Crawler Carl, at least has a pretty solid bit of world-building to back everything up. This is sort of like someone never played a computer rpg and was just told how it works and made up literally the most generic system ever.

And finally, the tipping point for me deducting a point is the lack of consistency in Brad's backstory (was he a pitcher and a quarterback in school, or was he bullied until senior year?? usually it isn't both) and the author's need to use him to pontificate upon societal “problems”. I don't care. Keep your politics to yourself. I read books like this to escape, not hear about things that I see every day in the real world and that you think somehow your litrpg book is going to suddenly make a difference. It isn't. The only difference would be that I stop reading because eventually I can't stand the injection of opinions where they are unwanted and unnecessary.

I do it to myself, I know. Reading these is so painful it hurts. I kept reading all the various series for the Runner-verse tie-ins, hoping something cool would happen. It happened in the beginning of this book, and it wasn't cool. It was confusing, made no sense, and was essentially just an exercise in throwing as many characters from the different series into a pile as possible. And then it was over, and I had 80% of the book left.

This has always been my favorite of the series because of the extremely thin superhero theme and the main character's powers, but none of that matters anymore, and instead I'm left with what passes for dialogue now from this author. It used to be somewhat ok, with my only big gripe being that thing he does where someone is talking and the MC literally just zones them out and we only get to hear the tail end of it because if it wasn't important to him, it isn't important to us I guess. Then the books got overloaded with “I mean...” every page or two, which was absolutely horrible and made me feel that physical violence might be the only remedy, and now I get this crap, an actual line of dialogue copied verbatim:

“I-you-yeah! Sure! Yes!”

That might be tolerable if it only happened a couple of times to show being flustered, embarrassed, caught by surprise, etc. Except it happens approximately 400 times in just this one book. Every single female character, which is everyone but the MC in this book in case you weren't aware, is SO flustered and unable to hide their feelings and emotions and lust and ga-ga over the MC that they are constantly speaking just like that snippet above. It becomes exhausting having it forced upon us that they are breathless and surprised and overcome with emotions for this literal god of a man. While I am thankful that Kindle Unlimited must get the sanitized versions now (maybe people pay for the adolescent fantasy versions on Patreon or something?), it makes me think of the number of panties that would be ruined if this world really existed, because every single female that meets the MC immediately gets flustered and can't speak in complete sentences.

You know, it used to frustrate me that stuff like Twilight sold so well with female audiences. I read those books to see why they were so popular, and I crapped all over them at the time. I take it all back. I can't imagine these books do very well with the female crowd, so there must be a subset of males that just eat them up and give them 5* reviews. Yes, I'm guilty for reading them too, and giving the author whatever KU money my reading generates, but at least I realize they are trash. Twilight is mf'ing War and Peace compared to these books. I'm sorry for saying anything bad about Twilight. If I were strapped down Clockwork Orange style and forced to listen to an audiobook over and over, I'd choose Twilight over anything this author has written any day. May God have mercy on my soul.

I greatly enjoyed the first 7 books (plus however many novellas) in this series when I read them all in a row pretty much. And I enjoyed this book for the most part.

However, and I know this will sound a little silly when talking about a book about Druids, I feel like I'm witnessing Mr. Hearne's coming out as a Social Justice Warrior with this book. Yes, get out the pitchforks, I'm sure I have immediately become a horrible person to a bunch of you.

Yeah, it makes sense that a book with a good third of its narrative from a female's perspective would at times deal with feminist problems, and the aforementioned Druids would worry about nature and man's destruction of it. But there are ways to do it that aren't practically beating me over the head with it. I could list off many strong female characters by other authors that (I'm assuming, since I'm male, boo hiss!) should inspire female readers simply through their actions and don't need to pontificate on why they did them. Similarly, Atticus worries about the fate of the earth (and to a lesser extent the people on it) regularly throughout the series, but only in this book did I feel that I was being forced to sit up and take notice, or else. I greatly enjoyed Granuile's character up to this point, but with this iteration it is as if nothing matters except getting the author's message across in her voice. I'm quickly growing to despise her character because of this.

I could be completely misreading things or attributing intent that isn't there, but that's the way it read to me, so at least something made me start thinking it. I felt it was pretty blatant too, but perhaps I'm just more sensitive to it now than before.

But here's a perfect example: you know who (to me) were the best female role-models in this book? The Polish witches. Not once did they talk about oppression or misogyny or any other buzzwords. They just were, and they were cool, and I respected them as characters. Not as women or men, not as activists or abusers, but as people. That's the way you show that women are strong. You don't tell me that they are and force me to comply.

I'll read the next one because 8 books is a lot of investment and I greatly enjoyed most of them, as evidenced by my ratings, but I fear that the next book will only get worse. I hope I'm wrong.

Oh, and I do want to say that the Owen chapters were absolutely wonderful. He's a breath of fresh air every time he appears.

Great follow-up novel to Spiral X; if you enjoyed the first one at all, you'll love this one.

Right away the story pulls you in and treats you to a fast-paced ride that not only keeps you reading late into the night, it also invests you in the success and well-being of Cheryl and her companions to an even greater level than before. You care what happens to her and the others (or actively want some of the more evil ones to meet an untimely end!).

The “teaser” quotes should be more than enough to interest you in the story so I won't give anything else away, but there is MUCH more to the world around Cheryl to find out about than previously expected. If you thought you knew what was going on before, you are probably wrong, and will be pleasantly surprised to admit it.

The only thing wrong with this book is that the moment you finish it, you'll be upset that the next book isn't available!

More King Henry kicking butt and swearing his way through it is always a good thing, and we definitely get that in spades this time around. I love these books and cannot wait for more. I only wish there were like 20 of them so I could learn all the stuff that hasn't been told yet!

I don't like doing plot reviews or coming anywhere near spoiling stuff for others, so I'll just say that if you read the first one, you're going to be just as pleased with this one. And eager for more. If you haven't read any of them...well, what are you waiting for??

My favorite book of all time.

Abandoned about 30%.

I was already not feeling it in books 3 and 4, but I stuck it out. No more, I'm out.

First, the name is absolutely stupid. Just reading “Randidly” thousands of times over the course of the series is traumatizing me.

Second, we're getting more and more “staring at my navel” chapters like Defiance of the Fall and others where the MC works on his “core” or whatever bullshit. I hate those with a passion, and I was hopeful this series would avoid all of that. Nope.

Literally nothing important happened in the previous book, but with the Raid dungeon I was hopeful about this installment. Again, nope. Just stupid pointless quests and “big bad behind the scenes” bullshit, with a TON of horrible combat descriptions. Seriously, you suck at it, just stop.

And if I had a nickel for every time a character in one of these litrpg books faced down a powerful enemy (or group of enemies) and snorted or smirked, I'd be a billionaire. No joke, search the text of this entire series for smirk and snort and tell me that's not an excessive amount. Who even snorts in real life anyway, except on accident and with immediate embarrassment?

Oh, and Sydney? Spoiler alert, she's just a massive C word, and Randidly (ugh) is just a pathetic simp for her abuse. And Ace might actually be learning impaired. I guess it makes sense that Randidly (ugh) is re tarded as well with those two as his best friends.

I could go more into specifics, but it isn't worth my time. I gave it 4.3 books, probably 2 more than it deserved. Time to cut my losses like so many of these books should have done, but I guess that RR money is hard to pass up.

More of the side characters please. Zac is almost completely uninteresting at this point. Endless pages of him “consolidating his gains” which is just another term for booooooring. The few times he got into fights he just completely dominated, so who cares?

I realize a couple more books have probably already been written on Patreon so I'm wasting my breath, but maybe one day in the future something will change. I would literally rather follow anyone else but Zac now, and that's pretty sad. The most exciting Zac-related thing is Alea, and well, that's barely even a thing so far.

Oh, and does everyone brought into the System universe suddenly develop nasal problems? That's the only explanation I can come up with for why everyone snorts so much. I get that there are only so many ways to describe things over and over in books, but snorting? Really?