Katarina

The plot thickens…

Reviewed: 01-06-25

… and I enjoyed every bit of it. The storyline in this third volume in the series is becoming more complex, with even more fun adventures, clever wordplays, and very funny misunderstandings. We’re all rooting for Boxxy/Chester and his ever-growing band of minions of course. There are more new side characters we get to know, like Bob the god of chaos or whatever her actual name is (this in itself is a small but humorous plot device), the ever-suspicious Edward and his hybrid assistant and of course the Vortena from the title. One of my favorite sidekicks Carl is back too, for Boxxy decides to make one of his hilarious phone calls again.

And yes, there are some sexual scenes too, plus references to certain body parts and/or sexual acts. All of which don’t bother me at all, it’s part of this storyline and as such functional. Frankly, they often make me laugh, because of the humor with which it was clearly written.
For context: I’m a Gen-X woman who loves sci-fi and fantasy.

Five stars for narration (I listened to the Audible audiobook version), the narrator delivers some great voice acting. He differentiates between characters, not only with different accents, but also by changing tone and timbre of his voice. He also added some sound effects that add a lot to the story, very well done.

I like this series so much that each time I finish a book, I immediately want to continue on to the next part in the series, and for the first time in years, it bothers me that I have only 1 measly credit left.

TLDR: highly recommend.

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Took a chance with this book - and I'm glad I did!

Reviewed: 12-30-24

I hesitated to purchase this because of the various negative reviews. However, I took a chance and I'm glad I did. I don't agree with the 1 and 2 star reviews. I get where the reviewers are coming from, but they simply need to move on to a different genre, for this book is not meant for them. You have to be able to understand and appreciate irony and sarcasm, but also consistency in universe building: demons & monsters will do demonic and monsterly things, it's who they are. It's not kind, it's not compassionate, it's not human. So don't expect any human nor humane behavior.

To me this book is well-written and I consider it an entertaining listen, with lots of action and some great jokes. A fun book.
Narration is great, with some sound effects and different 'voices' for each character.

After finishing it I immediately purchased part 2, which by now I've also finished. So today I'll be moving on to part 3 since I cannot wait to listen to more of this series.

A great find, highly recommend!
(For some context: I'm a female scifi & fantasy lover in my fifties.)

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Highly recommended - for target audience

Reviewed: 12-30-24

After an entertaining first part that I only started reading as a tentative try-out, I hastened on to part 2, Fizzlesprocket. And I loved it every bit as much! Our MC is a young gameworld character in the monster category 'mimic' - which I'm personally not familiar with - and the author is building the character very consistently 'monsterly', no holds barred. Same goes for its demon familiars.
The result is creatively original and, more importantly, very entertaining. It takes skill to make a reader like and root for 'villain' characters, and the author has succeeded as far as I am concerned.

However if you're not able or willing to go along with the main premise of this story and the story universe, you may find it harsh, crude and nonsensically violent. This is not the author's fault however, but the reader's: he chose simply the wrong book to read, as it was not meant for him.

I feel I am part of the target audience however, which I loosely define as "everybody who greatly enjoys this story", so I highly recommend it to all others in this particular reader group.

The narration of the audiobook version is sublime and very well-suited to the story. The narrator uses different voices and adds some sound effects as well, which greatly add to the story.

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Action packed - with all the feelz

Reviewed: 12-14-24

Magnificent season finale, could also be a satisfying saga finale except we already know there will be a season 3.

Audiobook listeners: you absolutely have to keep listening until after the authors’ podcast/audience session, because right at the very end there is a short heart wrenching yet sweet epilogue that you cannot afford to miss.

Narrator RC Bray was magnificent too, as always.

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YA light entertainment

Reviewed: 06-23-24

Six parts in, I can say that I still feel this is YA at best, but that's fine, I knew this since the first part. I'm viewing this as light entertainment, palate cleansers between literature or non-fiction.

There's a distinctive politically left-leaning view of the world woven through this entire series. For instance, being good = being kind; better to kill someone than to let them suffer; women are at least as strong as men and often smarter and there's nothing they can't do; the male main character feels the need to constantly highlight and praise the strength of the women surrounding him; diversity in the sense of outward characteristics (like race or in this case species) is holy and good (as opposed to diversity of opinion or character or talents); and collectivism is always better than individualism.
On an individual level, a weak man is as attractive as a dominant woman, they attract one another and are a suitable match; everyone is rooting for a barren relationship to form between the two main characters with no-one having any doubts or even questions. All of these and several details more I'd consider distinctly left-leaning.

A lot of exposition is one of the aspects that put these books in the YA genre. What also makes them YA is the fantasy of the outlyer geek being the hero: gaining popularity, the respect of his enemies, the loyalty of his friends and the love of his ideal woman, all accidentally and purely by being his 'true geeky self'. He fumbles and stumbles naively and innocently along, learning nothing, all the while changing the whole world and everyone in it for the better without even attempting it, aiming at it nor planning for it.

All of that being said, these are still fun enough adventures, especially thanks to the full-cast audio dramatization, and they entertain me while I'm going through an insanely busy time at work; these stories help get my mind off things.
In Dutch we would call this 'dom vermaak', 'mindless entertainment'. As such, it gets 4 stars from me - because this, it accomplishes.

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Young adult genre short stories

Reviewed: 06-08-24

Nice palate cleanser in between heavier tomes. Basically these are several short stories around one MC and his slowly growing group of friends.
I was about to dislike the Mary Jane "I can do anything and everything better than you can" character, especially next to the "I'm quite the klutz" MC, but the last chapters made up for that and made her a bit easier to put up with.
This set of stories give a bit of a background story of Fred, the vampire accountant and the world of parahumans he lives in. They also set up the traditional 'team' around any superhero - or anti hero in this case.

Narration was great, since this was a dramatized adaption with full cast and sound effects.

All in all I'd categorize this as YA.

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Very well narrated but otherwise not too thrilling

Reviewed: 12-01-23

Technically well-written, and very well narrated. In fact narration saved this book for me and helped me finish it.

I bought this because I'm a big fan of the Galaxy's Edge series so I was curious to read a different genre by (one of) the same author(s).

But, this was not up to parr for me. I've read a much better LitRPG series and sometimes it was like these authors may have read this series too, because there were a few resemblances. (Not like a copy however, more like an influenced by/inspired by).

Be that as it may, this story didn't really grab me. There were no stakes that I cared for and the MC wasn't a likeable character. He also didn't seem to be a very good gamer, nor was he particularly smart or good at strategy or some other skill. He levelled up but there was still a huge difference between him and other equally high-levelled characters. The way he defeats & kills the end 'boss' was, frankly, rather uninspired.
Maybe the authors intend for the MC to learn throughout the series, and grow as a person as well as a gamer, but they first have to make me care about him for me to want to be part of his journey.
As it is, I don't.

I'll happily continue my Galaxy'e Edge saga and my other LitRPG series, but this one I will not be contuing, alas.

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Entertaining enough, sort of. No aliens though.

Reviewed: 08-20-23

Just fine if you want a bit of a palate cleanser between two different long and heavy books.

There are no aliens in this story unfortunately, this is a true prequel, and in my opinion, a standalone novel. However, I found the main motivation of the antagonists not believable: an unknown man is having nightmares, and somehow this inspires a number of ordinary people to become religiously fanatic murderers? I’m sorry, but that is too great a suspension of disbelief demanded from the reader.

That being the case, it was difficult to feel any suspense.
Hence the two stars - for what is no more than a nice but meaninglessly fluffy read (/listen) by the swimming pool.

Narration was OK, but added nothing extra to the story. His accents were nice, but his female characters sounded mostly below average. The narrator actually using a higher pitch for a female character was a bit cringe to listen to. The narrator actually raising his voice when a character was screaming, was definitely taking things too literally, there are other narration techniques to convey yelling.

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Another exciting Tyrus Rechs story (but too short)

Reviewed: 08-07-23

Ah, another Tyrus Rechs story, one of my absolute favorite characters in this entire saga. I wish the authors would give him as many books as they did the main storyline. I cannot get enough of stories involving this character. Too bad it was only a short story, but nevertheless, very well written, and held my attention from the very first minute to the end.

I even liked Ray Porter as a narrator for this story. I partularly appreciated his accent and intonation for Tyrus’s butler bot, it provided some subtle comic relief.

I do so hope many more books with Tyrus will follow.

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Very nice prequel to an otherwise mediocre series

Reviewed: 06-25-23

As I have recently found out, I already listened to the actual part 1 of this Forsaken Mercenary series, which I rated only 2 stars and which apparently had made me decide not to continue the series. That was about 2 years ago so I had forgotten all about that book and started listening to this short story today thinking it was the start of a completely new series in my collection.

And what a great little story it was! Entertaining, a likeable main character, some nice action scenes and a mystery to be solved. It made me want to buy part 1 of this series immediately - only to discover I already owned it and had deemed it subpar.
What a wasted opportunity, if only the series had been written more like this prequel…

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