Review: Paragon of Blood

Title: Paragon of Blood

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09T3S5MGS/

Author: Luke Chmilenko, Alex Knight  

Rating: 3.9/5

Comments:  This story was a little better than "It doesn't suck".   It seems to go out of its way to make sure it doesn't fit neatly into any of the genre's that it flirts with.  It has some litrpg elements, some system apocalypse elements, and a few more genres.  That being said the going out of its way bit seems just a little too deliberate, and rather than seeming innovative it just seems calculated to appear innovative.  Also, I'm seeing a lot of stories where blood is the special effect of the powers and that's just kind of gross IMO.  I think anyone who likes this idea needs to see what happens to a lot of blood in real life.

Anyway, I finished it, but I have no burning desire to see what happens next.  Honestly the core story of power and betrayal is pretty good, but all the other bits that are hung off of it drag it down.

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Wyrmshard: A LitRPG Adventure (Savage Dominion Book 2)

Title: Wyrmshard: A LitRPG Adventure (Savage Dominion Book 2)

Author: Luke Chmilenko, G.D Penman

Rating: 2.5/5

Comments: Ok, so I almost didn't write this, but I feel like I have to give the bad with the good.  I really liked book 1, and I thought the characterizations were good, I thought the characters played a smart game.  I don't know what happened with book 2.  I got to about 40% into it, and it just wasn't any fun.  I could see the "twist" at the end coming (independently verified by a 3rd party) and if there's one thing that will put me off a story it's the protagonists being willfully stupid.  If your average 11 year old can see that you're screwing up, there's no excuse for it unless the protagonist is stupid.  Our heroes in this book are not stupid, so why are they acting like it? 

Anyway this was a big DNF for me, and I hope this isn't a trend for books from this group.  I've seen some early chapters of Iron Prince and those are everything I would have hoped for.

So RIP Maulkin, I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually, but I doubt I'll read it.

Bedroom Activities: FTB

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Review: Legacy of the Fallen

Title: Legacy of the Fallen (Ascend Online book 2)

Author: Luke Chmilenko

Rating: 3.5/5

Comments:

Well, this is the 3rd book set in Ascend Online that I've read.  I can't explain why, but it was kind of a slog to get through it.  It had some good parts, but I think the fact that the whole thing isn't real detracts from it enough that they couldn't make up for that.  Unlike the first book, the mechanics of the game weren't novel enough to hold my interest.

If you like gamelit, well I can give this my whole-hearted endorsement.  I think Luke could have dropped the game trappings and just put it together as a fantasy world, and it would have been a better story.

Two minor parts of the story apparently bugged me enough they are percolating to the top of my brain as I write this, so I'm including them.  One, the protagonist gets a message from family members that they're joining the game, yet they don't contact him in game, or ask for gear, starting money, or apply for the guild.  Just "Hey we're going to be in the neighborhood, but we don't want to see you"  Second, the world outside of the game is just implausibly awful, which no doubt is the point, so people will want to escape into the game.  

Bedroom Activities: FTB

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Review: Savage Dominion: A LitRPG Adventure

Title:  Savage Dominion

https://www.amazon.com/Savage-Dominion-Adventure-Luke-Chmilenko-ebook/dp/B08RSNK38B/

Author: Luke Chmilenko, G.D. Penman

Rating:  4.7/5

Comments

This is Luke’s new collaboration, and to just get things stated up front, I enjoyed most of it.  Luke (and/or his collaborators) have a good sense for how to make characters believable and entertaining.  I really like Maulkin, Mercy, and Asher.  They are fun, entertaining, and relatable.  The interplay between Maulkin and Mercy is funny as hell, and it’s a continual miracle that Asher doesn’t beat them both.

So there’s one point that caused me consternation, and Luke has hinted that it’s part of the over-arching story, but I am really uncomfortable with what is going on with Maulkin and the McGuffin.  That’s a testament to my level of attachment to the MC and I am really not a fan of protagonists that are corrupted during the course of a story.  Probably too many westerns in my youth, but I’m firmly in the “Our Hero”, “White Hat” protagonist camp.  Anyway, might not be an issue, I imagine we’ll find out in book 2.

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Ascend Online 2 - Hell to Pay

Title:  Ascend Online 2: Hell to Pay

 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/d/B072HLLTF6/

 

Author: Luke Chmilenko

Rating:  4/5

Comments: 

UPDATE April 2021:  Luke has redone the order of the books on Amazon.  What was book 3 is now book 2, and this book is listed as a "side story".  I think this will be a much better way to present it.

I read this immediately after Ascend Online, and didn’t look at the description close enough.  This is not actually a continuation of the story from book 1, it’s a totally separate book set in the same game world.  He says this in the blurb, which I did not read until after I finished the book.  The actual story from book one isn’t continued until book 3, but I suspect (having not read it yet) that there will be a link between the two storylines at some point.

 

So story-wise this is completely different from book one, but it’s a good story.  The downside is it restarted the story, it didn’t continue it, so I’m not sure if I’m going to grab book 3.  For lack of a better phrase, the momentum is gone, so I don’t know if I’ll bother.  This should have been put out under a different title or something.  It shouldn’t be called book 2.

 

Bedroom Activities:   None

 

 

 

Review: Ascend Online

Title:  Ascend Online

 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/d/B01M01ET8E/

 

Author: Luke Chmilenko

Rating:  4/5

Comments:  Ok, I’ve read a lot of books set in the “game world” genre.  I mean a lot.  This one, well, it suffers from a lot of the same issues in that death isn’t really a deterrent to doing something stupid, so there’s a lack of dramatic tension.  I mean if the worst that can happen is you respawn to try again, is there really much risk?  He kind of covers the game mechanics side of it to give it some kind of reasoning, and such, but ultimately, what’s at stake if you can just log off and rage quit?

 

So if you take that part out of the equation, and just take it as a fantasy story, it’s pretty good.  The magic is interesting, and it’s couched as “all new” so nobody knows how anything works, so the characters are discovering their powers, which is interesting.

 

Anyway, if you like “VR game” books, this is pretty good.  If you don’t, well you won’t miss anything groundbreaking.

 

Bedroom Activities:   None

 

 

Review: Mark of Kings

Title:  Mark of Kings (The Shattered Reigns Book 1)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R818YQ3

Author: Luke Chmilenko, Bryce O’Connor

Rating: 4.1/5

Comments

Mark of Kings is aimed solidly at the Fantasy Epic market and it mostly succeeds.  My issues with it are less about the story than how it’s delivered.  There are several POV changes which, in my opinion, do nothing to actually advance the story, but are just there to attempt to add emotional impact.  At least for me they generally fail in that unless they were aiming for the emotion of annoyance, in which case they succeeded.  I’m not being hyperbolic when I say one annoyed me to the point that I almost quit reading.  That entire chapter could be removed and it would actively help the story.

My other gripe about the story is that it seems to meander about for most of the book without accomplishing a whole lot as far as getting us into the story, but delivering us a whole heaping plate of history and backstory.  This is thankfully accomplished without massive infodumps, but I think they could have lightened them up without hurting the story, and it would have improved the pacing and flow, while simultaneously shortening the book.

I will most likely read the sequel, but I’m going to have to give myself a break.  Fortunately the cast of characters is fairly small (essentially three important characters), so a break won’t really be an issue.

Bedroom Activities:  None

 

Review: Iron Prince

 Title: Iron Prince (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1)

https://www.amazon.com/Iron-Prince-Warformed-Stormweaver-Book-ebook/dp/B08KGT4CLQ

Author: Bryce O’Connor, Luke Chmilenko

Rating: 5/5+

Comments

This is one of those rare books where they accomplish POV shifts that actually help advance the main narrative rather than slow everything down.  This book is 1100 pages of “What happens next?  Holy crap.”  Repeat.  I was up until 4:30 a.m. the night I started it.

Bedroom activities:  None