Good, but not without its flaws...

Pros: The book continues to be as good as the previous ones, written by two amazing authors in their own respective genres. The relationships are few, but they're fleshed out well, In terms of LitRPG/GamelLit, it’s not a super complicated magic system, and the elements of LitRPG (loot, stats, levels, etc.) are very light (which I appreciate from time to time)

Cons: As stated above, the magic system isn’t deep and LitRPG elements are light. If you came to this series for crunchy statistics and in-depth game mechanics, you might be a little disappointed. There’s also a couple really cheesy scenarios/dialogue spots in the book. Especially with the MC’s interactions with “would-be” girlfriends. The biggest downside to this series, however, is the narrator. I’m a huge Anspach fan. I have every one of his Galaxy’s Edge books (phenomenal series), all the spin-offs, his Forgotten Ruin series (probably my favorite audiobook series ever), and even Nick Cole’s “Strange Company” book. There’s nothing they put out that I don’t love. That being said, as good of a narrator as Mark Boyett is, I feel like he was the wrong person for these characters. With the sales and popularity of his books, I think Jason would’ve been better off with Jeff Hayes or a few other prominent LitRPG narrators. This isn’t the first time he used Mark in one of his books though. He did a great job with “Order of the Centurion, but I can’t help but think just how amazing this series would’ve been with different voices. Even the cheesy parts would’ve been less cheesy.

All in all, I’m still invested in the series. I’ll continue to purchase the remainder of the books as they come out.

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Boring Filler

Just meanders with no real purpose. The n the MC makes a dumbass decision at the end and has one of his most important artifacts taken from him. No real story progression.

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Awesome entry into King's Lsague

I played Ever-Quest for years and this book brought back some great memories of late night-into- early morning grind groups.

You know, falling asleep at the keyboard and soaking up the XP until someone notices and the group moves out of XP range....and then you get the respawn and you wake up hours later to a corpse run. ^_^

This combination of MMORPG nostalgia and VR is something many of us have wanted for years (holodecks, SAO, etc.) and this volume, in particular, really sparked that want in me.

To the point that these MFers not only made me want to buy their next book....they also made me go buy a frickin Oculus Quest 2. It wasn't really on my purchase radar, but after being sparked by this book, it became an impulse buy very quickly.

Great book! Get it.

(The Quest 2 is sick btw (this post is not sponsored by Occulus (but I am willing to let it be..hmu FB)))

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A leasurely grinding tale halfway through

but picks up afterwards. The authors used most of the first part of the book with Dirk and Spyce grinding and leveling up Nogg and others by delving low-level dungeons which was mostly defeat, rinse, repeat. After leveling their now party of 5 to respectable levels, the story picks up considerably. The ending has several twists with a couple of pretzel-shaped reveals. This made up for the sluggish first part of the novel and restored what was waning interest in the series.

Mark Boyett performance was well performed but Stoneburner's medieval speech was a bit grating after awhile. Mark performed it well but, well, I hope the authors decide to minimize it in the future.

Better yet MC is still a total newb

I enjoy the overall story of these books quite a bit yet I just wish the MC would connect the dots a bit quicker on obvious issues. They chase after a PKer with a piece of the unique armor all book, growing to hate this bad guy more and more as the story goes. Yet as soon as they catch up to him, the MC starts asking himself what he and his team should do. "should we talk?" "should we attack" etc, allowing enough time for this bad guy to flee. The MC then calls the bad guy a good player for escaping while he, the MC stood there, watching/allowing the bad guy to get away.... why is the MC even questioning what do do about the bad guy that they have chased throughout the entire book, with the intent to kill? Top that off by the total plot armor scene of giving your bone headed, low health best friend who has tried to continuously act as a tank (he's a dps mage) your unique graydens eye helmet because he just lost his only head gear from stupidly trying to tank a giant troll as a MAGE!!! Author's, for the love of everyone humanity, try harder or take a creative writing course, so that you don't have to "retard" the MC aka lifetime gamer extraordinaire constantly.

Great fun!

This series makes me want Kings League to exist sooo bad! All we need is for the tech to catch up.

really fun series

I really enjoy the story that this series has going! the characters have real emotions and it really draws you into the story! looking forward to the next book!

great fun to listen

but would be 5 if the ending was so absolutely 💯 cringe. just romance cringe and only about 4 lines worth of stuff. but jeezussssss. beyond cringe end

A lot of twists and turns.

The ending does reminds me of another book series by Travis Bagwell. Fantasic series and eagerly await the next book.
Excellent work by Jason Anspach and JN Chaney with Mark Boyett narrating!

Just skip to the last few chapters

Honestly, I was a big fan of the first two books but this one fell flat for me. It was just grinding with nothing to offer until the end and even then, it wasn’t all that much. It felt like they were just trying to release something to appease the fans. I hope the next book can bring my interest back.