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Surprisingly well written

Reviewed: 05-05-24

The plot was really interesting, the characters unique, memorable, and relatable... but more than that they felt like actual people you could know/meet. When often in fiction its easy to make characters which are too robotic or so unrelatable as to be almost alien to a normal person.

The performances were excellent and fit each character perfectly, only adding to their unique flair.

If you haven't purchase this book yet, but are wondering if its worth your time, give it a shot, especially if you are into adult anime and nerd culture.

I'll be looking out for this author's future works going forward.

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Arena Road is a very solid and well written book.

Reviewed: 01-25-24

Its a basic harem storyline with enjoyable distinct characters (even those that are not part of the harem which is kind of rare imo), with a portal world that is a less apocalyptic "mad max" kind of setting with more unique fantasy elements thrown in. In many ways it reminds me of the anime GATE and follows a very similar sort of dynamic, fans of that anime should 100% give this a shot.

The Narrators and writing were excellent, its just a surprisingly good story and has made me want to pick up more of Logan Jacobs works going forward.

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The writer is better than this book.

Reviewed: 06-04-23

This books suffers from an insane degree of power ramp, and makes the mistake of presenting these power increases like the main character is in a hypothetical race to the finish line, and if he doesn't get to super saiyan vampire omega 9500 in a chapter or two he'll lose said race to... no one... and also makes the mistake of presenting all this as deep and meaningful story progression... it isn't.

Here is the thing, the author is actually a good writer. He has a wide vocabulary, interesting characters, and an interesting setting, BUT... he rushes through it and makes the main character, Vincent, so incredibly powerful that by the end I just don't care. A slower more drawn out story using plots from this book over 2 or 3 books and maybe focusing on the characters emotion and desire to see his wife and daughter again and the struggles (real struggles not just torturing the character and saying he went through x for days, weeks, or months) could have gone a long way, but we can't really get that now because Vincent needs to be a vampire thrall... no wait an uber powerful ancient vampire now... no wait an uber powerful ancient vampire immune to the weaknesses of a vampire now... no wait an uber powerful ancient vampire immune to the weaknesses of an ancient vampire that gets the good guys on his side now... no wait an uber powerful ancient vampire immune to the weaknesses of an ancient vampire that gets the good guys on his side and gets given powerful vampire/demon weapons and armor to go along with his already broken abilities... all of that less than half way through the book... and it just keeps going like that...

I really hope the author reads this and in his next work please please please... just take the time to smell the roses... lore build... take your time. Don't get me wrong some progression is good... but it isn't a substitute for good story and world building and honestly the pace with which the progression occurs makes most of it not feel earned or important which is the exact opposite reaction you want.

TLDR Good author... mediocre at best book... Travis Baldree is still great.

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9 people found this helpful

Story branches too much and gets dull.

Reviewed: 04-15-23

First, let me start with the good Travis Baldree's performance is excellent, the story is still well written and entertaining in small spurts, and the overall world building is enjoyable.

The bad news is just about every character gets a side story most of which are unimportant to the main story adding more and more additional characters that are hard to keep track of or care about. I think if the book had kept to the basic A plot, B plot, C plot formula (making sure the main character is actually a part of the A plot) and took a step forward instead of just setting up a future book it would have been significantly better.

As is its okay = good but not great and honestly feels more like a collection of side stories than a proper 2nd entry. I will still be picking up the next book in the series... but if there isn't some form of progression and action that is relevant to the main character I'll probably call it done for the series. It's still worth a read if you enjoyed book 1... but just be ready to accept its not nearly as well paced or as interesting as book 1 was.

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Great start, kind of boring ending.

Reviewed: 04-07-23

Overall this is a good book with a strong premise, at 18 hours and 21 minutes you do get your credits worth here. It's essentially isekai meets a standard LitRPG with dungeon core and light "city building" mechanics. I know that sounds like a lot but for the most part is meshes well together.

Peter Berkrot does and admirable job and is easy to listen to.

The beginning to about 3 / 4ths of the way was truly one of my favorite LitRPG's i've read in a while... but the ending kind of goes off the rails and I feel has too many narrative branches and could have done with some trimming down (puns intended). It honestly gets a little boring despite starting off strong because the power ramp is a bit too much and many of the characters outside of the main character are kind of generic and forgettable. I think that all of this is still addressable (the story isn't ruined or anything) it just needs to find its roots again and refocus on the Isekai/LitRPG elements.

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A great start in the genre

Reviewed: 03-18-22

So lets cut to the chase, Its a pretty good harem fantasy. The characters are by far the strongest element held up by a very good vocal performance. The story is a little... for lack of a better word 'jank'. Its not awful, but as others have pointed out the central conflict is very obvious and has a glaring flaw that should have lead to the conflict being resolved much sooner and easier than it was. The primary antagonist's plan and his actions are very predictable as well. Honestly in retrospect had there be no central conflict and it just been the main character exploring and experiencing the fantasy world it would have probably been a superior story overall held up by the characters.

I believe where this title really shines though is in its dialog for the characters. It feels like multiple people interacting and there are meaningful differences in the way each character speaks that has a certain charm about it, even the primary antagonist. The setting is also nice, though I wish it had explored more of the world and built that up a bit more.

The Adult scenes are pretty good, they have a lot of emotion and dirty talk if you are into that. At times some of the pillow talk was a bit to much for me, but that is definitely a subjective opinion and not something I hold against the title. It didn't become annoying or anything just a bit repetitive in places.

Overall I liked the title and will probably given book 2 a read whenever/if ever it is made available. It's imperfect but what it gets right it REALLY gets right.

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Hamartia is clean ride with a real villain.

Reviewed: 09-28-21

To start off, I'm reviewing this purely on the basis of Cebelius's other books and not the works of other writers. I would also highly recommend you listen/read cebelius's other work "the celestine chronicles" before purchasing this one.

What can I say, Abram really steps up as a true Loki-esque villain. He is still a fundamentally broken character for most of the story and its hard to tell if he will continue to grow or if he's already reached his apex. I think if Cebelius is wise he will continue to grow and take on more lawful evil traits as I enjoyed those moments in the story the most. That said there will be moments in the story that people will not like, shouldn't like, and aspects which honestly to me didn't make a lot of sense and can only be explained with "oh Abram is just nuts"... but in reality this is still a poor explanation for why he does what he did... I can't elaborate more without potentially spoiling besides stating a preestablished character is involved and Abram's decision is obviously the wrong one.

The Litrpg elements are still present but to a lessor degree, they clearly became more abstract from the first book and now they are used as the way Abram see's his own power and thats about it. If you weren't a fan of the Litrpg elements compared to "the celestine chronicles" this should be a happy compromise.

There are less nightmarish romantic encounters this time around, and I believe that is honestly for the best for a more general audience appeal, so if they disturbed you last time good news its much more tame and more similar to the celestine chronicles.

There is torture and violence but nothing grotesque enough to really point out other than mentioning its inclusion for the extremely squeamish, it is also not particularly long.

I really enjoyed the politics and the separate factions working together for similar goals though each remaining distinct from one another with clearly different comparative end goals. I would honestly have liked even more of that truth be told and gave the world a lot of "life" and reminds the audience there is a beautiful and vibrant world beyond the mountain.

The narrators do a great job not only in the performance of new characters but also in their interpretation of established character voices,

I liked the changes Cebelius made from the first book, i think he could have pushed the envelope a bit more in several areas but it is understandable why he pulled back, this will be a more enjoyable ride for the larger fanbase. I would also like to see Cebelius build up the mountain more as well as well as explore more of the darker parts of underground regions, the mountain is cool and all but it could be so much more. He should go full mad scientist with it and have fun. I'd also like to see the addition of new and interesting races, I think that's part of what makes celistine such an interesting setting afterall.

Overall great book, worth continuing the series even if you may not have liked the first, i'd suggesting giving this a shot.

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A great start to a new series!

Reviewed: 02-22-21

Let's start with the great, the overall path of the story is entertaining and enjoyable. The main character is interesting and multidimensional. There is clear progression and growth that occurs without leaving the main character as a boring all powerful "mary sue", (he has clear limitations despite having strengths and many of his conflicts feel like they could go either way).

The Performance was wonderful, and the use of musical cues were well placed, if there was a flaw it goes unremembered or unnoticed.

My only complaint is a small gripe from the writing style, almost every plot point is repeated and restated multiple times, even for basic concepts. This is great if you have no idea what a litrpg is, have never played a video game, or suffer from a distracted or scattered personality, as if you don't grasp it the first time you will have multiple opportunities. The downside to this though is that if you are attentive, if you have read a litrpg (such as the land also by Aleron Kong which I recommend, or play video games, then these concepts aren't new, they don't need to be repeated. 2 or 3 times. The frequency this happens comes off at times as condescending (as if speaking to a slow child), or that the author wanted to buff the length of his book through repetition. As such, I have deducted 1 star from overall for that minor annoyance despite the performance and meat of the story overall being perfect/near perfect.

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1 person found this helpful

Mana Master starts strong, but falls to pieces.

Reviewed: 02-19-21

The first 5 - 6 hours set up an interesting character, world, and clear path of progression. I think I would best compare it to the better episodes of a your standard anime, complete with cheesy Saturday morning cartoon villains and obvious lead romances. Then it starts to shit the bed, with about a dozen plot threads get touched on before quickly resolving with minimal effort (thus making them pointless) or going unaddressed/uncompleted. To continue the anime parallel, it feels like a dozen 'filler' episodes one right after another that honestly should have been cut on the first round of editing if for no other reason than to prevent the feeling of 'whip lash' one feels when listening to it and to not waste the readers time with nonsense. The love interests are also rushed in their development with most simply loving the main character from the start or at first meeting.

Further use of 'Chekhov's gun' would have served the author well... if an introduced plot element isn't going to be immediately useful or impactful consider cutting it or making it more useful/impactful. Having the main character show the reader instead of being told that they grew more powerful would have also proven useful, as would having whatever trials or tribulations they defeated actually matter, and not be defeated in the span of 30 minutes.

The story aside, the writing itself isn't great with a limited vocabulary of words chosen together which made the dialog a bit clunky in places. The "adult" scenes were honestly boring and lacked a certain degree of passion and depth or were absolutely dripping with teenage angst, fortunately it didn't become overly annoying.

The performance wasn't great either, not terrible or anything... but I felt Hazel was clearly bored/tired through many of her lines (understandable as the lines for the ladies were often cheesy or comically bad to say the least). The sound quality was below what is common in the industry now a days, and there was at least 1 botched word that could and should have been edited in post.

Overall this is a subpar harem adventure story, and a below average cultivator story (the worst I've read so far in fact). I will probably not refund the credit (though it is on the line for what I would consider refunding for), but neither will I continue the story. I think if the author went back to this book and started again focused on the first half and stuck to 1 or 2 of the threads introduced in the second half he would have had an above average book for the genre... sadly it wasn't meant to be this time.

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16 people found this helpful

3 connected stories but should have focused on 1.

Reviewed: 01-25-21

This audiobook consists of three stories, one of which covers a man learning to control his powers and deal with a father who disapproves of 'paragons' (super heroes/villains). In my opinion this is the most fleshed out story with a full and interesting arch. The second story covers a teenage loser gaining several strong super power mysteriously and attempts to master them in an attempt to become the heroes he's idolized. It's a coming of age/heroes journey kind of story but doesn't have a narrative arch, and really doesn't even feel fully fleshed out. The last book I'm actively apathetic toward, its a story about a normal human reporter trying to make her way in the world, dealing with drama in the workplace, and trying to snag the next big scoop. She ends up discovering that an idolized hero that was recently murdered may not have been murdered by his arch rival and former villain despite evidence to the contrary... and when she starts digging to deep someone wants her dead.

I just don't care, I don't care that a reporter has a hard time at work... i don't care about the color of her skin... i don't care that she's a woman and has issues because she's a woman.. Every time a new part of her story came on I audibly sighed because it essentially puts the breaks on the larger story for 30 mins. The only good thing i can say is that her arch does reveal certain areas of depth in the universe... but jesus could it be done better through one of the other established characters.

Overall I feel like the author wrote 3 short stories in the same universe but should have focused on 1 and stuck to it, creating the other 2 at a later time as their own separate and complete stories instead of 1 relatively finished arch and 2 unfinished ones.

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13 people found this helpful