The Land of the Undying Lord

You should read this book.<br /><br />I do not know this author at all... I preface this with that because I loved this novel and dont want you to think this was a biased review.<br /><br />Quick review<br />I could not stop reading this book. I found myself pacing and reading nonstop. This is a pretty large book for this genre and with that comes a good bit of world and character building. There are so many endearing moments in this novel. The author excels at small moments that make you smile. I actually used the highlight and bookmark function of my kindle to revisit these scenes. You may see some mention of editing issues. This has been almost completely fixed in the version I read. I highly suggest you read this book.<br /><br />More of a review<br />Characters- I really enjoy the cast a great deal. The MC for reasons noted in the story has no understanding of the world around him but he's not an idiot. He's a strong character who makes mistakes and can admit and learn from them. He explores the world with the wonder of a childs heart which leads to some wonderful small moments. There is a cast of side characters who are interesting and have parts of their back stories brought out. I can't wait to see what happens and to learn more about them. I also like the interaction with non human characters such as horses and spirits. <br /><br />Now I admit 2 of the female characters might be polarizing. The noble and the MC's trusty warrior companion. The noble comes off as the tropey clueless cruel snob, but this is recognized by the story and its characters and by the end we see that she may actually grow into something more. The warrior las... well she's an odd ball and I admit she might irritate you because she is a bit of an idiot... but again there's growth there and I can tell the author has plans for her.<br /><br />Humor- The author has a wonderful grasp of humor. Especially, with the banter between characters. I do not know if he served in the military but the banter between soldiers is flawless.<br /><br />Story- I thought this was a very unique story. I think that it is worth your investment. I can sort of see where this is going but the author has left himself a great deal of room to create a vastly epic story. There is the distant looming threat but its a bit different from what you are used to. You should know that this is a litrpg so there are skills and numbers but its well done. It could possibly use a bit more of that? Then again some books drone on forever and thats just awful. The skills are very interesting and I especially look forward to seeing where the author goes next with it. The character starts off very weak and makes an excellent amount of progress throughout the story.<br /><br />The loot- The items the character gets in the story allow him to upgrade several times in ways that make sense. The convenience of it at times also makes sense. I like that he didn't get the axe of kills all (example) and then never anything else. Many stories see a protagonist get one item or another and then that's it for 3 books. Well that sucks. I want to see them grow. Or in the case of this novel some of the items grow. He learns interesting spells as well that grow and he explores with a wonder that holds no malice. You would have to read this to understand what i mean.<br /><br />Closing-<br />I don't usually write reviews like this but I felt the guy deserved one. I hope someone out there see's the review and decides to read it. Because the only way he will keep this up is if people enjoy it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

This is a decent read hiding in a subpar book or a subpar read hiding in an unacceptable book. I haven't decided which. When the book sticks to the right subject, the rpg-based rise of its main character, it works. It's fun and gritty. When the book drifts to about a dozen POVs of secondary characters whose names I can't keep straight, and whose stories are incredibly boring, it doesn't. <br /><br />There's the most idiotic of all RPG characters who is stuck with the main character, whose voice I just had to tune out, and some deus ex machina-style storyline tweaks that felt particularly forced and non-organic.<br /><br />Worst of all, the entire story is predicated on the notion that a living, thinking, human is placed into absolute slavery, with its master able to punish it horrendously with a mis-spoken word, and that this is not only somehow okay, but that many of the characters should earn the slave's loyalty so it can continue in this system voluntarily. Even when misapprehensions are resolved, the character is supposed to want to live in lifelong bondage and servitude.<br /><br />Strip away the icky slavery story, strip away the secondary characters, strip away the know-it-all "I'm too cool for school and know how your character build should absolutely be developed" and you have a two part story where the main character is first taught how to work within a military system and then has two adventures in non-cavernous dungeons.<br /><br />That part's pretty good and I liked it.

This is a superb first novel from a completely unknown author (to me at least). I've read worse professionally edited books from Waterstones, not only in grammer but also in content and story.<br /><br />The story contains light LitRPG elements, although no character in the story is aware of the game and therefore the book would stand up as a straight fantasy novel.<br /><br />The main character is a familiar/summoning who is initially deemed useless by the summoner but is actually able to learn from all classes of skills and at far faster pace than normal. The plot deepens as we pass through events (think dungeon instance) with real pace and character development.<br /><br />I'm thoroughly impressed and definitely following the author for book 2.

<strong>Wasted potential</strong><br /><br />The premise is interesting enough but there is a clear need for an editor. Also for me a large amount of key characters are just bad, having angry outburst and being genuinely terrible to others but it's clear the author thinks that it's endearing.

Warning: review might contain vague spoilers.<br /><br />This started off as an excellent book. Finally I was reading a LitRPG that felt like a story. The main character is introduced in a pretty unique way compared to how most other books in this genre do it. Usually there is some half arsed backstory scrambled together in a single chapter about how the main character is going to die of terminal illness, or how he's going to die because he has bunch of bad guys after him, or how he's magically picked off from our world into the fantasy world by some goddess like entity (yes, its usually a goddess not a god), etc. etc. <br /><br />In this book the author simply did not bother with it. What he rather introduced was a blank canvas. A character with no memory of himself or his past or of anything. Someone for whom the whole world and all its facets are new things to learn. <br />And in that sense, the author pulled it off quite well. The main character really feels like a child -an intelligent child, but a child nonetheless- thrown into the world. His curiosity and personality are fitting to how someone with absolutely no memories of anything (even himself) would be. Overall it feels quite genuine, and I had no trouble sinking myself into the book. <br /><br />The first half of this book is excellent like I mentioned earlier. Through the main character, who has absolutely no knowledge of anything, we learn much about the world. The other characters that are introduced are mostly interesting. The one negative point here is the person who inevitably summons the main character and forms a bond with him. That was quite badly done, and it was the first warning sign that the book gave off. I never like authors doing one thing, and then spending hundreds of pages to try and undo it. It feels like a waste to read. <br /><br />The second half of the book is also not bad, but that was when the other major warning sign started flashing off. And that is the character of <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="26c3c057-4c03-4af6-9eea-d9a367469406" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="26c3c057-4c03-4af6-9eea-d9a367469406">Tersa</label>. Turned idiotic to the point of disbelief, the author has written her so badly, that even a mountain troll will seem to have an incredibly poignant personality in comparison. And the worse part is that not only is she joined by the hip to the main character, she also dominates every scene that she's in. All the events focus on this singular, zero dimensional, abysmally idiotic, loudly cursing, swearing character whenever she is present. <br /><br />It turns a what could have been 5* book into a 3-4* that has the reader filled with disappointing trepidation about what might come next. I've seen quite a few authors make this mistake. The keep one important character who behaves entirely illogically and is usually a complete fool as a sort of wildcard with which they can twist the story in any direction they want. As it so happens that in this case, the entire 2nd book of the series is due to this character. <br /><br />Illogical characters are a by-product of an illogical author. And that is seen when at the end of the book, <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="37ab1485-5e9c-4226-b430-5fd3c844cf44" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="37ab1485-5e9c-4226-b430-5fd3c844cf44">Tersa is given a 2nd class slot as a reward. Something that no one else gets. Something that should not even be possible since the author tells us that slots are set by birth. A reward this good for a participant of the trial this undeserving makes absolutely no sense, but this again is the author trying to fix his own mistake.</label> <br /><br />Overall, I still gave this book an extremely generous 4*s because individually, its a really promising book with decent writing, interesting story, and mostly good characters.

This was a refreshing and interesting take on the “summoned to another world” trope. <br /><br />Unlike normal summons, Trent is just a being that materializes from a Trial and because of that is brand new to life itself. With that, we learn as he does and experience the great world that Wright created. <br /><br />I loved basically every chapter that Trent was that main POV of, he’s charming and hard working and you just want to root for him. The only down side to these chapters if that Tersa is in those and I can find anything redeeming about her at all. The other POV characters are fine as well but don’t live up to what Trent has to offer. <br /><br />Really enjoyed this, picking up second book immediately.

I seriously don't understand why people mix up being gullible with being generous. The main character was sometimes really annoying and stupid, no excuses acceptable! And why everyone just listen to that crazy girl Tersa who didn't care about anybody's life? They should have just let her die peacefully.

So many pages for so much nothing.<br /><br />I was a fifth of the way through when I realized I wanted to gouge my eyes out. I just wanted something, <i>anything</i>, to happen. And then I just wanted it to end. Flipping through the pages wasn't fast enough.

<strong>Surprisingly good</strong><br /><br />This book captures exactly what litRPG/gameLit should be. The book does not overly lean on game elements to drive to the story but rather uses them to enhance and better clarify the world and character progression. The story as whole was completely enrapturing and I am really excited for the next book to come out. <br /><br />There are some things that may bother some readers though. The pacing tends to vary throughout the book and the author seems to lose focus on the core story at times. In the beginning of the book it’s less noticeable because readers are still getting a feel for story by during the second half of the book it makes the story feel rushed. The issue is especially noticeable during the perspective changes, while The perspective changes themselves are important they included unnecessary content that didn’t add any value other than making the book longer. Ultimately, the rushed feeling during the later half of the book makes the end slightly in satisfying. I wouldn’t say it ended on a cliff hangar but the ending feels abrupt by not even showing a hint of resolution to the main driving relationship of the story.

Usually I'm not keen on stories with an adolescent, let alone a pre-pubescent MC, but I found this hard to put down. The author has managed to make a genuinely sympathetic character with Trent and I was pulling for him the whole way.<br /><br />His slap-happy fireteam partner was harder to take, and in some other cases she would have lowered my rating, but she's there for Trent to be the "straight man" to, so a necessary evil I guess.