Stephen

It’s OK, not great

Revisado: 08-23-23

The overall story is OK, just not very good. The prompt is interesting. There’s an overarching story and it’s not a slice of life (good). There’s a very similar story I read about a guy getting stuck in a void realm and coming out with strange powers into a system world like the one in this story. Level zero hero reminds me a lot of a mix of that story, One Punch Man, and Enemy of the World. They’re all overpowered MCs. Similar to One Punch Man, level zero hero focuses more character development and progression with the side characters.

One blatant difference is that Amelia isn’t a likable character. Saitama in One Punch Man is humble, funny and extremely strong. Amelia is boring, not funny, and extremely strong. She doesn’t feel like a balanced character in comparison to other overpowered MCs. Since the author didn’t explain how she got so strong very well at all, it’s hard to appreciate that with how it’s written. Very similar to One Punch Man, the author doesn’t explain how Saitama got so strong. He chose comedy to fill the cracks by saying he got strong by doing “100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, and a 10km run every single day.”
The author then made it a running gag for Saitama’s strength to never be fully realized by everyone. It makes OPM feel balanced by acknowledging these holes and poking fun.
I think the author attempted this sort of thing and then just gave up on it (WHY?!). Maybe it was too close to OPM.

The writing itself was a slog to listen to. I lost count of how many times characters simply ‘blinked.’ Or they just say ‘what?!’ Maybe you could have pulled off characters doing that once or twice, but it’s in every single chapter. What the hell….

World building also didn’t make sense to me. How do ranks work? Is Amelia unranked because she needs to turn in quest items to the guild or is she unranked because she doesn’t have a class? Also, when Noel (I think that’s her name? The Genos of the story) gets a level up, she claims she’s A-rank now. That doesn’t make sense to me, do you determine your own rank based on level? If so, why? It seems like it should be a separate rank based on adventurer experience with the guild.

The system itself also isn’t explained in detail. What do levels do exactly? Do characters have stats? Why do the levels seem so arbitrary and not “system like” at all?

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Pretty good

Revisado: 08-20-23

I like this series. It has its ups and downs. The MC is still frustratingly nonchalant probably because nothing feels like it actually matters. The only interesting thing is progression and competence porn. The book also ends in such a strange way too. Happens so much with online novels turned audio book. Really wish it was longer.

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It goes on and on without substance

Revisado: 05-31-23

The story started off alright, with the generic system taking over the world, granting an RPG system over everything. The story gets worse and worse as a narrative forms over Daniel’s armor. It becomes incoherent as more characters are introduced. Aliens are somehow on Earth now and there doesn’t seem to be an explanation why. They understand English and lingo words like ‘thick’ to mean ‘curvaceous’ instead of ‘dumb’. Daniel just does things ‘just because’ it seems. It’s like the story turns into a slice of life novel in the middle.

Overall not good.

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Pretty good

Revisado: 01-07-23

My favorite thing about the series is even though the MC is very strong, there’s always someone stronger that checks him every now and then.
I wish the MC would develop some kind of hobby or something, like cooking or whatever. He’s turning even more boring now.
Performance is very good.
I also really like how it focuses mostly on the MC and doesn’t stray too far from what makes this series good.
I wish the MC’s actions were explained a bit better when it comes to his plan of actions though. Why would he pursue his particular path? How does he control something seemingly intangible like creation and oblivion?

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Decent

Revisado: 12-06-22

I liked this story. It wasn’t as good as the last book, but it’s still solid in terms of direction. This book focuses on more people in the ascendant realm including Maria. I don’t care much for that character. This book did not feel complete and I wished it ended on a more interesting resolution. This happens a lot with web series adapted to novels.

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Very disappointing

Revisado: 09-28-22

The concept was a good idea. It sounded very traditional with the fool turning into a hero. But the book fails completely to tell a coherent story. After the first few chapters, it turns into a school arc and completely ditches the original more interesting story line with the Ravener. The first few chapters were very boring, but I stuck around for the overall concept. I expected more out of a 17 hour book. I didn’t expect to hear constant drivel about meditation and professors who eat flies. The Ravener isn’t really mentioned until the very last chapter.
The Fool’s blessing gives Alex a handicap for combat so I was expecting some slap stick Jackie Chan style combat or maybe even Leslie Nielsen humor type fighting, but it was really Alex just moving around a ball of mana. It was described that he could leverage the blessing to make himself powerful but that has not come true at all in this book. It really just highlights how studious he is and how much he is actually handicapped.
Next gripe are the characters. There’s really no way to know Teresa is actually a girl or not other than simple grammatical clues. Even her only physical description sounds like a man (wide shoulders). I know it’s trendy to make a female character sound interesting by basically making her a man, but it’s lazy and overdone. A woman is allowed to be both feminine and masculine and not one or the other. Same with male characters which are also terribly done in this book.
All the characters are horribly uninteresting besides some with innate abilities. There are nearly no internal conflicts in the heads of these characters, not much worry for the future, no reluctant romances. The only other internal conflict for Alex and Selena is their parents death which just felt cheap and is a reminder of why they don’t like fire, doesn’t add anything to the plot, just some non-consequential side conflict. Alex mentions Teresa is his best friend and there is only the barest hint that they might be attracted to one another. None of that is fleshed out.
I’m mostly annoyed that there are so few conflicts with Alex and monsters. Alex remains super weak throughout the story (compared to literally everyone else including his little sister towards the end) and is never given any life threatening conflicts besides the one in the beginning that was completely avoidable and was only added to further the plot.
Another gripe is the lack of humor. You’d think the story about a fool would have some great humor, but no. Alex is very low key. There is no edge to him at all. No quick wit, no pranks, nothing. He likes to bake pies for God’s sake.
Dialogue is so pointed a well. There are no mannerisms that make any one character unique. No depth at all in the character’s speech. They just get to the point with some added artificial mannerisms that make it seem they are interesting, but there really isn’t any conflict in their speech and no consequences for the non-existent conflict.
Overall, it’s just not a good book. It really needs a rewrite to address the plot, character, combat, mechanics, and dialogue issues.

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esto le resultó útil a 12 personas

Slow plot and unlikeable characters

Revisado: 09-16-22

The plot deviated slightly from the last book. Unfortunately the author fell into the trap of making the protagonist spend so much time explaining the time loop to other characters.
I don’t know if Trevor has memory issues or what, but Micah telling him about the Stag friend over and over again and reminding him of things over and over again is not entertaining or interesting. The MC becomes more irritating because he’s so much more powerful than his peers and he basically lords that fact over them. The other characters are yet again are used as plot devices for the MC. How does a poor and likely uneducated 16 year old foreign girl (Joe) know how much the city pays in tariffs? There is no explanation, no backstory. Her input is simply used for the plot. The relationship between Joe and Micah was literally retconned out of the time loop. It all felt so empty.
Why is Trevor bisexual? His character trait is literally a guy that chases ladies. It makes the character seem much less genuine and is bi just to check off a virtue signal list. Why is being gay or bisexual looked poorly upon in that specific town but not the capital?
There was some tampering done by another god to mess with Micah just because? The explanation for that felt so weak.
Pretty much all the conflicts and motivations for all the characters were so weak. The reason for Micah to continue the fight after his family and friends were safe felt so forced.

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Slow, stilted and boring

Revisado: 09-16-22

The story starts off very slow and when it finally starts getting good it slows down again.
The dialogue is very odd and stilted. The way every character interacts with the main character sounds so robotic and unnatural. No one really feels like a character. The conflicts are so weak and they driving force of each character feels like it exists purely for the plot.
There’s a section of dialogue where the other character is overly explaining the main character’s motivations and actions that was clearly designed to make sure the reader isn’t lost. I thought it was a joke.
The main character has the personality of a wet paper bag. He makes torture, murder and trauma sound boring.
There’s a grand reveal in the story that makes everything sound pointless. It feels like a cover up for the main character’s strange decisions that make no sense.

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Enjoyable

Revisado: 09-12-22

I enjoyed the book for what it is. It’s for sure an indulgent power fantasy series. The protagonist gained a huge power boost in this book and it shows. The dialogue is still lack luster and the main secret of the protagonist is out which made it less satisfying to me. The narrator does a good job with the character voices, he gives distinct enough tone to a wide range of characters that I don’t have much trouble getting immersed.

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Gets better and better

Revisado: 09-07-22

Great story. I love the magic mechanics and the ups and downs of the journey. It is such a good progression story that doesn’t get hung up on minute details. The number of characters don’t bog the story down and the character decisions make sense and are satisfying.
The only thing I can criticize are the dialogue and almost monotonous performance. I don’t mind monotonous, but a little more emotion wouldn’t hurt.

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