OYENTE

Michael P.

  • 186
  • opiniones
  • 193
  • votos útiles
  • 245
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Endless Online is Endless in its Endlessness

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-18-23

This is more a review of the first five books in the series than just the first book. I will say that I appreciate that the author has several new takes and twists on the LitRPG genre. The overall story is engaging and has enough things going on to keep it from feeling to linear.

To address some other reviews, yes this does incorporate more harem elements a ways in. It does, at least, offer some explanation and context. Does it add value to the story? Not particularly. Is it as bad as many make it out to be? Not even close. Also, the author keeps the intimacy much along the lines of PG-13 fade to black and come back to cuddles. This is a plus for me, because I wasn't looking for erotica.

And yes, as some noted, the writing isn't perfect. There's a lot of instances of monologuing that goes on way to long in what seems like attempts to wax poetic. It seems like very bad guy loves calling their enemies worms and monkeys and has a pain vat obsession, to the point where they start to seem like bad guy carbon copies with interchangeable monologues. It doesn't, however, get so bad as to kill off enjoyment of the story. One thing that did increasingly frustrate me throughout the first five books is the extreme over use of the word "endless." There were endless moments, endless heartbeats, endless seconds, etc., etc., etc. And they repeated so often it would pull me out of the story and make me think "Couldn't they throw in a couple different adjectives once in a while?"

Great effort by WM and LA with the narration. It's obvious they put a ton of energy into the performance. Even with the crunchy bits, they try to put feeling and snark into what some might have read as bland character sheets/system messages. Maybe even a bit too much energy here and there, but really I think the narration performance really adds value to these books.

In summary, sure the writing isn't perfect but I am enjoying the tale and will continue. High energy/effort narration is definitely a plus for the experience.

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Hard Read Even if You Enjoy the Series

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-18-23

As others have noted, this book is a hard read/listen if you are invested in the series. I get the whole mind control thing, but damn it is hard to listen to the MC being such a d_ck. I found myself needing to take breaks of a day or two between listening sessions before I was ready to continue listening to what is essentially "adventures of arsehole." I think I need to pause for a while before continuing the series as well. Already have them in my library but just need a break from the series after this book. If you are like me and enjoy being emotionally invested in a story's MC, you may want to skip this one, reading a short summary and continuing the series in the next book.

LD is a really good narrator and performs with his usual quality. No complaints there.

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Still Saccharine Sweet and a Nice Story

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 03-06-22

As with book 1, the MC remains relentlessly and unrealistically saccharine sweet. Her tendency to want to run up to anyone and everything and immediately ask to be friends is more than a bit unrealistic. With that said, however, it is a fun story with well-flushed characters. We also get to see more of the world. There are some light romantic elements that are non-traditional and could be a problem for someone who has difficulty hearing about anything outside of human/human and m/f romantic interest. Let me be clear though, there's nothing sexual, just some romantic elements.

Narrator clearly put a lot of work into the performance. Good energy/emotion and it is easy to identify who is speaking.

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Voice Work Improved but Production Declined

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-27-22

With this series, we continue to see nice world building and character development. We also start to see more of the greater conflict emerge. Major characters feel unique and engaging, and I found myself caring about what happened. (Even if some of the unnecessary ploys to provoke an emotional response were pretty transparent/obvious). The main story stands well enough on its own.

Narration is what leaves me with the most mixed feelings. I felt the narrator's performance continued to improve. This was overshadowed, however, by a marked decline in production quality. There are spots where small clips seem to ne missing. Even more obvious, was the number of instances where a sentence or two are repeated. On one occasion, a statement was repeated at least 3 times in a row (and one may have had slightly different data). These production issues did have a notable negative impact on the experience.

I was given a promotional copy of this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this honest review.

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Good Characters and World Building

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-24-22

As with book 1, this installment excels with well developed major characters who feel real and you can get invested in. Sure, the aspects of romance are excessively juvenile, with adults acting like pre-teens experiencing their first crush, but that is honestly not an uncommon trope for the genre. Here we see a bit more fighting than the first book and an increasing number of forces at play in the world.

Narration has improved since book 1, most notably with more natural tone/pace when going over the crunchy bits. Definitely a good choice to move away from the simulated robot voice used for this in book 1.

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Good at what it intends.

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-10-22

I found this first installment of House of Dolls successful at being an entertaining and casual harem/superhero story. There is some decent plot work and world building. I also liked the bit of a new twist on the genre with the animated dolls. It may not be groundbreaking stuff, but it is done well and enjoyable. While the MC is quite lecherous throughout, the descriptions of sex acts is kept pretty brief and relatively infrequent. Personally I like that, as I find most attempts in the genre to describe that stuff in detail is more cringe-worthy than enjoyable. Overall, recommended of you are looking for a casual and entertaining harem/superhero tale.

Great narration, as always, by NH. If you are familiar with his excellent work, he keeps up the quality here.

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Alright Tale ... Good Value in Boxed Set

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-31-22

I will preface this review by saying this isn't my typical genre of interest. I am generally not drawn to zombie and/or military fiction. I thought it worth a shot as a boxed set though.

The good: We see some good character development with central characters, and have several developed enough to make you care about what happens to them. With a couple seemingly immortal examples, major characters are not guaranteed to survive either, helping to keep things engaging.

The less good: quite a few things are so implausible that they can pull you right out of the story. Some things that are supposed to be science just don't make logical sense, and it is major parts of the story, not just passing little things. Also, some premises to make folks into villains are a bit ridiculous. Yes, people can be petty, but some of the decisions and why go far beyond foolish. It's like: Military expert - "This seems like a trap, we have seen x, y, and z suggesting this huge trap issue. We should pause or at least gather more intel before rushing forward." Science expert - "Please, we have this science points a, b, and c to explain why this is a huge trap issue. We need to pause at least briefly enough to get info about the likely trap." Decision maker - "You are all stupid and cowards, I am going all in because I've got this all planed out based on my childhood fantasies of greatness." *sigh*

Narration starts out a bit stiff in book 1, but BP slips into it more in books 2 and 3. Really the first book felt mainly like traditional narration of someone just reading aloud. It also seemed to be reading too fast, so I slowed playback down to 0.90x and that helped. In books 2 and 3, we see increasingly more of a performance, where characters are distinguished a bit more.

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Some New Takes on the Genre

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-04-22

I tend to listen to or read a fair share of LitRPG, so there tends to be a fair amount of commonalities/tropes of the genre. I really enjoyed how this story puts a new spin on much of it. We get a taste of the dystopian world, the intrigues and betrayals, and see a bit of the game world. There's also quite a few references to the greater conflict at large, and what's to come later. I feel it is important to note, as the series title Character Development suggests, the story spends a good amount of time with the MC's inner monologues. Even through the action, it feels pretty cerebral as it focuses more on the MC's thoughts than the actual fighting. It felt to me that this was a conscious choice of the author and was able to enjoy it as such, though I can also acknowledge it might be a turn-off for some folks.

I found the narration to be good as well. I believe it's my first experience with this narrator and feel he pulls it off nicely. He has enough range to easily know who is speaking and there's a good amount energy/emotion. While listening, I had the thought his voice sounds a bit similar to Kurt Russell and that ended up sticking with me throughout. :)

One production note, within the last couple of hours of the book there's a strange intermittent beeping (more like a cell phone bloop actually). At first I thought it was my phone acting up and I tried closing apps, restarting, etc. Then I realized I could skip back and it happens at the same spots. So I tested further by playing the book with the PC Cloud Player and it was still there. Pretty conclusively part of the recording. It isn't a huge deal, but was distracting during periods where it happened frequently.

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Great Character-Building Start to LitRPG Series

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-03-22

I found this LitRPG book fun and engaging. Thus far it is mostly character development and early settlement building, but it does the character building in a nice way. We have some major characters that are easy to like and some characters that are hints of trouble to come. This book's plot progression is on the slower side, but that is okay with the focus being on characters, their start in the world, and a little bit about their outside world to understand more about why they are who they are. We see hints and teasers of greater conflicts to come but see very little actual conflict in this first book.

Narration by AP is amazing as always. I have never been disappointed with any if her performances and her performance definitely adds more to any book.

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Good Story, MC Still Not Very Likeable/Relatable

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-24-21

Plot and world building of this story are still good. Character development but all except main duo are almost non-existent. MC is still not very likeable or relatable, but he isn't quite as reprehensible as in book 2.

Narration by JH continues to be fantastic and definitely adds to enjoyability of the book.

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