Fractured Golem

Great Overall

Revisado: 04-25-25

This is a pretty unique kind of take on things, and I found it quite enjoyable to listen to. The only thing that I have to give a thumbs down to is stats. We all know that an LitRPG is gonna have a bunch of stats, but at the end of the book when they take a whole 39 minutes to get through that is way too much. The only good thing was that it was the end of the chapter and hitting the button to go to the next chapter skipped it. If only they actually mentioned that.

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Hollywood Physics

Revisado: 05-19-24

The problem with a book like this is it highlights issues with the author like a beacon. There were several times in the story where I thought to myself that given the setup of how everything was described, the physics of the situation were somewhat off. And when the MC has said many many times that he is basically the smartest human ever and has a perfect memory, when I remember something that the MC doesn't a plot hole becomes obvious.

You don't need to let reality get in the way of telling a story though. Nobody's perfect, and everything I mentioned are all just minor issues. Nothing really pulled me out of the story as I was reading, and I think that most LitRPG fans can enjoy this different sort of take on things. There weren't any walls of stats to deal with, and it generally had a decent pace all the way through.

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Continual Annoyances

Revisado: 05-19-24

I nearly refunded this book immediately due to the 'God did this and it was good' religious BS. I'm also not a fan of references to modern day items when it's 50+ years in the future. These annoyances regularly kept popping up throughout the book and every time it annoyed me and kicked me out of my immersion. Normally I don't mind status type messages, but it made the constant 'Action failed, but succeeded for reasons' type messages stand out in a bad way. I was never just listening.

If it weren't for these issues I would have actually enjoyed the book well enough. Not enough to continue the series, but I would have just thought it wasn't for me instead of writing this review.

So if these kinds of things don't bother you I say give it a chance. If you'd be as annoyed as I was, don't pick this one up.

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Problematic

Revisado: 06-03-23

This book has several issues that could turn a person off from this.

The first is the performance. While Rebecca Woods was great, I found Daniel Wisniewski's style pulled me out of the story. When narrating the parts within the ship, everything is perfect. While in the western part of the story he reads things with too much of a performance. Everything feels like he's offering up words of wisdom while staring off into the middle distance, and he might suddenly say 'I'm Batman' at any moment. While it pulled me out of the story, it wasn't intolerable by any means.

The second is the author's fixation on a 'the women need to breed' mentality. I get it, lots of births are necessary to kick start things, but with a few minute think I can come up with a better idea than rape the women and force them to have six kids each. Considering the AI had over 400 years to think up an alternative, clearly this is a theme that he wants to be there. I've read books with worse themes, but I knew it going in. This kinda hits you in the face given it's a litrpg and there aren't any warnings in the publisher summary.

With the above two issues combined, I wasn't engrossed in the story and picked up on several little things that didn't make sense. Like, terminal velocity is about 120mph, and is reached within 12 seconds. Sudden stops wouldn't leave anyone completely uninjured. The LitRPG aspect was barely there too. I want stat changes and power progression, not 'his score went up again' as the only change.

I didn't absolutely hate this book, but I'm not going to be continuing the series.

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Serious Problems

Revisado: 01-12-23

In a world of demons, gods, and magic the hardest thing to believe in this book is the love interest falling for the main character. The minor issue is that there's no significant dialogue shown between the two. I might believe they developed a friendship, but romance seems dubious. Especially when adding in the major issue.

This girl is sexually harassed endlessly by her teacher. The first time it happens it's remarked upon, and the person gives a 'You don't think I'd really do anything, do you?' answer... and then proceeds to comment on the girl's body every time they're in the same room, and it's never commented on again. You could say the teachers are odd mentally, and the main character is from an all male monastery, so excuses could be made. They'd be wrong, but they could be made. For the girl though, she'd be enduring this day after day and no one is telling the teacher to stop. The main character might not have been able to stop it, but who could fall in love with someone who stayed silent during their suffering? No single heroic deed would cancel all that out.

The author also does foreshadowing horribly. It's as blatant as 'The main character never would have guessed that he'd be doing [action] in the near future'. Instead of foreshadowing I'd call it signposting.

So... why the three stars? Cause it only made me feel upset, and not angry. It wasn't horribly written (other than the issues) and I made it all the way through. The voice work was... adequate. I was annoyed, and I'm not sure I'd be giving the guy a fair shake if I let my feelings for the author bleed into his work.

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The math of this book doesn't add up.

Revisado: 05-01-22

Not the worst story out there, but it certainly has plot problems. Even as a fantasy story, there are things that are just unbelievable. Like, what's the minimum level you'd expect a century old elf to be? Certainly not level 7. Or how could an undergeared MC solo a dungeon boss? He shouldn't, especially with the strategy described.

Those are just glaring examples, but there are a few other times where things just didn't sound right.

I don't return books unless there's something I absolutely hate about them... so I won't be returning this one. I won't be continuing the series however.

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Dice are not a good plot point.

Revisado: 04-16-22

The dice in this story is the biggest issue that I have with it. Dice in tabletop games are there to introduce both fairness and chance into the game. Both good and bad rolls can make for fun role play challenges and make a fun game night. Shoehorning dice into a 'real world' setting however would clearly take away player agency and set arbitrary rules up for people to do things.

Every time that any character does something in this story that involves a dice roll, I never feel like they did something by their own skill, they only got that result due to chance. This completely guts feelings of tension in the book. It doesn't matter how clever or daring one of the players is, I know that their plans mean nothing till the dice are rolled.

This combines with several decisions made by the characters that just don't make sense. Like, in the first handful of chapters they're worried about their family members in their still burning and likely demon infested town a few miles away, but instead of immediately going to help they decide it's a good idea to gut that intelligent demonic creature they just killed and eat it's still beating heart. And despite a 75%, 75%, and 65% respective chance of the trio turning into demons, they all get lucky dice instead of some sort of mental struggle to stay human.

Without the dice, I still would have had an issue with this book. With the dice however, my emotional investment in this book has been knocked down to practically nothing. Which is unfortunate, cause I feel that the author does have the potential to write a good book.

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Solid Book

Revisado: 02-01-22

I really liked this book overall, but there were some downsides.

First, the main narrator. Personally, I think that he's a great narrator, but I don't feel like he was right for this job. He reads the book as if he's very enthusiastic, but is that really the right tone for someone about to lose their house?

Second, the author tends to break the cardinal rule of 'show, don't tell'. I know the main character has a family, and he interacts with them several times during the story, but more often than not, I'm told about that interaction rather then really shown that interaction, so I feel absolutely no connection to them at all.

With that out of the way, I think that the story is actually a solid one. The author comments on this at the end, but it's meant to be the single book unless he gets inspired, so there are no epic world ending things that the character has to deal with. It's just a fun adventure through several levels and experimenting with the game and trying to figure out the best way to make money from it. Well worth the credit.

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Must Love Dark Humor

Revisado: 08-11-21

This book series is not for everyone. If you can't laugh at dark humor, and the freaky side of sex is something that you run away from, then don't even crack the cover of this book. It's not for you, and that's ok.

Now, if you're fully into letting your freak flag fly, then you should get this book immediately. When I first looked at the cover of this book I was a little hesitant. I was thinking that it was one of /those/ books. You know the type. A smutty book that seems engineered to give you 3-4 sex scenes smattered throughout the book, whether they make sense to the story or not. I'm glad to say I was happily surprised. The sexual content is only liberally smattered through the story, and it adds to the story rather than being shoehorned in. It is kinky though.

I have to say that when I realized just how things were being put together, and how the main character of the book fit into everything, I was really surprised. I've read hundreds of books and this is truly a unique take on things, which is so very rare to say. I thought things were going in one direction so many times, only for things to take a dark and funny twist.

This book explores the lives of several characters. Some don't take danger as seriously as they should. Some are overconfident in their abilities. What happens when there are monsters that have that extra spark that makes them a little more dangerous than the norm? What follows is lots of death. Some for the humans, and some for the monsters... but where and when is the fun part. There are plenty of surprises that made me not only buy this book, but continue through every book in the series in a marathon.

This series lets you know if you're gonna love it right from the start. If you're not loving it in the first handful of chapters, it won't get better. But if you are enjoying it, hang on. It's gonna be a fun wild ride.

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Is Someone Moving Furniture?

Revisado: 01-19-21

One of the huge issues this book has is the production. Jack Voraces does a great job at narrating, but I've got pretty good headphones, and I could hear several sounds that should have been edited out. There were several times when I heard a low rumbling that sounded like furniture being moved, or a parked car nearby. There was also a high range squeaking that was constant throughout the book. Not a deal breaker at all, but it was noticeable and should have been removed.

In some ways, I feel a bit torn about this book. Overall I felt it was great most of the way through and was exactly what I wanted from it, but the last chapter the author decided to take the series in an entirely new direction. While that's not a bad thing in itself, it came so abruptly in a 10 year time skip that it didn't really feel satisfying.

For me, I'm putting this author on pause. No matter how much I enjoyed 99% of this book, I need to be sure of what I'm getting before I commit to more of this series.

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