The Great Ones arrived on Earth and conquered us with little bloodshed.
They didn’t come for oil or minerals, but us. They collected our strongest warriors and shipped them off to a world called Hadran—a one-of-a-kind artificial planet, a cosmic gladiatorial arena where the slave races engage in blood sports for the Great Ones' entertainment. But Earth has lost the last of its real champions and now risks losing its candidate status. If that happens, it will become less than a slave colony, a target to be cleansed.
Clint Rogan is a man fighting to survive in this new world. After a series of unfortunate events, he's ripped from his home, shipped off-world, and forcibly merged with a faulty symbiote. Power, speed, endurance, and the drive to kill are all at his fingertips. That is, if Sarien, his symbiote, doesn’t kill him first.
Dropped into Terraria One, Clint and the other human contestants discover the human starting zone resembles the middle ages. With humanity’s fate in the balance, Clint and the newcomers first need to rebuild the base, conquer the surrounding territory, and fight off alien enemies.
Can they survive long enough to give Earth a fighting chance? Or will the Battle World consume them just like the others before them?
This is my first book by the author. It captured my attention after I read the sample, so I picked up the full book.
The book starts out well. This is the usual arena deathmatch portal fantasy novel after a semi apocalypse story, after Earth is inducted into the rest of the continuum. Which is a decent way to get into one of the problems. In general, things are just too complicated for what the book is trying to do.
Clint (the MC) has a fairly insane father. Frank, and the other two females on the squad have their own pasts. Which is fine, but the backgrounds, especially Clint's, sometimes threaten to overwhelm the story until things get back on track.
I'll also mention that there is a forced jokiness to the story, and it all happens with the overlay of life and death battles. Because that's what's happening here, whether the team is out on Hadran trying to get stronger or if they're battling other aliens.
As the MC, Clint is okay. He’s not what I would call a strong leader, but he and the team get the job done. The alien sponsoring them puts them in a PVP event and Clint keeps them together during a difficult fight. The training montages on the planet were the most enjoyable aspect for me.
Now let’s talk about Frank, a minor ex military character who likes to wink at young women and doesn’t listen to anyone for advice. While the PVP event is going on, he’s sending out teams of low rank humans to clear zones on Hadran, except they run into a problem. Instead of scouting out and investigating the problem, he sends more people into trouble.
I really had a problem with the book when no one calls his leadership into question as they should. Instead Clint and his team are sent to clean the mess up. Maybe it's because I read my fair share of military sci-fi, but for a leader who is trying to turn their place in the games around, he sits in the local bar sending human team after human team until he realizes there is a problem.
For me, that was it. I scanned the rest of the book but didn’t read it, and I doubt I’ll read book two. As good as it was at the beginning, I couldn’t overlook that.
There isn't anything new or really good here. The writing is amateurish but promising, and the editing is pretty bad. The stat bumps are meaningless. Its really 2 1\2 stars if I am being honest. Something Amazon should probably fix.
A lot going on in this series, author needs to tighten it up a little bit.
I have some questions concerning this book, first of all if humans die doing the gladiatorial games why are the humans with overpowered symbionts still alive? Second question how does Natalie not go through her proficiency test which she skipped? Three why does the author write in third person and then switch to first person. I’ve heard of getting over adversity but having an alien robot dislike the team it is responsible for that’s just a little too much. my second gripe with this book is that Natalie is definitely under powered, I’ve read other books that have healers Who have obtained additional classes and can hold their own in a fight.Yes it’s good for her to have all the knowledge but she’s so annoying. third gripe is Clint not very likable, needs to grow in his personality quite a bit. Yes I understand he’s fighting against his Symbian but you might route for him if he had a nicer personality. And what’s with the teenage angst he’s showing he’s 32 years old for goodness sake do or do not there is no try with this girl that he’s attracted to. Maybe his character will be flushed out better in the second book.
Right off the bat we are thrown into a post apocalypse dystopian world. The idea of the aliens being treated as gods are neat. Then we get into VENOM… like literally. But guess more metal, and with RPG system. How? 🤷♂️ Anyway, though I wasn’t into the farming aspect (I know it’s what RPGs do but I don’t play RPG games.) But I found the characters at least entertaining. The battles were epic and brutal. Though I thought the book was gong to be a battle royal but I’m honestly happy it’s not because that means there is more character growth. So I can confidently say, I enjoyed this LitRPG.
I’ve been wanting a book like this for a long time, and it was really nice to find it! The symbiote/human interaction was fun, differentiated from the source material enough that it didn’t feel like a blatant rip off. The action was good, and I enjoyed the mechanics side as well! Definitely a book I can recommend for anyone needing their Venom fix. Can’t wait for book 2, cause I’ve got a lot of questions I need answered! Haha!
This book has so much potential. The characters can be brought to life and matured into strong characters. Currently the lead character is very immature and underdeveloped. It was a struggle to get through some parts and hard to put down other's. I am looking forward to seeing what the author does in the future.
I am conflicted about this book, I found at times I couldn’t put it down and others Times I couldn’t wait to finish it. Over all I will be reading the next book in the series and I would recommend it
Not a terrible story in here, somewhere, it’s just very hard to get to. Doesn’t quite do anything well, and some of the odd phrases and grammar choices seem to be the result of a bad translation or a chat bot.
The first of his I read was Mimic and me. It was a lot more fun I'd give it a 5. This was ok but I just couldn't identify with the main characters motivations. I'd explain but that could definitely be spoiler material.
While 'Battle World' held great potential, I felt the author fell short of fully realizing it, leaving several plot holes. A thorough edit from the beginning could have elevated the story. Despite these shortcomings, I found it to be an enjoyable read, and I appreciate the overall narrative.
I picked it up looking for something new and was intrigued by the carnage vibes coming from the symbiote. Can't wait for book 2. Venom meets gladiatorial arena
I know that I have read this before, I just don't know when or where. I'm not really interested in trying to re-read this or figure out why I know I've read this before. I'm thinking this is probably a reprinted book.
5/10 I don't normally re-read books. If I do it's a great book, this one isn't more than okay.
This felt very venom au i indulged myself with a binge read of this book and I can’t wait to read the sequel. Very grim dark with out the sa that colours that genre the mc is likeable enough and the side characters are also the world building is a mashup of a bunch of genres that actually in this story work amazing together and it’s intriguing in the best way. Can I just say I really enjoy the character Rama and of course samair the bad guys are just more fun.
The story idea is original compared to many books in the genre being put out. It’s engaging, the characters are dynamic, and the over arching plot makes me excited for book two.
Unfortunately, this is another example of a book desperately needing an editor. Sentences are often missing words. Scenes pick up in the middle and caused me to reread the previous few pages to make sure I didn’t miss anything. In once case the mc responds to a question, but the question was never actually asked.
I am looking forward to book two. And hoping they did a better job editing and catching these kind of issues.
Just a fantastic book from start to finish, our MC and FMC work so well together, and their relationship is fantastic. The litRPG elements have cool twists and grear humor. All in all, it's a fantastic new series.
I really loved the one woman aspect of this book. Up until the last page I was thinking that one girl a book would be added. The epilogue was good as well. Just those last couple of pages that tanked the book