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Aced #1
Aced: The First Set
Some things in life you can’t control. For Example, starting your freshman year at a new school thanks to your dad’s job.
Some things in life you can control. Namely, not deciding to try a brand-new sport purely to impress a girl on the first day of school.
For Daniel Meadows, these two events on his first day of school would have results no one, other than maybe Syn… could have expected.
On the tail end of another poor life choice… not looking both ways when crossing the street, Dan finds himself in the hospital. Why? A failed attempt by Truck-Kun, and the powers that be, to transport him to another world.
Stuck on boring Earth, but now with magical powers to harness and learn, Dan finds himself in a unique situation. Will he use these for greatness? Will he abuse them? Or will he simply use them to become the greatest Tennis player ever, all to chase the girl of his dreams?
Who knows? After all, it's freshman year, and he’s got a long way to go.
Some things in life you can control. Namely, not deciding to try a brand-new sport purely to impress a girl on the first day of school.
For Daniel Meadows, these two events on his first day of school would have results no one, other than maybe Syn… could have expected.
On the tail end of another poor life choice… not looking both ways when crossing the street, Dan finds himself in the hospital. Why? A failed attempt by Truck-Kun, and the powers that be, to transport him to another world.
Stuck on boring Earth, but now with magical powers to harness and learn, Dan finds himself in a unique situation. Will he use these for greatness? Will he abuse them? Or will he simply use them to become the greatest Tennis player ever, all to chase the girl of his dreams?
Who knows? After all, it's freshman year, and he’s got a long way to go.
- GenresFantasyYoung Adult
388 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 14, 2024
25 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Smidt
17 books99 followersJonathan’s journey through life has been anything but slow. Being part of a military family, he moved across the world growing up, and having not learned his lesson, joined the Marine Corps right out of high school. This sent him on a whirlwind adventure, which even found him in the sands of Afghanistan. During all his travels, he found one thing always remained constant…he loved to read. Now, married and with life finally calming down a bit, he has begun to push his passion for literature even higher, aiming to give readers the kinds of books he has come to love with his own unique twist.
He has grown up in thousands of worlds, courtesy of not only literature and anime, but also his avid gaming life! Jonathan has spent countless hours on video games ranging from Final Fantasy to Pokémon to Guild Wars and WoW, while also enjoying tabletops such as D&D and Exalted.
Living in a game world isn’t enough for Jonathan though, and he has pushed to turn his own life into a classic RPG. On top of leveling up his writing and music abilities (he swears he is not a bard though!), he is currently learning the ancient art of blacksmithing, which places him at his forge working hot metal into blades on the weekends!
He has grown up in thousands of worlds, courtesy of not only literature and anime, but also his avid gaming life! Jonathan has spent countless hours on video games ranging from Final Fantasy to Pokémon to Guild Wars and WoW, while also enjoying tabletops such as D&D and Exalted.
Living in a game world isn’t enough for Jonathan though, and he has pushed to turn his own life into a classic RPG. On top of leveling up his writing and music abilities (he swears he is not a bard though!), he is currently learning the ancient art of blacksmithing, which places him at his forge working hot metal into blades on the weekends!
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 10, 2024
This novel shows a lot of potential for this author. It's bogged down by too much introspection and stilted dialog but the premise is solid and there's an authentic emotional heart to it.
If you're like me, being familiar with the LitRPG genre and tennis, then you'll be skipping a LOT of this book. A good editor could have tightened the whole thing up by 50%. And what's with the weird overuse of commas?
Regardless, I'm keen to read book two.
If you're like me, being familiar with the LitRPG genre and tennis, then you'll be skipping a LOT of this book. A good editor could have tightened the whole thing up by 50%. And what's with the weird overuse of commas?
Regardless, I'm keen to read book two.
May 26, 2024
Rating 3.0 stars
It started off pretty good. 14 year old starting at a new private school. His father is in the military and this is the first time he will likely be able to stay for awhile so he can now go to private school. He gets assigned a senior mentor to show him around. He sees a junior and the senior can see he has a crush on her. He is told that she only dates people on the tennis team. He is the captain of the team and can show him the ropes. The kid is good at soccer but never played tennis. He agrees though and while chasing the captain across the street the the courts, he is hit by a truck. Here's the problem. He was supposed to be Isekai, given powers and brought to a new world. He was given the powers but the truck didn't actually kill him. That was the first time this happened. The beings that are in charge say there is nothing they can do. He will stay on earth with his powers and they think it will be just as interesting. The powers are the same as in any litrpg book/game.
It started off pretty good. 14 year old starting at a new private school. His father is in the military and this is the first time he will likely be able to stay for awhile so he can now go to private school. He gets assigned a senior mentor to show him around. He sees a junior and the senior can see he has a crush on her. He is told that she only dates people on the tennis team. He is the captain of the team and can show him the ropes. The kid is good at soccer but never played tennis. He agrees though and while chasing the captain across the street the the courts, he is hit by a truck. Here's the problem. He was supposed to be Isekai, given powers and brought to a new world. He was given the powers but the truck didn't actually kill him. That was the first time this happened. The beings that are in charge say there is nothing they can do. He will stay on earth with his powers and they think it will be just as interesting. The powers are the same as in any litrpg book/game.
September 11, 2025
Got this on audiobook format cause I love the narrators and I love the concept of sports litrpg
Starts off great sorta. There is a lot of promise showed at the beginning for where the story could go. Of course it seemed like those were just my own expectations.
First issue was the main characters emotional state and how they moved past problems. At first it seems like a lot of problems with that can be explained away as them being 14 but it’s still really irritating to listen to.
When every other minor bump in the road is written like it’s a tragedy on top of there not being any real stakes brings a huge disconnect for me.
Maybe the author wrote a 14 year old too well.
Especially when it happens multiple times. A bit of a problem I have with it isn’t even the fact that he’s so emotional but that it always takes another character to bring them out of it.
One of these characters being either Sin(Syn?) or Peter. Them also being the only two characters he interacts with for the story to feel like it’s progressing is also a downside for me.
These two characters in my opinion take away a lot of the good bits of a progression fantasy story or just a story in general can provide.
This is not to say they are not cool characters but they are a downside on the story on a whole. In my opinion.
Sin is the standard companion quip and tutorial character that accompanies a lot of main characters in this genre. They are not even all that prevalent but they do come up every time anything pertaining to the system comes about.
For me personally, this takes away from the agency the kid could have in exploring the system. They say they played games but still a lot of obvious things seems to be needed to be pointed out to him.
Peter feels like he’s been stuck to the main character from chapter 1. Dragging him from here to there in the name of tennis.
While somehow, to me at least, this doesn’t seem forced. I realise further into the story it’s cutting a lot of potential out again.
How I feel is that, on top of having the system Dan now also has the top dog. The 17yr old that went to the us open and threw just cause being his personal tutor in tennis. This seems rushed to me. Or at least if not forced then lazy.
I say this because Peter is extremely prevalent in the story. Even when he is not in the setting someone will mention him. The whole story sort of gravitates around him. From the main characters goals to how people perceive the main character and to finally everything related to tennis.
I understand that he is 14 but if you give anyone in the world a magical system (that is frankly overpowered in my opinion) then that should be able to make some decent progress on their own.
By that I mean going through the normal process of joining a sports team. Doing a trial. Training with the coaches. Getting to know the team and the kind of characters they all are. Eventually progress is made and some people are left behind maybe others are brought in along.
Instead all of this in my opinion is rolled into one character called Peter.
Finally and really the least of the problems that I care of, the editing isn’t that good. quite a few repeated words in the same sentence and paragraphs.
TLDR: IMO lacks quality and depth. Hoped for more. Was left lacking
Starts off great sorta. There is a lot of promise showed at the beginning for where the story could go. Of course it seemed like those were just my own expectations.
First issue was the main characters emotional state and how they moved past problems. At first it seems like a lot of problems with that can be explained away as them being 14 but it’s still really irritating to listen to.
When every other minor bump in the road is written like it’s a tragedy on top of there not being any real stakes brings a huge disconnect for me.
Maybe the author wrote a 14 year old too well.
Especially when it happens multiple times. A bit of a problem I have with it isn’t even the fact that he’s so emotional but that it always takes another character to bring them out of it.
One of these characters being either Sin(Syn?) or Peter. Them also being the only two characters he interacts with for the story to feel like it’s progressing is also a downside for me.
These two characters in my opinion take away a lot of the good bits of a progression fantasy story or just a story in general can provide.
This is not to say they are not cool characters but they are a downside on the story on a whole. In my opinion.
Sin is the standard companion quip and tutorial character that accompanies a lot of main characters in this genre. They are not even all that prevalent but they do come up every time anything pertaining to the system comes about.
For me personally, this takes away from the agency the kid could have in exploring the system. They say they played games but still a lot of obvious things seems to be needed to be pointed out to him.
Peter feels like he’s been stuck to the main character from chapter 1. Dragging him from here to there in the name of tennis.
While somehow, to me at least, this doesn’t seem forced. I realise further into the story it’s cutting a lot of potential out again.
How I feel is that, on top of having the system Dan now also has the top dog. The 17yr old that went to the us open and threw just cause being his personal tutor in tennis. This seems rushed to me. Or at least if not forced then lazy.
I say this because Peter is extremely prevalent in the story. Even when he is not in the setting someone will mention him. The whole story sort of gravitates around him. From the main characters goals to how people perceive the main character and to finally everything related to tennis.
I understand that he is 14 but if you give anyone in the world a magical system (that is frankly overpowered in my opinion) then that should be able to make some decent progress on their own.
By that I mean going through the normal process of joining a sports team. Doing a trial. Training with the coaches. Getting to know the team and the kind of characters they all are. Eventually progress is made and some people are left behind maybe others are brought in along.
Instead all of this in my opinion is rolled into one character called Peter.
Finally and really the least of the problems that I care of, the editing isn’t that good. quite a few repeated words in the same sentence and paragraphs.
TLDR: IMO lacks quality and depth. Hoped for more. Was left lacking
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 3, 2025
What a FannnFriggenTastic read!!! The book was so good that this review almost wrote itself and was finished moments after I finished the book. Yeah after finishing Smidt's series Dragon Core Online I couldn't help myself I had to read more books by him! And yes Aced tickled my fancy, it called to me. This book starts out like a normal Isekai adventure, with our MC, Dan getting hit by a truck. But the story takes a weird turn and surprisingly Dan survived although the system still initializes just as if he'd actually died and had been transported to another world. So here's Dan brused, but really no worse for wear, with a system, Syn the snarky AI/friend(?) that's obviously gonna help him get through freshman year at the academy. And he's the only one playing the game, seriously he's the only one with magic. As it turns out it was less about surviving high-school and more about leveling his stats in tennis. And wow, playing any sport while using magic is AwesomeSauce!
May 18, 2024
We've all read dozens of LitRPG books where the MC dies on Earth and reanimates on a new world with RPG rules. It's a classic scenario. Well, Johathan Smidt twists that a bit in this innovative and entertaining gamelit novel by having his MC not die. Sure, Dan's hit by a truck and should have died--but he doesn't, so the powers that be (AKA Syn), give Dan gamelit abilities on Earth.
Dan is a 14-year old freshman at a new school and he uses his newly given powers to make friends, enemies, and power his way through sports, namely tennis and soccer, to get to a fair lady's heart. Smidt does a great job capturing the excitement of sports training as well as the angst of teenage life while spotlighting the friendship of two guys helping each other excel at tennis. It's a very intense exploration of keeping gamelit local.
Dan is a 14-year old freshman at a new school and he uses his newly given powers to make friends, enemies, and power his way through sports, namely tennis and soccer, to get to a fair lady's heart. Smidt does a great job capturing the excitement of sports training as well as the angst of teenage life while spotlighting the friendship of two guys helping each other excel at tennis. It's a very intense exploration of keeping gamelit local.
July 12, 2024
Intense, in a good way
An excellent read with engaging characters working towards clear goals.
The MC Dan has a single parent father with a demanding military career, which causes them to move often. The story starts as they arrive in a new town with a new school. He nearly instantly forms a good friendship with the local star athlete who hooks him into a new sport. The near-iskai run in with truck-kun gives Dan new abilities, but the internal drive and the friendships he inspires are what makes this story interesting.
Hopefully, we will see a second installment soon.
An excellent read with engaging characters working towards clear goals.
The MC Dan has a single parent father with a demanding military career, which causes them to move often. The story starts as they arrive in a new town with a new school. He nearly instantly forms a good friendship with the local star athlete who hooks him into a new sport. The near-iskai run in with truck-kun gives Dan new abilities, but the internal drive and the friendships he inspires are what makes this story interesting.
Hopefully, we will see a second installment soon.
March 20, 2025
Great, but messy
This was a really fun story. So much more than I was expecting from a sports litrpg. The characters are great and I really felt the excitement of some of the scenes. The only issue, and a fairly big one at that, is that it needs editing. There are a few continuity errors with the timeline and the MC having the same realization twice. And there are way too many commas.
This was a really fun story. So much more than I was expecting from a sports litrpg. The characters are great and I really felt the excitement of some of the scenes. The only issue, and a fairly big one at that, is that it needs editing. There are a few continuity errors with the timeline and the MC having the same realization twice. And there are way too many commas.
May 20, 2024
Been looking for something like this.
Ever since I watched an anime called Baby Steps, I have been on the look out for a similar story and here I found it. I enjoyed listening to the audio alongside reading too.
Ever since I watched an anime called Baby Steps, I have been on the look out for a similar story and here I found it. I enjoyed listening to the audio alongside reading too.
December 12, 2024
This Was Fantastic
I’m a big fan of most sports, and an even bigger fan of LitRPG. This scratched both itches very well. Great character development and dynamics and a very good story. Can’t wait for more if there’s going to be more!
Great job!
I’m a big fan of most sports, and an even bigger fan of LitRPG. This scratched both itches very well. Great character development and dynamics and a very good story. Can’t wait for more if there’s going to be more!
Great job!
December 25, 2025
a fun starting point, will love to see how they continue the story in the next part. as a former teenaged boy, I find the fact that the whole premise for Dan playing tennis is to get with a pretty girl, that's definitely something I could have seen myself doing
May 21, 2024
Absolutely fantastic book.
Lovable characters all around. Truly loved the book ! I hope we get thr next one soon.
Mc os adorable and Peter is awesome.
Lovable characters all around. Truly loved the book ! I hope we get thr next one soon.
Mc os adorable and Peter is awesome.
December 8, 2025
Take my favourite guilty pleasure genre and mash it up with my favourite sport and you get ACED. Thoroughly enjoyable. Can't wait for the second set.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews