Every time he dies, Ethan gains a little more power. Earth was chosen for Integration, but Ethan Hill knows from the second his Trial begins that the Integration is a lie. The beings giving Earth the 'honor' of access to their System Interface want something from Earth—he just doesn't know what.
Now he's trapped on an alien planet and lost in a time loop, fighting for strength and for his own humanity.
One thing's for He'll die as many times as it takes to tear it all down.
Don't miss the start of this action-packed Progression Fantasy seemlessly merging aspects from Apocalyptic LitRPG's like He Who Fights with Monsters and Time Loop stories like Mother of Learning.
It was ok, but it felt like there was a lot of things predetermined to go a specific way.
I did enjoy the crows, and those interactions, but the mechanics are very confusing. I don’t mean the concept of a looper, but it’s implementation in the book, especially as the MC starts to interact more and more with natives.
The magic system also left some to be desired, with the semi-explanations we get about foundation.
A really fun, gritty, and at times dark time loop story with an excellent LitRPG system that is accompanied by great action scenes, excellent character writing, and a fascinating world and plot. Read it!
This was one of the best books I've read this year. It's ending is a bit abrupt, but that's mainly because it was originally a Royal Road story. Do yourself a favor and read this book.
This was honestly one of the best stories I've ever read, I pray the quality continues like this. From a wonderful system to a wonderful story, the heart of it, our protagonist, is what makes this so wonderful. If I had any criticism it would be about how quickly he adapts but perhaps there will be some development with that
There's a lot missing from this novel. Mainly it's the protagonist, Ethan. He's a blank slate. We don't know what his job was, who his friends were... hobbies, family, education, or ambitions. The author should have started the story with his complete memory loss, then we'd have some hope that he was an actual person.
While this series is yet another GameLit Apocalypse series, the conceit here is that with each death, the world of the protagonist is reset to its initial state. This complicates the task of the MC significantly, that task being to finish the challenge presented. Unfortunately what "finish" might mean is left unclear.
The "game" system is an interesting one, not the typical faux-D&D class and level system, but a skill and stat system with interesting details.
The plot beats are balanced well and the story flows efficiently. The supporting characters are done well, and the occasional resets of the world have a significant effect on the relationships between supporting characters and protagonist.
Unfortunately, the protagonist is largely a nonentity, though very successful in the "game" (as is standard in a LitRPG.)
The overall effect of the combination is an interesting story that doesn't really hold my attention well. I might continue this if I can get the next book cheap, but I can't recommend the series.
Very alien environment. Very different skill progression. Not your typical RPG style. Firmament not really equal to Mana but similar with so much more that it gets confusing tracking it all. For some reason the plot seems slow to me. It took nearly the whole book to save one of the NPCs and finally get to the entrance of a “Dungeon.” A lot of time is spent talking about and choosing new skills and having to select Inspirations. The skills are not typical at all and difficult to understand how they are used. Chromatic… color draining skill… case in point is one of the “easier” to understand skills but not the effects. The lettering of F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS is used to give us an idea of the strength of the skill. Yet the divisions of capability are hard to understand since so few fights occur. And he dies and repeats the events until he is successful as the Title suggests. I will probably not read the next book in the series… and that is sad that it did not hold my interest.
The story is good. The worldbuilding is bordering on great. But the prose is dryily dry, I said dryly.
There needs to be more thought given to using precisely the right word, in this book that tugs far too tightly on the heartstrings, then dryily over uses certain words and phrases. If it were edited properly by both an official editor and a line editor, not just a lone line editor it could be improved into something that could give Dungeon Crawler Carl a run for its money.
As it is, I don’t feel bothered that I already bought the next two books in the series. Especially since I got them on sale. However, the stars stay at a mere 3 and not 8 out of 5 (DCC star level) until these things are addressed.
And don’t think that you should just let it go, this story has too much great potential that will be squandered and ruined if you do.
GET IT TOGETHER AND BE AS ABS****INGLUTELY PROFESSIONAL AS YOU CAN BE. It will make all the difference between becoming a well known writer and fading into mediocrity and obscurity.
This is a LitRPG book with time loops. Generally, they were well handled, and I wasn't too confused.
Ethan is transported to Hestia along with over 3,000 other humans to undergo trails. 10 humans have to succeed, or Earth will be destroyed. Ethan was relatable, but I wish more of his backstory had been revealed sooner. He was a bit flat at first.
I really enjoyed the side characters, especially Athelios, Ethan's companion. He brought a spot of brightness to the story. The crows were also intriguing, and likeable.
The action scenes were well done, but I have to admit, the surprise at the end left me underwhelmed. I'll still read the next book, the world building was interesting, and I liked the characters enough to want to know what happens next.
Good book. Good length, adventure, action, characters, world, and good mystery. Only thing that bugs me is limited mc backstory because when revealed in later books, I will have already solidified in my mind the character. Nobody can wait for book 2 to get the background even if it is too painful for the mc to get real. The author now has an uphill battle to change every reader’s opinion of the mc.
Don't really have much to say about this one, the pace was a little sow especially for the whole Groundhog's Day thing. It was fun the progression was fun, the side characters were mostly better than mediocre. Little too much time was spent on the Crow's son, and I think they introduced some big threats a little too early, leaving very little time for the main character to just deal with even the base level existential dread of being in a time loop.
It sounded like it would be one of those miserable, always a sting in the tail books where the protagonist gets more powerful but never wins anything other than pyrrhic victories. And so it proved. The writing is pretty good which actually makes it more annoying; I could have enjoyed this if it weren’t so gloomy!
Interesting take on the Genre. There's been time loop stories, some done well, some done not so well, but this one is kind of odd in that it depends on the dying to advance the character (well, not really, but you'll understand if you read it). It's very odd, but also very interesting. I'll be looking for more in this series.
Slightly above average litRPG. I like that the respawn time loop gradually evolves toward more of a time control power. I like the interactions with the local bird people. I like that the local bird people have quite a lot of their own crap to deal with that doesn't specifically all revolve around the protagonist.
I chose this like it was a fix. Turned out to be fun to read, and managed to surprise me a couple times. A+ writing here. Even better, proofread and spellchecked.
I've been reading this on Reddit (then over on RoyalRoad) for over a year, and I have and would continue to recommend it to fans of the LitRPG genre. Love the focus on retaining humanity and your values despite a system that seems designed to grind that out of you. 5/5 would recommend.
Just not my speed. I know the premise is the repeating, but I did not enjoy the odd progression method and it did not make very much sense to me. The random rolling is a bit less fun than a character earning things.
It was a little confusing at first but it grew on me. If you like talking about skills but not having to worry about numbers and stats it's fun. It's not crunchy numbers but lots of skills.