All The Skills 5

All the Skills #5

by Honour Rae

With his heart deck expanded to wield more cards than ever before, Arthur—alongside his dragon Brixaby and their growing retinue—is ready to continue the search for the cards that will complete their sets.

Their quest for Brixaby’s next Legendary card takes them back to their home kingdom, deep into Blood Moon hive: A place riddled with whispers of assassins, death, and a shadowy leader whose power only grows while his people wither.

To root out the card's whereabouts, Arthur and Brixaby must infiltrate the hive under magical disguise, posing as the captain of a wing of Purple dragons and their riders. There, they find a broken leadership system. One that Arthur, with his unique skills, is uniquely suited to fix. It turns out Purple dragons have far more potential than anyone realized.

Arthur thought he had left his days as a hive leader behind. But when faced with a punitive hierarchy he can overhaul and people in crisis, walking away isn’t so simple. However, the hive's leadership will not simply step aside.

They have Legendary cards of their own.

Genres: Fantasy, Audiobook, Dragons, Magic, Adventure, Epic, Action

424 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 25, 2025

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was too short. It felt more like a side story rather than an actual entry to the series.

It spent a lot of time building up the situation at the new hive only for the conflict to be over before it really began. I wasn’t watching the time left in the audiobook, and I was surprised when I realized there was only a half hour left—it felt like I should have been at about the halfway point.

As one of the other reviewers stated, it feels like the first couple books were just setup to be able to tell a string of unrelated dragon adventure stories.

Arthur again and again gets in the situation where he is on a low rung of the power ladder, climbs to the top, then is back on bottom again at the start of the next book. He’s just spinning his wheels instead of making substantial progressions. Sure he gains power, but it is basically meaningless if he never actually works to his full potential and makes some progress on the overall story.

There was (finally) some setup at the end of this one that hinted there will be meaningful story progression in the next book, but I can also see how it could easily go the typical way and have Arthur starting over… again… at a new location.

It was still an enjoyable read—just frustrating.

[Roberto Flores · Rating 3 out of 5]

This starts the next story arc and does so in a very predictable fashion. This follows in the standard trope and did not deviate in any way. This makes for a very boring read.

[Sabs ✨️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 🌟

[Ali Haji · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was unfortunately a borning slog to get through that did not manage to catch my attention until the last few chapters.

How do you go from the addictive book 4 to this stale arc. There was barely any skill leveling in this one which is like the main point of this series?

Anyways I hope book 6 will be a return to form.

[Tiernan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fine book. I defintely feel it being shorter, it just doesn't feel like it covers as much as the other books in the series. even what it does cover, it doesn't feel particularly in depth, as the others.
The powers of the cards continue to surprise and intrigue me, but there was just less in this one.
It's a fine read, still am looking forward to continuing this series. Little bit sad that I have to wait for the next one.

[Helene Gedeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the shortest book in the series (so far) and it felt like the longest because it was so boring. It also felt like a side quest and could have just been shorter. There was a long build up for a very quick ending. And if I don’t get a kiss from Arthur and Cressida soon I’m going to lose it. But in general, this series is so fun!

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 stars. The author spent much time setting up the retinue's entrance into the new hive, so the first 50% of this book was a slower read. Once this was completed, the remainder proceeded quickly to a satisfying stopping point until the next book.

[Kathleen Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5🌟

[Adrien Lenoir · Rating 2 out of 5]

First I want to say that I really enjoy the series, I wouldn't have gotten to book 5 if I didn't like it. The world building and magic system are well-thought out, writing and grammar are exceptional, and the characters, especially the mc Arthur are enjoyable to read.

Now the bad part: **SPOILERS**

One thing that I really didn't like was the fact that Arthur still hasn't gotten any more combat cards OR taken advantage of his legendary cards. In the last book, Marion even pointed out the fact that Arthur hasn't used his Master of Skills card to its full potential, so going into this one, I had hope that we could finally do just that, only for the conversation to lead to nowhere. Furthermore, Arthur is supposed to be a leader now. While leaders don't always need to be super strong, in a world where literally the whole purpose of dragons is to fight the scourge, so being strong is most certainly a requirement. This is a huge criticism that many people have with the book and I'm disappointed that the author still hasn't done anything to improve upon it.

The book was way too short, and I feel like the plot definitely suffered because of that. A good chunk of the book was spent setting up the premise: returning to the Kingdom and infiltrating Blood Moon Hive, which left not a lot of time to develop the plot once Arthur and the gang actually got there. The main conflict of the book, in that Chester is stealing the life force of his people doesn't get more time to develop either. The only time I felt any tension from that was the one scene where we saw him steal the life force from one of the rare wing leaders. I also felt like the ending was too abrupt. One moment, Arthur is a leader of a small wing in the hive, then another he suddenly kills Chester, and becomes the leader of Blood Moon. I literally had to do a double take while reading and had to flip back to make sure I didn't accidentally skip a chapter or two.

Another thing that came from the short length is that the side characters like Horatio, Marion and Soledad were practically non-existant.

One final complaint is more of just personal preference: I really didn't care about the romance subplot. I know a lot of people like that sort of thing but I just really didn't enjoy reading about Cressida and their romance, and actually found myself skipping those pages.

Anyways, overall the book was ok, I came in a huge fan of the last 4 books only to finish reading this one completely disappointed. I'm probably gonna stick around for the next book just because of my love for the entire series, but I hope the author improves or else I probably won't be here for book 7.

[Farshad Torkashvand · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honour Rae joined many other authors on my blacklist.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paying the Blood Price

I enjoyed the story, but this book needs some TLC from an editor. There are times when I'm super engrossed and all of a sudden a word is missing or juxtaposed with another that brings everything to a screaming halt.

Story wise, we leave New Houston, Arthur et al get disguises to let them appear as a rank lower, and they join Blood Moon hive.
Everything seems slightly off with the riders and they soon find out about the "blood price". Everyone has to pay the leader, Chester, an Uncommon shard a day, or else he uses his Life Siphon card on them.

Spoilers below....


Arthur and Brix are going undercover so they use different names, Ernest and Brissby, but it seems to be very selective, and often forgotten, yet no one ever comments on it.
Also it seems like Chester either has really good spies/informants or some ability to hear about everything because he always knows about Rarer Ernest's comings and goings, though not that he is Legendary Arthur. Perhaps it is related to the oath cards the wing leaders are required to take - Arthur has Brix yank his immediately and edits it to not allow for remote pulls of his life force.
Either all the riders have one, or just the wind leaders and the oath allows them to let Chester feed from their retinues, or... behind the scenes every rider gets one. Given Arthur's feelings about having one, I feel he and Brix would have wanted to rip it out of his own retinue, at the very least.

Retinue doesn't change this novel, but Brix gains a "fan club" as he refers to the common Purples he works with as a Rare.

Ernest takes Wing Purple to a recently sealed eruption to investigate it. They find a lot of shards in the form of scourgelings still in their eggs. Some live ones show up and they kill them as well, more Uncommon and Rare shards are gained. Then Arthur uses Call of the Heart to find the heart of the eruption, goes to it and pulls Legendary shards out of it while Brix chops it down.
They make a Time card with it, and Arthur later uses it in the climactic battle.

Another day, another eruption. This one gets serious and the Legendaries show up. Chester wins the day by using the next card in Brix's set: Call of Life to shoot so much life energy into the giant scourgeling that it tumors to death, though not before the other 2 Legendaries of the hive get hurt.

Chester tells Ernest to follow, they go to the top of Blood Moon and his dragon immediately starts to Life Siphon the other 2 Legendaries. Chester demands the blood price. Arthur hands him some shards; Chester eats them, but wants more. Arthur says nay and they fight.
Arthur uses Brix's power to snatch the cards from Chester and yells at Brix to do the same. He does and now they are in charge of Blood Moon Hive.

Once they settle things down, they go visit the king to fulfill a promise made in the last book to Lung Bai. Marion heals his dad, but warns it may only last a year. Good news: the king is awake and willing to listen, so Arthur lays out everything that is going on in the kingdom to him.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the next book brings.

[Gareth Otton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book cements in my mind that this series will never return to the standard set with the first two books. Truth be told, it doesn't even feel like the same kind of story.

Those two books felt like the beginnings of a progression fantasy, taking a protagonist from the bottom rungs of the power, wealth and life potential ladders and chronicling his rise to the peak, changing the world for the better in the process. Because of his limitations, he was forced to master non-traditional skills and develop creative solutions to travel an unconventional path to the top. It was an innovative, character-led story that came crashing down in book three.

Book three started a new type of story format. Instead of focusing on this progression-style story, it focused on self-contained side-quest-style adventures that have only minimal impact on moving a larger story forward. It's no longer character-led, cares little about the story set up in the first two books that got me attached to this series in the first place, and ultimately feels like a different series.

After reading this book, I think I understand better now that this is what this series wanted to be from the start. The first two books are the anomalies, not the three that followed them. I think the author never cared overly much about the progression story he was setting up. He was just interested in getting Arthur to the point where he could have dragon-riding adventures, but he was unable to accomplish that in a single novel.

This is a major disappointment for me because it feels like it has squandered a far superior, larger story in favour of mundane side-quests, and this book is a great example of that. Arthur and Brixxaby are on a quest for another card, which means they must infiltrate another hive. What follows is an incredibly shallow story about how they integrate into this hive, discover some disturbing practices, and try to fix that problem while still searching for their card. The problem is that this is a side quest, and the story doesn't want to spend too much time developing the elements to make this kind of story work, so everything feels underdeveloped and shallow. Unfortunately, there's not even much advancement in the overarching story or the character arcs to make up for that lack of story on this sidequest, so overall, the book is dull and meaningless. It doesn't even advance any of the new world-altering plot points that came out of nowhere in the last book, which makes them feel meaningless as well.

By far the biggest issue for me, and one that I have brought up in my review of book three, is that the thing that has made this series special from day one is right there in the title: All The Skills. Mastering skills is the core element that made this series stand out, and this is yet another book that seems to forget that concept.

Overall, this is not quite the train wreck of book three, and it even has some enjoyable moments, but it isn't the series I signed on for, and I have officially lost hope that it will return to what it once was. This has gone from a rich character-led story to a series of shallow adventures that have little meaning to an overarching narrative, that relegates all the side characters to shallow, one-dimensional role players, and forgets to stay true to the core concept that makes this series unique in the first place.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this has been my favorite All the Skills book so far, and the first one that earns a full 4 stars from me, rather than a 3.5 rounded up. I don't understand the complaints from other reviewers that the last two books have devolved into meaningless side quests or that Arthur is failing to develop. It became clear back in Book 2 that Arthur felt compelled to gain a better understanding of the Scourge, its origins, its relationship to dragons, and how the Scourge can be stopped, and that was why he originally left his home kingdom. This is a bigger and better story than just a dude leveling up his skills ad nauseum, and in each volume since, we've gained new insight into at least some of the lore of this world. Now that Arthur is an adult and some of his skills have hit Level 50, of course he's no longer picking up new skills or new levels daily, but he is still leveling them occasionally, and even more rarely encountering a completely new skill for the first time. In the last book, he got a stunning new mission – to complete his and Brixaby's sets and become a mythic pair to restore balance to the world. And it's been clear for a long time that to truly master "all" the skills, he needs all the cards in his set.

Meanwhile, Brixaby is (shockingly) gaining hints of maturity, occasionally pausing to give something a moment of thought before rushing off headlong, and even more rarely counseling Arthur to exercise caution. Unfortunately, Cressida, Horatio, Marian, Soledad, Equinox, and Asha aren't so lucky. Joy has gotten bits of development as a character here and there as the series has gone on, and in the last book, it was clear that Horatio was on the verge of falling in love – something we wouldn't have thought the original Horatio capable of – but in this volume, the supporting characters are largely absent and are just placeholders of themselves. To me that's the biggest weakness of the story – the failure to use the cast as a true ensemble cast, instead just putting a pin in everyone else and focusing entirely on Arthur and Brixaby acting almost as if their retinue doesn't exist. But I still liked it and devoured it.

Is the end in sight? No. This book has an ending that's not quite a cliffhanger, but makes it clear there's still a lot more story ahead – my guess is two more books to go.

[Doug Sundseth · Rating 4 out of 5]

After dealing with the Dark Heart in the previous book, it's time for Arthur and Brixaby (and friends) to return to their hive. Except that Brixaby demands to find and recover(?) the next card in his Legendary set, which involves a stop at a hive run by a tyrant.

Most of the story involves a mix of their interactions with the tyrant and his followers and further explorations of local outbreaks.

The plot works well, and there is good character development for most of the protagonist and supporting characters. The antagonist has at least a little nuance and complexity, and he is powerful enough to make the tasks a challenge.

There is also good world (and overarching plot) development as well; we are starting to see elements of what might be behind the infestations and also some path toward possibly eliminating them. (The cover of the book implies that this will be an eight-book series. If so, we have three books left to solve the problems.)

The climax is a bit underwhelming, but the denouement is quite good.

Rae's writing is solid enough that it never got between me and the story, which (with a good story to tell) is all that I really ask from an author. I'm looking forward to book 6 of this series, and I will recommend both book and series to any progression fantasy fan. (Note that while this does have a mechanical system, that system is largely backgrounded. There are no character sheet reads here.)

[Steve Naylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3.5 stars

I don't know what it is with this series. It started great, I really loved the first book. The first book was basically what was advertised. Since then, not so much. This is a card magic story where the MC has a card that gives him all the skills (hence the title). You would think that would be a major part of each story but that really doesn't happen. He gained a couple of levels in climbing and a few others but that's it. He also gained a new card in the last book that helps him with making and repairing cards. Again, I would think this would be a major part of the story but the MC really didn't use that skill too much. The story ends up being something else entirely. Arthur is supposed to go back to Wolfmoon Hive and take a leadership role. Instead they go to bloodmoon hive and try to get another one of Brixaby’s cards. This whole part was weird. In the second book they got in trouble and were told not to try and finish their deck. Now they are told they have to finish their deck. I don't really understand Arthur's reasoning half the time. The supporting characters and dragons are explained that well and neither are their cards. This ends up being a huge missed opportunity IMO. I don't think I am quite ready to call it quits with this series but it is getting close.

[A.J. Valshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

great story continues

Love the world building and twists and turns in the plot. Definitely a book I don’t like to put down. One of my fav litrpg series out right now.
My only note to the author - I know you’re working on the next one - which I can’t wait to get - but there were many minor typos in this one. They are distracting and I get annoyed - it is a worthy series to be well edited. I hate all these rush jobs on Amazon. I get people are trying to make a living on books that only cost $2….so they have to push out a new one constantly, but I’d rather pay $5 and let authors eat and write. Amazon needs to stop pushing prices down to the bottom so that authors can survive… anyways, great series. Exploit the poor guy and buy it for less than your Starbucks coffee today. You won’t be sorry - or even if you are, get real, nothing costs so little as an ebook these days, not a big leap Of faith to give it a shot. Get the whole series (or get the whole series today for the price of maybe 2 Starbucks total….or maybe you need your sugar and coffee high worse than a good book that lasts a hell of a lot longer …. )

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Side quest

Overall this book was enjoyable did contain several typos and minor continuity mistakes (e.g. calling purple dragons green then purple again in the and sentence).
It was a bit like reading a book where all the characters get ADHD. The main characters are looking for a specific card, that's their only goal. They get to where this card is and get distracted by the weird rules of the pace and get sucked into working there for some reason. It would be fine if the author mentored they were doing this while looking for clues Scott the card but it's literally set aside to figure out why this Hive is so messed up (a Hive they care absolutely nothing about). So the whole book becomes a side quest to fix the Hive, but also drops some interesting world building lore. It felt like the author just wanted to go into detail on this Hive and drop the lore teasers and ignored the premise of why the characters even came here until the very end.
Overall it's a good book, and I'll pick up the sequel when it drops.

[Cmoore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again I'm bespelled by both Honour Rae for their writing and Luke Daniels not just because he's a great Brixaby giving out the right amount of confidence and ego only befitting of being a young legendary dragon🐉 of his status, but also Luke Daniels is just a great voice actor! Even though Brixaby hasn't increased the number of dragons in his retinue, he has added benefit of a fan club of purples! So, I totally expect him to increase the size of his retinue soon! And Arthur is using all their skills and cards to increase their overall power to help them survive while they're at Blood Moon Hive! Because something is very very wrong in this part of the kingdom! And Arthur is determined to get to the bottom of those wrongs... even if that means he can only help one person at a time, it's at least a start.
So yeah grab the audiobook like it was a nasty scourgling and don't let go 'til you pull out all it's goodness!

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series was my initiation to LitRPG, and I thoroughly enjoy Honour's approach to the genre. It felt like I had to wait years between book four and this (book five).

I misread the promo. At publication date, this is book five of five. So I was ready to have Arthur achieve mythic status, and wrap up the series with a stunning finale. This book does contain many wonderful adventures. And evil is not relegated just to monsters. Arthur has his hands full with other dragon riders. But I started getting a little antsy when I was almost to the end of the book and we hadn't yet conquered the world. They do find their next Legendary Card, but it still doesn't propel them to Mythic Status. What gives?

Afterward: there's a book 6 (and more?) Ahhh, yeah, more of this good stuff. But now another long wait.

[Horia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm enjoying this series so much despite the fact that I don't like neither dragon nor card collector stories. Both genres strain my limits as they require a hefty dose of make-believe. On top of that, the story has a stringent flavor of Y/A, which is definitely on my no-no list. Yet despite all these counter-arguments, this series turns into one of my favorite of all time.

Still going strong. Still on the hunt for collecting legendary cards. Still growing the retinue. Brixabi is cool as always, while Arthur does his job of balancing everything out. Both their characters are consistent throughout the series and their development is rewarding and credible. Looking forward to their story.

Onwards, to the next!

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Story is coming in its own.

I didn’t like this story that much at the start, but I was grateful for a LitRPG where everyone had a power limit due to the number of cards per deck. No endless chapters at the end listing all the skills and abilities.

But the story is secretly a heist story, with every chapter ending with such a swing in fortune there’s a bit of whiplash. My only regret is that Arthur only ran Wing Purple through one eruption; a little bit more day-to-day to see him learn to lead and ruminate on better solutions for the hive as a whole would have been nice.

The story is what it is, and it has remained consistently on brand while doing so. Looking forward to the next.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was it just me, or did this feel way too short? Maybe it's just the way the plot snapped along and the stakes weren't too high and they were just hiding their extraordinary power for almost the entire book, making it mostly just humorous and fairly interesting.

So much so, it just flew by.

Of course, all this OP stuff comes with a cost if it's all on the side of the hero. Fortunately, it still got pulled off in this novel. I just felt too short.

I still love the premise and the payoff.

Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews is be interested in reading my SF (Very hard SF, mind you), I'm open to requests.

Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.

Arctunn.com

[Roger Kiser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book and series

Really great book. Love the unique card system and he's able to make it easily understandable without having to use chapter after chapter to explain it. The stories are really great I love all the characters. And because he doesn't over explain every piece of magic the pace of the books are really fun. The only reason it got four stars instead of five is because the slow burn romance in this one has got to the point where it has just become ridiculous as most slow burn romances do if they carry on for too long. But other than that absolutely fantastic series highly recommend it.

[Smoke · Rating 5 out of 5]

these books just keep getting better and better. With most longer series there is a dropoff around book 3, then they have to find their groove again, but not here.
The only negative is the random ending point, but everything else is just wonderful. The way the story builds up to a super satasfying ending is perfectly done. It isn't over the top as we get there, and the conclusion is everything I hoped for and more. I can't wait for book 6.
Of course the narration is done by one of the best in the business, and makes the book all the better. Luke Daniels is a national treasure.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rock solid but could use a bit of a pacing change

Well written as always but feel like the pacing needs to change a bit as the scale of the story grows. Loved the last 10% of the book, but felt like that could have happened at the 60% mark of the story with a few cuts and then progressed from there. Was just frustrating as a reader waiting so long for what we all knew was going to happen. I thought they should have ripped the cards out on the first meeting when they saw what he doing.

[Galen Borgman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Good:
I liked the added ability to the main character, gave him interesting abilities in the same vein as his style before, but meaningfully advanced.

I liked the character development here especially with the dragon and the love interest.

The Bad:
Not super sold on the high-cost-of-healthcare TEXAS?? man that was weird. I was more into it after the flashbacks and explanation but seemed to be lazy because of how some things were just exactly the same, not modified at all: it just doesn't match the total feudal country next to it.

[RJ Penate · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars. Lived this one. So far my favorite in the series. I love this arc. Meeting the new hive. Seeing the progression for each character and their dragons. Getting to meet new characters and new dragons. Loved the villain in this arc. Seeing the mc and dragon defeat them and add cards to their own decks. Seeing the king get healed and become a new character. Someone we support. Super excited for the next book!
Excited for the potential in Marion’s dragon. It will be legendary. I want to see what happened with the mc’s first assistant.

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another adventure

This story is fun and I really love the characters, but instead of continuing the core storyline from the first few books the last two books have been them traveling around the world and having adventures.

They’re fun adventures but I miss the leveling up and unique advantages his skills gave him. These adventures could almost have happened to anyone with any cool power.

So this series has slid from one of my all time favorite to just a fun one. Maybe we will return to the core LitRPG story in future books.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hive politics have been a distinct part of previous books, between wolf moon and the free hives I feel the author has covered these a lot. That’s why I was pleased to see that they kept things moving in this volume and didn’t overly focus on it. It’s still a major part of the book, but after the last volume the author has momentum behind the gang and in my opinion they use it.

I enjoyed this volume and look forward to continuing the series.

[EddieRebel · Rating 4 out of 5]

too slow

Can skip a dozen pages and feel like you didn’t miss anything to move plot forward. A good writer, that spends too much time justifying, through inner dialogue, the mc; making bad decisions, not using resources, forgetting about options, not sharing crucial information or asking pertinent questions. Mission that was supposed to be done before sunrise ends up a book due to a weak mc