Betrayed by the Hero's Party, I Summoned Their Replacements

by Ethan Gale

Betrayed by the supposed heroes, Reed refuses to waste his second chance at life.

Reed's summoning skill pulled a wooden chair during a boss fight.

A chair. It sat in the summoning circle while a level 35 dungeon guardian tried to cave his skull in. He used it as a shield. That's what [Random Summon] 98% garbage, 2% barely useful, and the reason the Hero's party kept him around as a punching bag instead of a teammate.

For two years, Reed took the beatings. The stolen loot. The healer who patched his bones but never asked who broke them. Then the Hero buried him alive in a collapsing dungeon and filed him as dead.

His skill evolved to Mythic.

Now [Random Summon] reaches into the sealed archives of the dead and pulls back legendary heroines from the moments before their deaths. They arrive wounded, dying, and more powerful than anything the living world has seen in centuries. Reed heals them. They give him their loyalty, their blades, and their bodies.

A Blade Saint who held a gate alone for six hours. A Stellar Warden assassinated by her own council. A Phantom who was burned alive for knowing too much.

The Hero's party threw him away. He summoned their replacements.

Now he's coming for every name on his list.

Genres: Fantasy, Harem, Litrpg, Erotica, Fiction

357 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 17, 2026

Reviews

[Jake]

could be good, but ai slop

Yet another ai slop story.

Author needs to go and find a tall cliff and hurl himself off of it.

Seriously Amazon, what the hell is going on here?

[Michael]

Clearly AI generated narrative with constant loss of details and continuity and that very ai sameness you get to be able to tell after using it to try to play an adventuring game with it.

[Johnny]

Book one

This is AI written. It has the same cadence and formatting of those AI stories that you can find on tiktok. It reads exactly how 1 of the stories or any of the stories from tiktok sound. Constant and I do mean constant repeating of information. Then details that are completely wrong or come out of left field. Parts that change the dynamic of the story. Also character suddenly having information that there was no way for them to have.
Also it's a little weird that a teenager is sleeping with 2 grown women. Don't forget he's called up a third though.

I completely skipped every single sex scene For the simple fact that the main character is a teenager I don't wanna read about him having sex And knowing the AI is gonna make him seem like a porn star just really kind of skis me out. Everybody knows teenagers last seconds we were all teenagers once. So seconds minutes Not Skilled straight out of the box.

Sad thing is under all the repeated information and the porn level sex There's actually a halfway decent story but it's buried. It's constantly repeating information. This story would be 120 pages max if they took out all the repeats. I'm going to read book 2Because why not I'll probably wind Up skipping many pages and probably lots of sex.

1/10Anything that is AI generated should be forced to be labeled as AI generated stories.

[Clinton]

Author ignores their own deadlines (or can’t count). Repeatedly claims that characters were somehow training or gaining experience while they were ‘dead’. Even though they were very specifically dead and none of them can remember what was happening between their death and ‘summoning’; but author hammers this every third chapter that they were so powerful BECAUSE they have 137 years of experience (while they were dead). But she didn’t. She was DEAD. Like unconscious dead. She was well-trained and essentially a hero BEFORE her death. But you never even bothered to ask how old she was when she died.

Main characters repeatedly gain knowledge about things that they have no way of knowing. “Hey, you who was just resurrected and we have no prior knowledge about; do you have a question for us?” “Yes, how long have I been dead?” “Well, I haven’t asked your name or about the events around your death. Nor does my magic which summoned you grant me knowledge about you in any capacity. But you’ve been dead for exactly 84 years and the people who betrayed you (yes, I somehow know you were betrayed and murdered) are all dead (even though 84 years is in the realm of plausibility for someone to still be alive from those events; old, but alive). Author writes like an AI bot or a high schooler who is writing train of thought with ZERO editing. Grammar was ok. Spelling was fine. Plot was interesting.

Leveling and power-scaling in world is completely inconsistent. And MC is constantly doing things they have no training doing. Like whipping out a second sword and dual wielding them successfully. Dual wielding is COMPLETELY different from fighting with a single sword. No matter your training with a single blade. You won’t perform better with two swords than one when you have no training wielding two swords simultaneously. My suspension of disbelief was shattered so many times that I seriously feel this author needs to take these books back to the drawing board, pull them apart at the seams, fill in a heck of a lot more detail, spread all the training out, spread the leveling out, spread the growing relationships out, create timelines (not deadlines), and when you make a deadline make absolutely sure that the MC keeps that deadline. This should be two books with 150% the word count. Author-san, you’ve got some writing chops but you sent out a product that was so far from ready that part of me is REALLY angry. You can obviously do better. All of these mistakes could be resolved by fleshing out your characters and scenes more. But in its current state I’d call this hot trash.

[Meagan Thorn]

Clearly AI.

[Rob]

The story is decent and worth a read if you can get over the fact the author sets things up then forgets them. Doesn't set things up but then acts like he did ... The biggest in the beginning is the pulls asking how long its been.

Multiple times the author indicates the MC doesn't know, but then randomly he does. Then later on the girls know random bits of historical info they shouldn't have.

[Robert]

AI Slop

I don't know if the author name is an AI construct or a person who uses AI to write, but one star because if it is a person, they didn't bother to edit it in any way.

[Tucker]

really cool idea, poorly written.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. But it honestly has too many points of failure.

Incongruities in character knowledge is at the forefront as one sentence will speak about someone not knowing some information and the following sentence will have that same character reciting the exact knowledge they don’t have.


There also seems to be a couple moments where the writer lost track of their own time and setting. Characters went to sleep in one place with someone around and awoke in another with people in different places and times.

There also is a lack of regularity in pacing which makes it a bit hard to enjoy the book.

The idea is really cool, very fun, and a great fit for me but the writing just feels bad.

[Darrin Carvey]

Needs some serious editing

The story itself is pretty fun, but there are multiple times where information is mentioned by characters before the conversation that reveals it and other times you end up with three conversations that feel like they were copied and pasted from each other. The book has potential, but someone needs to read through it and get rid of all the plot holes and inconsistencies first.

[Ben Martin]

Way better than the last book from this Author

This book is a noticeable improvement, clear story, the characters could use a little more depth but considering 2 of the main characters are very no nonsense neutral people I think it fits well. The spice is well done and the relationships feels great. The action is well balanced and doesn't waste your time. I look forward to the next one.

[Murphies_law]

A soft porn harem litrpg story written in first person #sigh#

1,5 stars

For me the book read like a somewhat annoying parody with way too much soft porn for my taste. It seems that the book was written for horny adolescents. The women were no real characters but supporting sex objects.

While the main plot wasn't bad, the constant repetitions, logical flaws and hilariously dramatic wording like "legendary women" were really grating on my nerves.


Criticism and comments

Why is his sword dull when he only sharpened it and never used it?

Being betrayed by your party causes a legendary skill up? Awfully convenient..

Is the revealing cocktail dress supposed to be the female pendant of strong armour?

Why and how does a blind woman care about her looks?

Why are R's reflexes supposed to be centuries old? She seems to be quite young?

"Different," she said. Not to me. To the air. To the trees." Sounds like gibberish

The repeated "how long" question would be easier to answer if she named the year she died.. #rofl#

"A hundred and thirty-seven years of death hadn't taught her," how should this - until now unknown time teach her anything when she was in stasis?

Then it pulled you." "From the sealed archives." Dead people are in the sealed archives of summoners?

Did author really have to repeat her "against " back story EIGHT times?

Does one lose the sword maiden title if one loses her virginity? Or due to age? I like the variations "sword milf" and "sword hag", personally, come to think about it #rofl#

How does Vessa know that 104 years passed since her death?

"It's fine. I've been dead for a hundred years. Appreciation is welcome." Once again, the logic is wrong as she doesn't remember or lived the time after her death..

He really could have gotten Vessa better fitting clothes..

"Two legendary women. Both mine. Both choosing to be here." Some super annoying, gay satyr would have been funni..

Omg - the author used the term "legendary women" 13 times!

Is the third broad a telepath? That's the only explanation for her instant knowledge.

"Eighty-nine years," Vessa said. "The Mirethane Court. I've read about it. Or I did, before I died." #Rofl# she died 13 years earlier..

[Chase]

This book is clearly AI generated, and the author did not proofread or review what was written. Continuity errors appear frequently throughout, and several stand out as particularly glaring.

One major issue involves timeline inconsistencies. Events that happen early in the book are later referenced as if they occurred weeks or months afterward. The quillfang is one example of this.

Another major continuity failure involves a scene where the protagonist reaches a three way junction after a tunnel collapse. He takes the left path, sneaks past a stone crawler, hits a dead end, and summons an injured sword woman. The book then states they are back at the junction, which is fine, but later the AI writer seems to forget that the only way back past the junction requires getting past the stone crawler again. When they take the middle tunnel, the book suddenly claims they now have to fight the stone crawler because it will notice the sword woman. That makes no sense given the layout already established, and the author clearly did not read it through.

There are also errors that happen within the same page. The sword woman knows the protagonist is level 19, but when he levels up twice from a single monster and announces it, she somehow does not know what level he is.

The leveling system also makes no sense as written. If the protagonist is a level 19 summoner, there is no logical explanation for him being able to kill two level 35 monsters solo with a sword. He then goes on to fight a level 42 stone crawler and deals the majority of the damage himself. This completely breaks the internal logic of the world and further confirms the author never read what the AI produced before publishing it.

[GrumpyOldMan]

I really enjoyed this book, when I didn't think I would when I started it.

The MC is a man with the Summoner class at level 19, but his only skill generates random summons, and 98% of the time, his summons are farcical garbage. Summoning a chair during a boss fight. Sometimes summoning hostile creatures that attack him or his party. A party that is lead by the church proclaimed "hero". A hero that's more of a pompous jerk surrounded by mostly sycophants. The MC doesn't belong, but is kept around to be a punching bag of sorts. Then the hero's party betrays him and leaves him for dead. And while trapped deep in a dungeon is has no business surviving, his class skill evolves into a mythic level one. Which promptly summons a level 78 female Sword Saint. And thus starts his tale.

The LIs are somewhat interesting, but fairly mechanical at times. The Sword Saint is almost robotic in her behavior due to the nature of her class devotion to all things blades and their forms. The Stellar Warden (level 72) is more personable. The final LI he summons (a level 81 Phantom) isn't around long enough for any bond to form up, but it will come in the next book.

I liked the "revenge" plot the MC is working. He's dedicated himself to growing in all ways, both levels and skills. He still only has the 1 skill, but his martial proficiency and his ability to make command decisions is improving by leaps and bounds. And his former party leader is now the main antagonist, that the MC is quickly closing in on for levels. The machinations are interesting.

I look forward to book 2.

[NocturneReader]

As others have said, this book is AI generated and seemingly lacks basic review by the author. Details start to slide towards the end, the typical AI tells are present (repeated details, repeated phrasing, hedging phrases). The characters are all bland and flat, with an MC who’s basically there to act as a self-insert. If you are here for a power fantasy with a harem whose problems are solved either by hitting things harder or by taking someone to bed, then this is for you.

If you get hung up on details like, why is a Blade Saint wearing a dress instead of something sensible, or why does everyone Reed summons immediately want to have sex with him, then this probably isn’t for you. The women of this story are literally summoned trophies whose personality extends to a handful of surface level facets and goes no further.

There are some interesting ideas that are buried by everything else but it’s main purpose in existing seems to just be framing for the intimate scenes and the fights, neither of which is connected except by the thinnest material, sometimes literally the thinnest material the author can come up with to dress his supposedly battle hardened adventurers in. The story’s primary challenges and tension start cohesive, but because nothing really ever challenges the MC, they are dealt with in a handful of chapters and soon replaced with another slightly larger threat.

This is a trend which continues through all of the remaining books.

The questions of how Reed deals with the fall out of his betrayal and what it means to literally summon another person, and in this case, save them from death, aren’t really answered. Or if they are answered the answer is thin.

[Blake Tanedo]

Most likely written by AI with good bones and a great premise but very poor execution throughout

This has potential to be an incredible story. I enjoyed the story of course. I read the whole thing, but the short descriptors, the extremely repetitive phrases and references, the sterile/clinical nature of every thought, and the unbelievably rapid pacing of the training/bonding/skill development, are extremely distracting and hollow. This could've and should've been spaced out to multiple books. The women he pulls all adjust and accept immediately whats happening. There is a ton of contradicting or incorrect information regarding the history. The bones and premise of this are really quite good imo. If this is not written by AI I will be surprised. It sounds like im reading a book version of the AI generated videos. The characters tone is often weird and jarring. The reactions are strange and unrealistic often. There's so much depth missing in the conversation and emotional understanding is basically absent. The world building is poor and erratic and shifts like the AI didnt perfectly remember what it had said before. While its unbearably repetitive it also gets things wrong. I hope as the story goes on the writing gets better. Either with better editing or guidance to the AI prompt to make the story more palatable. I found myself rolling my eyes OFTEN at the responses and the insane repetitive phrases that were used to mean different things at different times to fit what was happening in that chapter.

[Surlie]

There are some interesting ideas and a story here but this series has issues, not the least of which is that the quality of the second installment has plummeted.

If you're like me and just hate to give up on a series unless it degenerates into something truly awful, you may be faced with a difficult choice if you choose to engage.

I don't have a great deal of experience with LitRPG and similar genres or generative AI content but I'm learning quickly. Perhaps the time investment to read the first two books is worth it as an educational tool to learn what "AI slop" looks like when executed almost adequately, then very poorly.

There IS at least some value here, in terms of an interesting main character special ability and plot development, but it's lacking in other areas such as only very modest character development. The slightly strange, repetitive use of similar language for different passages with slight variations that seem to be indicative of AI use detracts as do basic logic and continuity errors.

Will I read a book three to see how the story progresses? Maybe, but not until it's been out long enough to see just how badly produced it is, and then it will probably merit just a skim-read to see the plot advance. Since the series is on Kindle Unlimited, it's only a waste of a little of my free time, not money. I wouldn't pay a dollar for one of these books when there's so much other superior content out there.

[Daniel J]

Obvious AI

But not painfully. It was more tolerable than many AI filled stories.

But there were plenty of inconsistencies. A lack of human context and insight.

Examples:
-The dungeon layout gets misarranged in early chapters. A room and monster where it shouldn't have been (the map layout confused and glossed over).
-Over a week that the MC evidently did nothing. (When he had every reason to not be idle).
-One of the women references knowing something about another... which happened 30 years AFTER her death.

Along with other inconsistencies. Like characters knowing things they really shouldn't. (Or an intelligence opperative who I suspect will have the information from a whole network without the time for said network).

Also, some context is never explained. Like how the guild and chirxh seem to have direct controll over the system but the mechanism of said control is never depicted past red tape and finger wagging.

Like I said, I found it less painfull that many others. Hopefully I'm not jist getting used to it... scary thought.

(If the next book is available I'll probably read it but otherwise I'll probably drop it. Because I don't trust where it's going and a lack of human context means a lack of investment on my part.)

[Daniel]

Anime turned harem porn

The plot isn't bad at all. However, there are so many inaccuracies when it comes to timing and numbers that I question the author's ability to take notes. Early in the book our hero summons a living monster. A couple days later the author talks about the same incident as something that happened earlier that morning. This happens a lot.

Also, there needs to be a deeper explanation to how the system and church work. This ends up being a key plot point later in the book where the church may have the power to return the summons back to the system archives. How? Why? Does the church control the system? Does the church worship the system? We literally have zero information but somehow a manor plot point hinges on this information.

Also, because of the book cover, I have been picturing the characters in my head as anime characters and the sudden turn this book takes toward harem porn was frankly disturbing. I just skipped all passages with the porn. It doesn't push a story along, it is literally there because the author is obviously (in my opinion) living out fantasies through his writing. Bleh.

If you are under 16, skip this book. The porn isn't for you.

[Kieran Corrigan]

A good story, if flawed.

Overall I enjoyed it. The beginning was a bit... extra, but for whatever reason the MC stuck with the nonsense offered him. Just going with it, the story moves onto a nice pacing and getting to know the other characters.

Why 3 stars ? Well 3.5 maybe, there is just enough stuff that feels missed because of bit paying attention to the world the author created. The one that stands out the most because it was towards the end is slightly spoilerish.




--------- potential spoilers----‐---

A pull that takes someone who is the most recent death, makes it difficult for someone who died BEFORE them to read up in their previous life, but /definitely/ wouldn't be able to know what happened to the group of someone who died AFTER her.

Just little things like that, that take me right out.


If you can overlook this like that I'm sure it's enjoyable. The spice is nice, not world shattering but nice. Also, prose is decent and I appreciate good prose.

I'm probably try the next one because the author succeeded in getting me to care about the characters, the most important thing.

[Jason]

One of the best LitRPG harems, but that's a very very low bar.

Some effort is made to describe the adventuring and the women, although not much beyond that.

The women don't talk to each other at all, just there to service the harem portion of the story. Despite being far higher level than anything else in the book, they struggle with things so far below their level that they don't even gain any levels after more than a month of grinding, meanwhile the MC rockets up dozens of levels fighting things far higher than him.

Despite dungeons being cleared in record time, there is a frontier threatening dungeon break. This isn't to show that the frontier is living on a knife's edge, but just plot convenience, as no effort has been put into making a functioning world.

So, while among the best of the LitRPG harem books, it's still slop, with all the typical issues, nonsensical world and unbelievable characters just there to connect the porn bits together with minimal workmanship on the author's part.

[Jake]

Decent story; weird inconsistencies

I originally attributed the strange writing structure to possible translation to English, but I've read about how AI writes stories and that seems to fit the bill.

One example is the summoning skill. Normally with LitRPGs, bolded skills are generally identical aside from targets or evolutions and the outcomes are generally the same. The output is different. What the MC sees or knows is different and how it's written is different. Inconsistent.

Also, sometimes the knowledge the characters have is unexplainable. Or the knowledge is formatted strangely. Again, looking at how AI writes stories, this seems to be the case.

While I originally thought it was weird formatting, looking into AI written stories has me questioning it. The story isn't bad, the dialogue can be stilted and weird, and the knowledge is inconsistent, but I enjoyed it enough to read the second book.

[Jeff R Hawkins]

Surprisingly masterful

I started this book, an Amazon recommendation, expecting a quick, light read from an immature but hopefully entertaining author that would probably be a harem novel.
That assessment was based on the title and the cover art.
In fact, the writing is deep, thought-provoking, and poetic. It is a harem novel, and misogynistic. That last, jarringly so. I feel like the author has a Boomer's attitude towards relationships and gender roles. I find that rather bizarre.
Having said that, I love this book! I'm so jealous of the 'thickness' and depth of meaning of the writing. In a way it's reminiscent of a short story by an old master. Often, one sentence is filled with both explicit and implicit meaning.
It's very well edited, which is a rare treat these days.
Explicit sex scenes, inappropriate for children.

[Imkmoney]

Junk Summoner

A name given to a Frontier Summoner that for years, being held back, summoned trash. Until the one day his "Hero" party throws him away.
Now he's "back from the dead" with someone he summoned that was betrayed 107 years ago and " back from the dead" too. A legendary sword fighter, level 81...
Days later, during a dungeon run, he summons another legendary woman, level 78.
He's going to get revenge on his old "Hero's " party, but needs to level-up and thats what they do...
When the evil Church gets involved, his ability summons brings another woman from the dead. An Assassin, level 81, who was also 92 years dead. Stealth and information gathering was now on their side, in this next fight...

Read was fun and easy. The sex between our MC and the 1st two women is also fun...

Read in 5 days

[Daniel Streeter]

A story with an actual destination. Thank you.

I have read a lot of books. I have listened to a lot of books. I am so tired of books that jumps from action to action with no clear plot with a character that doesn't have any real tension around them that makes their accomplishments feel interesting to care about.

I love this story and I love this MC along with each character written. Every character, even the side character like the clerk or Harren or Garren all have some form of personality that gets to shine.

I would have enjoyed more perspective from callum on Reed's rise but that's my only complaint and even then I don't think it's that big of a deal. The story really is perfect as is.

[Steve]

Better than I expected, but not outstanding. I see a lot of reviews calling this AI slop, and yes, there are inconsistencies, but it didn't bother me to that level.

I'm currently writing a book series, and I use the AI to bounce things off, much like an editor. Some of its suggestions are good, some seem to have no concept of what kind of book I'm trying to write, and I need to keep reminding it.

The point here is that this book is better than any of the test sections I've had the AI write to break creative logjams. It's also better than a lot of books that I KNOW were written by a person, so AI or not, it was a decent read.

[Kasper]

Questions

Don't get me wrong here, I enjoyed this book, but there's a few things I don't understand here, why was this guy in the hero's party of all places? Everybody in the party considered his skill garbage, it makes no sense to bring him along into deeply dangerous dungeons where one mistake means death.
And why would they try to kill him? They forced him to stay in the party, just to toss his life away when his backstory is sufficiently tragic?
It all feels deeply contrived, the rest of the story is fine, but the antagonists are weak, a villain needs a motivation, these ones are barely characters, they have less nuance than the dungeon mobs.

[Maskedblogger51]

Analytical hero with some serious problems to overcome.

Went in to this blind with just the description. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the writing & protagonists inner dialogue. The i guess "way he thinks" interested me right away. The story I found to be satisfying and I look forward to book 2. There is much of the world left un explained in a sense yet I feel its much more "real" than many rpg lvl up type of romance/ fiction ive read on kindel unlimited. 5 stars

[James]

Good story ruined by the storytelling

While not unique, the revenge-gatcha-harem starts strong, and builds well for maybe the first third.

Then it kinda falls apart. It feels like either the author re-assembled his scrivener cards in the wrong order without a solid re-read, or it was partially written with AI… not sure

Inconsistency is the phrase of the day and it really ruins what could have been a solid platform for a series. But the MCs skill changing wildly, consistent forgetting character levels, and “tell don’t show” make this one a miss.

[OddDuck Duck]

read more like monetized serialized fiction

The premise had potential, but the execution felt heavily padded and repetitive. Characters often re-explained information they already knew, dialogue lacked natural flow, and the worldbuilding never felt fully realized. The story seemed structured more like serialized chapter content than a cohesive novel, which made the pacing frustrating by the end. I finished it hoping for a larger payoff, only to realize the book ended just as it felt like the real story should begin.

[James Copley]

Couldn't finish the series

Book 1 and 2 were good, and the premise was well thought out. Internally consistent, and fair character development.

Book 3 started to have continuity issues, simple ones that no "human" author would have made. Also in book 3, the characters' speech patterns began to merge, all of the dialogue becoming short, choppy and over-confirmative. The same thing happened with the descriptive narration.

By book 4, I just couldn't force myself past the discontinuities, and my suspension of disbelief was shattered.

I have extensive experience working on long-running projects and iteration with LLM artificial intelligence, and this series, books 3 and 4 especially, show hallmarks of state reconstruction from recent data. Facts and constants which were set in book 1 seem to have failed to be carried over to the data model the AI was using when writing later books. I can therefore reasonably conclude that this series was written by, or at the very least heavily supported by, an LLM chatbot.