As the fight for Boran-al’s Citadel draws to a close Dave’s learned one important lesson. To protect what he cares for, he’s going to have to become stronger.
He can’t just sit back in Cliff-Hill and take things easy. Emerilia is filled with danger as well as possibilities.
Michael Chatfield is a Canadian Army veteran and international bestselling author who writes the kind of books he always wanted to read—character-driven, gritty, tactical, and grounded in reality.
He doesn’t write one-dimensional killers wrapped in plot armor, charging toward an objective without thought. His stories are built for readers who want earned progression, tight, understandable logic, and realistic strategy. Every stat system has structure. Every decision is deliberate (except when there is Jaeger involved).
And the pacing? It's locked at two hundred percent. From alleyway brawls to starship armadas clashing over galactic sovereignty, from tactical dungeon assaults to city-states warring over a continent’s fate—Chatfield commits to every battle like it’s his last.
With millions of books and audiobooks sold, and tens of thousands of reviews his work spans LitRPG, military sci-fi, fantasy, and post-apocalyptic survival. He writes for readers who value systems that make sense, loyalty that lasts, and power that’s earned, not handed out.
Whether you're listening on a long drive, grinding through a shift, or up past midnight planning the next in-game raid—this is where you’ll find sagas to binge. Where strength is earned, logic rules, and camaraderie is forged in fire.
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Not quite as good as the first book for a couple of reasons. First, it was a little shorter. Second, the best thing about the first book was the crafting and it took a while for Dave to get to the mountain and continue his education about smithing. Third, When the group was traveling to the mountain with the Stone Raiders, there were so many people it was hard to keep track of what was going on. These are just minor complaints though and I still love the story. I love the passion each character has for what they are doing. For Dave, it his his love of creating, but everyone in his group has something that is unique to them that brings them happiness. I like the interactions between Dave and his new Dwarf master smith. She is the one teaching Dave, but she is also learning as well. I love it when Dave makes something and the other dwarves look at it and say "holy shit!". I like how they appreciate what Dave is doing without being jealous, they take it as a challenge to create something just as wonderful. I devoured this book; finished it in one day and now I am immediately going into the next book. So far I really love this series.
Very good read here. The characters progressed well enough (well, most of them did anyway), the storyline was decent, and it looks like there may be new friends in the works, I'm interested to see how those work out. Dragons are born (at least the eggs were laid), so that should prove interesting, and I'm really liking the whole pantheon fighting amongst themselves thing, it provides loads of entertainment, though it's always a bit hard on the heros. Recommended for most adventure loving types, even if you're not an LitRPG fan, you can always ignore the stats and levelling, even without all of that, it's still an excellent storyline, and apparently a very long one as well. I'm off to read the next book now.
I enjoy the story, characters, world, and writing style but I took off a star for the various grammatical errors throughout the book and I almost took off another star for snorting. Everyone and everything snorts. At first it's not bad but then it keeps happening and just when you've forgotten about it someone snorts again.
Good story, though. Will definitely be following the adventures in the next book.
The story was good, but a lot of the inconsistencies from the first book are still here. (ie. skill levels, master level gives bonuses per level, but not really)
The flow makes more sense from the webserial POV though. Where tomorrow you get the next chapter in the story. With the majority of his time spent on the crafting part, it feels like less was accomplished this time around than Book 1.
Also, be aware, the last 13% of the book are extras. Don't be like me, and get to the end of a chapter and close the book only to come back and see that it was done..
This author reads like an young Joel Rosenberg. I'm not sure if that is a good thing but there it is.
In some ways this entire book was a training montage in literary form, I'm almost surprised the kindle version didn't come with an audio download of 'eye of the tiger' to listen to while reading.
Still can't recommend to others, but I'll be continuing on with the series.
Slightly shorter than book one and not as much action, but still a great adventure. Good mix of characters with enough new additions to make it interesting. I love how all of Dave's group is starting to hide their levels so that they can not only level faster and better, but be underestimated.
I enjoyed listening to the first book in this series, it blends an interesting world with likable characters and while it uses some litrpg elements, it does so without being too heavy-handed with them, so that it can still be enjoyed by those who just want a fun fantasy novel.
Thankfully, the second book in this series builds on that strong beginning with the story picking up directly after the end of that first book and focuses mainly on Dave's continuing character progression more than leading up to a big set-piece like in the first one, but the underlying threads continue to develop as the pantheon seek to use their new powers to exert further influence on Emerilia.
Besides Dave and the other survivors of the end of the first book, we see a number of characters that were present in that first book get elevated to the main party. Suzie was Dave's secretary and only real friend during his time on Earth, but now she has joined him in Emerilia and so she serves as the newcomer this time round since she has to learn to adapt to the new world. The party also gains Anna, her links to Bob and Emerilia's past give her a lot of potential in subsequent books, but in this one she was a less notable addition than Suzie.
The narrator did a good job with this book, nicely helping to enhance the overall story and continuing to ensure that a varied cast all sounded sufficiently distinctive too.
Overall this book was lighter on the action than the first one, but this didn't really harm it and should help the overall series in the long run.
[Note - I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.]
Rated the first book five stars as I did this but waited until I completed this book to make sure it wasn't a fluke. I've come to understand I just love this authors writing and this series is finished where the one I started with is still in progress. Dave and deia are just as loveable as Eric and Rugrats. This series is quite a bit different but both this series and the other one from this author are easily in par with Brandon Sanderson in terms of content. The characters are developed enough to believe in the; the books do a good job of giving details and explanations of new things in a way that add to the story rather than detracting. The books are long enough to consider being worth the money at a much higher price point and the storyline is multiarc in a way that it seems to continually be rising and falling all the way to realizing that was the last page. Please overlook my poor review skills and check the series out for yourself.
Emerilia: 2 After the Pyrrhic victory over Boran-al’s Citadel, Dave and his friends move on. As if he doesn't have enough on his plate, Dave is offered training to become a master smith as well as a place in the Stone Raiders Guild. This story felt shorter than the previous one and unfortunately suffers from character bloat. The author tries to keep up by switching POVs, but it results in stuttering continuity. Worse, Dave is the most interesting character and he's sidelined for other characters. It feels like the author had too many ideas for this universe and is like a kid in candy shop, eagerly running from one thing to another without stopping to savor what's in hand. Ideas are brought up, quickly resolved or just left behind in favor of the next thing, going back to revisit some of the more interesting things every now and then, but without satisfying development. The stat spamming is a bit egregious as well.
I had requested and received audiobook version of this book for free from the author, in exchange for an unbiased review.
Wow, what a world I just witnessed. Loved the scene setup in this book and all the characters. It is evident that the author has a great grasp on how to write character improvement arcs. Loved reading their progress throughout the book and how they kept getting better.
Thing that I didn't like about the book is the fact that it felt incomplete. The story just ends midway, to be continued in the next book I presume. imo, every book in a series should give some sort of closure to a major part of the story of the book. This book #2 of this series doesn't do that. :(
Narration by Tristan Morris was good. All the characters had distinct voices and I had no trouble figuring out who's who.
As good as the first one, is good to know how Dave life in the simulation is going on, that doubt has been on my mind for a while. Great to have an old ally araound, it will sure make things more interesting. Now is great that single line dropped in the first book is finally guetting shaped in this second one, after all the implications were huge. Now I don't know if its me remembering things wrong but there is a couple of instance where I think the author forgot about some details from book 1, one of those would be the mantles to hide the identity that Bob gave Dave and Deia, sincerely for been a God gift they served no purpose at all even when they encountered players it never served the purpose of hide their identitys.
Rather disappointing. The second volume of the series wastes the potential of several promising concepts developed in the first one and turns the story more and more into the usual LitRPG fare. The focus is put mostly onto the achievement of more skills, attributes and points rather than returning to the ontological questions brought up by the revelations of the true circumstances of humanity's existence.
From the great clashes from the last installment to this one I was expecting the clash of factions. I was delighted to see a new flavor of political conflicts and revelations. Though this book never climaxed it was a great read. I look forward to seeing the tumble of dominoes. Also the detail and insights for how the magic system and world works was a refreshing reprieve from other series that are magic cause of magic...
The setting of a novel is important and this one is consistent, engaging and just plain fun. What really defines a novel's quality, though, is the characters themselves. You find yourself genuinely liking these people and wanting to know what happens to them as they learn and grow. This book and the first one are some of the best I have read in years.
I really enjoyed this story, largely due to the fact that I'm a sucker for crafting and progression! I enjoyed the new characters, the world building and the MC crafting. Be warned that the big narrative in this book is the pursuit of becoming a Blacksmithing Master and that there is not big action arch. I was fine with this although it completely caught me off guard when the book ended!
Dave works to become a master smith, while his friends hang out and train. Big picture bad things are happening, and the people of emerilia are starting to learn more about it.
It had been a while since book 1. I mostly remembered what's going on, and picked up more from context. I do wish "bleeders" got defined again in the book though, because I can't remember the exact significance of the term.
I really enjoyed book 1, and book 2 continues all of the things I enjoyed most. I love the building and crafting, and we see that continue here. I did enjoy watching Dave build his home in book 1 and would like to see some more construction take place soon.
This is Science Fiction wrapped in Fantasy. The excitement of Book 1 continues with this one. Good character development. Note: there is some strong language. With this book, I went on and bought the whole series (got #10 when it was published). Am waiting for #11. They are all worth reading.
I am enjoying the story. The way some of the NPC's act seems irregular. For instance the way the demon acted when he first met with Deia and when he was speaking with Suzy was way different, which could be explained by the demons hunger and Anna's speaking to him. When the demon was speaking to Dave I felt the demon was out of character.
This story is based on a role playing game framework. There is enough character development to make the central characters interesting. The story moves along quickly enough to avoid boredom. Plot twists and surprises keep the plot interesting.
The romantic elements can be overbearing, and I didn’t care for the excessive swearing from some of the characters. I also found the ending weirdly abrupt. But Chatfield continues to build a compelling world with fun, larger than life threats. It’s a less eventful outing for the series, but it manages to never get boring thanks to Dave’s endlessly inventive mind.
Much better writing than the first book, the story felt more linear with less time jumps and a central goal throughout the book of completing Dave's Master Smith arc. Lots of interesting progress on the overarching story of the series and additions of Suzy and Anna to the party feels like it rounds out the team. I liked this book a lot better than the first.
New to this style of fantasy. And this writer does a fantastic job of humor, intelligence, and story. Trying to get more people interested because it's quite entertaining.
This book focuses more on world building and character progression. There isn't much in the way of combat. However I found the world so likable that this didn't bother me any.
Read these books on Royal Road. Still reading chapters as they come out. Trapped mind got me hooked. I love the characters. This has the beginning of party zero. I like the edited version packaged up in book form.