Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Emerilia #8

Beyond All Expectations

Rate this book
The Event of Myths and Legends has started! The first spawn points have started to open, issuing forth creatures and people that were banished from Emerilia long ago.

Dave and the Pandora’s Box group are advancing their plans and building projects as fast as possible. When an opportunity arises to take their projects to the next level they’re going to have to use all of their tricks and crafting abilities in order to seize it.

The Stone Raiders and the Terra Alliance that they have formed will undergo it’s first baptism, the time of peace has ended.

In this event they need to be the strongest to protect what they care for. Either they will die again and again losing levels and people of Emerilia, or they will be able to stand, their strength growing to new heights.

520 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 6, 2017

682 people are currently reading
207 people want to read

About the author

Michael Chatfield

69 books1,387 followers
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.

You can connect with him on Patreon and don't forget to follow him on social media!

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/authormichael...
Website: http://michaelchatfield.com/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authormichael...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authormicha...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authormichae...
Facebook Group: The Chatfield Connection - https://www.facebook.com/groups/37693...

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
1,210 (55%)
4 stars
644 (29%)
3 stars
270 (12%)
2 stars
63 (2%)
1 star
12 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
Profile Image for Markus Khul.
57 reviews2 followers
December 28, 2018
Over the last couple of weeks I've read the first 8 books from the Emerilia series, and I can't say that I'm impressed.

The premise was pretty decent, but the constant inconsistencies in the story and parts of the world finally wore me down to write a review. All of the books need an editor really bad.

Does the author not care about what he wrote previously? I swear, in every book there are numerous continuity errors that just get worse and worse. A bunch of skills and rules that were introduced in the first few books just got ignored in the rest of them.

Even the name of Dia's little brother changed from book 7 to book 8. WHY?

I think that what most bothers me is that the series doesn't really have a true MC. Dave was one at the start, however poor of an MC he was, but in the last few books that I read he's treated like any other of the VAST cast of characters. What's worse, I don't care about any of them. Maybe Josh Giles, but we don't get a lot of time with him.

The constant puns and references from the 20th century get more and more annoying as the books go on. I don't even know why because I believe it was said in the first book that the Eart simulation is in the 23rd century, and then a few books later they just ignored all of that.

Another thing that bothered me a lot in the last few books was the pregnancy situation with Dia. My mom lost a child when she tried to pick up a rock while pregnant, and a friend of mine lost one when she carried groceries from the store to her car. And here Dia is, freaking flying around, practicing combat, and fighting raids like it was nothing. The absolute disregard for her child made me not like her and even started my dislike for Dave for allowing it. I kept expecting her to suffer an injury or an accident in order to punish her callousness, but nope, everything went peachy.

All in all, I don't know if I'll finish this series. Maybe if I have time later.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone expecting anything more than something to kill time. If you want to turn off your brain and read then go for it, otherwise, don't.
Profile Image for James Halski.
37 reviews1 follower
August 3, 2019
These books continue to pull me in with every chapter. Maybe its because this is the kind of life i want to live, to escape my desk, to live in a world where i can put 10 points to vitality and 20 points to charisma ;) Lets be serious though.....i won't need charisma, 20 points to stamina ;)

Anywho, Dave continues to build and build and i can only expect that this will come to an epic conclusion in the last 3 books. I'm looking forward to it.

5 points to guitar hero finger dexterity
Profile Image for Keith.
145 reviews1 follower
August 23, 2017
More reviews!

Honestly it's book 8 if you're still reading then why do you need to read these reviews? You obviously like the books, now stop wasting time and get to reading! If you haven't read book 1 through 7 then you should do that first, just saying.
Profile Image for Moira.
1,144 reviews63 followers
June 26, 2018
25.6.2018 - 3,5*
Může to vypadat, že série ztrácí své momentum. MC sice přichází se svými šílenými nápady a stále objevujeme svět, který je větší a větší, ale je to tak nějak pořád to stejné. Člověk má pocit, jako by Chatfield psal ze setrvačnosti. Na jeho obranu, rozehrál toho tolik, že musí adresovat všechny body děje, jinak by se to celé rozpadlo.
Proč ale já osobně čtu stále dále - Emerilia má jeden z nejzdravějších (a nejúžasnějších) vztahů mezi MC a ženou (ano, singulár). I kdyby byl Dave náhle lobotizovaný s pouze jednou hemisférou a napůl funkčními synapsemi, už jen proto, jaký vztah reprezentuje, stále budu číst dále. ^^
Profile Image for GaiusPrimus.
868 reviews97 followers
February 1, 2018
The editing issues of the series are acerbated on this novel; it could be because I just finished reading the previous one but the mistakes are there nonetheless.

Besides the above, the most glaring issue for me is the laziness of the author when it comes to numbers, especially in relation to army sizes, casualties and continuity. Part of this is probably because the story was a webserial, converted to a novel but a large part of it is laziness.

I'm going to have to take a break from it before I finish the series.
Profile Image for Steve Naylor.
2,484 reviews127 followers
February 4, 2019
Rating 3.0

Wow this series has taken a nosedive! I listened to the audiobook and it felt like it would never end. I was seriously thinking about rating this 2 stars until the last hour. Everything I liked about the story is gone and everything I don't like was prevalent. I always like the world building magic aspect. I loved when Dave was in the forge creating weapons and equipment. He would start from scratch and explain in great detail how his creations were formed. He was constantly learning and creating. Building his magic and levels. The last 2 books all that is gone. He has maybe gained 5-10 levels in the last 2 books. The stuff he is building now is more space based - Sci fi type instead of fiction. He doesn't even build anything anymore. He creates a device that builds things for him. What would have taken him months in the previous books is done is a couple of minutes.

Then there is the non stop fighting. They go from one fight to the next. I listened to 1 battle for more than 2 hours! The big battles were never my favorite in this series, I prefered the small team or 1:1 competitions. It was hard to visual some of the monsters that kept coming to the world, an the enemy numbers seemed to keep changing. They would kill tons of the enemy and be in good shape and then the enemy had more people. The Stone Raiders never seemed to be losing any position or many people and yet they always seemed to be outumber? There has been too much build up and too many enemies. Remember when the Dark and Light affinity were supposed to be the enemy? Haven't heard from the Dark affinity in over 4 books. So now they have to fight these Age of Legends monsters 1 right after another for however long which is not easy and they might not survive. Then they have to fight the pantheons who are even tougher? Then fight the Jukal? It's getting to much for me and I don't really think it is worth it anymore.
286 reviews4 followers
August 14, 2017
Fun and fantastic, funtastic

There were this scene where the story could have gone dark, a couple of the side characters had realized that the MCs weren't sharing everything they knew but instead of getting upset or schemey, they just sort of shrugged and figured that the MCs had a good reason for it, it was slight unbelievable but I loved that moment anyway because it highlighted everything that I love about this story...this is a world that's full of optimism and awesome people who spend their days doing awesome things everyone who's not a villain is always at least somewhat likeable and innately reasonable...this whole story has felt like a cross between star trek, and the good parts of the star wars and lords of the rings franchises...expansive and bright and fun and hopeful...and I love it because of that...grimdark has its place but sometimes you just want to know that everything will probably be okay....so long as people work together and try..that's the sort of series this is....10 stars out of 5. Double points.
790 reviews7 followers
August 22, 2017
Fighting, building and more

Book 8 in the series has some nice sections with several of the major characters. Epic battles with newly released species are well scripted. Looking forward to the next.
93 reviews2 followers
August 17, 2017
Decent

A good next book for the series, but unfortunatelly nothing new.. For some it is a good thing, since you get what you got used to, but in the eighth book i was expecting something more... sorry
Profile Image for Paps.
562 reviews3 followers
January 29, 2019
So my rating is more of an 2.7 because I didn't love this one as the others, it had all the components to keep the good work the series has been bringuing but the excecution wasn't great. I think I migth need to slow down in reading this series starting now. Besides the author keeps glorifying motives when they are well stablished, there is no need to keep flourishing them, not to mention that there is some cases when the main characters feels shallow by putting their personal enjoyment before the dire of the situation. Even though is not an urgent matter every battle or danger lurking shouldn't be treated like an exp farm or a vacation event by those who know the reality of Emerillia, it makes them look bad sincerely.
Profile Image for Tony Hinde.
2,140 reviews76 followers
December 7, 2019
[DNF] Oh well, it was a good run while it lasted.

My interest was never really captured by this novel. As I continued to read, that interest waned to the point where I just stopped reading. At a third of the way through, nothing of note had happened, nor did it seem likely to in the near future.

I did not want to wade through chapter after chapter of the "Myths & Legends" event, where our heroes face off against one enemy after another but make little progress against the main objective. There was just no emotional pay-off.

Oh and a note to Michael Chatfield: Please find an editor that recognizes redundant grammar. E.g. "His control over Dark materials had reached such a degree of control he could use it without thought." This sort of thing crops up way too frequently.
1 review3 followers
September 7, 2017
Honestly, I loved the almost all of the other books. There were a few places the writing got a little rough: redundancy and poor word word choice that hindered the flow. This book was unbearable; I had to force myself to read more than a few pages at a time after about the first quarter. Around the middle of the book I could barely finish a page before closing it. I have no idea why I seem to be the only person suffering from this. I'll try the next book; I won't try this one again without it being revised. I probably failed to edit this correctly; but writing negative reviews is painful so I can't be bothered.
Profile Image for Jesse Banks.
2 reviews
December 26, 2019
I absolutely love this series. I typically listen to my audio books when I work or drive, but I found myself continuing to listen to this series even at home. I have listened to about 70 or 80 LitRPG audio books and found this to be one of the more consistent ones. The progression through the book remains constant and there aren't huge boring swaths of useless fluff here and there like a lot I have read.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the genre and especially those who love technology, runes, and magic. This book does a great job of creating a unique magic system based around all of this.
I have read some really stupid reviews for this book as well complaining about the pregnancy. Why the hell are you reading a fantasy book complaining about someone working during a pregnancy? You might as well complain saying that the wind resistance on peoples faces would rip the skin off their bodies if they actually were traveling that fast. Oh wait, that would be explained by the strengthened body & vitality of said person. Why would you think all of that would apply to everything except the womb? Also, it states that the baby is a demigod. But of course, keep relating stuff to real life, cause you know, that's what fantasy books are for. Makes no sense and it shows it is 2019 when people just want to complain or be offended by anything they possibly can.
29 reviews
February 18, 2019
Enjoying the series but have some problems

So I've been burning through these books over the last week and have really enjoyed it. Starting out I was pretty excited about Dave's way of leveling and boosting stats. My problem is that he's pretty much been hamstrung by now. The chars that were stronger than Dave but still on the same league are still strong than him even though he used the glitch. Diea and Lox for example. They were a patrol in the 80-100 lvl range. 8 books later they're still out of Dave's power range. Malsour and sister barely beat a lvl 250 demon lord in book 1 and now they are taking on lvl 2000 monsters? Dave is lvl 238 and gets a kill on a lvl 2000 char and he gains ONE level? His party kills 4 more of these monsters and he gains.... ONE level. Gove me a break.

I'm enjoying the story over all but am getting more and more frustrated.
Profile Image for Travis.
2,879 reviews48 followers
December 13, 2017
This was kind of a kick back and take it easy installment. We see lots of projects progressing, new allies, new enemies and of course the ever present lack of proofreading. The story does advance, and there are new plots to make the players fail, but through it all, our main characters hold the line and even grow into their rolls a bit. If you like the series, you may be slightly disappointed by the direction this one goes, but I think it's a good direction it took the story even if I did have to take a break halfway through to decompress a bit.
2,524 reviews71 followers
October 4, 2020
So this has just gotten lost in the forest.

The building has gotten ridiculous, the "spawning event" is uninteresting, the battles are drawn out and quickly become boring to read. The strength in the first books came from the characters and that was lost about two books ago, I found myself skimming through the last part just to finish.
518 reviews7 followers
September 26, 2022
Disappointing

The core story is engaging, the personal relationships are believable, and a lot of the characters are fun. However, low tension mass battles, repetitive descriptions, lots of passive voice, the explicit irrelevance of the level system, and a lack of appropriate hype for new threats had my eyes glazing over many pages.
658 reviews9 followers
May 13, 2023
This awesome missive continues.

New enemys to fight and conquer, new allies to be wooed. Loving the creativity and the action. Still waiting to find out what the Light, Darkness and Earth faction of the pantheon are up to as the Air, Fire and Water faction support the POE. Meanwhile team Dave have started ice planet and asteroid mining for resources. Way to go party zero.
15 reviews
September 23, 2023
Good continuation to the saga

It dragged a little in sections but overall I think the pacing was good. Thanks to the introduction of new interesting characters and cool achievements I finished it in only a couple of days. I recommend this to all who like RPG-themed books or adventure and sci-fi books. I'm also looking forward to reading the next books.
188 reviews2 followers
August 12, 2017
Love this series

Lots of action in this with hints of what is ahead. 8 books in and I still love the main characters, and the world building is phenomenal. Looking forward to the next book.
Profile Image for Curtis.
774 reviews20 followers
August 14, 2017
Awesome Progression

More story (and space!) expansion, more fighting, more inventions, and babies. Totally awesome. You really should read this series: it's fun, it's different,and the next actions are still completely obscured.
Profile Image for Austin Youngblood.
83 reviews4 followers
August 26, 2017
Always excited for Emerilia!

I always look forward to seeing what Dave et all are up to. Watching them continue to expand and always delivering new experiences, even 8 books later, always pulls me in!
4 reviews
October 15, 2019
Good series

The series is great. I love it.
However, almost every battle a character is described as a goddess of battle or some such which gets incredibly annoying. Additionally stat points will disappear or even not be added with no comment at all.
Otherwise an excellent series
13 reviews
September 5, 2020
Enjoyable!

This book advanced the story and characters meaningfully. Well-written and engaging, the characters are easy to like and the story continues to make me interested in the future developments.
50 reviews
March 11, 2025
A glimpse of the future

As the eighth book in this series it does not disappointed nt! The natural progression of the characters is thrilling. They feel like family. Fast paced quests and more intrigue is uncovered. I have to get book 9 now!
122 reviews2 followers
August 9, 2017
Everyone is better

Another home run. Story and people keep getting more complex. Love how prolific of a author he is as well!
8 reviews
August 10, 2017
Love the combination of large troupe engagement and small party quests. also like how the different projects are moving forward! Looking forward to the next book!
60 reviews
November 11, 2017
Each book in this series has progressively harder problems to solve. It is Science Fiction wrapped in Fantasy. Great character development. Very enjoyable. I've read every book of this series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.