Lee is a quiet and unassuming office worker who leads a life of solitude, comfort, and routine. Day in and day out, he shuts off his brain, keeps his head down, and goes about doing his job and minding his own business. That is, he does until a drunken god shows up randomly one day and whisks him off into another world, demanding that Lee serve as his pawn in a game between the gods. Now, trapped in a completely different world full of danger, magic, and creatures he's never imagined outside of fairy tales and video games, Lee has to figure out how to stay alive long enough to make it back home. This book has deities and a conversion mechanic.
War Aeternus: The Beginning By: Charles Dean, Joshua Swayne Narrated by: Jeff Hays Soundbooth Theater This is an audible book I requested and the review is voluntary. I loved this book. I normally don't like books that make you feel you are in a video game but this is different. A god of alcohol and crafts decides he needs more followers so he drafts his closest relative, a human named Lee. Of course this guy doesn't know this god or anything about this game between the gods but now he is thrown into a game. It is a fun adventure, filled with humor, excitement, and pure craziness! Lee gets a side kick named Miller who is a big dumb and enthashist. It is never dull and has a mystery too. The narrator was great! Not easy to do comedy and he was great! It kept the story fun, engaging, flowing well, voices were great, and I enjoyed the performance! Great job-book and narration!
I got the audiobook during the year end 2-4-1 sale on Audible. I'm glad I did!
I like the character spin for this LitRPG. Lee is a smart guy that's figured out how to live his life in a comfortable manner and zero ambition for anything else. It's just too bad that Augustus yanks him out of his life and throws him into another world. Suddenly, he's a pawn of a God and commanded to find worshipers for Augustus or face death and never go home.
Pros: - Engaging Intro - Decent balance between game mechanics & story. - Nice mix of cookie-cutter characters & a handful of complex ones in the spotlight. - Story worked well on small scale beginner setup. - Interesting "God Power" System - I approve of the good food makes friends concept. =D - Cute golems! - Funny moments, some of which are painful + funny. - Satisfying ending!
Cons: - Awkward internal monologues about converting NPC's into worshipers. The idea of a god's power being dependent on the number of worshipers is fine but it's like the story is arguing with itself about the basic premise of developing a congregation. - Clumsy build towards harem romance. Maybe it won't go there? Lee doesn't seem like the type (within the story) to want to commit to a group of females. - Stuttering story flow and dull action sequences.
When it comes to Jeff Hays as a narrator I quickly learned one cannot go wrong when following his lead.
Therefore, not having read anything by Charles Dean before wasn't an issue - I knew this had to be good. And good it, indeed, was.
Story begins with a "Hey ! Let me yank you in this MMO world and explain why you cannot leave it until I say so" approach we're getting quickly used to. Probably is hard to work around that successfully. I don't really mind.
Well, our boy Lee is the one who got yanked from real reality into a virtual reality here. Not really a big loss, considering how his real life looked at that point.
Augustus, a God of Drink and Small Crafts (IIRC) was the one who kidnapped Lee in order to have an Avatar presenting him in the Game of Gods. Or something equally humbling and with high outlook of certain, imminent, death.
After the realization that he doesn't have a slightest say in the matter dawned on him, Lee tried to make a proverbial lemonade. Pawn as he may be, he was armed with something other characters in the game didn't have access to. Bacon!
Well, not really bacon, but-- OK, yes, bacon, too, but he had access to internet, when allowed back in the real world. That allowed for tomes of strategy and tactics to be read, as well as ides on how to craft, access to holy scriptures to help convert the flock... and cookbooks, yes. Food is still the best proof that Gods speak through you ;-)
Anyway, the quest was simple. Get the number of followers for his God Augustus up and... well... defeat Avatars of all the other Gods. *gulp*
Easy, right? ;-)
Well, it surely was fun! First party member Lee met was Donovan Miller - a bloodthirsty, psychotic Knight madman. Character itself is hilarious, but when Jeff decided to give him a voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger it boosted fun factor to eleven!
I'm laughing right now, just remembering the crazy pyromaniac which later became a Paladin. Trust me, it makes sense :-)
"Does it require drinking or building something? Or building something while drunk!?"
I found it particularly awesome that the end of each chapter concluded with Lee's Character Sheet. You were free to skip to the next chapter if that bothered you, but I personally enjoyed keeping track of his progress and seeing a skill summary grow over time. Like I actually played the character.
Writing was top notch and narration left nothing to be desired. Truly an enjoyable 14h experience! It took me less than 11 hours on 1.3x speed as Jeff's perfectly balanced narration speed allowed for it.
War Aeternus: The Beginning by Charles Dean (Goodreads Author), Joshua Swayne, Jeff Hays (Narrator)
Verdict: Extremely fun and interesting LitRPG. Can't wait for the sequel!
Why did I lower my score from 4 to 1 after reading it a second time?
I just re-read this book and noticed some glaring plotholes and a few problematic issues. They just niggled at me the first time around, but I can't ignore them now after they came into focus. I'm going to bring up one example that contains a few of them: the scene with the rape victim in the basement.
A village woman and love interest, a hot-headed player and our con-artist MC search for a missing girl. They find her tied up in the basement of a tailor shop. She's naked and has evidently recently been sexually assaulted. The player goes into a rage and slaughters the rapist. Then he scares the victim. Our MC steps in instead. We get to know her level of attractiveness (not as high as the love interest, but pretty decent). He gives her his old pants, but she doesn't know how to work a zipper. The MC tries to pantomime how it works, but she doesn't get it. He doesn't want to add her having to hold up her pants (wow, the struggle...) to the burden of the already traumatized woman so he tries to find a solution. He realizes it will be additionally traumatizing for her, but sees no other choice and feels she'll just have to bear with it for a sec. He steps close to her and does up the pants for her. He tries but fails to not be turned on. They then leave.
1. We focus on the feelings of the two men, one battling anger and the other his lust (sure he's mad too at first, but then is mostly awkward) 2. They are in a tailor shop that should have yards upon yards of fabric laying around and some finished products he could have given her instead of his pants. 3. Why did the MC step in and not let the village girl handle things? The two women know each other and if unknown violent men are scary for her, a woman might be less threatening. They could bond around their shared experience of both being kidnapped by the bandits. Well, no, that wouldn't work because then the MC can't show us what a "good guy" he is and we wouldn't get this lovely detailed scene that adds so much to the plot 4. Why did she get raped and not the love interest? Most of the kidnapped women (and why they didn't assault the men in similar ways I don't know since that is a great way to especially demoralize a man) seem to have been assaulted by the bandits, so why was "the most beautiful girl in the world" spared? I don't want anyone to have been scarred in that way and don't like to read about rape at all, but I just don't see how it makes sense. Wait, of course, I do: if the MC's love interest has recently been raped we'd probably have to deal with the lasting trauma that comes with surviving such an event. In this way, we can forget about all the horror by the next chapter and can still cash in on all that shock value. Win-win, am I right? 5. What point does the rape serve? Showing that the bad guys are bad? Letting the MC be a white knight? In what way is a brutal rape not just being used to make our MC look better?
These thoughts kept nagging at me the rest of the book and I really started to wonder about our MC. Most often he is described as a morally grey to dark person that is roleplaying as Jesus. He isn't a very nice guy and often admits it. He's selfish, uninspired, apathetic and lacks empathy. That's an interesting plot: a bad guy being seen as a saint and maybe throwing in some character development along the way. But then there are a few scenes where the MC is described as a "nice guy", usually by contrasting him to the hot-headed player or the rapist slavers. I mean he's forced to "gain followers" to a religion, but he decides 100% all on his own how he should go about that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This book was humorous quite often, which is great and the story, though weird was nicely original when considering all the other LitRPGs out there. I wouldn't call it a 100% great, but I would read the next book in the series, which should be endorsement enough :)
Lee was isekai'd into a war game, same old. He meets some guys, and con them into helping him. That was pretty interesting. Unfortunately, the litrpg aspect gets into the way of the already thin plot, and disturbs the pacing of the book. The character sheets serve absolutely no purpose. After each fight we are presented with a completely irrelevant text about the loot and experience he gathered, but why? Why do I care how many axes and swords went into his inventory if they never get mentioned again? Other similar stuff like the change to his skills while inebriated are mentioned but never defined or used. Some relevant things are used only once, like the magic recipe book and the spells, when they could have played an important part of the story.
This was a pretty long book (or it felt like it was), and could have been reduced to half the size. There is a semblance of a plot somewhere in this book, and the god bickering was a little amusing, but the unnecessary litrpg elements sidetrack that.
This has an interesting premise. You are transferred to a video game world that isn't a video game world, but a real world where people are popping into it because to them it IS a video game. The MC is a nut. He had me dying the whole time, and the BEST part of the story is his sidekick Miller. That dude is off his rocker. He is everything you'd want in a homicidal best-friend. No I mean it. The guy literally extirpates a dudes collar bones and then proceeds to impale said named bones into the eyes of the person for kidnapping someone........He is so metal. Also, he's like the best friend you call not only to hide a body, but to help you rack, stack and make more bodies. I canNOT wait for the second book. BTW, the MC is NOTHING like Miller, in fact. He's quite the opposite....well, until about the middle of the book.....but for good reason.....read it to find out. I'm telling you....it's worth the read.
I can't quite put my finger on what went wrong here. The book was a real struggle to read towards the end, I very much wanted to give up.
Basically your standard litRPG story. Nothing glaringly wrong except perhaps the all the characters we a little dull, the plot a little linear and too long. Needed a faster pace, more interesting characters with better (any) development.
The stat sheet part of this seemed to serve no purpose too. Which I mean in LitRPG you at least sort of expect a nod towards "you need X level to do Y".
Eh. It wasn't awful, but I wasn't so impressed either. The author makes a point of proving what a good guy the main character is by having him think chauvinistic things and then tell himself to stop being bad. It's it really so hard to just have a male MC who just isn't a jerk at all?
First and foremost I’d to congratulate Charles Dean for his work on The series “War Aeternus”. I have finished all 4 books each as captivating and entertaining on its own unique way. A big shout out to the amazing work of Jeff Hays and Annie Ellicott from Soundbooth Theater. This is my 5th book I have finished from Charles Dean ( The Heroic Villain). This was my introduction to litrpg. I’m very pleased on how the scenes were painted to the point of its smallest details( especially battle scenes). Also I’m just going to put this out here, Soundbooth Theater is a masterpiece. I think the combination of both how detailed Charles is and how deep Jeff Hays gets into each character. The scenes are narrated to perfection. Where as in other narrative teams they need to point out certain emotions, Soundbooth theater is able to bring it to life with no description needed. You can feel how each emotion, mood is happening as its played out. There is a difference in describing and acting out the scenes. I’m very pleased with how they operate. I believe its a perfect combination like wine and cheese. So as a reader, I’d rather pay more for quality work to have Soundbooth Theater narratives. It’s such an amazing difference compared to other audiobooks. It can really ruin a good book to be honest, if the narrative team is not as competent and passionate with the work of the author. I seen it happen, and would just like to give authors and readers out there the outlook on both teams. Like I mentioned earlier I’d wait and pay more to have a team like Soundbooth theater work passionately and bring the book to life. I’m not knocking other narrative teams but if anything I want to motivate them to improve and use them as an example. I have waited to finish all 4 books before reviewing. I wanted to have an overall outlook on the series. Each book you become closer and closer to all characters. You can feel the transition and growth of each character throughout the series. I’d love to see maybe War Aeternus 5 one day. There was another post that made a good point, when we want a series to continue, a good way to do that is to promote all previous books. So that others readers are aware and can generate the demand for the author. So if you are a fan, like myself. I’m going to do my best to spread the word and preach War Aeternus ! Follow the God of alcohol and crafts! Bring as many followers as you can! For justice and Glory!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
The story is ok, but I found the characters pretty shallow, the main character premise twist doesn't make a lot of sense in the context of the story and there are plenty of logic leaps that are jarring to the reader.
Added to that, there are many editing mistakes. I'm not talking about typos; I'm talking about things being repeated, or being called something else in a different spot or just internally inconsistent.
It's a shame though, because the other series the author had written are not plagued by the same.
A LitRPG story. A god battle with chosen champion(s). The story focuses on one character that is the harold of the god of alcohol and crafts. The use of golem crafting is interesting.
I got a review copy of this book a bit ago from the author, but somehow confused it for another title and this one just slipped through the cracks. Thankfully, the author reminded me he sent me a copy, and I am glad he did, because it was an enjoyable LitRPG experience.
Lee is the typical IT drone, making decent money but really just cruising through on autopilot, with no challenges other than raids with his gaming buddies. No challenge, that is, until a "god" named Augustus transports him to what amounts to the setting of a medieval RPG and tells him he is Augustus's new herald on the world, and he is to gain worshippers for Augustus if he ever want to make it home. Unfortunately for Lee, Augustus is being punished by the other players, "gods" of this world, and his herald is sent in at level zero, with a two month disadvantage over his rivals on the world. Not the best way to start a game where the stakes are life and death.
After defeating his first opponent through luck as much as anything else, Lee, who the world system recognizes as an NPC, starts leveling up. Meeting a a bloodthirsty giant firbolg named Donovan, who is a player in the system, Lee starts recruiting followers as he goes, including Ling, an NPC village girl handy with a bow, who suddenly gains independent awareness around Lee. Questing through the area, Lee and his followers must complete the quests to help Lee fulfil his duty to Augustus so he can get back home, all while trying to not get killed by the other god's heralds, all who are more powerful than Lee with their two month head start in leveling up. This all leads up to Lee's confrontation with another god's herald, sending shockwaves through the game world.
While I think as a genre LitRPG is hit or miss, this was much more a hit than miss. Starting with a meta kind of premise, that "gods" play an RPG on a server hosted by a creator, in which real people are the in game characters, the author makes use of the standard genre tropes but spins them in some creative ways. Lee is fairly standard as a character, but grows into his role, all while silently hoping he isn't doing the wrong thing converting the masses. The secondary characters are fun, if a little cliched. The setting should be familiar to anyone who has ever played an RPG, and that comfort level makes it easier to get into the story. The plot moves along at a fairly brisk pace, and readers should be able to power right though the story.
The narration is handles by the always excellent Jeff Hays. Basically the king of LitRPG audiobook narration, this title is no exception. He is excellent creating various characters in the listeners mind though use of tone, pacing and accents. Donovan especially stands out, as Jeff basically channels his inner Ahnold voice for the rampaging firbolg. His narrative pacing is excellent, and really keeps the listener engaged. Another excellent effort on his part.
While it isn't perfect, War Aeternus is definitely a series I can wholeheartedly recommend. Any fan of the genre should be able to find something to enjoy in it.
Read both books 1 and 2 and found this series to be a really nice balance of real life and gaming worlds. I also love the humor as well as hidden pop-culture references sprinkled throughout the story. It's an easy read without too much drama which is good for a casual reader if you're not into too heavy topics.
The gaming element was pretty present which really helped sell the Lit!RPG/Isekai genre and having the MC's status updates after every chapter makes you feel like you're leveling up alongside him. However I'm semi-bothered by the fact that the attributes only level up +1 per level and unlike most "games" it doesn't show the usual basic stats like VIT/STR/DEX/AGI etc. But rather show the secondary "special stats" instead which he seems to pile on as the books progress. Also some of the stat level ups can be nigh next to useless (when was the last time you get only 1-2% increase on an ability at levels 20? ) and sometimes they seemed to be extra OP (his ability to make potions).
Overall still a nice casual read and highly amusing. The religious aspects of the gaming element really reminds me of a Lit!RPG version of Mike Resnick's The Chronicles of Lucifer Jones Series.
I have to say that this is definitely a book you shouldn't judge by its cover, at least if you are seeing the same default cover on this site as I am. The default cover looks kind of like a fan art quality thing and makes the guy look too much like a stereotypical jock. The other cover is much more fitting. The main character is far from a jock, and the story surpasses what you would expect to find in something you would find a fan art quality on. The story was featured a main character who was brought into another world that runs on a game system created by a god to do war games of gods, which isn't the most original LitRPG story, but it is done well. The character in this can occasionally travel back to Earth to take care of some matters there such as doing research for his time in the world the gods run. That kind of reminded me of the book Champion for Hire by John Van Stry, and that book was not LitRPG but still really enjoyable. If you liked that book and like LitRPG, you should definitely read this book. The other thing that I liked about this book was that the main character has some divine DNA, with it granting him higher intelligence and a greater ability to learn things. I love seeing what paths this will take. I look forward to what comes next in this series and recommend it.
Story is great. Audiobook performance and narration is fantastic. Humorous and interesting characters and individuals. The MC drives me a bit nuts at times because he's supposed to be intelligent, but misses obvious and easy advantages at times, and gets in his own way a lot. Winds up contradicting himself at times because of failing to think things through.
I'm still listening, and the biggest gripe I have is him stupidly trying to lie and hide his familiar and the advantages it grants, when simply explaining golem crafting as a divine skill he has would allow him to avoid a lot of stupid stuttering attempts to explain how he accomplishes things. I mean, with his goal, explaining it as a divine gift wouldn't hurt at all. It might even boost his reputation more by allowing him to avoid suspicion at times.
Beyond that, his failure to speak up and assert himself more annoys the shit out of me, but given his personality and massive lack of confidence that makes sense in early days. I mainly hope that he learns and grows through his accomplishments and learns some confidence, but not so much that he becomes an arrogant moron. Lol
When a story has (for the most part) one Point of View like most LitRpg stories should do, it allows me to enter that world in my mind. In this story the main character was forced to enter a Game World and convert NPC's to a god of alcohol and crafting. He did this even though his belief was in God the Creator. I usually hate reluctant heroes, but this was done really well. I Want More of this Story.
This was the first time reading this Author because his other series made you buy the first book and then the next book was a KU book which makes no sense. I look forward to the explanation on the Facebook LitRpg page. I will now consume the rest of this Authors works and series as he is an excellent Storyteller based by this book.
Just say no! A programmer/gamer, Lee, is enslaved for eternity by a lesser God, Augustus (God of Alcohol and craft), just because, and forced to become a NPC (Non-Player-Character) in a game where there is no game system no game balance, no safe zones, nothing really...nothing good anyways. The story is written by seat of the author's pants...and not very good. It's as if the main character of this really bad "urban-VRMMORPG"-fantasy book and series won the lottery (a really bad lottery) and everything that could go wrong does...as if the author were Satan and this story was hell, and all of the punishments that the author could inflict upon the main character, for no reason at all. It's not funny, it does not have a real game-like system, and there is no real point to this book or the series. I do not recommend this book or the series.
"Amazing RPG story. Masterclass performance!" This book was given to me free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
This book is an amazing story full of great characters and a unique take on the fantasy story. RPG Game story. I loved the way it pulls you in slowly and teases you with answers throughout the story. You feel like you are learning as the characters learn and a great ending.
The narration is fantastic and hard to believe that only 1 person voices the entire book however it is incredibly immersive and keeps you wanting to listen.
I am thoroughly looking forward to the second book and hope the narrator stays the same.
If you like a good fantasy book and have ever played an RPG game this book is worth your time.
War Aeternus is a LitRPG in the same vein as The Land: Founding, Person pulled into another world by a god. Not that the books are very similar beyond that. War Aeternus has a much more lighthearted tone than The Land. What's really nice about this book, compared with it's contemporaries, is it has a good deal less focus on the combat and has more of an investigative bent to it. The combat is there, of course, bit it's more weighty. the characters don't mow through dozens of mobs, each fight has an element of danger to it and a purpose.
*Bonus points because I can't remember the word 'flesh' showing up once in the book*
I really struggled to finish this book and ended up skimming large swaths of it just to get to the end. My biggest issue was I didn’t care about any of the main characters. Like, at all. In fact, there was one character in particular that I downright despised - he was supposed to be one of those endearingly annoying characters, but ended up just being plain annoying.
The story mechanics were also weird - the story had levels and stats, but they didn’t seem to do much.
Overall, just didn’t really seem to connect with this story. No plans to continue with the series.
Fair warning to anyone considering reading this, it's a trap harem series. Once you get roped into through the first book, the following books become much more oriented around harem management. Each book ramps up the harem management. By the 5th book the main character does most of his skill and power progression/training "off screen" because all "on screen" time has to dedicated to harem management.
If I am being honest, it is a 3 star series, but Jeff Hays as the audiobook narrator is an automatic extra star for any series.
What can i say that is positive about this book.............. Well best i can do is say that it is interesting.
That said i do have to explain that i have a low tolerance for ....Stupid Main characters. LMAO The Main god in the story truly was correct in calling the MC a imbecile. Honestly.. The MC is the type of utter incompetent that its a surprise he made it to adulthood without winning a darwin award by doing something idiotic.
The Most likeable character in this book is the drunk god of crafting.
This one was funny, entertaining, and an overall good story. I like how the hero became a demigod without even realizing it, and didn't try for the status. I like how even afterwords, he didn't let it go to his head, and I especially like how he tried hard to keep perspective even when returning to the real world. Very well done, and I'll be looking for the rest in this series, I'm anxious to see how this character develops in future installments.
Great Audio from Dean with some good progression and characters you can follow quite easily . The concept is interesting although i doubt in the first to think we are all being played by Gods as part of a game , this is the first i have came across where it becomes an arbitrary set of rules as part of the Virtual games in LitRPG however. Narration by Hays is as you would expect so top marks for that. I would listen to more of these as they are quite easy to follow and become engrossed in.
Some of this was your standard LitRPG launch (new guy sent into the world with a no info and a disadvantage to the other players, medieval world with magic, etc.). But by the end of the book there were some really creative twists and the world had grown into something very interesting.
I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes. And I'm sucker for progression/growth stories! I just love the process of learning and leveling up.
A little different. Both low key in setting but also on the level of gods. The world is weird. It's a MMO within a MMO, but also multiple MMOs within one MMO. The real world being on such world, where the god (the one in control of the server, I guess) can pause the game. Lets see if this it thought through. The MC reads like GenX in sensibilities. The women act more like wishfulfillment from a nerd than actual women. And, as per usual, the MC uses his powers inconsistently.
Almost gave it 5 stars but i couldn't stand miller.
This was a very good story but it had one major flaw that made me almost put the book down a couple times. And that flaw was the MCs new partner Miller, the loud mouth moron who assumes he knows everything, even when what he claims to know is right there telling him otherwise.
It has some rocky bits, but I highly recommend for those who are just looking to be entertained. It has an interesting theme that has rarely been pulled off well, in this case it was very well done. Interesting enough that I look forward to seeing what comes next.