Playing For Keeps

Alpha World #4

by Daniel Schinhofen

Alpha Company is embarking on a grand mission, crossing the Dead Lands to find and conquer Gwain’s Keep. Led by Alburet, most of the guild embarks on what could be an epic and memorable journey, as they aim at being the first Two-souled guild to capture a keep.

Besides safeguarding the members of the guild, Alburet also has to worry about the natives that are with them on their journey. Deidre Crowley, Stacia’s sister, is the one he worries about most, having sworn to see her safely across the lifeless desolation of the Dead Lands.

Having to be ultra-vigilant during the day, night brings welcome relief and relaxation to the raid. For Alburet, Karen, and Stacia it also brings their chance to help Fluffball come to grips with her past.

Rejoin the group in Alpha World while they “Play for Keeps”.

(This book contains adult themes, just like the rest of the series. If you didn’t like those themes there, you won’t like them here. Don’t say I didn’t warn you ahead of time. After all, one of the main supporting characters is a Succubus.)

Genres: Litrpg, Fantasy, Harem, Audiobook, Science Fiction, Erotica, Classics

305 pages, Audiobook

Published June 19, 2018

About the author

Daniel James Schinhofen is a self-published author in the burgeoning genre of LitRPG/Gamelit. He published his first book, Last Horizon: Beta, in October of 2016, and has recently published his fifteenth book. A best-selling author on Amazon multiple times, his four series have achieved name recognition in the genre. When not slavishly typing away at the next book, Daniel tries to unwind with video games, playing with his dog Sugar, or going for walks around his neighborhood. His books can be found easily via his website http://schinhofenbooks.com/. Daniel can be found via Twitter using the handle @DJSchinhofen.

Reviews

[Fadswaffer Mc Truffles]

Mental health.

So. Three quarters of this book is spent just traveling doing the same thing every day and reviewing each of their own mental health issues. Great and all. Not fun to really read the same thing over and over.

The guy created a guild, then basically does absolutely nothing with it anyways.

Short version of the review, it's a long book with only character development, and should have been about a third as long it is.

[Steve]

Rating 4.0 stars

I liked this book better than the last few. Did the writing change? Nope. Did the magic system suddenly become more complex? Nope. Was the dialogue somewhat repetitive? Yep. So why did I like this book more than the others? The author focused on the things I was most interested in reading about. It is funny how focusing on something I am interested in affects my enjoyment even though the quality of the book doesn't change. A good portion of this book deals with Karen's, Fluffballs, and Alburet's past. It becomes very emotional reading about what Karen and Fluff had to go through, especially fluff. There still wasn't much revealed about Alburets past, though there were some hints. I am not thinking that his friends daughter died and he has made different memories to keep from feeling that pain. The last 15 percent of the book is dealing with the raid on the keep.

[Ahren]

I don’t want to be a therapist.

I really liked the first few in the series. This one was a real slog though. The action was glossed over and every other chapter was about theses therapy sessions. Also I can only read so many sexually explicit scenes before it starts to feel like a filler. I think I’m done with this series.

[Steven]

The story is getting a little repetitive . I thought this was litrpg not twilight. I had to put it down at about 30 percent when I realized I could sum up that much of the book with a couple of paragraphs and someone could read the other 70 percent without feeling like they had missed any of the story.

[Adam]

Disappointed

I was really excited about this book coming out but sadly it makes me feel bored and temped to skip chapters, 2/3 of the book where about reading the same thing over and over, out of the 40 chapters in the book only 8 or so have anything to do with the title of the book "Playing for Keeps" should be more like "Playing with Others"
I live in hope that book 5 will better!!

[Miles]

2.75☆

[Sydney]

Abject Failure.

I honestly can't even finish this book. I was so excited to experience the Dead Lands, an extremely disappointing letdown. All of the bull of his wife Stacia trying to force him into a situation he is not yet comfortable with, even if it appears to intrigue him. The more this theme progresses the more disgusted I am with the increasing level of drivel spewed. That the author goes so far as to have Stacia's character brag about twisting Alburet's nature towards women in distress and manipulating him has ruined this for me. That was roo far. It is beyond aggravating that the author took, so much further, the annoyance of discrepancies between treatment for Alburet's holdups and Fluff's. While yes they are two completely different people, with two completely different pasts, I can only be a certain level of understanding. It appears the author doesn't believe a man can have a valid excuse for not being a sex crazed, take everyone who comes, kind of macho manly man. The level of "you a sissy if you have feelings and not only think about sex" is strong with this one.

Thank you for completely ruining Alpha World. Which was such an intriguing concept and plot, left to waste away in the sewage that is this book. So much potential squandered.

[Kithkannan]

Good...but feels...off

Ever had that one movie or book in the middle of a great series that just feels like a step down? That's this book. It's full of good gradual character growth and is obviously important to the overall story arc, but on its own it's a rather blah book.

Part of that is that almost exactly 2/3 of the book is a day by day account of the trip out to the keep...except it isn't, it's a recount of their time spent in camp, the actual travel is all brushed over. The raid on the keep is interesting enough, but feels rushed compared to the rather plodding pace of the first two sections of the book.

In short, if you have read the series this far then you should read this one so the character changes don't surprise you in book five, but don't expect to enjoy it much. This is a palate clenser so that book five's action and intrigue can better kick your teeth in (I hope).

[Ian]

Dragged on

I've really enjoyed this series for the most part, but there are definitely parts where the story gets very focused on grinding and repetitive. That unfortunately is almost this entire book. The memory diving was interesting, but besides that it was just Alburet being indecisive and very similar fight scenes. Also I feel like the slow progression of levels in the first books makes this super fast progression even more lame, I feel like making the levels less of a grind early would have really helped out the flow of these books.

[Art Lueder]

Alburet and the guild gather in favors and allies to make a two week trek across the Dead Lands to take Gwain's keep. The trek is very light on covering the fighting and heavy on the evening dreamwalks through Alburet, Karen, and Fluffball's memories. Alburet's resistance to the ladies desire for a polyamory relationship between all is a bit ridiculous and most of the book is heavy on the "feels" but still enjoyable. The raid battle at the end is pretty epic. Now if the fifth book would come out in Audible I could continue. Alas, I probably have a bit of a wait.

[E Mats]

What happened? Really disappointed

Action only started around the 64% mark and most of the story was dealing with mc and others issues. While that did need to be tackled mostly a whole book of it left a lot to be desired. We didn’t even get to see what types of abilities he got and basically he was power leveled almost the entire book. Very disappointed

[Dave Stone]

I'm really liking this series

This book changes it up just a little, but in a way that was telegraphed and feels like a natural development.
Half LitRPG adventure, Half back story as flash back therapy.
I've read a lot of LitRPG at this point and this is the first book to deal with large party raids. That was very well done. I really like this series.

[Johnny]

Good story

This was well written, as I only found one mistake.
Honestly though, this wasn't for me. To much time spent mind tripping to fix the characters mental hang ups.
The fight scenes where very short and just seemed like a secondary device to move the plot along.

[James]

A good addition to the series.

Once again I find myself sucked into the story and staying up late reading this book. Overall it was fun to read and I enjoyed how the author worked to make you feel engaged with the story.

[Jay Collins]

3 stars, pretty much the same as the rest of the series. They do get a little repetitive at this point but I am sure if you did the other books that you will do this one as well.

[Kiba Snowpaw]

Final Rating: 3.29/5.00
Starting score: 2.50
+0.47 for Fluff's recovery and reclaimed artistic agency
+0.24 for Karen's strength and the history beneath her defensiveness
+0.35 for Seamus's chosen-family memories and their emotional weight
+0.19 for mutual affection and care between the partners
+0.25 for native mortality and supporting characters with lives of their own
+0.36 for adaptive raid tactics, shared leadership, and costly mistakes
+0.14 for consequential history, politics, and settlement responsibilities
+0.07 for cultural references that support relationships and community
+0.15 for completing the keep campaign and giving it a tangible aftermath
-0.35 for romantic pressure and magical interference with emotional choice
-0.28 for repetitive daily routines and recurring full character sheets
-0.18 for sexual encounters that underdeliver on their extended buildup
-0.15 for postponing ability choices throughout enormous level gains
-0.17 for divine favour that supplies convenient protection and an abrupt escape
-0.09 for deferring Seamus's disclosure after resolving the nondisclosure obstacle
-0.08 for treating Karen's father's conditional apology too readily as closure
-0.05 for confirmed grammatical and word-choice errors
-0.08 for a damage calculation that contradicts the danger it is meant to establish
Calculated final score: 3.29/5.00

I cried listening to this. The raw emotion pressed into my chest, and that hurt is a large part of why these characters matter to me. Fluff struggling to accept care, Karen carrying her father's demands, and Seamus facing the people he has lost give this journey its deepest weight. Their pain reaches beneath my fur. The expedition picks up at the departure for Gwain's Keep, taking Alburet, his partners, and the guild through the Dead Lands toward a home they must fight to claim. Recurring sexual activity, nudity, and teasing share the journey with memories of abuse and loss. The emotional material commits to consequences. The repetitive structure and uneven respect for personal boundaries cost it heavily. I wanted these people safe inside the den, and I wanted the story to be more careful about what being safe actually means.

Fluff's struggle has the most force because knowing that somebody hurt her doesn't immediately free her from needing that person's approval. Shame has become part of how she interprets ordinary kindness. A compliment can seem suspicious; being wanted can feel like something she must earn; defending herself can become another reason to condemn herself. Those contradictions give her history a life beyond the memory scenes. The ugliness includes childhood exploitation, violence, and the conditioning that teaches a person to make excuses for their own suffering. Its effect comes through what Fluff believes about herself afterward. Having friends explain the truth doesn't stop an old fear from returning the next morning. That persistence earns the darkness its place. My protective instincts have something substantial to answer here: a person trying to live beyond what happened while still carrying its rules inside her. The pack can stand around her, furious and loyal, and still be unable to undo the past.

Her art gives that recovery somewhere concrete to go. The memorial drawing and the growing accuracy of her own self-image allow her to contribute something that belongs to her. Later, reproducing a historical image makes her talent useful to someone outside the intimate circle. The world has reasons to value her which don't depend on Alburet finding her desirable. Even the intimate drawings concern who chooses the subject, who agrees to participate, and what she wants to express. Let her have something that belongs to her. That is where my ears lift. Confidence becomes visible in making things, taking part, and wanting an experience at her own pace. Schinhofen gives her ordinary pleasure between the painful revelations, letting recovery mean having a life instead of endlessly explaining the wound.

Karen also becomes more substantial once her combativeness has a history. Her physical competence holds up in sparring; Alburet's importance doesn't require her to become conveniently helpless. The memories show a girl whose discipline and ability never quite satisfy the father who shaped them, and whose attraction to another girl becomes something he tries to control through violence. Her later insistence on strength, challenges, and promises grows out of that upbringing. I can understand the armour without assuming everything done while wearing it is justified. The trouble comes when the story moves toward closure with her father. His final apology still contains contempt for feminine vulnerability and a demand that her future fit his preferred arrangement. Karen can love him, grieve him, and want his approval. What bothers me is how quickly the surrounding response settles on her finally being able to fulfil that demand. There is a barb left inside the reassurance. Finding people she wants should give her room to choose her own life, and that unresolved condition deserves more attention than it receives.

Seamus's memories hurt through affection as much as horror. Seeing how friendship with David began, then entering an ordinary evening with David and Kaylee, gives his loss a shape beyond a secret waiting to be exposed. Food, a cooperative game, familiar jokes, and a child's easy claim on his place in the family make that earlier life feel inhabited. The warmth is what gives the grief teeth. Somebody mattered before the terrible event; they had habits and small exchanges worth keeping. That reaches the part of me which understands how grief can make a good memory almost unbearable. In HowlStrom terms, the fire is still warm in the memory and the place beside it is empty. The present-day response also matters: his partners put their own plans aside and stay with him. He is allowed to be the one who needs holding. The protector's worth survives the moment when he cannot keep himself together.

The developing relationship has real warmth when care moves between all four people. Karen and Fluff have an attraction and tenderness of their own, and the commitments being discussed include responsibilities to each other. I want that individuality in harem fiction. Desire means more when a woman can want another partner, make a decision about her own readiness, or offer comfort without waiting for the central man to direct the scene. The quieter physical affection helps establish that shared home: leaning against someone, staying close after a difficult memory, accepting that an anticipated encounter can wait because somebody is hurting. These are the moments when the den feels lived in. Fluff's pace is repeatedly taken seriously, including the possibility that she may remain unready for particular forms of intimacy. That patience gives the relationship a standard of care which its other scenes then need to uphold.

Alburet's boundaries receive much less patience. Requests to be released from physical teasing are ignored, open-ended promises are deliberately extracted, and his discomfort becomes a problem for the others to work around. His attraction is treated as evidence that the pressure is acceptable. He eventually expresses real willingness and enjoys what happens, but the earlier tactics are still there. Calling them gentle encouragement doesn't resolve them. The emotional magic makes this worse: he suppresses Fluff's distress and strengthens hope and love while also approaching her as a romantic partner. Around a kiss, that is a serious interference with the freedom the relationship claims to protect. Stacia combines the roles of lover, guide through private memories, and judge of readiness, giving her considerable power over how the others understand themselves. The story offers little sustained examination of that conflict. My pack doesn't get to vote somebody's boundaries away. I enjoy the expanding relationship. Its credibility suffers when care and control become interchangeable whenever the intended outcome is happiness.

The sexual writing leaves me wanting more development. Sex and sexual attention recur through the journey, with brief explicit passages as well as implied encounters and summaries. The book spends substantial time on nudity, teasing, and arrangements for intimacy. What it often shortens is the encounter itself. An elaborate setup involving posing and restraint leads into a compressed account of hours of activity, and another important step in the relationships happens away from the scene altogether. I want a good book and good porn, with convincing emotion and physical detail working together. Repeatedly hearing how wonderful an encounter was doesn't provide the presence of letting it unfold. The partners' differing temperaments offer material for distinctive intimacy, yet the writing often stops before developing it. The deduction is for that missing payoff after prolonged anticipation. The erotic side has room to commit as fully as the painful memories do.

The march becomes much too predictable. Waking together, discussing clothes or affection, collecting breakfast, fighting, travelling, checking gains, eating, revisiting a memory, and settling into the tent repeatedly provide the same framework. The memories contain significant developments, but the daily transitions demand attention after their purpose is clear. Reassurance returns in similar forms after the relationship's position has already been explained. As a listening experience, the structure spends too much time bringing me back to familiar starting points. Full character sheets compound the effect by reciting familiar traits and abilities alongside the changed numbers. My paws have crossed this patch of snow already. The repetition makes the distance to the keep feel longer without consistently making the journey richer. Compressing established routines would help the individual discoveries stand apart, especially when several powerful memories already compete for attention within the same nightly pattern.

Progression has a separate problem with delayed choice. The enormous level gains produce improved statistics, equipment opportunities, and changing minions, but the accumulation of unselected abilities keeps the most interesting decisions waiting for a trainer. By the end, nine remain unselected. Plans for what Bob, Tiny, or the build might eventually do keep pointing beyond the current adventure. That makes much of the growth feel like a rising total attached to an unfinished decision. The experience oversight and the subsequent correction acknowledge how extreme the early gains are, yet the numbers continue climbing rapidly. Arrival at the keep exposes the resulting mismatch: high levels don't automatically supply suitable equipment or a fully developed set of abilities. That is a useful pressure on the raid, but it also demonstrates how much of the progression has been deferred. I want the pleasure of deciding what kind of power to become, using it, and living with the trade-off. Repeatedly banking the opportunity provides less satisfaction.

The native characters give the expedition consequences that experience totals cannot measure. Their risk of Final Death makes resurrection something the group has to hope will work. The loss of an escort receives a wake, personal remembrance, and a piece of art intended for the family left behind. Time is spent recognising that a life extended beyond the expedition's need for another defender. Later, players willing to use their own deaths as a tactic expose the gulf between their assumptions and the natives' relationship with mortality. That tension is one of the world's strongest ideas. It also gives leadership an obligation beyond winning efficiently. Tiny protecting others and Bob showing concern for him strengthen the sense that the companions have attachments of their own. The little suggestions of lives outside Alburet's immediate attention help. I care about a pack more when its members have reasons to care about each other, and when losing one leaves an absence the story actually acknowledges.

The keep's history gives the destination useful depth. Stories of Gwain, the settlement around him, and the damage left by betrayal become relevant to what the guild encounters. Beyond the ruins, patrons, mercenaries, craftsmen, and other guilds have competing interests and activities. Taking a place brings questions of supplies, access, repair, and who will work there. Rolland and Kim have ambitions within those arrangements; their futures aren't exhausted by performing a service for the hero. I like the responsibility this creates. Claiming shelter means making it somewhere people can continue living. A guild home should carry obligations, and the book gives those obligations enough substance to feel worth pursuing.

The raid is where the combat earns its strongest praise. Failed approaches have consequences, and understanding a mechanic changes what the group must do next. Traps require specialised knowledge, protective formations require coordination, and healing can become an offensive solution under the right conditions. A spell capable of harming allies acquires a different tactical use when that damage can remove something worse. These interactions make the rules matter. Equipment restrictions, limited resources, resurrection delays, and expended abilities prevent every problem from yielding to the same attack. Alburet also has to learn what directing a large fight demands of his attention. Gerald, Marysue, the healers, the trapsmiths, and the native allies provide essential work and ideas; leadership includes trusting them to act. The group's mistakes make the later adaptation satisfying. During the hardest fighting, protection becomes a decision made at someone's own expense. That is the kind of pack action I want: individual abilities answering one another, people covering an exposed flank, and success depending on more than everyone applauding the central man's strength.

Divine favour weakens part of that earned struggle. Extraordinary assistance already makes Alburet unusually well protected, and a sudden supernatural intervention during a late confrontation supplies an escape when he needs one. The divine patron has an established connection to him, but this particular power arrives too conveniently. It bypasses the preparation and cooperation that make the better encounters work. Its accompanying cost is brief, while the intervention answers an immediate crisis. I want those enormous forces to complicate his choices more deeply when they put a paw on the scale. Otherwise, the possibility of another timely gift hangs over dangers the guild has worked hard to make convincing.

The cultural references work best when the characters do something with them. Karen and Fluff performing the garden scene from Romeo and Juliet lets borrowed language express affection before an audience. The evening performances give the camp a shared activity beyond fighting. In Seamus's memory, the cooperative game featuring Harry, Molly, and Michael points to The Dresden Files, fitting naturally into an evening between friends. The earlier tabletop session also shows how Seamus and David connected. Tabletop and D&D-style storytelling usually leave me cold, but these scenes establish what doing things together meant to these people. The reference earns its space through the relationship around it. Recognition matters when it reveals something about the person sharing a familiar story or game with someone else.

The wording needs a cleaner edit. "Everyone else was had gotten one" leaves an extra verb in a straightforward sentence, and "a horse whisper" uses the wrong word for a weakened voice. Those are small, identifiable mistakes. The combat arithmetic creates a more consequential problem: a boss has three million health, the raid is described as dealing about 10,000 damage per second, and the estimated time to defeat him is nearly an hour. At that stated rate, the calculation gives five minutes. The passage explicitly places possible healing mechanics afterward as an additional concern, so they don't explain the mismatch. In a story that repeatedly asks me to follow health, damage, regeneration, and equipment requirements, the numbers need to support the danger being asserted. This estimate is being used to make the group's current effort seem inadequate. When the arithmetic contradicts that judgment, an important piece of the encounter's explanation loses its footing.

The ending gives the keep campaign a proper conclusion and makes room for its aftermath. Rewards and new responsibilities establish what the expedition has changed before the next demands arrive. I appreciate reaching the destination this volume has spent so much time approaching. Seamus's central disclosure receives a less satisfying treatment: the nondisclosure obstacle is addressed, but the promised conversation still waits beyond the ending. His memories have deepened the emotional stakes, and I want their central uncertainty to move with the same commitment. My strongest attachment remains to these wounded people and the home they are building around one another. The story gave me pain that mattered and teamwork worth caring about. Its repeated routines, withheld developments, and casual treatment of some boundaries leave real cracks in that home. I still want to hear what happens to this pack, with my ears forward and my patience for those cracks wearing thinner.

[RJ]

When Alburet married Stacia he believed it only right to be faithful to his wife, according to how his father had raised him. This new morality effectively cut off Karen from any further sexual contact with him. While Alburet felt Karen would understand, when in fact, she was very upset feeling betrayed. Due to her upbringing and forward personality, relationships were difficult, making her lonely. When she met Alburet, and then Stacia, Karen felt she had finally found a mate or mates. This abrupt turn of events was devastating, her psyche sliding into anger and depression. Alburet and Stacia loved Karen and they were determined to right this wrong. Meanwhile, Karen was becoming attached to Fluffball, wanting to help Fluff out of her extreme timidness, for Fluff’s sake and her not-so-hidden desires. Alburet and Stacia assisted in this goal, knowing it would benefit Fluff. Mindblown decided to offer the abandoned keeps/castles throughout Alpha World to the established guilds. To claim a keep, a guild “merely” had to occupy and retain control of it. Alpha Company crossed the desert, known as the Deadlands to find Gwain’s Keep. Stacia’s mother, Lilith, gave Alburet the location as a late marriage present. The trek across the Deadlands was very dangerous, requiring hiring mercenaries to accompany them. Desert monsters included sandworms reminiscent of the novel Dune Trilogy. Much of the story concerns Fluff’s repressed childhood memories, Alburet’s memories of the death of his close friend, its effect on the daughter Kaylee, and Stacia’s therapeutic help to both. Gwain’s Keep is an instance dungeon, a separate server instance from the other players in the game, having a very powerful boss at the end. Raids are much more dangerous than typical dungeons, usually requiring fifty to hundreds of adventurers of all types. The Battle for Gwain’s Keep is the most exciting part of the story. Time to play for keeps! This volume is composed of the expanding and deepening relationship of the four main characters, the adventures of the growing guild, and the fight for Gwain’s Keep. The guild and its adventurers encompass the gaming aspect of the tale versus the emotional interactions of the characters. Both combine to create an exciting, yet heart-warming story.

[Kevin]

So far this book is nothing but flashbacks, succubus style. I hope it picks up soon.

Wow. Really? Shakespeare? The author really doesn't have anything to write if he is filling pages with frigging plays. I think this may be my last book in this series. I'm 10 chapters in and NOTHING HAPPENS.
I don't want to read about fluff and her "ugliness". I don't know about the author, but I didn't read this book because I like Shakespeare, I read books like this to get away from that crap.

I really want to drop this book. It looks like it will be one star.

To anyone planning to read this you can skip the first 26 chapters, as nothing happens.
The first 26 chapters of the book should have been a novel named "Playing for Fluff".
It seems the author only had enough ideas to fill fourteen chapters, but he wanted to write a forty chapter book. So he wrote the first twenty six chapters with literal filler of a bunch of crap NO ONE CARES ABOUT.

I can just imagine this protagonist with a fedora and a duster. I don't buy into the fedora meme, but this protagonist is the embodiment of it. I was going to give this one star, then I read the last fourteen chapters and considered giving it two stars an reading the next book. But I can't trust the author not to fill more than half of the next book with useless filler about frigging plays and fluff.

I would like to find out what happens with his abilities, but this author is not trustworthy.

Note to self. Don't touch more of this author's books.

1.5/5 Stars

[Douglas]

This book is the closest this author has come to writing an actual story with a beginning, middle and END. Unfortunately the author does this in a very boring way. The story begins with a trek through wastelands to take a keep. Therefore the majority of this book is: breakfast, fight whatever accumulated around the camp wards during the night, march and fight, camp, nightly magical psycho-analysis of characters.

If anything this book has made me realize why characters have big climatic breakthroughs in dealing with their problems. That is because dragging them out over several books and then making those issues one of the primary focuses of the next book is BORING. At least in the prior books these issues were more in the background, essentially just ongoing teasers for stuff yet to come.

Even the big battle for the keep at the end of the book was somewhat anticlimactic. The most interesting part was the initial assault where the best way to overcome defenders had to be noodled out. But then one of the big two baddies just runs away for what might as well have been no reason at all. That was sufficiently bizarre that it took me out of the flow of the story and left me waiting for the inevitable end.

Bottom line: the author continues to display talent but doesn't seem to be able to bring an entire novel truly to fruition. If you like character based litRPG you'll still probably enjoy this book, otherwise it would be best not to waste your time.

[Richard]

Painful, and honestly, regretful


This was almost miserable to read.

Such an incredible world, and incredible general story. I don’t know what the writer was thinking with this one though.

I read fantasy, litrpg specifically, so that I can live alongside a hero who is awesome. This book was half complaining about asinine values, whining constantly. He constantly gets his butt kicked, and even goes on to remark how another character says “it’s depressing seeing you lose all the time.” YEAH, that’s true for the readers too! Damn it man. I was hanging on during the “let’s talk about trauma” arch, even though I felt that was way over written. I found myself literally swiping page after page away looking for some content that wasn’t people being pathetic. Trauma is real, yes, but I go to books like this to escape from that, not sit through 4 hours of poorly written therapy sessions.

Day after day of the same exact thing happening was driving me mad but I stayed on so we could finally see our hero win at something with the keep and out of nowhere you decide to write that they came second!?

What the actual hell. He had more advantages than anyone, he was clever, he organized an impossible quest, he had the forces to aid him that NO ONE ELSE WOULD HAVE, and yet you still decide to screw the readers out of even the hero winning in this?

[Alex]

Not even worth finishing

So first off can I get a refund and my wasted time back?

This book is not a LitRpg. If I had to give a description of it as a LitRpg I’d say it’s absolute garbage.

It is also not science fiction. The fact that it is allowed to be listed as a science fiction is an absolute insult to all of the great authors of science fiction.

This book is a harem psychological romance novel. And even as that it is mediocre.

The LitRpg aspect is completely pushed to the side and ignored which is obvious from the fact the fight scenes alone compose only a page not to mention all of the other aspects of the genre is barely touched upon.

The science fiction portion is the most generic uninteresting drivel I have ever read in my life.

The “romance” portion is portrayed in a way that just feels like the author wanted to do a kinky harem novel with troubled characters that struggle in completely unrealistic ways to their problems.

This book feels like the author didn’t put any effort into fitting the genres it’s listed as and did only the bare minimum so it could be listed as such and then continued their crappy harem psychological smut book.

Utter disappointment and will not touch another of his books.

[Shea]

Review for complete series Books 1 - 8
Mr. Schinhofen's Alpha world series is an epic tale of pain, suffering, discrimination, and the healing through love and support. . A word of warning though the earlier books contain a moderate to extreme, depending on your view points, amount of erotica in them. This tapers off near the end of the story and I recommend readers not to judge harshly. I found the scenes to fit within the flow of the story and within scope of the personality of the characters involved.

It is my recommendation that these scenes be simply skimmed over by readers who might be put off by them. The series contains so much more than erotica that readers would miss out on. Mr. Schinhofen's series delves into the darker side of human nature and the traumatic wounds of the mind that we not only inflict upon others, but ourselves as well. I applaud Mr. Schinhofen for showing such trauma and how with help such conditions can be mitigated.

Mr. Schinhofen borrows heavily from World of Warcraft for his class system and for some points of his story. I believe he is a great author regardless and look forward to additional works he might create.

Very Respectfully,
Shea

[Curtis]

“Action Temporarily Down For Character Growth”

This book in the series is very different in content, tone, and action: the comment title says it all. This isn’t snark or disappointment, because sometimes action does indeed need to take a back seat to story progression and character growth. This story has some good action at the climax, but is spent mostly inside the characters heads (no, really). All of the main guild members grow closer, both personally and professionally, and we see results of that in the efficient handling of a certain raid. The story is definitely progressed, with a few surprises and a fair bit of humor, and the random slap and tickle. This is not a wild action ride, but it’s not a snore fest either. It’s a pivot point where we Learn Things and set the stage for the next books - and that will be a wild ride. Recommended

Kudos to Paul Davies for the cover BTW: nicely done!

[Alexander Collas]

This is the first review I have written on this series, I normally wait until the last one. The series is good, actually really good, butt.... I would agree with a couple of the other reviews that Daniel repeats things a lot but being a writer I kinda understand. Points are forgotten. I guess the issue that concerns me the most is that this is almost a psych book dressed in LITRPG clothing. Now if that has said a lot just to say nothing here is what I think. If you enjoy day-to-day stories, where the author spends lots of time making you feel like you are walking just behind and to the left of the characters you will probably enjoy these books. They drag at times but being day-to-day books, so does life. I recommend them with the caveat being that they are for a specific type of reader. If you are interested in finishing books instead of spending time in them then these might not be for you. If you enjoy the journey, then yes, I would recommend them.

[David]

Good once the raid began

I found this book in the series to be a bit off putting. It is still well done and in character and we learn a lot about why the main character and two of the female characters are messed up in the head - but that’s not what I wanted to read about. So the first half of the book, while well done, was a very glossed over approach to each character receiving dream therapy to come to terms with bad things that happened to them in the real world. Now once the story reached the raid on the haunted keep, then it got much better. Very much looking forward to what happens next as far as adventuring goes. And learning more about the game the players are playing.

[Joey Vagedes]

**Slight Spoiler, not really tho**

Most of the story revolved around sex and mental health analysis of the main characters. I got into this series for the action - but not the 'action ;)'. This book goes day by day for a journey of about 2 weeks. Its very rinse and repeat. Wake up, eat, travel, celebrate, sex and/or mental health, then repeat. The only issue is the great part, the traveling, was maybe 1/4 if not less of each day (in terms of pages for each of the in-story days). Towards the last 1/4 of the book though, it was ALL action and it was great. That part was exactly what I was waiting for. For a while I was not planning on getting the 5th book, but I may give it a try just because the author finally got back into the action.

[Bryan]

Loved it

As with all the others I loved the book. It couldn't use more information on the loot items and also the beginning could use some sort of the transition from the last book to the first book instead of just randomly starting where it left off without much of a reminder. I love the characters I love the polyamory and I do like the attention to emotional detail that has not been used before at least to my knowledge. Some points it seems is going a little bit too much into the emotional aspect of the characters as it took pretty much half the book it seemed. But still it was well worth the read

[David Pearson]

Not as good as the first or second books. The series slowed down in book three and this book continued the trend. While some of the back story was interesting, most was a waste of time. I skimmed about a third of this book. I hope the next book is better , otherwise it will be the last book of this series that I will read.

Not as good is the first 2 books. The series slowed down in book three and this book continued the trend. While some of the back story was interesting,most was a waste of time. I skimmed about a third of this book. I hope the next book is better, otherwise it will be the last book of this series that I will read.

[Jake]

Action packed, high octane adventure!

This story was a ton of fun to read. Lots of plot happening, lots of lore, and a whole lot of mischief and fun. Definitely sets up the next entry, plus I'm excited to see what will happen next.

The reason I knocked off a star is because although it was a well-written, action-packed, bundle of excitement, there was a lot of deep psychological "repair" going on and I got kind of uncomfortable.I mean, I empathized, I would have reacted much the same way as the characters, but I found myself fast reading through some of it because I can only take so much of that to the face.

Next book here I come!

[Paul]

The Gang’s All Back

Book four begins right where book three ended, the journey though the waste lands continues. The beginning and the ending, when the raid reached the keep was great, the middle was a little redundant. Plus, the relationships were a little overexposed and adolescent throughout the journey. The good part was that the supporting characters continued to evolve, which make the potential for the next book great. Overall, I did feel that this installment wasn’t up to the first three, still good, but the weaker of the four books. However, book five is on my radar.