The Village of Noobtown

Noobtown #2

by Ryan Rimmel, Johnathan McClain (Narrator)

WELL, IT COULD BE BETTER.

Jim and his literal shoulder demon have survived, so far, by the skin of their teeth.

After finding a long-abandoned starter village, Jim has begun the process of rebuilding his town. Unfortunately for our favorite adventurer, the threats he now faces are far more complicated than mere monsters. The poor Noob has to deal with angry townsfolk, trade negotiations, and a talking badger.

©2019 Ryan Rimmel (P)2019 Podium Publishing

Genres: Fantasy, Audiobook, Fiction, Humor, Adventure, Action, Magic

Audible Audio

First published July 6, 2019

Reviews

[Steve Naylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3.0 stars

This is going to be a weird review since I am going to write about all the things that were wrong with this one and yet I am still going to read the next book. It is a little weird. Despite having nothing great to say about this book, I still want to know what happens. Here is the list of problems I have with this book:

1. The jokes get old real fast. Jim's name being that of a small dog in this world so no one takes him seriously is the biggest one. Jim being called a moron by his companion and familiar since earth is "so weird"
2. There is no fun at all in Jim's life. While he is the mayor of the town he spent most of it alone again. Why is he working so hard. He walks around like he is Al Bundy and has no choice but to be the mayor and solve everyone's problems.
3. The magic system. This book almost feels like a parody of what a litrpg book should be. Jim finds his magic biological aeromancy. Fart magic. That is some low hanging fruit for jokes and it was used over and over again
4. Stop talking about your wife. Figure your shit out. Yes I understand you were married and used to be 40 years old with children but now you are in a new body with a new life. You can't get back to your old life. Figure out what you want to do. Do you want to hook up with someone, start over, or complain about it over and over again? What is your goal Jim? Are you trying to level up so you can take Shart through the demon door? If so you are an idiot.
5. How about practicing a little bit. No training at all, just go out and try to kill things?
6. How about not acting like an idiot. These stories where someone from another world comes and is put in charge only work when the person that is brought in has knowledge the world hasn't seen before. Without that it is like putting a baby in charge of the village. Jim brings nothing to the table. he has got some bonuses yes, but he is expected to do things based on the rules of this world which he doesn't know. Nothing he learned from earth is helpful on this new world.
7. Pain hurts. I couldn't count the number of times Jim jumps into action and ends up with half health. I know there is healing in this world, but pain is supposed to be a deterrent to stop doing stupid things. Not for Jim though. He felt the most excruciating pain of his life at least times in this book. That is not something anyone would do so stop it.
8. Making stupid comments like "How bad can is be", "this will be easy", "nothing can stop us now". This wasn't an every once is a while kind of thing either. This was said all the time and it always bit him in the ass. It is funny once or twice, but gets old the more it is used.

[Jacob Proffitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is second in a LitRPG series. Read in order.

You know pretty much what you are getting with this one. Jim continues to take in refugees to enhance his population. The goblins are starting to organize and that's a bigger threat he needs to deal with. Oh, and bandits who would like a piece of him while they're at it. So plenty of rising conflict and Jim having to be clever in his problem solving.

A couple things kept this from being as enjoyable as the first. The tone doesn't really support some of the humor attempts. Like Jim's name being "Spot" doesn't really need to be an active component of every single interaction ever. Particularly when the response is exactly the same. And I hate bad-guy PoV anyway, so giving us PoV of the mind-manipulating mage was particularly aggravating to me. It doesn't help that the author keeps Jim on the edge of figuring out the manipulation without ever actually doing so.

Otherwise, the action is solid, the pace excellent and I like how Jim thinks sideways to solve problems. His solution for the goblin war was particularly interesting and I'm still engaged with the series. So let's go with four stars.

A note about Chaste: Others are having shenanigans and Jim becomes aware of some weird kinks. It's played for laughs and Jim himself is still in the limbo of being married but not. So this is mostly chaste, but still feels unsupported in the case of Jim. He's powerful and attractive and we see women around him notice. Him being willingly clueless is dumb.

[Douglas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am listening to an audio book but since an audio version isn't listed on Goodreads.com at this time I'm placing my review here.

So there was a lot of stupid crap in the first half of this book but second half was pretty good. Therefore, if you like litRPG you may want to just skip my review and go read the book because reading my gripes about the first half of the book will not increase your enjoyment.

This book makes a terrible start simply because the author fails to give his MC any common sense. For example, the MC is confused by a "party up" request simply because he can't be bothered to learn the interface THAT HIS LIFE DEPENDS ON. Later, when this same problem occurs for the second time, the MC puts it down to not yet being adjusted to his new environment. It made me think of the first computer I bought. I was a poor college kid so I had to spend more than half of my savings on that computer but my life was thereafter all about that computer. I adjusted to it immediately. Here, however, the MC has been living in a new world with an easy to understand interface for weeks, possibly months, AND HE STILL HASN'T ADJUSTED???? I cannot understand this writing choice. Why wouldn't you want your MC to demonstrate minimum competency???? At this time I have barely begun the book and the MC has asked for help 4 times with things that are on his "menus". WHY???? HOW DOES ANYONE THINK THIS MAKES FOR INTERESTING STORY TELLING????

But wait, it gets worse: The MC, with a party, clears the entrance to a mine of goblins. Does the MC do anything remotely intelligent like getting healed or getting more help before heading into the booby-trapped mine? NO, HE GOES IN ALONE!??? How does that make any sense, especially given the MC doesn't re-spawn!??? Anybody with minimal sense would have helped get the injured back to safety and then returned with more people.

Of course, going into the mine alone leads to the MC almost dying. The MC would have died if he hadn't been rescued, miraculously, by an animal passing by. An animal that should have been killed or run off by the goblins so absolutely nothing about the mine story line makes any sense whatsoever.

But wait, it gets worse: The author next takes the reader on a tour of the made up game mechanics for running a town including in game economics and politics. Previously the MC saved a bunch of people and brought them to safety in the town he founded and within days they are plotting his overthrow???? This is supposedly a hard-scrabble lot of (essentially) NPCs who were on their way to try and make it in a new town but they turn into a bunch of whiners as soon as they have a modicum of safety? Worse yet, THERE IS NO REASON FOR THE MC TO BE DOING THIS. The MC could have just sent all the people on their way and went back to adventuring. Seriously. The author makes it clear instantly that there are no actual rewards for being mayor and there are a ton of headaches. But apparently this is lost on the author since he doesn't give his MC any motivation for being mayor. The MC just does it for no particular reason. Later, when the MC is challenged for the mayoral office HE FINALLY REALIZES HE HAS NO REASON TO BE MAYOR BUT STUPIDLY CONTINUES DOING SO BECAUSE HE DOESN'T LIKE THE GUY CHALLENGING HIM.

Eventually the story moves on to the MC heading out (still the mayor, though) to establish a trade route. This leads, first, to the MC getting a fart spell because the author apparently wants to make endless fart jokes. Next, the MC takes the western route to the neighboring city. Turns out this route runs through an entrenched horde of pumas. After making it to the neighboring city the MC is advised to use the north road to establish a safe trade route since it has fewer pumas. However the north route "pumas" are actually a gang of robbers that called themselves "Pumas", something the MC only discovers by acting like an idiot while being robbed.

WORSE YET, the MC has only killed animals and goblins up to this point so we get to live through the scene where the MC has a crisis of conscience because he killed humans WHO AMBUSHED HIM WITH THE INTENTION OF ROBBING AND KILLING HIM. These scenes are so tired. A big part of why I like "dark fantasy" is simply to escape the endless repetition of this scene. The goblins talked and planned so they were the equivalent of evil humans but the MC didn't mind killing them in droves so basically its all about appearance with this MC??? (Which is proved later when the MC saves a female goblin actively trying to kill him because she doesn't look as bad as other goblins.)

And yet it gets worse: The MC, WHO COMES FROM THE WORLD OF HAND GRENADES, is taken by surprise by a thrown area affect spell. It wouldn't have been so bad if the MC had just been surprised but the author has the MC see the incoming item, think about it and chooses to "move just a finger's width outside of its trajectory". It is as if the author was concerned the reader might be thinking too highly of the MC at this point in time and so specifically wrote this to make certain the MC appears conceited and incompetent.

From this point on the story gets somewhat better. The MC makes it back to "Noobtown" and prepares a fighting force to deal with the robbers and secure the trade route. This force heads out but before that battle can be fought a goblin army besieges Noobtown and so the MC must rush back to try and save his town.

Bottom line: Obviously a lot of problems with this story, a lot of which comes from the author writing stupid stuff thinking it is humorous. Just write a good story. Still the ending was good enough that I didn't mind the overall experience and will likely listen to the next book in the series should there be one.

[Clint Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Alert]

I hate trying to write reviews because there are really only pass/fail results for me. Did I make it all the way through? Yes? 5 stars. No? There would be nothing here to read. In all fairness, if an author holds my attention from page one to the end, they’ve done their job. Anything less than 5 stars is petty criticism from someone incapable of even doing the job let alone doing a better one.

So in respect for the author and their work, I am going to start pasting this along with a generic review I found somewhere. “This was a fun book. I am glad that I read it. You should try it too.”

Cheers

[MV Fantasy Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this one hoping that the overall story would be redeemed from the rough mess that the first book was. Nope. Having one hateful companion dragging the book down isn't enough... Lets add another! And make them hateful to each other too and bicker constantly. Unlike the MC, I'm not a masochist, so I couldn't even finish this book and had to set the book to the side half way through it. Also, fart magic? Really?

[Red Tide]

INot the worst

Rating: minus 4

I never thought that I would need a disclaimer on a review. I tried to put a stop to idiots treating my notes to self as if they were part of an academic article. If I had written a comment, I would have some background in a subject or genuinely have a question about a source or process that I wanted to understand. I have only gotten one request ever for clarification from an interested reader. For the rest, it's been "You are....", "Get a life!", "You're not so smart!". That comprised almost all of comments from those obviously ill bred louts, ignorant of the topic that triggered their complaint. The insanity of those who glory in their ignorance has always amazed me. I stupidly never expected to encounter them on a site for readers. But then Goodreads is not that, is it? 🙂

These reviews are reminders to me of the quality (or more often, lack thereof) of a book or writer. While I may have a helpful insight or three, my references are more thinking aloud than scholarly pronouncements. I am not sure why others write what little they write, since they never meet the rigorous standards that seem to be Goodreads'. If interested in the formal logic underpinning my perspective, I offer none. Where the questioner demands only agreement, there is no conversation to be had. 🙂

No reviewer owes justification for their reactions to the reader. No review that I have read seems to have considered that possibility as a legitimate option in an exchange. Several times during my naive early days on Goodreads (three, even two years ago), I thought to direct commenters on my reviews to source materials for certain assertions. No one accepted or seemingly even understood the generosity of my impulse. Responses aplenty there were but not one worthy of a thoughtful reader or a person vaguely familiar with common courtesy. 🤗

For anyone tempted to explore a different perspective, I suggest a browse of the documentaries, essays, commentaries, lectures of academics and thinkers, as well as bibliophiles below. Caution, Jordan Peterson is not a thinker or academic (grifter with a mental illness is the more accurate descriptor). I wanted to refer you to one of the other reviews but I am blocked from all but seven. While that is better than on many of the books that I've rated, none were noteworthy. Additionally, my commenter ID's are masked, which protects them, I suppose.

As the old saying goes "Write a brutal review of 'a glorification of the murderous January 6, 2021 heroes' and suddenly being a communist is a bad thing". Quelle surprise.🤗🤗

Before we go further, I suggest that you read my review of "Mutineer", a racist/misogynist space opera or Powers of the Earth (a glorification of the murderous January 6, 2021 heroes) and the comments from a Claes Rees, Jr/cgr710 (a self-identified NeoNazi and US patriot).

If you are interested, there is a Joe Defiant (with an eagle icon), who attacks all reviewers of the "Vampire Economy" in defense of the "reputation" (his words) of Adolph Hitler and the National Socialist economic policy.

To Claes Rees, Jr/cgr710
Don't be a numpty. Be a smarty. Come and join the Communist Party.

I always wonder at these US patriots (Tucker Carlson, Claes Rees Jr, Bruce McKay and US Republican Party, for example) as they loudly support Putin, who has threatened their own USA with nuclear war. Russian gold bars induce and genocide appeals, I think. In any case.

GLORY TO UKRAINE !!! and GLORY TO ITS PEOPLE !!!

This story might be silly fun if you like the usual bad writing of this genre. If it is your introduction to it, I would look elsewhere. The negative features are completely common to the books in the genre and this book managed to avoid one or two of the worst barely.

The main character is supposedly an experienced gamer (this is his gamer afterlife) yet he does not stop to think for a moment nor does he plan before acting. He is the most dynamic (not very) of all the flat cast of characters, which was typical but still disappointing. I thought that by the end of the book, the character might grow out of his self absorption. Instead the breakneck pace of the action did not slow to that of a normal novel. Again this is par for the course for the genre, it seems.

The other characters with the exception of the comic relief, are not exactly memorable. Dialogue follows the character shells, so there's nothing good to be found there. The action is teenage boy and videogame man-child standard. The storyline is a recounting of a role playing game and there's not much substance on which to hang a novel. To his credit, the writer does not try.

On the plus side, there is not a single orgy. That probably starts in the next book. The forty year old main character is immature, has no emotional reaction to his deadish state and is entitled. The character spends a lot of time being sexually excited by every female, while admiring his new 25 year old body. It is not romance steamy, it is just gamer standard sexual and social awkwardness. He also periodically reminds himself that he is still married to his former (still living) wife. The assumption is that he can have sex with any of the women, if he can get over his marriage vows. He even takes the time to judge that an enemy goblin mage is "a 3, which is hot for a female goblin" in the middle of a batle.

There is a weird gamer morality that is so limited that it's scary. Here the main character is fine with rape, torture and murder but he does not condone it (because of course, he's very moral). Suddenly murdering children is crossing the line. I hope that I was not this limited when I was fifteen (though I might have been). Thank goodness that it was long enough ago that I do not remember. I think most of these books have some similar statement, which describes the character's morality, ethics or personality. It is that odd US space opera insistence that the hero is moral, just before he commits some atrocity.

I almost gave up on these books and then I came across Rachel Aaron who is phenomenal. She actually puts in the effort to write a good story. Except for hers, I still do not like the game books. Amazon's selection of science fiction and related genre books is dismal. Between the five star ratings and absence of editing, I have lost most of my interest in those genres.

Not having much respect for Amazon/Goodreads, I have spent much of my free time with Netflix or YouTube. There is an incredibly satisfying array of science fiction, in the Netflix selection. It is almost all of it good or at least interesting and with the filter of unfamiliar cultural idioms, the multinational stories carry extra layers of storytelling goodness.

If Goodreads were just a sales gimmick, I probably would just ignore it. Having readers post insane, inane and immature comments was disturbing. The number of lurkers who appeared with friend requests as the comments increased did not bother me but was curious.

I finally began eliminating lurkers and friends who had different reading tastes. As I eliminated lurkers, new friend requests started appearing again, sometimes a half dozen at a time. It got a little scary, as I looked at their site personas and friend list. Why bother to create a profile and empty friend list just to join my friend list. When asked, not one was able to explain why they wanted to be my friend.

I still have one lurker left, of whom I can not rid myself. This Dr Susan Hamilton (who exists as a maths professor at University of Tennessee ?) has never posted anything but her "friend accepted" notes and I can not see who these friends are. She has not responded to five requests to remove me or why a (rogue, I am sure) Goodreads tech will not "Allow" me to remove her. She is a Goodreads author now of three bad science fiction books, of which I tried one. I will try to contact her directly at the university at this point. The moral is, do not bother with friend requests and if tempted you might look very closely at their reading list and monitor their posting over a month or two. If there are none, drop them immediately.

Amazon has a horrible reputation, which is why I buy as little as possible from them. This Goodreads silliness is truly skeevy, even for Amazon. Fortunately, I accidentally found book tubers on YouTube. The reader community actually can read and love all bookish things. 😍😍 I recommend a visit to several book channels for any reader and have listed some below. If you find Goodreads comfortable and welcoming, then you probably will not enjoy them.

My YouTube picks of the moment.
Brittany Page, The Kavernacle, Novara Media, Owen Jones, Sarah Millican, Rina Sawayama, Tom Nicholas, Ship Happens, Philosophy Tube, Mandy, Tulia, Ben and Emily, Fiction Beast, Engineering with Rosie.

Please consider treating this site as potentially hostile. May you have Good Reading. 🙂🙂

Some of my favorite YouTube channels are.

Eleanor Morton, Noah Samsen, Some More News, Tom Nicholas, Chugging Along, Munecat, Double Down News, Tiny Wee Boat, The Present Past, Tara Mooknee, Second Thought, Philosophy Tube, Novara Media, Yanis Varoufakis, DW News, We're in Hell, Karolina Zebrowska, Depressed Russian, Between the Wars, History Line, Second Thought, The European, Renegade Cut, Sarah Z, Books and Lala, What Vivi did next, Chloe Stafler, Jessie Gender, Zoe Baker, The Shades of Orange, The Narrowboat Pirate, Cruising Alba, Weir on the move, A Clockwork Reader, Owen Jones, Lady of the Library, Tulia, History Marche, Lily Alexander, Natasha's Adventures, With Olivia, The Mindful Narrowboat, May Moon Narrowboat, Make Better Media, Sabine Hossenfelder, The Templin Institute, A Different Bias, The Juice Media, Epimetheus, Practical Engineering, Mythic Concepts, Abbie Emmons, Emmie, Tibees, Books with Emily Fox, Austin McConnell, Three Arrows, Patrick is a Navajo, Dan Davis History, Mrs Betty Bowers, Rebecca Watson, AstronautX, Neringa Rekaslute, Caucasus Sword Dance, DUST, Quinn's Ideas, Lilly's expat life, Pro Robotics, Prime of Midlife, Spacedock, The Welsh Viking, Big Joel, Book Odyssey, Steam Punk, Alize, Alice Cappelle, Jessica Gagnon, France 24, Denys Davydov, Reading Wryly, Lady knight the Brave, Books with Chloe, Jill Bearup, A Cup of Nicole, A Life of Lit, IzzzYzzz, The Armchair Historian, Jake Tran, Richard Wolff, Dead Good Books, Thirdworld Booknerd, Cold Fusion, Hello Future Me, Juliette Wade, Adult Wednesday Addams, The Radical Reviewer, I'm Rosa, Dr Becky, Medieval Madness, Physics Girl, Atun Shei, Knowing Better, Zoe Baker, Mala Armia Janosika, Art by Annamarie, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Celtica, SandRhoman History, Kathy's Flog in France, 2 Steps from Hell, The Leftist Cooks, UA Courage, Cruising the Cut, WION, Cruising Alba, The Historian's Craft.

I wish you a sunny morning, an exciting afternoon, a relaxed evening, a glorious night and may we all keep learning.

What's most helpful?
Postmodernism is dead, The Leftist Cooks

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious and awesome

The author is a master at humor. I was caught many times in public snickering.... It worse. The story is very entertaining as is the cast. The ragtag crew of Jim is slowly growing and certainty becoming more powerful. Jims uniqueness makes him an interesting force for the enemy to deal with but he will provably need it all to get to level 60. This has become one if my favorite series and hope for new books soon. My only gripe is the MC hanging on to his "marrage". He is dead, and though admirably loyal, he need to move on as others deserve his loyalty now. I'm sure the author has a plan though so I'll wait and see... Won't stop reading.. Jim Rules!!!

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book two

Mistakes: I found four mistakes in this book.
Plot: Noobtown grows. Jim kills lots of bad guys. Dude needs to stop saving enemies that are close to death and start looting the bodies of those he kills. Let his familiar do it.
Characters: Jim needs to loot more.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A logical continuation of the first one, I found it bogged down a bit in the middle, but not fatally so.

This one shows some of the movement behind the main action, adding a lot more potential depth to the story as it continues. The odd-couple bit between Jim and Shart gets a bit tedious, but that's a flavour thing that others may enjoy more than I do. I did like the animal companion though, and his quest is something still unresolved at the end of the book, although I have my suspicions.

Jim at some point is going to have to avail himself of one (or more) of the available and interested women around him. One thing that did jar me a bit is him considering that "nearly 40" is old. This isn't Logan's Run, and I'm 10 years past his age at death and don't act as old as he does.

The ante is definitely upped in the epilogue so I'm interested to see where this goes.

[GaiusPrimus · Rating 4 out of 5]

An irreverent story that entertains

Much like the first book in this series, this novel makes itself known to be here for the reader's pleasure.

Without taking itself too seriously, it delivers on a fun tomorrow through the "Noob" area as we begin to see more of the world around Windfall.

While I kept checking the book percentage as the story progressed and it seemed like we were heading for a "Mary Sue" moment, the ending delivered a satisfactory conclusion to the story, following the bread crumbs that had been laid down throughout the book.

Awesome read.

[Logan Horsford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got tired of combats where you have time to look around and see what is going on when you are fighting a foe trying to kill you.

Got tired of 'I didn't want to fight him but..." WTF is wrong with you.

Got tired of dull witted protagonists.

[Soo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Notes:
3.5 Stars
New jokes, good fun/pun, some fun world/plot elements.

[Dave Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good, but not what I want to read DNF 30%
I almost quit book 1. The whole "Comedy of Failure" thing does not move me. When the MC turns to the camera with a long suffering look as the sad trombone goes "WHAaaaaa whaaaaaa" I'm out the door.
...But book 1 pulled it's act together and turned into a fun little adventure, not a British insult comedy.
All well and good, on to book 2.
...Where we are right back to everything I disliked about book 1, but now there is more of it.
The Craig Alanson inspiration is strong here, but two Skippies is too much for me.
I took a break when the town tailor tried to bamboozle the MC into handing over the mayorship. I read something else short and light and came back to this. Where The MC's two companions are razzing him when the two Skippies are calling him Dumb dumb at the same timebut not in a good natured way.
If you enjoy this kind of thing, I think none the less of you. You are welcome to it. I suspect this humor is a cilantro kind of thing, it just tastes like soap to me.
Anyway, other than that it's pretty well written and a joy for those who can't get enough Craig Alanson.

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whimsical with the right level of crunch for me in a LitRPG. Good problem solving and action sequences.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun entertaining story.

Well overall this story kept me engaged with the story and made me laugh at all the funny little things that happen to the MC. The MC continues to grow in power but at the same time making mistakes that are humorous at times. The characters continue to work at growing the town's power and making it more powerful.

[Roberto Flores · Rating 3 out of 5]

Getting trite.

The main character is still no different this far into a series. There needs to be growth not the re-hashing of the same joke again and again. If this is not resolved in book three then there is no point to continuing to follow this series.

[Akshay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Village of Noobtown (Noobtown, #2) by Ryan Rimmel Review:

Village of Noobtown continues the saga of Joe, the unlikely hero navigating the complexities of a game-like world. Ryan Rimmel expands on the foundation laid in the first book, delving deeper into the mechanics of city-building and the challenges Joe faces as he strives to establish his place in this virtual realm.

Rimmel maintains his engaging writing style, keeping readers hooked with a blend of action, strategy, and character development.

The sequel builds upon the strengths of its predecessor, offering further exploration of the intricacies of building and managing a thriving community within the game world. The evolution of Joe's character is evident as he grapples with the responsibilities of leadership and the consequences of his decisions.

The world-building in Village of Noobtown remains detailed and immersive, drawing readers deeper into the intricacies of the game universe.

However, while the expansion of the city-building aspect is commendable, the narrative occasionally feels repetitive, with certain plot points rehashed from the first book. Additionally, the pacing suffers from occasional lulls, where the story seems to stagnate rather than progress.

Compared to its predecessor, Village of Noobtown offers a deeper exploration of its central themes but struggles to maintain the same level of freshness and excitement.

In comparison to other entries in the litRPG genre, such as The Land by Aleron Kong or Life Reset by Shemer Kuznits, Village of Noobtown falls slightly short in terms of innovation and originality. While it provides an enjoyable continuation of Joe's story, it lacks the same level of impact and novelty that made the first book stand out.

In conclusion, Village of Noobtown is a solid follow-up to its predecessor, offering further exploration of its central themes and character development. While it may not reach the same heights as the first book, it provides an entertaining continuation of Joe's journey that will satisfy fans of the series.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5)

[Rob Enderle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure of this series when I started it. The description sounded like the hero would be forever underpowered, and that didn't sound like a fun read. Well it isn't anything like that, while the hero is just slightly overpowered the battles are fun, no real romance, though I'm getting a bit tired of him being loyal to his wife given he died to start this series and there is no way for him to return home. Also, he often goes from being competent to missing apparent hints that something is wrong. Otherwise, this has been a fun read that I've had trouble putting down, as the power scaling is pulling me aggressively through the books. Overall a lot of fun.

[GiGi · Rating 3 out of 5]

People are so mean to him! Imagine everyone constantly picking on you cause their usual is foreign to you... i actually felt bad. I understand not broadcasting that you're an outsider but it's kinda sad how he has no one he can fully open up to.

Same issues as the previous one regarding stats and fights.

[Tony Hinde · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF 23%

If you're after a crunchy LitRPG town management story then look no farther. Sady it is not to my taste.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Excellent continuation to this series. I have grown to be amused my Shart and Badgler and find myself chuckling frequently at their antics.

[A.R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic. Hilarious, good action, good story and characters. Really enjoyed it

[Greg Webb · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a little reassuring to see that the issues I find to be plaguing this book/series are also being called out in other reviews; so it's not just me being overly critical/crotchety. And it's a little amusing that I'm not the only one continuing on with the series, despite its many flaws...

[R.J. Triveri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will be short and sweet.
I really enjoyed this story.
Don't F with the Village of Noobtown.

[david · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent, but needs an editor

It's a decent storyline, with some good humor. The author desperately needs an editor though, both for what I'm assuming are Auto correct errors and typos, and for continuity issues. A few of the fight scenes get really hard to read. The main character is also a bit oblivious for somebody who is supposed to have been an adult in IT

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author has created a fairly interesting world and the story is pretty interesting. Unfortunately, it is ruined by unrealistic and idiotic behavior by the MC. To a certain extent, the first book was able to get away with stupid behavior because the MC was new to the world and very low level. However, in this book, despite being more experienced, he seems to get himself into near-death situations way more often than is realistic.

Now that he has a village full of people he still embarks on dangerous missions alone and not properly prepared. He doesn't properly research the missions beforehand and he still hasn't spent enough time learning his user interface and abilities.

I'm halfway through the audiobook and I'm tempted to give up because the MC irritates me so much with his stupidity and unrealistic behavior. In a world where there is pain, no respawning as far as I can tell, and no healing magic available to him, no sane person would take the level of risk the MC does. It is also unrealistic that he survives so many situations where he stupidly gets within a few percentage points of death.

The author attempts to explain away the idiotic behavior but it doesn't really mitigate the feeling that any sane person would have made better and more obvious decisions. This book could have been much more enjoyable if the MC had behaved more reasonably in his decisions and taken normal precautions for his safety.

As it is, the book feels like it's about a bumbling idiot that gets into numerous near-death situations and miraculously survives all of them due to numerous deus-ex-machina events.

[Markus Khul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really do like the world of the book, but I couldn't take the MC's numerous stupid mistakes and the overused skits going around him to give it a better score.

Sure, the world's system is influencing his mind, but there's only so much stupid shit a person can do before taking a moment and trying to learn everything he could about his new world. FFS, he has a literal pause button that he could use to thoroughly explore everything in a fraction of the time it would take IRL.

Also, I highly disliked his sparing of his enemies when he should have killed them. Yes, his mind was manipulated, but there's only so much a person should take before just taking people out. Even with that taken under consideration, why spare the damned goblin suffocating in shit? She was super dangerous and wanted to kill and destroy everything he cared about and he saved her for some retarded 'moral' reason.

Oh yeah, the toilet humor is leaned into tooooo much. I don't mind some, but this is in the beating a dead horse realm.

The next few books are already written so I don't expect anything to change from this review, but I do hope it does since I'll check out the next one before I decide on whether to finish the entire series.

[Devan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lol

Had a lot of fun reading this book. It took a couple of chapters, but the author’s humor really grew on me and I burst out laughing many times. Fun book. I look forward to the sequel.

Update 11-4-21 (audible review)
Listened to the audible version of this as well and I’m glad I did. I have found that the narrator can make the book. In some cases the narrator is so good that when the sequel comes out I will wait to read it because they do such a great job. This is one of those cases.

Originally I gave the 1st 3 books in this series 4/5 stars, but I loved the audible version so much I had to change it to 5 stars. Highly recommend Jonathan McLain as a narrator. He did a great job!

[Koffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this 1 even funnier than the first book. Oh how I laughed while listening too this book.
It's actually a pretty okay story and decent plot. What really makes the book good though is how funny it is. My one complaint is how the writer keeps writing Jim as this big dumb sap that can't let go off his wife. Even though 1. He is on another world. 2: have no idea if she is even alive anymore. 3: He will never see her again anyway because he died on earth and his soul was reincarnated by a demon here. Can he please let go and we can have some romance in this series as well? Getting tired of hearing oh I miss my wife oh I miss my wife in every book.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stupid fun, not great literature

This is not Tolstoy or even RAH, this is just stupid fun: the literary equivalent of hot buttered popcorn. The interesting twist is an adventurer is forced into an NPC-like role defending his starter town lest it be overrun by goblins. This is far more interesting that just another hack and slash novel where the main character gets godlike powers for no good reason. Here the mcguffin of his learning unlimited skills actually cripples the MC as much as it helps him.