Legendary Rule: Book One

Legendary Rule #1

by Bruce Sentar

Tired of the main character one shotting every boss? Every girl inexplicably in love with him on first sight? Legendary Rule is certainly not an 'easy mode' harem. Ajax Demos finds himself lost in society. Graduating shortly after artificial intelligence is allowed to enter the workforce; he can’t get his career off the ground. He clings to what he believes a responsible adult should pursue, but it just isn’t in the cards. As his last hope for a steady paycheck disappears new opportunities open. Ajax gets a chance to play a brand new Immersive Reality game. Things aren't as they seem. Mega Corps hover over what appears to be a simple game. Two unlikely women hiding their real identities join his party as he tries to get ahead of the competition and set himself on the path of becoming a professional gamer. Join Ajax and Company as they enter the world of Legendary Rule. this book contains graphic violence, harem elements and explicit scenes.

Genres: Litrpg, Harem, Fantasy, Smut, Fiction, Science Fiction, Audiobook

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 14, 2019

About the author

Born and raised in the agricultural midwest, I moved every year after school even as far as Shanghai before settling down with my wife in Chicago.

I have always enjoyed Wuxia stories and became thrilled when I discovered harem stories spreading to western books. I've written down my day dreams for years as an idle hobby. Inspired by the harem genre I'm finally fleshing them out into full blown novels.

I'm excited to share my stories with you as I turn them into novels and series.

Connect with me on Facebook for updates on my latest books.
https://www.facebook.com/Bruce-Sentar...

Reviews

[Pip]

Despite what the description says this is an easy mode harem book. The MC does nothing to work for it and everything just falls in his lap. The book ends just when things start to become interesting.
2.5 Stars - Worth a read if you have nothing else better to do.

[Lawrence James]

I wanted to like this but the MC is written badly

First off the world the author created so far is pretty descent, the villain was ok. The female characters were written well and had intelligence as well as being sexy.

But the MC was terrible. He knows nothing about women and is at least past college age. He picked the slow spell book when he just said he needed a area damage spell and didn't pick that. Then since he has the slow ability you would think he would have used that against the giant charging him but no he did not. The MC also forgot to use a shield spell to protect his group mate while fighting a room full of bandits. As poorly as the character is set up in this story there is now way he reflects the skill level of a pro gamer forgetting to use abilities are not pro skills so this book fails just based on that.
Then the MC's constant habit of going in his head to think when he clearly isn't smart gets annoying to the reader. That is a trait that thinkers have not people who forget to use their skills in fights, or don't know how to set up a mage for that matter. Two stars for the MC not written as being more intelligent and for lack of professional game skills needed before you write about a guy who thinks he is going pro. Clearly this main character would never make to progamer.

[Steve]

This has a pretty clueless MC, one of the things I hate most in a book, but he does progress so that saved it before I gave up in disgust.

Not an original idea by any stretch, but generally well executed. I will keep an eye out for the sequel, as I'm invested enough to care (a bit) about what happens next. The cardboard villain was a bit much (though I hope he gets what's coming his way...), but there is enough depth with the MegaCorps for this story to expand.

Rant/ The persistent PvP threat, i.e. the player who will spawn-camp you to mental exhaustion, is a common trope in these VRMO books. I can't imagine a game company not putting in some anti-harassment features to prevent this. Would it be so hard to block certain people from interacting with you? I realize these are usually plot devices, but when you set things in the "real world" companies would be scared to death of virtual rapes, confinement and torture happening in-game.

This was touched upon in this book, but it made me think about this so here we are. As many of these books are set in the USA, it's a VERY litigious society and a company would be sued out of existence for mental anguish suffered through misuse (by others) of their product. \end Rant

[Daniel G]

It left me wanting more.

[William Moon, Jr]

Nice first outing, if a little cliche

I started reading Bruce Sentar's most recent series, Dungeon Diving, and enjoyed it so much that I wanted to read more of his stuff while waiting for the next installment (105). While a bitmore disappointed in this book (DD is far superior writing), recognizing it was his first outing, I still find the 3-book series worth the read.

It is nice to see how much the author has grown in just a few short years with his writing style and ability. He's definitely leveled up from when he wrote this at level 1. I can also see the progression in his book. The start of it was really a struggle to get into but it flows better as it progresses ans you can see him getting a better handle on the direction of it.

Now the critique...Lots of continuity mistakes in this books, and a fairly cliched and typical version of haremlit. He seems to forget at times that he's using a fully immersive video game format as the characters seem to never need to go to the bathroom or clean themselves after sex in the sim. The concept of how the game works, 'boring/inactive' time in game, and how it would be perceived IRL seems messy at best, but I like that the cliff hanger at the end suggests far more going on here to maybe help some of this out.

Its also clear that he's read up on poly relationships since this book as communication and trust are cornerstones and the BS being pulled by Missy and Sarah would wreck a polycule.

All in all, not a bad effort and is vastly improved from the beginning of the book to the end (he obviously leveled as an author a bit), and he's got me looking forward to continuing to read this series due to the latter story elements, regardless of how I felt at the start.

[Kiba Snowpaw]

Final Rating: 2.60/5.00

Starting score: 2.50
+0.30 for Ajax's believable financial anxiety and concern for exploited people.
+0.35 for flexible magic and progression developed through experimentation.
+0.25 for varied battles that reward cooperation and give the women substantial combat roles.
+0.25 for domestic warmth and relationships with history beyond the immediate adventure.
+0.20 for detailed sexual intimacy, reciprocal desire, and room for individual boundaries.
+0.20 for immersive virtual surroundings and intriguing connections between AI, power, and reality.
-0.25 for repetitive explanations and circular internal monologues.
-0.25 for avoidable failures of tactical awareness and communication.
-0.25 for concealed identities undermining the romance's claims about honesty.
-0.20 for flat, persistently contemptuous antagonists.
-0.10 for rushed emotional aftermath and sexual banter intruding on it.
-0.20 for recurring grammar, wording, and character-name errors.
-0.20 for postponing central progression and career payoffs beyond this book.
Calculated final score: 2.50 + 1.55 - 1.45 = 2.60/5.00

I wanted to settle into this adventure, stretch my paws beside its virtual campfire, and enjoy the combination of developing magic, affectionate companions, and explicit intimacy. There is warmth here, but repetition and emotional evasiveness keep my ears twitching when I should be relaxing into the story. This promising adventure repeatedly interrupts its own progress. It can turn a small discovery into a useful combat trick, then spend another conversation explaining a character direction I already understand. It can make companionship feel welcoming, then ask me to smile through decisions that undermine trust. As Kiba Snowpaw, Alpha Ice Wolf of the Ice Wolf Clan, I respond to the desire to build a better life and a den worth returning to. I also expect the people sharing that den to speak honestly. This audiobook gives me pieces of both a satisfying progression story and a meaningful relationship story, but neither develops consistently enough to earn an enthusiastic howl.

Ajax's financial situation gives me a reason to care before the game gets moving. He has a degree, limited prospects, a retail job, and an economy in which technological progress is making ordinary people increasingly disposable. His thoughts about selling the immersion unit make sense when its value could buy breathing room. The excitement of playing competes with rent and the embarrassment of needing help. My own retail work makes that concern recognisable. I appreciate that his wish to become a professional gamer grows from pressure, wounded pride, and an existing interest. His stubborn independence also has an understandable cost: a small offer of help can feel like a debt, even when accepting it would simply let a friend be kind. The book is strongest when it lets that pride expose his insecurity. It becomes less convincing when he keeps assuming that being wanted requires him to provide financially for women who already have successful careers. Their ability to challenge that assumption gives the relationship more substance than another compliment about his appearance would.

The virtual world has enough physical texture to make his attachment plausible. The grass, cramped wagons, weather, and private living space give me a world with textures I can sink my paws into. I can understand wanting to spend time somewhere that offers both discovery and companionship while the outside world offers another humiliating calculation about money. The accelerated instances also make the emotional compression more interesting: a short absence from the apartment can contain days of shared experience. System adds another promising dimension through her changing personality and ability to shape Ajax's interface. The questions about adaptive intelligence, ownership, and how much of this environment is truly under anyone's control kept my ears raised. Private sleeping spaces and a consent requirement for sexual activity exist, while the pain rules still permit frightening experiences. The patch fixing player combat at ninety percent pain makes the corporate enthusiasm for this technology feel especially troubling. That tension gives the setting a threatening underside. I wanted more exploration of it because it is among the book's most distinctive possibilities.

The progression works best when Ajax experiments with something he already possesses. Reshaping a basic magical projectile into a faster, smaller attack gives his build a practical identity. Later adjustments connect the imagined properties of the spell to a particular obstacle, and his ordinary knowledge can become useful inside the game. I like that kind of development. It makes intelligence feel like a way of approaching a problem instead of merely a larger number on a character sheet. Practice, meditation, crafting, and the cost of using abilities together provide several routes to improvement. Tailoring has an especially pleasant connection between its mechanical benefit and the simple usefulness of repairing somebody's boots. Ajax does receive generous opportunities, but dismissing his entire progression as effortless would ignore his training, mistakes, experimentation, and increasing familiarity with his abilities. I could feel my gamer claws finding purchase when a modest discovery became a tool the group could actually use. The strongest gains have a visible relationship to what came before them.

The battles also offer more variety than an endless procession of identical enemies. The rain during the merloc encounter changes the situation, forcing the group to think about which opponents matter and how their attacks are reaching them. The kitchen fight gives positioning, improvised protection, and the timing of attacks a useful role. Missy and Sky contribute substantially throughout the adventure. Their competence is part of the attraction, and I do not need Ajax to outperform both of them before he deserves their interest. I am more interested in whether the group becomes capable together. One of his better moments comes when he commits to maintaining protection for someone else, accepting that his mana cannot support every role he wants to perform at once. That decision has more weight than the later excitement over rankings. It shows him doing the work the fight requires. Ajax keeping a cooking pan as a trophy also made my tail lift. Its worth lies in remembering the fight, a familiar kind of attachment for a gamer.

Unfortunately, the explanation of that development keeps circling back over ground already covered. Ajax considers his preferred role, his need to function alone, the usefulness of a pet, the problem of becoming a healer, and the allocation of his statistics repeatedly. Some of that deliberation is necessary while the game is unfamiliar. Eventually, the decisions stop acquiring enough new meaning to justify another trip around them. His money worries and astonishment that attractive women want his company develop similar loops. For an audiobook, that repetition is particularly wearing because the story keeps occupying time with conclusions it has already established. I enjoy understanding a build when the explanation prepares me for a choice or a consequence. Here, I too often feel my paws pressing into the same tracks without getting farther down the trail. The later rescue and caravan sequences do bring substantial action, so the book's rhythm is not uniformly slow. The problem is uneven movement: worthwhile developments have to drag too much repeated uncertainty behind them before they can get going.

Ajax's mistakes become more frustrating when information is readily available and he chooses to ignore it. After a painful death, he draws a serious conclusion about a companion, declines the offered replay, and leaves urgent messages unread. The shock gives me an initial reason to understand his withdrawal. Letting an assumption sit unchallenged while the rest of his party may need him is much harder to accept. I cannot take his ambition to lead and compete seriously without expecting basic communication. His handling of abilities creates a related problem. Forgetting his protective spell during a difficult fight requires another character to remind him of something he has already understood. Slow is acquired for its obvious tactical usefulness, then remains unused even when controlling an approaching enemy would be worth considering. I cannot assume it would automatically defeat a boss; I can reasonably expect the possibility to enter his thinking. By then, I want to plant a paw on his shoulder and tell him to read his damn messages. The later teamwork helps, but this aspiring professional needs the habits to match his ambition.

The relationships have more foundation than their rapid development first suggests. Missy and Sky bring an existing connection, complicated desires, and histories that extend beyond the first shared quest. Some of the emotional groundwork predates what Ajax understands about the situation. That matters to me because it makes the attraction more specific than two skilled women simply appearing to admire the nearest available man. The quieter gestures are often the most persuasive: repairing worn equipment, making a meal, finding room for one another, or sharing a familiar joke. The failed attempt at a Dragon Ball attack feels like friends recognising one another's interests. Those moments give the little group a life outside its combat roles. Sky's uncertainty also gives the romance a different pace from Missy's more immediate pursuit. I appreciate Ajax making clear that staying in the party does not require a relationship. That is warmth for my winter den: affection that leaves room for someone to stay close on their own terms.

The concealed identities put a crack through that warmth. I understand the desire to escape an established image, to be seen differently, or to discover whether someone wants the person beneath a public persona. Those motives create an interesting romantic problem. My fangs show when the story lets that problem continue into substantial intimacy while Ajax remains short of information that could change his understanding of what he is agreeing to. The repeated praise of his sincerity becomes uncomfortable in that context. Honesty is being demanded from the person who has the least complete picture. The changes to his private space echo the same imbalance on a smaller scale: he is encouraged to approve everything quickly while other people decide what his shared future should look like. The affectionate intention is clear, but so is the habit of steering him around an informed choice. I could accept a romance that examined that behaviour and made its participants confront the damage. This installment spends much more time enjoying the arrangement than making them answer for it. For me, that limits how securely the emotional bond can settle.

The sexual content itself does follow through. There is frequent flirting, sexual anticipation, and attention to bodies throughout the story, followed by two substantial explicit sequences in the latter part. These are developed encounters, with physical detail and changing responses, rather than a vague promise followed by a closed door. I want explicit sex with emotional presence, and the later emphasis on giving pleasure back adds something beyond simple gratification for Ajax. The differences between the women also remain relevant: interest does not mean everyone moves into the same degree of intimacy at the same moment, and Sky retains room to set her own pace. The repeated commentary is less satisfying. Calling someone beautiful again does little to deepen attraction that has already been made unmistakable. I find more heat in a specific gesture, an attentive response, or a moment of vulnerability than in another inventory of curves. The explicitness earns its place.

The economic exploitation running through both worlds could have supported stronger antagonists. Ajax loses security in a society that increasingly measures people by their usefulness, then encounters virtual arrangements that treat lives and families as collateral. That connection gives his escape a bitter edge. Richard, however, is such an uninterrupted stream of entitlement, contempt, and sadism that he becomes predictable very quickly. His repeated insistence on his own superiority adds volume without adding much understanding. Several of the merchants operate in a similarly narrow register of greed and condescension. I do not need a sympathetic explanation for every cruel person, but I do need behaviour with enough variation to sustain a substantial conflict. The captain becomes more interesting when obligations and concern for other people complicate his hostility. Ajax's capacity to recognise somebody else's coercion also gives him a stronger moral presence than his combat rankings do. My pack instincts respond to that distinction. A person trapped by obligations to family deserves more consideration than a label identifying him as an enemy. The story briefly reaches that depth, and I wanted its other conflicts to receive comparable attention.

The cruelty has enough force to make me angry on behalf of its victims. Natalie, in particular, has reason for the hatred she carries, and her resistance gives her a degree of agency beyond simply waiting to be rescued. I can value darkness that produces protective anger and makes the cost of power visible. Her thread nevertheless remains dominated by what she has suffered and how fiercely she wants retaliation, leaving limited room to know her beyond that response. Elsewhere, the narrative can move from a frightening ordeal or a scene full of casualties into sexual teasing with very little space between them. Affection after danger can be believable; the handling here sometimes makes it feel like an automatic reset. Ajax does retain anxiety after a companion is taken, so the emotional aftermath is not entirely absent. I wanted that concern to remain connected to the affected person's experience instead of repeatedly giving way to his arousal. In HowlStrom, my first instinct after dragging someone out of a storm is to check what the cold has done to them. Desire can share the den with that care, but it should not keep taking over the conversation.

The English also needs a substantial editing pass. The prose repeatedly slips from third-person narration into first person and then returns to Ajax as an outside subject. The line "I looked over the NPC once" appears inside an otherwise third-person introduction to a character, and similar shifts recur later. Grammar problems include the construction "Ajax immediately focus". These are examples of an identifiable pattern of unstable viewpoint, agreement, and wording. The merchant mage introduced as Danica later becomes Darcie without an explanation, while the captain's name also varies. That is especially unhelpful in a story where identities already matter to the plot. I should be thinking about which character is withholding information, without needing to wonder whether the writing has accidentally renamed somebody. Some individual mistakes are small, but their recurrence makes the underlying prose feel insufficiently revised. I can appreciate the energy of a debut and still expect names, perspective, and sentence construction to hold together. These problems deserve a direct deduction rather than being brushed aside as harmless enthusiasm.

The ending leaves too much of the central promise beyond this installment. There are completed encounters, a rescue, and consequential decisions, so the story does not simply stop before anything happens. The frustration is that Ajax's desired magical direction is only beginning to become available. The practical money question that grounds the opening also awaits a settled outcome. The most provocative questions about the relationship between the game and reality gather force right at the boundary of the next book. The cliffhanger creates urgency for the next installment without providing much satisfaction here. I want the first stretch of a journey to arrive somewhere emotionally and structurally satisfying before another door opens. Here, the volume spends considerable time preparing possibilities that it then hands forward. The final complication certainly raises my curiosity. It also makes the earlier repetition feel more costly, because some of that space could have supported a fuller payoff within the book I have just finished.

I am left with affection for the little group's better moments and impatience with how often the writing weakens them. The setting has enough substance to support discovery, the magic has room for invention, and the companionship occasionally feels like warmth reaching through winter fur. Enjoying this genre makes those glimpses of a better adventure especially frustrating. I can see the trail opening through the snow, and then another avoidable lapse sends us circling again. I want to feel that the adventure can carry its emotional weight when the flirtation pauses and the next fight is over. This opening shows that capacity in individual moments. At 2.60/5.00, it has my curiosity and some of my warmth, while my trust remains something the story still has to earn.

[R. Alexander]

I enjoyed listening to this book and for the most part, it was an enjoyable experience. Brandon Utah did a great job narrating it as usual. I have to say though, the are some things that took me out of the story to the point where I was almost yelling to myself as if I could reach out to the MC and stop him from being such a moronic, noob player. The sad thing was there were other things in the book's world that could have really made it stand out but it wasn't explored as much as the noob's fumbling with the women and his apparent ineptitude at gaming (AI's anyone? That could have been explored a lot more deeply...)

For the most part, the MC was fairly typical of the usually crop of game MC's: disadvantaged background/hard life with the mind to become a pro gamer in the new game du jour. That isn't a problem and is usually expected in most LitRPG/HaremLit books. Even his little odd personality quirks (like the entire money thing) was understandable, I mean no one is perfect and I have met people like that. Frankly they are infuriating to deal with, but in context with the character this, again, is fine.

What isn't fine is the MC bandys about his gaming prowess and how "he taught" his pro-gamer crush how to play, but still does such a bone-headed mistake as to not check messages from the rest of his party after he had been killed and also ingnored the footage of how he died and still blamed one of the girls when she was in front of him even though he was HIT FROM BEHIND! Ugh, I was yelling outloud "Check your friggin' party chat/messages you idiot then you won't need to wonder how this happened!!!"

I have to say it is not often that I feel the need to talk aloud as if trying to reach the MC to prevent him from doing something so damned stupid, but there I was at my desk grinding my teeth.

And then there were the ladies themselves. I can understand the dynamic the author was going for but frankly the fact that two pro-gamer women somehow would defer to this guy without having more to say was pretty unbelievable. Not only that, they pretty much fell head over heals with him in less than one regular day (yes they were playing at an accelerated time rate, but still) which is extermely quick even for a harem novel.

I'm still thinking about getting the next book to see where it goes, but I may not get the audiobook version next time around.

In the end, I did enjoy the book but ugh, please have the MC start acting as if he knows what he is doing as a gamer and stop being such a noob. Also, give the women some more spine and let more of their expertise as actual pro-gamers come through instead of making them mere arm-candy.

[Pablo García]

I actually had to read this book twice to try to figure out what this book was about. This is a fantasy-isekai (traveled to another world) VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) called Legendary Rule (like the volume/series name). Main character Ajax is hardly getting by, gets one of ten Virtual Reality cabins, PIU's, in a worldwide contest. If Ajax had sold this PIU cabin then he could have gotten 5-6 thousand for it. I found the price for a virtual reality cabin at 5-6 thousand on the extremely low end, especially if the contest only gave away ten in the whole world. So they are not that revolutionary or special then? Ajax stated that it was the equivalent of 2 months pay. So they are not worth that much?
Main character, Ajax, lacks character, determination and commitment. Does everything at half-effort, half-thought, half-velocity, non-commital manner. Ajax, actually tries to have a three way relationship; but it lacks common sense and reality; Ajax is not handsome, he is not powerful, he is not super smart or super successful, he is not funny or even protective. Ajax is not charming nor does he have high charisma. Ajax does not provide (weapons, safety, artifacts, abilities, skills, etc.) for his retinue or harem. He is not a good leader, nor does ha have a creative/inventive mind. In short, the author has not created the "harem-retinue-conditions". If those are even a thing. I'm sure as things change from reality to virtual/alternate reality, the things that are attractive towards the opposite sex are also going to change. To be able to share someone, that someone needs to be so much more than a regular guy, with subpar intelligence, not so average capacity and game knowledge, and totally poor. Usually online games are for geek/nerd guys. Ratio is 1-2 girls for every 15-20 guys. So to actually create a retinue of girls, Ajax would have to be outstanding (god-like).
First volume of this Virtual Reality Game series has 200+ pages, with 33 Chapters (about six pages per chapter, making the character and world development rather shallow). It is more like a journal of thoughts and small amount of motions than a proper story series. The third volume was published on July 2021, so even though it seems to be an on-going series, the plot holes, inconsistencies and lack of common sense make it not that interesting or entertaining.

[Grumpy]

A typical story in the litRPG harem genre that offers little if anything out of the ordinary. There are some nice ideas in the game world, and plenty of action (including a couple of intimate scenes in the second half), but the characters are lacking in depth. In particular, the relationships between the main character and love interests feel bland and shallow, like the author is just ticking boxes.

The writing quality is much worse than I expected for such an established name in the genre. This was my first Bruce Sentar book (I usually only buy omnibuses / collections, which he doesn't release), and honestly I was expecting much better. Within the first chapter I was already picking up common problems with self-published KU fiction, and they only multiplied as the book went on. Dangling participles and modifiers are everywhere, as are ambiguous pronoun references. As well as these two excessively frequent problems there are assorted other grammatical heresies, including adverbs attached to the wrong verbs, repeated vocabulary, and simple incorrect wording. "Is the quest too high for a level for us?" Ugh! The book is just littered with them. There are also many little inconsistencies, and the dialogue is often stilted and lifeless.Overall, it's pretty bad. The prose is very sloppy.

I would have felt ripped off if I'd paid the asking price, when there are so many better writers in the genre offering much higher quality at more reader-friendly pricing. As I listened via Audible Plus, all I spent was my time, but I'm not sure if even that was a good trade.

Narration is fine. Characterisation is okay, but nothing special. There are no glaring errors in narration or artifacts in the sound quality. The narrator does exactly what he needs to do, but my immersion kept being destroyed by the author's poor grammar.

I won't be buying any of the author's work unless he changes his stance on collections, lowers his pricing, or significantly improves his writing (preferably all three!), but I like the ideas and genre enough to listen to more Audible Plus audiobooks or read through Kindle Unlimited.

I think this one really suffers from lack of care and attention. It could be so much better.

[Jacob Lane]

I rather enjoyed the book, in all aspects but 1

It's a very solid book All around, a pretty basic leveling system, basic abilities, basic world, basic adventure. And all of that is well written and executed, which makes it good.

Where this story shines is the characterization of the main characters. main bro, and both girls are pretty well-defined, if a bit two-dimensional, and they all have a nice little bits of character growth. You can't get a lot of character growth really in the first book of a series like this, so what was there I was happy to see

Where this story falls, it falls really really hard. The villain, is the epitome of "bad guy, because plot" there was absolutely no thought put into his character, he only exists to be a foil. And he's not good at that. He's just a sexual predator. With a dash of sociopathy. But not in an interesting way. In the way that every thirteen-year-old from Southeast Asia of Rights their villains in their cultivation fan ficts.

so I didn't do it the story, but I'll probably drop it if this feeling is an ongoing part of it. every page he is on screen was genuinely difficult to read through. And not because he's diabolical, but because the quality of this story went from really really good, to 14 year old going through an emo phase

[Steven]

This review is for all 3 parts of this series. The series has an interesting concept - a new VR fantasy roleplaying game that is very immersive, with the main character being one of the first people to play it. There is an intriguing blurring of the lines between real and virtual worlds, as well as real vs. virtual identities and NPCs vs real players. The actual writing to implement these ideas is a bit less stellar. This seems to be the first series that Sentar created, and it shows. The characters are clunky, with dialogues that miss a spark, a very stereotypical harem setup with awesome girls that, for completely unclear reasons, all blindly immediately fall for the MC who is a bit of a loser (and a caster besides, ick!). Then the audiobook version makes things a bit worse by having only one (male) voice actor. With the many sex scenes this leads to some obvious challenges. Brandon Utah does his best, but no. Still, I listened to the whole series, out of curiosity where it would all lead, and it was entertaining, with the writing quality picking up in the latter parts. The finale in part 3 is a bit over the top, and it's clear why the series wrapped up there after raising many metaphysical questions that wouldn't be so easy to answer. All in all not great but not bad either.

[Carl]

This story had an interesting premise, a kinda Sword Art Online meets World of Warcraft type of story. It's too bad it was full of so much cringe. The relationships are cringey, the interactions are cringey, the MC is cringey, Oh my goodness. I could go into specifics about what i didn't like about this story, but i don't care enough about it to bother. I did like the character progression though, getting spells and whatnot, but that big cliff hanger at the end sealed the deal, this series is dropped.

It's a little surprising Sentar can write a pretty good story like Dragon's Justice, but then write this. But i guess a lot of Haremlit authors are hit and miss, Michael Scott Earle for instance wrote the great series Tamer and Viking Rune Smith, but then dropped the ball with Monster Empire.

[Travis]

Help me read more books

I find it amusing that the author claims there's no easy harem parts in this story, then proceeds to classify it as LitRPG and harem. Kind of silly if you ask me, especially considering the guy in this one hasn't a clue, and the girls have to basically force the issue to start. I suppose that's where the not easy part comes from, but I completely disagree. Despite that nonsense, the story isn't bad, and it looks like it will be just as interesting going forward. I personally would be happier w/o the harem pieces, but I understand that sells more books, and so it's included, whether it's needed or not, but at least this story is decent enough, so I guess I can let the harem parts slide.

[Ron]

Ajax didn’t miss the whole ‘return it to Tyren’ part of it. “You won’t wait for us to get back?” Remblaar shook his head. “It will be hard to get anyone to sit still after just being attacked. It will take some time to tend to the wounded and get going, but we won’t want to linger.” Ajax nodded to that; it made sense. He didn’t want to waste any more time arguing over it; he needed to go save Missy. (pp. 184-185)

There were so many emotions swirling in Ajax’s mind. The betrayal of the caravan leaving them behind was fresh and frustrating. It wasn’t all that bad; he knew at some level he’d been expecting it. (p. 220)

Betrayal? They said they were going to leave. It was discussed and agreed upon. SMH.

[Chad Martin]

I have really enjoyed Mr. Sentar's newer books and thought that I would go back and read his first. In this book, you can really see some of his later concepts being figured out. The characters are fun and the gaming concept is interesting. I have enjoyed the book but his skill in writing and character development have definitely grown.
The book introduces us to Ajax and his friend Sarah, as the begin a new online game, Legendary Rule. The book moves quickly and has some interesting takes on the online game/virtual reality concept but nothing to earth shattering.
I have enjoyed it and will finish the trilogy as they are quick to read. It definitely is an interesting glimpse into his early trials but can really see how his skill has developed.

[John]

Good potential but...

I love the premise of the book. The story seems to start A little slow. Not sure I'm happy with the MC he is not very smart and definitely not pro gamer material at this point. When you should be worried about his character and developing his stats and skills he's more interested in Nooky and still confused about it as well. I get it that this is harem. But there's a time to love and a time to fight but the MC seems to be confused on that point. He also seems to have an overly dramatic sense of his emotions. Seems very high schoolish. If I read the second book I hope he grows up a bit and matures.

[kyle conley]

I enjoyed it immensely

I enjoyed this book quite a bit and will continue with the series. The world was interesting and the mechanics and execution was also good. Only issue I had was the characters were not always realistic with their actions. One had bad experiences with men but throws herself quickly at the mc the other has been pining after the mc for years but also wants this other girl to be with him to. (There is some reasoning behind it) but it feels kind of forced. Again still enjoyable but had a few things that I felt could have been better.

Considering this was the author's first book this was great overall.

[Alan K]

Good first book, but could do with a tidy up

A good start to a series, and not the first series I have read from this author. The other series had more polished editing and you could feel the experience he had gained as he honed his writing. This book feels a little like Alpha World by Daniel Shinhofen or Lions Quest by Michael-Scott Earle in the full emersion virtual world which most of this book takes place. The author should do a quick edit to insert some missing spaces between words and some early stats seem wrong (I.e. casting magic but still having zero mana according to his stats). Overall I really enjoyed the story and will download book 2.

[Alan Clements]

I personally did not enjoy the story. The wishy-washy main character wouldn't have been as bad if I wasn't forced to go through pages of the mental babble that is his thought process. It could have been streamlined as well if I didn't have to suffer through the irrelevant parts of the "game" and instead of just the choices made. The only change I'd seen in the main character was the fact that he wasn't so bent on doing everything himself, but would it have been different had he known it was his friend he was playing with all along?

[Bob]

DNF, quit after about 25%. I just couldn't take the MC anymore. He is absolutely pathetic. He's stupid, emotional, weak, timid, self loathing, and oblivious. Despite all that two beauties chase after him. "What could they possibly see in me?" he says, of course. I agree with him. They are everything he is not. They are both more power, smarter, better in every way. When they decided to take turns with him like a community dildo I finally quit. I like litrpgs and this one could have started to get interesting if it wasn't for the simp tard MC. Also I hate multiple POVs which this has.

[Paul]

This book (and whole series) is one of Bruce's first works, and it definitely shows. The idea's are still great, and the characters and story are fun, but a lot of the interactions and events feel abrupt or jarring. Roughly once a chapter something would happen that pulled me out of the story and made me think "hmmm, that part of the story wasn't very well done".

The other big issue, is that even though this series is "complete", the story really is not. The story ends abruptly right as the third act starts. It very much feels like there is supposed to be a final book in the series.

[Tom]

Outstanding!

This touched on all the spots I like in LitRPG, plus the harem extra. The mc in a bad situation gets a surprise vr/lr machine and explores a new world. The timely addition of two females characters who seem to know him and off they go. The RPG is done very well along with the implementation of building skills, research and discovery. A real treasure. And am off to read book 2.

[Pete]

To be fair, you can tell this is the author's first book. I've read his other books and this one feels a bit rougher compared to Dragon's Justice. However, it's an interesting start to the series. The MC has a bit of self-defeating personality, but the two women that he's with seem to be helping in that regard. He's a bit passive about things, but I'm looking forward to seeing him actually grow into his potential.

[Dylan Hancox]

The main Character needs therapy and the Love interests need depth

The main character refuses to get out of his own way and utilize any critical thinking, i can understand wanting to have money be a driving factor behind his motivations, but his toxic views in relation to how he views worth dont just come across as flawed but its actively painful.

I really enjoy all of Bruces other work, i dont think i will be continuing with this series however.

[Alan]

Ajax a college graduate has to settle for a laboring job until replaced by an AI an let go .

Ajax a former laboring clerk after an AI replaced Him at a local job . Ajax won a contest that he entered an received a PIU machine . A state of the art gaming system that connected to your nerve endings on your body to experience real life situations during playing the game . Adventure awaits him as he explores the new gaming system . recommend reading excellent book .

[Curtis]

Good Work!

A very nicely done GameLit harem book that provides some great action, good drama, and a very intriguing plot. The characters are good, and the game mechanics are also nicely done. Well-balanced, too, as they’re easy to understand, and yet just technical enough without being too dry. Solid marks for editing too. A great first book. Recommended (17+)

[J.C. esq]

Great first book

You never know how a first time author's first book with be. I avoided this one for awhile because I didn't think I'd enjoy it. Turns out it's one of the better litrpg books I've read. It's not perfect but the author has some real talent and is just getting started.

[Skrunch]

I found the book hard to put down. It still had its faults (the "bad guy" was nothing more than an annoyance in the book, and that is the main fault I had - I could have done without this character), but I was thoroughly entertained. It devoured the book and decided to be nice enough to write this quick review...because I need to be reading book 2 now... so going to go read it now....

[Roberto Flores]

This is a ridiculous story with empty characters.

The main character comes off as a creeper, staring at everyone. The female protagonists are boring their identity and making no effort to get to know the MC in game. The whole relationship comes off as pointless and empty. The game is boring, the interactions are bland at best. This whole thing is a sorry attempt.

[Michael Rizzo]

Slow start then very engaging

Started off a bit slow. I've had some trouble relating to the main character at first. After a few chapters, once he get developed and add it other people to his experience, things took off fast. The romantic tension was especially gone well with all the complicated aspects balanced and real.