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The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound #1
The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound
As the system initializes, the world shifts. Geography is rearranged and mixed, and levels and stats are instituted across the globe. On that night, one young man was walking through an underground tunnel, his mind on the small problems of his easy life. Because of his location during the shift, he starts in a dungeon far above his level, with no knowledge or teacher, or Newbie Village to guide him. Without a class, he struggles simply to survive in this world changed by its new connection to the Nexus.
But struggle he will, for he is Randidly Ghosthound, and this is only how his legend begins...
But struggle he will, for he is Randidly Ghosthound, and this is only how his legend begins...
7634 pages, ebook
First published November 9, 2021
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1334 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 258 reviews
May 18, 2021
This LitRPG starts strongly, with a driven motivated main character who utilizes a unique path to gain power and help others. Unfortunately, the story goes off the rails. It relies on twists, setting jumps, and the introduction of tons of new characters to move the plot forwards, and at a glacial pace. It repeatedly moves into literal other worlds, and the stakes lose all meaning by the time it is back in the original setting.
The main character never develops real meaningful relationships or social skills, and he isn't remotely likeable or even human by the halfway point in the story. I kept going until the characters reached a state of near-nonsensical complication and the fights weren't entertaining to me anymore.
The main character never develops real meaningful relationships or social skills, and he isn't remotely likeable or even human by the halfway point in the story. I kept going until the characters reached a state of near-nonsensical complication and the fights weren't entertaining to me anymore.
March 8, 2023
Randidly Ghosthound, as a name, is perhaps the most unrealistic part of this story. Because I can, I did a search on the surname. Worldwide. Zero hits. It's a cool name, don't get me wrong. I mean, if I were to select a name in a system apocalypse, I wish I could come up with something half so cool. But selecting a cool name is not what happened. That's his name. By birth. And now I've banged on about this way more than it's worth.
The setting is pretty good. Randy (his name in my head) gets stuck in a dungeon when the world gets hit by a system conversion. And he's stuck pretty good. He struggles, makes a friend, and grinds skills. I liked his friend, Shal, though he's very much a tough old trainer-type who levels you up with acid baths and other painful things. I mean, yeah, he's abrasive and I wouldn't like him personally, but for jerking Randy into shape it was fun.
And I didn't mind Randy getting out and finding that the seven months subjective time he spent in the dungeon turns out to be only five hours or so real-world. Which makes him severely over-powered for the noob area he lands in and gives him a good deal of unchecked power. Which he completely flounders around with. Not an unentertaining thing.
I have several complaints, the main one being the whole class tease. Once it becomes possible to select a class, I get anxious to see what the character is going to get. This is enhanced by the obvious and overt power boost those with classes receive in this system. So Randy being all class-shy is a huge ole frustration to me. Power fantasy is my jam for these stories. Classes are equated with power in the story. And if you're going to play the "mysterious dark forces" card, at least make it make sense. I mean, the system is always at least a little malevolent in these stories, but usually the reader has some sense of what the motives are for the change and what something is trying to accomplish by making people fight for skills and stuff. This whole opaque dark motive thing just frustrates me. And I particularly hate that .
The second, far more minor annoyance is that it turns out that Randy has a pretty powerful social anxiety. And that makes him do things that appear irrational. Like giving control of a village he's founding to a random knob. That's just a recipe for all kinds of stupid to happen. And it doesn't help that the author puts his thumb on that scale so . It might even make it worse.
Anyway, I was into this and Randy is interesting enough that I was totally good with the plot and characters and stuff. The whole Sydney and Ace thing (friends from before that he's supposedly "looking for") is beyond tiresome and the problems above keep this to an extremely weak four stars. But I'll definitely pick up the next.
A note about Chaste: Sex happens to other people in this story. And we don't really get any details, though one PoV gets close. So this is kinda chaste. At least enough for me to mark it such.
The setting is pretty good. Randy (his name in my head) gets stuck in a dungeon when the world gets hit by a system conversion. And he's stuck pretty good. He struggles, makes a friend, and grinds skills. I liked his friend, Shal, though he's very much a tough old trainer-type who levels you up with acid baths and other painful things. I mean, yeah, he's abrasive and I wouldn't like him personally, but for jerking Randy into shape it was fun.
And I didn't mind Randy getting out and finding that the seven months subjective time he spent in the dungeon turns out to be only five hours or so real-world. Which makes him severely over-powered for the noob area he lands in and gives him a good deal of unchecked power. Which he completely flounders around with. Not an unentertaining thing.
I have several complaints, the main one being the whole class tease. Once it becomes possible to select a class, I get anxious to see what the character is going to get. This is enhanced by the obvious and overt power boost those with classes receive in this system. So Randy being all class-shy is a huge ole frustration to me. Power fantasy is my jam for these stories. Classes are equated with power in the story. And if you're going to play the "mysterious dark forces" card, at least make it make sense. I mean, the system is always at least a little malevolent in these stories, but usually the reader has some sense of what the motives are for the change and what something is trying to accomplish by making people fight for skills and stuff. This whole opaque dark motive thing just frustrates me. And I particularly hate that .
The second, far more minor annoyance is that it turns out that Randy has a pretty powerful social anxiety. And that makes him do things that appear irrational. Like giving control of a village he's founding to a random knob. That's just a recipe for all kinds of stupid to happen. And it doesn't help that the author puts his thumb on that scale so . It might even make it worse.
Anyway, I was into this and Randy is interesting enough that I was totally good with the plot and characters and stuff. The whole Sydney and Ace thing (friends from before that he's supposedly "looking for") is beyond tiresome and the problems above keep this to an extremely weak four stars. But I'll definitely pick up the next.
A note about Chaste: Sex happens to other people in this story. And we don't really get any details, though one PoV gets close. So this is kinda chaste. At least enough for me to mark it such.
June 15, 2022
4.5/5
A fun progression read with the tropes I like. OP main character (but no toooo OP) and intersting secondary characters, Rich Worldbuilding and intersting progression / levelling system.
Starting the sequel ASAP...
A fun progression read with the tropes I like. OP main character (but no toooo OP) and intersting secondary characters, Rich Worldbuilding and intersting progression / levelling system.
Starting the sequel ASAP...
December 20, 2021
What a horrible, annoying first name. Worse when the book is written in third person and you get to hear it over and over and over. Note I was listening to the audio book.
If there is anyone out there named Randidly it is sad for them as they will get to hear that name over and over.
Other than that, the book didn't seem to add anything new to the genre of what I was able to make it through.
If there is anyone out there named Randidly it is sad for them as they will get to hear that name over and over.
Other than that, the book didn't seem to add anything new to the genre of what I was able to make it through.
November 23, 2020
A divisive and flawed milestone in the LitRPG genre. The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound is one of those sprawling epics, with a thousand chapters. In this case, I only made it about 500 or so in before setting the book aside. Normally, if I can't make it through to the end of a series this long there's something significant I dislike about the book, as I delight in nothing more than finding a good world and characters to sink my teeth into and spend time with. In this case, while I did not read on, I can only regard my time with the series with fondness.
The author says he started the series as a way to play around with overly complicated stats and leveling systems, and I think he honed in on something elemental about what readers want in the LitRPG space. It's the combination of addictive and consistent expansion and evolution of strength and skills coupled with an engaging and vivid world that drives the story.
The downfall of the book for me was the gradual degradation of character relationships. After all, a piece of literature cannot be sustained by fascinating worlds and complex number systems alone.
While this didn't end up on my favorites, it does remain as one of the most memorable LitRPG books out there. There's a lot to learn from The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound, and if you haven't read the first 500 chapters or so, I'd fully recommend it. Who knows, you might make it through the next 500 too.
The author says he started the series as a way to play around with overly complicated stats and leveling systems, and I think he honed in on something elemental about what readers want in the LitRPG space. It's the combination of addictive and consistent expansion and evolution of strength and skills coupled with an engaging and vivid world that drives the story.
The downfall of the book for me was the gradual degradation of character relationships. After all, a piece of literature cannot be sustained by fascinating worlds and complex number systems alone.
While this didn't end up on my favorites, it does remain as one of the most memorable LitRPG books out there. There's a lot to learn from The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound, and if you haven't read the first 500 chapters or so, I'd fully recommend it. Who knows, you might make it through the next 500 too.
April 3, 2022
Rating 4.0 stars
This is going to be a weird review. I make that statement because I feel this review is going to sound contradictory. I liked this book. It is probably third on my list of good recent litrpg books behind He who fights with Monsters and the Defiance of the Fall series. The contradiction comes from my plan to do nothing but write about all the problems I had with this book for the rest of this review.
First. The name. Randidly Ghosthound. I kind of liked the second name actually especially when it was used as a title later on in the series but where did a name like Randidly come from? More importantly how could I listen through a 22 hour audiobook and never hear a reason for the name. Everyone else had normal sounding names. If I walked up to someone and introduced myself as Rumpelstiltskin Pumpernickel I would expect somebody to wonder how that happened and maybe ask. It wouldn't be that difficult. You know that is an unusual name how did that come about? No big deal. That fact that it was never mentioned made it a more pronounced issue for me. Not to mention for the first 2 hours of the book he was alone and the narrator used his name A LOT. It was Randidly did this and Randidly did that. How about a pronoun like "He" every once in a while?
Ok, so lets get into the specifics of my issues Despite all those issues I still had a really good time listening to the story.
This is going to be a weird review. I make that statement because I feel this review is going to sound contradictory. I liked this book. It is probably third on my list of good recent litrpg books behind He who fights with Monsters and the Defiance of the Fall series. The contradiction comes from my plan to do nothing but write about all the problems I had with this book for the rest of this review.
First. The name. Randidly Ghosthound. I kind of liked the second name actually especially when it was used as a title later on in the series but where did a name like Randidly come from? More importantly how could I listen through a 22 hour audiobook and never hear a reason for the name. Everyone else had normal sounding names. If I walked up to someone and introduced myself as Rumpelstiltskin Pumpernickel I would expect somebody to wonder how that happened and maybe ask. It wouldn't be that difficult. You know that is an unusual name how did that come about? No big deal. That fact that it was never mentioned made it a more pronounced issue for me. Not to mention for the first 2 hours of the book he was alone and the narrator used his name A LOT. It was Randidly did this and Randidly did that. How about a pronoun like "He" every once in a while?
Ok, so lets get into the specifics of my issues Despite all those issues I still had a really good time listening to the story.
November 19, 2021
Fun fights, crunchy mechanics with special a needs hero
This fiction has been free to read on the Royal Road website for many years now. The beginning of the story has received much praise, but there’s also consensus the writing declines as the story progresses. Unfortunately, this is a common theme with long running stories that rely on chapter quantity over quality in order to maintain Patreon subscriptions.
As part of publishing, the author has attempted to do some editing. Very commendable, although I wish he had gone further as it’s obvious a professional editor was not involved. Still, even if the writing is amateurish, it has a lot of enthusiastic charm. For example, who unironically names their modern day character “Randidly Ghosthound” and constantly refers to his “emerald eyes”? It’s so corny and over the top, but it also shows a childlike sense of wonder for storytelling that’s refreshing.
That being said, the writing is definitely not for everyone. It’s very “crunchy” even for the LitRPG genre with lots of skills and numbers to track like a video game. Also, the main character can be very frustrating. Randidly struggles with mental issues and stunted emotional awareness. He’s intelligent and seems to want to help others, but he’s so clueless about people he must be mentally handicapped. Honestly, it’s not a character twist I enjoyed.
As for the actual story, it was pretty entertaining. I really enjoyed the arc of survival and training. I also totally agree with the main character - the concrete sense of growth offered by the System is highly incentivizing and addictive. It’s too bad we don’t have something like this in the real world. And while I did find Randidly painful and awkward, I also appreciated that he was sincere and ridiculously hard working.
This is a solid LitRPG book, but there are concerns about the writing quality and story direction for future installments. The author has produced a ton of creative material, but he has also received a lot of negative feedback on it. My understanding is the author threw together many fun ideas over the years without much concern for planning or quality. If he can somehow weave it all together properly, then the legend of Randidly could truly be great! I just hope the author takes this opportunity to reach out to a skilled editor to help polish his story before publishing the next book.
This fiction has been free to read on the Royal Road website for many years now. The beginning of the story has received much praise, but there’s also consensus the writing declines as the story progresses. Unfortunately, this is a common theme with long running stories that rely on chapter quantity over quality in order to maintain Patreon subscriptions.
As part of publishing, the author has attempted to do some editing. Very commendable, although I wish he had gone further as it’s obvious a professional editor was not involved. Still, even if the writing is amateurish, it has a lot of enthusiastic charm. For example, who unironically names their modern day character “Randidly Ghosthound” and constantly refers to his “emerald eyes”? It’s so corny and over the top, but it also shows a childlike sense of wonder for storytelling that’s refreshing.
That being said, the writing is definitely not for everyone. It’s very “crunchy” even for the LitRPG genre with lots of skills and numbers to track like a video game. Also, the main character can be very frustrating. Randidly struggles with mental issues and stunted emotional awareness. He’s intelligent and seems to want to help others, but he’s so clueless about people he must be mentally handicapped. Honestly, it’s not a character twist I enjoyed.
As for the actual story, it was pretty entertaining. I really enjoyed the arc of survival and training. I also totally agree with the main character - the concrete sense of growth offered by the System is highly incentivizing and addictive. It’s too bad we don’t have something like this in the real world. And while I did find Randidly painful and awkward, I also appreciated that he was sincere and ridiculously hard working.
This is a solid LitRPG book, but there are concerns about the writing quality and story direction for future installments. The author has produced a ton of creative material, but he has also received a lot of negative feedback on it. My understanding is the author threw together many fun ideas over the years without much concern for planning or quality. If he can somehow weave it all together properly, then the legend of Randidly could truly be great! I just hope the author takes this opportunity to reach out to a skilled editor to help polish his story before publishing the next book.
December 9, 2021
*Audiobook review*
Good story, confusing main character; bland side characters. The story starts off well enough, the system starts and somehow the MC ends up in the dungeon instead on the outside. He levels up skills, finds a master and grows strong and tougher for the new world. After he comes back home; the MC changes. He still has the sense of survivability and the need to grow stronger but it's his social character what is really surprising. Let's just say, after several chapters you get the feeling that the MC has autism or aspergers. Now, there is nothing wrong with a MC being different and in fact I am at times glad that the the MC isn't some dashing social butterfly with a quick wit with a comical standing. Actually, what surprised me is that the author was trying to explain the situation in a round around way. I mean, the clues where there but I wish the author would have just said it instead of the reader wondering what was wrong with the MC. For the rest of us, we kept on wondering why the MC is distant, can't figure out peoples' emotions and needs or his need for isolation and yet the strong need the connect. There were plenty of times where the MC had the solution to his problem yet, due to his physiological condition was not able to do so and as the audience kept wondering why. What is frustrating is the author changing different motivation and drive of the world's character. An example being, character that seem like serial killers suddenly became team players. The MC motivation is also confusing as if the author cannot decide if the MC is going to be good hero, anti-hero, indifferent, overly motivated or depressing character. His need to find his friends is also confusing as it felt the author came up with a mission to save them along with building a town he can't just leave. Once, the MC has the power to to find his friends, he does a poor job in putting the effort in doing so.
There are a lot reason why I think this this story is 2 stars. However, I don't want spend all day revealing spoilers. My opinion is this, if you are going to read Ghosthound, you have to accept the main character is going to do things that are not going to make sense to you. That the author doesn't know what he is going to do next, the characters will change drastically and the story takes odd turns. It's not boring, it's just not consistence.
Good story, confusing main character; bland side characters. The story starts off well enough, the system starts and somehow the MC ends up in the dungeon instead on the outside. He levels up skills, finds a master and grows strong and tougher for the new world. After he comes back home; the MC changes. He still has the sense of survivability and the need to grow stronger but it's his social character what is really surprising. Let's just say, after several chapters you get the feeling that the MC has autism or aspergers. Now, there is nothing wrong with a MC being different and in fact I am at times glad that the the MC isn't some dashing social butterfly with a quick wit with a comical standing. Actually, what surprised me is that the author was trying to explain the situation in a round around way. I mean, the clues where there but I wish the author would have just said it instead of the reader wondering what was wrong with the MC. For the rest of us, we kept on wondering why the MC is distant, can't figure out peoples' emotions and needs or his need for isolation and yet the strong need the connect. There were plenty of times where the MC had the solution to his problem yet, due to his physiological condition was not able to do so and as the audience kept wondering why. What is frustrating is the author changing different motivation and drive of the world's character. An example being, character that seem like serial killers suddenly became team players. The MC motivation is also confusing as if the author cannot decide if the MC is going to be good hero, anti-hero, indifferent, overly motivated or depressing character. His need to find his friends is also confusing as it felt the author came up with a mission to save them along with building a town he can't just leave. Once, the MC has the power to to find his friends, he does a poor job in putting the effort in doing so.
There are a lot reason why I think this this story is 2 stars. However, I don't want spend all day revealing spoilers. My opinion is this, if you are going to read Ghosthound, you have to accept the main character is going to do things that are not going to make sense to you. That the author doesn't know what he is going to do next, the characters will change drastically and the story takes odd turns. It's not boring, it's just not consistence.
November 2, 2023
Don't understand high rating. Disjointed/Random.
This book is hard to read. I don't want to just hate on this book, but there wasn't much I liked here and I think this is the only bad review I've ever left. I only made it to 37%. Mosty because of the main character not having any character at all, and the dialog and character interaction is atrocious. I was constantly pulled out of the story because of the disjointed nature of the internal/external dialog, actions, and the MC going from being a moron to having answers and solutions for others out of nowhere. It honestly reminds me of my 10 year old telling me a story with random things just dropped in for no apparent reason. There seems to be a story arc, but everything going on seems to be random in between. There isn't much chance of relatability with the MC because of this randomness. When options are given, many times it seems some random option that wasn't listed is chosen. I have read many, if not most LitRPG books and picked this one up because all of the series I'm reading are caught up and I'm waiting for more books. Even in a genre that has a pretty low bar for quality writing, this one is hard to keep reading. I honestly don't know if the reviews are false, or if people's standards are really so low. After seeing this book had nearly 5 stars, I will no longer trust other's reviews on Kindle. I feel if the rating would have been more accurate, I would not have been so hard on it in the review.
This book is hard to read. I don't want to just hate on this book, but there wasn't much I liked here and I think this is the only bad review I've ever left. I only made it to 37%. Mosty because of the main character not having any character at all, and the dialog and character interaction is atrocious. I was constantly pulled out of the story because of the disjointed nature of the internal/external dialog, actions, and the MC going from being a moron to having answers and solutions for others out of nowhere. It honestly reminds me of my 10 year old telling me a story with random things just dropped in for no apparent reason. There seems to be a story arc, but everything going on seems to be random in between. There isn't much chance of relatability with the MC because of this randomness. When options are given, many times it seems some random option that wasn't listed is chosen. I have read many, if not most LitRPG books and picked this one up because all of the series I'm reading are caught up and I'm waiting for more books. Even in a genre that has a pretty low bar for quality writing, this one is hard to keep reading. I honestly don't know if the reviews are false, or if people's standards are really so low. After seeing this book had nearly 5 stars, I will no longer trust other's reviews on Kindle. I feel if the rating would have been more accurate, I would not have been so hard on it in the review.
July 7, 2022
Starts off strong but falls off a massive cliff about 6 hours into the book. The MC becomes social idiot and so many other issues with him. Then the book fragments into a mess of stupid sub plots that no one cares about or should care about.
October 13, 2023
This book got off to a really slow start and I almost didn't bother finishing it, but as you can see from the 5-star rating, I clearly did and thought that what followed was good enough to ignore that poor start. So let's get into what I didn't like first, and then I'll let you know what made me stick around until the end, loving it more and more with every page.
The problem with the start is the solitary nature of the main character. Being alone, Randidly has no one to play off and we are left with only the situation he is in to get us hooked on the story. Maybe it's just that I've read far too many of these 'system-apocalypse books now, but whatever the reason, there was nothing about the opening chapters of these books that drew me into this story. It was something I had seen a thousand times before and there just wasn't a hook there to get me invested.
These early chapters improve when a mentor shows up, but it's not until Randidly (what a stupid name by the way, and one that never gets explained which is another pet peeve of mine) progresses to the next stage of his story (where he is surrounded by people) that things finally turn interesting. Which leads nicely to what I liked about this book, starting with the characters.
A big flaw I have with this sub-genre of fantasy is that it often gets so caught up with world-building, action and gamer mechanics that it forgets to focus on the plot and, more importantly to this reader, the characters. Characters are the driving force of any story, and with good enough characters to get the reader invested, a reader can overlook almost any flaw (just ask JK Rowling who writes average to underwhelming stories at best, but absolutely nails her characters to the point where you have to keep reading just to spend more time with them and find out their fate). So with all that said, the thing that really makes this story stand out to me in this sub-genre is the character work.
Randidly is a brilliantly written character. In many ways, he is your typical overpowered MC from these books, but the author has masterfully offset that against what I can only assume is some kind of social anxiety disorder. Randidly is clearly not comfortable around others and is someone who excels best when he is allowed the freedom to do what he wants, even if he does tend to think in ways that are far from paths a normal person's mind would follow. It leads to some frustrating moments where Randidly doesn't make decisions the reader wants him to make, but it fits with his character to the point where I enjoy those frustrating moments because they always augment his character and make him more three-dimensional.
The same attention to character work can be seen with the surrounding cast as well. These aren't one-dimensional cardboard cutouts who are just there to give the protagonist people to play with. They are three-dimensional characters, each of whom are unique in their own way, flawed in many other ways, and are given arcs that are satisfying to read about. Whether it's cocky teenage boys with loudmouths who get too excited about the RPG aspect of this new world then have to quickly grow up because lives depend on their decisions; or it's once-famous actors who have to deal with a new world where the thing that used to give them purpose no longer exists; this book is filled with characters who each have a story of their own which just makes this world all the richer and gets me all the more hooked on this story.
On top of that character work, there is all the usual goodness of the LitRPG , isekai and survivalist genres to enjoy. The action is excellent, the world mechanics are a lot of fun, and basically, this is the best of those genres all augmented by great character work.
This is a book that belongs right up there with a series like He Who Fights with Monsters and maybe even a touch above Defiance of the Fall for the reason of great characters. It's only the first book so I can't stand by that opinion 100% just yet, but so far I'm excited about where this story has been heading and I eagerly look forward to what comes next.
The problem with the start is the solitary nature of the main character. Being alone, Randidly has no one to play off and we are left with only the situation he is in to get us hooked on the story. Maybe it's just that I've read far too many of these 'system-apocalypse books now, but whatever the reason, there was nothing about the opening chapters of these books that drew me into this story. It was something I had seen a thousand times before and there just wasn't a hook there to get me invested.
These early chapters improve when a mentor shows up, but it's not until Randidly (what a stupid name by the way, and one that never gets explained which is another pet peeve of mine) progresses to the next stage of his story (where he is surrounded by people) that things finally turn interesting. Which leads nicely to what I liked about this book, starting with the characters.
A big flaw I have with this sub-genre of fantasy is that it often gets so caught up with world-building, action and gamer mechanics that it forgets to focus on the plot and, more importantly to this reader, the characters. Characters are the driving force of any story, and with good enough characters to get the reader invested, a reader can overlook almost any flaw (just ask JK Rowling who writes average to underwhelming stories at best, but absolutely nails her characters to the point where you have to keep reading just to spend more time with them and find out their fate). So with all that said, the thing that really makes this story stand out to me in this sub-genre is the character work.
Randidly is a brilliantly written character. In many ways, he is your typical overpowered MC from these books, but the author has masterfully offset that against what I can only assume is some kind of social anxiety disorder. Randidly is clearly not comfortable around others and is someone who excels best when he is allowed the freedom to do what he wants, even if he does tend to think in ways that are far from paths a normal person's mind would follow. It leads to some frustrating moments where Randidly doesn't make decisions the reader wants him to make, but it fits with his character to the point where I enjoy those frustrating moments because they always augment his character and make him more three-dimensional.
The same attention to character work can be seen with the surrounding cast as well. These aren't one-dimensional cardboard cutouts who are just there to give the protagonist people to play with. They are three-dimensional characters, each of whom are unique in their own way, flawed in many other ways, and are given arcs that are satisfying to read about. Whether it's cocky teenage boys with loudmouths who get too excited about the RPG aspect of this new world then have to quickly grow up because lives depend on their decisions; or it's once-famous actors who have to deal with a new world where the thing that used to give them purpose no longer exists; this book is filled with characters who each have a story of their own which just makes this world all the richer and gets me all the more hooked on this story.
On top of that character work, there is all the usual goodness of the LitRPG , isekai and survivalist genres to enjoy. The action is excellent, the world mechanics are a lot of fun, and basically, this is the best of those genres all augmented by great character work.
This is a book that belongs right up there with a series like He Who Fights with Monsters and maybe even a touch above Defiance of the Fall for the reason of great characters. It's only the first book so I can't stand by that opinion 100% just yet, but so far I'm excited about where this story has been heading and I eagerly look forward to what comes next.
November 14, 2021
The story has many pros, especially towards many of the characters, but the main character is chaotic in his reasoning without any way to explain why. It seems as if the author couldn't figure out which direction he wanted to go, so we as readers are left with something between a hero and an anti-hero.
The ability to gain in stats through skills without leveling was fun at first, but now its overpowered. Why would anyone need a Class if they can gain infinitely? It became a little lackluster in the main characters ability, leading to an obvious outcome.
Some of the characters in the story hold no depth whatsoever. They appear and disappear without contributing to the story whatsoever. This seems to be a common problem with authors who do not map out their stories. Stephen King is best know for this type of writing(not mapping), but it takes a certain understanding of how the story, characters and environment affect one another.
The writing was good, not finding many, if any, mistakes in spelling. The author made good use of showing the story instead of telling it and the story continued to push forward, even if it seemed directionless at times.
The ability to gain in stats through skills without leveling was fun at first, but now its overpowered. Why would anyone need a Class if they can gain infinitely? It became a little lackluster in the main characters ability, leading to an obvious outcome.
Some of the characters in the story hold no depth whatsoever. They appear and disappear without contributing to the story whatsoever. This seems to be a common problem with authors who do not map out their stories. Stephen King is best know for this type of writing(not mapping), but it takes a certain understanding of how the story, characters and environment affect one another.
The writing was good, not finding many, if any, mistakes in spelling. The author made good use of showing the story instead of telling it and the story continued to push forward, even if it seemed directionless at times.
April 29, 2022
Impressively written, Big long book
This is a stat heavy LitRPG. The world was been transformed into a life or death RPG and not playing is death sentence.
Wile this book is more brutal than I enjoy, it's so well written with so much imagination that the mountain of good out weighs the hill of bad.
The characters do make some odd choices at the exact moment to artificially drive the plot forward. Other characters react to adversity and terror in unrealistic ways. This was done smoothly enough to avoid terribly disrupting the suspension of disbelief.
At other points in the book the author shows clear insights into the human condition. The author has clear mastery of pacing and structure.
And did I mention this thing is at least three times the length of your average LitRPG book?
Randidly Ghosthound just barged it's way into the top ten list of game lit books.
This is a stat heavy LitRPG. The world was been transformed into a life or death RPG and not playing is death sentence.
Wile this book is more brutal than I enjoy, it's so well written with so much imagination that the mountain of good out weighs the hill of bad.
The characters do make some odd choices at the exact moment to artificially drive the plot forward. Other characters react to adversity and terror in unrealistic ways. This was done smoothly enough to avoid terribly disrupting the suspension of disbelief.
At other points in the book the author shows clear insights into the human condition. The author has clear mastery of pacing and structure.
And did I mention this thing is at least three times the length of your average LitRPG book?
Randidly Ghosthound just barged it's way into the top ten list of game lit books.
August 29, 2023
This is one of the better "system" type litrpgs. That is to say the ideas and structure are above average. Unfortunately it is clearly written by an amateur without any writing education. That's not too uncommon and I could have enjoyed it except for one problem.
A great MC overcomes many flaws. This book does not have one. The book's MC is basically everything I hate... Stupid. Overly emotional. Socially inept. Romantically a doormat. Weak. Whiny. Self doubting. Morally backward. He's repulsive.
A great MC overcomes many flaws. This book does not have one. The book's MC is basically everything I hate... Stupid. Overly emotional. Socially inept. Romantically a doormat. Weak. Whiny. Self doubting. Morally backward. He's repulsive.
December 2, 2021
It’s one of those where the guy gets stupidly powerful through a lucky trick, then spends the rest of the story looking after number one and going on about how everyone has to earn things for themselves. Is the Rand in his name from Ayn Rand? I got about two-thirds through and ‘Randidly Ghosthound’ never stopped feeling unwieldy.
June 29, 2024
Book one
I was there way back in 1871.......Okay I'll admit it just feels like this story has been around that long.
I think it might be the first story I ever read on Royalroad. I was reading this one and waiting for that next chapter for a long long time before I finally dropped the series.
I didn't drop it for any negative reasons. I just had to much to try and read and keep up with.
So this one ended up just sitting.
I'm glad to see that all the hard work and years of telling this story to us is finally paying off.
8/10
I was there way back in 1871.......Okay I'll admit it just feels like this story has been around that long.
I think it might be the first story I ever read on Royalroad. I was reading this one and waiting for that next chapter for a long long time before I finally dropped the series.
I didn't drop it for any negative reasons. I just had to much to try and read and keep up with.
So this one ended up just sitting.
I'm glad to see that all the hard work and years of telling this story to us is finally paying off.
8/10
November 27, 2021
Assuming you can get past the idea that a present-day engineering student can have a ridiculous name like Randidly Ghosthound (I’m not even kidding), then you will probably enjoy one of the best System Apocalypse stories that the litrpg genre offers.
Character 6.5/10, Plot 8/10, Game/Mechanics 8/10, Writing 6.5/10, Enjoyment 9/10
I’m a sucker for a good apocalypse story, but utterly over the zombie thing, so System Apocalypse is the go-to method to get my fix nowadays. This is evidently one of the OG stories of the genre, coming on the scene around the same time or shortly after Tao Wong’s System Apocalypse.
First thing's first: Randidly Ghosthound is the dumbest character name I’ve ever seen. There, I said it. It didn't really bother me when characters referred to him as The Ghosthound because, by that point, he was fairly strong and that sounded like a gamertag or nickname that a person might have. Randidly is just plain stupid and always makes me think of ‘Randy’ like, Hey I just took a blue pill and I’m feelin’ randy…which is completely not what this character is about. The author really did his character a disservice by putting this name to print. That any character can hear or say this name with a straight face really pushes my suspension of disbelief to the limits.
The other characters were all right. I think there was a good mix of people introduced throughout the book that all served a purpose. Some of them even seemed to have a bit of personality. I could have done without many of their pov’s though, especially later in the book when they were used to prop up a story arc that just wasn’t doing it for me.
The plot was one of the better implementations of the System Apocalypse trope, though before really getting into that, it used a dungeon as a hyperbolic time chamber of sorts to springboard the MC to competent stranger status to get things rolling. As far as overpowered main character tropes go, this provided pretty much all the benefits without falling into as many of the pitfalls since the MC still had to struggle and wasn't really God-status yet. Hard to say how well this will be handled in book 2, but I'm here for it.
I did find myself skimming often during the last 25% of the book as the plot followed a new arc that just failed to deliver for me. The MC traveled to a place for a reason, but then never actually followed through and it just left me with a bunch of peripheral characters that I didn’t care about while the MC mostly sat and spun his wheels. Things happened, but nothing important for anyone that mattered, so it was unfortunate that this is where book one ended. It set up a few things for the next book, but failed to deliver on the original promise from the beginning of the arc.
The game world and mechanics are among my favorites. On the crunchy vs soft spectrum, this one is probably a 7.5 in crunchiness, which meant it had lots of mechanics and a decent number of stats, but not so many that it got lost up its own ass while the character sat and thought about skills all day. I liked how the Path system was incorporated into the standard mix of classes, levels, and skills.
From a writing standpoint, the story started a bit rough. The proofreading was solid, but the writing itself was clunky. It improved as the book went on (the story was originally released as a web serial) and I think I also just got used to it. While the writing was awkward, it never detracted from my understanding of what was happening, which was the most important thing.
While I felt like the final arc of the book almost wasted my time, I still enjoyed things overall and it most likely inspired Defiance of the Fall (one of my current favorites) in a few ways. I’m also really happy to see some of the successful web serials make their way from Royal Road over to Kindle. I get the sense that there are a lot of good stories over there just waiting to be cleaned up/edited into book form.
I think this book is a must-read for Litrpg fans, especially for those who enjoy the System Apocalypse setting.
Character 6.5/10, Plot 8/10, Game/Mechanics 8/10, Writing 6.5/10, Enjoyment 9/10
I’m a sucker for a good apocalypse story, but utterly over the zombie thing, so System Apocalypse is the go-to method to get my fix nowadays. This is evidently one of the OG stories of the genre, coming on the scene around the same time or shortly after Tao Wong’s System Apocalypse.
First thing's first: Randidly Ghosthound is the dumbest character name I’ve ever seen. There, I said it. It didn't really bother me when characters referred to him as The Ghosthound because, by that point, he was fairly strong and that sounded like a gamertag or nickname that a person might have. Randidly is just plain stupid and always makes me think of ‘Randy’ like, Hey I just took a blue pill and I’m feelin’ randy…which is completely not what this character is about. The author really did his character a disservice by putting this name to print. That any character can hear or say this name with a straight face really pushes my suspension of disbelief to the limits.
The other characters were all right. I think there was a good mix of people introduced throughout the book that all served a purpose. Some of them even seemed to have a bit of personality. I could have done without many of their pov’s though, especially later in the book when they were used to prop up a story arc that just wasn’t doing it for me.
The plot was one of the better implementations of the System Apocalypse trope, though before really getting into that, it used a dungeon as a hyperbolic time chamber of sorts to springboard the MC to competent stranger status to get things rolling. As far as overpowered main character tropes go, this provided pretty much all the benefits without falling into as many of the pitfalls since the MC still had to struggle and wasn't really God-status yet. Hard to say how well this will be handled in book 2, but I'm here for it.
I did find myself skimming often during the last 25% of the book as the plot followed a new arc that just failed to deliver for me. The MC traveled to a place for a reason, but then never actually followed through and it just left me with a bunch of peripheral characters that I didn’t care about while the MC mostly sat and spun his wheels. Things happened, but nothing important for anyone that mattered, so it was unfortunate that this is where book one ended. It set up a few things for the next book, but failed to deliver on the original promise from the beginning of the arc.
The game world and mechanics are among my favorites. On the crunchy vs soft spectrum, this one is probably a 7.5 in crunchiness, which meant it had lots of mechanics and a decent number of stats, but not so many that it got lost up its own ass while the character sat and thought about skills all day. I liked how the Path system was incorporated into the standard mix of classes, levels, and skills.
From a writing standpoint, the story started a bit rough. The proofreading was solid, but the writing itself was clunky. It improved as the book went on (the story was originally released as a web serial) and I think I also just got used to it. While the writing was awkward, it never detracted from my understanding of what was happening, which was the most important thing.
While I felt like the final arc of the book almost wasted my time, I still enjoyed things overall and it most likely inspired Defiance of the Fall (one of my current favorites) in a few ways. I’m also really happy to see some of the successful web serials make their way from Royal Road over to Kindle. I get the sense that there are a lot of good stories over there just waiting to be cleaned up/edited into book form.
I think this book is a must-read for Litrpg fans, especially for those who enjoy the System Apocalypse setting.
March 21, 2022
Review of books 1 & 2:
Now this is a strange review for me to write, because this book has many facets that I don't usually like in a LitRPG book and usually would DNF it far quicker, but this has been weirdly compelling that I read the first two books out back-to-back:
The MC isn't the usual do-gooder type. He really wants to do good, but they way he chooses is to let people learn by hard trials, which comes across as a bit uncaring and callous, but serves as a more realistic take on the situation. The fact that MC might be on a spectrum suffering from social awkwardness adds a lot of reality to the character. It's a harsh world out there and the harsh outlook fits right in and sets this apart from most other books.
There are a lot of stats and skill-up's all through, even during middle of the battles, which I initially found annoying. The MC having access to a LOT of skills just adds to the clutter. Despite this, the progress is anything but standard. The classes, skills and abilities are more unique which keeps things fresh. Skip reading through these made me enjoy the plot progress more.
The world building is immersive and the plot progression is not something that I could progress. MS doesn't lead or make decisions for humanity. He gives them the way and leaves it up to them to follow successfully or not, which I felt was a brilliant take on the genre.
Overall despite the flaws, I enjoyed this and looking forward to book 3.
Now this is a strange review for me to write, because this book has many facets that I don't usually like in a LitRPG book and usually would DNF it far quicker, but this has been weirdly compelling that I read the first two books out back-to-back:
The MC isn't the usual do-gooder type. He really wants to do good, but they way he chooses is to let people learn by hard trials, which comes across as a bit uncaring and callous, but serves as a more realistic take on the situation. The fact that MC might be on a spectrum suffering from social awkwardness adds a lot of reality to the character. It's a harsh world out there and the harsh outlook fits right in and sets this apart from most other books.
There are a lot of stats and skill-up's all through, even during middle of the battles, which I initially found annoying. The MC having access to a LOT of skills just adds to the clutter. Despite this, the progress is anything but standard. The classes, skills and abilities are more unique which keeps things fresh. Skip reading through these made me enjoy the plot progress more.
The world building is immersive and the plot progression is not something that I could progress. MS doesn't lead or make decisions for humanity. He gives them the way and leaves it up to them to follow successfully or not, which I felt was a brilliant take on the genre.
Overall despite the flaws, I enjoyed this and looking forward to book 3.
October 31, 2023
Great Story with a Very Irritating Main Character
I really enjoy the story for the most part. The System and all the skills and stats are a blast for me. I also really enjoy the way the combat is written. So you might wonder why I rated the story 3 stars? That’s because of the main character, Randidly Ghosthound. His personality makes reading this story almost painful. It claims he’s had girlfriends and two best friends; however, I have a very hard time believing that. He acts like he’d rather be the only person left on Earth and would prefer to have to never speak to another person ever again at times. Not only that, but he would actually rather go risk his life and possibly die than have a friendly conversation with another person. I mean come on Mr. Author. I can understand making a side character like this but having your main character so horrible at social interaction, and acting like a clueless jerk to almost everyone he comes across. He also constantly complains about having to deal with other people, and sabotages interactions with them. It feels less like he doesn’t know how to interact with others and more like he just doesn’t want to, which makes him come across as a huge antisocial jerk. The way he acts goes way beyond social anxiety and it really ruins what would otherwise be a fantastic series.
I really enjoy the story for the most part. The System and all the skills and stats are a blast for me. I also really enjoy the way the combat is written. So you might wonder why I rated the story 3 stars? That’s because of the main character, Randidly Ghosthound. His personality makes reading this story almost painful. It claims he’s had girlfriends and two best friends; however, I have a very hard time believing that. He acts like he’d rather be the only person left on Earth and would prefer to have to never speak to another person ever again at times. Not only that, but he would actually rather go risk his life and possibly die than have a friendly conversation with another person. I mean come on Mr. Author. I can understand making a side character like this but having your main character so horrible at social interaction, and acting like a clueless jerk to almost everyone he comes across. He also constantly complains about having to deal with other people, and sabotages interactions with them. It feels less like he doesn’t know how to interact with others and more like he just doesn’t want to, which makes him come across as a huge antisocial jerk. The way he acts goes way beyond social anxiety and it really ruins what would otherwise be a fantastic series.
December 18, 2021
4.5. Held my attention through a lot of pages, so that'll get you at least a 4. Loses .5 from me for a few reasons, the main one being the main character. I get that he's got socialization issues, hell, he's even aware of it. While not as socially crippled as I've seen, I find it annoying that a number of women are interested in him.
Why write this if none of it will amount to anything? Could be that something will develop in the next book, so it won't lose a whole star for that. Otherwise the other women outside of the ex and the new and legacy unrequited don't contribute much to the story. Seems like it's added for unofficial "harem" cred, but I could easily be wrong on that.
Overall I liked it, but it's a long haul so be prepared for that.
Why write this if none of it will amount to anything? Could be that something will develop in the next book, so it won't lose a whole star for that. Otherwise the other women outside of the ex and the new and legacy unrequited don't contribute much to the story. Seems like it's added for unofficial "harem" cred, but I could easily be wrong on that.
Overall I liked it, but it's a long haul so be prepared for that.
November 27, 2021
Story is good
Litrpg were elements were good and interesting
Characters were flat and stupid, with every not-elderly woman interested in the main character in some way, which gets old, but at least they were all as awkward as the main character, and don't go for it, so at least you don't have to read that cringe
Overall enjoyable
Litrpg were elements were good and interesting
Characters were flat and stupid, with every not-elderly woman interested in the main character in some way, which gets old, but at least they were all as awkward as the main character, and don't go for it, so at least you don't have to read that cringe
Overall enjoyable
July 16, 2025
DNF at 73%. I tired. I really tried. Because so much of this book I genuinely enjoyed.
The world and the circumstances to the new system Earth has placed on it is interesting. The levelling up system is satisfying and enjoyable to read. But our main character, Randidly Ghosthound (this name is the dumbest I’ve ever heard), just made it a book I couldn’t continue.
Randidly (just what a god awful name) wasn’t so bad at the beginning. He was scared and trying to survive, he was exploring his capabilities within the dungeon, trying to strategically survive. He was an underdog and trying his best, easy to empathise with. But then he got out. And it’s like whatever’s tiny scraps of personality he had were gone. He feels like an emotionally and mentally stunted person. Not in a sense where he might be neurodivergent or an anxious person, like I think the author tries to suggest he is (and fails at), but like he has never talked to people and is completely socially stunted.
He is just incredibly unlikable. It’s like he tried to base his personality off his dungeon mentor, by being this dedicated and fierce spearman, but failed. He’s not some zen spear master, he’s a young adult who was basically carried through a dungeon for a few months and nearly got himself and his mentor killed because he was reckless right at the end. He looks down on all the other human race who have had only five hours with this new game like system of living, acting surprised when they don’t realise the life and death of the situation. But they’re in the tutorial stage, they’re learning the dangers of the world gradually. He doesn’t seem to realise his experience in a level 35 dungeon is completely different to their own. He could have been a proper teacher and leader for them with all the extra time he has had to learn the system. Instead he dumps the village to be run on a teenager, gets annoyed when they ask for his help or when anyone just tries to socialise with him, doesn’t explain anything to anyone, but at the same time claims the village is his responsibility. Like damn, after the amount of times he says the village is his responsibility it would be nice to seem him act, you know, responsibly.
The way he interacts with others is awkward. And not like he’s socially awkward (even though author keeps writing he is), but because he’s rude and unwittingly obnoxious. The way he talks to and interacts with women makes me cringe. And this crush he has on Ellaine is just so uncomfortable, he can barely talk to this woman, thinks about her only in a physical way because he has had zero attempt of getting to know her, it’s just written grossly.
He is an unbearable Mary Sue trope to the extreme. His developing skills without a limit due to not having a class was admittedly interesting in beginning. But then it just became repetitive. There’s a small fight and then he levels up the same few skills with maybe a new one here and there, and then has another fight and then repeats the process of going through all his stats and skills. And this happens constantly. His picking a class and specialising would actually make things interesting. Then at least he’d have something driving him as he worked to develop and improve the skills he’d need for his class to be top tier.
I don’t understand how he is so lacklustre in personality. All the main side characters are interesting and unique. Donny as leader of the town starts as an obnoxious teenager, yet is working and training hard and becoming a great leader, learning to delegate and listen, leading from the front and inspiring others. Decklan is a kind of creepy type personality, but he works hard, trains his company, respects Donny enough as the leader fighting on frontline, doesn’t let pride or arrogance get in his way of learning from others. Sam is an older man, working hard to keep the Newbie village running, he’s developed the skills to create powerful weapons and armour for the people, he’s developing a potential romance that is actually mutual and interesting. Not to mention all the others that are also well developed. So why is Randidly (such a stupid name) without any personality.
And whatever I enjoy about this book just can’t overcome how much of an awful main character he is. He is the main character. It’s his viewpoint in majority of chapters. If I can’t like the person the story is about I just can’t read it despite everything else within it that is good. I will give credit that the viewpoint chapters of other characters are fantastic, but they are to few and far between.
I think it is a book people should give chance. The issue of Randidly (seriously why this stupid name?) and his personality may not be a problem for others like it has been for me. And there is plenty in this book to actually like if you can get over that one major issue. If Randidly was taken out of the equation it could easily be a four star book for me.
The world and the circumstances to the new system Earth has placed on it is interesting. The levelling up system is satisfying and enjoyable to read. But our main character, Randidly Ghosthound (this name is the dumbest I’ve ever heard), just made it a book I couldn’t continue.
Randidly (just what a god awful name) wasn’t so bad at the beginning. He was scared and trying to survive, he was exploring his capabilities within the dungeon, trying to strategically survive. He was an underdog and trying his best, easy to empathise with. But then he got out. And it’s like whatever’s tiny scraps of personality he had were gone. He feels like an emotionally and mentally stunted person. Not in a sense where he might be neurodivergent or an anxious person, like I think the author tries to suggest he is (and fails at), but like he has never talked to people and is completely socially stunted.
He is just incredibly unlikable. It’s like he tried to base his personality off his dungeon mentor, by being this dedicated and fierce spearman, but failed. He’s not some zen spear master, he’s a young adult who was basically carried through a dungeon for a few months and nearly got himself and his mentor killed because he was reckless right at the end. He looks down on all the other human race who have had only five hours with this new game like system of living, acting surprised when they don’t realise the life and death of the situation. But they’re in the tutorial stage, they’re learning the dangers of the world gradually. He doesn’t seem to realise his experience in a level 35 dungeon is completely different to their own. He could have been a proper teacher and leader for them with all the extra time he has had to learn the system. Instead he dumps the village to be run on a teenager, gets annoyed when they ask for his help or when anyone just tries to socialise with him, doesn’t explain anything to anyone, but at the same time claims the village is his responsibility. Like damn, after the amount of times he says the village is his responsibility it would be nice to seem him act, you know, responsibly.
The way he interacts with others is awkward. And not like he’s socially awkward (even though author keeps writing he is), but because he’s rude and unwittingly obnoxious. The way he talks to and interacts with women makes me cringe. And this crush he has on Ellaine is just so uncomfortable, he can barely talk to this woman, thinks about her only in a physical way because he has had zero attempt of getting to know her, it’s just written grossly.
He is an unbearable Mary Sue trope to the extreme. His developing skills without a limit due to not having a class was admittedly interesting in beginning. But then it just became repetitive. There’s a small fight and then he levels up the same few skills with maybe a new one here and there, and then has another fight and then repeats the process of going through all his stats and skills. And this happens constantly. His picking a class and specialising would actually make things interesting. Then at least he’d have something driving him as he worked to develop and improve the skills he’d need for his class to be top tier.
I don’t understand how he is so lacklustre in personality. All the main side characters are interesting and unique. Donny as leader of the town starts as an obnoxious teenager, yet is working and training hard and becoming a great leader, learning to delegate and listen, leading from the front and inspiring others. Decklan is a kind of creepy type personality, but he works hard, trains his company, respects Donny enough as the leader fighting on frontline, doesn’t let pride or arrogance get in his way of learning from others. Sam is an older man, working hard to keep the Newbie village running, he’s developed the skills to create powerful weapons and armour for the people, he’s developing a potential romance that is actually mutual and interesting. Not to mention all the others that are also well developed. So why is Randidly (such a stupid name) without any personality.
And whatever I enjoy about this book just can’t overcome how much of an awful main character he is. He is the main character. It’s his viewpoint in majority of chapters. If I can’t like the person the story is about I just can’t read it despite everything else within it that is good. I will give credit that the viewpoint chapters of other characters are fantastic, but they are to few and far between.
I think it is a book people should give chance. The issue of Randidly (seriously why this stupid name?) and his personality may not be a problem for others like it has been for me. And there is plenty in this book to actually like if you can get over that one major issue. If Randidly was taken out of the equation it could easily be a four star book for me.
February 22, 2022
+ Tons of skill gains
+ Interesting Path system
+ Skill build isn't locked or obvious, Randidly gets a little bit of everything
- Ridiculous name
- Emerald eyes mentioned about half a dozen times in the first 20%
- Not audiobook friendly at all
Randidly Ghosthound, of the emerald eyes, is stuck in a level 20 dungeon when the system hits earth. With no levels, and no skills, how exactly is he going to escape?
I loved this book, I especially loved the path system. Every time you gain a skill level, you gain an PP. PP is spent on a path. You choose a path, the first one is the newbie path which costs 7 points to complete. During the path, you unlock additional rewards like stat points and at the end you get a bonus. Sometimes a skill, which means MORE skills to level up, and more paths to unlock.
It ended up being skill and stat points galore and I loved every second of it.
The first 20% of the book is Randidly stuck in the dungeon, trying to survive, learning to be stronger, farming skills. It takes him 7 months to escape, and once he gets out he finds out that dungeons are time dilated. Meaning only a few hours have passed outside while he's spent the last 7 months power grinding. He then goes off to try to find, and rescue, his friends.
Here the story changes, a newbie village is built, and now we're building things, upgrading things, and defending it. But unlike other litrpgs, Randidly is not the one in charge, he doesn't want to be. So he's helping defend this village, and he might not take orders from anyone, but he's not meddling with the running of it. And I found that refreshing. You as the reader still get told a lot of it, but he's still off killing monsters and training to be stronger.
Another refreshing take was that Randidly had some insecurities, mostly revolving around being a burden (and thus wanting to become strong). But despite the fact he's OP as hell (currently atleast), these insecurities doesn't just vanish. Much like reality, they come back to haunt him in his weaker moments. Insecurities aren't realistic, and I liked that.
Annoyingly, and interestingly, some of Randidlys inner monologue was very realistic. He'd start thinking some bad stuff, and then go "no don't think about that" and move on. This was annoying because it was clear some drama had happened, and it was weighing heavy on him, but us as the reader don't get the full story until much later on. It's excellent writing imo, it gives a certain amount of intrigue while annoying the shit out of me at the same time.
+ Interesting Path system
+ Skill build isn't locked or obvious, Randidly gets a little bit of everything
- Ridiculous name
- Emerald eyes mentioned about half a dozen times in the first 20%
- Not audiobook friendly at all
Randidly Ghosthound, of the emerald eyes, is stuck in a level 20 dungeon when the system hits earth. With no levels, and no skills, how exactly is he going to escape?
I loved this book, I especially loved the path system. Every time you gain a skill level, you gain an PP. PP is spent on a path. You choose a path, the first one is the newbie path which costs 7 points to complete. During the path, you unlock additional rewards like stat points and at the end you get a bonus. Sometimes a skill, which means MORE skills to level up, and more paths to unlock.
It ended up being skill and stat points galore and I loved every second of it.
The first 20% of the book is Randidly stuck in the dungeon, trying to survive, learning to be stronger, farming skills. It takes him 7 months to escape, and once he gets out he finds out that dungeons are time dilated. Meaning only a few hours have passed outside while he's spent the last 7 months power grinding. He then goes off to try to find, and rescue, his friends.
Here the story changes, a newbie village is built, and now we're building things, upgrading things, and defending it. But unlike other litrpgs, Randidly is not the one in charge, he doesn't want to be. So he's helping defend this village, and he might not take orders from anyone, but he's not meddling with the running of it. And I found that refreshing. You as the reader still get told a lot of it, but he's still off killing monsters and training to be stronger.
Another refreshing take was that Randidly had some insecurities, mostly revolving around being a burden (and thus wanting to become strong). But despite the fact he's OP as hell (currently atleast), these insecurities doesn't just vanish. Much like reality, they come back to haunt him in his weaker moments. Insecurities aren't realistic, and I liked that.
Annoyingly, and interestingly, some of Randidlys inner monologue was very realistic. He'd start thinking some bad stuff, and then go "no don't think about that" and move on. This was annoying because it was clear some drama had happened, and it was weighing heavy on him, but us as the reader don't get the full story until much later on. It's excellent writing imo, it gives a certain amount of intrigue while annoying the shit out of me at the same time.
November 8, 2024
My expectations sat at rock bottom - an author by the name of "puddles4263" and a protagonist legitimately named Randidly Ghosthouds (no explanation). I was surprised at the lack of fart jokes and misogyny.
Nope, we have a serious LitRPG novel here, complete with a gimmick that leads to overwhelming powers, as well as a nefarious "System." No snarky System messages however.
The first third of the book left me unconvinced. I kept waiting for the inevitable betrayal by Randidly's serendipitously found mentor. While Randidly's personality seemed to do a 180 once he was out on his own, as a major player, I felt his perspective rang true.
While the fight scene against the tribulation was one of the best in the genre, I was left feeling uneasy by the Randidly's young friend's implied fraternisation with the enemy. I hope I'm wrong about that foreshadowing.
Nope, we have a serious LitRPG novel here, complete with a gimmick that leads to overwhelming powers, as well as a nefarious "System." No snarky System messages however.
The first third of the book left me unconvinced. I kept waiting for the inevitable betrayal by Randidly's serendipitously found mentor. While Randidly's personality seemed to do a 180 once he was out on his own, as a major player, I felt his perspective rang true.
While the fight scene against the tribulation was one of the best in the genre, I was left feeling uneasy by the Randidly's young friend's implied fraternisation with the enemy. I hope I'm wrong about that foreshadowing.
July 2, 2022
He really is a legend
March 19, 2024
Welp! I’m finally coming clean! I listened to these and you know what… they are pretty friggin good after book 3 at least. Yes his. And is ridiculous… yea he is obviously on the spectrum but I must say the books get better and bette as the characters develop and the world building explodes
June 26, 2024
4.5 stars. Solid start to this series.
August 6, 2022
The book starts very promising and interesting. The main character is an unbelievably driven character with a very stupid name which my mind keeps translating into "Rancid Groundhog". The MC´s main motivation is to get stronger and meet/protect his two friends who he keeps mentioning all the time. Otherwise, he is not interested in human relations, interactions or living a life which makes him seem like a robot. He resembles a mixture of Sheldon Cooper and Karate Kid.
The MC is socially challenged. He does not understand or really interacts with people but keeps protecting them because he became the strongest. For plot reasons he and others make stupid decisions to speed up the story and make the MC weaker again which result in a lot of deaths about which luckily nobody complains too much... The women seem to be overly attracted to the MC who keeps to be woefully unaware of this...
The side characters are like the MC rather bland and two dimensional. Furthermore, their characters are very inconsistent. Posers, manipulators, egomaniacs and even people with homocidal tendencies become reliable team players.
It is not explained where the characters get their equipment from.
The fact that other comunities don´t run out of amunition is rather bland..
The MC is socially challenged. He does not understand or really interacts with people but keeps protecting them because he became the strongest. For plot reasons he and others make stupid decisions to speed up the story and make the MC weaker again which result in a lot of deaths about which luckily nobody complains too much... The women seem to be overly attracted to the MC who keeps to be woefully unaware of this...
The side characters are like the MC rather bland and two dimensional. Furthermore, their characters are very inconsistent. Posers, manipulators, egomaniacs and even people with homocidal tendencies become reliable team players.
It is not explained where the characters get their equipment from.
The fact that other comunities don´t run out of amunition is rather bland..
November 22, 2021
This is a book of parts, and since I don't usually read Royal Road, it was all new to me.
Randidly Ghosthound (seriously, what parent would give their kid this name) is leaving a fictional university when the apocalypse hits. As is the current fashion, the land masses are all torn up and rearranged, which will make the search for his two friends that much more difficult.
Since he was going through a tunnel at the time it hit, he ends up in a dungeon. This goes to the 25% mark, and from the 25 - 75% mark we have some serious grinding to learn new skills. Randidly decides that he doesn't need a class yet, since classes come with limitations to the numbers of skills a person can have, so he carries on a classless.
While all this is going on, I will mention that the transition from normal life to apocalypse seems pretty easy for most. A lot of stuff is glossed over in terms of human emotions here, and Randidly isn't the most emotional man in the first place.
After the 75% mark things take a different turn, as Randidly and a few of his closest acquantenances take off to the city to the south. Since all the town names (Donnytown, Frankburg) are fictional, this could be anywhere in the world.
What he finds there is a mess, but also a relief from the pressure he'd been feeling to keep Donnytown safe. I won't go into town dynamics, as they're very complicated, but Randidly gave the coin that gives someone the ability to found a noob town to someone else, so he wouldn't have to deal with it.
All in all, I think this is a book for hardcore RPG fans. Very few paragraphs go by before we're back to the stats, growth, skills and all the rest. That doesn't mean it isn't interesting, but it does take it to the extreme. Shadow Sun apocalypse, for all its faults, it a lot more readable by the general population than this is.
Still, I enjoyed it. The exposition is solid, the character development (outside of the stats) is only so-so, and dialogue is not a focus. I enjoyed it anyway.
Recommended. 5*
Randidly Ghosthound (seriously, what parent would give their kid this name) is leaving a fictional university when the apocalypse hits. As is the current fashion, the land masses are all torn up and rearranged, which will make the search for his two friends that much more difficult.
Since he was going through a tunnel at the time it hit, he ends up in a dungeon. This goes to the 25% mark, and from the 25 - 75% mark we have some serious grinding to learn new skills. Randidly decides that he doesn't need a class yet, since classes come with limitations to the numbers of skills a person can have, so he carries on a classless.
While all this is going on, I will mention that the transition from normal life to apocalypse seems pretty easy for most. A lot of stuff is glossed over in terms of human emotions here, and Randidly isn't the most emotional man in the first place.
After the 75% mark things take a different turn, as Randidly and a few of his closest acquantenances take off to the city to the south. Since all the town names (Donnytown, Frankburg) are fictional, this could be anywhere in the world.
What he finds there is a mess, but also a relief from the pressure he'd been feeling to keep Donnytown safe. I won't go into town dynamics, as they're very complicated, but Randidly gave the coin that gives someone the ability to found a noob town to someone else, so he wouldn't have to deal with it.
All in all, I think this is a book for hardcore RPG fans. Very few paragraphs go by before we're back to the stats, growth, skills and all the rest. That doesn't mean it isn't interesting, but it does take it to the extreme. Shadow Sun apocalypse, for all its faults, it a lot more readable by the general population than this is.
Still, I enjoyed it. The exposition is solid, the character development (outside of the stats) is only so-so, and dialogue is not a focus. I enjoyed it anyway.
Recommended. 5*
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