The North is under siege by Octagon the Bitter and his horde of twisted monsters. All but two cities have fallen and their forces are dwindling by the day. With little choice remaining, Morgan sets out on his own to try and convince the rulers of the other Kingdoms to join in their cause.
Convincing rulers who have been at each other's throats for centuries will not be easy, and Morgan has doubts as to whether they'll even listen. Still, for the sake of everyone in the Five Kingdoms, he has to try, even if it costs him everything.
Warning: This book contains profanity, gore and content that may not be suitable for children. This book also contains GameLit elements, such as stat sheets, a form of leveling and experience gain.
Really just more of the same, only Morgan has put some of his mental issues to bed, the Gods are no longer much of an issue, but the world-destroying Pinnacle Beasts are still an issue. Indeed, the first one is quite a nasty, life-devouring SoB that just gobbles whole kingdoms without much issue.
Needing help, the crew is totally on the defensive, it's time to go the diplomacy route. From here, with lots of fun battles, we get a showdown with said Pinnacle Beast. :)
I marked this as having spoilers, and I’m just saying it again here. If you don’t want to see spoilers, then don’t read further.
The good: Morgan, like the last book, actually had good character development. Unlike the first books where he just seems flat (for understandable reasons within the context of the story), now he actually seems to have some growth. Want to show the quality of character in your MC? Let him lose a fight he should have won, and that’s exactly what happened. And I really liked it. The MC also lost his lust for battle. Rather than fighting everything in sight, he was just interested in fights that would be difficult, even going so far as to befriend the Drake instead of fighting and killing it. It shows a development of character that’s more dimensional. Something else I really enjoyed was the comment about strong people always assuming that they’re the strongest and can’t lose. Then he loses the fight with Hilda. Definitely revealing and appropriate. He sees the weaknesses in others, but missed it in himself. Loved the irony. Morgan also is dealing with his emotions in this book. While I felt like sometimes he was a petulant child, like when he runs away after losing, it was fully justified by the fact that he is still adapting to *having* emotions. Justified and we’ll done, but I’m glad we’ll be seeing less of this emotional turmoil in the next book. I actually like an MC who has more self control and has to make hard choices.
Katherine: not backing down, feminine, queen with a sense of honor to her people. I love her character and the fact that she has developed this love for Morgan. At first her interest was primarily selfish, but the circumstances of the book reveal how she’s actually developed from being a manipulative, cruel witch into a woman with a lot more layers. Definitely the right choice for Morgan, but alas.
Sarah: so whiny the whole time. That was annoying. Glad she died. Way to go, AO. Hopefully in the next book she’ll just be a gimmick for driving Morgan, and eventually he’ll realize he doesn’t need that kind of toxicity in his life.
The Author: Yes. Yes please. I mean, not anything like the One True God, but I’ll buy it for the sake of the series. Finally a “deity” who’s open and honest about their motivations.
The bad: Sarah: so selfish. Is anyone supposed to like this character? Glad she dies. Real sense of catharsis at the end, with a sense of her finally doing what she should have been trying to do from the beginning: help Morgan defeat the bad guys, rather than always running. Honestly, I thought the whole time that her motivation for wanting to run was that she was pregnant. That I could have understood. But no. She’s just selfish. Glad she’s dead. Hope it stays that way. Did I already say that?
Anyways, really enjoyed the book. The only bad part of it was the character who gets killed, so bravo to the author on putting out a consistent book, and I’m looking forward to reading more.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This book is frustrating because of one reason. This singular reason maybe the reason why I am generally not enjoying this series as much as I should. The reason why these books aren't as enjoyable is because of Sarah. The way the author handles Sarah's character comes off as lazy writing. She is just an amalgamation of all the best-friend/first love trope, which makes it hard to see her as a character.
In the last four books, it was somewhat easy to write off her character as young and naïve, but as Katherine and Morgan slowly grow and they become more mature, Sarah comes off as annoying and childish. Her actions in this book is similar to a toddler throwing a tantrum because they didn't get their way. Normally, a character like this isn't much of a problem, if these characteristics are given to a side character, but seeing that Sarah is a core part to this series and Morgan's true love, her actions hinder the story. (SIGH! Why couldn't they have just broken up instead of....?)
Also the relationship makes me feel uncomfortable. It's borderline toxic, and a very toxic one to boot. Sarah is taking advantage of Morgan, and is overly controlling and possessive. Even when she was called on it by Katherine, she just yelled back at her and somehow made it Katherine's fault for existing. I don't like it. Take it away. The way the author is handling this relationship is terrible and makes me want to drop this series.
If this is the way the author wanted to handled the relationship side, so be it, but I think its degrading his story. His world and most of his characters are interesting and worth reading, yet since Sarah and Morgan's relationship are so important in the story, it falls flat. Especially because of what happens in the end of this book.
Note: I have a backlog of reviews so what follows is short and to the point. Spoilers will not be called out. Typos likely since I won’t be proof reading.
I read books 1-6 of this series and they are all getting the same review. The first thing to note is that the series is not done. I have no idea how many books this will be since the author can end it at any time simply by having the MC win the right fight.
This is better than average litRPG but author tells you from the beginning that this is the story of the MC's "Rise to Omniscience". Also there is no ensemble, just the MC and supporting characters of varying degrees of importance. As a result there is never any question of the MC actually being in danger. Every time a god is about to kill the MC I was bored because either the god would somehow fail or the MC would come back to life. Worst the author fails to realize that he has made much of his story boring, including the fights, since there is only one possible outcome. This series would be better if it was half as long and, if it weren't for the interesting secondary characters, like the gods who are fighting each other, I probably wouldn't have finished these books. The secondary characters are less than 1/4 of the books, however so I have reservations about recommending these books. The truth is, while they aren't bad, there are better.
Great story, great characters, great plotline. The issue I have, is how unreliable given stats are. They seem to not mean much anymore, where advancement is some hidden power that trumps attributes. Shouldn't those directly reflect a person's power? How can one increase so much in power every level, but only be able to add a couple of points to each attribute? It's way too messy, leaving us to simply assume one's power and progress, since numbers have become unreliable. There's a lot of different things like this that are supremely annoying, in regards to scaling and things like Morgan's progression, that maybe Aaron Oster feels are beyond the point of no return, so he just pushes through? I get that storylines with such drastic power-ups are very hard to keep between the lines of consistency. But, in litrpg style books, half of the fun is in tracking the progress and in this series, it's gone mostly off the rails. Still, I've very much enjoyed the series so far and I'm looking forward to book 6!
What's a few words of my time, for the chance of 1k worth of his?
This was actually my favorite book in this series so far. There seemed to be more depth to the characters than in previous books. (Side note, it's hard to write a review vague enough to be worth it, and specific enough without giving spoilers.). The fight scenes were great, with the finale having a great/sad twist at the end.
The introduction of, what I can only assume is, Aaron himself into the book, was fantastic. I can't wait for that plot line to be fleshed out more in the coming books. Which is why I'm writing this. So he has to write more.
Thank you Aaron, and just keep doing what you're doing.
Meh wrap-up to the series - or rather, its first arc.
Up to halfway of the book, it was a decent continuation of the series. Various shenanighans, Morgan getting more power.
And then, you got a new god that shouldn't even have been there. A massive cheapening of a concept that subtended the recent bits. A bunch of plot that seem to simply vanish. And a finale that simply rewinds the very character to an early state - just more powerful.
Given that there is a book #6 coming, it feels like a proper ending of the series was suddenly ditched as the author realized he needed to set up the next arc, and a bunch of plates welded to make a rickety bridge between the two.
Morgan an Sarah with the five kingdom's must fight a pinnacle beast to save the World .
Morgan an Sarah. must face challenges daily to level up in rank an in abilities . It takes more beast cores than normal for him to level up for him being a supermage .An Sarah just being a normal mage . An far easier for her to level up . With the fighting between two kingdom's brewing a pinnacle beast has risen to stop the two kingdom's from fighting by destroying both kingdom's . Morgan and Sarah with twenty seven warrior's set off to defeat the pinnacle beast an save the five kingdom's an World destruction . No one survived but Morgan defeated the pinnacle beast .recommend reading excellent series .
Doing my part to get the next book! That being said, regardless of length, I expect, you, the author, to keep to the timeline! No punishment making us wait for the next installation of the book because we did good and met your challenge!
As to the book, great read! Ups and downs, fast paced, unexpected shifts and a single narrative still driving the story forward. A lot going on, with sub-plots introduce or further expanded upon and yet no loss of cohesion in the story. I have to admit though, I am team Katherine. Do better by her Mr. Author....
Author made a solid contribution to the series with this book and returned it to one of my favorite series. One of the only LitRPG authors that takes the time to write full books instead of glorified short stories.
As for the negatives, I have almost nothing to say. Their were more gramme errors than previous books i think, but way less than most of the books I've recently read, and not so bad as to disrupt immersion much.
Epic. Just completely epic. Honestly, Aaron is one of my favorite authors and none of his books have failed to impress me. I definitely suggest this series and other series by this author. *Warning* SPOILER AHEAD... RIP Sarah though (She died) (but may come back). The end of one fantastic arc and the start of another. Oh and by the way, Aaron is the king of epilogues. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HIS EPILOGUES ARE WORLD SHATTERING AND MAKE THE WAIT FOR THE NEXT BOOK FEEL SOOOOOOOO LONG. A solid 5 star book by a 5 star author.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This fifth book was in some ways an emotional roller-coaster and a bit of a wild ride, with quite a few questions answered! The war, and its cost, was well depicted, I think. Of course, the individual battles always seem to have enough description without being too much.
Even with great loss and new challenges on the horizon, there is a glimmer of hope that if Morgan trains well enough, he'll be able to prevent further destruction and regain that which he wants most. I'm looking forward to book six!
To save the world, but at what cost? Morgan hopes to save the world, but in this volume he has to wrestle with the reality that he cannot kill the pinnacle king, and even if he can defeat him, the cost might be too high.... I found this an intriguing story that went a few directions I wasn't expecting. That said, I enjoyed it and am curious where the story will go next.
This book had all the action and epic fight scenes your heart could desire. It also satisfyingly ended the narrative arc so far and opened up the new arc in such a way that left me personally interested in more. It also nicely entices you to be more interested in his other works as we might be seeing much more of them in the future.
Another great addition to this series with many twists and turns. This story has really found its rhythm now. If I was forced to say one negative thing about this all I have is that I could do without the antagonist pov but even then a can see their purpose for the narrative. I will probably read them all again before the next one is released
I’m starting to lose interest in this series the author is just bringing the dead back over and over again if there is nothing permanent in this series there is nothing on the line for the main characters to try to achieve and there is always a new God just showing up out of nowhere just to push the story forward which is getting all kind of boring.
Dropped this series. I kept encountering the same set of problems from the author, the characters, and the flow of the story.
I would have expected that at this stage of the series, the author would have supplemented his shortcomings, but he keeps on repeating the same mistakes. Returned the books. Thank God I didn't buy them or else I would have just wasted my hard earned money.
I keep thinking that I will lose interest with this series but so far I have been pleasantly surprised with how it keeps unfolding. Fingers crossed that it continues being a good surprise as the series moves towards conclusion whenever that may be.
I love this series and seeing it join with the other series is going to be fun. Good to see the emotion free Mc is coming back since the emotional one was a bit too whiney for my liking. Keep up the good work.
Every single time you think you know just how crazy things can get, your expectations are shattered, in fights, plot points, and the crazy world building. Another masterpiece hard to put down that continues Aaron Oster's extensive universe
I really thought the series would end with this book, but oh no... But that is a good thing as I really enjoy this series. Well written I find I can't put the books down which is great to take my mind of this Social Distancing crap. Nicely done, can't wait for the next book due in July 2020.
For a 5th in series title, the author is still managing to throw me curve balls I wasn’t ready for. Events proceed from previous books as you’d expect, but the weaving of the tale is done in a way that really brings the tale alive.
I didn’t start reading this series until book 5. I’ve read just about every litrpg book out there, well 85%. Most are cookie cutter, this series really kept me interested and stat progression really never stagnated. I will be back for book 6.
Each book in this series has gotten better and better. This book certainly does not disappoint! Give it a shot, I picked up this one and didn’t stop reading until it was done.
Holy shit! Aaron is a freaking genius! Everytime I think I have a handle on what will happen next, I'm thrown for a loop. Shyamalan needs to start taking notes. I am absolutely thrilled for six! Let's. Go. Boys!!!
I really like these books. There is good character progression with plenty of action. Great hooks at the end that make you want to read the next book. I can’t wait for the next one!
Unusual story line.I enjoyed this book but it did not seem to have a good flow to it. Powers out out there than not used by the characters. Kept waiting for stuff to happen and never did.
This book is suffering a lot of continuity flaws. If it wasn’t a fun ride I’d stop reading. Straight up seat of the pants writing with moments where you almost want to stop because of a contradiction that pops up.
This one was really good ! I was not expecting what happened to happen at all. So surprising I was in complete shock. If you haven’t read any of this series yet start at book one and enjoy the ride, I love them and can’t wait for the next one!