The Perfect Run

The Perfect Run #1

by Maxime J. Durand

Ryan "Quicksave" Romano is an eccentric adventurer with a strange power: he can create a save-point in time and redo his life whenever he dies. Arriving in New Rome, the glitzy capital of sin of a rebuilding Europe, he finds the city torn between mega-corporations, sponsored heroes, superpowered criminals, and true monsters. It's a time of chaos, where potions can grant the power to rule the world and dangers lurk everywhere.

Ryan only sees different routes; and from Hero to Villain, he has to try them all. Only then will he achieve his perfect ending... no matter how many loops it takes.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Time Travel, Superheroes, Urban Fantasy

667 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 13, 2021

Reviews

[Ubik · Rating 1 out of 5]

I find it impossible to connect to the dollar store Deadpool MC doing ready player one reference non-jokes in every interaction. It gets tiring very very fast.

[Wilhelm Eyrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible

Every aspect of this book just works. Ryan and his insanity works, the multiple different loops work, and all the different characters work. Everything meshes together so well and we are left with the beginning of Ryan’s Perfect Run.

We begin the book 4 years after Ryan gets his powers, and it’s great. We don’t waste time discovering things or taking years to learn random skills, Ryan has already done that for us and has mastered almost everything, except ice skating. Get fun flashbacks or mid chapter descriptions of learning different skills is well incorporated.

I mentioned the characters earlier but they are one of my favorites parts of this book. Even when Ryan jumps into different loops and the characters are basically refreshed we still care about them and wonder what will happen next with them.

One would think you would get sick of redoing the same loop over and over again, but there is always something else to do or something to be discovered and fleshed out.

Can’t wait for the next one!

[Geraldine Robles Chipana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este libro es gracioso, contiene acción, peleas y un poco de humor oscuro y me gusta la amistad que se forma entre Ryan y Felix el ga— err… Atom Cat, sí.
...Por alguna razón, Atom Cat me recuerda a otro superhéroe cuyo poder destruye cosas y que, al igual que Felix, tiene "Cat" en su nombre.

En una nota relacionada, no me avergüenza admitir que me gustaría tener un chronoradio. Incluso me plantearía pagar por la cosa, de hecho.
Y también por ese Plymouth en particular, ya que estamos.
Por el peluche no. Sin importar lo efectivo que es, ese conejo asesino me aterroriza.

Escenas:
*Ryan, golpeando a Ghoul con un bate al son de Highway to Hell (lo que quiera que sea eso, de verdad)
*Ryan, sobornando al guardia… y luego aumentando el soborno.
*Zanbato, arrastrando a Ryan a su casa para invitarle la cena y porque "Lo que necesitas es un ambiente amigable y cálido", le dijo.
Sí, gente, eso es lo que haces cuando te topas con una persona con problemas emocionales y mentales.

En su búsqueda de Len, Ryan romano acaba en New Rome… habiendo decidido en el pasado que ser mensajero es una misión secundaria adecuada.
Por supuesto, él no espera (o tal vez sí) que dicha misión le lleve a descubrir que posee un archienemigo secreto, a ganar ofertas de 2 grupos distintos y a participar en una lucha en toda regla contra 2 Psychos.
Pero no se preocupe. ¡Todo eso forma parte de uno de varios bucles de tiempo, aun si el 8 de mayo se repite por quinta vez después de lo anteriormente mencionado!
Porque Ryan romano dispone, además del que todos conocen, de un poder que mantiene oculto: él es inmort… digo… el save point, el cual le permite, tras morir, volver a un punto que haya sido guardado previamente… y, utilizando ese poder, Romano se encuentra buscando el final perfecto, que incluye reconectarse con alguien que lo conocía desde antes de que empezara con lo de los bucles temporales…

Ahora, un momento que explica bastante bien el motivo por el que comencé a llamar a Romano "Máquina-Creadora-De-Daños-Colaterales" en mi mente:
""—Lo que me lleva al asunto que nos ocupa —Enrique le entregó a Ryan una pequeña pila de papeles—. El índice de dieciséis páginas de quejas por daños colaterales asociadas con su nombre, de personas de toda Italia.
Algo molestó mucho a Ryan.
—¿Sólo dieciséis páginas?
—¿Esperabas más, tal vez?
—Diablos, sí lo hice —respondió Ryan—, supongo que soy demasiado bueno silenciando testigos."

[Breno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Groundhog Day meets Superheroes

The story begins with Ryan arriving of New Rome, starting his third “run” after failling the first two. After a short intro we are given the first glimpse of his personality as he makes a delivery, and the first glimpse of his power, as he dies in the hand of an assassin who attacked the recipient of his delivery. And so he is sent back in time, to his fourth run, where he manages to catch the assassin off guard.

While some authors would get caught in the mechanics of this power and not do much with it (All you need is Kill), this author uses it to slowly reveal all the players, organizations and plots going on in New Rome.

People who were enemies in one run, become allies on the next, neutral parties on the next or just don’t appear. And as Ryan acquires more knowledge and pushes further, we see more and more what the lives of the people he meet are like and the impact that different “routes” Ryan takes has on them.

Thanks to that, I was never bored when Ryan died and had to restart. On the contrary, I was excited, wondering what choices he would make now that he discovered new things. Would he side with the good guys? The bad guys? Or would he try to go solo, playing both sides? Was that person that was mentioned before finally going to show up would he manage to stop that other guy in time in this run?

Finally the entire cast is amazing. Ryan himself is an awesome character (and arguably insane) but he is only one of many. Atom Car, the child of villains who wants to become a hero. Vulcan, the former hero turned Villain, and my favorite, who shows up later in the book: Wardrobe! She and Ryan both share a love for clothing.

Seriously, there’s not a single bad run in the entire book. If you thought the setup (Groundhog Day meets Superheroes), you should buy it, because the execution was phenomenal.

[Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

I held out hope for this being good but I really didn’t like this. It’s been 3+ months since I last tried to continue this so I don’t remember exactly what I hated. Grimdark, flashbacks, dystopian, angst, and a protagonist who lacks self respect are themes I do remember disliking. It read like a sad comedic version of Worm with less interesting characters.

-Dropped Ch 20

[Pablo García · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't find the "entertainment value" of a main character that does what he does, just because he is bored...God just burn this story away...please...
A super-hero that has a Redo-as-a-special-power is a sorry excuse for a Super-Hero... This main character does not have martial arts training, above average intelligence, special skills or abilities and yet has the #Redo/Reset ability that can virtually make him live "forever" and yet, does not use any of that "unlimited time" to improve himself, improve his abilities and do a better job everywhere...
The author should realize that "Muchacho" is the wrong time-zone/wrong continent...If they are in "New Rome", (Italy) they are speaking Italian, not Spanish, so "Ragazzo/Ragazzi" would be the way to communicate in Italy...Whether it's today, or sometime in the future...If main character would actually spend some of his unlimited time to learn to speak other languages instead of sounding like a complete idiot, then maybe, maybe...one could consider that having an unlimited reset was an ability that the main character actually deserves...There is no Rule of equivalent exchange, the author and the main character did not pay/work/deserve to receive a special skill, if they did not give something in exchange...for it...Main character is not strong, not charismatic or handsome, not wealthy, did not win the "hero-ability" in the lottery, did not earn the ability through hard work, leveling up, or divine intervention...
The author does little to no character description, no real world description (territorial organization, political organization, economic moneys used, trade and commerce, social and territorial organization...The author didn't even mention a specific date, the main character's age, height, shoe size, hair color, personality type, etc. etc. etc. Doesn't explain why main character received Redo-Super-Power...and how main character began with an ability like that one...
The story is not really going anywhere...The main character is bored and being bored (apparently) is enough for the author to write a story like this one...
Sarcasm and irony do not mix well in completely failing to make it a funny story, there is just so many errors, so many plot holes, and not enough effort from the author and main character to actually make a story worth reading (and investing the time in it)...

[Pawel Olas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think this might be my personal record. I gave up at 1% :-)
This book feels like something written for 12yo boys by a 14yo who plays games all day long. Maybe I should have given it a chance but I couldn't get over the childish prose...

[Marcus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the premise of this book, but overall disappointed with the story and most of the characters. It felt like the book ended in the middle of the story. Having one zany protagonist that doesn’t take anything seriously is one thing, but you can’t have every character be like that; the Deadpool thing only works if Deadpool’s the only one that doesn’t take the life or death situations seriously. It also got progressively more Ready Player One, with situations seemingly only created so Ryan could make a pop culture reference. It didn’t seem like it could decide between a hard magic system and a soft one, with very specific interactions being detailed in one chapter, and then hand-wavey stuff in another. Lots of questions left unanswered. Why doesn’t Augustus just destroy all his enemies? Or Pluto, for that matter? Why was Ryan allowed onto their private island to witness a high-level meeting, after only knowing them for 2 days? And then not allowed to see the drug garden the next day because it’s “family only”?

Really wanted to like this book but just didn’t hit home for me.

[Koffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy shit how did I not know about this series before now? Talk about underrated. This has too be the most perfect blend of hilarious action packed fantasy, combined with sci-fi and a very emotion driven plot. The world building is legit so good. The powers are freaking amazing and there is logic to things. This is probably the funniest book I've listened too in a long time. Combine the hilarious comedy with a serious plot with serious romance and you have The Perfect Run. I seriously have to tip my hat to this author because I have never read nor listened too a book which so smoothly blends 3 of the most essential things in any book. This series it blew my mind. The amount of depth too each and every character is on a whole other level. Also did I mention that there is no good vs evil in this book nope no such thing everything is a Shade of grey. I'm going tbh here and say it like it is I have never heard of a book series quite like this one. That contains this level of depth and emotion too every character, while also being hilarious. I didn't believe it was possible but it is!!!!

[kartik narayanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best stories ever.

It takes a while to get going and is a bit confusing at first. But it gets brilliant after a couple of loops. The characters, world-building, plot - everything is impeccable.

[Konstantin Samoylov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great storyline, good cliffhanger at the end, fascinating plot twists and solid world building. But superheroes and suicide-squad style got old for me. Ten years ago, I'd give it five starts.
Now the jokes sounded a bit bland and MC - childish.

[John Staats · Rating 1 out of 5]

Aside from a superpower to rewind his life after dying, there's nothing litRPG about this book. The characters are flat, cliche fantasy tropes engaged in game-like behavior like quest completion. It's as if the characters aren't aware that they're inside a game, which begs the question--why bother?

[Sensei_cor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Libro muy entretenido y original, muy bien los personajes, poderes, tramas, y sobre todo la habilidad del protagonista. Hay capítulos puntuales de flashback para darte contexto... Todo muy completo y más que correcto.
Quizá la personalidad del personaje principal sea cargante para algunas personas, he leído en otras reseñas que tiene humor tipo "Deadpool", es decir que lo mismo te ríes que te dan ganas de mandarlo a tomar por saco. Salvo eso, todo bastante bien.


No le pongo más nota porque no he elegido bien el momento de leerlo (justo después de otro libro similar) y quizá porque tampoco me ha terminado de encantar, pero es por los gustos de cada uno; el libro en sí está guay.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd really LIKE to rate this one higher, as it had a lot of fun stuff I enjoyed in it.

However, I also found myself completely stalled out on the book at about 75% and had to force myself to keep reading.

The book is set in a post-apocalyptic world, although I don't mean that in the normal sense. The world isn't a completely trashed wasteland in this story. It is however, a world where the advent of superpowers completely upended the existing social and political orders and caused global warfare which resulted in massive death and destruction.

Into that world steps our protagonist: Quicksave (or Ryan), who is zany, cheerful, flamboyant, and who treats everything as if it were a video game. Because for him ... it sort of is ...

Quicksave is funny, he has vast joie de vivre, he quips and charms and jokes his way through the early part of the tale. And that part is great fun.

However, the problem is that his world view is somewhat unrealistic, and is built on a house of cards. About half-way through the book, he manages to achieve one of his starting goals. And (as you might guess) it doesn't work out the way he intends.

Following that, a period of bleak retrenchment occurs, where he has to reconsider his life, and also confront the rather dark reality surrounding him. At that point in the story, we also make a few interlude stops where we look at some of the key events that brought the world to its current state, and those are rather bleak too.

The book does turn itself back around by the end, but that bleak spot is where it almost lost me. So I can't really recommending without at least some reservations.

The book is well written, much of it is light and funny. It has interesting superpowers and the author demonstrates a nuanced understanding both of his own creations, and of the genre in general.

So, it's good, but I struggled with it. Let's say ... 3.5 stars.


As always: I paid retail price for the Kindle version of this book, my thoughts on it are my own. They were neither solicited by, nor compensated for, by the author or by the publisher.

[Crissy Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if you could drink an elixer and get super powers? You don't know what it will be, or how it will effect you, but it will change you.

Ryan took his potion out of desperation, trying to save someone he loved. And it gave him all the time in eternity to try and make things perfect. His power is the quick save, and every time he dies he reloads to that point, taking all his memories back to try again. And again. And again..... Until he gets that perfect run.

It's interesting to see him repeat days, learning new details and trying new things over and over again. And each time things change just a little bit, he learns new things about his adversaries, and adds people to the list of those he wants to save.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Normally I would rate this as a 3-star book - an average book in a series I'd like to finish - but it loses a star due to a specific trope that felt grossly overplayed. It's a mashup of the "time loop" and superhero sub-genres that have been popular, with a dash of alternate history so the main story takes place in the modern day. Nothing feels particularly groundbreaking, but it is a fun romp.

The timeline is confusing, since the main storyline takes place in May 2020, with the world diverging from a real world some time in the past. Every time I think I worked out what that timeline looks like, something would come up to move the divergence farther into the past. Outside of that, I did really enjoy a non-US-centric world, which is a change of pace for me.

The trope that really loses points for me is the over-the-top "think of the children" attitude that is completely incongruous with the rest of the character's actions. The Main Character hears that a gang may be kidnapping children, which then justifies any violence he wants towards that group since it is such a heinous crime. He then immediately turns around and brutally murders and mutilates random antagonists, causing plenty of collateral damage with little concern about any of those effects. While kids are certainly worth protecting, the "any crime may be forgiven as long as it doesn't obviously effect a child," with a disproportionate response is the kind of power fantasy I associate with pizzagate, and it's not something I want in the books I read.

[Chris Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been running into quite a few of these do over time travel books. Despite this on not being a lit-rpg, this one, more than the others, plays out a lot like a video game. Probably because the MC in this book can choose to put down a new save point when ever he wants and has been doing it long enough to treat everything with the kind of detachment a player has from a game world. The author is clearly also a big fan of Bioshock as the gaining of powers feels a lot like Plasmids and there's an obvious Rapture parallel. I am interested in seeing how this plays out.

[Narilka · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Marvel's Deadpool and Groundhog's Day had a dystopia crossover, the result might be something along the lines of The Perfect Run by Maxime J. Durand. It has been 4 years since the Genome Wars left most of the planet a wreck and society has started rebuilding. Ryan "Quicksave" Romano, on a delivery job in New Rome when the place he's delivering to is attacked by "genius psychos", what we would commonly refer to as super villains. The story unfolds from here and it was a fun and surprisingly deep chaotic ride.

Ryan is a pretty great character, even if he's slightly unhinged. He's managed to keep some of his morals and I found myself able to empathize with the challenges inherent in his super power. We learn pretty fast that Ryan can create a "save point" in time and redo his life every time he dies hence his super name of Quicksave. He's also able to stop time in small bursts, giving him quite the advantage in most situations. The author really leaned in to this super power, exploring it in some unexpected ways. The character absolutely follows the Marvel motif of quippiness in much of Ryan's dialog, with the character even pointing it out and trying to get others to trade quips with him. It was surprisingly funny. The character also enjoys a lot of gaming references and American pop culture, which felt odd with the setting in Italy. Ryan has given himself a mission - find a way to "perfect run" his main goal while he's in New Rome. What is his goal? That would be spoilers.

What I found surprising was just how much depth and hope there was in the story the more that is revealed. The author includes some well timed flash back scenes that help flesh out the world and the characters. Given Ryan's super power we get to see multiple sides and facets of Ryan and many of the side characters as he tries out runs as both hero and villain.

The book ends on one heck of a disaster at the end of Ryan's latest run. I have absolutely no idea how he's going to perfect this and keep everyone he cares about alive but I'm excited to find out.

I listened to the audio book narrated by Eric Michael Summerer. Summerer does a great job of bringing the story and all the characters to life. I bet he had a lot of fun with this one.

-------------

Initial thoughts: This was a lot more fun and introspective than I thought it would be. The story surprised me when Quicksave actually encountered his main goal relatively early and the story shifted gears somewhat. That ending though... I need to find out how he perfect runs that insane scenario!

[Ty MaC · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

Time loop story about a superhuman named Quicksave and thats his power. He can save at any point and return after death. The comedy did not work for me and I'm not a huge fan of superhero type world. But the plot was good and it started to grow on me by the end. I will take a bit but will return to read book two at some point.

[Justin Delgado · Rating 3 out of 5]

what a perfect run!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

[Gareth Otton · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot going for this book. It's well written, the action is interesting, the concept fascinating, a lot of the jokes land, the pacing is good, and most of the characters are 3-dimensional and pretty well written. Unfortunately, the one issue I had with this book was a pretty big one; the author never gave me a reason to care.

The driving motivation in this story just isn't there... or at least, it's not there until far too late. I get what the author was going for, by first trying to get us to hope that the protagonist could reunite with his long lost friend, and then trying to get us to sympathise with the protagonist's loneliness. The issue with both of these motivations is one of show don't tell. The protagonist never acted like these were the most important things in his life, he just said that they were.

There were big moments that should have been more impactful in the novel that were brushed aside like they were nothing. Maybe this was to stick true to the persona the protagonist shows the world, but my argument for that is that this persona is an act for the other characters, not for the reader. We should have seen these things impact him somehow, and I just didn't get it.

The problem then becomes that this is a story about a character going through the motions because he has nothing better to do. He's not fighting for a goal he really wants, he's not trying to stop the end of the world, he's not trying to overcome some great evil... he's just there and doing stuff, and hopefully, the jokes make up for that. Sadly, only half of those jokes land, so this book starts to feel meaningless quite quickly.

It's a testament to the premise that I read through to the end (though part of that is probably given over to the high ratings and rave reviews that made me want to keep reading to see what all the fuss was about), so it gets at least 3-stars. But honestly, that feels a little generous. I don't really have any inclination to keep reading this series, and I think that says it all.

[Петър Стойков · Rating 5 out of 5]

След зашеметяващо добрия, брилянтен, гигантски, силен, богат и велик дракон Венкър Максим Дюранд изсипва очевидния си талант в още една поредица, която все още продъжава и не се знае колко дълга ще е, като се има предвид, че главният герой може да се връща, да започва отначало и да преиграва по безкраен брой пъти всеки ден, който не му е харесал как протича - и така лека полека се опитва да постигне "перфектния" си живот ден по ден в свят, населен с по-малко супергерои и бая повече суперзлодеи с доста по... разрушителни сили от неговата.

[Bob · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't get into to it. The story itself has been done to death. That alone isn't too bad. The same concept redone again is ok if it's done well. However, the MC is annoying and boring enough that I eventually got tired of it. He's like a discount Deadpool that never shuts up. That kind of attitude and jokes has to be done carefully. In this book it's just heaped onto you constantly. In addition to that the MC is a pathetic simp, pining after a girl that friend-zoned him and made no effort to see him again after they were separated. DNF

[Ms. Kay renee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main character is extremely annoying, as is the “humor”. Just some generic guy who refers to a Latino man as “muchacho”, disparages hip hop music like it’s the year 1985 and confuses cartoonish violence as a plot line. They try to rehabilitate the protagonist by making him want to protect children, but that’s not enough to make him interesting.

I thought this was going to be a fun romp, but it just kind of drones on aimlessly. DNF

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable. Fun. Deep. A must read.

One of the most enjoyable books I've ever read. It's just, FUN, and so very well thought out. Every single character, major or minor, ends up with so much depth and substance.

I found this on RoyalRoad, bought it on Kindle, and became a Patreon of the author for pre-kindle-released content. So very worth it.

[Lucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally love time-loop stories, so I had very high hopes for this one, but it turned out to be a bit of a slog to get through. The protagonist is unsympathetic and very little progress is made towards the “Perfect Run” promised by the title.

[Abby Goldsmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why hasn't Ryan Reynolds signed for a film adaption? This is the humor plus OP hero of Deadpool except it's time looping instead of self-healing.

The sequels are better than the first book. This is a great package as a trilogy.

[radiathkutya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I usually wait for audiobook to come out and listen but this book was so good I kept reading and reading.

[Macaully Kearney · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars - Excellently witty and a lot of fun. the mc was surprisingly deep beneath all the banter. I really enjoyed this one and look forward to the rest of the series.