Ever since his sixteenth birthday, disaster has loomed over Micah Silver’s head, threatening him and everything he loved.
Twice he tried to deny his fate, only to suffer for his hubris. Finally, he made the sacrifices necessary to confront the danger facing him head-on.
Micah succeeded. At the head of an army of daemons, he defeated the Durgh Khan and saved Basil’s Cove from disaster. Only, it wasn’t to be.
The cost of his actions was too great for him to bear, forcing him to activate his blessing and travel back in time once again.
Sanity and emotional stability fraying, Micah buckles down for another run. This time, he has the knowledge, character class, companions, and skills to make his fourth loop the final one.
A lifelong fan of Fantasy and Science Fiction, I usually spent my nerdy energy creating overly elaborate homebrew RPG campaigns. As it became harder and harder to juggle schedules for a half dozen players, I eventually made the logical choice and just cut them out of the picture entirely.
Now I write novels. They whine a lot less about critical failures.
This book removes the thing (time travel) that brought me to the series in the first place and what's left leaves much to be desired. The MCs greatest asset is his ability to carry over skills and knowledge to future restarts, yet chooses not to take advantage of that fact. The MC does not spend several restarts honing his to skills to a high level. The MC does not spend several restarts "obtaining" new spells through various means that would cause problems without a restart (he does this once in the book). The MC decides that the invasion absolutely needs to be taken care of in a single restart instead of investing the time to discover the cause and trying to prevent or fix it before it happens (this is rendered somewhat moot later but he doesn't know that for much of the novel). The MC gathers a group of the biggest whiners on the planet to be his team. By the end of this book I wanted his entire team with the exclusion of Sarah to die horrible deaths to stop the complaining. If by chance his brother died twice somehow I wouldn't have complained. By the end of the book the MC does eventually achieve his main goal, however he has made so many potential powerful enemies that it would be ludicrous not to restart. A restart is unlikely however thanks to a new plot development he will use as justification to not restart.
FAIR WARNING STAY AWAY FROM THIS SERIES!!! I'm not joking if you like me where hoping the author would improve in this book just don't bother it gets worse.
Yeah no I'm done with this the first book had some promise. But this one just wiped every single potential point of interest from the plot. The little romance there was poof gone all of a sudden for no real reason. One minute the MC is mopping for this girl 3 hours later I don't love you. The skipping of months and years for no reason got old as well. I thought the MC had plot armor in the last book. But in this one holy shit!! He was incased in plot armor so heavy you couldn't have gotten through with a laser. The plot holes that you could drive and SUV through in the last book, well you can now drive a space ship through them they are so big. This book was so bland it was a miracle I finished it. Also so many grammar issues. Man the narrator sounded like he had too train his lungs to be able to read it. It was as if the author didn't have an editor. Where was the end of sentences? The ending was just wow!!! I can hardly believe the author even managed too cut and paste the ending together. I can't remember the last time I had so low expectations of a book and they still where let down.
Was lacking all the things that I loved about book 1. First of all no time looping this book. That was the main reason I read this series. The story wasn’t as fun without it.
Second, almost no character evolution. The MC got stronger but didn’t make any new choices this book which made it feel stale to me.
The story was mostly about not making the same mistakes as he made in book 1. Also, his annoying brother and his lovelife. Will probably read book 2 but not sure.
Apparently the answer is no. The characters are pointless. The temporal solution is forced and makes the entirety of book one a waste of time. As you get further into the story you realize how pointless the entire world truly is.
Seeing some reviews complaining about what this second book in the series lacks reminded me that some readers don't understand character arcs.
I enjoyed the second book more than the first in the series precisely because it deals, directly and unapologetically, with the obvious trauma and implications of Micah's magical powers. It made the first one better, after the fact, because there was a consequential payoff to the decisions made in Book One without just ignoring the implications and mental strain of time travel loops.
Anyway, looking forward to the third and would encourage you to look beyond the negative reviews.
dnf. Boring and author continues slipping lgbtq acceptance into the story. MC doesnt ever tqke advantage of his blessing. I lost interest midway. Will not be finishing the series
This was another enjoyable book to read and again the pages just flew by, but that being said, it's not nearly as good as its predecessor. Here are the main issues I had (bearing in mind when you read them that I liked it as a whole, so stick around because I will list a few things I really liked at the end of the review):
1 - Leaning away from what makes this series unique The time loop aspect of this book took a bit of a back seat in this story. Don't get me wrong, we couldn't even be here without the time loop, but it's not the focus of this book. Instead, we get a much more generic storyline of underdogs preparing to face overwhelming odds in a battle for survival.
2 - The pacing is much slower A side effect of is that there is much less time covered in this book, meaning the author could take more time with the details. On the one hand, this did good things for letting us get to know side characters better, but mostly it just sucked out the pacing that was such a strength in the first book.
3 - Plot Armour and Silly decision making Sometimes you kind of need to shut off your logic and just enjoy the ride. However, a side effect of the last point was that there was more time to have some side adventures in this book, many of which seemed like needless risks that went against the protagonist's main goal of his time loop. When the only reason the protagonist makes it through these adventures is plot armour, it's quite hard to ignore even when you are giving the book a bit of leeway.
But as much as these gripes made this a lesser book than its predecessor, there were many things that this book did really well (hence the 4-star review), some of my favourites being:
1 - A sense of pressure on the main character The weight of having to go back and keep reliving the same five years coupled with the weight of what he is single-handedly trying to stop really shows on the main character here, and that's a good thing. It's amazing how many times authors forget to let their characters feel the effects of what they are put through, and I liked how Micah is much changed by his ordeals.
2 - More time to get to know the secondary characters The first book was much more of a solo mission than a multi-character one, and while the secondary characters weren't bad, we got a lot more time to get to know them in this book. Some of the best moments of the book were just times when Micah was enjoying hanging out with his family and friends, and that was great to see as it helped reinforce what he was fighting for and kept the reader invested in his struggles.
So overall, this was another highly enjoyable read. It was a bit slower, and maybe a touch more familiar to us fantasy fans who have read way more of these books than we probably should have, but I had a good time nonetheless. I hope the next book can get us back to the main concept of this series a little more. I am especially interested in why Micah might use his time reset next, and what he might lose by doing so. The fact that he is in a better place with friends and family now surely means that there is much more weight on pulling that trigger next time, and I think exploring that loss is probably the thing that most interests me in this series.
Micah wakes up again as a child. It is all happening again, he doesn’t know if he can take it or do it all over again. He decides to do things a bit different this time. He tells his brother, Trevor, decides to train him and help he get a better class/skill. As always Trevor would rather do nothing or hit on girls his age.
Micah has his work cut out with him. He has to outthink Trevor. After many days of practice, Trevor’s blessing day does come and Micah knows he has to out maneuver him. He wakes up early and hides along the path to the guild. He captures Trevor with a level 1 spell and talks him out of joining. He just has to get Trevor up two more levels and they should be good. Micah finds Televern again and helps him grow. They fight monsters and try to grow while Trevor does a little dating. They continue to grind until they get the gang back together.
I have to admit some of the earlier portions of the books were a little slow. They weren’t exactly the same but I kept thinking we have already done this. It was still a good book and I would recommend.
I don't have much to say about this book except I think the 5 year loop might be a bit excessive. Time jumps are one thing, but with that much happening, it really puts a big burden on the main character's emotional state--so much so that it's a wonder he'd ever decide to use the big return ever again. Maybe it's a good conflict, maybe not, but it'll definitely limit his growth. He simply doesn't want to lose the relationships with others, and that's far too human.
Wait. Is this an actual complaint? Shouldn't we have this kind of conflict?
Yeah, yeah, I know. But this IS a LitRPG and they're also called Progression novels, too. We resolved the big bad only two times in two novels. The SAME big bad. Hence, Coda, I suppose. :)
Even so, I enjoyed the long stretch of getting stronger without Demon crutches. Still fun.
My synesthesia feels that foresty vibe, the loam underfoot, the spoor in the air. :)
Personal note: If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to requests. Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.
After reading a enjoying Blessed Time book1 I didn't get bk2 right away as I figured that Coda would just a rinse and repeat kind of book because it was obvious that Micah was goin back to face another grueling 5 years to try to fix things again. Little did I know how wrong I was. Instead of being a bridge to bk3, or a rinse and repeat time loop story it was so much more! I loved Coda it even better than the first book. Yeah it was still a time loop and we along with Micah did relive the last 5 years of his life but there was so much more insight and things to to do as he got stronger inorder to face the Derg.
Here's a couple of quotes that amused me:
"Quit acting like they pissed in your tea."
"Micah was flung into one of the wooden walls hard enough to break it with an audible crack, or maybe it was his ribs he couldn't tell."
"But there is no doubt that you are carrying boulders rather than stones in your pants."
I was hesitant to continue this series after reading a few of the negative reviews. I'm glad I pushed on.
Each loop seems to have the same basic threat/challenge and one special threat. While this loop's special threat came about without warning, it provided the necessary tension to carry readers through the drawn-out team development section of the story. Could this section have been shortened? Maybe, but it also accomplished some significant emotional character growth in both Micah and the team.
With book two, the main arc is complete but I'm more eager than ever to continue the series. February 2022 they say. Damn!
Minor spoiler alerts. The second book focused just on one single timeline and I enjoyed it more because of that. The characters were introduced in the first book and the continuation of the story focused on character development and worldbuilding. Overall it was a pleasant reading experience with good editing and quick pacing. There were moments where I giggled or almost shared tears, but there were a few chapters that didn't add much to the story or gave us a repetition of the same information, like repeating the character sheet after showing it already a chapter before
I was kind of expecting a trilogy here, not a story that was one big book split into two, though it would have been nice to see it as one big book, there'd actually be a single book that told a whole story, something that's rather rare these days. Despite that, I liked the story, and although the ending leaves things open for future installments, I'd be willing to bet this part of the story is done. Good to see a complete story though, so Anyway, LitRPG fans will likely enjoy this offering, so if you're a fan, feel free to add this two book series to your shelves, it's worth the read.
This is an audiobook review. I enjoyed this book, maybe not as much as the first one, but still it was an interesting read(listen). The MC growth in terms of maturity and introspective self awareness was on full display. After the how the first book ended the MC tried a teams approach method in this loop and it worked out more or less. I personally hate purposefully dense characters, and that is primarily why I disliked the MC’s brother. Some if his actions felt forced; if only for plot reasons.
The only problem I have is the annoying amounts of time the author spends on that adrenaline junkie half-elf crush, and the older Brother's relationship problems. It becomes a slog anything you read "but that's no fun" from that stupid elf.
This wasn't as enjoyable as the first book, but seeing how it ended, I won't have to put up with the same annoying crap as this book in the sequel.
not going to lie it felt like the last half of the book was rushed so the author could move to Into Twilight: An Apocalyptic LitRPG (Viceroy's Pride Book 1)
I might be wrong but ending left me feeling like there should have been more. those last three fights deserved to be much more. I get where they were trying to portray but when a character says I don't think our fight will be so contained and then barely moves ... nah loved the first the second had some good closure but needed more
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Lots of challenges to overcome, and the gods aren’t making it easier
4th time around, can Micah overcome this time? Maybe, but Luxos isn’t happy with him so the ante is being upped. Micah also has to try and balance out his feelings for Jo with how this loop is going. The stress is real for our hero, can hr make this the loop that he gets to move past this part of his life? You’ll have to read on and see!
Extremely well written. You will be on the edge of your seat during the action scenes. The characters are very well developed, and the Micah the main character is strong and relate able. I read the book in one day- it will grip you and stay with you. Do yourself a favor and read this series.
Excellent! Very well written, great character development, I found myself really caring about all the primary characters. Micah, the main character, is especially relatable. The action scenes will have you on the edge of your seat. I highly recommend this book and the series. I read it in one day because it was so gripping. Do yourself a favor and read it!
Second book that i also enjoyed. Significantly. I had just finished hammering out a by the numbers addition book of a fantasy that had the emotional power of an uncooked potato when i came across this series. It hit the spot in a few ways. Definitely a page turner.
A big improvement on the first book as we feel a lot more maturity in this story and of course we have met many of the characters before. The story actually feels like a mini ending as well with some parts coming into focus more within the larger world building. Can't wait till the 3rd book brings us more surprises.
I definitely was entertained by this book, but more for the progression aspect and fight scenes which I thought were written well. The actual plot and characters themselves I thought could use a bit more polishing but I did enjoy the book. I’ll likely read the rest of the series after a bit of a gap.
I don't like judging individual books in a series and instead choose to judge the series as a whole. That said, I like this series, and any series I like deserves 5 stars. Read my review for the first book if you want more detail.
Worst, time traveler, ever. Not only did the author make the MC more insufferable than the first book, but they also ruined the other main characters. Basically, everything bad about the first book is turned up to 11. What I would do for a MIB memory wipe at this point...
This was a great end to the first arc in Micah's journey. There was a lot if emotional weight attached to his actions, something that is often glossed over in time loop stories. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next one.
Thus series continues to be enjoyable. The characters and humor juxtaposed with the action and drama still deliver the goods. I look forward to reading the next installment in the series.
Got up to Micah's 16th birthday (~80%) and stopped. Seeing the immaturity and the stupidity of the gods, after all of the immaturity and stupidity of the people (Trevor in particular, Micah who should mentally be a 30-something, Jo, etc), was the limit for me. Going to stop there.