Logging into The World, Startum Ironwolf is confronted with utter chaos. The Northern Invaders have sprung their trap and the raid is dying. He needs a plan and he needs one now!
If that wasn’t bad enough, unbeknownst to Startum and his friends in the raid, all across the Plains of Atoll the situation is turning direr by the moment. How are Startum Ironwolf and his fledgling alliance going to face these growing threats when they're outnumbered and spread out across the Starting Area?
WARNING: This is a GameLit/LitRPG story and contains explicit intimate relations, explicit violence, explicit expletives, cussing and swearing, explicit hacking and slashing, betrayals, pant wetting, improper use of motorcycles, general speeding, polyamory, theft, arson, egg-laying, open relationships, power leveling, twinking, PVP, ogling of demi-humans, ogling of humanoids, ogling of monsters, PVE, spawn camping, trespassing, dwarf tossing, cell phone hacking, account hacking, attempted rape, adult situations, violations of civilian rights, a dire wolf with an attitude, infidelity, bawdy relations with Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, Beastkin, Gnomes, Dwarves, Elves and monsters, MMORPG-style violence, allusions to nonconsensual relations, consensual relations, wolves and bears as pets, nudity and nakedness, no bras, naked raids, murder, attempted murder, atheism, rationalizations, man-handling, decapitations, pirate on pirate violence, gossiping, defenestration, sexual harassment, religious rationalizations, unusual morals, NPC relations, player relations, possible centaur riding, stalking, looting, womanizing, mansplaining, bribery, LAN parties, fantasy depictions of mages and warriors, highly risqué fantasy gaming tropes, personal rants, assault and battery, stabbings, cannibalism, general mayhem, specific mayhem, immolations, explosions, siege weapons of mass destruction, existential discussions, controversial topics of sci-fi fandom, real-world intimate relationships, in-game intimate relationships, playing the field, disrespect for authority, womansplaining, realm invasions, mind control fears, bad tempered marines, conspiracy theories, cohabitation, men playing women, digital prostitution, exsanguinations, women playing men, references to science fiction literature and television, references to gaming, playing MMOs for too many hours straight, government surveillance, jelly donuts, inappropriate gaming names, player abuse, interrogations and torture, chest ogling, grocery store misconduct, talking on a cell in public, relational misconduct, magic misconduct, fangs, general misconduct, voyeurism, making out sessions, heavy petting, insanity, random violence, promiscuity, werewolves and vampires that like to kill, evil gnolls and goblins, good orcs and bad orcs, too much drinking, dismemberment, abuse of authority, abuse of popularity, electrocutions, freeze blasts, arcane explosions, destruction of property, public indecency, annoying escort quests, rezzing and resurrections, castle sieging, city ransacking, slavery, raping and pillaging, role-playing, abuse, crazy ex-girlfriend flashbacks, nutshots and eye poking, the stabbing of private organs, pick-up groups, fast-moving zombies, hunting for food and xp, excessive violence, bareback riding, troll hating, camping, griefing, obstruction of justice, justified vengeance, biting, backstabbing, clawing, trash-talking, open-minded discussions, bitching, close-minded hate, personal opinions, and anything else offensive I may have forgotten to mention. Read at your own risk.
Jason A. Cheek, author of The World and The Last Paladin Series, lives in Germany due to his current job assignment. He lives with his wife and daughter, along with their two dogs Monte and Melow. Originally from West Palm Beach, Jason was born in Florida.
Interested in martial arts, swords, archery, Dungeon & Dragons, the SCA (Society of Creative Anachronisms), reading Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Jason became a computer gamer after leaving the Army. Paying his own way through college while working as a waiter, he studied to become an Occupational Therapist Assistant.
Teaching himself computers and networking on his own time. Jason changed career paths, becoming a Regional Systems Administrator several years later. During this time, he played many hours of first person shooters and strategy games at LAN parties around the United States or logged into Anarchy Online and World of Warcraft leading his guilds.
Excelling in his career as an Information Technology Specialist, Jason became a Microsoft Certified Systems Security Engineer and VMware Certified Professional, furthering his knowledge by learning new technology whenever possible.
Expanding his horizons, Jason became interested in extreme sports and traveling. Finding a job that allowed him to travel around the world while working on computers, he taught himself German and Polish and met his wife Anja.
Always interested in writing, Jason began his first novel called Flight, Book One of The Last Paladin Series, in 2013 and self-published the next year in 2014. He went on to continue writing, releasing the popular series The World in 2018.
I like the over all series but this just didn't feel like the book progressed much. I get that you had to cut it in half but I wish I waited till the second half was out. Why not wait to publish both halves next time?
With the massive disclaimer the rating has nothing to do with content.
While I have issues with the character interactions, it is more of a problem believing their backstories. Close knit group of the best is coming off as just going through the motions and stuck in a routine. The story finally leaving the monster swarm is great, that obvious plot device is getting to be monotonous. The song to four stars only happened because of the sudden end with a hundred pages left. While stats in the back of a litrpg book is fine, and expected, a quarter of the length seems excessive. While I get that this has been split, the jarring nature of the stop is the issue. If you want to partition your book, take a little time to smooth out the transition.
Man you can feel the tension building now, Jason has given you a peek at what is coming and I can’t wait. When the you know what hits the fan, it’s gonna fly! I can’t wait for the next part (thanks Amazon 😢 ) but I know it’s going to be awesome!
The author Jason "is no joke" Cheek claims that he is limited to 400 pages now which is his excuse for this booklet. The book is full with page fillers: first the excuse of Cheek, in the book permanent usage of terms as "the dark sword of house kayden" etc, people talking about their stats, people reading about their new skills, the MCs "friends" permantently making embarassing peepee jokes and have adolescent white trash talk all the time, the tenthousandst time statements about the NPC in this game are different and have feelings, the repeated appreciation of the size of centaur breasts and the last 20 percent of the book is an appendix/teaser. This is no book but a ripp off.
Writing style: if you love the perpetual use of the phrases "is no joke", variations of "doing your best", "dick" (21 times), statements about centaur breasts or the lovely sentence "it seriously sucked massive donkey dick" (page 238) then this is THE right book for you!
I truly hated the first part of the book that deals with the glorious heroe and comprises about 60 percent of the book. It is actually just one huge but ultimatively meaningless battle, statements how brilliant the MC is, and endless embarassing adolescent trash talk. You could savely skip all of it and even would enjoy the story more if you did. I rate this part of the booklet with 1,5 out of 5. I strongly feel that the authors decision to implement this whole western story line led the original story astray and made a good plot way worse!
The second part of the story is actually not bad. There is just one fight and a lot of talking. Funnily i liked the talking best aside of the praise of huge breasts and the by now rather tiresome repetitions about the feelings of NPC in this world. I would rate this short part of the book with a solid 3.
The same problem of the last several books; endless repetition that feels like the author basically cut and pastes the fight scenes. Apparently the a-hole factor wasn't high enough; the "good" guys are now intolerable monsters that only the mos masochistic simp would be willing to go near. When you add in 8 endless books of him ranting in the most juvenile way how the MC just doesn't tolerate that sort of thing, yet cheerfully does from this broken collection of character defects masquerading as "friends", it becomes entirely more intolerable; he started pk wars across the entire game against people that act exactly like his friends. But he pretends there's a difference. If so, the author failed pretty hard at showing what that difference is.
On top of that, we get a long sob story about how Amazon doesn't let authors publish books with page count of more than 900 pages. (an though I've read plenty with more that that) He claims he had to split the book in two tone able to publish.
But, the last 25% of this book (over a hundred pages) is the character sheets, cast, etcetcetc; yeah, the BS filler that he adds to every book, expanded even more to try to justify not having an ending. Not even the usual garbage "cliff hanger" that fails to be exciting or suspenseful (like they are supposed to) just a flat cut-off. All so the chump could justify another book.
And none of this EVER attempts to deal with the two largest plot holes in this dumpster fire of a series: 1) the idea that a company will ignore profit in the name of "fun" 2) A company won't defend itself from corporate espionage
The author has chosen to double down in the face of all legitimate criticism of the excrement he keeps dumping on us, so I doubt anything will change. Choosing to read this book (or series) is as simple as asking "how much o you hate yourself?"
I am not a fan of the split book but understand the need based on what was outlined. However, the story has been fantastic so far and I am excited to start book 10 to complete the story thus far!!
I continue to be somewhat awestruck at the breadth of multiple subjects scope, gamer knowledge, social group psychology, and personal life experiences that this author pulls together to tell stories within a story. They're all dang good and downright enjoyable reads. I really love the crafting. The people stuff is almost too real at times but it's nice to see people who care enough about one another to work through things. Would that happened more often IRL.
Best attempt at a nitpick I can manage is that you have to scroll through to find the post credits "bonus". It would easily fit as an epilogue. But, since the precedent has been set and we know to look for it, we can manage.
This is part 1 of a 2 part story spread across 2 books and I can not wait for the second part. When I realized this book was out I realized this has quickly become my favorite. A good mix of our world and the game world, I only wish we could see more of the outside world...
Great to see story branching to other areas a behind the scenes update if you will. Be interesting to see how he deals with empire building portion going forwards suspect will move towards every other chapter/ book around main character. Overall? Love the series so far let's see where this crazy train takes us. Keep up the work rate yani!!
I really like this series and hope it continues. I look forward to the crazy stuff that happens in The World. I really like all the unique and diversity of not just the player characters but the magic and skill evolutions.
I've read the whole series through about three times now so far, and I gotta say this was the most grammatically correct, easy, and still enjoyable read to date. Well done sir. Looking forward to the second part soon!
Julie may finally get her comeuppance, and it's about time! Who is trying to sabotage the World? And why? No answers yet, but Star and his friends must battle against the problems of the world until wrongs can be righted.
The World series just keeps getting better and better! There is so much story still to be told as Startum makes his way back to Brokenfang Hold battling monsters and dealing with drama and politics from the PK guilds. Can't wait for the next book!
Ok so I absolutely love the story line in this series! That said I have quit reading these books multiple times now then came back later to try and pick them back up again. The MC seems to be an ok guy but I'm sorry some of his friends are absolute Toxic individuals and the fact he considers them a friend really worries me. Half of the characters be they his friends or a few of his NPC friends are Toxic garbage and I hate reading about them. The real big issue is theY seem to have at least half the story focused on them. Its really hard to get past. If it doesn't improve I don't think I can keep reading about how he just seems to brush it of when they are Toxic to him and those around him.
A lot of people have mentioned the lack of planning and better utilization knowing you had to shorten the book. My main issue is that we are now going into book 10 and we’re nowhere near getting back home. The story needs to pick up and quickly, since we’re being told the same thing. Also seems like author is falling into a trope others do at this point, B and C plots taking over the main story. There were too many chapter about what is happening back home with characters I don’t care about. Jodi, her linx and her spitter get too much time. Get back to the characters that made the series interesting.
Not a great entry in the series at all. Nothing really new or exciting in regards to gear or character progression, the plot and conflict have stalled, despite the author’s attempt to keep building the suspense, and the dialogue just feels repetitive and so cringe.
Jason Cheeks gives the readers this big sob story about limitations on published novels, yet has 200+ pages of filler crap. Long lists of characters and “stat sheets” just copied and pasted from the previous books. This was half a book, and it wasn’t even a good half at that.
Here’s hoping book ten in the series is better, otherwise it might be time to move on from this series.
The MC , his companions , NPC troops , some Devil Dogs and his guild mates (one does wonder which side his guild mates are on sometimes) are engaged in a fighting retreat from a massive Ork invasion to Darom to meet up with his fleet and the 10,000 NPC refugee civilians and troopers waiting there to join him on the trip to Brokenfang Hold , at the Hold work is progressing on the defences and other Devil Dog and Valkyrie guild members are working to slow the hobgoblin invasion down , the retreat is the main plot but the other threads are really interesting.
I'd much rather prefer reading about Star running through the world than spending 30% of the book with side characters I never cared to remember. Most of the details that are in that 30% can just be explained to Star later, but instead I have to read how Jodi is still an ass and how she doesn't know she has basic necessities to take care of.
The story has been scattering. Maybe it'll all come together or maybe it won't. The 5 star worthy content in the first books has been spread so thin and unfocused it's hard to believe it was there in the first place.
Took me a few months of on and off reading to make it through this. Hope to his noodliness above that Jason gets his groove back. Or whatever it is...
This was... not the best. After 9 books, we get it, the NPCs of the world are not like regular NPCs. I get it's a plot point to show how Startum and his NPCs can dominate the world but Jesus, we get it. They are highly advanced AI that are more like regular people than anything else. Move on.
Next. The books were much better when it was Startum against The World. But now with his friends in the mix, it's constant, annoying trash talk and ribbing. More page padding I guess.
Finished this one today. Another excellent addition to the story. This book should have lasted longer but I've been on travel and I have extra time on long trips. I might have to actually read book 10 versus do the audiobook but after listening to them all up to this point, I really enjoy the voice actor. I guess I'll read the book and then do the audiobook anyway....
Ok, enough is enough. While I understand about the limited pages allowed to print a book and having to split story between books 9 & 10. You have over a hundred pages of character stats and etc…. It’s just too much for my liking.
I enjoy the series and will continue reading he series. Seriously over 100 pages of stats.