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Worth the Candle #2
Trust and Consequences
Always the Dungeon Master, never the jail keeper.
Juniper Smith is trapped in a prison that seems to be of his own design. Everywhere he looks are bits and pieces of the game worlds he used to make back on Earth.
Now, he finds himself on the run from the law and helping out criminals, looking for magical solutions to centuries-old magical spirits trapped in bottles. Can he trust an elf that's been locked away since the bad old days of the Second Empire?
Danger lurks around every corner, and trust is hard to come by, even within the party that grows more like family with every passing day.
Juniper Smith is trapped in a prison that seems to be of his own design. Everywhere he looks are bits and pieces of the game worlds he used to make back on Earth.
Now, he finds himself on the run from the law and helping out criminals, looking for magical solutions to centuries-old magical spirits trapped in bottles. Can he trust an elf that's been locked away since the bad old days of the Second Empire?
Danger lurks around every corner, and trust is hard to come by, even within the party that grows more like family with every passing day.
- GenresFantasy
634 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 21, 2022
92 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
Alexander Wales
25 books135 followersAlexander Wales is the pseudonym of Ben Friesen. Ben is a writer and stay-at-home dad located in Duluth, MN with his wife, their son, and cat.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 29, 2023
A fun adventure story with interesting mind games and psychological explorations, with good action, and with a teenage relationship that's actually a relationship instead of the never ending will-they-won't-they, all as part of a progression-fantasy story? well, damn. Sign me up.
December 16, 2024
It's a complete story arc, but not one that I enjoyed much. Involves a branch of the magic system and its nefarious practitioner... but somehow I found the chapters focused on the main character dating one of the party members much more enjoyable. Everything still in the realm of enjoyable so I'll aim for completing this LitRPG.
June 12, 2023
I kind of liked book 1, but lost interest about a third through book 2.
To be honest, I think I mostly put up with it for as long as I did because the narrator of the audiobook is absolutely exceptional. The story however is convoluted and contains way too many portions of insane info dump and out of place flashbacks. The writing is a constant barrage of rambling about minute, unimportant details that often times really need no further explanation.
On the topic of info-dumps: you know... sometimes I really don't want to literally know the velocity of a flying bird.
I was recommended this series for apparently having a good romantic storyline, which is patently untrue. There is a distinct harem-esque feeling to it, though the true romantic storyline(s?) is just a totally fucked up mess that never gets an adequate or even satisfying resolution. Another dud on that front...
My major gripe though: I cannot, for the life of me, take the protagonist seriously. June just doesn't behave like a 17-year-old, and neither does his language reflect his age in any way. I know the author wants me to believe that his past as a dungeon master for a d&d group is the reason for his weirdly specific knowledge, language etc. but hell no... he comes across like a 30-40 year old, not like a teenager. You can make the guy blush every once in a while all you want, he still acts like a middle aged adult.
The stat system is entirely irrelevant, because the fights are really only ever resolved by using the correct (or incorrect) magical item. Certain kinds of magic in this world in general are so insanely powerful, everything else loses all meaning and relevance... there is literally a type of magic that makes you unkillable... except of course if you use the correct magical weapon for the job.
I've also been spoiled on some of the things that happen later on in the series, and I'm just not comfortable with some of them. I won't leave specific warnings here, but the series gets incredibly dark, even compared to book 1 and 2, which are already pretty close to what I consider okay without trigger warnings in the description (a certain character being captured and tortured for a week off screen comes to mind.) Had I known about any of this prior to starting the series, I'd never have picked it up.
I'm disappointed and won't be continuing the series. It's a shame, because the start really was strong, and I had high hopes for this.
To be honest, I think I mostly put up with it for as long as I did because the narrator of the audiobook is absolutely exceptional. The story however is convoluted and contains way too many portions of insane info dump and out of place flashbacks. The writing is a constant barrage of rambling about minute, unimportant details that often times really need no further explanation.
On the topic of info-dumps: you know... sometimes I really don't want to literally know the velocity of a flying bird.
I was recommended this series for apparently having a good romantic storyline, which is patently untrue. There is a distinct harem-esque feeling to it, though the true romantic storyline(s?) is just a totally fucked up mess that never gets an adequate or even satisfying resolution. Another dud on that front...
My major gripe though: I cannot, for the life of me, take the protagonist seriously. June just doesn't behave like a 17-year-old, and neither does his language reflect his age in any way. I know the author wants me to believe that his past as a dungeon master for a d&d group is the reason for his weirdly specific knowledge, language etc. but hell no... he comes across like a 30-40 year old, not like a teenager. You can make the guy blush every once in a while all you want, he still acts like a middle aged adult.
The stat system is entirely irrelevant, because the fights are really only ever resolved by using the correct (or incorrect) magical item. Certain kinds of magic in this world in general are so insanely powerful, everything else loses all meaning and relevance... there is literally a type of magic that makes you unkillable... except of course if you use the correct magical weapon for the job.
I've also been spoiled on some of the things that happen later on in the series, and I'm just not comfortable with some of them. I won't leave specific warnings here, but the series gets incredibly dark, even compared to book 1 and 2, which are already pretty close to what I consider okay without trigger warnings in the description (a certain character being captured and tortured for a week off screen comes to mind.) Had I known about any of this prior to starting the series, I'd never have picked it up.
I'm disappointed and won't be continuing the series. It's a shame, because the start really was strong, and I had high hopes for this.
September 4, 2022
This was just like book one. I know (or think) that this story parallels a DnD game, so there will have to be "balance".
But I really dislike books that go out of their way to show that the protagonist isn't actually overpowered, and he has to do a lot of struggling.
I can't enjoy this much because there is so much emphasis placed on the "meta-story".
Instead of someone doing what he needs to do, to survive, he is being lead around by the nose by an all powerful entity that makes his monkey dance, and whacks him when / if he goes off script.
I really don't like DnD because of the dice, rules and DM aspects, and for all intents and purposes, this story is a bunch of DnD games mushed together.
I will read the sequel, but dislike buttpulls that makes something that is easy with magic, like healing, hard, because "readers will complain that was too easy, and narrative and DnD rules, and subversion".
Ugh. This book really was not fun.
3/5 Stars
But I really dislike books that go out of their way to show that the protagonist isn't actually overpowered, and he has to do a lot of struggling.
I can't enjoy this much because there is so much emphasis placed on the "meta-story".
Instead of someone doing what he needs to do, to survive, he is being lead around by the nose by an all powerful entity that makes his monkey dance, and whacks him when / if he goes off script.
I really don't like DnD because of the dice, rules and DM aspects, and for all intents and purposes, this story is a bunch of DnD games mushed together.
I will read the sequel, but dislike buttpulls that makes something that is easy with magic, like healing, hard, because "readers will complain that was too easy, and narrative and DnD rules, and subversion".
Ugh. This book really was not fun.
3/5 Stars
July 10, 2022
I enjoyed how well written this series is. The author uses segments from his previous life to explain and expound on things really well.
Don’t like how much the MC goes off tangent in his head. Found myself skipping sections.
Also, not in love with how much they talk about how it’s a game and how the narrative is taking us in this direction or how the game master won’t like if we do this. It killed the story immersion for me and slowed things down.
Don’t like how much the MC goes off tangent in his head. Found myself skipping sections.
Also, not in love with how much they talk about how it’s a game and how the narrative is taking us in this direction or how the game master won’t like if we do this. It killed the story immersion for me and slowed things down.
March 29, 2024
Unique, fascinating,
The intrigues are subtle but thrilling, the dialogue and analysis are to elaborate to be realistic but still logically sound, natural and entertaining, multiple meta layers of story are very smooth despite the complexity of weaving together consistently various level of perspectives. Great and unique work that is beyond the litRPG genre
The intrigues are subtle but thrilling, the dialogue and analysis are to elaborate to be realistic but still logically sound, natural and entertaining, multiple meta layers of story are very smooth despite the complexity of weaving together consistently various level of perspectives. Great and unique work that is beyond the litRPG genre
April 18, 2024
I didn't like it as much as the first one, but mostly because of pacing. The plot where nobody knew who could trust anybody and everyone spent all their effort talking things through just to try to figure out who was allied with who got pretty tiresome.
The system, the characters, everything else I still liked quite a lot.
The system, the characters, everything else I still liked quite a lot.
October 7, 2025
Still good! Unique scenarios, interesting choices, meaningful stakes.
One point off because of my low tolerance for spending time reading about the love lives of young adults. I get that having all basically the companions be potential love interests is probably an intentional joke but it doesn't feel funny enough to be worth the drama.
One point off because of my low tolerance for spending time reading about the love lives of young adults. I get that having all basically the companions be potential love interests is probably an intentional joke but it doesn't feel funny enough to be worth the drama.
October 23, 2024
A masterpiece of rational fiction. I also recommend the analysing podcast by Eneasz Brodski and Steven Zuber on the HPMOR podcast if you want several hundred hours of additional content about the book(s).
August 6, 2025
Great LitRPG
Adult writing, coherent and well thought out. Also, the author actually proofread his books instead of relying only on stupid AI which can’t actually do more than spellcheck wrong words. Refreshing!
Adult writing, coherent and well thought out. Also, the author actually proofread his books instead of relying only on stupid AI which can’t actually do more than spellcheck wrong words. Refreshing!
July 28, 2023
I enjoyed this one more than the last. It had even more philosophy than book one and included a truly scary and challenging antagonist.
August 29, 2024
Some fun meta commentary about narrative, but worse than the first one. I like the new companion, but the princess got worse after the first book.
July 4, 2025
After the ending of the previous volume I was hesitant to continue, but was ultimately satisfied I did. June et al continue to evolve and the world continues to unfurl.
January 11, 2023
I read the remainder of this story on royal road where it was originally published. I'm adjusting my review accordingly. Things go downhill fast after this part of the story and it gets to where there will be chapters of characters pontificating at each other between any action. The action gets hard to follow too. The curse of rationalist semi fic. I kinda regret starting the book because of all the time I spent finishing it.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews