Jason arrives at a kingdom in peril and he's surprised to discover that it's not his job to save it.
With the authorities fulfilling their responsibilities (for once), he looks forward to some quiet time to rest and recuperate.
The locals might not find ceaseless monster onslaughts and an inter-dimensional invasion relaxing, but Jason has had a rough few years. He's doing his best to let go of his anger.
While his team is caught up in duty, Jason has no shortage of people looking to interfere with his rest. Enemies–old and new–are circling, and even would-be allies are trouble. A princess finds him inconveniently alive, an ancient king arrives at his barbecue, and the local Church of Fertility are uncomfortably enthusiastic about including him in their practices. As his friends strive to reach him from the far side of the world, they are all frustrated by obstacles.
Jason is finally back in the world he longed for, but he is not the same man he was when he left. As the pressure on him mounts, allies and enemies alike will find that out the hard way.
These books have taken a sharp turn to mediocrity. The story finally got back to "the other world" and brought back the side characters, but they lost all of their personalities. Instead of focusing on the pleathra of already introduced characters the story follows some new characters. That would be fine, but we have patiently waited all this time and the payoff is more external angst and internal turmoil. The side characters are just sort of mentioned. The MC doesn't make any real progress to the next stage. He continues to try to "sacrifice" himself at every turn, and sort of gets upset when he doesn't get to. I guess I am just getting disenchanted with the series. Might not listen to the next one. The narrator is pretty good, but Gary's voice is not good. Not upset I listened to it, but not happy with the result. It wasn't bad, but didn't meet expectations, plus the reunion was needlessly drawn out for half the book.
Enjoyed the main plot. Especially felt good with the final scene of the book.
The middle though! The fragmented narrative style that came in around book 4 onward (jumping from multiple characters and short "asides" every few paragraphs) is extremely disorienting and frankly annoying after 4 books of it. I miss regular chapters of progressing narrative.
In book 4-6 the fragment story asides were "who is Jason? Why's he so strong for his rank? Let's get him"
In this book the fragments were "Who is Jason? Why is he so important and how is he not dead?". I get that it's a weird situation that people will discuss but as the reader, I dont really think we need to see that same conversation play out from 6+ different sets of support cast who didn't do much else other than have this repeated convo?
At most it made sense from the main political faction of royals, maybe a couple times, and the battle report thing that happened. But It kept repeating I think, more than 5 times, almost the exact same conversation, or at least it felt like it. I just... why? It ruins an otherwise good story and narrative flow to have to retread information thats already been given clearly. And this on top of flitting rapidly between characters completely stalled the narrative making it feel very slow going.
Also the fact the story acknowledges that most of this (the power struggles between Jason x politics beyond his power level) has happened before in some form or other. so the author actually explicitly knows there is a lot of repetition in various aspects of the narrative. It came across very poorly to me to kind of wave that in the readers face I have to say.
That said, I do still enjoy the series despite this things being extreme bug bears for me. The characters are great, the reunions are great, the "Al" Septuplets(?) were great. It was good to see Jason in tourist mode again, and have more of the humorous side come through in this story. I still want to know what happens next
This volume starts right after the final epilogue of the previous book. Dawn is talking with Jason's friends and explaining that he is alive and if they would just stop talking for a minute she has a recording crystal to prove it. Back on Earth, Jason and Farrah are leaving and beginning the long journey home.
Without fail jason is always the smartest, cleverest, and most talented person in the room. I would love it if there was a character who actually challenged jason by not just being ranked above him. For most of the book there is no real point, jason is just rummaging around a new kingdom while saying over and over he wants to be a regular guy while others around him keep repeating that will never happen. Surprise, its the exact same strategy of more powerful people telling him what to do and jason just being mired down in polotics which at the end of the book are deemed pointless anyway. The author has gotten extremely lazy at not putting effort into describing magic powers. We finally have a battle with diamond rankers, the most powerful beings on earth, and we at best get vague descriptions of powers if that. We also dont see any real progression in Jason's teams powers. Jasons powers have transformed into extremely powerful moves, but the author puts no effort into describing how much more powerful his teammates have gotten other than one or two vague battles with humphrey being a mild exception. The author describes a world full of amazingly powerful beings but has written himself into a corner, because every single person has so many powers at their disposal that he does not even bother describing them as it would take much more effort as he just focuses on pumping out chapter after chapter. The final battle of the book, one of the most powerful battles that has ever been fought in history, and other than vague descriptions of people fighting, it didnt feel that awe inspiring. The entire battle took almost an hour, while we spent 15 hours of this book talking about politics and how sad jason is about being treated unfairly.
The first 2 books were great. He built a creative world and showed progression and had plot lines that kept you intrigued. For this book you really dont even know where the story is going anymore. It just meanders towards the Builder again who is just attacking with a big army again.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Jason had returned to his fantasy world and is actually hoping to relax a bit after the horrifying events on Earth. Unfortunately, his arrival triggers the arrival of the Builder's armies and that is an all-hands on deck situation. It's much less dark than the previous books, though, because jason is now just a Silver rnaker among many. There's also a hilarious story about him being now accidentally engaged to a princess. A lot of fun.
** Edit 24th July 2023 ** I'm bumping this review up to four stars because after rereading the audiobook in preparation for the next couple of audiobooks, I found myself enjoying this a lot more.
Many of the issues below are still true, but when you binge this series and just let yourself go with the flow, they're a lot less noticeable, and I enjoy it a lot more.
There are still definitely issues with this series as a whole, but I can't deny that I do love it simultaneously.
** Original Review **
This might be the weakest book in the series yet, which frustrates me because I still love this series as much as ever. I can read a story of nonsense about Jason's life for thousands of pages and probably still love it just as much, if not more, than I love another more tightly written and professionally edited series. The problem is that I try to be as objective as I can be in these reviews and I'm afraid that this series suffers when you start applying objective measures to assess the quality of the writing.
This book, like so many others in this series, suffers from pacing issues and word stuffing. Again, I chalk this up to it being a web series that needs to hit a certain number of chapters a week and that is taking priority over the chapters taking as long as need to be written for the story to be as high quality as possible.
In the past this has been forgivable because the balance has fallen more into the favour of story over all else, but here I think the author was struggling to transition from the last arc into the new one, and that balance was lost somewhat.
I think one of the bigger issues in this book that I haven't really noticed in the series till now but is definitely there, is that sometimes we as readers know that something is definitely going to happen and the author takes forever to get there. In this book it was a lot of the reunions that we were expecting as Jason returned to this world. They were inevitably going to happen, and I was looking forward to it, but it took so long to get there that a lot of the shine had fallen off. This is only made worse when the adventures that Jason is going on feel like exactly what they are, padding to keep us occupied until the author can get us back onto the main track of the story.
That's not to say that there aren't some relevant character and world-building moments in the story; it's just that I wish it were a little more tightly written so that the story was better balanced and paced to make this book less tedious at times.
All that being said, this hasn't diminished my interest in this series even slightly, and I can't wait for the next book. Even though I have read ahead and know what's going to happen next, I'm still excited for book 8 when that is released in audiobook format as I still love this series as much as ever. My criticisms for this series come from a place of deep attachment to the story, as it's one of my favourites right now, and I want to give every book five stars, and these things are just holding it back.
Rereaad: Still a strong entry, one long emo period that gets on my nerves.
This was a huge return to form from the previous three books. Honestly, Jason spent far to much time away, bringing back his team and the magical world were a good call. The series got a huge boost to quality, to humor, and to the action. Jason has never been the best character. He makes dumb decisions, antagonizes people he shouldn't, and goes on long rants. Having his team to support him, to calm him down and tell him when he is being dumb is when the series is at its best. Without that calming factor, Jason can really get on your nerves.
So, the story is more interesting, characters better, and the book had me burst out laughing more than once. Why only 4 stars then? Well, Jason still spends a large amount of time this book alone. He also goes on a complete rant at one time, for seemingly no reason. He just....snaps. Goes all emo for a good long bit. Really did not enjoy seeing that since it has been his state the last three books.
The way this series seems to be written, as installments on Royal Road, is really what keeps getting in the way for me. It feels like there are recaps of what just happened in a book a few pages earlier, when the author may have gone a while between the chapters. This kind of writing detracts from the enjoyment for me. I would love to see one of these books just be published as a finished, edited, work. Listened on audible. The narrator is good, as usual. However, the production quality of the audio book is just OK. There are pauses in the reading that seems to indicate a new chapter is coming, but it's just another paragraph, or vice versa. I continue to enjoy the characters, and since I'm through book 7, clearly I like it enough to continue. But it's disjointed and leaves me wondering how some readers give this a 5 star review. There are only 5 stars. This book, and really pretty much everything in litrpg genre, IMO hardly qualifies as a top-tier written work. Or maybe they are just rating on their overall enjoyment, and in that case, makes sense.
This episode was a step down from the rest. The central conflict was mostly absent for much of the book. At one point the Church of Purity looked like an interesting opponent, but nothing came of it. The whole thing had a bit of a 'Cinderella at the ball' vibe. Jason rubbed shoulders with the big wigs and held his own. The author's ability to convince us that Jason's smug demeanor is just an act, is starting to wear thin. And to top things off, the Builder seems just as incompetent as always. I'm starting to think that it's not 4-D chess he's playing, but just checkers after all.
Entertaining audiobook! And good continuation of the series! This is the 7th book in this series, HWFWM, and I just reach my reading challenge of 75 books for this year! I love this genre!
Much better than the last book. Of course that was to be expected as the only books that weren't great were book 3 and 6 (makes me worried about book 9 in the future). Jason has left earth and is back in Palimustus (spelling?). The monster surge is coming and so is the builder and his invasion. Jason ends up coming back on the other side of the world and it takes a lot to get back together with his friends and team. He wants to keep a low profile but that isn't going to happen. He immediately is involved with political maneuvering though this time it wasn't his fault. Each meeting with a friend or team was emotional for me but not overwhelming and those emotions didn't last very long. This book seemed a little …. "toned down" …. "water down". I am not sure the best words to use. While I liked the story I wanted a little bit more. Not much just a little. The builder is over the top evil villain territory. I still have no idea how the other astral beings allow him to do what he is doing. There was the Purity church that I thought was going to lead somewhere big but it didn't happen. At Jason's level it is very hard for him to grow his skills. That was a big part of the first 6 books so it felt a little off not having that be a priority anymore. I guess I wanted just a little bit more of each part of the story. I was left satisfied but I wanted to be blown away especially after the last book. Overall though I am very happy the series is back on track, it is one of my favorites.
Another great book! Jason finally makes his way home
As he and Farrah return with the monster surge in tow. Oh and a builder invasion. And well, read on to see what else is coming for Jason’s preferred world.
As Jason makes his way back from Earth, his mission is to survive the monster surge and finish the bridge between worlds, thereby saving both worlds.
While he was dead, his ‘good’ name was used to delay a political wedding earning him the ire of two families through no fault of his own. Well beyond meeting a princess and then dying, but that’s just one of his things.
The power levels in play has grown along with Jason, sadly it just feels exponential versus his growth as he always seems caught up by those a rank or two ahead of him or worse.
It’s good to see Jason take care of his mental health as he’s gone through too much to not have mental scars as well. In the end, there is a surge on and Jason believes in protecting those who cannot protect themselves. He’s died proving it more than once. So just like his friends and team, he will continue throwing himself against the monsters to protect those without the power to protect themselves.
This has got to be my... 2nd favorite HeWho book so far.
I think the raving reviews are somehow explained by how weak the previous book was, as this marked a return to form for the series.
The change in setting is most welcome, and we have a lot of downtime to reflect on the events of the previous arc. Jason is once again the best part of the book this time exploring the horrors he lived through and even unleashed in books 4-6.
The pacing is addictive through the interplay of the Jason Pov and the crew's, but it's mostly a setup book (like books 1&4), so not many major events take place.
Tikmēr šī raksta noslēdošajā He Who Fights with Monsters septītā grāmata vēl tikai uzņem sižetiskos apgriezienus, kuri pavisam droši sagaida sērijas galveno varoni Džeisonu Asano dievības Builder un to atbalstošās Purity baznīcasveidolā, bez kā neiztikt jau septītajā sērijas turpinājumā. Tas nenozīmē atpūtu, ļaušanos būt vienam starp ntajiem tūkstošiem citu piedzīvojumu meklētāju Briesmņu Uzplūdā (monster surge), ko trigerē Džeisona un Farras atgriešanās.
This has been a series of ups and downs for me, but I can happily say that I really enjoyed this book.
There are still times when I end up skimming, specifically when the narrative just summarizes some events that are important but involve the supporting cast. The thing is, when the story gives me what I want, it's top-tier for the genre.
I was pleasantly surprised by how many good parts of the story are left to cover at this stage of the game. We are getting closer to the grand finale, and I am fairly optimistic for how things are going.
I like this one because Jason has been through a lot and the author kind of takes it easy on him for once. There are still some major events that he is involved in and several life and death situations but Jason doesn’t always have to be the one to sacrifice the most. I am sad how many characters were sacrificed to take down the builder’s city but we see how often people come back. I am also happy to see some characters from earth make it to this planet.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I HWFWM 5 blir det många kära återföreningar, varav den största och viktigaste är med den "magiska" världen. Även om jag tycker att böckerna i den "riktiga" världen fungerade ganska bra, var tre böcker mer än nog. Denna bok känns möjligen inte lika episk som många av de tidigare böckerna, men jag slukade den ändå gladeligen med hull och hår!
Loved this one. The inclusion of a new higher magic level area is fun and opens up a lot of possibilities. Great to see Jason relaxing a bit and getting help from Arabella. Looking forward to the next one.
Reread: Jason gets really depressing a lot of the time. I understand why with everything going on and that has happened to him, but this book has him at one of his lowest points. Still, plenty of good action, great humor, and interesting story keep the novel moving nicely, never letting you get bored.
One of my favorites in the series! Loved the new dynamic with powerful kingdoms and getting back with the team. The old GANG and Neil, Clive, and everyone. It was so heartwarming. I loved every bit of it. ha I am sated in life.