Stanislas Sodonon > Recent Status Updates

I just started this. What kind of book starts the reader's journey by drowning them in contextless Dramatis personae?

I'm struggling; the game system is overpowering any attempt at story and I'm drowning in it. Too many action scenes, too many game mechanics explanations, not enough "story".

I'm poised to finish this book in a little more than a day...

I am drowning in this book.
I'm not sure if it's RPG mechanics saturation, but there's something I'm having a hard time getting into with this book.
Neil Hellegers' narration quirks (uplift at the end of sentences) is proving to become too much of a distraction.

I don't know why I'm struggling so much with this book.
I feel mired down in the tale and am not keen on rebooting to remind myself what's going on...

Oof. Heavy, heavy stuff...
I'm drowning in misery and anguish.
This better start having some uplift soon to make it all worth it.

It started really confusing. Lots of unexplained lore. But as the chapters progress, it is is slowly coalescing. Now that I'm hooked, I rather prefer that to an info dump.

Arf, it's a bloody YA academy after all.
No thanks.

Author REALLY took his time with the backstory there... Damn. I really hope this won't turn out to be some academy nonsense...

I went in ready to bounce out just as fast. Picture me pleasantly disappointed. I'm enjoying this!

Barely learned the MC's name and we're already deep in magic system details and stat sheets? Couldn't we even take time to look around and see where we are? Doesn't bode well...

I'm still interested 😃. Pretty good story on Sable's side. Not that great on Joss'.

There's something here that's bothering me. Why did the flute not come back when it was stolen?

Hmm... this looks like it's going to be a Barbara Cartland romance in Grimdark land... But maybe I'll be surprised. 🙏🏾

Wow... I'd suspended this book, but now that I've started over, I don't remember it at all.
First chapter is super lyrical. And dark.

This book has a real problem with world-building. Too much anachronism and a LOT of incoherences... Good thing the plot is cool enough to keep my interest regardless.

Things just took a turn for the bad. A plethora of POVs, inconsistent narration, a ridiculous VR vs IRL mechanism, "sentient" AI... And still no actual story.
I'll give it up to 30% to start making sense.

I'm interested. It's got more meat than the title would suggest.

I haven't read any sci-fi in a looong while (litrpg doesn't count). I wonder how this will go.

I'm enjoying this book immensely.
The narration is flowing. The tone is spot-on.
World-building is on the light side, but totally appropriate for the context: this is a book about discovering one's darkness.

I'm intrigued. A few oddities, like the MC grumbling about stuff he should have stopped noticing in 10 years. But it starts well. The story is mature and takes it time unfolding.

Still very happy with the progress so far.
Will this end up being my first 5 stars LitRPG this year?

Still very happy with the progress so far.
Will this end up being my first 5 stars LitRPG ever?

The prologue was cringy, but I'm in chapter 5 already, and... I'm IMPRESSED. It's been so long since I read such an engaging onboarding.I hope this keeps up.

The prologue was cringy, but I'm in chapter 6 already, and... I'm IMPRESSED. It's been so long since I read such an engaging onboarding.I hope this keeps up.

I'm not happy.
Everything that annoyed me with the first book is still in full force in this one. Very little plot and a boatload of introspective rambling. Not to mention that infuriating pattern of ominous declamations. Pointless new POV, with just as much rambling. And to top it all off, the MC is still totally unrelatable. I need something to connect to.

I'm not happy right now.
Who the hell are these summoned people? Why am I spending time with them again? What is this new paradigm? More and more random POVs, diluting the plot even further. I'm skipping like crazy. I don't care about this new side story. Write another series!

Oh lord... This is really bad. I'd not realized how bad this is...

This book is annoying me now. It keeps repeating the exact same setup over and over. MC plot Armor is just through the freaking roof at this point.