Oh what a beating...

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It was mostly a time killer - it's the 3rd book in a series that has been OK but going downhill.

What did you like best about this story?

When the storyline focused on the gameplay and character relations - that I could see.

What didn’t you like about Michael Goldstrom’s performance?

It was bland. The voices were too similar between characters. The cadence was quite quirky and inflections on the wrong words would make the story stutter rather than flow or create an emotion.

Do you think The Duty needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

It has one - The Inferno, which I haven't decided if I'm going to purchase yet. The three so far have gone downhill and the last book could be, well, less.

There was a decent cliff-hanger however, so that's the only thing that still has me on the hook.

Any additional comments?

This is a wonderful story concept - I'm a huge fan of gaming storylines. This is the first series I've experienced about mmorpg gaming. It's a fairly new and modern book and set in the future and translated from Russian. I think my issues with this book lie there.

I noticed that the first story had a few odd things in the cadence and vocabulary at times. The Clan continued the strangeness and leveled it up a bit. However, The Duty reached a new level of weird- there is a lot of jumping around and disjointed topics. There is also a large amount of Nationalism and saber-rattling about historic conflicts that distracted from this being a story about gaming. Yes, a bit of it is necessary to set up how various governments are going to handle the laws and crime and punishment of the virtual world, but I didn't handle it well, with an eye-roll occasionally when he started on a new tangent about the Chinese or Germans in an old Russian conflict.

The other part of the translation is that the vocal cadence didn't seem smooth or continuous. A sentence would end as a question and there would be a pause like a written paragraph break and then another sentence that should be part of the same conversation would seem totally unrelated.

The vocalizations for the most part were quite similar and I would loose track of who was speaking at times.

There were some fun and 'visually stimulating ' pieces to the story. However there were just to many disjointed parts that were simply narration that didn't stimulate the imagination enough to keep me very interested.

I'm invested in the series- three books now but this may have put me off finishing up by buying the next installment.

6 people found this helpful

Loved the book but the constant random...

Loved the book but the constant random reversion to ancient wars, comparative to the story's time, seemed like a repeating non sequitur which interrupted the story.

2 people found this helpful

good story overcome by sexism and bad dialog

Any additional comments?

Since book one I have thought, that's not how gamers talk. Neither I nor any of my friends calls every girl on the mike babe, yet in this book series that is how every woman is referred too. I just saw it as a petty annoyance at first but ignored it because this writer is so good at describing in game character building in a way that you feel like you are the one building the character. As the books went on the sexism got worse and worse. While I will admit that the author does it to his male characters too (where the crap is bug!! Two and a third books since he was introduced and no Bug!!!) the lack of use of Tali in the this and the last books and only using her as a plot device in this book stripping her of what little character she had is unforgivable. I am going to have trouble continuing to read this book series. I don't know if I can last four more books of hearing about this guys inner greedy pig constantly without hearing about the characters in the story that I really want to care about. There are also parts in the book that make me worry about how the author might treat women in real life as he portrays them as being creatures that when not tamed and made to obey men only cause men pain only giving a woman the purpose of affecting a man and no character and purpose of their own. The only reason I did not rate this book lower is because I still love alter world and the concepts of the game.

11 people found this helpful

a real drop in quality

this book seemed like 90% filler. The plot was very thin, and the story meandered. There was little character development, and a distinct lack of character progression. If not for constantly reminding the reader that it is a game world, you wouldnt know this was LitRPG.

1 person found this helpful

there are a couple big flaws up to now

if I'm not mistaken this is supposed to be a litrpg novel. the MAJOR problem up to now is Max's character progression. as in there is NONE. the first book was great he found a loophole and power leveled to like 50 and we got regular updates on his stats and levels. after book 1 he hardly levels at all and he is stuck at 80 now at the end of book 4 and I haven't heard 1 detailed report on his stats or tier selections he should have like 80 points in the tiers right now. where did he put them? also I distinctly remember hearing there was a skill that would let him unlock the ability to summon multiple beasts at once at that was around level 40, why hasn't he selected that skill since HE HASNT FOUGHT ONE SINGLE ENEMY ON HIS OWN. he literally doesn't have a single offense weapon of any kind, magic or blade. he only has that dot life drain ability. also where are all these soul stones that dropped from beasts in the first book. he has fought alot of beasts in books 2 3 and 4 that would have been great undead warriors for him like the ancient basilisk. overall I'm disappointed because this book had/has so much potential but this fad that all the cool authors are doing now (keeping their main characters scared and weak) is ruining the entire genre. overall its not a bad read even with all the obvious blunders but be prepared for some serious frustration.

good story, however

the story is good, the narrator is good, but the writer loves going off on tangents, and there 2 things that are driving me nuts and making it hard sometimes to keep listening, 1st the stupid out of world crap from the politicians desk or this ones, and the most annoying is the constant mention of his internal greedy pig and how he has to wrestle it down or how it is having a heart attack ANYTIME he buys something or doesn't grad something it is so Damm annoying, once and awhile funny, as much as he puts it in annoying as hell

good series, great audiobook

I enjoyed reading this series, when it came time for a re-read I decided to go Audiobook and have. found it even better

max is a real deuche

he should bbq his inner pig. the thing is making him think that he is hot s^#t. he forgets himself by being so disrespectful to his god/friend, and when dealing with other gods. hes lucky he hasn't been turned into a giant turd.

nice book

I found the story unique and very interesting and look forward to seeing the next installment of this series of books

Emotion/Reaction

The reader should have more emotion throughout the story. I'm getting angry on behalf of the characters, because their reactions are so muted. Also the author makes the characters kind of blah in the writing. Some things happen that you would expect more of a reaction in the story, between the main character, and even between bit parts that seem to lack a response, both good and bad things.