enjoyable, but not amazing with dishonest author

if you use fakespot.com on any of aleron Kong's books on Amazon you can clearly see that aleron kong or people he employs are artificially inflating his 5 star reviews as well as using slur campaigns and attacks coordinated to silence critics and vote that more honest reviews are unhelpful, so whilst I somewhat enjoyed this series, I'm now forced to give it an abysmal review to both reflect my disappointment in Aleron Kong at his dishonest and bad faith business practices, as well as do my small part in counteracting his devoted legion of monkeys (and perhaps even boys) that are employed and coordinated via his Facebook page amongst other means. If you think I am making this up then you are a sheep, as a few good Google searches, Reddit or fakespot.com make the truth visible if you bother searching.

For my actual rating, the story is a solid 3/5, the author has very little talent towards writing, but makes up for that with incredibly detailed world building. The performance by Jeff Hayes smooths over many of the authors flaws in writing style and he deserves 5/5 for giving the performance life even where the books were lacking. I enjoyed the books 4.5/5, but I truly love fantasy and litrpg both, and would objectively only give the story an honest rating of 3/5. All that being said though, my rating of the author would be 1/5 or lower, due to his arrogance, pride and dishonesty. Not to mention the number of deadlines he has missed just for the release of book8, but that's neither here nor there when compared to how he dishonestly manipulates ratings and reviews for profit and fame. Shame on you Aleron Kong, I may enjoy your books, but I'm only 1 step away from boycotting your future works!

TLDR: I really enjoyed the series, but objectively it's very average and the author has been shown to be heavily manipulating his ratings and reviews... Now watch as his team of worker monkeys bury this unbiased, critical review in with "unhelpful" markers... please vote helpful if you found this to be informative

32 people found this helpful

There are much better options in the GameLit genre

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

That mountain seems too high to climb.

Has The Land: Founding: A LitRPG Saga put you off other books in this genre?

If this was the first novel I had read in the LitRPG/GameLit genre, i would have been put off. I certainly would not have had the same excitement I had when I read my first novel in this new genre, written by one of the Russian authors who coined the genre name, LitRPG. There are so many better examples in the LitRPG/GameLit genre.

How could the performance have been better?

The performance was okay, however it was completely ruined by the narrator’s use of sound effects. The constant and repititive bells ringing as the MC levelled up made it impossibke to listen to the book before bed as my partner could hear the noises through my noise cancelling headphones and I was unable to relax and listen to the story. The noises constantly broke my immersion.

What character would you cut from The Land: Founding: A LitRPG Saga?

The main character. I didn’t like the guy, which made it very hard to like the book. He had no back story and seems completely unphased by his new reality and the life he has left behind. His humour is sophmoric and he lacks any deeper inner life.

Any additional comments?

I wanted to like this audiobook but it had none of the elements, like a compelling, layered storyline and likeable characters that I care about, that make me lose myself in a story.

20 people found this helpful

Rubbish

Kept on waiting for it to get better. Terrible story full of plot holes and a waste of time. I had just finished a Brandon Sanderson before picking this up which probably led to the huge feeling of dispointment. No where near the same league of writing.

12 people found this helpful

Social Disconnect

Feels like it's written by the father of a gamer. Such a boring story, and the references to now old pop culture makes this story terrible.

9 people found this helpful

Not worth your time

The story was a bit bland and the sound effects were very annoying. The was also a lot of repetitive content, like spending minutes listening to a list being read. would not recommend this as an audiobook, may be okay in print

8 people found this helpful

Terrible writing and story

Worst book I’ve ever read, returned this ... don’t waste time... unable to finish ... it was that bad

8 people found this helpful

If you're not a gamer beware of style

I didn't like the frequent 'stat updates' and gamer style of the story. It takes away from the flow of the book and makes it difficult to get into.

7 people found this helpful

That’s 4 hours I’ll never get back

This book was the worst piece of rubbish I have saver encountered, the fact that someone took the time to write RPG stats into a book and then repeat them over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, made it frustrating at the least. I had to turn it off after about 4 hours.
The story is thin on actual, well, story. If this is the future of contemporary fantasy literature the world is in dire straights!!!!! I’d also like to know how it got a 4.5 star rating on audible

7 people found this helpful

An engaging LitRPG that is well narrated.

Where does The Land: Founding: A LitRPG Saga rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

With an excellent narrator, this audiobook is as immersive as any other LitRPG you will find.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked that the story stayed a bit more in-line with gaming experiences and gradual power. While the character does seem unusually powerful to what a gamer might expect a 'character' to start as, this is not a "powerstomp" that you might expect from the Russian authors. If you enjoy the journey of the character, this story has it.

What does Nick Podehl bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Nick Podehl was a great narrator and gave Momma a hilarious accent.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There is perhaps one criticism to be had, and that is that the main character doesn't strike a lot of emotional chords. He seems very accepting of what has happened, spends almost no time adjusting, and while he has an admirable motive, he has yet to face real dilemma and challenge. That being said, this is the first book, and I expect more to come when the budding relationships kick off.

Any additional comments?

A great book. The author is ambitious in calling himself the "Father" of American LitRPG, but time will tell.

5 people found this helpful