This was an engaging isekai LitRPG story. Nathan is a student nearing completion of his PhD and is pulled into a fantasy LitRPG world by a psychopath who wants his science knowledge to take over the world. Nathan isn't interested in helping a bunch of slavers conquer the world and does a runner aided by the antimagic he entered the world with.

Nathan bemoans the fact that he is denied magic because who doesn't want to sling fireballs and mess with the very elements if you have the chance? But needs must so he does the best with the hand dealt him. And I found that deeply engaging. I'm not sure I buy how his knowledge of biochemistry gives him really cool powers as a result of the "insights", but I'll roll with it in the "grant the premise" way I try to give my fiction. I did how he utilized his insights to help others and maybe push for some much needed social change (even the anti-slavers have some quirks that could use a bit of reform).

And I d the team he eventually joined at the Adventurer's Guild and their various shenanigans. They did a good job rounding out my interest and giving Nathan some competent teammates to bounce off of.

The bad guy in the Adventurer's guild was a bit of a moustache twirler and that bugged me a bit. And that got worse when a second moustache twirler shows up to Snidely up the place at the end. But not enough to take this down from rounding up to five stars. A strong pace, interesting worldbuilding, and a main character I engaged with made a story I didn't want to put down and immediately moved on to the story on Royal Road.

A note about Chaste: Nathan is a confident bisexual who is very appreciative of those around him, regardless of gender. There are even hints of interest "in that way". But nothing materializes on the sexual front at all, possibly because his teammates are a decade and more younger and he doesn't feel they are peers on the maturity axis, possibly because he has enough on his plate to deal with and doesn't need the complications, but just maaaybe because the author didn't actually want to deal with sex as an additional complication in the story. At any rate, this is pretty chaste.chaste fantasy lgbt ...more20 s CygnusCrux6 7

The thirstiest man alive!

He's a scientist who's been abducted, and he's thirsty as hell!

Seriously though, this has all of the makings of an enjoyable read except for the MC's bizarre thirst issues. Doesn't really matter what it is, but he wants it. Passionately.

Knowledge, check.
Vengeance, check.
Destruction, check.
Men, women and children... check.

The last is particularly jarring due to how the author portrays said thirst for people. For example, having been in a position of educational authority as a graduate student he recognizes that lusting after his young adult classmates is wrong. He then proceeds to undress them with his eyes and talk about their bangin' figures. Then he'll check out the rippling abs of his classmates' parents and comment about how hot their dads are. But also, don't forget the rocking curves of their moms. Next sentence, completely other non-related topic and it's as if all of those strangely intimate and thirsty details of everyone around him are completely forgotten.

I get it, the MC has a non-traditional sexual orientation. I don't have a problem with that, in fact it can be nice to see some diversity in fantasy fiction genre. The weirdness is in how randomly it is inserted into the narrative, almost as if it was an afterthought that was added later and that it is frequently directed towards young adults. I think the kids are 18+ but the MC frequently mentions how they are too young and it is sooooo wrong .

If you can get beyond that, there is a pretty good tale in here even if it is a bit hackneyed. Evil, ethnocentristic empire committing acts of genocide and slavery? Yep, it's there. Underdog MC using otherworldly information for a competitive edge? Present. School arc with acts of camaraderie and team building? Also there.

It's definitely not poorly written and the good editing shows through with a few exceptions; It's not a bad story by any means. However, if you shake the trope dice and let them roll, you have probably read this story before but ly without the egregious and jarring creeping on everyone... 7 s Kob12 2

Still not finished…

Some of the good:

* A nice story line, even if predictable
* some solid progression, again predictable
* some interesting characters

Some of the bad:
* GENDER ISSUES: ‘they/them’ for singular characters (a really glaring focus and very distracting and annoying, where you read and say to yourself where ‘they’ are… really ruins any buildup or action scene)

* references and insinuations of gay attraction (to a CENTAUR- creature no less!, even though he had an ex-girlfriend…. Gender-confused much…?) - keeps happening and distracting the MC ( a little boy unable to control his urges… wtf..!)

Those 2 items really turn off the atmosphere and nice vibe of the book into a harem/weird kinda book - that’s okay though if the author is targeting the 1% or so of the population who reads books and needs this reinforcement of their lifestyle.

I would (very) tentatively give it a 3-star, mainly because I have not yet finished book 1, and there are good points as well..

2 days later:

Becomes worse… MC is shallower than my living room carpet!
It’s becoming disgusting how shallow and uninspiring the writing has become…

Every adversary’s win is followed by a fast and deep dis (you lost, you idiot… fairly too!), up to killing thoughts (which is contradicted on other times when he muses how much he doesn’t to kill …?!?!)
His motivations are VERY shallow (not rescue, survival or wealth, rather his dis based on his one-person experience from that nation; meeting a single american and deciding America should be destroyed because this one specimen was obnoxious…!)

The writer is probably pubescent or very close to that, since the writing, motivation and general story lines are immature at best.

The excessive need to give extra-exotic and unpronounceable names…! Really? ‘Vhala’ (what’s wrong with plain ‘Vala’, especially as they sound the SAME!) only ‘real’ name is Nathan, but his character is more suitable to be ‘little Stan’ or such…!

It is becoming a hard-to-read book (or to complete, to be more accurate). Painful. Cringe worthy.4 s1 comment Trey richardson166 11

Wasted potential

Another novel with lazy writing. Authors love to get around having to actually develop worlds and magic systems by having the MC be the one person in a magical world without any. Disappointing, to be honest. It’s just another pointless brawler class and he beats his way through the book with his boring fists. No true competence, or finesse. Just good old nonscense, and spell that creates a physical effect could have easily destroyed him. It just happened that everyone he faced was incompetent. A waste of time and money.3 s Jeremy M4

This isn't a bad book, but it had 3 sore points that continued to carry through the book.

The first [and minor] sore point for me was just how quickly the MC basically decided -- "Yep, I'm here for good now, I'm not _that_ interested in going home." Don't get me wrong, this is a trope in the Japanese Isekai genre and I give those a pass, but only because those are also kind of cartoonish with their setting and they never feel they are trying to tell "serious" stories. That isn't the case with this book; it feels the author wants to tell a serious story here. I'll give some leeway though since the MC is very limited in how they can attack this particular problem, but his attitude just doesn't match what I would expect from a real person (vs an anime person).

The second [and major, for me,] sore point is the MC's motivation. He has decided that his primary objective in his new life, is to overthrow a city-state. The MC shows up in this world, has a horrible experience with a person from said city-state, then hears others say that "Ya, lots of people from that place are that," and then decides its his mission in life (superseding even returning home it seems) from that point on to topple that city-state. Even most of the people in his new home city don't view this city-state with as much immediate need for aggression as the MC does. To recontextualize this whole plot point -- imagine a relative of yours got scammed by a call-center in some other country. You know there are a lot of scammers from there. Would you suddenly decide you need to eliminate all of country or the city that most of the scammers work out of? No, that sounds insane/unhinged, yet that is the MC's focus. Maybe the author will expand and reorient the story a bit more in future books so it doesn't seem as crazy. There was a "secondary mission" that kind of got added at the end of the book that has more interesting prospects (IMO) than this city-state plot point.

The final sore point for me, was finding out after getting into the story, that this was another one of those modern fantasies that has decided to sidestep letting the MC have magic or cast spells. Other characters around the MC have magic & spells and the MC can interact with magic enough that its still "there" in the story. But it still feels being a kid and everyone around you has cool tech-gizmos, RC cars/planes, or drones; and all you have is a Yo-yo. You can watch them play with the neat things but you can't touch. This kind of story/plot setup is almost a trope in my book at this point, and its one that I'm personally getting tired of. I won't dock the book for this, but I personally felt it was a bait-and-switch with the title and the summary; ie: I read it and was expecting the MC to be leveraging science w/ magic.

I think the strongest point this book has going for it are the characters. The MC is pretty lackluster in my eyes but the surrounding cast seems pretty interesting. Their motivations seem way more relatable than the MC's goals and concerns; plus the surrounding cast feels it matches what I'd expect for the age range of them. Most of the immediate villains are also pretty understandable in their motivations, so that's a plus side as well.

The world building is interesting but its mostly fueled on a bunch of open questions/mysteries at the moment for that interest. It does have a lot of "beastkin" races within the story and I have been somewhat disappointed, so far, that it doesn't seem these races "function" differently from humans all that much. We'll have to wait for future books to see where a lot of this goes.

Overall I'll give this a 2.5 or 3 out of 5. Among progression fantasy I think its pretty average. Depending how the world building goes -- ie: maybe there will be an interesting plot twist or two -- I could see this story getting a bit more interesting. Plus, the side characters and some of the side conflicts that are building up (not the overthrow the city-state) could be strong anchors.This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review2 s Jason61

Great new entry in this genre.

This book was a great find. I read a lot of books in this genre and it’s always nice when I find one that’s above average, and this fits the bill nicely. Unique word. Great characters. Fun MC. Good writing. What else can you ask for?2 s Fievel35 1 follower

Fantastic! This book is uncommonly well written in the litrpg-isekai genre.

The story is well structured, the world is interesting, and the characters are well developed. The mc uses his [earnestness] to great effect and I ended up really rooting for him to succeed. My favorite part was how the author was able to explain physics and biology in a way that was relevant to the story (and magic system), compelling to the characters, and simple enough to understand by the casual reader. Some of the stem-cell genetics stuff went over my head but that didn't make me loose the story thread.

It manages to avoid many of the problematic tropes that are common as well. The villains are evil but in a way that makes sense. The mc is overpowered but in a really specific way that also comes with meaningful disadvantages. The mc doesn't immediately step into a leadership roll in whatever group he joins. Lastly, the relationship and trust development with his team is is well paced and makes sense.

True to the genre, book one is barely an introduction to the world and the characters. There are many small story arcs with their own stakes and rewards to look forward to but I think it will be at least a few books before it resolves the big quest set up at the start, much less the world quest set up near the end. Still, I finished reading it with a satisfied feeling and can't wait to pick up book 2.2 s Mike Goodman1,282 8

Absolutely Awesome

There is Science in this fiction, and also a new kind of world with a unique kind of magic system.
This story of a almost PHD getting pulled into another world was fantastic. The Summoner intended to use our science Mc to in slave everyone for his perfect world. Of course our Mc fights back and becomes a anti mage. I really enjoyed this book minus the cheesy ending. 2 s Atousa Karimi89 36

It wasn't a bad story, but one of my biggest complaints is about the protagonist being overly horny.
He keeps eyeing every other man, woman, boy or girl whom he comes to contact with and continues on and on about their figures being hot, sexy and...
It's not he just says it once, but repeats it every time he sees the same character. I just kept skipping those parts, so annoying.isekai magic1 TG3

it’s not suppose to be sexual is it?

What’s with the pointless sexual references, just couldn’t finish it was to off putting on an other wise promising start 1 Rob Enderle209 4

I loved this book; not only was it a fun read, but you picked up helpful information on chemistry, math, and biochemistry. With a little work, I think you could turn this into a sneaky way to teach people things they might find helpful in real life or create interests in kids that could lead to careers in science or medicine. The story was solid as well, with my only complaint being the book ends halfway through the protagonist's last experience and short of what should be a reward. This wouldn't be a problem if the next book were out, but it isn't, and it isn't due until early next year. But otherwise, good character development, nice leveling, and character stats that don't get annoying in frequency or detract from the story. Generally, one of the best-written books I've read so far in LitRPG. Nicely done, and I've already pre-ordered the next book. 1 Tony Hinde1,632 39

The great majority of this book describes the protagonist's journey to attain power in a new magical world. Nathan is a research scientist and attempts to leverage his understanding of the physical world to gain magic (antimagic?) abilities.

I felt the story lacked a motivational force. Sure he wants to overthrow a fascist regime, but that goal is so far away as to be almost meaningless. There's little immediacy to that arc. Thus we are left with the story of a man progressing through skill levels within an artificial "system". There's not much new on display.

Nathan, at least for me, comes across as a little pompous. He s to lecture. He reminded me a little of an American tourist in Spain complaining about all the foreigners. He's constantly judging others and seems to believe that, given a little thought, he could come up with something better. It wasn't so bad as to stop me from reading but it diminished my enjoyment.1 Roberto Flores2,182 45

This has good ideas poorly given form.

The pace is very slow and the exposition dumps from the skill changes drags on throughout. The inner monologue is disjointed which breaks the immersion and makes reading very choppy. There is very little story. This behaves more a slice of life book. The setting had potential, so did the side characters, but a poorly balanced MC and a meandering plotline ruined it.1 tim t dawes56

Waste

Nerd goes to another world... Check. Immediately starts fist fighting everything... Check. Becomes Juggernaut (from the X-Men)... check. Has a "raging" status.... Check (hulk smash).

Additionally, the thristist MC I have read in awhile. Author said in synopsis no romance, he was right, MC wants animals, moms, dads, and little girls. Guy wants to hump or punch everyone. Weird choice. 1 The Legend108 4

This book is for a very specific set of persons. While we've all seen magic versus science books, this it seems is science versus magic. Which for some might be great, down with magic. Let science and technology lead the way.

For me? No thanks. The point of reading books with magic is to explore magic, not to destroy it. Nor do I want to spend hours listening to scientific tehcnobable as if i'm taking a college course. Some might that but for me, no, if you don't want to feel you're just reading some non-fiction science text book this might not be for you..


Now is the plot and story good? I'd say...No? It's very much direct. The speech is stilted and feels awkward as if the main character has no way to be subtle or use his mind when it comes to actual interactions with people.

Example, after he escapes, he instantly goes onto trusting the people he meets just because they don't question him too hard. Just wanders off into the woods with them because they seemed alright after two seconds of suspicion.

Or when he does escape he just rushes to leave. He doesn't really know where he is, has no money, no supplies, nothing. And just leaves. So no gathering all the expensive stuff on his way out, not even grabbing one jewel or food or cloak or tent ..ect.

Fine going to at least get to see him struggle and realize he was a idiot who rushed out with nothing, get turned away for having no money and no skills, and starve right? Nope, literally 50 feet from the tower he meets a group who came to 'raid' the tower and who instantly trust him because he was running from it.

Plot convenience is on a whole nother level is this book. It feels he could be going "I need money for a new business' Then a timely stranger would walk up and say 'you're a bright young lad, let me invest!' out of the blue. That's how lacking in struggle this book is.

Then there is the 'sayings' everyone talks in metaphors or similes which are based around their world. Which might be fine every so often but it's every word while he's talking any normal person from out world yet no one calls it out.

Those people he trusted right away after escaping the only person on the world he knew trying to use him. Well he tells them he's from another world within the first hour of meeting them and telling them that the evil wizard wanted him for his knowledge. That's how idiotically trusting he is and it should get him jailed and forced into servitude but book convenience makes it so he met some really great people randomly 50 feet from the tower and totally wouldn't take advantage of that.

So for me...no thanks. This book might be fun for someone light hearted who wants the hero to mary sue his way easily through it all and enemies bend over backwards to make it easy for him. For me that's not my type of book.1 Steve Naylor1,964 113

Rating 4.5 stars

This is exactly what I was looking for at exactly the right time. I had a long drive from Chicago to Dallas and listening to this audiobook made the trip go much quicker. It has just the right mix of science and magic for my taste. A PHD student is kidnapped to another world for the information he has in his head. This new world is full of magic and a system but doesn't have the science and technology from earth and the person that kidnapped him wants that knowledge. Nathan is confused at first but finds he s the idea of learning magic. At first, he thinks this is a good place but notices the hidden desire of the person that brought him here. He finds out with the new system that he has no magic in his body and that he has some foreign material in his body that blocks magic. Probably some chemical from earth. His captor uses mind magic on him which doesn't work that well because of his resistance. Because of his resistance, he is given a talent of high tier magical resistance. He uses this to help overcome the magic being used on him. The only problem is that the changes this talent produces are permanent. He won't be able to use magic. During his escape he gets some experience and levels up enough to pick a class. He also picks up multiple useful skills. I am not sure I would have made the same choices as the MC, but I can also understand why he made the choices he did at the time. The is a good mix of action, science and magic. Even though Nathan can't do magic himself, he can sense and absorb magic and uses the scientific method in examining its properties. The first half of the book was much better than the last half as I felt the last half was a little bit slow. The science part in the second half was also a little bit much but I still enjoyed it. I am looking forward to the next one. 6 s Gareth OttonAuthor 6 books106

This book was a bit of a disappointment for me. The main issue is that this book falls into the category of a novel that wastes a fascinating concept on a pretty generic story. The idea of a PHD student bringing his scientific knowledge to a magical world and using that knowledge to excel in that world is an excellent one and something I have not encountered too many times before. It opens the way for a plethora of opportunities for original storytelling that could take you almost anywhere.

However, using that concept as little more than a plot device to make a familiar isekai action-adventure novel ever so slightly different from the norm is frustrating because it wastes so much potential. For the first half of this novel, I really felt this loss. A big part of that was my own high expectations, but just as big a part was the fact that this felt almost every other isekai novel I had read, with barely enough different about it that I wanted to keep reading. The second half of the book delves a little deeper into the main premise of this book and was therefore more enjoyable to me, but it is still in service to setting up a fairly straight forward isekai adventure, so it still felt wasted potential.

Overall I came in about the half way mark with this one. I'd probably give it a 2-star rating if I felt I could be more objective, but I know my own personal expectations and baggage play at least a small part in my dis for how this one turned out, so I will round up to 3. I don't think I'll be picking up the next in the series unless I read some other that give me hope that this story might turn things around and start playing more into the premise's potential. 1 Ford Miller460 4

Ok, not great, just ok. Slow and over-explaining became boring.

The author apparently has a lot to say, most of that was making a hero much himself, or what he wishes he could be. The overall story and will building was okay, decent tropes and follow through. The main issues with the book where it's pace and over-explaining of the characters'inner thoughts and decision making. The author kept repeating things the reader already knew over and over again. Adding the science of Earth into a fantasy world is always tricky and it wasn't badly done except for the droning on as if it was some professor who loved his subject more than he knew the attention span of the audience. I want to have fun reading entertainment, and learning new or unique or plausible scientific theory is fun but not when it's being lectured over and over again. As I said the story is okay, there was no excitement or really any thrilling moment until the very last fight which was a dual of submission and it lasted 10 pages.. too little, too late. SundeepAuthor 8 books11

The premise was very interesting - an archmage reaching out to Earth to pluck a scientist so as to exploit modern technology on their fantasy world (Davrar). Only, the archmage and their entire culture turns out to be evil. Somehow, the main character (Nathan) escapes, with a bit of help from the System, his own science background and an adventure team (who are opposing the evil empire). Rest of the book was about Nathan learning to be an adventurer and making use of his knowledge from Earth.

The world of Davrar was pretty interesting, even though there were plenty of mysteries left uncovered in this book. The plot was good in the first half, meandered a lot in the second half and ended strongly. Apart from Nathan, many of the side characters were interesting too, especially the adventure team who rescued him and the team he joined for training. A few chapters/interludes from their POV would've been welcome. Jason40

While it starts of well, with many challenges for the protagonist and thought put into the consequences of being in a different world, this almost immediately gets thrown out the window and becomes the worst of little kid anime.

All of the protagonists problems are instantly resolved and he becomes OP, beating level 80 wizards while level 9. Any attempt at consistency goes away too. His magic immunity doesn't stop his own stamina-based magic because that would require effort of the writer to not suck. His regeneration is powered by his knowledge of stem cells but his stamina gain is right out of Tokyo Ghoul, instantaneous and ignores his knowledge of having to actually digest food.

The personal relationships and sexual attractions are also as nonsensical and shallow as you'd expect from a little kid anime. Either made for or by someone that has never interacted with another human being.1 Dame DandeLyon47 4

I really the world and mc

I think this book is really good. It has a lot of action, adventure, and real characters that come alive. I really the anti-magic that the main character has and also his personality. He cares about people he cares about his cause and he cares about the world he's in. The only part I didn't really enjoy was the construction of guns I always think it's a little anachronistic when there's a person trying to bring peace or diffuse tensions and war when they create a projectile weapon in a world that is previously not had it or doesn't use it fully. I feel that can lead to a lot more unrest in a magical world rather than help the person who created it. Just on Earth; where bombs and guns were created and if they hadn't been, it would probably be much easier to keep order and then keep mass killings from being a thing. Just a little part that annoyed me, but everything else about the world is still worth reading. Travis2,431 33

Help me read more books

This is a (somewhat) unique LitRPG tale, in that the main character who always wanted to learn magic so badly when he was little, is summoned to a world where magic is real. Only, things don't work out quite as expected, and the main character is thrown into a situation where becoming the complete opposite of what he's always wanted is the only way to survive.
It makes for an interesting premace, and the story unfolds from that point. It's a very good story, and surprisingly engrossing. I d this one, and look forward to more in this series.amazon kindle-unlimited litrpg Rumble Kyle16

Very similar to He who fights with Monsters

Spoilers!








City; Gemore (very similar to Greenmore from the “He who fights with Monsters” series by Shirtalon.)

Summoned by magic from Earth (same plot as Book 1 of He who fights with monsters)

Aside from different level mechanics and the main character being anti-magic instead of made of magic, it is pretty much just a poorer version of Book 1 of “He who fights with monsters”. That being said it does hold promise, but I’ll need to read book 2, if it’s too similar to He who fights with Monsters, then I’ll probably drop the series. Garrett Hill8 1 follower

started great, ended meh

the book started out great, but the last half really started to drag. i feel a lot of isekai’s start with adventure, mystery, and action. all things i love. however, they often turn into day in the life books that quickly grow boring. unfortunately, this book did that. i found myself skipping large portions of the last 20% of the novel that weren’t very engaging. still an awesome read but i worry the next novel will have a lot less adventuring and more filler. Kelly9 1 follower

Mudd Mage!

Fun read! Lit-RPG with a well integrated sytem, well developed characters, and an OP MC. Good balance of stats to fit into the story line with stat sheets and spell changes placed at the ends of chapters. I'm looking forward to the continuation of this series. Parenthetically, I think the author went to Harvey Mudd College in Claremont. Very clever and explains the science of the magic well. Took fun electives Spec Rel and Quantum Thought. If you know, you see it in half a dozen places in the book ;) Brian D Abel3

Good story- Interesting world

I the blend of science with magic, protagonist is easy to root for in this book. Highly recommend this book, my only negative comment is one that many LitRPG books suffer from, is the apparent ease of success. Yes the protagonist struggles, but you don’t ever think he might fail. This makes me lose some tension. Still, i really this book. Jason18 1 follower

Normal College student gets isekaid

Have no cons for this book. Maybe chechov’s guns being forgotten but the story was amazing. College student gets taken before he can complete his course and is understandably upset. Gains rage mode and anti magic to beat the tools head against a wall and maybe the floor. Matthew Miller34

Some good some bad

Starts out great. About a third of the way in it takes a turn though. Really long monotonous training montage. If you're into really detailed explaining this book will work for you, but I found myself skipping pages often.

The characters and magic system are great, and I the world the author built. Unfortunately the storyline doesn't quite keep up. Magnús Friðriksson121 1 follower

This must be one of the most "up-and-down" books I've ever read. Fascinating at times, but a boring snoozefest at others.

Since Yule is almost upon us, and I'm in a festive mood, I will give it three stars. I will probably not continue this series or put it far back in line on my TBR list.

Happy Yule fantasy Chris1 review

Autor del comentario:
=================================