This is one of those books that needs a little longer in the oven before being offered to the world for consumption. The base idea is alright and there is the potential here for a good story, but the actual execution of this book leaves a lot to be desired.

Descriptions were rare, then flat and unmemorable when they were provided. This led to a large part of this novel happening in a kind of featureless void in my mind.

The dialogue was hammy and child, especially in one young character who I would have sworn was a 5-6 year old before being told that she was actually 16. That's a big problem as a 16-year-old should be talking with nearly the fluidity and vocabulary of an adult, with just word choice and mannerisms setting them apart. In no way should a reader be able to confuse that character with a young child. Granted, this might be a problem exacerbated by the overacting of the audiobook narrators, but it remains a problem regardless.

My biggest issue with this story was that it told you direct facts rather than showed you through characters, setting and plot how the story was unfolding. This book read more a list of actions rather than a story, a problem made worse by the linear problem-solving method where a problem appears and then is instantly solved. This book has no arcs, just straight lines from point A to B. This created a rhythm in this book that (specifics of a situation aside) made the story of the protagonist sound something this:

Something has happened. I feel this way about that thing which makes me want to do this. I take that action until something new happens and I start this process over again.

It creates a monotone type of story that I only continued reading because I was listening to it on audiobook and it was preferable to the silence of not having it on. Ultimately, this was a book that has an interesting premise (1-star) and enough about it that I wasn't compelled to turn it off (2nd star), but I think more work is needed before I could rate it any higher. 6 s Jon SvensonAuthor 9 books99

This is my first book by this author.

At first, I was confused by some of the negative I saw for the book. The further I read, the more confused I got because I was really enjoying it.

No, there aren't any big action scenes or dungeon delves, but it's still enjoyable in its own way.

Nemon worked at a battlemage for two hundred years keeping the Kingdom of Sera safe. He's just lost a good friend putting down a beast, and he wants to retire. So he leaves the magical academy he built, the orphanage he established, and heads out to find the tower he grew up in as a child.

His dream of spending decades in isolation working on a spell that's eluding him doesn't go the way he thought it would. The local baroness needs help, the roads are muddy paths, a former student who lives nearby despises him, and a necromancer who works for another nearby baron is at his wits end.

All these characters and more come to the Wizard's half finished tower (Nemon ran out of stones, so the tower is only three stories high) for help, advice, spying, or any number of different reasons.

I really enjoyed this, as I mentioned before. It's quirky, laugh out loud funny at times, and in general a glimpse into a wizard's life after he's sick and tired of fighting. He discovers secrets the king would surely him to keep to himself, and...

Nope. I'll stop there. The editing is solid, and while there aren't any tables or stat sheets, there's enough meat on the bones to qualify it as LitRPG. When the story is this good, i don't really care too much either way.

Recommended. 5/5* I'm already looking forward to book 2. dungeon-core fantasy gamelit ...more6 s John #Audible316

Another reviewer summed up is great, but I will add a little to this. He is pretending to be a old man, but based on his race. He's is only in his 30's and to other races full elves, he is a teenager and has zero rights to be the way he is. He is NOT the big dog in the land, the author already pointed out other Gold adventurers that are HUMAN and doing the same job at a 10th of the time this lazy jerk has.

He is truly selfish and he does fall truly in the Gary Stew category.


""Old crotchety “get off my lawn!” wizard retires from adventuring to live in a wizard tower he builds away from government and people. This is the story of his retirement, from landscaping, to enslaving bandits to do the heavy lifting, to teaching two uninteresting pupils, and on and on, but you don’t actually care about any of them. At hour 7, there are no stakes…no suspense…no backstory…no reason to care at all. If somebody comes to disturb his retirement, then what? He’s lived for 200+ years and he forgets to turn off runes or defensive arrays that nuke people’s heads entering/leaving the property? Oops. Should probably fix that. ""adventure litrpg3 s Ian P20

Very boring book

This book was extremely slow. It packed RPG elements. Role Playing are key descriptors in games or books. It’s the act of having a role and doing something with it. The MC doesn’t do a ton of building or magic in itself is limited. The MC is so inside is head, even the author honors it by letting stupid crap go on around his tower. Yet you afford use readers so much time to sit in the head as well. It made this book drag, I look to events and actions to help with moving along with the plot. Building and the magic exploration would have been perfect. You didn’t choose a wandering role. So that what have been a great plot driver and monotony break up. Alas this wasn’t done effectively and this my rating. I do not know if I will read the next book.3 s Monty97 5

The main character is supposed to be this old(seemingly several hundred years) experienced and powerful.. magic user or something.. the author cant make up his mind which, but MC does not seem so in any way to me.

Instead he comes off as an old impotent raging chump who lets himself be denigrated over and over and nearly always swallows. So while seemingly billed as otherwise in the book blurb he comes across as an utterly spineless pathetic looser. Oh and a fool.. yeah that also.
Just 15 minutes into the audiobook I would gladly have beaten the MC bloody if I could, same goes for the first time I came across this same story, it must have been on Royal Road or something.
It just didn't trigger for me what book this was from listening to the audible audio sample, even though the MC is rather pathetic in that in hindsight, sadly he just comes of as overly patient for anyone listening to it.
I am not into that kind of super depressing main character/story. So even if the story possibly traverses into something else later on,.. well its already been ruined imo.
I will ly not finish this story due to this "anti hook" which rather saddens me since the audiobook is performed by some of my favourite narrators.

*EDIT*

Okay so I managed to stay with it and get to the end.

The later parts of the story are not much better than the start. Its not as "on the nose" with the MC's defectiveness, which is somewhat ameliorated by other character additions, but its still an issue and more, it gets expounded upon in other ways.
A partial sop, tangential at best, is given (late in the story) as to why his behaviour is that way for certain situations but nothing that really excuses the premise and the mc's contemptible limp noodle self which I found so repulsive.
I guess if one is looking for a story with a flawed (cracked) main character who also is a relative Gary Stu well this is probably a good melding of that.

Now to other parts of this work.. I got to feeling that it didn't/doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up.. It is rather all over the place with a gambit of seriousness, attempts at comedy/satire, cutesy stuff and dark.. all variably successful or just not.
Then ending the story with a probable doomsday scenario "switch up" for any future follow on book. I don't know if the author intends to have the MC retract his head from between his butt cheeks in this probable follow up story but he could I guess get away with it,.. I just doubt that will be the case.

Honestly I do not really want to give this a 2/5 (it was ok) rating, but the quality of the writing seems fair enough to me and the audio production is good as nearly always from SBT. I just couldn't stand the main character and it nearly killed the whole story for me more than once.
This will have to do for a review.2 s Samyy2224

Surprisingly good

I saw the title that stated litrp and it made me worried. Thankfully the litrpg aspect was more of a flavor introduced into the wonderful world. Plus who doesn't grouchy old wizards who look they are 30. I also enjoy how many ways the author can take the next book just by adding in the last chapter. I hope to not be disappointed1 Topher1,498

Another that doesn't have game / isekai / real world elements - more if the world had some level of gamification already.

I really the premise of a cranky old man who's a bit of a misanthrope and thinks he just wants to nope out on society, while failing miserably at actually doing so.litrpg plain-old-fantasy1 Sydney1,322 61

4 Raid A Few Enemy Manors For Their Couches Stars

Wizard's Tower book one by Gregory Allanther.

I want more. I'm so saddened that the next book isn't out yet, because I wish desperately to dive right in. I'm bewildered at the complete lack of dissonance in where this book starts. The blurb outlines his loss and reason for an abrupt life change, but it's so completely unexpected to drop us in the deep without some sort of negative connotation. The way in which the author led us almost backwards, then forwards, the in both directions at once was (*pshoo*explosion*sound effects*) mind-blowing.

My only detraction from this work is wondering how old Lilly is supposed to be. Some times she seems a young adult. Other times, especially when she had her own chapter, she came across childish. Now, the answer to this question will help me categorize my dis for the Mc's snapbacks at her... He spends so much time correcting only her child exuberance and mannerisms that it's frustrating and confusing.

I hope we learn more about the advancement system in this book. The concept that it's the capture and imprisonment of a Goddess of Knowledge that manifested this ability is intriguing. It's a new and inventive take on character sheets. Sadly, Fargus does find merit in explaining or utilizing or relying on this functional tool.

Speaking of the main man: The first aspect of his character that really gripped me was the Book of the Dead, where he honors and records the memories of his departed compatriots so as to not lose them to the wear and tear of time. Alas, that leads to what is decidedly his main weakness (especially when we find out about that flower's true purpose), he refuses to face his emotions and now they rest just out of reach waiting to crash down and overwhelm him given the slightest Crack in his will. He this difficult to describe combination of kind, loyal, strict, caring man. Where he spends most of his time outlining how little him cares for humanity, yet that he does in some obscure sense... All made more convoluted by his towering walls of seclusion, simply to not face connection and therefore loss when he inevitably outlives them....

I think it will be interesting to further explore the God's of this world, learn more about Pestilence (would his accidental Aberrations be of use in understanding them?) in this connotation, and comes to terms with the correct course of action against the nobility and royalty's schemes.1 Vivek Satyasi108

good start

Recommend this book for those who are tired of the typical progression fantasy series and desire something else for a change. Besides some pacing issues, I enjoyed this book1 Russell Gray537 85

This was a pleasant surprise. Very, very light on the game mechanics to be called litrpg in my book, but still a soft gamelit. The pace is a bit slow, but if you are ok with that, then this will probably be a pleasant and fun read.

Character - 8/10, Plot 7/10, Game Mechanics/Setting - 8/10, Writing 8/10, Enjoyment 7/10

I'm giving this first book the benefit of the doubt for character. What we get is a little bland, more of a MC with a few quirks than an actual personality. But on the other hand, a person who just lost one of their friends will retreat into themselves and come across as a bit watered down, as I can unfortunately attest. So the big question will be how the MC processes his grief and how much he comes out of his shell for book 2. Otherwise, there was a decent variety for supporting cast and the somewhat neutral personality of the MC made sense, given the circumstances.

The plot was a little hard to distinguish from the world building. This first book is mostly just getting the reader familiar with our MC and the world he inhabits. It's a mix of a slow plot and slice of life. It's up to you whether that's your cup of tea.

The setting is pretty good and there's a decent amount of info filled in over the course of the book. The game mechanics seem a bit D&D inspired, but not really delved into as far as nuts and bolts, nitty gritty stat screens and such. Just generally the idea of classes based on experience and advanced classes that one can obtain once they level up their lower level class. I'm ok with soft gamelit, but you are really in the mood for crunchy numbers then this might not be for you.

The writing was functional. There weren't many mistakes, nor were there really any dazzling turns of phrase. The writing itself was fairly smart and did a good job of conveying the 200 year old seen a lot of stuff half-elf MC even if it felt a lot more a summary of things rather than things actually happening. I'm giving some leeway here because it makes sense for such a character to view things from this perspective.

This wasn't the most gripping story I've read, but I did find myself sitting down and reading it in my free time at home rather than solely at work during lunch break. That tends to be a star rating worth of value.

Overall, this was a pleasant slow life kind of gamelit story. There are some pretty good plot points that come up later in the novel to set the stage for book 2 as well, so I'm eager to see what's in store. Christopher372 3

A lot of potential is muddied by too much going on/execution.

Half elf wizard Nemon Fargus has lost one to many companions in his long life and decides to retire to the country to focus on his experiments. His plans to raise a wizard tower and disappear are interrupted by ambitious assistants, nosy nobles, and skulking scouts. My biggest complaint about this book is that it doesn’t quite seem to know what it wants to be. Is it a lit-rpg (it barely interacts with the system)? Is it a tower defense and research (experiments keep getting interrupted)? is it found family (Nemon is a little too callous to make it have much impact)? It isn’t bad, but I think it would have been much better if it had focused. It also has a common problem with this type of story in that Nemon’s morals felt a little at the whims of the plot. Sometimes he has a bleeding heart that can’t resist helping and other times he’s a 200 year old wizard who has seen so much death that another mortal dying doesn’t matter. It certainly wasn’t the worst I’ve seen and I think it was trying to show a complex character who suffers from centuries of loss with a deep compassion, but it didn’t’ quite work for me. Also, everything magical was a little to easy for Nemon, which is fine since he starts the story as a peerless wizard, but everything sounds really simple, some techno-babble to make it seem he’s doing things others can’t, would help.

I wasn’t going to read the next book, but the ending set up enough questions that I felt compelled to continue, so take that for what its worth. If you really want a wizard focused fantasy, that will probably scratch the itch.fantasy Travis2,433 33

This book is sold as LitRPG, but there's almost nothing tying it to the LitRPG genre at all. A few times there's a mention of a soul scroll or something similar that contains all their stats and levels and such, but it's only looked at once during the entire story, so although the story is classified as LitRPG, I do not consider it as such, although the story itself is not a bad story, and I'd happily read it even if it wasn't classified as LitRPG, the end of the book is probably the most interesting part, especially as relates to LitRPG, but I guess we'll know more after reading the second book, which promises to be interesting as well. Just wish these guys wouldn't wrap stories that aren't in the LitRPG category into such a listing. It wastes time reading things I'd rather read at other times. When I read a LitRPG book, it's because I expect certain things from it, and when those things don't appear, it feels I was cheated, and to be perfectly honest, it makes me less ly to read that author again.
Anyway, if you spell casting, and castle building, (well, he calls it a tower, but it's really his castle, I know subtle, but different to be sure). then you're ly to this story. If you're reading for the LitRPG elements, don't bother, it isn't worth the read from that perspective, but it is a good sorcery story anyhow. Removing the LitRPG elements it does have wouldn't affect the story in the least.amazon kindle-unlimited Stanislas Sodonon462 79

This is the longest prologue ever. Actually a whole book of it.
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