Ved Uttamchandani

It is common for a reader to know that the book they are reading is undoubtedly the first in a series.
It is less so for a reader to be left convinced that said book is likely to be the first in a long series.
Two aspects stand out:
1. The characters are thoroughly developed relative to the mystery that surrounds them. Indeed, it feels like the characters have been juiced of the maximum number of details that should be squeezed out of them at this pint in the series.
2. The pace is on the nose. Fast enough to keep the reader engaged and reflect the nature of the story, but slow enough to feel realistic and well-planned.

Engaging and very well executed. My first foray into the mind of Drew Hayes has left me yearning for more.

It is quite difficult to be unhappy with this work. After all, it is not a simple affair to be very critical with a smile on one's face. The writing style is simple, the protagonists are relatable, the humor is spot on, and the conceited, self-centered dragon is surprisingly endearing.
This was my first foray into the realm of LitRPG. I was quite skeptical, but I now look forward to a sequel.

This was definitely unexpected. I got this book in exchange for a review. Frankly, I was not expecting much, but I was wrong. The turn based PvP fighting was engrossing. I found myself cringing when protagonists would freeze after attacking, knowing that the damage was incoming but they wouldn't be able to do anything about it. The story got complex just as it started to get bland, and new characters quickly supplied new life to the plot. While staying light-hearted, the story presents characters with unexpected depth and more complex personalities than RPG characters tend to have.

The narration was on point. Voraces always infuses each character with a unique personality.

This is a terrible waste of time. I kept hoping it would get better and painfully got braved the whole thing. There is a non-negligible amount of faith-based babble in this book which has strictly nothing to do with the actual topic. The worst part is that the tone of the book leads me to believe that it was written by typical college jocks who are bitter about the fact that they have aged and are looking to make a quick buck through the scam that is this book.

sigh
I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't bring myself to enjoy the incessant rambling. There is useful content here. But a lot more fluff than necessary. Everything could have been very well covered and much more effectively in half as many pages.
Do yourself a favor, read a comprehensive summary instead.

There is a serious intellectual concern when we participate in a concerted effort to laud a work which propagates unproven claims which have serious scientific implications. It is unforgivable that this work is often times compared to and associated with Dale Carnegie's masterpiece. The two works are not comparable in that this one makes unsubstantiated claims and the other lays out testable methods for improving human interactions and relations. a tremendous disappointment after all the hype.

Phenomenally disappointing.
The disconnect between the original Harry Potter series and this drivel is astounding.
The magic of the wizarding world we have gotten accustomed to is cheapened and reduced to a series of lightly-magic-infused scenes with no depth. The characters are barely developed and, as a consequence, the relationships fail to be as deep as the authors would like.
It reads like an overview draft written by a well-versed twelve-year-old. This book was a mistake.
Hopefully the play is able to distract the audience from the lack of depth in this work.

The lack of substance in this work is staggering. It took me almost 7 weeks to work through this tiny, tedious, tome.
It is tempting to compare this work to The Art of War by Sun Tzu, but these books are worlds apart: the present work provides very little useful guidance while Sun Tzu's work is densely populated with actionable advice, at least for military strategists.