Thorsten Schiller

Frustrating series. I quite enjoyed the premise and setup but found the series hopelessly inconsistent. Some spoilers ahead.

One core issue is that we see the MC's accomplishments in isolation, like nobody in the rest of the world is really doing or accomplishing anything within their easy grasp as well. A single park ranger can grant enough land to make him a Prince (not even dwelling on this point) and there is no other scenario on the entire planet where someone can justify similar land ownership for themselves? The MC gains access to gold depositories (again, not dwelling on the value of gold) and there are no similar sources of wealth in the rest of the world?

Skills and classes are mentioned but really seem to have no tangible impact and really are just a reflection of what people did in the past lives or what crafting profession they chose since. Oh, and Cooking. There are very few instances where people around the MC seem to be growing into their classes and learning interesting new abilities; the best example of his was Nancy, I think, whose Grow spell got fancier in an earlier book.

Stats are mentioned frequently but don't really seem to have much of an impact. The MC is a “battlemage” (I think - his class has so little relevance or mention that I struggle to recall it) and ironically the only stat mentioned often is his amazing Strength, which should be eclipsed manyfold by anyone with a remotely physical build by this point. Where are the high strength, high dexterity, high stamina builds?

Levels feels like they are just decoration and assigned arbitrarily. They convey no actual sense of strength or threat. The MC has fought mid-teen level mobs at low level, the same level and at twice their level and the ease of the fight appeared to have no correlation whatsoever with the level of the mob.

The absolutely worst aspect is, of course, the wealth. Again, not dwelling on the stupidity of the value of precious metals to space faring aliens. The MC gains access to effectively infinite money and the series just crashes at this point because the MC has to act spectacularly stupid to offset the impossible power up he just got. He doesn't “remember” that he can upgrade his strongholds defensively, he only buys a few weapon upgrades, he doesn't buy any personal shields, communication devices, aircraft ... he's handicapped by not setting up teleporters everywhere right away only for us to learn that buying more capacity is actually dirt cheap. Then he decides to finally buy some COMBAT ROBOTS ... and buys 5,000 of them. Then brings like 3 with him on his next dungeon dive, still insists on “tanking” and only Prime's insistence on tagging along with him saves his life.

In the end, though, it was the erratic and inconsistent writing that had me pull the ripcord at 33%. From using his prisoners as live fish bait, to having teenage girls murder them in cold blood to power level, to being shot in the chest yet again (with still NO protections beyond plot armor), to the wtf moment where the nice aliens draw and quarter the guy ... it was all just too much.

I'm writing this review after having completed the second book because I wanted to see if my main criticisms of the series would carry forward or resolve themselves. I should preface this by saying that I do quite enjoy the series, find the main character interesting and like the world.

I have two main criticism of the series. The first is that having each book span a handful of days amplifies the unbelievability of her accomplishments and interactions with people. Is it plausible to arrive in a new place and form deep relationships with dozens of people? Of course. Is it plausible to do this in less than a week while also engaging in a dozen other time-consuming activities? The compressed timeframe adds nothing positive to the story but detracts heavily from its overall believability.

My bigger criticism is not that the MC is a Mary Sue, she is, but that it's done at the cost of making everyone around her appear utterly incompetent. If she came into the world and immediately realized that Light magic should be able to make colored lights because she remembers that light has wavelengths from her physics education, that's fine. That's a fun application of her modern world knowledge to magic. That her Light magic instructor doesn't seem to know how to make colored light just seems baffling, though.If the Darkness instructor teaches her to convert indoor lighting into energy that she can use to recharge her stores, that's worthwhile. If she then immediately thinks of using sunlight to do this how can the instructor possibly not know if this works? Even if he doesn't use it that way himself, how can he be a lifelong user and teacher and not have himself learned, or experimented with, taking energy from the largest, most readily available source of energy available?She thinks to wrap her arrows in Wind and they shoot much further, and powerfully, and someone observes that they typically just enchant the bow, not the arrows. But ... it turns the arrow into a ballista bolt, for effectively free.

This ends up feeling like a consistent theme. Jade does something that might feel innovative to someone unfamiliar with the craft but that should be painfully obvious to any lifetime professional user of it. The series is in dire need of some imposing, powerfully competent magic users that provide some perspective and balance to Jade's accomplishments.

I still enjoyed this third installment but there is a persistent problem with this author's series that as the harem grows it feels like more and more of the story is consumed with affirmations of love and reassuring insecurities. That in itself isn't a bad thing, and part of the charm of earlier volumes, but it just doesn't leave much space left over for the story to grow.

I am looking forward to the fourth book but that may be the end of the road for me if the story progresses as little as it did in this one.

Overall I enjoyed this book. The first half was a little disheartening because it just felt like nothing more than fluttering about and then blink/fold/stab/bladestorm/internal monologue.

What saved this book and really makes me hopeful for the next book is Rose. This book desperately needed more characters and more variety; solo delving had played out and had become tediously repetitive. Having someone to interact with and enriching the variety of magic and skills adds so much more dimension to the story.

I still really enjoy this world and the characters and will continue to follow this series. Interestingly, the choice of using the first-person narrative in this book helped alleviate one of my biggest complaints about the previous book(s), the endless fawning of the supporting characters over how amazing the main characters are.

My main concerns with this book, and the reason for it not being a 5-star review, are two-fold.
1. The character power escalation is so out of control that there is just no conceivable threat anymore; most of the conflict ends up being social and results in a lot of sanctimonious monologuing.
2. I didn't really feel the whole premise of this book but I'd have had an easier time rolling with it if the middle of the story didn't get so lost in throwing simple solutions at complex problems. Until the alien invasion, I wasn't sure if I was reading a ham-fisted enviro-political manifesto or a Demon Accords novel.

I was ok with an OP protagonist. It's kind of the whole premise of the last warrior being reborn to try it again.

I was ok with the quality of the translation. You end up with some odd sentences here and there but nothing that distracts you too much.

What ruined the read for me were the sound effects. I've never liked this and this book uses it continuously. I don't even know what “PI PI PIT” is supposed to be or how that relates to the sound of blades striking a shield. I'm also always of the mind that describing a menacing sound is much more effective than trying to write the sound itself. “the dog barks menacingly” rather than, and I kid you not, “woof! woof woof”. One builds tension, the other just breaks you out of your flow going wtf?

I enjoyed the core story, I just don't know if I want to continue with the series because this writing style is frustrating to read for me.

I've enjoyed this series so far and the only thing that's really keeping me giving the second book five stars is that the stats system feels pretty arbitrarily applied, more decorative than functional. You never really get a sense that skill level matters for anything other than the MC needing to retry some skills occasionally.

This is even more evident in the combat where, initially, it felt annoying that the MC's really basic and seemingly readily available skill combination of stealth and simple charm felt absurdly overpowered; why didn't every faction just run around with stealth mind controllers? But towards the end of the book, I realized it was more that everything was just as fragile or durable as the author wanted it to be for a given scene. Whether the target is level 100 or level 20, apparently if you stab it and really try to hit a vulnerable spot it just dies in one hit. Enemies that hit you, never one-shot you. Enemies that you charm and then hit their allies, usually one-shot them.

Obviously, every scene is ultimately scripted by the author but I do appreciate it when the cause and effect are internally consistent.

That said, I do enjoy the world, I like the Powers and the history behind that and the path the MC is on.