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I’ll start with crit. my biggest issue i’ve encountered in the book is in some of the later ones, as things get more complex, there’s a few instances where our protagonist, with whom we’re following a relatively close 3rd person limited view for most of the books, has interactions or receives information that is not imparted to the reader at the time they occur, but are revealed later when they are relevant as a twist reveal. most of these are foreshadowed or hinted at well enough in character action, but there’s one at least i can think of where it’s genuinely written from the audience perspective as if that hidden conversation did not happen, and it’s later revealed the scenes when our protagonist lied to the baddies about what he knows, he was also hiding things from the audience by not referring to it in his narration/thoughts. in a mystery novel this would feel cheap. the plots are so complex half the fun is theory crafting what our guys are going to do next, and What It All Means for the world building and etc. so this instance really rankled me, personally because it felt like for the first time in the whole series the author had been deliberately keeping puzzle pieces behind his back while i was trying to solve it. however this is not a mystery novel truly and i think part of the reason for these hidden scenes is definitely pacing, and they DO work with the pacing, imo, so im inclined to let it slide.

content warnings for the series include violence, sexual harassment, suicide/ideation, depression, infidelity, manipulation/abuse from a romantic partner, abusive parents, loss of autonomy (bodily and mental), the systemic abuses inherent in capitalism and the entertainment industry, child endangerment, body horror (lots of that), gore (so much of that), death and grief. in my opinion these are handled with grace and realism, (except for the gore that’s just a constant) but if you’re looking for a happy go lucky beat-em-up it’s not that, tread carefully and stay safe if you’re sensitive to any of this stuff.

I’ll see if I can be coherent without spoilers but first of all it’s about The Love for all of this [gestures at the world]. it’s about it sucks but we take another step. its about remember you can’t save everyone and remember you have to try. it’s about it’s rotten work, not to me, not if it’s you. it’s about despite everything it’s still you, and you are filled with determination. the books are so incredibly full of love, and you know what? 99% is refreshingly platonic and/or familial!! the protagonist is an ostensibly straight cis white guy and as of book 8/10, does not have a romance arc. this is not a lack of care from our protagonist. he cares about people So much. he feels big emotions. he talks about them (sometimes) (and when he doesn’t there are ISSUES!! it’s not cool to be broody and suicidal!!!). he gets sexually harassed and it’s treated like a part of the systemic violence he’s experiencing, just as violating and autonomy-killing as the constant threat of real death or injury.

but there is also much nuance. it’s not therapy-speaked. characters who are Good People make mistakes, they hurt each other, on purpose and on accident, and deal with the emotional fallout like adult people. and for our protagonist his great struggle is that he loves sososososo dearly.

and he is also soooooo angry. because the other thing these books are about is about being trapped in a society that is designed to kill you by beings that are so infinitely, mind-bogglingly more rich, old, and powerful than you, ingrained so deeply into systems that are seemingly too integral to rip out, that the knowledge of it alone can kill you if you let the despair take you, so instead you are SO incredibly, blindingly angry about it all. those people you love so dearly are DYING and nobody else in the system cares, in fact they might be idly profiting off of it, or distantly enjoying the spectacle, and it’s not FAIR. but if you let that rage (righteous. deserved. reasonable, even, in some lights.) overtake that love, does it matter if you can claw yourself out of this terrible horrible system if you become One Of Them in the process? how do you not become One Of Them while still enacting meaningful change in a world that is unfair and hates you and run by people NOT constrained by their own morals? is that possible?

there is no singular clear villain. there are bad people, and those people need to Go, but the actual problem is the structure of society and it’s made clear the assholes will always be favored, that there is no ethical consumption of anything, unless you clear the rot out at the roots. but that hurts people. you may have to hurt people, to fix this. can you do that and still be yourself? you are just as scared for the character’s mental states as you are physically, even when you’re cheering them on for tearing some dickhead ceo apart. i think the exploration of systemic abuse and how to buck out from under it is done well and grounded in-character as well as being culturally relevant to our current situation.

don’t forget the rage is there because of the love.

anyway the books are Actually about a game. I’m a gamer, but not a litrpg reader, and i found the introduced systems (item descriptions, stat counters, inventory, magic, etc) unobtrusive and understandable. Part of this may have been the audiobook, i think. the voice chosen to read those descriptions (different than the main narration) is relevant and makes more sense as the series goes on. The systems matter but it’s not asking /you/ to number crunch anything. you can if you feel insane about it, but the characters/narration do a believable mix of carefully calculating their moves based on game mechanics to just barely skirt by an encounter, and not having put thought into if a 6-something buff dude has more constitution than a gremlin an eighth his height. I’m continually impressed by the creativity of the use of the in game mechanics, and i also enjoy that while our characters are quite powerful and smart, they are also not omnipotent, and are not immortal and do get put in real danger by things they had no way of accounting for. there’s stakes, but it’s not because the characters are dumb about things, which makes the stakes Higher. these are clever little cockroach guys who have survived a lot of crazy situations by luck and skill, and i am still constantly scared for them. people you care about die. main protagonists get very close to it. plot armor is explained so it feels less like plot armor and more like you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop im so scared for these last two books man oh my god. it’ll turn out all right i don’t think this is a tragedy but i get the sense winning, if you can call it that, will not be without cost. that’s /really good/, imo.

the amount of simultaneous, concurrently running, interacting plot lines is CRAZY INSANE. and that is on top of some bonkers worldbuilding. i want to steal this author’s planning game so bad for real actually. it never feels forced, but neither is it entirely predictable. there’s a few posts on here about the amount of checkov’s gunning, and Yeah. this series is checkov’s gun georg. i ADORE it, because while it feels like there’s opportunity for you to guess what’ll happen, you know what’s in this guy’s inventory, it is not at all obvious in any given situation how things are going to shake out. the answer to everything might be something from several books ago. it feels rewarding and clever when the characters use what they have on hand in ways they might not meant to be intended.

i think the characters are believable. they’re adult, but not like edgy-sex-adult content adults. people swear, sex exists, but it feels (aside from the general insanity of the setting itself) natural. i would also say ‘oh fuck’ when a god tries to kill me like that seems like a reasonable response. nothing feels censored - this author is not afraid of you. he is not afraid of having his characters not be perfect and totally moral. women are written with care and energy, and for a good portion of the novels one of the major human-human relationships is a strong platonic bond between two adult cis straight individuals of opposite genders. they are literally Friends. like normal people are Friends. like i have Friends.

the action scenes feel good, the down time scenes feel good, the dialogue feels good, the only part that feels a little overwrought is when the protagonist is doing his big rebellion speeches to the camera and they’re a little anime about it…but also that’s meant to be a bit of performance and his actual rally cry internally is ‘fuck you all. you will not break me.’ which is what it boils down to when you’re backed against a wall and threatened with horrible death. the world building slaps. the character concepts are interesting. references abound but it doesn’t feel reliant on them. every enviroment is new and fun and intriguing and idk man i like devoured 8 books in a two month period i haven’t done that in years. what more do i even say.

oh yeah so obviously it is it’s own thing with its own plot and story, but i had the realization the emotional core was shb/ew by like book 6-ish, and was angry about it because I Am Too Damn Predictable. and then in book 8 (no major spoilers) they just straight up lay it out like. oh we are doing shadowbringers/endwalker. we are doing hsr amphoreus. we are doing xenoblade 2. i am never getting out the damn jrpg hole let’s gear up and go fight god with the power of friendship and also incredible violence. i guess !!!!