Level Up or Die!

Underworld, Book 1

By: Apollos Thorne

Narrated by: Graham Halstead

Elorion has just finished a VR gaming session to find a monster waiting for him. With 19 other students who have also been kidnapped, he is now subject to the whims of a thousand year old succubus, and he must survive deep under the Earth in the lost realm of the Underworld.

Gifted with the ability to use magic and advance in power, he is given an ultimatum: Level up or die!

©2017 Apollos Thorne (P)2018 Podium Publishing

not bad

this was a pretty good book, it kind of seemed like there were a few contradictions about some of spells used.

good start

bought the next two after listening to this one. I think I will be burning a lot of credits this week

Plus 10 Enjoyment level

Foes, Magical
Story line, Legendary
Narrator, Epic
The only way it could be better would be to add Ranch Dressing.

Overpowered Gem Here

Ok so the elephant in the room:
1) The main character is insanely overpowered and yet also really weak. I'll explain. He gathers spells that are incredibly powerful, can self heal and buff. Despite being a mage he can melee and tank and sneak. He can't be seen, he can solo and one shot enemies. There are times when he states how scary or tough and enemy is for a few pages and then miraculously defeats it without a scratch...so I guess it wasn't that strong huh?

This does ruin some suspense or drama as there is no real danger.
2) The author does a great job and I did enjoy the book however the leveling system scale is a cheap way to impress people. Rather than a character at level 10 his character is level 100. Rather than a 100 or 1000 bump in health its 50,000. This is a false and rather crude way to have the character leveling up every single second yet it actually ruins the magic of leveling a bit because it simply isn't a rare experience. Where the excitement does come in lies in milestones like getting wisdom to 100 or 1000 and getting bonus. Its a cheap tool. Its obvious to me.

3) The reason the MC does everything smart and calculated is because his wisdom is in the hundreds very early on. Stop complaining about it and read the actual book. Wisdom has a definition go look it up. His is 7 times a normal human in like 3 chapters. It makes sense

Overall despite these issues I truly enjoyed the narration and story. We do see that some characters are much more powerful than our MC. Like comparing Gods to mice. It is my hope the next books actually have a sense of danger. There is a budding romance, some fun moments and a good magic system here as well. High hopes.

Not perfect, but better than most

Other than the writer being intentionally cheesy more often than I personally like, I'd say it's a great book.
Yes, it's one of the stereotypical OP main characters who has multiple advantages over everyone else.

for the bacon

absolutely loved the story and I am eagerly looking forward to seeing where they go from here.

Lot of Fun.

Great way to start a series. Plenty of action an world building. I enjoyed the constant planning as a human that was kidnapped learns to do what is need to survive.

Fun

this was great. a new perspective. even for my own gaming and d & D playing.

makes you want to play RPGs

Loved every part of this book, highly recommend. No smut or adult themes. Get smarter

It was a decent story.

The story isn't anything new but it's a fun story to listen to. I might be willing to buy the next few volumes but idk.