Protagonist: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure cover art

Protagonist: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure

The Whims of Gods, Book 1

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About this listen

After quitting her job as a therapist, Tess's life became pretty slow. A tad boring, even.

It thus came as no small shock to her when she was chosen by a god.

Suddenly thrust into a new world where magic, monsters, and character levels are par for the course, Tess will find that simply surviving can be a challenge. It doesn't help that dark forces are stirring, she's woefully underpowered, and spiders keep trying to claw her face off.

One thing's for certain, though: if she can overcome it all, the possibilities are endless. Will she end up wrestling a dragon? Becoming an arch-mage? Opening up a quaint wine bar and bookstore for elves? The choice is hers...as long as she can live long enough to make it.

Protagonist is a fairly classic LitRPG novel with character levels, classes, stats, settlements, and other LitRPG elements.

©2022 S.I. Waxman (P)2023 Podium Audio Action & Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Paranormal Magic Adventure LitRPG
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Very light and amusing, enough stats and character to see the progress but not bogged down.

Good for a giggle

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The audio narrator does a great job, yet that cannot make up for a protagonist (who we experience the story through a 1st person view) who is, in my opinion, actively dense because the writer does not know how to build tension or climactic scenes naturally. Almost every piece of tension is done due to the protagonist conveniently forgetting what skills they have, despite the story making it clear that they have a 'great' memory. All the plot points are trudged through with some sense of reluctance from the writer, who seems overage to move onto the next plot idea. The cast of characters are shallow, unrealistic, or fit so snugly into a trope that they slip through the cracks and into the background.

Overall a difficult story to digest.

Extreme disconnect from story.

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This is honestly a great listen. Its a lot of fun and, while I did manage to predict basically every single one of the twists and reveals by way of basic pattern recognition, I still had fun with it. The magic and class system especially is a lot of fun and has some incredible potential for jokes. Jason alone made me chuckle more than once.

That being said, it isnt perfect and I have two gripes with it. First of, Tess' interaction with a potential love interest. While the book as a whole relies on Isekai tropes, hence why I was able to predict the twists, that particular one came right the fuck out of nowhere and made no sense. Normally, there is a reason for the MC to be dense when it comes to romance, usually because they are teenagers or are generally socially maladjusted in some way to explain it, but Tess...isnt. There isnt really any reason for her to not pick up on the blatant flirting. Its a fairly minor thing in the grand scheme of things, but it was remarkably jarring.

The other thing is the narrators mic. While her performance was generally pretty good, it sounded like she was recording through a tin can. When I first started up the book, I very nearly turned it off due to the awful sound quality. Thankfully, it isnt really to bad and I did quickly get used to it, but oh god, that needs replacing!

A great story, but the narrator needs a new mic

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I like the way this books doesn’t use the be all end all of resistances to make it seem like the characters are okay with the horrifying stuff going on around them, and even while her skills level up, it still clearly affects her

Progress, and what trauma looks like

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