A reviewed of Demon Card Enforce: A Deck-Building LitRPG (The Cerberus Cards Book 1) by John Stovall

So, I just finished the audio version of Demon Card Enforce: A Deck-Building LitRPG (The Cerberus Cards Book 1) by John Stovall.

The novel is about Ethan Wolfe who is a 20-year veteran mob enforcer. In this novel, every year or so the gods gift the world mortals with magic cards, dungeons and monsters. Everyone that receives ten magic cards is called a deckbearer. Now, the novel starts off in a night club. The interesting part about the audio book is that it includes other sounds. For example, in the night club scene, you could faintly hear club music in the background. While it does bring some ambience to the scene, I found it to be quite annoying and at first, I really wanted to give up on the novel. The other sound effect happens when he looks at his cards. This sound was a bit more annoying to me but thankfully, unlike most LitRPGs, Ethan Wolfe doesn’t check out his cards/status every chapter. 

Another thing that bugged me is one of the rules to the magic system. According to the book, cards won’t disappeared from the world unless the deckbearer kills themselves, dies in a dungeon or dies to a monster. This rule seems like real bad setup for a deckbearer. If it gets out that you have cards, what is stopping anyone from hitting you with their card, poisoning your food or some other form assassination? Isn’t it enough that you have to face off against monsters and other deckbearers? Now, it is possible that anyone you meet would be out to get you. How could annoying not end up a paranoid lunatic? I’m guessing the author was relying on that most people in general are decent human beings and wouldn’t try to kill a stranger for magic powers. 

 Now, the actual plot is interesting. I enjoyed all the drama between the rival mob families. There was shootouts, ambushes and tons of deck fighting. The action kept my quite entertained. According to description on Amazon, there will be people hunting Wolfe that he never suspected. In the novel, it is completely true. Apparently, Ethan with his vast experience never saw/figure out the actual villain until the climax of the book. However, it was completely clear to me at beginning of the novel. I wonder if that was the author intension to have the reader realize before the main character. Or was it really not clear to Ethan? 

 Overall, the story was enjoyable and a little on the shorter sides for my audio books (only 11 hours and 36 minutes). I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good LitRPG novel.

My next read/listen is going to be Power: Wormhole Mana, Book 1 by Tom Larcombe. 

Review of Awakening (World of Magic: Book 1) by Levi Werner

 

So, I just recently finished the audio Awakening (World of Magic book 1) by Levi Werner. Now, I know that the book was released 2021 but I just never gotten around to it with all things going on.

 

The book is about a paralyzed person offered an opportunity to spend his life in a virtual reality game. It is a pretty common theme in the litRPG genre to have main characters spend their life inside the game. One of the best/unique aspects of the novel that I like was the very creative magic system. However, the main character’s magic system is so overpowered that he can perform magic that no other character can do at the time. While the author’s reasoning for the magic system is pretty sound, I personally don’t like a novel with such an overwhelming ability in the first book.

While the main character does get some setbacks because of his abilities, he is really overed powered compared to other characters of the same level. Honestly, if the main character wasn’t facing off against characters of a higher level, nothing would be a challenge for him. Evening some of the higher-level enemies he faced didn’t put up much of a fight.

While the main character does seem to luck into some very beneficial situations, I have to say that he does seem to make some rational decisions. I can honestly say that there was never a situation where I was like why he would evening considering that activity.

Now, if you read the description of the book on amazon, you know that there is more to the world than anyone expected. However, if you are a fan of litRPGs, then you probably know exactly what is going on because the book uses another common trope of the genre. Honestly, the reasoning behind the trope is pretty interesting premise and wasn’t something I’ve seen before. The only issue is that it didn’t have much meaning in the first book. I’m guessing it will be coming to be a more prominent feature in later books. In honestly, if you like litRPG novels, I recommend giving Awakening a try.

Audible vs Kindle

 

I have to say that one of my favorite activities is reading. I enjoy reading so much that whenever I had a few minutes I would read a book. However, since having kids, my free time has disappeared. Before my kids were born, according to Goodreads, I was reading between 80-100 books per year. Now after having kids, I haven't read more than 50 books in year. 

However, after a recommendation from a co-worker, I decided to try audible. Audible does makes things easier to complete other tasks while I get to listen to a book. So, when I'm tending to a flower bed, going for a walk or cleaning up the house, I can still listen and escape to a different world. So, I have to say it is being able to multitask and enjoy a story at the time. 

So, while I was taking care of things this year, I was able to listen to 41 audio books versus reading 19 kindle books. There are a couple of things that I don't like about audible. One thing that I really don't like about audible is that you can't automatically add your audio books to your good reads account. So, it is harder to keep track of your reading challenge progress. So, I have to manually go back and mark each book as read in the system. I really wish they could be connected. The next issue that I have is that the audible site only tracks your listen history for the current year. So, I'm unable to see when the last time I listen to a particular book or how many books I read the previous year. I wish there was a better way for tracking. If you know of a way, please let me know.

So, that brings up the question, what method do you prefer to enjoy your literacy? Do you prefer to enjoy a good audio book, read from a table/phone, or cozy up to a good book?