In the series I previously mentioned, such jumps only occurred after major events. These frequent sudden jumps cheapen the process. Often he gains 10 skill levels in something in the course of a page. Also, despite some tough times near the beginning, too many times the MC gains multiple levels and blocks of 30 stat points. That all said, now I'll complain, there are too many stats for me. Perhaps three times as many as Dungeon Crawler Carl. If you're familiar with the Threadbare series, about twice as much stats as that series. Nearly every page has lots of stats on it. Roger Ebert advised judging a movie by what it wants to be. Don't do it, future me! You'll regret it. I think I've conveyed my disgust sufficiently that I won't be stupid enough to forget my time with this and buy the second book. I'm not even going to get into the infuriating arc with the assassin. The biggest sin a fantasy story can make is to ratchet up the severity of the scope and threat so much, that you actively NEED said absurd narrative devices to even have the protagonist succeed - and even WITH them he shouldn't! Felix has no right to come out on top here, but instead of feeling vicarious triumph through him when he does, I only feel disgust at how absurd everything was, and how much time I wasted. The bloat just makes it all feel pointless and uninteresting. In my opinion, the biggest sin a LitRPG can make is to inundate the protagonist with powerups and skills they never explore or use to the fullest.

He's gifted myriad skills and powerups, each one used and discarded, never to be used cleverly to overcome adversity, or cleverly at all. Several times clearly pointing out every one of his successes are because of luck. The author basically rubs your face in it too. Because he sure as shit doesn't do it himself. This never stops, it's the way Felix overcomes every obstacle in his path - or rather, I should rephrase that to say it's how the author has Felix overcome said obstacles. To combat this 'inbalance,' the author just throws bullshit, arbitrary and non-deterministic power-ups at him CONSTANTLY so that he can just survive.

This book throws absurd hurdles (read: warheads) at our protagonist, ones he has no reasonable or credulous way to overcome. The fun of this genre is having a protagonist either outsmart the system they're subjected to to come out victorious, or struggle against it, desperately flailing in the face of adversity. I feel like I could write an essay on why I despised this book so much, but most of it will probably just be incoherent ramblings about personal preferences regarding fantasy and litrpg fiction in general. I don't think my words can do this justice

Dissonance nicoli gonnella