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This series had me rolling in laughter at times, I've absolutely loved the journey!
There are a few bad things, every female that gets anything more than a few pages of attention is overly attractive (according to the MC), and every single one of them develops a crush on him. It's very wish-fulfillment, but Clyde himself is pretty oblivious to it. To the point he is painfully bad with anything resembling serious flirting or attraction.
There is also the fact that.. things always go a little too easy in my opinion. Don't misunderstand, Clyde gets into so many messes that calling him cursed would be an understatement. But the solutions are always so lucky, so coincidental. It's rarely Clyde-is-being-smart, it's very much Clyde-is-running-around-with-his-pants-on-fire-and-the-solution-just-kind-of-shows-up.
The key here is humor. Clyde is funny, his inner monologue is funny, and some of those coincidences are also funny. Like the mimic. God how I love the mimic.
Another key here is that it's.. kind of an unique setting? A rouge who doesn't leave the city? A litrpg with levels and stats where the main character doesn't really go and grind? Yet this lowbie dude here is overpowering and kicking ass either way? Clyde DOES eventually leave the city, (book 5), and there are plenty of dungeons and monster slaying down the line. But Book 1 is just Clyde being in the city, living city life, and dealing with whatever problems crops up being a criminal in a big city brings.
There are a few bad things, every female that gets anything more than a few pages of attention is overly attractive (according to the MC), and every single one of them develops a crush on him. It's very wish-fulfillment, but Clyde himself is pretty oblivious to it. To the point he is painfully bad with anything resembling serious flirting or attraction.
There is also the fact that.. things always go a little too easy in my opinion. Don't misunderstand, Clyde gets into so many messes that calling him cursed would be an understatement. But the solutions are always so lucky, so coincidental. It's rarely Clyde-is-being-smart, it's very much Clyde-is-running-around-with-his-pants-on-fire-and-the-solution-just-kind-of-shows-up.
The key here is humor. Clyde is funny, his inner monologue is funny, and some of those coincidences are also funny. Like the mimic. God how I love the mimic.
Another key here is that it's.. kind of an unique setting? A rouge who doesn't leave the city? A litrpg with levels and stats where the main character doesn't really go and grind? Yet this lowbie dude here is overpowering and kicking ass either way? Clyde DOES eventually leave the city, (book 5), and there are plenty of dungeons and monster slaying down the line. But Book 1 is just Clyde being in the city, living city life, and dealing with whatever problems crops up being a criminal in a big city brings.
I really didn't like this book, and it definitely didn't feel like a book. It felt like part 1 of a larger story, where part 1 had almost nothing to add.
40% of the book takes place before these space marines even leaves their base, and even then they don't get to Mira before the 70% mark. Which means up until then it has been an.. slice-of-life? read of the everyday life of space marines and how they operate outside of life-or-death situations. Which means, it was incredible dull.
I kept expecting the action to start, just for it to never actually start.
You can make an excuse, that maybe the author wanted you to get properly invested in the character before the life-of-death part started, so that if anyone died you'd be impacted. That could work, if every character other than Kali wasn't dry as bread and could easily be switched out with each-other. And even Kali was very bare boned.
The book ends on a cliffhanger, with not a single question answered. It was so incomplete it's ridiculous. I feel the only reason this isn't a 600 page book, and instead a trilogy, is to boost sales only or something.
40% of the book takes place before these space marines even leaves their base, and even then they don't get to Mira before the 70% mark. Which means up until then it has been an.. slice-of-life? read of the everyday life of space marines and how they operate outside of life-or-death situations. Which means, it was incredible dull.
I kept expecting the action to start, just for it to never actually start.
You can make an excuse, that maybe the author wanted you to get properly invested in the character before the life-of-death part started, so that if anyone died you'd be impacted. That could work, if every character other than Kali wasn't dry as bread and could easily be switched out with each-other. And even Kali was very bare boned.
The book ends on a cliffhanger, with not a single question answered. It was so incomplete it's ridiculous. I feel the only reason this isn't a 600 page book, and instead a trilogy, is to boost sales only or something.
