The One-Armed Warlock: Book One

Audiobook Review - By Ray Johnson

The One-Armed Warlock: Book One

By: Durl White

Narrated by: BJ Whimpey

Series: The One-Armed Warlock, Book 1

Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins

 This book was suggested to me, and to be frank I would have picked it up even if it hadn’t since the whole premise sounded crazy.  I mean it features an antihero and is full of gore and demons and such.  This was right up my alley.

The Good:

We start off with the apocalypse already in effect.  People are pretty much in their last days as more and more nightmarish things start showing up.

The Bad:

The game system isn’t really exciting or different, and the MC is fairly flexible in his viewpoint.  Honestly, I thought there was going to be bigger deal about his one arm, but it didn’t really seem to be any kind of a hindrance to him.

The Fugly:

I absolutely loved the baby companion.  Not  lot of writers would be baller enough to write something like that.  Also, the MC has a moral flexability in which he starts off as a caring individual but quickly turns into a blood thirsty menace.  I really attribute this to the fact that he is the thrall of a demon, and that his mind is being subtly controlled, even if he never realizes this.

Overall, for me the humor was weaker than I’d have preferred, but then I am spoiled by Rimmel and Ugland and my bar is set high.  Honestly, Whimpey might be to blame for that.  Humor is all about timing, patter, and inflection and I’m not sure he pulled it off as well as someone else might have.  Its hard to say but he is a newer narrator, and he may not have found his groove just yet. 

My overall score is 7 stars.  The story has some good parts, and Lord knows I love an anti-hero MC, but the pacing was slower than I’d have preferred, and the biggest issue is the complete lack of agency the MC has.  He is a mind-bound minion who has to do whatever he’s told, and when he is told to do something he never really complains or questions unless the commandments are going to get him killed.  I would have preferred Benjamin Dark to have been a complainer and smart mouth to his evil overlord.  Mini revolts until he figured out how to get his freedom.  I’m considering getting book 2, but I need to think on it some more.  This isn’t a bad book, but my socks stayed firmly where they were as I read it.

Review score: 7 out of 10

Oathbreaker: An Epic Fantasy LitRPG: Realm Online, Book 1

***Review Written by Ray Johnson for the audiobook version of this story***

Oathbreaker: An Epic Fantasy LitRPG

Realm Online, Book 1

By: Stuart Thaman

Narrated by: J. Scott Bennett

Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins

Pause

I’ve really thought about this one for a while, and debated back and forth on my thoughts with this book.  There were several things that I liked, some that I didn’t, and others that really didn’t thrill me one way or the other.

The first thing I’m getting out of the way is that in spite of what you see on the cover, this is not in any way a harem book.  I didn’t think that it was, but I know how people are, you see two women and your mind automatically goes into harem mode. This is not remotely the case, so if you were wondering, now you know.

Secondly, I like the whole sucked into the game via a summoning spell aspect.  That was fun, and happens right away so no spoilers, but it set me up for some expectations, and I found the book slowed down right after the big entrance.  I mean it slowed down a lot. I think a lot of it was the whole no class not lit stuff for a while, hell just leveling takes like 2/3rds of the book I think.  That said I think there are reasons that necessitate the lack of lit elements for awhile so it’s a tough call.

Thirdly, I do like how the MC, Steve, isn’t perfect morally or physically.  He’s not a gung ho hero nor is he built like Charles Atlas. He’s more like Charles Alas.  So, Steve is not readily likable, although I must say that my son found the cats funny. Of course, he’s just a few bad grades from identifying as a cat lady.

One thing I thought was funny was that even though it isn’t a harem Steve spoke incessantly about how sweetly hot and sassy his ladies were.  Still there was no action. I think the biggest issues were that there were times that Steve was a D-bag, and the lit elements didn’t pop up until too late in the story.

J. Scott Bennett narrates, and I have said for the longest time that I think he is one of the bestest narrators out there.  He is a fave of mine. He can have real fun with the right story. He does his utmost to keep this tale going but even he couldn’t get it to pick up the pace of the story.  He does individualize each character, but again, he can’t make you like a character if their actions put you off. Bennett does a great job and doesn’t let the story spiral like a lesser narrator could have.

Final Score? 7 stars, its pacing was too slow and it lacked some much needed litrpg aspects earlier in the story.  Still, there is world building that does go on and will probably make the next book run a little smoother.