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I generally enjoyed this quite a bit more than most standard "portal fantasy" and LitRPG-style novels. The protagonist, Christopher, struck me as more realistic than most of the heroes of the genre, and I was pleased that it didn't swiftly devolve into a wish-fulfillment or harem style book. I love seeing characters jump start an industrial revolution, and I think I can say without spoilers that Christopher seems to share similar ideals.
I had a few complaints, most of which are relatively minor.
First, the villains generally seemed one dimensional. This mostly seemed to be in line with the existence of an in-world alignment-style system, which keyed into another of my concerns - the world seems to run roughly on 1st or 2nd Edition AD&D mechanics, which I suspect was intentional, but left the book feeling less unique and more one-dimensional. I don't mind the existence of game-like mechanics in a book - in fact, I enjoy them - but copying so directly from D&D felt uninspired. The addition of "tael" as an in-world manifestation of XP mechanics was interesting, but ultimately the magic and mechanics of the setting felt too derivative for my tastes.
My other major problem was that the main character started looking into equipping a society with guns before determining who they were at war with or the general behaviors of these societies while at war. The fact that his enemies tended to end up as unambiguously evil made his decision more valid within the context of the story, but that retroactive justification does not make his behavior rational. This is ultimately a very common trait in portal fantasies, and thus I can't really cut the book down for it - it's more of a pet peeve of mine that portal fantasy character so often side with (and heavily arm) the first people they meet.
On the more positive side, I enjoyed seeing the development of Christopher's relationships with many of the side characters - especially the loyalty that characters like Karl exhibited. I also appreciated that Christopher didn't sleep with every woman he met, although I was a little frustrated with how many opportunities were presented to him just to reinforce the virtue of the character and emphasize the promiscuity of characters in the setting.
All in all, this was definitely worth a read, and it's among the best portal fantasies I've read. I suspect readers who enjoy game-derived fiction like LitRPGs will probably enjoy it more than others, but it stands on its own as a reasonably good fantasy either way.
- Series: World of Prime (Book 1)
- Paperback: 429 pages
- Publisher: Pyr (September 9, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1616149884
- ISBN-13: 978-1616149888
- Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.1 x 8.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Average Customer Review: 53 customer reviews
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#1,934,896 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1973 in Dragons & Mythical Creatures Fantasy (Books)
- #11514 in War & Military Action Fiction (Books)
- #9817 in Romantic Action & Adventure
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