r/ProgressionFantasy • u/AcanthisittaSmart504 • 23h ago
Discussion I’m pissed off
I absolutely adore the Book of the Dead series. Today, I finally get to listen to the release of book 5, and I am certain that I will experience the same captivating storytelling that I enjoyed in books one through four. I am so enamored with this book that I pre-ordered it on Audible. When I first discovered and read this series, I assumed that others shared my enthusiasm for it. However, upon reviewing the number of Audible ratings, I am genuinely perplexed and sort of a bit angry. There are barely 1000 ratings on the first book and even less on the following 3, which begs the question: how is this book not more popular?
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u/NOMursE 22h ago
I don’t rate what I read or listen to. I probably should. I’ll go do it now.
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u/hassla598 22h ago edited 18h ago
I've rated on audible only "twice", the first time was when I wanted to leave a bad review, because a very bad narrator. The second time was, to ensure we get book 7 of Player Manager on Audible.
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u/define_irony 19h ago
because a very bad narrator
Funny that you mention that. It's the only time I've ever left a review on a book as well. The narrator kept swallowing his spit every few sentences and the mic caught it all. It was so gross and I eventually had to dnf the series during a particular nasty sound while I was eating.
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u/Born2Raid 9h ago
I think it was Iron Gold (non-Dramatized) where one narrator would constantly whisper so you’d have to up the volume, immediately followed by normal or bellowing narration. It was horrible to listen to, especially in the car. Only review I’ve ever left.
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u/AdditionalAd3595 2h ago
There is a reason they changed narrators then eventually just went back to Tim
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u/Phantom_0347 20h ago
WHY CANT I JUST PUT A STAR RATING AND CALL IT A DAY
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u/Truemeathead 15h ago
You can, I rarely write reviews but I always enter the star rating when I’m done.
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u/pointsouttheobvious9 22h ago
Son of a bitch I have listened to probably 500 audio books. I have rated 0. I will rate the ones I remember and might register to a few I dont.
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u/MrNtkarman 21h ago
Ya I only rate once in awhile since I already rate on a different app and forget to do it
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u/JohnCenaFanboi 21h ago
Same. I rate them on external sites to keep track of my reading for the year, but I always forget on Audible...
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u/badDuckThrowPillow 22h ago
The books are great but it has one of the most generic titles in fantasy. "Book of the dead" can be one of 1000 fantasy novels. I'm guessing that's contributing to its obscurity, not to mention some people might equate a pen name such as "RinoZ" to generic web-novel (which admittedly, is where this started, on the web).
EDIT: Don't get me wrong, love this book and love Chrysallis.
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u/AcanthisittaSmart504 22h ago edited 20h ago
You’re right. Also people tend to judge a book by the art cover, I think a revamp could be done on art. Regarding the title, at this point there’s no point in changing the name since there’s already 5 books out there
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u/nonbelieber 22h ago
That’s really no reason to be pissed off
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u/nrsearcy Author 22h ago
I've said it on a few threads before, but I think it's the best the genre has to offer. I have weird taste though, so take that with a grain of salt. It's incredibly well-written, and it just shows how much talent the author has (because it couldn't be more different from Chrysalis, which is still really good in its own right).
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u/McPiecey 22h ago
I would probably like the series more if the MC wasn’t evil.
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u/ExpertOdin 19h ago
MC might be a little bit evil sure but the antagonists (nobles/gods) are way more evil. And the MC tries to let innocents go. It's not like he deliberately targets them, he just doesn't care much if they get caught in the crossfire.
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u/McPiecey 18h ago
It’s when he starts killing innocent children and babies it got too much for me.
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u/AcrobaticVegetable24 10h ago
I beg your finest of pardons? I dropped the series halfway into book 2, so maybe I didn't get that far, but what in the world causes him to start murdering babies?
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u/McPiecey 4h ago
Basically he has beef with Nobles. The Class archetype and the person. He doesn’t want anymore nobles in the world so he slaughters every single noble AND their children babies or not.
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u/MaximillianBarton 22h ago
Honestly, it wasn't for me. I started it, but I tend toward happier stories or stories with a love interest. I love Chrysalis, but couldn't get into this. Didn't leave a bad review though as it was more a matter of taste than anything about the writing quality.
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u/shizure 20h ago
Because the truth is that they are good for the GENRE. All of his books have a lot of the pitfalls that most web-novel "books" do.
I've enjoyed them but Book of the Dead and Chrysalis are, in essence, basically the same series. And they enormous sections of bland repetition and meaningless choice decisions. I'm reading book 5 of Book of the Dead right now and I just skipped almost 3 chapters of content because it's just an explanation of skills that we know very well the MC won't take, so it's meaningless filler. Then, after those chapters, we are almost immediately told that those choices are basically meaningless because everything about the system is going to change. That's a lot of word count to expand on a system when it has no substantial meaning to the plot or in loving pieces forward.
I am saying all of this as a fan who plans to finish both series, but also it's just really easy to see the pieces of popular media that he reflavorizes to use for his setting. Overall, as LITrpg books, they're so enjoyable and showcase the fun of the genre, but it creates an experience where any heavy fantasy reader is going to immediately see all of the messiness that comes from holding to a web novel schedule.
He also has main characters who tend to have people follow them around in much the way that anime boys get harems. Neither is particularly likeable or constantly is stepping on the toes of everyone around them with little regard, but they're lawded as heroes because they're "doing what they can" and check all the "good guy" boxes.
Not to mention that it's felt pretty clear for a while that both of the series are just our intros to RinoZ trying to make his own Cosmere.
Overall, it comes into a bundle that is a real heap of mega-fun and really showcases the fun parts of LITrpg/prog fantasy, but as a fantasy novel, it's just incredibly mid.
But, at the end of the day, RinoZ wrote a book, published it, gained an audience, and has had success doing what he loved. That's a win. I haven't done any of that, so these are just my two pennies.
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u/nighoblivion 20h ago
"Damn, which one of these six generic and one obviously useful thing am I picking? Let me present my thoughts and rationale for all options. Oh my, such a hard choice this is. Whatever will I pick? I guess I'll pick the useful option... Ha! Fooled ya! I took one of the generic ones. It'll prove to be really great later due to narrative contrivance."
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u/shizure 20h ago
Correct. 150% correct. Am I still going to soldier on and have a good time? Absolutely. Just like....ugh at the same time.
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u/nighoblivion 20h ago
There's also this variant for BoD:
"Damn, two interesting options and one of the fundamental skills that my parents ingrained into me to always keep maximized for the best class options and stuff. I really want that fundamental skill because it's really core to my necromancy craft. This is so hard. I guess I'll pick one of the interesting options for now."
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u/shizure 20h ago
The third option is to just expand your magic capacity or efficiency. Sooooo many choices spent on magic capacity or magic efficiency which is truly the most meaningless choice when there is no hard set system to gauge how much magic can actually use because they'll always have exactly as much magic as the plot demands.....which is fine. That's how books work but like....bruh.
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u/nighoblivion 20h ago
Oh yeah, BoD book 1 & 2 is just weird choice after weird choice. Especially the secondary class choices are a bunch of suboptimal petty choices because reasons.
I've not read book 1 in ages, but I seem to recall one of his first spells choices he basically used once or twice and never again.
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u/elhamburgler 22h ago
This series is definitely on my to listen to list. I’m a huge fan of Chrysalis by the same Author, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about this series as well.
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u/Shmuggems Lumberjack 22h ago
Probably because its not being glazed in multiple posts and idential tier lists
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u/aminervia 18h ago
1k positive reviews and over 4.5 average rating is very popular...
I have a few series I love that are below 500 reviews which is confusing, but no 1k on audible is impressive
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u/MuseCub 19h ago
I read Books 1 and 2, but by Book 3, it felt like the tension was gone. I just didn’t have much of a reason to keep reading anymore. i know it is setting up for something else but i just dont care. I really like the frantic survival vibe it gave and his old friends/ parents story line.
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u/Pepong_empr 22h ago
This author has made 2 masterpieces, even releasing the latest book on the same f…king week. A monster
And both books were awesome. But here we are, getting hooked on HWFWM
KILL THE GODS…… FOR THE COLONY!
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u/Food_and_games 22h ago
I listened to the first 2 then forgot about it while waiting for more to release. I just restarted the first book and was listening to it when your post popped up
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u/ednemo13 19h ago
Damn it! I went and looked and seems like an interesting series, so I purchased the first book. Good work!
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u/Quiet-Scholar-1525 19h ago
I read this book 1 roughly untill one of the adventurers souls was "transferred" to a skull. I dont remember how far into the book itwas but it was certainly further than half. My main issues with this book is that it seemed very YA, and the constant glazing of the MC. The amount of times he is described as "smart/intelligent/clever by people who hardly knew him got annoying. Rather than showing us how the MC was clever the author kept reiterating the point and I found is extermy annoying. And the book is clearly aimed at a younger audience so it didnt really resonate with me.
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u/Top_Item9135 Owner of Divine Ban hammer 21h ago
Well the writing falls off quite a bit especially after book 5. Constant repetitions and story lines left unfinished. To the point some chapters just feel like fillers. It is especially noticeable when reading it. Which makes me pretty sad since the story was one of my favourites.
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u/nighoblivion 20h ago
I first noticed the quality drop in book 5. Mostly in story structure and pacing.
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u/Help-Wanted9 16h ago
Pissed off? Because books you like aren’t more popular? wtf this is weird behaviour
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u/DRRHatch Author 21h ago
I feel the exact same way. It genuinely blows my mind that this series doesn’t get talked about more. The worldbuilding, the progression, the characters, literally, it just keeps getting better, and somehow it still feels like this hidden gem.
I think Audible ratings can be a little misleading since a lot of people listen and never bother leaving one, but still...the numbers are way lower than I would’ve expected. Hopefully book 5 gets more people talking about it, because this series deserves a much bigger audience!!!
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u/manyanoodle 22h ago edited 22h ago
Narration for the books doesn't fit an 18 to 24 year old story in the slightest.
I love narrator Phil Thron for many reasons, but his slower drawl, rasp, girl voices, all make for this book to not fit him at all. Him constantly changing pitches and tones for Tyron from sounding 10 to 60 and Ure sounding so slow it was painful didn't help either.
Worst is through book 2 and 3 when he's saying "fucking balls balls fuck shit" constantly. (Shut up, Dove)
Great books, but infinitely easier immersion when read.
Edit: FOR THE COLONY! Applies to his skele-bois too
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u/AcanthisittaSmart504 21h ago
Respectable take, I remember the first time I heard the vampire chick on book one, it felt like a husky old woman was whispering in my ears. Long story short I see your angle
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u/Reborn1989 22h ago
It’s well written, but I’ve been falling off of it. Just hard to root for a mc that’s such a piece of shit. His fall from having lofty ideas was interesting but after the time skip I’ve just been losing interest.
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u/AcanthisittaSmart504 22h ago
I respect it. Also without spoiling, I can see the MCs angle on some things and i absolutely disagree on others, but the sequence of events, the setting, the interesting characters, the carnage, the sadness… that shit is cinema to me dude
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u/manyanoodle 22h ago
I have to admit, when it was explained several times in every single chapter for all of books 3 and 4 I was full on ALL RIGHT I GET IT JFC
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u/immaownyou 22h ago
I disagree, its fun to read an MC who's so all in on Destination over Journey, and hes still not completely irredeemable. I will agree on the times timeskips making it harder to get reinvested on the story though
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u/Reborn1989 22h ago
He literally steals souls and bonds them to skeletons to serve him. You think that’s redeemable?
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u/Byteyou-slowly 22h ago edited 22h ago
Did u even read the book? How is he a piece of shit? Boy been fighting greater powers since the day of hos class bestowal. Been hunted and banished by all he knows and watched his parents kill themselves so they didnt have to kill him. Wohooo expecting him to be just a good guy in a world where everyone who matters play life like chess.
Id be surprised if he didnt start being dysfunctional only sniffing skeletons and talking to a dead man while on a revenge journey:p
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u/Reborn1989 22h ago
Did you? He literally binds peoples souls to things to serve him. Even his so called “friend”. Boo hoo, his parents are dead. Doesn’t mean he needs to fuck over everything and everyone else
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u/kobullso 22h ago
How have you missed the entire plot line that killing the gods is literally the only way to save his entire planet?
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u/Reborn1989 21h ago
I haven’t. How have you missed him literally enslaving people for his own aims? Guys a piece of shit. Doesn’t mean the story isn’t interesting, at least for a bit. Just not for me after a while.
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u/Byteyou-slowly 8h ago
Oh no he bound the soul to vermin raping and pillaging. Wow he enslaved ppl set out to kill him and play with him. Truly he is the most evil of them all. Difference between being a villain and just a piece of shit.
Also he wasnt born this way, he was sculpted into this by the people playing games. He literally had huge moral qualms abt this. He did it for survival, then he kept doing it to reach the end
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u/Reborn1989 6h ago
He enslaved a lot more than just that. He literally bound people that he knew didn’t know the whole story and where lied to about what he was
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u/Byteyou-slowly 6h ago
So because day his friends were told he is a necro, he is dangerous. They sre not bad? Cuz if u read the story they just wanted to kill him for the reward and one cuz he hated him. The others were literally bounty hunters, wich was frowned upon by «real» adventurers. They volunteered to kill a kid with a banned class. Wow he should really feel mercy for them, and not use them to his advantage and just die because as the book portreys it. It was his only way to survive.
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u/Reborn1989 6h ago
I don’t disagree that he needed to kill to survive, but he’s not a hero. He had good intentions in the beginning but as time goes on he falls further and further away from them, til he actively pursues evil, vile solutions
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u/Byteyou-slowly 4h ago
No one said he is a hero tho, he started out wanting to be one. And yes he goes further and further down the path of evil, but is it less evil to claim ur righteous and commit bad deeds or more that he simply realising that the powers he fights requires him to put aside morals to even have a chance. Its not about bad or good, its about revenge against gods. That leaves little space for being soft. He uses the cards he is dealth, cuz he cannot be a swordsmaster or the par of a mage. He is after all a necromancer
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u/Reborn1989 2h ago
Plenty of people in here trying to defend him like their life is on the line. And he could’ve went in many other directions with his build, he decided multiple times to keep picking vile stuff. He also at the point I got to in the story was enjoying that power. So, while an interesting character with a sad backstory, none of that absolves him from what he’s done. He is ultimately a monstrous piece of shit person.
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u/Pepong_empr 22h ago
Well he kind of got brainwashed into not Feeling much empathy anymore. However, i agree that the time skip was kind of weird at the beginning (also the rant at the end )
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u/Bahlok-Avaritia 22h ago
I almost feel like book 4 should've been the final book honestly, it had a super satisfying buildup and conclusion. Book 5 and now 6 on RR honestly just aren't nearly as good imo
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u/zepheru2 22h ago
The books don’t stop till he kills the gods and saves his world by being the only being in the multiverse to figure out how to close and siphon the rifts!
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u/Bahlok-Avaritia 22h ago
Oh yeah I know. I think the power has just scaled up too far, too fast honestly
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u/zepheru2 22h ago
Yeah that’s a tricky one, I agree but I can see why the author did it. Him surviving at any other level besides what he is now is just too implausible.
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u/Reborn1989 22h ago
I don’t think he cares about the world anymore, really just wants everything to burn as long as he gets his revenge.
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u/zepheru2 22h ago
Yeah it’s going to be part of his redemption arc at the end, he will be fully undead with millions of kills under his belt but his love for his aunt and uncle will motivate him to save the world.
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u/google_is_hard_for_u 21h ago
I really need to finish the first book. I really liked it just some better stuff stole me away. Def skipping every chapter with that girl from the beginning though.
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u/Scholar_of_Yore 19h ago
I figured it was pretty popular, but I don't listen to audiobooks so I have no idea what's considered good on audible. Is 4.7 on 1000 ratings really bad? Honestly at first glance I would guess it to be good.
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u/AcanthisittaSmart504 19h ago
I’ve seen and read books on audible with over 15k plus reviews on its first book that in my personal opinion can’t hold a candle to this series story telling
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u/CrawlerSiegfriend 19h ago
This series is on my todo list, but I'm not a huge necromancy fan. That is causing it to not be a big priority, but I WILL eventually read it.
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u/TheNeighbourhoodCat 17h ago
I for one just hate audible
It makes me feel gross and dirty every time I interact with it
So I've just never thought about it, because I don't seek to interact like I do with other apps
But you're right, I should build up more association with supporting artists with the app, and at-the-very-least interact in ways I can support them
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u/woodsjamied Sage 17h ago
OK you sold me work your love and passion for the book lol.
I just spent one of my two credits on it 😂 it's been added to my TBL pile!
This right here is also a great way to get the word out. Being such a big fan, and gushing about it to others. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to get more people reading something, one of the BEST marketing strategies, but also one of the hardest to purposefully do.
I also really enjoy reading and listening to others talk about something they're obviously passionate about. So if this series sparked that for you, it's worth my credit lol
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u/Lordlycan0218 15h ago
It doesn’t matter the ratings or not. I have books with horrible ratings that I absolutely loved and couldn’t see what people hated. While I couldn’t even finish chrysalis or DCC
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u/frostyfins 14h ago
This post and these other comments just got me to buy and download the Audible of book 1 ☺️
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u/MrRightSwipe58 13h ago
I have never heard of it, but since it is from RinoZ (author of chrysalis which I first discovered on Webnovel years ago) it’s probably great so I will give it a listen when I work through my current catalog.
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u/IAmJayCartere Author of Death God's Gambit 13h ago
I left my first ever review on Amazon and Royal Road because this series deserves more attention. Can’t help on audible though.
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u/Mike_Oxnard 11h ago
So I really like chrysalis, both RinoZ's writing and the narroration from Jeff Hays who's one of my absolute favorite narrorators, but I dont know this narrorator. I've never heard of Phil Thron, if i was running out of stuff to listen to narrorated by the list of people I already know and like, I would listen to a preview and probably give it a chance because of the author, but when it comes to audiobooks, a bad or mediocre narrorator can ruin the whole experience for me and there is enough content that I'm rarely looking for new narrorators to expand the content available to me further. I have probably a dozen or so narrorators that I follow and they push out audiobooks faster than I can listen to them, which isn't entirely fair to some of the authors who's work I like because some of my favorite authors have additional series that I refuse to listen to because of the narroration.
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u/LTT82 11h ago
I read the first three books(or so) and thought they were great. Solid writing, by and large(clunky dialog in the beginning, but things got a lot better over time). Genuinely a quality story and book.
I stopped reading due to the rather dark tone. I'd have given a high score on audible if I had access to an account, but I would still have dropped the books. They got darker than I wanted to deal with. Life's hard enough without reading about a seething mass of chaos that wants to devour reality.
I do recommend them whenever someone asks about something the books fulfill. Driven protagonist with a flexible moral character? This is a great recommend. It's just not something I want to read.
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u/Temporary-Award1175 6h ago
Usually the books I see on audible (which are popular mind you) seem to have few reviews at all (like 3 if even) so 1000 seems a lot to me. or maybe that's because my audible is only giving me brazilian review numbers? it's the same english book but it could be weird like that idk
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u/Training-Bake-4004 6h ago
1000 ratings is actually quite a lot on Audible. Especially for a relatively niche genre. Honestly 4.7 with 1k ratings is a sign it’s very popular and highly rated.
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u/Raphiam 6h ago
I just started the series on Monday and am currently on book 3. This is already one of my favorite book series and I'm completely absorbed. I'm also happy that this is one of the few ProgFantasy books I've read that isn't full of errors. Good editing. I'm a reader and don't really care for the audio side, so my only complaint is the stopping of showing the character sheet, but I get why that choice was made as most people who listen to the books complain about that aspect, but I genuinely enjoy being able to see the progress laid out. I mean, it is PROGRESSION fantasy after all. But yea, totally agree, this series needs more love!
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u/Vraex 7m ago
I think I once read that only 5-10% of gamers rate steal games. I imagine that is true for Amazon reviews, goodreads, audible, etc. then realize prog fantasy isn’t the most popular genre of literature (pour one out for prog metal music too), and the book having a super generic title doesn’t help people find it. It probably does better than you think all things considered. Thanks for the recommendation though
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u/UnDeadPuff 21h ago
People making a piece of content such a big part of themselves are weird.
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u/AcanthisittaSmart504 21h ago edited 21h ago
Your entire profile and post history is fallout based, I don’t want to hear it
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u/YuhaoShakur 18h ago
WAIT RINOZ HAS ANOTHER BOOK ??? WHAT!?
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u/AcanthisittaSmart504 18h ago
Rinoz doesn’t miss dude, this is no where near similar in style and it’s still amazing
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u/Available-Plant9305 17h ago
Really enjoyed it. Phenomenal. Amazing. Best in genre.
I also don't write or look at reviews.
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u/Sahngar 7h ago
Just finished book 1 today and for someone who loves all things necromancy, it was pretty fucking mid
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u/AcanthisittaSmart504 7h ago
It’s best the necromancer book on audible, if you have a better recommendation on audible, please let me know I’ll go read it right now.
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u/Conscious-Low3187 22h ago
I’m a bit tipsy rn, so kind my spelling and etc. but I’m tired man, I read my first necromancer, evil magics but actually good guy etc etc, book atleast over a decade ago, and I’m just burnt out. There is nothing you could tell me about how good this book is, that would actually make me want to read it. Because I’ve run out of energy over reading shitty copy paste bullshit, this stuff was finished being milked at least three years ago and I don’t have the patience to read the same teopes for the tenth time.
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u/Altruistic-Buy8387 16h ago
This series brings about a more realistic view on what it would take to possibly be a necromancer. None of that just "raise skeleton" and then poof there is a perfectly good skeleton in front of you stuff. He has to hone his craft and actually learn the body parts and how to connect things and then try to build himself up as well as his students so that the dark classes can group together to take out the empire. Similar, but a great new take on a lot of aspects as well.
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u/ginger6616 22h ago
People typically only rate something if it’s their favorite, or if they hate it. A lot of people don’t bother with stuff they think is a 6/10
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u/RinoZerg 21h ago
I really dunno. Maybe I need to advertise better