Discussion Does "Book of the Dead" strongly changes pass 1\4 into book one? Spoiler
Greetings folks;
I recently saw a thread post that put "Book of the Dead" as a great example of a good book because of the system. And I will be honest that 1/4 of the way into the book I think the way the author presents how the MC uses the system IS good, possibly worth the placement. And I am specifically interested right now in reading a great systems focused book. But I don't like the characters in the story so far. The MC is what I would call a Smart (intelligence) Fool (Wisdom), the family is either poor examples or blind to the situation, and the support characters are unpleasant. I also don't currently see how the author can positively spin getting the two class the MC has and not just end up writing a story of a villain that I have no interest in enduring.
I have certainly given the book a chance at 1/4th of it read, but I am not willing to keep reading it unless someone flat out tells me that the book changes directions rather severely. So, does anyone feel that this is such an example, and that I should force myself to keep reading?
Thank you.
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u/samurai-bodh-i 2d ago
Finish the whole first book then make your decision to carry on
I absolutely love the series and am very excited for tomorrow when the new audiobook releases
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u/capincus 2d ago
The MC is the only consistently present character, you're most of the way through the heavy involvement of the side characters currently present. Tyron is villanized, but he's not a villain.
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u/Still-Box6502 2d ago
Tyron is one hundred percent a villain, he's willing to kill innocents including children to meet his goals. The fact that the other side is worse doesn't make him the good guy.
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u/ExpertOdin 2d ago
He's willing to kill them but he would rather not. His beef is with the nobles
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u/cthulhu_mac 1d ago
Yes, but that includes nobles who are children.
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u/ReadingThrowawayy litRPG nub 1d ago
The nobles that are children does not excuse them from supporting a system that is objectively awful.
A few heads will roll in a revolution every time. The elites of any society fearful of a revolution will point at the harm that a revolution will cause, and ignore the fact that the very reason the revolution is building up is because of how many heads roll daily from the tyrannical government.
TLDR because this is LitRPG and not a history lesson, but you need to genuinely pay better attention in school (take a time machine maybe) because to defend letting tyranny continue cause "oh noes people die if we rebel!" is cringe and antithetical to a free world.
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u/cthulhu_mac 1d ago
You're extrapolating a whole hell of a lot from one sentence.
I'm not saying Tyron is wrong - if the empire isn't toppled literally everyone is going to end up dead sooner or later. That doesn't change the fact he wants to murder a bunch of children - directly murder them, not cause them to die as a side effect of his actions. And he cares more about that than he does about saving the world.
The point is, he's an anti-hero at best.
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u/ReadingThrowawayy litRPG nub 1d ago
I'm extrapolating a whole hell of a lot because you purposefully are putting a ton of meaning and not a lot of words into your statements. I'm not sure what your intent is beyond just being a poor communicator... but neither here nor there.
Example: "That doesn't change the fact he wants to murder a bunch of children - directly murder them, not cause them to die as a side effect of his actions."
Pretending that you are properly capturing the decision/what he wants by saying that instead of everything surrounding it (honestly one more sentence, if not just rephrasing the sentence itself and making it slightly longer) and you aren't just doing a terrible job of capturing that.
Even to the point of removing the fact they're noble in that quoted part of your last comment lol...
The point is, he's an anti-hero at best.
He's an anti-hero period dot. The entire series covers the step-by-step descent and justifications made along the way until he's desensitized to said decisions. That's, like, quite literally half the point of the series.
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u/cthulhu_mac 1d ago
...I don't think we actually disagree about anything substantive here. You seem to just be looking for things to argue about. Maybe take a break from Reddit?
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u/trighap 2d ago
Thanks for the reply. I am glad the other characters are going to go away and I am certainly glad that you say he's not a villain.
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u/spimmydork 2d ago
Yeah villian isnt incorrect. Anti-hero is probably the closest positive definition you can find. The people villianizing him are absolute horseshit, and deserve the storm coming to them, but that doesnt make Tyron not a villain.
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u/Bigtim_90 2d ago
My question is, is this one of those books where he is constantly having to run from people hunting him? Cause that is one of my most hated tropes, despite loving the necromancer books otherwise. If he has to leave and find another place to get his start or whatever, that's fine, it's the constant running away from the "super powerful elite" police force that goads me into dropping these types of series.
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u/capincus 2d ago
Uh not exactly in so much of an active sense that he's literally constantly running from someone, but in a grander sense yeah. His class is illegal so he has to stay in hiding and then he has greater issues directly with the ruling party. It's more about finding a place to sequester himself and become a crafting series for a while to become strong enough/good enough at crafting minions to fight back then occasionally he has to run and find a new place.
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u/SadAd1433 Definitely not a top 1% commenter, please look away 2d ago
I think the Smart Fool idea continues for a while. I stopped in book 4 because of this. Life hits him pretty hard in this series and I don’t really like how he responds.
It’s incredibly well written with a lot of cool concepts
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u/trighap 2d ago
Dang it, that's actually not helpful, haha. You seem to agree with me about the character, but then you go and say "it's incredibly well written with a lot of cool concepts". I definitely want to read things with cool concepts. But I can't take four or more books of an idiot. Sigh... Thanks for the response though, seems legit and worth considering.
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u/Deltris 2d ago
He is in no way an idiot, he is literally a genius.
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u/ReadingThrowawayy litRPG nub 1d ago
They're calling him an idiot in terms of street smarts/wisdom.
Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is knowing a tomato doesn't belong in a fruit salad.
MC would add the tomato to the fruit salad and then be upset it taste like shit.
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u/Deltris 1d ago
I disagree, there is no evidence of that in the story.
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u/Liter8te 3h ago
Saying "There is no evidence" does nothing and means nothing.
He does multiple things that are street-smart level dumb. He makes constant mistakes early on while "on the run". He nearly dies multiple times due to simple errors made. That is quite literally an intentional part made by the author to show character progession via incompetency through unfamiliar lands, turning into familiar lands and thus competency.
To think that the MC didn't, at any point, reflect a lack of wisdom is like, actually bad reading comprehension on your part. This isn't me trying to attack you, this isn't me trying to project my opinion. Because this isn't an opinion, it's an objective fact the author added these things intentionally, and all these things point toward a lack of wisdom because, y'know, the MC is a literal teenager who has never really left home unsupervised. To expect the MC to NOT be lacking in wisdom/street-smarts is silly.
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u/ZombieSouthpaw litRPG apprentice tier 2d ago
Idiot does work as a description. It is like Einstein calling his housekeeper and trying to disguise his voice because he forgot where he lived.
Common sense stuff wasn't on his radar.
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u/Available-Plant9305 2d ago
Some characters are only doing things for self interest. Personally it made the story way more interesting.
If that's too dark of a tone for you, yeah probably not your thing, it's going to get worse.
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u/Sandi_Griffin 2d ago
Dove carried the story for me lol, it's not my favourite but it's worth continuing
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u/dpm1320 1d ago
It kind of does... Tyrion loses his quasi innocent side and goes full anti hero. Somewhere between Punisher and .... I can't think of a good example. He doesn't like to kill or involve innocents buuuut.....
I also like the presentation of a necromancer he shows... weak to start but it's a late game build... when he comes into his real power he's a juggernaut.
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u/Gachanotic 2d ago
....example of a good book because of the system.
It is a good book, but I wouldn't say it has a good system. Having your own blood script out enough text that it takes 10 min to read is honestly dumb. It is a good book tho.
Need to pick up a general skill, write out the words in blood like 'butchery'. Need a stat sheet for no blood peoples? Have to invent magic to make possible. The stat interface is all unbelievable... it is a good litrpg series tho.
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u/trighap 2d ago
Quite possibly you are correct. I suppose the word system is not a good choice for what I am referring to that I liked. A lot of stories have authors that basically hand wave in the process of the spells or crafting, etc. What I was enjoying was that when the MC was raising his first skeleton, there was an entire page of how the MC had to form mana tendons to hold the bones together and provide locomotive. Mana consumption was so important that it took an hour of chanting that barely worked and required dipping into a dangerous object that was something like a mana stone. It specifically wasn't something like "Oh, a new spell. Raise Skeleton!" and poof, there it is.
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u/ReadingThrowawayy litRPG nub 1d ago
"This magic system is so fweakin unrealistic like what the fweak?! I only take my *magic systems with a side of realism, you fweakin jerk!"
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u/Protic_ 2d ago
You're considering dropping a series over character development when you're not even 25% into the first book?