| Title | : | Legacy of the Fallen (Ascend Online, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0995337896 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780995337893 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 852 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2018 |
Just managing to rescue a caravan of settlers in the nick of time from a horde of bandits, Marcus and the rest of Virtus barely have a chance to catch their breath before they find themselves thrust into the middle of Eberian politics, revealing a plot that threatens to not only take away their hard-won independence.
But to destroy Aldford completely.
Legacy of the Fallen (Ascend Online, #2) Reviews
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"I'm terrified of giant bugs in general."
Legacy of the Fallen follows in the footsteps of original Ascend Online, but this time focusing a lot more on base-building, politics and dungeon hunting aspects. I think Chmilenko has chosen very smartly when it comes to the overall directions of the story, since that normal repetitive feeling we get with LitRPG's not being here at all.
And speaking of the dungeon, it's not the conventional one level to next lower model we always see but an intuitive tiered cavern with an interesting layout. The author is still not omitting those detailed fight sequences, going down to even the smallest of movements, to paint some vivid battles.
With ever increasing population in our small settlement, the politics, and the usual bag of troubles that comes with it, has taken a major part of this book. For me, this was a welcome addition, along with a good amount of base-building put in to the mix.
The group of characters are finally starting to make sense, and it's no longer as overwhelming as it was with the first book. Being a first person narrative, the protagonist obviously have to come in contact with each other for them to appear in the first place, but Chmilenko has gotten better at dividing them up to several parties depending on their builds for easier character development.
Based on the first two books, I expect plenty of great things down the line. The author will hopefully be able to keep them coming at regular intervals.
"When in doubt, add AEther." -
Frontier settlement LitRPG goodness. It's not just dealing with other player characters, but resource management, raids, exploration, and couple cataclysmic events waiting in the wings. :)
Solid, enjoyable, and it feels totally like I'm playing Skyrim for pain-loving adults with a little Forgotten Realms in the mix.
No, it's not the best LitRPG I've ever read, but it was still quite fun. -
Ok. This book...
This book is VERY "Ok". The protagonists are all great, fun to hear about and adventure with, and the worlds (Real and Virtual) are both well done and portrayed.
The bad....
Word repetition. Azure - 110 Times. Hesitate - 75 Times. "the Creature" 161 Times. battlemage - 46 Times (IN ONE FIGHT).
Main Character. Constantly freezing up in fights. Happens multiple times in literally every fight except the opening scene.
Is apparently incapable of following basic conversation, as anytime something that is NOT SURPRISING happens he still "freezes (16 times) or is Stunned (22 times) by something someone said.
Villains. We still have the same villains we had in book 1. And at the end of book 3, we are cliffhung that we will still have the same villains going into book 4.
Melodrama. Book 1 had this problem as well, but to a lesser degree where the MC decides to randomly give a "rousing speech" that is genuinely uncomfortable to read because of how much cringe is bleeding off of it.
- I understand what the author wants there, but, with the SOLE exception of the very last sentence the MC says in book 3, they are all forced and immersion breaking. This is compounded by the fact that in this book the MC is portrayed as either 1) So far beyond basically socially inept in any situation that isn't boxers on the couch casual that is worrying about how he grew up OR 2) poorly written as randomly stupid just to force the plot along a path without worrying about how it actually feels to read about MC suddenly and inexplicably becoming a social moron. (and i use that word as a literal). -
Fight Scenes. "wordy" doesn't even come close to describing these. In the audiobook the shortest fight chapter was 28 minutes. The average lenght was like 40 minutes. For EACH FIGHT. That is NOT ok. Got to the point where I was skipping to the end of the chapter just because I honestly didn't care anymore how he went about reaching the fight conclusion, win or lose, because all tension is lost in a fight if you take more time to read about it then it takes to begin learning a new language.
I think that's all. So, 3 stars. Because even with this long list of stuff that was just unpleasant about the book I did enjoy it. I doubt I'll pick up the next in the series until I read a few reviews about it though. If the MC keeps on the path of being.. "social stunted" and a shitty fighter who always wins by sheer luck and his opponents stupidity, I'd rather drop it now than when I give the next book 1 or 2 stars. -
10/08/2020 Notes:
Rating Raised from 3.5 to 4 Stars
- I decided to re-read the series because I thought I would be starting the latest addition, but I didn't realize the audiobook release is in December. Not today. =P
- Need to decide if I'm going to read the next book or wait for the audio.
- Since I've read this book the first time, I've read a ton of LitRPG books. This is one of the best action & plot driven LitRPG series out there. It would be better if the focus stayed with the core group of players. The little snippets of other POV's do not add enough to the story to make it worth inserting into the story. Most of them are jarring and not a good transition. There are other rough aspects that need a little polish, but I enjoyed the way the author pieced together details within the series.
02/13/2018 Mini-Review:
3.5 Stars
I have mixed feelings about the book. I know some of my reactions to the story are due to being exposed to LitRPG's that are not well written or interesting. Overall, Legacy of the Fallen is a solid sequel in a series. The group of friends that entered Ascend Online together have managed to survive several big events and settled down in an outskirt village of Aldford. The story starts off with a brutal battle against bandits and settles into re-familiarizing the reader to the game mechanics and current status of the group in Ascend Online. Marcus/Lyrian becomes the Adventurer leader of the town and is buried up to his eyeballs in juggling Alford's growth, creating new gear, training new adventurers, being a leader of a guild, leveling up and putting a fraction of time into real life.
There's a decent balance between game stats and story progression. The first half of the book is rather solid and there are interesting developments to the story and Marcus/Lyrian. The last part of the book is rather anticlimactic and I felt ambivalent about the wrap up of the big event. I did not care for the end chapter because of the point of view change. On the upside, it does hint to fun times for the next book, but I felt the placement of it was a jump and not well done.
I am invested in the series and main characters. I definitely want to see where the author will take the gaming group and story. I took off half a star because there was a formatting error that came up consistently in the Kindle book. Now that I read my review on the first book, I'm tempted to strike off another half a star for inconsistencies in the story. Elements that were brought to light in the first book failed to make a showing in this one.
Good Bits:
- Engaging Characters
- Nice Tie-ups to Real World within Story Setting
- Game Mechanics & Leveling are Interesting (Not Quite Standard, Room for Unexpected Effects)
- Good Guys Win but at a Cost
Meh Bits:
- Juggling Pivotal Story Parts & Losing them to Mystery Hole
- Uber Strong Critters: Ok. Got it. Eyes glazing over on reading about the hard to kill targets.
- Face Value: Everything is taken at face value & that leads to characters looking kind of dumb even if they're not.
This series is a no brainer. You're not going to read it because it has special powers and totally unexpected plot. You'll read it because you like Fantasy, RPGs, LitRPG, a solid story that has a mix of good characters and a lot of action.
(I left it at 3.5 Stars. The first half of the book made me pretty happy. It's the tail end that went fuzzy and poofed.) -
Hmm. This book could have been half as long and still got the same information across. Too much descriptions to everything that is happening and the battles seem to go on forever.
After 30-40% I found myself skipping to dialogue and later I found myself skipping entire sections because you just know what is going to happen. I wouldn’t say it was bad but could have been much better.
I’m glad there isn’t a third book out yet otherwise I might be tempted to read it. -
This book draaaaaagged. I liked the first one enough to give it 4 stars, but reading this felt like drowning in quicksand - which would probably have been more exciting and entertaining.
It's not badly written but the MC is an idiot and most characters are even more two-dimensional than their avatars. Just like Batman Vs Superman half of this book could have been cut and it would have been twice as much fun. -
What an absolute thrill!
This story picks up right from where book one drops off. Fast paced action inside a meaty book could be used by a mafia enforcer to teach someone a lesson, instead of the proverbial phonebook.
The way the Ascend Online Adventures story is seamlessly integrated into the main storyline, whilst also advancing that Arc is done beautifully and sets the future of the series (and it's offshoot) in a great way.
I also am really impressed with how Luke has planned the "time pace" of the story, showing that what's taking place in the story has been thought about in advance, which in turn shows a deep understanding and care for the reader. We aren't left with "Superman" at the end of the book.
Really looking forward to the next ones. -
This book weighed in something north of 700 pages. It should have been close to 400-500.
I loved the overall story arc, but found myself often skimming over various parts of the story, wishing things would move along more quickly.
Overall, it was OK, but I’m probably done with the series at this point. -
Drags a bit
I like the story. I like the charachters. Yet, for some reason this book dragged for me. I usually read books this length in a day, maybe two, but for this one it took a week. I usually can't set books down wanting to know what's next. This one? I was kinda happy when I got to the end of a chapter so I could set it down. I read 3 other books while finishing this during those "breaks". Maybe it's just me... -
Well done
And excellently setup for the next book while wrapping things up rather tidily. Loved it. Great editing and plot progression.
This series is a great read! (Read 1.5 before this one!!) -
Another great addition to the Ascend Online series. This one goes away from the fast-paced and action-packed second book that was more akin to an action game, and goes back to the more drawn out epic feel like a huge RPG. To me it was kinda jarring at first because I really, really loved the last book, so it took me a little getting back used to the long stretches of having no action. There are some areas that are a bit more drawn out than others that could have probably been edited down, but it doesn't really lessen the enjoyment.
Lyrian has some more growth throughout this one, so that was fun to see some new traits and abilities he was able to get.
I think the only thing I'd like to see more of is the goings-on in the Real World. There's a couple scenes in this one but nothing really in-depth, and one of them kinda leaves you hanging. I understand it's a LitRPG book, but I still think it'd be an interesting and useful worldbuilding and storytelling tool.
Overall I enjoyed it, and am looking forward to the next one. -
I enjoyed this next installment, but I'm not sure how great I would find it without Luke Daniels' fantastic narration.
However, even the amazing Luke Daniels couldn't altogether hide the repetition in Luke Chmilenko's writing. Sentences along the lines of "They couldn't hide their concern. Furrows of concern creasing their brows." (that wasn't a direct quote as I didn't bookmark them in the audio book - but there were MANY such sentences).
I'd definitely listen to another, as long as Luke Daniels is narrating again, but I'd really appreciate it being a little shorter next time. 24 hours is rather intimidating!! -
Many things to love about this book, even the fact that the ending is not such a cliff-hanger that you are sick about waiting for the next book, but that it does whet your appetite for it! Luke Daniels as narrator is spot on as usual and the game is downright amazing!
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I just want to say thank you to this author for not stooping his series to overly macho-men, and girls that are literally just breasts. It is so hard to find well written characters these days in books.
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🎁 The complete Ascend Online (3 book series) is FREE on Amazon today (3/23/2020)! 🎁
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I read #1 and #2 of this book series and decided to stop here and end the series with the very rewarding conclusion of #2 instead of moving on to the next book where Chmilenko suddenly decided to just start a new storyline with a completely different protagonist in an entirely different city. Apparently, there is not much progress coming in the following books and it becomes a mere hack-and-slash adventure.
I have been burned before by long series that lose their focus or draw out events and progress because the author is too afraid to give his audience the finale they deserve. What I can say is that the first two books are quite good. But they don't give me any reason to continue reading. -
This book is F***ing massive. Not sure why, but Chmilenko seems to have squashed about 3 books together to make this one. I mean, each of the 3 books are good, but there really are three complete sets of three act structures in this book. This could be good, the narrative really does progress a lot in this book due to it's essential trilogy length, but, Chmilenko didn't cut back on the standard filler in the process. Had he just stuck to narrative progressing and character development this book would probably be about half the length and be amazing, or if this had been three books spaced out a month apart they would have been very good. But marathoning that much combat description gets tedious, so by the third climax it's really tempting to start skipping ahead.
Anyways, to the plot.
Plot 1 - The first Third of the book is town development and dealing with Carvers raiding. The story here is fine, if a bit dull. There's some good world building outside the game and gives an interesting, realistic view of where we might really be heading.
Plot 2 - The middle third is dealing with the dungeon. The setting is interesting but the constant battling gets really repetitive. He really should have thrown some more puzzle solving and world building into this. What little puzzle solving there was was either as simple as splitting up to touch two switches or happened during combat.
Plot 3 - The Twilight Grove. Hope you're not tired of combat yet because now the gang has to grind up levels to get through the Grove and get to the Layline. While this plot does have a good sense of tension to it, I was jut too burnt out on combat at this point.
Side note:
Chmilenko needs to explain Carver. I'm all for giving villains a power advantage to keep things interesting, but how is he that strong? Every engagement we see him take part in he looses, he sinks a lot of resources into these schemes and looses them, and somehow is still somehow ahead of the main characters who aren't loosing those resources, have a large support network of a town, are picking up several unique bonuses, and have a tailor made area to gets stronger in. The good guys are running themselves ragged to improve as fast as possible with all these advantages, and yet Carver is not only some how keeping up but it still ahead. HOW? O_o -
It's not enough to be a good story teller when using a book as your medium. You also need to be a good writer.
I hate to say it, but I had to push myself to finish this book. I don't know how, but the author's writing was actually worse than in book 1. The word repetition was through the roof. There were several sentence fragments as well as spelling and grammar errors. The dialogue seemed even more forced than the first book.
Legacy of the Fallen does, however, continue to present interesting world events and character development. These two elements kept me reading, although it did feel like a grind to get to the end of the novel.
I skipped book 1.5, and I doubt I'll pick it up now or continue with the rest of the series. I don't want to read about the same villains. I'm tired of the duality of the main protagonist. He's clever enough to succeed in the game as well as IRL, yet he is constantly thick-witted during dialogue and combat. This book had my eyes rolling so hard they nearly feel out of my head. -
My favorite book of the series though I am slightly disappointed that it was not dual perspective given the previous two books but hopefully we will more in the next book.
In the back of my mind I knew they weren't going to fail the quest but as complications kept appearing by the end I did have the slightest doubt which is something I love. The relationship that just appeared at the end was slightly strange to me with no hints leading up to them in bed together but maybe it will be expanded upon.
I am excited to see the plans of the gods and what is going on with the King as well as how the lay lines appearance will impact the city. I also look forward on learning more about the ancient civilizations and what will happen in the area now that the layline can be tapped. (I do not think we will see too much of this though). Also did his parents ever end up in the game?
Lots of unanswered questions for a pretty satisfying conclusion. Excited for the next one.
4.5 Stars -
Even better
Than the first book.
At least this time someone was picking up the loot!
I have to ask though, if the MC crafts a weapon or armor that is of a higher level than he is at, how can he possibly use it before achieving that same level???
Overall I highly recommend this book, with over 700 pages of adventure. -
3.5 to 4 stars, maybe not as strong as the first book but still pretty good and will for sure read the next book in the series.
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3.49☆
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About 65% through thus far, wanted to jot down a few preliminary thoughts:
MC - still kind of an idiot. Follows the usual LitRPG tropes of not planning ahead and being reactive to everything.
The MC is also suppose to be a hardcore leader of a guild that is good. Better if the authors started making their MC's clueless idiots leading loser guilds because it's quite obvious that the MC plays more like a noob than a hardened gamer. It's always surprising to me that writers are always told 'write what you know' then don't learn anything about how hard core guild leaders think and act - it would be harder to write but more interesting than the vastly overused 'idiot MC reacts to world badly' trope.
Another overused trope followed is that the world seems to mold itself around whatever levels the PC's are - more like a tabletop RPG than an MMO. Everything is within a level or two. Let's hope by the time total immersion is invented someone will come up with something better than levels in a PVP world. Idiocy.
The author also seems to have run out of a lot of combat descriptions. It's always amusing to me when again some weapon 'penetrates to the bone'.
Another very overused trope is way too much time to talk, think and look around during combat. It seems to me that the combat is modeled off of D&D 'one minute combat round' more than 'real life' where you are lucky to get quick snapshots or a general flow if you're any good at it. I recommend interviewing cage fighters to get better at combat descriptions - especially with how many of them are included. IMO the number of words devoted to combat and it's descriptions could be cut by a third or even half without losing the story at all.
Yet another over used descriptor is how fast everything is or 'faster than I thought possible'. After hearing the MC say this as often as he has, I think it could be reworded as 'yet again, I under estimated it's speed because I always do that since I am not learning from things I've experienced'.
The stuff that has kept me going thus far are things which seem to have been pushed more into the background (intrigue, looming war, etc) and I'm hoping the author has researched espionage and unconventional warfare better than guild leaders. Note - by the end of the book this stuff hadn't come up again - almost like it was a passing fancy that hasn't yet been developed.
On the good side, the author has managed to avoid a couple of the dumber 'death tropes' I've seen in other novels that the authors use to try to 'maintain tension' such as 'permanent death' or 'limited number of respawns' (but you don't know how many) or 'not knowing what happens if you die'. These are all super dumb and make me think that it is not a business that wants customers that has made the game. So good job, on that.
Finished the book. Despite the ending 'bad people are doing bad things elsewhere which will eventually affect the PC's' (yeah, we know - it felt tacked on), overall giving the book about a 50% rating so 3/5. While it has the potential to be a good story, the bad things drag it down. -
I am giving this book a 3.5 because I really did enjoy this installment in the series. This also was the book that Luke's talents as an author really showed through. If you can get past the issues within the story and the writing style you can really appreciate Luke Chmilenko's growth as an author. However, there are some issues that still are not so great, but before that let us get into the story here.
After the first book and the shorter second installment (ascend online #1.5) we are thrown back into the original setting of the first book with Marcus and his gang. We last saw them as they were successful with the defeat of Graves and his followers and now are at a moment of peace. This has given our team the chance to continue to build up their town of Aldford. In addition, they have had the chance to build up their guild, Virtus, and are now prepared for the incoming wave of villagers from the city. However, things are not in luck for our team as the villagers have yet to arrive and there might be something amiss. On top of that, there is a looming threat the threatens all of our character's lives and everything that they have built up so far. Will they be prepared to face the challenge and succeed or will it be simpler for them to throw in the towel? This does not speak to the real world where their live streams have become extremely popular and this also put additional weight on Marcus as he and his team have developed some extremely loyal followers.
My issues with this book are quite simple, it is just too much. There are too many plot points, characters, discrete plot points, and more. While it is a complete joy and a total joy ride to be with Marcus for such a long period of time it does become quite exhausting. I simply was not able to keep track of each of the characters and their possible plot implications while reading the story. This, unfortunately, lead to a dis-enjoyment with the story since I was not able to fully get immersed in the story as I was constantly going back to pick up references and refresh my memory on who the characters are. I would hypothesize that this could have been fixed with some work on slimming down plot points. Honestly, there were some plots that could be completely removed without any harm to the characters or the story, in my opinion. In addition, due to all of the extra information, some of the character development is thrown aside and, outside of Marcus, no one really seemed to be grown as a deeper character. However, I really do enjoy the characters that I can remember and Luke Daniel's audio is a great listen. I would highly recommend those that do not mind taking notes occasionally and who enjoy LitRPG that this book is a must-read. -
Sweet cover art, story not so great
After the strange decision by the author to make book two about a totally separate character, I had cautious hope about continuing the series. I thought maybe it would all tie together in a grand web of story telling in book three. Have a dynamic, dual evolution of two protagonists as they tackled challenges neither of them could navigate alone. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Despite being portrayed as intelligent and involved, the protagonist Lyrian has become clueless when it is convenient to the plot. Even though he is a veteran gamer, he seems perplexed when encountering gaming trolls. This is a problem, since no one else in the story can act on major issues. In fact, it is like he is playing a single player game and his friends are actually NPCs with limited input scripts. He also tends towards long moments of befuddlement in the midst of combat, presumably so the author can describe a scene in detail. And never mind Lazarus, the protagonist of book two. He is barely more than an NPC now and not integral to the story at all, making book two even more annoying in retrospect.
In addition, the LitRPG mechanics are bare and the system is mediocre at best. What seemed to work in the beginning is showing a lack of finesse and planning as the characters' progress has become painfully slow. Keep in mind, these characters are still at a low/intermediate threshold - they will have to grind full on dragons and demi-gods to ever reach level 30 at this point. That being said, it must be quite a challenge to write a great story AND a great game system from scratch. The story might have benefited on the whole if it wasn't trying to subscribe to the LitRPG writing style.
For me, the biggest issue is the story has lost its flow as compared to book one. As the scope of the settlement and its characters branch out, the author tries to cover more and more of the mundane details. Where progress was once exciting, parts of the story drag out and reading through it is work. Even the author seemed to want to get things over with as he sometimes skips entire days of events and the main character is described as perpetually exhausted. Put simply, the book just wasn't that fun to read.
I think the author is a good writer and I really enjoyed book one. However, I am not sure I can stick with this series any longer. The story, characters, and system just don't seem to be jelling. -
This is what all fans were waiting for; Marcus and the gang back at it again! This book takes place after the events of book one. Marcus and friends have had some down time to recuperate. They are even enjoying some time out of game, and we get to see what life is like outside the game for the crew. We even get to see what is going on with their streaming contract. It is actually here where Marcus almost summons trouble by telling their steaming company that there has been to much down time, something I kept laughing at as this story unfolded. Aldford is preparing the town for a new settlers from Eberia. However, the caravan of settlers is attacked by bandits but swiftly rescued by Virtus, Marcus and companies guild. In this book is when our characters get a taste of Eberian politics, find out some disappointing news about events in the world (which took place in book 2), and face a threat that could threaten their new home. We also now have a connection from book 2 to the main story, as the events from the second book are reported to Virtus, and Lazarus and his crew join the village if only on a temporary and professional basis.
This book was as enjoyable as the first book, if not more so. The second books fits in now, though I do still wish book 3 came before book 2 as is would have been less confusing for readers/listeners to understand. I believe the plot is more interesting given the events of the second book because when Lazarus and his company reveal the events the reader/listener has some insight as to what is being said... and what is not being said.
Chmilenko writes a good sense of progression in his stories, both for his characters and story. He always seems to have me wanting more of his creation. I enjoy all the characters, even those from book 2, though I want to see more Sawyer because I really like the rivalry between him and Lazarus. I eagerly await the next book.
Luke Daniels does another great job. In fact, I feel he does an even better job then he did in the first two books, and even other books I have listened to him in. He does a great job of placing humor when its called for and can still make the intense moments amazing. He’s a top tier narrator that somehow is outdoing himself.
