Starblood #1

When the ark began emergency jettisoning the colonists, I got unlucky three times.

The first occurred when the runic defenses of the Kel shot down my capsule above a forbidden Circle.

The second was when it crashed next to the White Devil's tomb.

And the third time, when I climbed into a wounded noxwolf's lair and discovered Starblood. Other Ascendants would call it good fortune, but I'll put it this way: had I left it alone, I might have remained a normal person.

And now, I'm forced to sort things out: after all, someone with a Slate, Attributes, and Runes isn't a typical colonist from Earth in a world that's far from ordinary. Especially when he has a voice in his head . . .

©2024 Roman Prokofiev; English translation copyright 2024 by Sofia Shcherbakova, Alex A. Ryans (P)2024 Tantor

Sci-Fi with Litrpg elements

So, to start off with I have enjoyed Roman Prokofiev since the Rogue Merchant series. He has written the Rogue Merchant series, the Incarnator series(spin off of Rogue Merchant, not a direct continuation), and the Starblood series (a spin off of the Incarnator series, and Rogue Merchant (starts in book 5), not a direct continuation). Each series has a different MC and each MC acts differently than each other. The Rogue Merchant's MC is more crafty and sly, the Incarnator's a strong willed focus leader, and the Starblood's MC is more whiny and lovestruck.... with a ride along side kick.

I am currently in book 5 and for the most part have enjoyed it, but it definitely has a different focus than his other 2 series. There is more of a love interest focus and more drama than I was used to expecting from Roman Prokofiev. Anyway, all in all it is entertaining. The narrator's voice annoys me, my own personal opinion, especially when compared to the other 2 series narrators (Phil Thron is Stellar, no pun intended). I will say his voice matches the MC, so maybe that's what they were going for. His performance was good and variety of voices good as well. I found that putting the play speed to 1.2 really helped.

Skip it

Basically nothing happens for the first 7 chapters, just descriptions of an impossible landscape. Then we get a vision/flashback?? that comes without context and is just makes an already confusing situation even more confused and less believable. The story goes from completely boring and bland to dumping a bunch of stimulus on you all at once. The pacing sucks, so when interesting things actually happen, the change is so abrupt it's jarring. Suddenly there are a bunch of new names and technology and things happening to the MC, and some might be real and happening now, and some are definitely some kind of vision, and... it's just kind of a mess. I gave it a try because it was included in the membership, but if you're reading this, I'd skip it and find something better.

Maybe teens would like

The writing is poor made worse by a focus on aspects of gaming. The author goes into excruciating detail on what must be gaming details.

The writing is weighed down by too many adverbs and adjectives and cliche phrases. The first person monologues are thoughts and words that only a teen might utter. Maybe a teen would like but anyone other than teens and gamers should avoid.