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Paragon of Blood
- Paragon, Book 1
- Narrated by: Travis Baldree
- Length: 15 hrs
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Paragon of Blood
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Summary
All Auric Cain ever wanted was a chance.
A chance to prove himself. A chance to take control of his life. A chance to be more than a lowly D-Tier, the lowest of the low, in a world broken by the arrival of an alien, enigmatic being known as The System.
And the seemingly endless hordes of Gateborn that accompanied it.
But chances are hard to come by in the fallen remains of humanity. A century of decline, of desperate struggle, making just surviving another day challenging enough. Let alone striking out to find and challenge an Ascension Gate.
Or in Auric’s case, even getting permission to try.
But when he finally takes matters into his own hands, that's when he finally gets his chance. A chance that sets off a chain of events that no one, let alone him, could have ever anticipated. A chain of events that could very well reshape Reality itself.
Unless he can find a way to stop it.
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What listeners say about Paragon of Blood
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Some guy
- 04-03-22
Engaging and vibrant characters
Long time fan of Luke’s other work and his recent collaborations have been fun to read; the premise was entertaining but delivery was rushed despite the great twist. The combat scenes dominated and became a bit dull and on rails with the pace of the book making the lack of satisfying conclusion an inevitable plod to the finish.
Sadly didn’t live up to previous work despite some fun plot ideas to work with.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Ross Nicoll
- 30-03-22
I really wanted to love this book
I love this genre and this author but the story that was being told just didn't grab me like others. This is not a bad book and the story is good but just not my cup of tea.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr. M. C. Hackett
- 08-03-22
high quality
more high quality writing from a great author. Worth your credit and not a typical litrpg
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Uko
- 07-03-22
Entertaining
Interesting start. Unlike typical post apocalyptic LitRPG stories that begin when the system first arrives on earth, this story starts 2 generations after the fact. We get to see the struggles of humanity as they scramble to rebuild functioning societies and fight off monster swarms from dungeon outbreaks.
Straight away we get to see the different levels of power between the MC who is at D-tier (the lowest class) and the stereotypical ‘humanity’s best’ A-tier team. It was abit obvious the direction the story was headed; either the grey outlook of life for the greater good vs naive but somewhat optimistic clear black and white good vs evil angle.
Overall I enjoyed the world building, and diverse system powers. It wasn’t anything particularly new, but it was executed nicely. I have a few gripes with this story though. The MC grew in power too quickly. Granted he started from the bottom and was actively suppressed by his grandmother, but the jump in tiers was too abrupt. Auric’s fight in the last battle was annoying. He should have liberally used his purge ability on the system moderator but for some reason he chose to fight with his sword. The whole ordeal left me confused with the objective of the system. On one hand it wants to destroy entropy; however, in the last battle the system enforcer embodied an entropic shard monster?? It was confusing.
The journal entries at the beginning of each chapter were a nice touch. It made the book feel more grounded, and it gave us a look and the thought process of Amedea and some of the reasons behind the tough decisions she made.
Overall, this book would have been a solid 4/5, but I was left with so many questions, and there were some glaring inconsistencies. Who is Mercutio? How can Amadea seemingly interact with the system the way she does? Are A-tiers really the highest power level humans can reach? Since there are ‘S’ and ‘SS’ tier dungeon gates I highly doubt it. Why are there so many different abnormal gates and what is their purpose? And so much more. Nevertheless, I still look forward to the next book if anything so it could answer some of the questions I have:
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Robert
- 03-05-22
A disjointed novel - For hardcore LitRPG / Horror genre fans only
This book may well appeal to hardcore fans of the litRPG / progression fantasy genre, but it has very limited appeal to readers looking for a book that is not cluttered with pointlessly abstract game text.
It honestly reads more like a polished game fic than even some of the earlier examples of the genre, never mind the far more polished versions appropriate for mainstream audiences.
This in itself isn’t damning - it’s actually not a bad example, with some depth of world building. But it’s immensely slow going in what should be an action packed and fast paced example of the genre. The horror elements are excellently written, but terribly read - I’ve never before found such intricate blood/body related horror *dull*. A fact made worse by the main character actually proving himself to be every bit the whiny child everyone accuses him of being, despite society clearly crapping on him from a great height.
There is a solid attempt to describe a world of absolute dog eat dog inhumanity ruled over by remorseless, remote and simulationist AIs, as well as the bleak horror of being assigned kill missions against fellow humans.
But that just doesn’t *work*, as the world building game simulation elements detract from the cold, mechanical implementation of that simulation in the narrative. It ceases to become chilling, and it instead breaks up the flow comedically and in a disjointed fashion - and that’s a real pity, I suspect in part due to the intensely slow voice acting that gives the listener an age to digest what is happening to the character in an eye link, isolating us from them. Action horror, gore and the like don’t work well in fiction at a remove. I suspect that hardcore fans of the genre will find it works better, as they will find the breakouts less distracting. But at 6 hours in, no actual character progression has taken place aside from some arbitrary Deus Ex Machina (in the best and coldest, horrible way) levelling up and game exploits and so hardcore fans may find the elements they want the most lacking.
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