Seventh Realm Part 1: A LitRPG Fantasy Series (The Ten Realms, Book 8)

Seventh realm part one is best book of the series. This is great, only downside is that it’s mostly downhill from here.

My review: 5 stars because I understand it’s a battle book but I expect more in part 2! Some of the more poor reviews are of people who are impatient with fight scenes, or use of minor characters to show outlooks and political moves. All required to be effective in my opinion!I love the story and that we are made to care about characters even as some die for the reality impact. Mourning some of those losses! I love the fighting and the way the world, magic, and stat systems are built! Some of the fighting was a bit difficult to picture based on the detail given and some things were more wordy. But that didn’t bother me too much. I love the information systems and the real visions of flawed people working together. I like how you use minor characters to reveal different outlooks of what is going on. Some very good humor as well! Keep up the good work, so creative and much like my own day dreams!Only missing element in the story:More romance! The writer throws some of this in in a previous book with the beast humans, Elise and Blaze, and that one trader spy on the second ream but falls off from there. These characters are supposed to be in prime shape and activity and that means their bodies are pumping out high levels of hormones, and high stress and high companionship should be bringing people together more than is said. Just the only thing I find missing from these awesome books! On top of this, age matters a lot less because people who level up live such long lives. For example, I half expect Delilah and Erik to have a relationship but I remember reading Erik thinks of her as a sister due to her age and their teacher student relationship but she’s like 5-10 years younger our a hundreds of year life span.Wants and questions:I know the book is being broken up but I would have loved to have seen the associations and other related groups reactions to the siege end before the book ended. Also when people face an enemy with superior weaponry they typically want to capture the equipment to understand and maybe replicate it. The Alvans are very careful with this but during the assault I feel like it was impossible to retrieve all the bodies after the bunkers were blown up to prevent looting before the sunken city and final tactic. Killing as many of the enemy as possible is smart and all with the final trick, but wouldn’t that strong of a dungeon core be more useful if they took it with them?Why didn’t the Shaw make it to the siege? We’ve seen people move quickly between realms and the fight lasted many hours. I was expecting them to want to ambush a lone enemy ship in the 4th realm as soon as the spy found out!Why didn’t any of the people who were such fans of the city (it’s laws enforcement and academy) and have such significant investments there not pressure the associations and related sects to protect it? How are the contracts that protect neutrality so weak that they can be so easily bribed out of? It’s made to sound common place, so how are any cities truly neutral or contracts enforced? Why are so many holes left in these contracts to abandon it for better deals?Lastly, some basic map sketches of the city layout (sections, roads, walls) and of fortifications (roads, intersections, chokes, bunker, wall and tower patterns around city layers would be vastly helpful for those who haven’t studied the military (past or present) in some way.

Eric and Rugrat might be figureheads, but they are also powerful fighters. Always trying to get stronger so as to help others.War has cone and the Wishfelt Institute will swim in their own blood. Now all the Alvans will fight to save their dungeon/City in the 4th realm...I am always impressed by an Authors ability to make me laugh and cry while not being able to put a book down. This series has been like that since the first book.Read in 5 days

Gets better with each volume and new twists that keep things interesting.Quality world building and interaction between characters that both foster and demand investment in who they are as people, not just their roles in the stories.

Good story, sets up a new direction for our favorite dungeon lords. Looking forward to more.... good thing there are more books!

I am a fan of the series, but the last few books have got a little bloated with side filler and rabbit trails that breakup the flow. In these sections, I find myself skipping everything that is not spoken by the characters. There are some continuity issues, repeating issues, as in plot points being reiterated too many times, and an overall choppy reading experience. There are some minor typo problems and the book cold be streamlined to 700 to 725 pages. These are all things that professional editing can fix; however, Michael Chatfield is a self-publisher. Professional editing is expensive and difficult to do well. For this reason, problems in editing like previously mentioned aren’t a big deal for me. That is, unless the editing is utterly atrocious, which this is not.I know my first paragraph seems like a downer on this book, but I did like this entry into the series. I like the way Michael writes with a veteran’s sensibility, and how the MCs interact with each other and all those around them. The battle scenes are exciting, technical, and get epic in scale and power. You get to see payoffs on good strategic battle planning. Also, you see intricate small unit tactics, and how working as a team, putting the lives of your teammates and loved ones first makes you powerful, in a world of me, myself, and I. As for cultivation there is some new stuff, mostly from Erik. The crafting had some really interesting progression. You also see payoffs in combining science and magic in spectacular ways, as alluded to in previous books.The stakes are much higher as are the costs.**SPOILER**I have read some other reviews and something that has been pointed out often, the MCs didn’t go to the seventh realm. Well, the seventh realm came to them😊. Also, you can make the argument that the MCs character level progression is the realm, not a new planet. If you look at the 2 parts of the sixth realm, the MCs level was already in the 50’s when the sixth realm started. The book showed them progressing through the majority of their 50’s. It is like this for most of the books. The books coincide better with progressing through that realm’s levels, as opposed to going to a new planet.

You better prepare yourself before reading this one. This book is like watching a WWII movie. All about war and the devastation it brings.Like the others, it is very well written and keeps you enthralled throughout. This book made me experience emotions in a way that most movies can't come close to.

I’m still enjoying reading about Eric’s and Rug Rat’s adventures but the last half of this novel was all about battle and the first half was all about the lead up to the battle. Honestly, I was hard pressed to complete this one. I want to know what comes next but I think I might take a break because all of the carnage is a total downer.

It continues the high level quality form the last books. Would recommend 10 / 10. Nice to see (spoiler alert) the first defeat.

Outro livro muito bom dessa série. Louco pra ler a segunda parte e o resto da série. Todos irão adorar.

Where to start,there is so much happening,Alva is at war with the Institute across realms 1-4 ,the beast mountain range and Alva itself are threatened by massive armies, the conquered cities in the third realm are under threat and Vuzgal faced the massed armies of the fourth realm.Allies remain neutral and Alva and the guild are fighting for their very existence. Several loved characters die valiantly and thousands are affected ,in the ten realms only the strong survive and despite all Eric and Rugrats efforts they can't save everybody and in the devastating climax old friends return and new far more powerful adversaries are introduced .Throughout Eric and Rugrat continue to cultivate and grow their personal strengths and of course Ma Rodriguez makes a dramatic entrance, a blossoming romance is hinted at and a devastating loss occurs .Absolutely loved the book and eagerly await part two , revenge is going to be a bitch for somebody.

Story Spoilers below:I liked this volume but I am more excited for where the next volume will go because this one ended so suddenly. I enjoyed the back and forth between the two armies but it got a bit repetitious without going anywhere, would have preferred if it escalated with each cycle, shit suddenly went down and then VDF escalated to the highest level too fast. The fight with the higher level guys turning up was a bit messy, I will have to go back and read it a few times I think.The story is moving away from Erik and Rugrat being Mary Sues, kicking ass and taking names and then Alva slowly catching up to them, I will miss this. With Vulgaz gone (kinda feel book 6&7 are pointless now, just need to read 5 maybe just and then 8), I guess they will just stay in the first realm and cheese it by digging deeper the access higher concentrations of mana, while being safe from the warships due to the mana they need to stay aloft.

Having some time off, I devoured this one quite quickly. The author's got the knack for making me not stop reading. I found myself niggled as I was reading past the first third of the book, though. It's wordy, and whilst many of the scenes appear to portray authentic military practice (within a fantasy world), for me there was too much blow-by-blow and I ended up skipping pages to get to the good bits. This, coupled with the plot-line of relentless battle, made for a thin plot over a long book, which made the deliberately shocking ending a bit, 'yeah, seems reasonable'. Editing would have distilled this into a much, much better novel that wouldn't have needed two parts. I guess this is a feature of Self-Published Economics with these serialised novels; more books earn you more money than fewer, better written books.