Review: The New World by Monsoon177
“There are things that fall outside the realm of Schema’s control or even understanding. You are what is sent to kill these things, whatever they may be.”
Blurb:
Trapped in a Dungeon. There's only one way out. Kill or be killed...
An AI calling itself Schema has assimilated Earth into its System. As a consequence, everyone gained access to status screens, power-ups, and skills. This AI turned these concepts from fiction to fact. It's easy to become intoxicated with leveling up and becoming stronger. To some, it's too good to be true, like living out a dream.
For Daniel, however, it's closer to a nightmare.
He's in a bit of a predicament. Cracks in our dimensional fabric have unleashed terrifying beasts from dark, abyssal places. Schema organizes these cracks into dungeons, giving the native species of the planet a chance to fight back.
Daniel finds himself stuck in one of these dungeons. It's time to break free, by any means necessary.
Experience the start of an action-packed LitRPG Apocalypse series with nearly 15 Million views on Royal Road. For the first time, The New World is coming to Kindle & Kindle Unlimited, completely revised, re-edited, and loaded with new content.
Book Review:
The New World is a contender in the LitRPG subgenre! I listened to the audiobook while following along with the ebook, and while it had some hiccups, overall it’s worth picking up.
Characters - I liked but didn’t love them (overall score: 6/10)
Daniel is thrust into a world that is a hellish nightmare, but he takes everything in stride. Because this subgenre has a habit of throwing characters into these gamer situations, this wasn’t weird, but the speed at which a seemingly normal guy leveled up was a bit inconsistent. That being said, because he has leveled up so quickly, he progresses through The New World, and the fast pace of the rest of the story makes up for this. However, I didn’t like certain aspects of the antagonist(s). Of course, the MC must beat local “bosses,” but events within the book's first third derailed the story, and everything felt disjointed after that point.
Atmosphere – (overall score: 12/14)
Setting: I want to read more like this (9/10)
The setting was interesting: space rifts, AI-generated gamer interfaces, and everything that makes alien landscapes cool are included. I would absolutely read more books with this setting.
Mood: Some scenes had me captivated (3/4)
The first third of this book is fast-paced and kept me captivated with epic, detailed battle scenes. But I think the overabundance of stats killed the mood in other scenes. (I will speak more about this in Writing Style)
Writing Style – (overall score: 10/18)
Storytelling: I had to re-read some passages (4/10)
The overwhelming amount of stats thrown at the reader had me re-listening to them (in this case, pausing, following in the ebook, and reading the stats.) Even for a LitRPG, a lot of dense information was thrown at you and not in a way that made it easy to follow.
Grammar: Noticeable errors (2/4)
Everything was fine until the book's last portion, where there were blatant errors (not capitalizing the names of characters, spelling, etc.) I’m not sure what happened, but if you read this, you will see them. If you listen, you won’t notice. Unfortunately, I followed along in the book for some portions and noticed them.
Formatting: No issues (4/4)
Plot – Not unique, but enjoyable (overall score: 7/10)
This is set in a simulation, and killing off alien beasties might not be new to this genre, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t enjoyable! I like tropes, and I even like the overdone ones, so escaping an AI realm hellbent on killing the MC was definitely a fun ride.
Intrigue – (overall score: 7/14)
General: No strong feelings (5/10)
I was neither wowed nor disappointed with this book. The audiobook made it easy to get through, but I would have put it down frequently if I had not listened to it. Up until the first third of the book, I was listening with anticipation, but an event occurring around that point (keeping this spoiler-free) derailed the story, and the rest fell flat.
Re-Readability: Would not reread (2/4)
Logic - (overall score: 9/14)
Plot Logic: Mostly explained, but something is missing (6/10)
Maybe because Daniel didn’t make it to the training module and the information was given in dumps, it felt like there was something just slightly off that could have been rounded off.
Character Logic: Some characters didn’t fit (3/4)
Daniel meets up with some others in the dungeons, and personally, I don’t think they add too much to the overall story because Daniel is kind of doing his own thing anyway most of the time. They didn’t hold back the story but could have been more formed.
Excitement – Glad I picked it up but not wowed (6/10)
On the whole, I did like this book! Definitely has plenty of epic fight scenes and eldritch horrors that will pull any lover of Sci Fi in. However, the stats (while a staple in LitRPGs) were too dense, and the disjointed storyline left it hanging.
Audiobook Review:
Dialogue – Dialogue had awkward moments (3/4)
Performance – Good performance (3/4)
Pace – Pace had incongruencies (3/4)
Scores:
CAWPILE: 57/90
DP2: 9/12
