I love DnD, so know when I say this I am saying it with all the love in my heart. This book is stupid! It is you "rolled a 20 and the GM is letting you decide how to finish your foe" kind of stupid. It is you "rolled a 1 and the failure will be told for generations" kind of stupid. I ended up staying up way to late to listen to this. Hopefully my boss accepts that I rolled a 1 in decision making tomorrow.

5 stars

I think it’s important to preface this review with the fact I have a LitRpg and progressive fantasy addiction. If this genre doesn’t float your boat probably best to move on. However my addiction has also lead to a vast consumption of stories so I have plenty to compare this story to.
THE GOOD
The concept of managers and the Kingmaker process is something new and interesting. The narration is well done.
THE MEH
The characters seem to be just there to move the plot forward. A side character Otto is the only character who’s intentions and motivation I understand. The MC just goes from point A-B doing things to do them. He isn’t a grinder, tactician, community builder or leader of people. He will randomly not listen or gain/lose confidence and doesn’t really have a personality, class or fighting style of note. The writing and story are just average nothing makes this stand out from other works in the genre.
THE BAD
As mentioned in the good I really liked the manager angle. However you only have the POV from one of these. That POV is extremely limited. There are hundreds of stories from the perspective of people facing “a system integration”. I was disappointed I could have a different perspective and possibly positive outlook on a integration and instead it was just a role for a side character. Once again a character really lacking depth I think mostly because of the lack of events from his POV instead of the MC’s.

Overall if you are a fan of the genre it’s an interesting enough story. With the upside of becoming something special if it leans into what makes it different instead of focusing on what makes it the same. Also improving the character motivations thus giving me someone to love or hate.

As a lifelong gamer, with RPGS being my favorite type of game, it should come as no surprise that I’m a fan of LitRPGs. However since I am a fan of almost all genres of books there are still so many LitRPGs I’ve yet to explore or series I haven’t finished, but I’m always looking for new ones to add to my ever-growing collection and TBR list, and I’m sure many of you out there are the same way. So I’m happy to say King Maker, the first book in the Integrated Universe series, is worth checking out.

In King Maker things are bit different from your typical LitRPG. Earth gets forced assimilated/integrated. No, not by Borg, though it indeed seem to be the work of aliens. Anyway, the world is altered. The process actually killing off a significant portion of the population and changing the animal inhabitants of the world into various monsters. It also creates a kind of hunger games-esque environment in that those that survive and wish to continue to survive will need to battle these creatures, gain levels, claim land, gain allies, forge alliances…etc., etc. I say it’s like Hunger Games because the ultimate goal is for one person to come out on top. To become King of the World. The top players also get trainer who give them guidance and advice—Jeremiah’s happens to be a four-foot tall blue alien dude. (Again having trainers/advisors reminded me a bit of Hunger Games…and there are several other things that reminded me of that series as well, but I’ll leave you to discover those on your own.) The story mainly follows Jeremiah, who due to a crazy stroke of dumb luck, ends up getting a massive head start over much of the rest of the world, jumping him almost immediately from total noob to level 10. I thought the first third of the book was a little heavy on explanation and world building, which I’ll admit and understand was necessary. Though, oddly enough, there were plenty of things that just didn’t seem to get explained that I wish had, lol. That being said, I liked the characters and the story’s unique hook definitely worked on me. It’s an ambitious project but it kept me entertained from start to finish, and this is a series I’ll keep my eye on in the future. Trevor Wilson does a very good job with the narration and made for an enjoyable listening experience. I’d like to thank Dreamscape Media for the opportunity to listen to an advanced audio copy of King Maker.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R1BYRE7ERLCAAI/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

This book was freakin' fabulous!! I'm becoming such a fan of LitRpg booksz especially as audiobooks. The characters in this one were fantastic and I love the mutated animals as monsters to battle! So fun!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing this audiobook!

This was a fun little LITRPG set in Idaho! fun premise and worldbuilding. I look forward to listening to future volumes of this story.