3 stars. Likely will not continue with this series.
A man is taken from his world and thrown into a new one – typical isekai start. Given a chance to be a hero to save the world, instead he chooses a passive class as a potion maker. The system seems to be pushing him towards the path of a hero, but he pushes back against it. He discovers that he has god-like strength, and the first potion he makes is of supremely high quality. He also attracts powerful companions to him like a dryiad, the mayor’s daughter, a wolf, a cat, a flying mount…
This is the premise of the Rise of the Cheat Potion Maker book series. I think there is a lot of potential here that is not realized.
Things I liked about the book series:
- The story revolves around an MC that doesn’t want to be a hero
- The story is not too heavy
- The MC seems like a nice guy in this universe even though he wasn’t a nice guy in his last one
Things that took away from it:
- I don’t understand why he’s so powerful, so fast, with no effort
- Are there even bad guys in this story? No one powerful in this world knows that he exists yet.
- The main motivation for the MC seems to be “getting inflation under control” in the small town he lives nearby
- The writing isn’t that great
- There is no tension in any of the fight sequences; of course the MC is going to win
- The fight scenes are sometimes comical. He enters an “S-ranked” dungeon, and on level 1, punches all the monsters to death. He defeats the entire dungeon so fast, that his companions ask “Did you have to come back because you forgot something?” after beating the apparently “most difficult” dungeon alone, using only his fists.
- The system kicks in at inconsistent moments – “boss fight!”
- The secondary characters are 2D; they don’t seem to have emotions other than adoration for the MC
I put this book down for a few days, and came back to it. And was able to finish it. It’s not good, but somehow I made it to the end!
The main issue was that I didn’t particularly care what happened to the MC, nor any of his companions.
I don’t recommend this series.
