4 stars. The word Rogue is in the title, but he spends all his time fighting.
This series is a bit of the roller coaster.
I found the first book to be a bit simplistic. There were a lot of clichés. The MC is named “Joey Eclipse”. He chose “Shade Dragon Rogue” as his class. So edgy. Some of the first creatures he meets are sirens – you know those beautiful women famous for leading sailors to their death. He meets a princess of the sirens – but don’t worry, she’s human so they can fall in love and it won’t be weird.
Oh, he’s just a warrior. In Book 1, he doesn’t sneak around anything or steal anything. He’s just fighting.
In Book 2, he starts “leaning on his rogue side more”. OK, yes! Sneaking around. Changing outfits. Spending days studying the location before rushing in to attack. Alright!
In Book 3, Joey Eclipse is still in a pocket world, which I found to be a nice change of environment. New characters and new abilities.
But in Book 4, he is just too overpowered for the world. He vows not to kill anyone (why?) so he fights mainly by knocking people unconscious. Even a God has descended to fight him, and he knocks them unconscious in about 60 seconds. That God’s mother (a Primordial) has some weird crush on him. He earns the title “Prince”. So he can end up with the Princess, get it? It’s just too much.
Things I like about the series:
- Book 1 takes place in the water, and he’s human
- Book 2 takes place with a team and solo in a dungeon
- Book 3 is almost entirely solo, but he can create clones of himself so… not really.
- Different characters like sirens, kraken and such
- Some of the NPC’s are self-aware
- Easy to read
- There’s a cute long-distance love story starting
Things that could be improved:
- The main character gains skill levels almost every time he uses a skill
- Book 1 was a bit simplistic
- Book 4 was a bit of a joke, fighting Gods and such
- He became a “great” adventurer because the system asked him and he said yes
At the end of four book, I’m probably done with this series for now.
Audible rating, Book 1: 4.3
Audible rating, Book 2: 4.7
Audible rating, Book 3: 4.7
