The Land: Alliances: A LitRPG Saga (Chaos Seed #3) is a 2016 fantasy adventure LitRPG novel written by Aleron Kong and narrated by Nick Podehl.
Personally, I’ve enjoyed these books less and less. When we talk about a cohesive story and interesting twists and turns, deep meaningful themes, and engaging character arcs, these books aren’t for you. The world building itself isn’t particularly done well and let me explain. The story spends so much time building the gameplay mechanics and not the actual world. There are several instances where I thought the author dropped the ball with subplots. There’s a sequence where Richter discovers a race of kobolds living below his village. Does he attempt to negotiate or communicate with the race? No. He goes on the warpath with no thoughts to the consequences of his actions. This could’ve been a good subplot seeing him come to a situation diplomatically. It comes to a point that the story is pathetically predictable. Richter does nothing of actual importance, he stumbles upon a situation, beats it with no problem or has some convenient help, gains additional power or a rare item, gets praise for making bad decisions. Then there’s also the bigger conspiracy going on, which are briefly touched upon here and there but never really elaborated on.
Richter continues to be one of the worst characters I’ve ever read about. I don’t understand how Kong continues to keep this character so unlikable and so stupid. It actually comes off as self-insert. But Richter is such an asshole. He literally attacked a tribe of kobolds unprovoked, mainly to steal their treasure.
I still maintain that the supporting cast is more interesting than the main protagonist, if not for anything more than they have sheer common sense. Again, Alma is much appreciated addition to cast. Sion is good but the more he hangs around Richter the dumber he gets. I like that he takes a step back in this book because the more he and Richter share a scene the more I shake my head in disappointment. As per the Kong formula, the story literally goes nowhere, and the supporting characters are much more interesting than the main character. (2 out of 5)
Again, Podehl does a fantastic job with the narration. I would definitely hire this guy for my audiobook because he’s got range and consistency. But despite my praise of the voice performance, I have issues with the sound design.
The audio spends too much time going over game stats, a lot of which could’ve been condensed, and just repetitive. At one point, the stats felt like they were going on for ten minutes straight. Now, if I were reading it and not listening to it, I would’ve skipped it. All-in-all, the sound quality and narration are really good. (4 out of 5)
Kong has some questionable thoughts of Richter’s view of women. I’m not a saint or anything but he often comes across as more of a pervert (or a predator). I got the impression from his reactions that he didn’t know how to talk to women, never had a girlfriend, or is one of those guys who feels entitled to any woman he wants without putting in the work. All these people swearing fealty to this guy who cares little if nothing for them unless they can help him level up.
And there are some questionable elements that Kong produces. Like there’s a plant with Viagra-like properties. Why? What does that do for the story? Absolutely nothing. And the dialogue continues to lack any kind of depth or nuance. Richter’s dialogue is just garbage and that’s saying something coming from a guy who drops lame jokes all the time. Also, there are a lot of conveniences when it comes to Richter. Not only does he acquire power out of nowhere and gains powerful weapons and items like it’s Christmas every day, but he also levels up seemingly with no effort. And the weird thing is, other characters do the exact same thing he does, and he bypasses their stats no matter how many years they’ve done it.
Still don’t understand Kong’s direction or methods, and how much it actually hurts the story is amazing as its lack of progression. There is so much room for improvement. (2 out of 5)
The Verdict: In the end, The Land: Alliances: A LitRPG Saga (Chaos Seed #3) is just as silly, lazy, and self-absorbed as the previous books. So much potential was overlooked due to the author’s negligence, lack of talent, and inability to stop with the self-insertions and warped social justice views. If this book was sick and bedridden then the poor writing and the main character are the cancer that’s killing it. There are some good bits here and there which mostly surround the side characters and some of the “gameplay” mechanics. But other than that, this “steak” is under seasoned and overcooked. The Land: Alliances: A LitRPG Saga (Chaos Seed #3) gets 3 out of 5.
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