Ethria: The Pioneer

An Epic LitRPG Adventure

By: Aaron Holloway

Narrated by: Christian J. Gilliland

Offered a choice by powers far greater than himself between returning home at great risk, or entering a world named Ethria where he might find another, supposedly safer, path home, Daniel "Rayid" Tear will enter Ethria. A world that operates similar to the video games Daniel has always enjoyed, Ethria is a place where power can be found in many forms, both light and dark, and whose true purpose is unknown even to most of its denizens.

Taking the long way home, Daniel will make another choice, to help a group of persecuted people whose story mirrors that of his pioneer ancestors. But in a time when Gods are changing, the people of every race suffer, the foundations of nations shift, and change and danger are in the very air, what can one under-leveled foreign wizard do?

All the while at the roof of the world, at the base of the Sawtooth Mountains a darkness grows, a creature plots, and an ancient evil from the foundations of the world seeks to re-emerge onto Ethria.

©2019 Aaron R Holloway (P)2020 Aaron R Holloway

good but could have been better.

It was an interesting story, but felt that it lacked at times. The MC felt overly dumb at times. Breaking immersion sometimes with the references to old shows. All in all felt worth the listen.

Preachy MC.

Good god is the main character preachy af!! It gets annoying real fast. Also the MC is 27 but seems to have the life experience of a 80 year old. Get ready for history lessons mostly about how great Mormons are.

Slow start, but great once it got rolling!

The characters were fantastic and I enjoyed their interaction. I really enjoyed the inclusion of earths history and how it fit in throughout the story line. I appreciated that the MC was more of a min/max'er at the start and had some serious weakness with melee/combat. I look forward to see how he continues to develop. Cant wait till the next book!

great book

I love the MC in this book can't wait for the next installment in the series. It's refreshing to see a not overpowering main character find their way through the story learning as they go

World building Mastery and Epic stuff

I have read ALOT of LitRPG novels and I am certain this one is near the top in the "Word Building" category. Holloway creates a deep fantasy world with alot of interesting characters and alot of lore. I appreciated the amount of time and effort the author put into creating an epic fantasy world. There is alot of great action and humor as well.

Christian Gilliland knocks the narration out of the park. He had to play several diverse roles in the book and does it masterfully. Don't hesitate to purchase this audiobook or using a credit. Very good and very long.

A step up from the pack of LitRPG

Started of well and the story immediately draws you in. The dreaded stat sheet that takes 5 mins is mostly avoided here in a clever way. The author needs to be less verbose in his laying down of the foundation of the magic system and other mundane stuff. I liked the characters even though the MC was sometimes inconsistent with the way he behaves. He mostly seems like a no nonsense direct person that stands tall no matter the situation. There were at least 3 instances where he backs of when he should have been cool or smacked the shit out of some characters that overstepped. He was mostly in the wrong in those cases but he let them walk all over him because of this, which didn't seem like he was that kind of person. I would definitely get the next book in the series when its out as the good parts of the book far outweigh the bad.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free and was not required to put up a review, but Im doing so because the book is just that good

Interesting from start to finish!

Throughout this story there is an intriguing parallel between faith and role playing games. I enjoyed how the adventure started and then how the MC continued to follow his ambitions and stayed true to himself. The storyline kept me captivated as there is continuous battle and character building. I am looking forward to book two.

Enjoyable first effort

I got this book for free.

I'd rate this at 3.5 stars because even though it is enjoyable it has a lot of little things that could have used some ironing out. People, or fay, often have unreasonable outbursts that are annoying to listen to since no normal person would react in such ways. I was sometimes confused as to what was going on. The game system stuff sometimes felt like it was contradicting itself but that was pretty minor. Some things, like the over explaining of world events felt out of place.

The story is good and the world is interesting, often feeling like it was inspired in part by the Conan stories, in a good way. For those that can stomach it, the book gets very dark at points. Although it's hard to say you enjoy something horrible I definitely do like the dark ambiance of the story. The characters are likeable, aside from the introducing of faerie guide which gets better almost right away. I can definitely recommend this to anyone who's looking to get their litrpg fix and I will be getting the second book when it's out.

Worth sticking with

I’m checking other reviews, some were a little harsh with the narrator and author, but I enjoyed it overall. You do have to stick with it, but it definitely picks up.

Having it be longer than some of the current trend of ever shorter LitRPG was nice as well, especially in audio.

Top notch

This story is very fun. It is Especially good if you like both portal fantasy and litRPG.