One More Last Time

A LitRPG/GameLit Novel (The Good Guys, Book 1)

By: Eric Ugland

Narrated by: Neil Hellegers

A ruined life. A broken heart.

He thought it was the end, and his gun sat ready to make sure. But an oddball offer from his last friend comes at the literal last second. Curiosity gets the best of him, and he finds himself sucked into iNcarn8, a game claiming to be a whole new life.

Now, as Montana, the larger-than-life tank warrior, he has one more last time to get his life right.

©2018 Eric Ugland (P)2019 Tantor

Like a serialized program

OK, so I went into this with low expectations. Honestly, the covers aren’t the best things to pull you in, they kind of look quick, cheap, and hooky. However, I do not let a crappy cover scare me off, nor do I let a good one sucker me into believing it is a great tale, but I will talk a bit more about covers in the show.

Anywho, I have to say that by the third chapter of this book I was utterly and completely enthralled. I was immediately sucked in. I loved the character, the world, the premise. The book hit every mark it was supposed to with me. First, and most importantly it got me into the game quickly. We didn’t go thirty five percent of the way in before hitting the game. It happens fairly early on. As in pretty much right out of the gate. That is how I prefer my LIT books, or any book to be. Get to the action, give me the exciting incident so I can enjoy the story. Ugland does just that. Secondly, the MC enters the game in a pretty cool and unique way. I especially liked how he could bring extra things in to the game for special perks. Third, we get to see that the MC isn’t perfect and does stupid things in spite of being smart. Now, I had heard that the MC is really dumb and it takes away the believability, but what I saw were a few instances of him not thinking his way completely through a problem and just relying on his abilities to get him out of danger. That’s most people. The rest I chalk up to naivete and inexperience. SO that issue gets a hard pass from me, I liked the way the MC handled things.

It honestly made me feel like I was reading about myself going into a game. I am a fairly intelligent person, but I do stupid things all the time, notably in social situations, and so I totally got the way the MC handled himself. Also, while the MC comes off as being OP it certainly doesn’t feel that way. At least not to me. I think there are some perks that the MC, Montana, lucked into and exploits in a standard way. The fact that he uses his OPness for some utterly cool events doesn’t hurt the readability of this book.

The best thing about this book, however, is that while it certainly is a sort of slice of life story it is a lot more. This feels like a serialized TV show, like Breaking Bad or Game of thrones, in which each episode is a nearly self contained tale, but actually leads right into the next book, and carries on the tale, going further into the over arching tale that is laid out. Seriously, I am not a huge fan of slice of life, but this does not carry that tone at all. Each book picks up right where the last left off and there is no time gap. So, like I said, it carries the feel of a single episode in a larger more planned out story. This is totally one of those Netflix and chill type of audiobooks, where you just want to binge listen to the entire series in just one go.

Now, not all is kosher in Ugland, sorry Eric bad pun, I know. I did have an issue in the first book where the stats and powers/character sheet was done over and over to a point it was like a well that Eric kept going to so as to boost a word count here and there, but as the series goes on it does peter out more and more until it becomes more manageable and less annoying.


Neil Hellegers keeps popping up in more and more Litrpg books lately, sometimes I am a fan, other times I think he just does ok. This is a fella for whom the material matters. For example, he was perfect in the Great Filter until the last chapter and then didn’t fit so well. Not his fault, Just the way it panned out, but here he just kills. He is meant to play Montana the barbarian, and he does it well. This match, his voice and this story, is a rare melding of narrator and author but more importantly, narrator and character. It reminds me of how Jeff Hays and Quantum Hughes are made for one another.

8.5 stars I loved this book.

very fresh

this was a fresh srart to a series. liked Montana, the charactera and the plot. worth the credit

Did You Ever Wish You Had A DO-OVER For Your Life?

If you were to have the opportunity to start your life over again, knowing all the screw-ups you’ve made, would you?
What would you do differently?
What would be the same?

Well, in this version of a LitRPG that is just what happens. The book starts with the end of one life and we get to learn all about the hell he has made of his past while he makes it a point NOT to screw up this opportunity to start over.

A really fun action packed adventure. A great start to this series. Very well written and read.
One small issue. You know the stat board you get in a RPG game? In general you read each part you are interested in at the time you are interested in it. In order to relay that information through audio rather than visual means, Each time the stat board is up we are read every detail on the board. It can get repetitive. Some audiobooks have dealt with this issue in better ways than this one did. Nothing major, just an annoyance.

I have listened to a few books read by Neil Hellegers. As usual he does an excellent job with all the characters and conveys the story perfectly.

Very much worth the credit.

My new favorite series

I have not had a story in a long time that has had me scream “You idiot!”, laugh, and get teary. Got this as a part of a sale, and I am so glad I did. If you love RPG games, you will totally love this book. It sucks you in and leaves you wanting so much at the end, and I am getting the next book in the series ASAP so I can return to Voldrani and Montana.
Hands down, you will not regret giving this a listen.

fun, exciting

my first rpg book. really enjoyed it. I found it exciting. I was interested in the characters. some of it would have been better in a standard book, e.g. equipment lists, game notifications. I would have been able to just quick scan them. they were boring to hear read, especially the long ones. small point. I'll read more in this series.

Excellent All Around

The story, plot, and especially characters were excellent. Intriguing, engaging, and well paced from start to finish.

My Favorite RPG Lit series so far

Love idea of hope for a suicidal man (~every 15" suicide in USA, mostly men).
Love idea of former scoundrel reformining.
Love narrator's compelling, deep masculine voice.

Great unique book

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I read the description but wow what a fun read...I’ve already ordered the next in the series. Narrator is perfect for the character and story also.

Very entertaining and captivating!

I enjoyed this book very much. I'm jumping straight to book 2! Without spoiling anything, it's about a person ending up inside a game world with skills and abilities and stats. The author is good at coming up with fun and interesting ways to apply this sort of thing to a "real life" human. I was surprised to realize that whenever the main character goes up in level, learns new skills or gets new items, I get the same feeling of satisfaction as I do when I am playing a game myself and get all these things! The narrator is very good! Good at doing voices and reading with an enthusiastic tone. But I noticed something that is a little irritating with listening to this book as an audio book, and that is whenever the main character goes up in level or learns a new skill or looks at his stats, the narrator is of course reading every single word. If I read this myself I would be able to skip over the familiar text that is repeated over and over. A small issue that is easy to forgive, but it would be nice with a small change like a short summary instead.

greatly entertaining from beginning to end

This book grabbed my attention right away and kept me entertained throughout the whole book.