The False Hero, Box Set 1

Volumes 1-3

By: Michael Plymel

Narrated by: Mason Born

Disillusioned businessman, John Lawrence Locke, finds himself summoned as a hero to another world, filled with monsters and magic! With his body reverted to the age of 15, the 33-year-old's mind is filled with the possibility of battles and adventures, like the ones in his favorite video games.

Unfortunately for him, life isn't always so convenient. Betrayed by the very people who summoned him, he's condemned as the False Hero and forced to flee for his life. Alone in an unfamiliar world and hunted by all of humanity, he takes on the alias of Lutz and uses his gaming knowledge to quickly adapt to the world's strangely game-like mechanics.

©2021, 2022 Michael Plymel (P)2021, 2022 Michael Plymel

People need to calm down

This was an entertaining story. All the people saying it is a shield hero ripoff do you believe shield hero was the first ever story of its kind? Of course not. And the one review claiming it has pedophilia is either outright lying or never actually listened to the book. I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to the rest.

Good Story!

I enjoyed the book immensely. A good fun story with lots of progression for the main character and the people around him.

It’s a fan made “Rising of the Shield Hero”

The whole plot started out as almost identical to rising of the shield hero with some minor twists. As it goes on those twists start to play a larger role, but the resemblance is still there. I hope the story takes a turn away shield hero and becomes it own story. The narration is ok. It’s sometimes hard to identify who is talking.

A heaping pile of shit

If I had to describe this book in 1 word, I would say it is shit. If I had 2, I would say it was flaming shit. Why?
A few (but not all) reasons
•Character development is forced and lacking
•Events happen for the sake of the plot moving forward
•Characters do not act in a manner expected of a person like them (the mc. is 34 but acts like a 15 year old)
•The aforementioned plot is contrived and either so predictable you can’t stop laughing or so unpredictable you’d have a better chance guessing where a meteor would strike in exactly 100 years.
•The voice acting is over the top, shrill, and frankly annoying at times
•The dialogue… *shudder* it is certainly… something.


Anyways 5/5 stars. I love this book and come back to it at any time I have no books to listen to. I’d never recommend it to a friend if I value that friendship, though.

Loved it

This series is too good, Way too good. Here's how we're gonna review this it's gonna be 1st book through 3rd book then the conclusion.

1st book. this one has to be the best of them all. The build up to the second. The way the false hero is built it was like he was embracing the false hero of course he was going to from the very start but it was nice to see it build up. The 1st book also had the most character progression out of all the books, the 1st book was like him really being isekaied into a new world and gaining strength at a really fast rate, that's why it's safe to say this book is fast paced. I couldn't say the the Mc had depth in this first book tho, especially with the amateur narrator doing this book, The narrator wasn't really good at all the thing I did like about him tho is the emotions he puts into his words. What I mean by him being amateur or bad is he can't change his voice most of his voices sound very alike and it's hard to tell them apart unless your listening very hard or you have them recognized to the Tee.

2nd Book. This one has to be the 2nd best out of all three. in this book he expanded his power and got more people into his group while also making them stronger. Really this book just is filler for him to get stronger essentially filling out what book 1 couldn't do. The narrator did get better in this one but not so much. But this book even tho I think it was filler from the actual goal was really good.

3rd book. This one has to be the worst out of all of the 3 books. Especially the end. The start and middle of this book are actually really good but the end is lacking. This 3rd book seemed really rushed with him getting separated from his group and helping the princess. But that all said this book has to have the most world building.

Pros. I really like this series. The fighting is unique and the way he uses his knowledge from the other world to beat his opponents is awesome. he's overpowered compared to most of his enemy's which is kinda of a double edged sword. The "harem" he has is also kinda nice, the characters are likable and the Mc actually have a backbone. he doesn't just let people walk all over him.

Cons. I don't like how he tells the princess all his secrets for no reason whatsoever. it usually happens in most series the Mc tells the side character all of his secrets and the side character is still a mystery so the Mc doesn't ask because he's "scared" to make her mad. it just doesn't make sense to me. The lack of strength in the last 2 books are a problem as well. he barely gains any levels in these last 2 books. Also what i said about the double edged sword. it's about how weak everyone is the Mc doesn't really face any hardship throughout the series. some parts are also kinda corny with the narrator but you laugh at them.

Conclusion. This series is kinda of a must buy. it reminds me of the shield hero and virgils pact. With how the Mc is are transported to another world and the other heroes don't like him. So yea if you like Isekais you wanna get this, and we audible fans know it's hard to come by light novels.

excellent story and narrator

This is a amazing book and is well worth the credit used to buy it I would highly recommend to anyone who thinks it's interesting

It's "The Rising of the Shield Hero" 2.0!

Mr Plymel is obviously a fan of either the manga, light novel, or the anime of "The Rising of the Shield Hero". Because this is trying to be it's twin. But... I just so happen to be a fan of Shield Hero. So it's all good. I love Japanese Isekai light novels and anime. Isekai is my favorite genera period. I really wish there was more like the Japanese Isekai made by Western authors. Modern portal fantasy never seems to match up to what Japan puts out. I've not found it yet. Of course there are the classics like OZ, Narnia, John Carter, and others. But then it didn't really catch on in Japan till this century anyway.

I'm enjoying the story so far. I like the MC and his companions. I hope it continues to just get better. It's just the narrator's complete inability to do more than ONE voice is really dragging it down. I am afraid that it might end up being a death nail for me with this series. Guess I'll see.

Removing the narrator's current skill level:

Story-wise; this is more of what I've been looking for from Western authors. But it makes sense, because this story is written with quite a few Japanese tropes. The biggest one is the head pats. Unless I missed out on the whole American head pat thing growing up. lol

The story is an Isekai Harem. But it is not an Ecchi one. Which is really refreshing to not have to deal with the story being drug down with unnecessary smut. There are certain LitRPG elements; but it's not overdone, and makes sense within the story. I'm not a fan of endless stats that are in some of the LitRPGs. Please; just give me the important stats and get back to the story! This one does a great job of giving me a lot of what I love about Japanese Isekai novels and anime.

The world build is slow, but good. The characters are being developed nicely. They diversity of the MC and the ladies' personalities are a nice range. There are interesting antagonists along the way. With a sinister main antagonist being built in the shadows. Which makes me want to find out more about it as the story progresses. A great villain makes or breaks a story. I thought the MC was going to be OP within a short span of the story. But that has not been the case. He and his companions have not just ran through every obstacle. Their path has not been in "god mode" by any means.

BUT... the swapping the first person narratives constantly is the most frustrating part. It probably isn't an issue if you're reading this. Maybe isn't an issue if you never have any distractions while listening. But if you listen while working, driving, and doing other activities... one distraction can suddenly throw you into complete confusion when you miss it announce that it's suddenly another person's perspective. Which means I have to suddenly try to rewind to a place where I feel I'm good at, to listen again. This isn't a viable option when I'm working. I don't have time to just stop and fiddle with other stuff. But that's probably just a "me thing". I don't like being interrupted while working period. So, I am not a fan of this narrator. Which means I will never give this series a 5 star rating. No matter how much I love the story; and how it checks pretty much all of my boxes of what kind of stories I enjoy the most.

So in conclusion: the main issue is the poor narrator. I'm sure he's a nice guy. He's probably living his dream job of narrating books too. But he has a LONG LONG LONG way to go to be good at it. I wish him the best. I hope he progresses to become a top narrator. But right now he's (at best) at level 1! He "attempts" to change his voice somewhat for the female characters. But it isn't long before he's using his regular voice for everything. Occasionally using his "slight" variation of his voice for a male character (and not the female). He has as close to zero range as you can get. Which means the story is way better than he is capable of presenting it. I can only assume that this was his 1st time ever attempting this. But if this is his dream job... I hope he gets some training or something that helps him improve. Because I will be extremely hesitant to buy any other books if I see his name attached.

Poor Narration

As the title states the narration is done poorly in my opinion. It really made it difficult to tell half the time which character is speaking.
I do give the narrator props for trying, though it appears they need to brush up on their voice acting. It detracted from what could be a good story.

a combo of anime

this story was a combo of the rise of the shield hero and artifura weakest to the strongest animes but has enough difference to make enjoyable to listen to

The False Hero

Great story, I got invested in the world and it's characters rather quickly. Definitely a great value.