The Runic Artist

Blank Canvas

By: Ellake

Narrated by: Adam Stubbs, Mia Fothergill

Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them… when they stumble haphazardly into a foreign realm.

In a world where runes hold unimaginable power, mere mortal and gifted artisan Nate must harness arcane magic to navigate treacherous paths, reveal the hidden truths of his own past, and discover the workings of the illusive ‘System’.

No big deal.

Emboldened by only his penknife and a weirdly profound understanding of runic sorcery, Nate must uncover if the path he has been thrust upon may spare his earthly existence. After all, why only leave your mark on one world… when you might leave it on two?

©2024 Ellake (P)2024 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

Don’t force comments

I’m being forced to type 15 words so will just say that I enjoyed the story and am looking forward to a second book.

Great start to a new litRPG series

The Runic Artist: Blank Canvas is a great start to what promises to be an exciting new series in the litRPG genre. The story starts off in fairly standard way for the genre. Nate Weber, a young graffiti artist from down under, gets portalled (Isekai) to another universe where magic exists, were he gains a class and soon finds himself in a dungeon trying to figure out how this magic thing works. While the plot of the first book is pretty conventional for the genre, the execution is excellent. The pace is brisk and the progression through the first few levels is fast and exciting. The system itself is well constructed, diverging just enough from standard fare to be interesting while remaining familiar. For me, the biggest selling point of the book is Nathan himself and his characterization. He's very believable as a teen from earth, realistically out of his depth but still doing his best to adapt. I loved the fact that he's an artist, and how that affects his class selection and progression. It's so rare in this genre to get an MC who isn't a gamer living out his teenage fantasy. Nathan had goals and aspirations before finding himself in a new universe and he doesn't abandon his dreams or change his entire personality because he has magic now. Rather he adapts his magic and the system to work towards his artistic aspirations. The secondary characters are also great: distinct and vibrant.

Pure Art

Epic story of Nate with great power thrust upon him. Runes are very powerful in the world he is in.

Awesome

Okay so it did take me a few chapters to really get into the story but it was worth it, I completely enjoyed the story and characters but I do have to say that the MC is somewhat of a coward but it makes sense because of his upbringing and his preference of art over violence. Can't wait for the next one

This was fantastic

I love the story and plot. love the way the runic system works. Someone in another comment said the Mc was a coward and that's just not true. the beginning he has normal human reactions. if anything he didn't freak out enough in that situation. Anyways I loved the book and very excited for the next one

Took a Chance and was pleasantly surprised

Honestly took a bit of a chance but really enjoyed it, Over all i enjoyed the characters, I feel the stats could have been gone over slightly less and the "follow you're path become one with mana" bit was over done far to much. Other than that it was great and i plan to get the next in the series whenever it comes out.

Good story with less than perfect narration and writing.

TLDR: Good plot, engaging throughout. Writing was not bad but also not great. Male narrator not my cup of tea. Female Narrator was good. I will pick up the next book but as with all Royal Guard Publishing books I will do so somewhat warily.

For those of you with more time on your hands:

I did enjoy the story and some of the characters in this book. In my opinion, this is one of those series that you follow because you want to find out what happens next not for the quality of the writing and narration. The writing isn’t bad but it’s also not great. Unfortunately, it shares the same issues that a lot of the subpar LitRPG books that Royal Guard Publishing releases…

For instance, this book is not funny. The “jokes” are always forced at best and at worst the only way you know that the “joke” even exists is that the author has to tell you that the characters, “fall out of their chairs with uproarious laughter!!” Meanwhile, I’m thinking, “wait what are they laughing about?” Then I rewind and realize that the annoying sidekick character said his catch phrase for the fifth time in this chapter. Also, if the word “antics” is used more than once in a GameLit book then it’s almost always a red flag for the author writing characters or banter which are supposedly funny but are very much not.

Another example is when the characters are made aware of something, or even discuss that thing enough to make it totally obvious what conclusion to draw, and then two chapters later the MC is scratching their head and saying, “I wish I knew about this thing,” Making the reader/listener super frustrated. No one wants to follow an MC who is unintentionally dumber than they are. For whatever reason the lesser of R.G.P. books often struggle with giving the MC and the reader enough info to figure something out only to have the MC be stumped or just totally oblivious. It’s super annoying.

I could go on giving in depth examples but I’ll just leave it at one last common flaw which is that the secondary and especially the tertiary characters and locations all end up feeling like props or outlines that were never fleshed out. These less important characters are generic archetypes whose motivations are opaque. The scenery/locations don’t feel real or they aren’t fleshed out enough to give the reader/listener any true sense of place.

So what I’m trying to say is that if you’ve listened to a number of Royal Guard Publishing’s audiobooks and noticed that there’s a bit of a chasm between the well written books and the much larger portion of not so well written books, then this one does lean more towards the good ones, while still suffering from some of the flaws of the very much not so good ones.

As for the narration, it’s not that Adam Stubbs is bad at narrating. It’s that Adam Stubbs falls into the category of narrators like Daniel Wizniewski and Wayne Mitchell. Which is to say that while they can do the actual reading part with some skill, they seem totally unable to differentiate between a mundane description of some wallpaper, and the climax of the ultimate fight between good and evil. I say this because they will deliver both bits of prose with the emotional subtlety and discernment of an obviously well-used dildo sitting on your mother’s coffee table. Which is to say their performances are overwrought and hyperbolic for every single sentence of the entire book. Which ends up being too much for me by about the 4th sentence.

Adam Stubbs is by far a lesser evil than DW or WM, but he’s from the same neighborhood. Mia Fothergill did a fine job with the female voices and I would have rather had her narrate the whole book, but wcyd?

So finally, in summation this audiobook was entertaining and I will most likely give the next one a try, but depending on how discerning you are about your GameLit you might either think I’m crazy because this is one of the best LitRPG’s of the year, or you might think I’m crazy because this book needs a rewrite and a different narrator just to be listenable…

Or you might be like me and you’ve listened to every LitRPG and GameLit audiobook on Audible that is worth listening to and more than a few that aren’t and so you’re looking for books that don’t totally suck and will be entertaining while you wait for the next installment of the 35 other series that you will snatch up and devour as soon as they are released. If that’s you too, then give this one a try and you probably won’t regret it.

Super fantastic

This was a very exciting and fun story to listen to I found myself laughing out loud as I listened this is a story you will thoroughly enjoy

Pretty good but

Pretty good but why is he such a p&&sy . That is what I dislike most about this book mtfu im in the last 5 hours and his weakness shines why stand up to bullying if he’s gonna give in to others

great story amd world building

I got a code for a free copy but my review Is honest. this waa a great book it had all the ingredients if a great litrpg world building stats classes evolution intriguing characters and a family with. wicked sense of humor a must listen 10/10