Synopsis:
Life sucks when you’re a potato farmer.
That’s why Rin can’t wait to turn sixteen and conquer the nearest beginner dungeon. Only then can he acquire a powerful class in the Game of the Gods and begin the earnest grind to leveling up. With enough monster kills, he might even become someone truly strong, just like his father.
In a world where levels mean everything, it’s a perfect plan.
Until it all falls apart.
Review:
I read this book as a judge for Fanfiaddict for SPFBO XI. These are my personal thoughts and do not represent the thoughts of the whole team.
LitRPG is taking the book world by storm. Don’t believe me? Just stop by your local Wal-Mart or Target to see Dungeon Crawler Carl sitting next to the backlog from Colleen Hoover and James Patterson. It seems like every other week there’s a new crowd-funding campaign for an exclusive hardback of a previous bestseller or the next big thing. There’s so many good ones out there, but for every great book that finds its audience, there are a dozen tedious trips through stat after stat after stat. It also seems to me that there’s no exit plan for many of these series as well…as the main character continues to fight and level up ad nauseum.
So, I was initially a little hesitant to read Benjamin Barreth’s No More Levels, unsure of what to expect from the standalone volume. I’m more than happy to report that I had a blast with the book and would gladly recommend it for a fun indie read.
Standalone novels in the LitRPG genre are rare, so Barreth’s book stands out a bit. Frankly, if he wanted, there are plenty of avenues Barreth could take to continue the story he started in No More Levels, but with his comments after the conclusion of the novel, it’s clear that he took on the challenge of this book fully knowing he was bucking the trend of the genre. No More Levels largely succeeds in what it is, giving readers an entertaining time in a unique fantasy world.
No More Levels follows Rin as he’s about to turn 16 and will be able to finally hit a dungeon, get his first class and begin the process of leveling up. Unfortunately for Rin, he’s marked by a past he doesn’t even remember – an evil stepmother who wants to finally clear him out of the picture to make sure her legitimacy on the throne can’t be questioned. Faced with death, Rin is forced to choose the Cursed class, and is bonded to the god Craven. Up to here, the story is a fairly-standard LitRPG, but then Barreth takes Rin on an unexpected journey — what if your character can’t level up anymore? There’s some fun puzzles Rin has to solve and paths he goes down that people in his world haven’t trod before.
If I had complaints, there were still “stat info dumps” from time to time and it does bog down in the middle just a tad, but for me, those were minor complaints. I felt the propulsion of Barreth’s narrative pushing me from page to page, curious how Rin’s Cursed status would affect both him and those he interacted with.
No More Levels is a very clean read, so don’t expect the crude humor and language from other LitRPG offerings, but I don’t mean that in a bad way. It was wonderful being able to relax and just enjoy Rin’s story, with hints of a cozy story from time to time. In many ways, I might even classify this as Middle Grade/Young Adult in how the author frames the story. There are definite stakes for Rin as well as the world he lives in, but thanks to his unique skills and class, No More Levels is a lively and lighthearted book.
In the end, I couldn’t help but love No More Levels by Benjamin Barreth. As a standalone, it works tremendously well, taking Rin on a complete journey in just one book. I would definitely check out more works by Barreth in the future, even if they aren’t standalone.
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