The Perfect Run

The Perfect Run, featuring Quicksave, takes a simple premise and removes the litrpg aspect present in the author's other fictions to focus on a much tighter story. The comedy is often very on point, the main character's irreverance comes off as fun or drives the plot forward instead of being annoying, it's just plain enjoyable to read. I love me some blue boxes, but the choice to not have that aspect in this story was absolutely the right one. It would've added nothing to the story and bogged it way down.

Quicksave's OP ability should make things boring and tension free. But I don't think there was a single action scene I didn't enjoy. Which is pretty telling when I find action scenes in books to often be boring even when written by accomplished authors. And the comedy actually managed to make me laugh out loud more than once.

You'll know pretty quickly if the style of humor and narration is for you only a chapter or two in. The author writes well, but some people hate an irreverent protagonist. Personally? I'm all for it.

This has turned into one of, if not my favorite, story on RR.

My main interest in stories has always been big picture plot and character, and this story really delivers on both.

The characterization of both the MC and the side characters is probably the best on the site. Throughout the story so far, there has never been an instance where I thought character motivations, pov, or actions have been flat from a characterization perspective. That's not to say that I haven't disagreed with some stuff, but I'm happy to disagree with stuff if it's in character

The plot for 2/3 of the words written so far, is super tight and focused. The motivations of the MC are very clear, and that drives the story and the plot tightly for a good way, but then we hit the first "bump" in the road, and after that the MC's motivations and the direction of the story kind of fuzz out. We still know what his endgame is "The Perfect Run", but everything else goes out of focus. Who knows though, maybe this is part of the set up to deliver a plot punch coming up and it just seems that way right now.

For those who put a lot of stock in it, the grammar is basically flawless.

As far as style, this story is technically well written but really has an "it" factor that many others on this site lack. Even Vainqueur didn't really have it, although I enjoyed that one too. He has taken this story to a whole new level, and I'm glad he did.

Ryan is a quirky, whimsical protagonist with the power of resetting and freezing time. Ryan lives in a parallel reality where the world has been ravaged by nuclear war and rebuilt into a dark, dystopian version of itself, the city of New Rome ruled by corporations and gangs of superheroes. Super powers are bought and sold and supers are hired help for basic jobs like delivery [what Ryan does for fun] to pushing pollution out of richer areas to anything imaginable really.

The world of The Perfect Run is dangerous, deep and replete with excellent, tasty detail, experienced by the readers as Ryan goes through restarts, dying often.

The book is particularly brilliant due to its dark comedy value imbued into it by writing talents of Voidherald, which I personally greatly appreciate as quality comedy is hard to find. Books that make readers laugh at every page aren't an easy task, but Void manages it with every novel.

Ryan's super power forms/creates his core character flaws - the inability to die makes Ryan treat the world like a videogame and makes him an adrenaline junkie and the fact that time constantly resets makes him unable to truly connect with other people.

Readers can relate to Ryan because he is a bit out of this world - his power lets him experience a lot of life and thus he's a nerd with an appreciation for the lost art of video games and movies, while the antagonists in this book are busy struggling for power/wealth.

Stylistically, like the rest of Void's work this book is superbly written and without any grammatical errors. It's easy and fun to read as the narrative flows incredibly smoothly from one event to the other. Void is a writing wizard and I say, write more damn it! Void is one of the pillars which holds up Royal Road with work of consistent quality.

It's not often that I get to illustrate a book that I really love. Making a cover for The Perfect run was an easy task and a delight because I was already immersed in this universe.

Considering it is from Void Herald, it would be strange, if this one didn't become a mastepiece as well.

In the first chapter, we already have got a slight sense of what kind of world were in. A world of crazy superpeople with crazy superpowers, it also seems to be on earth, though not on our earth, obviously. Whether this is a Litrpg remains to be seen. And while I would greatly appreciate it, if it were, there is nothing wrong with 'normal' superhero stories.

The MC seems to have some overpowered superpowers which reminded me of a certain manhua: Checkpoint. The MC of this story though certainly will be much stronger.

From the get go, the story dives right into an action-packed narrative with witty dialogue and first-class characters. 

The story's point of view is from Ryan Romano a.k.a. Quicksave, who, like the video game reference, is able to save and reset his life everytime he dies. Part Ground Hog Day, part Deadpool, the Perfect Run explores an post-apocalyse superhero, supervillian Europe. 

I particularly enjoyed how to author peels away layers in each chapter, revealing the MC's world that is well thought out and consistent, ticking off all three ingredients of world building - imaginary, alternate realities, and actual locations. With each loop, we learn more about the characters around him, their unique powers and stories. 

A delightful read, satisfying at all angles.

Edited at Chapter 59 for clarity.

What? This story is unbelievably good. Like, what the hell?

I'll be honest, I didn't really like the author's prior works. The dragon one got off the rails all the time and was quite focused on weird sexual stuff. Not my kinda fiction.

The necromancer one just seemed a bit boring to me. No fault of the author's, just not to my taste.

This, though? This is freaking gold. I love this story so much, even more so since I know the author will finish it as he has done with his other stories.

More than worthy of full marks, in my opinion.

I am only two chapters in so far, but it has already caught my eye. Stories with a quicksave mechanic are difficult to do correctly. Oftentimes they just devolve into nonsensical adventures with no actual plot, but so far this one has checked all the boxes.

-The main character recognizes the absurdity of his life and is as carefree as you would expect, pretty much treating everything like a videogame (referring to smaller tasks as "side quests" and such, although so far there are no actual game mechanics which I'm fine with). However, there are already the beginnings of a larger plot brewing, so my hope is that he does not get too caught up in his side adventures.

-The world seems to be kind of cyberpunk but with superpowers, which is pretty cool as far as I'm concerned. Cyberpunk isn't exactly original, but there can be some pretty great stories set in it. Also, the author doesn't seem like he's going to take a completely traditional approach in regards to the genre.

-And of course, the MC's style is just impeccable. Just look at the cover.

We'll see how it goes, but I'm optimisic. Void Herald has proven he can write stories with a good balance of humor and seriousness before. Those skills will definitely come in handy for a concept like this. If this story is anything like his others them it will be an enjoyable time.

54 chapters in (because that's all s/he wrote so far). It was a good day. I just wanted to find out what happened next - each chapter. 

just when I thought I would stop, it sucks me back in ... Oh yeah, and the pop culture references.

great world building.I am enjoying learning about the context and the wars and the tech. the "potion/magic system" is fascinating. It is interesting that the powers are on or off - there doesn't seem to be any development in power, only in the skill of leveraging the power that suddenly exists.

I am curious about how deep the author is intending to go into the lore of the system - can the geniuses reverse engineer the various realms? What will happen with the black?

Good superhero style dynamics and banter. So many characters to like, especially the MC. He is extremely likable even if he is not morally inspiring. They are surprisingly human vs. tropes - even though the author is not shy about brashly playing with tropes. It makes the whole read more enjoyable.



I have zero thoughts on grammar and spelling - I don't notice or care either way. I just know if I enjoy the story. 

Such a great ride. Looking forward to more.

The story is interesting and is able to provide enough information to understand the plot, while still providing a sense of intriguing mystery about the story and the larger-than-life characters that seem to populate it. The worldbuilding is similarly revealed in a more natural manner, without feeling like a boring infodump. 

The MC has a crazy personality that may take some getting used to, but is quite entertaining if you just roll with it. It also makes more sense when you learn more about his powers, its implications and his backstory. The other characters are not common stereotypes and the author is able to make them seem like real people, rather than puppets that revolve around the MC and drive the plot forward. I especially like how the author is able to provide snippets of information about certain characters in an organic way that gives me enough information to be intrigued about them, without having to read an essay on them (e.g. Augustus).

The style and grammar are decent. There are some spelling errors, but most of them seem to have been found and mentioned in the comments and corrected by the author. Being willing to read and act on these comments meant I gave the book an extra star on the style score. 

Last, but not least, updates are regular and the author has finished multiple stories, rather than left them hanging.

It is still relatively new, so I will update this review as more chapters come in. Though it only has a few chapters written so far, it is a great story for anyone wanting to start a new story by an author who has a track record of completing books that he writes.

Review Initially Created when there were only 18 chapters. Updated now that there are 40 chapters.

Author is a genius at comedic sci-fi and fantasy.  Great worldbuilding, memorable MC, ok is supporting cast. 

Not as good as V&V from VtD - which shows the benefits having a straight man to blend with the comedic and disruptive MC.   Solid effort for any book - 5 stars on RR standards.