Book Of The Dead

I have read a lot of necromancy-based stories on here, and a lot of litrpg's as well. So far, I would consider Book of the Dead to be the best interpretation of necromancy that I have seen, and one of the better litrpg systems. If I had to point out a problem, though, it would quite obviously be the inconsistency of many of the characters.

Style: this is a huge departure from RinoZ's previous story, Chrysalis, and I personally view that as a good thing. Specifically, Book of the Dead is much more serious and played straight, not spending much time on comedic narration or banter (although that still does exist at times, and when it does it is just as excellent as it was in Chrysalis). 

The way necromancy is shown, with all of its unpleasantness and all of its grittier aspects, is really well done. There is no skip into "ok, there's a zombie now." How do you get a body, how do you perform the spell? Is a spell that creates artificial life really that easy to cast? Is a zombie really that useful of a servant? Is commanding undead really that easy? Is sneaking off in the middle of the night to do all of this really that easy?

The story answers all of that and more, although there is one important detail that it doesn't answer that makes me hold off on the 5/5 rating. With all of the mentions of how difficult spellcasting is, and how skilled one has to be to perform it, it's really jarring how little we are told of how the spellcasting actually works. There's a glyph that you draw, and there are things that you say. Ok, and? Anything about the language of drawing glyphs, the different materials used in their creation (that we have been told is important, but not really how or why)? Anything about why saying things out loud is important, what language the chants are in, and how the fuck anyone could memorize an hour-long spell chant? Normally I would gloss over this, but since the story keeps telling us that our MC is special specifically because of his skill in these aspects, and that it's incredibly difficult despite that, it feels a bit weird to leave out any details entirely.

Story: so far, not much has happened story-wise, so I'll use this space more than anything to talk about the setting which shapes the story. I really like how the litrpg aspects are baked into the world, life revolving around them to some degree and yet still being mostly the same as what you would expect. I like the thought that has been put into what it would feel like to have your body instantly get stronger through levelling up, and how disorienting it would be. I like the concept of forbidden classes, and how the world deals with the fact that people who get them often can't help the fact that they got them. In general, the integration of the litrpg aspects, and how the story uses them when our MC becomes a necromancer, is really well done.

Grammar: I have seen a lot of stories rated 5/5 grammar on here, whose grammar was horrendous. This is not one of them. I don't remember seeing any mistakes when I read through the 20 chapters currently out at the time of writing this review, but I could be misremembering slightly. Either way, it doesn't interfere whatsoever with the experience.

Characters: And here we come to my main problem with the story. A lot of the characters, whether the MC, his friends, the mayor, etc. feel really inconsistent, acting in whatever way the story needs them to and attributing it to as of yet unexplained portions of their backstory. Another reviewer mentioned how every person opposing the MC is made an asshole so that we don't have to feel that the MC is the bad guy (he is, albeit an understandable one), so I'll instead go over something else that bothered me: the justification he was given for why he received the necromancer class.

Wthout spoiling exactly what was said, the MC is given an explanation by the system of why he was chosen for the class he was when he receives it. This explanation describes aspects of his personality and his desires, that were up to this point neither shown nor alluded to in any respect. Sure, they would make sense given his background, and after reading this explanation the MC agrees and starts to act more in line with its description of him, but those personality traits never appeared before and even gave the impression of the opposite being true. If this is all some big brain play to show us how much his class is corrupting him, though, ignore everything I said in this portion of the review.

Overall, I actually really enjoy this story and am super excited to see where it goes. It has the potential to be an incredibly good story, and I'm hoping it can live up to that promise. While it's not without its bad points, no story on here is, and they're not jarring so as to make the good aspects of the story not shine through.

So first a quick not about the TAG's they are all there for a good reason, but none of the sexual content has been particularly graphic more of a we know who is sleeping with who.  The gore however is a much larger part of the story, necromancy as it turns out involves dead bodies, and preparing those dead bodies for reanimation can be gross.  The profanity is there, some charicters swear a lot others barly at all in the case of the main charicter it mostly amounts to well shit, he swears more as the story progresses and blasphemes a bit as well though none of his worlds gods seem to be our worlds gods so that's likely not a problem for most people.  The Big one is the tramatizing content, this story is pretty dark, if your not on board with what I've writen so far you are probably not going to enjoy this, we start with Tyron's social anxiety and abandonment issues and the fact that there likely wouldn't have been a plot if his parrents were actually around a bit more.  Then we move on to being betrayed and hunted relentlessly for what you are despite wanting to help people and we round out book one by learning that the entier system Tyron grew up wanting to partisapate in is just a menes of control used to keep anyone from getting strong enough to take power for themselves, and coincidentaly get strong enough to actually fix the slowly dying world... then book two get's dark.

TLDR;

Great story about necormantic magics - 10/10 (best I've seen)

somewhat weak on-the-run adventure - 5/10 (average)

variable quality in character development  - 6/10 (some good characters, some bad)

The story follows a fledging necromancer and his harrowing escape from the law of the land intent on making his life a living hell.

I'll split the story into 2 main categories; the necromancy, and everything else.

If you're looking for a story that gets into the nitty gritty details of necromantic magic this book (of the dead) is positively perfect. The main character, Tyron, is one of the best "methodical/genius/bookish/researcher" mages I've seen put down on page thus far. Many stories will say how technical their mage-in-training is, but very rarely will they follow through with the actual details of the magic.

I'd like to commend the author for never losing focus of Tyron's core personality throughout the story. He's a highly technical individual, and that aspect of his personality shines brightly in every corner of his decision making. This works wonders when actually learning the minutia of necromantic magic, and is the strongest part of the story by a mile.

-- Now let's discuss everything else, the plot progression, the character development, and the various writing techniques brought to bear--

The plot progression is by far the most controversal aspect of this story and is the main reason I've given it a 3.5 stars. I want to preface this dicussion by saying it's not about what happened, it's about how various plot points collided with the story.

Without revealing anything, there are some glaring problems with the behavior of some characters and their influence on the plot. There are times when a character is setup a certain way and acts in a completely different manner to serve and progress the plot in what feels like a lazy/shoe-horned method. The author tried to tidy up the various plot holes and character inconsistencies in the epilogue of book 2, but it felt like a patchwork job. There are some big reveals at the end of book 2 that didn't have proper structure to make them make sense, so they collapse under any kind of scrutiny.

The on-the-run story is not a new genre, the most famous of them all being Lord of the Rings. There's a glaring problem that Book of the Dead fell into when writing an on-the-run story, there's no downtime. In LotR there are various points in the story where the characters are in a temporary sancturary, this gives the audience/readers time to reset their expectations for the characters and resolve internal conflicts within them. Building back that tension helps with keeping the story exciting.

Book of the Dead never stops, there is no downtime. Tyron is constantly on edge and on the run. Keeping the tension turned to 11 for the whole story does the opposite effect. It makes the readers bored, there's no variety. The beginnings of the story gets a pass, but it became more and more inexcusable as the story went on.

Overall there are some really strong aspects to this story, and some extremely detrimental problems as well. There are plenty of people I'd recommend this book to regardless, because of how well done the good parts are.

I am a huge fan of RinoZ's other work, Crysalis, and I cant help comparing the start of this story to his other work.  I figure doing so is valid as many of the readers will be coming here from that work.

The start of the story is definitely heavier than how Crysalis started, with the MC seeming to be a good kid, if somewhat a loner.  He gets thrown in the deep end when, on the once a year ascension day, he is given a forbidden class and the dark gods double down and include an anathema class on him as well.  

How he reacts, and how friends and family reacts is yet to be seen, and will be what sets the tone for the entire story.  

From a technical standpoint, the quality is excellent, as I have come to expect of RinoZ.  I am already deeply drawn into the story and really want to see how the characters develop.  The grammar is good and the flow of the story has me excited for the next chapter.

It is a bit early to give a final judgement for this story, it is only the third chapter after all.  My hope is it will lighten up a bit since I don't particularly like my escapism to leave me depressed.  That said, I look forward to seeing where the story goes.

Grammar is great, world building is great, characters are great, If you can't tell I love this story and after reading the epilogue for Book 2 I hyped to see where the story goes.

Only thing that really bothered me n this story was how long it took to get some good development with Tyron's character but I truly recommend this story to read.

It is first and foremost a good fantasy story, a bit on the darker side. A bit of eldritch horror goes a long way.

There's an interesting tug of war between higher powers , which kind of feels like politics at some times , but the very interesting litterature kind.

Characters are very well defined and lifelike, there aren't any moments where you feel the novel is wasting time with unnecessary characters or interaction. Love them or hate them, the author manages to make you feel fully what he wants you to.

Neither time nor words are wasted here.

A great binge read.

This story comes out and hits the ground running. I don't like reviewing stories early but I want to boost this and the elephant in the room Rino's other story can attest to the continued quality.

Technically well put together the language flows smoothly and is a staple of a well-established author.

And the story. The premise is great and the execution is perfectly done.

I can't wait to find out how the story will progress from here and I really hope it doesn't drop in quality from its initial premise.

Edit: 30 chapters later and it still lives up to the hype. Please check this story out.

This is not a story with some edge and needless gore
this is genuinely dark, but also much more
the lead is given one chance to embrace a darker path
he takes it even though he may one day face some gods’ wrath

Beyond that, I won’t spoil the nature of his decision 
but he is a character crafted with precision 
at first glance he’s a happy little villager with friends
but he wishes to see how far that darker path extends

Aside from the lead, all the characters feel deep and real
they’re unique and each is going through their own ordeal
I like the way they interact and dialogue is good
based on their established roles they function as they should

The story is just getting started but it’s feeling great
a dark world is being revealed slowly, and I can’t wait
it seems like it’s going to be dark but not edgy
the lead tends not to take his moral decisions lightly

The grammar is alright, it’s light, and it gets the job done
I think it will be more than good enough for everyone
it feels written by someone with some experience 
and so far it all flows well and everything makes sense

The style is fairly simple, it’s straightforward in a way
the action sometimes feels like a narrative play-by-play
I like it though, it’s smooth and has a slightly darker tone
the author seems to have a style that’s theirs and theirs alone

Overall this is a solid start to a great book
it starts off quite standard but it has a nice dark hook
when consequences for the choices made come into play
we’ll be in for many a dark and exciting day

I'm going to keep it simple. This story had a lot of promise and I think it could arguably still develop into something really good, but I'm at the point where I no longer care to find out. 

Magic system seems reasonable enough and the explanations generally seem rational for most of it. There's enough mystery and potential there so it's a very solid foundation. That said, you'll ultimately have to suspend your disbelief when it comes to the whole concept of banned classes and what amounts to a governmental ruling party that somehow controls the most powerful humans in the world. There is quite a bit that hasn't been explained, and at the glacial pace of the novel, it may be years until we get any semblance of an answer.

The weakest aspect of the story is the main character and the constant situations he finds himself in that beggar belief. The author seems to have written a very powerful character companion for him that is essentially acting as a crutch to keep the MC alive as he bumbles his way into lethal scenarios that he is largely and consciously responsible for. It's a bit like an adult trying to keep a toddler from accidentally killing themselves. The MC is supposed to be some magical prodigy and initially seems to act with logic and reason but we quickly find out that the constant betrayal and attempts on his life do NOTHING to change his outlook on people and his approach. He fails to learn from his experiences and does not adjust his actions accordingly, which ends in nothing but frustration. 

The series has a strong start, but boy does having a 

Really sap all the energy from the story.

I'll come back to this when book two is finished to see how things pick up.

There's nothing terrible about this series at all, I just can't deal with the spoiler items above.