Overall an interesting story and concept. The writing in the first two books is bogged down by repetitive grinding and eating, an obsession with the itchiness of evolution, and overall fairly low/no stakes with no real chance for the MC to lose and no long term plot or objectives being worked on. Mostly just “a thing happens then another thing happens”. However book 3 finally gets a stride, with building high stakes conflict, a compelling cast of side characters, and a rewarding and enthralling conclusion.
I don’t personally find the MC to be too likeable, he’s not particularly clever and just seems to grind his way to OP upgrades. It was good to finally see things that could challenge him in the 3rd book.
I would not recommend the series purchased as individual books, however if you get the box set and are down to grind through it to book 3, it has good payoff. I think I’ll give book 4 a shot, but it’s teetering on the edge for me.
I will say, I came here from Dungeon Crawler Carl because of Jeff Hayes, and his performance does not disappoint – although the cast is much smaller and doesn’t quite give him the same opportunities to shine as DCC.