The voice-acting and writing was fine. It has the typical progression fantasy elements to it (skills, leveling, etc.) It’s not a bad book. It just feels slow and dull.
I’m writing this review 10 chapters from the end, because I can’t continue any longer.
The book starts off strong and with an interesting idea: science vs magic. The MC is a grad student working towards their science PhD when he gets teleported to a fantasy world. There he uses his knowledge/ reasoning to save himself and escape a powerful mage. Afterwards, he meets an adventuring party with interesting characters that helps him. We learn of a war between an magic, racist slave empire and a small independent city that helps people escape slavery.
So far, so good right? But then the story pretty much grinds to a halt. MC settles in the city and joins an entirely new group. The entire book is spent on training/acclimating to the new world and nothing interesting really happens. We don’t hear about the archmage much or the greater conflict with the empire. I’m sure something major happens probably in the last 10 chapters that I won’t be reading.
Story-wise, this book is dull and boring. I like the Antimagic stuff and the (too) few instances of science/technology knowledge being used. I also liked the other conflict in the story between the guild reformers and traditionalists. I found the focus on MC building social currency and favors and the whole “trading knowledge to build power” very interesting. But overall, the story is weak and uneventful.
Also, for anyone interested, this book features a lot of progressive ideals. The male MC likes guys and will spend time describing how hot some dude is. There’s a lot of disdain for “macho” behavior and the book likes to point out how dumb it is. MC spends a lot of time in the book justifying his “rage” against the empire because of how supremacist they are and how they enslave others. I only mention this because at some points, it seemed kinda like virtue signaling.
Anyways, the book is mid AF. It doesn’t take the main premise far enough and nothing major really happens in the book.