Book 1, Ritualist: Completionist Chronicles

The prologue almost kept me from this book, but I decided to give it a try and was glad I did. This is an interesting job and will be interesting to see how he progresses. I totally recommend the book, but skip the prologue.

The book starts very much like D.Rus's AlterWorld. This story is better written through. I would have given this book 5 stars if it wasn't for the fact that the main character's backstory is just not very believable and an awkward choice for the author to use since it fell so flat - exposing it for the plot device that it is. The MC is not a convincing ex-military man. He is suppose to be someone who has seen battle, suffers a very traumatic and life-altering injury but as soon as he is inside a game, he seems unbelievably naive and nonchalant about the dangers that are around him. Would an ex-military who have seen combat, who is probably suffering from some form of PTSD, go through hostile territory completely distracted, reading his character sheet that obscures his field of view? These are the kind of dumb mistakes badly written characters do in those B Horror movies.

The main character, Joe, strikes me as someone young, or someone who has been very sheltered. It would have been a better choice if the author has created a backstory that fits the character...something like Joe is a medical student who was badly injured in a car crash. This would have lined up all the elements that the author wanted to use...such as the fact that Joe has medical knowledge and that his real life was unlivable due to physical injuries without trying to create this dramatic backstory that is so unbelievable that it was hard for me not to be annoyed with Joe when he does not behave like someone with his history should behave.

After the halfway mark, mention of his backstory lessens and we move onto further challenges. At this point, the story gets better and Joe does seem to become more effective against what's around him. Overall, it was entertaining if you can ignore the discrepancy that I have mentioned above. I have read the authors other books and have enough faith in her that she will eventually spin a good story.

I had just finished the first three Divine Dungeon books; and was interested in reading Dakota Krout’s other books. He is sneaky by the way, I will not elaborate other than read the Devine Dungeon series first!

This book was a wild and seriously fun adventure into a new world. The characters are tangible and the lead is incredibly fleshed out. Heh. If you love adventure, root for the underdog, or have ever played any rpg games (table top, paper and pen, or video game), I guarantee you will enjoy this book.

I tend to speed read when I enjoy a good book. That being said, I have read 4 of Dakota’s books in two weeks. No I don’t have loads of free time either. I am a full time employee, mom, daughter, friend, and helper of whoever needs it. I have spent the majority of my free time, and part of my sleep reading his books.

I have become an addict to Dakota Krout’s work, my husband will attest to this. I would read while he drive us anywhere hehehe.

Momma-saurus, real name Suezilla, hidden class Book Addict has gained the following:
-1 to reading other authors, -1 to paying attention to people while reading, -1 to being interested in doing anything other than reading, +10 to enjoyment of literacy

Thank you Dakota Krout for your imagination and wit. Keep up the the phenomenal work sir. I wish nothing but the best to you and Cal ^_~

Thank you the store for Kindle Unlimited! I no longer have to scrimp and save, hunt through libraries (and acquiring Kate fees for forgetfulness) or used books stores to feed my book reading needs.

A well written but not innovative story.
As such its a step down from "Dungeon Born".
That would normally get it a 4/5 rating.
What knocks it down to 3/5 is the sheer, monumental, egregiousness of the prologue.
Just to make it a bit worse, he writes himself (by name) into chapter one
He has a uncommon name so it sort of pokes us in the eye.

Why his editor let him get away with this I don't now.

If you buy this, skip the prologue.
-Dad

This was great, a prime example of well done LitRPG.

The only rough parts are the first two chapters (which were strange to read and just didn't seem as well written as the rest of the book), and a couple times where mistakes were made (strength instead of constitution, some numbers being wrong (obviously copied from earlier in the book and then pasted without updating)). Apart from that, seeing the skills with some descriptions like 1% + 1n% with n=skill level were annoying, it's fine to see the formula once when a skill is first introduced, but when they're rank 9 the author should just say 10%. That's it. Those were only complaints about the book.

Like many books in this genre, the main character gains special rewards for being the first to do a thing and gains unique advantages. This has always been one of my greatest peeves with this genre, because it has regular people playing an online game and I can tell you I absolutely refuse to play a game so blatantly unfair. Unlike many books in this genre, this one actually justifies this, which is delightful.

With Ritualist Dakota Krout turns out another well crafted, well polished Lit RPG adventure. This first installment of the story of Joe, a wounded warrior with a penchant for getting into trouble alongside a relentless drive to learn and experiment was enjoyable start to finsh.

Characters were well written, likeable, and had a sense of being real people with goals and flaws. I particularly enjoyed Krouts interpretation of sub standard stats. Take that min-maxers!

World was interesting and seemed well thought out. That is both the game world and the reasons for players being so heavily invested are solidly thought out. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the world and learning more of its lore in later installments.

I only have a couple small quibbles with Ritualist. Joe's need to keep his class secret seems to fade into the background a lot of the time. NPCs exposed to rituals either don't recognize them or don't care. This wouldn't be a problem but after rereading the the store book blurb the dangers of being revealed are sold as being the central focus which could lead to mismatched expectations.

There was also a jarring moment where the main character has a one line outburst excoriating 'equality of outcome' as tyranny in regard to a problem that only seemed tangentially related to most definitions of equality of outcome. It's not unreasonable for the main character to have an opinion on this but here it seemed out of place and weirdly vehement like the author had been binging political content and got up a head full of steam before sitting down to write. Just odd and took me out of the story for a second.

Minor issues aside, I hearty recommend Ritualist to any and all Lit RPG fans and am excited to follow Joe's adventures going forward!

This was my first LitRPG book. I usually avoid the genre, though I am a gamer. Tbh, I only read it because it was free on KU and was tagged in Cyber Punk. I saw the magic guy on the cover and thought: Magic Cyber Punk? Sure!

This is a smoothly written, entertaining read. Nothing that happens is of all that consequence though. The (spoiler: "permanent") transition from meatspace to cyberspace lacked any sort of emotional impact. But the tone of the book is lighthearted so I think that was the intent. It was fun to read a fairly stress-free book, where even the main conflicts weren't all that serious. At certain points, I realized I was reading about someone grinding in an RPG... Perhaps the most boring part of any RPG, and asked myself: why am I doing this? These battles aren't important, it's just for XP. The book almost lost me in the 3rd quarter, as there wasn't a central conflict through the whole book. Still, the ending was exciting resulted in a big change for the game world. Maybe this is what all LitRPG books are like. Maybe it's not. But this one is pretty good.

I really enjoyed this book. The author, a favorite of mine, produced a clear and exciting book to read. I will definitely buy the next one. I just hope the series comes out at a rapid pace.
Pros: An interesting main character, not over-powered, at least not yet. He has to work for what he gets.
Interesting and realistic side characters, though they aren't yet important to the plot
Cons: the intro sequence seemed very familiar. The 'Terms and conditions' seemed very similar to ...Hero of Thera by Eric Nylund? Anyway, this genre is very self-similar, so a lot of that can be brushed past. Only so many ways to be stuck in the game.
Weird: It starts out with a Core, and then we hear basically nothing about it for the rest of the book. Presumably this will come back?

This book shows Krout maturing as an author. He still can’t resist a clunky self-insertion at the beginning but it’s over quickly and soon forgotten. The very clear Elon Musk references are also clunky, if for no other reason than insisting on using Elon’s real name. Once you get past that, however, the book becomes a lot of fun. Unlike other readers, I personally identify with gaming without reading the wiki because I will get to wrapped in what I’m doing that the outside structures that exist are forgotten. However, after he’s been surprised or disadvantaged a couple of times, one would expect such a research based character to just read the damn thing already.

A serious and continuing problem I have is Krout continued ableism. Now, this probably wouldn’t be so rough if I hadn’t read the dungeon series where “physical defects” such as a lost hand or really being anything but a super “perfect” superhuman are looked down on and literally magicked away. But once again Krout uses physical disability as a crippling weakness that must be gotten rid of. Granted, becoming a paraplegic as a result of a traumatic incident would cause most able bodied people to respond in a similar way, so I don’t fault his handling of this one. It’s just a repeated them in his books that casts a dark shadow over his works. So heads up on that.

Now... if we have Cal, where is Danny. Sneaking around with a robotic voice maybe???

Other than an odd and off-putting prologue dealing with an alternative version of Elon Musk, this was a great book. The protagonist, a medic named Joe, becomes paralyzed and permanently enters a virtual world so he could continue to experience mobility. He is a great character - intelligent, caring, yet not perfect by any means. This book had no unpleasant surprises and was a delight to read and came to a satisfactory conclusion - something many litRPG authors neglect. I have read most (certainly not all - there are a number of authors I avoid from experience) of the litRPG novels available on the store and this was the best introduction to a new litRPG series I have read in the last six months or more. I highly recommend it.

This falls into the LITRPG group. Specifically main character is special or over powered.

Here Joe isn't OP just special. Special class etc. You see this at the start so I won't say more on that.

We follow Joe as he learns this new world and how to interact with it. This feels less like a regular LitRPG than a fantasy story that uses some computer game modeling for convenience.

I was surprised how much I like the character, the support characters, and special entities in the book. I read the book rapidly smiling in several places. It definitely is a feel good book.

I highly recommend it 5 stars from me.

Another win from Dakota Krout. If your like LitRPG, you will love this.

Joe is a mained soldier who gets a chance at a second life with a permanent placement into a game created under suspicious circumstances. His actions at the beginning of the game draw notice of a deity who offers him a unique class that will make him over powered but with enough drawbacks to keep the story ballanced.

There are enough numbers and stats to be considerred crunchy, but not so much that it gets in the way of the story.

I believe this is going to be a Flagship series of western LitRPG, along with other staples like Viridian Gate, Chaos Seeds, and Dragon's Wrath.

This was my first LitRPG book. I usually avoid the genre, though I am a gamer. Tbh, I only read it because it was free on KU and was tagged in Cyber Punk. I saw the magic guy on the cover and thought: Magic Cyber Punk? Sure!

This is a smoothly written, entertaining read. Nothing that happens is of all that consequence though. The (spoiler: "permanent") transition from meatspace to cyberspace lacked any sort of emotional impact. But the tone of the book is lighthearted so I think that was the intent. It was fun to read a fairly stress-free book, where even the main conflicts weren't all that serious. At certain points, I realized I was reading about someone grinding in an RPG... Perhaps the most boring part of any RPG, and asked myself: why am I doing this? These battles aren't important, it's just for XP. The book almost lost me in the 3rd quarter, as there wasn't a central conflict through the whole book. Still, the ending was exciting resulted in a big change for the game world. Maybe this is what all LitRPG books are like. Maybe it's not. But this one is pretty good.

I really enjoyed this book. The author, a favorite of mine, produced a clear and exciting book to read. I will definitely buy the next one. I just hope the series comes out at a rapid pace.
Pros: An interesting main character, not over-powered, at least not yet. He has to work for what he gets.
Interesting and realistic side characters, though they aren't yet important to the plot
Cons: the intro sequence seemed very familiar. The 'Terms and conditions' seemed very similar to ...Hero of Thera by Eric Nylund? Anyway, this genre is very self-similar, so a lot of that can be brushed past. Only so many ways to be stuck in the game.
Weird: It starts out with a Core, and then we hear basically nothing about it for the rest of the book. Presumably this will come back?

This book shows Krout maturing as an author. He still can’t resist a clunky self-insertion at the beginning but it’s over quickly and soon forgotten. The very clear Elon Musk references are also clunky, if for no other reason than insisting on using Elon’s real name. Once you get past that, however, the book becomes a lot of fun. Unlike other readers, I personally identify with gaming without reading the wiki because I will get to wrapped in what I’m doing that the outside structures that exist are forgotten. However, after he’s been surprised or disadvantaged a couple of times, one would expect such a research based character to just read the damn thing already.

A serious and continuing problem I have is Krout continued ableism. Now, this probably wouldn’t be so rough if I hadn’t read the dungeon series where “physical defects” such as a lost hand or really being anything but a super “perfect” superhuman are looked down on and literally magicked away. But once again Krout uses physical disability as a crippling weakness that must be gotten rid of. Granted, becoming a paraplegic as a result of a traumatic incident would cause most able bodied people to respond in a similar way, so I don’t fault his handling of this one. It’s just a repeated them in his books that casts a dark shadow over his works. So heads up on that.

Now... if we have Cal, where is Danny. Sneaking around with a robotic voice maybe???

Other than an odd and off-putting prologue dealing with an alternative version of Elon Musk, this was a great book. The protagonist, a medic named Joe, becomes paralyzed and permanently enters a virtual world so he could continue to experience mobility. He is a great character - intelligent, caring, yet not perfect by any means. This book had no unpleasant surprises and was a delight to read and came to a satisfactory conclusion - something many litRPG authors neglect. I have read most (certainly not all - there are a number of authors I avoid from experience) of the litRPG novels available on the store and this was the best introduction to a new litRPG series I have read in the last six months or more. I highly recommend it.

This falls into the LITRPG group. Specifically main character is special or over powered.

Here Joe isn't OP just special. Special class etc. You see this at the start so I won't say more on that.

We follow Joe as he learns this new world and how to interact with it. This feels less like a regular LitRPG than a fantasy story that uses some computer game modeling for convenience.

I was surprised how much I like the character, the support characters, and special entities in the book. I read the book rapidly smiling in several places. It definitely is a feel good book.

I highly recommend it 5 stars from me.

Another win from Dakota Krout. If your like LitRPG, you will love this.

Joe is a mained soldier who gets a chance at a second life with a permanent placement into a game created under suspicious circumstances. His actions at the beginning of the game draw notice of a deity who offers him a unique class that will make him over powered but with enough drawbacks to keep the story ballanced.

There are enough numbers and stats to be considerred crunchy, but not so much that it gets in the way of the story.

I believe this is going to be a Flagship series of western LitRPG, along with other staples like Viridian Gate, Chaos Seeds, and Dragon's Wrath.

Excellent LitRPG. The only reason it's four stars for me is the lack of consistent characterization of the main character at the beginning and the sudden leaps he takes into nerdiness when it's useful for the writer to include it in the Ritualist's story (telling, not showing how the main character spent his convalescence researching games and nerd culture). Not a big deal by any means and well worth reading for anyone looking for a good LitRPG and generally good story with enough subtle details for the observant reader to find foreshadowing for future plots. There's good humor with only a few adult jokes, a character excited to learn about the world, and enough mysteries to keep pulling you forward. If you don't enjoy video games, gaming, or LitRPG's, then don't pick up the Ritualist. I'd say high school readers and older can give this book a shot.

MC is a bit different than usual for litrpg. This was a fun read. The game mechanics are pretty great and I’m looking forward to seeing more of the connection to the divine dungeon series.

One criticism is that all of Krout’s books seem to have one character that is unreasonably aggressive. In this case it’s Tiona. She is a straight up a-hole for no discernible reason and it doesn’t seem to bother anyone else. The MC taking her constant yelling and distrust without comment doesn’t strike me as in character. The fact she is a party planner vs him being a combat medic and it’s even more glaring. Keeping her out of future novels would greatly increase my enjoyment.

While similar storylines abound, this is easily the most personable one I’ve read in some time. The protagonist is very likable, his behavior believable, and his interactions with everyone else are often amusing, and generally always interesting. The world design is fresh and excellent, with tons of content yet to see. Mysteries remain to be solved, both in and out game. The editing is also excellent, keeping a good story all good. This book is a great introduction to LitRPG for newcomers to the genre, and a welcome addition to the book shelf for any reader. Definitely Recommended.

I'm deducting .2 stars because the prologue is REALLY rough, and the opening chapters are only slightly less so.

Having read (and really enjoyed) this author's other books, I was fairly sure that I would like this one as well, and after the beginning chapters I was right. Once the MC gets into the actual game, the story smooths out and becomes really fun and enjoyable. The mechanics are well thought out and feel workable, the game world feels (mostly) well developed, and I can't wait to see more of it.

All in all a great piece of fiction and I wish the second book was out already.

You know... this book was pretty good. In my opinion, it's right next to the other popular LitRpg books like Way of the Shaman, AlterWorld, etc. It draws you in and keeps you reading.

I really liked Joe. He got pretty awesome skills and he can become a really powerful character but he isn't perfect. He makes many mistakes, learn from it and advance. Powers aren't handed to him left and right while doing nothing. He actually has to work for it, sometimes with very painful consequences.

I can't wait for book 2! Hope it comes out this year.

This was a great story, that being said there are a few things about it that are either a little hard to swallow like the MC's over-eagerness to end his life to become a permanent part of a game or obviously thrown in to advance the plot but, if you accept these things as necessary for the story to move forward it is a very enjoyable read. None of the characters are particularly deep but they are all likeable none-the-less. There are already literally hundreds of glowing reviews for this book so this is just my two cents; read this book.

I enjoyed the story very much. Felt original, and interesting. It kept me reading every chance I got.
The book stopped at a good point without cliffhangers.

Trying not to give spoilers so I will state this as succinctly and generally as I can - one thing that I didn't get and wasn't explained is why the MC didn't get good/better gear right away.

There are some grammatical errors and typos. The math isn't always correct, but I liked the story enough to overlook these things.

Wish book 2 was out so I could read it.

I really enjoyed this story of a combat medic playing a RPG game as a cleric who finds a book on ritual magic that anyone can use if they have the ingredients. The Mage College approval of any magic outside their control labels him a rogue. That song the Wanderer keeps playing through my mind every time they're mentioned. Idk Mr Musk involvement. I do see a spin off after a few more books in this series. May be you and Blaise Corvin can stagger your release dates so folks can recover from reading nonstop your stories.

My son, who is very much into litRPG introduced me to this author/book. As I started reading it, I thought "this isn't for me", for while I'm into RPG and do like playing, just talking about it always is not what I'm into....however, after the first few pages I realized, this is SO much more than just a 'litRPG' book! The author has a great way of bringing characters to life, and really sucking you in to the story. I highly recommend this to everyone!

From the moment I read the First Divine Dungeon book I knew Dakota Krout was my kind of Author. I almost always listen to books on Audible, but in that case the book wasn't out yet and I simply had to read what came next. From there I sought out his Patreon in order to get early access to some of these amazingly creative stories. So, what is Dakota's latest foray into LitRPG?

My very first LitRPG Book was Alterworld by D. Rus. Some would argue not the best example of litRPG but I absolutely fell in love with it precisely because of the outlandish things the Protagonist was able to get away with in the game. The ritualist had echo's of that in a way I have been missing from most other LitRPG books I've read recently. To me, the very best books in this Genre are 'soft'. There are rules and guidelines that govern Character progression and leveling, but so too are there ways to bend or even break some of those rules within the context of scenario and story (usually using divinity). I enjoyed the out-of-the-box thinking the protagonist employed. I love the Idea of the Ritualist class, and a new VR world, populated with AI but very much in it's infancy. The world does not know what it is yet, and I will definitely be along for the ride!

This is a book that will leave you wanting more