Voidwalker

My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror #4

by Actus

The war between the Void and the Corruption rages on.

Damien and Sylph demolished the competition in the Kingsfront Interschool Tournament, taking home first and second place. Now, summer is upon them, bringing with it the promise of a much needed break.

Second isn’t content to sit around while they relax, and he isn't the only one scheming. While he works in the shadows, It Who Stills the Seas has vanished, leaving Damien and his friends beset by enemies on all sides.

At the same time, school life in Blackmist holds even more challenges. New faces arrrive, and they bring with them a threat that Damien had never expected.

There are too many moving parts to count, but they’re all slowly ticking away to the beat of Second’s plans. Damien is determined to stop Second – but handling an ancient evil might not be much easier than passing his next year at Blackmist.

Genres: Fantasy, Magic, Audiobook, Role Playing Games, Adventure, Comedy

382 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 20, 2023

About the author

Actus has been writing fantasy stories since the age of twelve, and he's been telling them since he could talk. He's currently working on three main series - Morcster Chef, Steamforged Sorcery, and My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror. You can find his works on RoyalRoad & Patreon as well as on Amazon.

In addition to his passion for writing, Actus is capable of clearing a two story building with a single jump. That isn't true, but writing about himself in third person gives Actus delusions of grandeur.

Reviews

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

It just gets cooler. The evil, the dynamics, the characters, everything is improving as the series goes along. This might be the longest sequel review I’ve given in a while.

4.4 🌟

[Callum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun entry

This was a good entry in a series that has become a great easy comfort read for me. The interaction between the characters still has the same charm and the overall plot moves forward interestingly.

Star deducted because I didn’t enjoy it as much as the last one for some reason — felt the fights were a little more repetitive. Also tired of the asshole dad trope and a little unsure about the cliffhanger. It ends in an interesting spot and I wanna read the next for sure but worried it’s gonna be a lot of MC faces a lot of grating oppression from the dad. I know you need something the main character is against or it’d lose all momentum but something about an MC suddenly being oppressed by every institution never works for me. I feel it’s a crutch that’s used to frequently and it may not be used here but a little concerned that’s the direction we’re heading in. Hope we don’t get Damien facing against his dad, the crown, Blackmist trapping him and him suddenly being powerless until he proves to them he’s worth working with it always just frustrates me.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly by far the weakest book in the series I‘ve read so far. And to clarify I have been a huge fan of book 1 till 3. But this is just disappointing. There is no progress in the romantic relationship. There is no real progress in the power department. There is a bit progress in terms of characters and in the story, but not enough for over 20 chapters. We are introduced to some new characters that fight the mc group a bit with no consequence whatsoever. Tbh I cant really pit my finger on what actually bothered me, but it just feels like I‘ve read through a lot of chapters without anything really happening. The event is a treasure hunt, but Damians dad wants to test/bother him, so he doesn’t get a single treasure. Then he ends up in the void meeting Moon and Herald, but barely learns Moons identity before getting sent back. This (only the void part) wouldn’t be bad if it didn’t take like 5 chaps filled with dialogue leading to nothing. If I really had to describe it - This only felt like half a book. Just something missing

[Cmoore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished listening to My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror, Damien's 4th book, Voidwalker... Initially from the publisher's description I thought it was just gonna be a bridge and filler material. And a lazy excuse for Actus to sell another book clearing the way to get to book 5. Boy was I surprised 😮 when it turned out that Voidwalker was actually an integral part of the storyline... And really, really good. Obviously Actus is too good to let their readers down like that.
It's sorta a bit like a slice-of-life adventure following Damien and Sylph when they're forced to take a break but in reality there's a lot goin-on and after that there's fighting, so much so that I just can't wrap my brain around the slice-of-life scenario the publisher had indicated that it was. Once again Peter Berkrot is my favorite narrator giving the listener a perfectly nuanced performance!

I love finding and sharing fun quotes:

"Our fists share stories our mouths could never make."

[Amalga Mat1on · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the Love of all that is good...

An editor and/or proofreader is desperately needed. I've ignored the errors for the past 3 books, from small grammatical errors to one's that had me unsure how a character's name is actually spelled because it was different several times.

In this book, I legitimately had no idea what grade the characters were in. They were either year two students, year three, both, or neither. Honestly, to see such a fun story be butchered by its own words is sad.

[Sundeep · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the slice-of-life stuff at Damien's village at the start of the book. That ended too soon though and it was back to training, politics, action, etc. Good to have the side-characters from last book persisting and some more added. The events at the end of the book was long expected - I didn't fully understand the magical foundation behind them, but it did move the plot along. Also, the confusion between year two and three was very jarring.

[aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am continuing to love this series! This fourth book in the series finds Damien and Sylph heading back to Damien's village for a nice beginning to the book. We find a little of Damien's home village and some of the characters there. I enjoyed the cozy feeling of this introduction to the book and then we get more of the action and intrigue along with power building that we've been getting so far. I look forward to more!

[Roberto Flores · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setting is failing the story.

This has a very intriguing storyline. It has well developed main characters that are very entertaining. It has cliche, tired tropes that litter every cultivating book. The academy, the teachers, the contests, the other students, they are all predictable and unoriginal.

[emad · Rating 5 out of 5]

same as before, an amazing read

This was my favourite out of the four I opened the book twice in total and now I’m finished that by itself tells how this book draws you in and keeps you hooked until the end When I read I always find myself figuring out what’s about to happen ahead of time but with this one it surprised me every time looking forward to downfall!

[Tom Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The weakest of the lot.

The plotline makes little to no sense. The only part that has a glimmer of the earlier books is at the beginning. The end it took a long time to read, as I could only read for short periods of time before I had to set it down.
My plan is to read the next one, but not the following unless there is significant improvement. Tom out

[Bonhomous · Rating 2 out of 5]

the characters are lacking depth of emotions.
In this book we have the MC finally reunited with his mother after having been parted for two years. Sheesh, I've seen sea cucumbers display more emotion.
the MC has been angry (although not all the time - it's not some angsty teenage drama) and sometimes happy. But that's about the entire range. It's pretty shallow.

[Uberbeeker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Give me more

Man, this is such a great series. You really have to read each book in order but wow why wouldn't you. Well crafted world with fantastic characters, not hard and gritty. Just wonderful.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice

Just read the series already. It's that good. It isn't the darkness and the unknown that should cause fear, cause they don't care about your fears...it's what perverts what is sacred that which should be feared.

[Annika Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it soooo so much. In my opinion it was one of the best in the series because it uses how the build up from the other books relationships and shows how much they trust each other now unlike when they were barely friends at all.

[MyDoRyS · Rating 1 out of 5]

Voice: 4 stars - Decent job, but some of the voices just sound the same.

Story: The idea was good but poorly developed. Too many segmented storylines, too much unnecessary convolution. Pitiful adults behaving like spoiled immature brats. Onto my next adventure, Happy Readings!!!

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely exhausted but I needed to finish this book

After what felt like the longest day at work all I wanted to do was sleep but I remembered that I still had more of this series to read. I downed a redbull at 9 pm just to finish this book because I loved it so much

[Ray Ritchey · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting

Good addition, we finally meet the heroes father, he seems a bit one dimensional. Slyph is nicely developed on her character.

[George Rokkos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, enjoyed the character interactions and world-building. The magic system was also great as well.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another

More twists and turns, with another solid book.
Awaiting the next one eagerly. Hopefully it comes out soon, I can't wait

[Brian Lins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ugh that cliff hanger tho.

[David Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story continues, it's interesting and fun, that's about it.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My latest comfort series has started to take a bit of a darker turn.

[Johnie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great one sitting read

I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who like LitRPG and progression type of books with lots of action.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story continues to be fun, but it does pretty quickly run into the problem of college age protagonist exhibiting more skill and power than century old teachers, which does annoy me.

[Ties · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good one.

[David Phipps · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my review for book 1 for my thoughts on the series as a whole.

[Nagendra Kumar Yadav T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Things got serious by the end

It got serious by the end of the book. Amazing friendship amongst the characters. It took some time for me to finish it, but I enjoyed it.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

More time with dad. A visit to an ancient city. Second returns and a visit to the Void.

[Matt Rizzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

His deadbeat dad is an ass…wouldn’t surprise me if he was cheating on Damien’s mom with the queen

[Vulpes · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10