The Tower of Aetherius: A Progression Fantasy

Odyssey of the Ethereal #1

by Jamie Kojola

Waking up as one’s video game avatar is no walk in the park—in fact, it’s a harrowing tower climb—in this witty isekai for fans of geeky, badass women.

When Aesca Lampi wakes up in the form of her character from Eldest Fantasy Wars Online, she’s annoyed by the historical inaccuracies. (Video-game-style scrolls? Really?) That is, until a building collapses on top of her, revealing she’s on a fantastical island centered around the impossibly tall, glowing Tower of Aetherius . . . with an array of dangerous creatures—including jaguar hybrids, velociraptors, and giant, flesh-eating lizards—in the way. (Oh, joy.)

OK, so she’s dead. Now what? In order to become a true Aetherian, Aesca is challenged by the god Aetherius himself to make her way through all one hundred levels of the tower and free the world from the tyranny of Oizys, Goddess of Misery. Aesca’s mission seems relatively simple: solve the puzzles, forge alliances, regenerate when killed, move on. But soon she’s involving herself in elf–human border negotiations and running from black vipers.

As the climb gets ever more harrowing and a host of deities begins to interfere, Aesca will need all her strength, cleverness, and wit—plus her trusty dragon-cat, Arkaziel—to ascend the levels and fight Oizys before it’s too late. And she doesn’t even have a help menu to assist her . . .

Genres: Fantasy

391 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 19, 2023

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird flash backs. Confusing progression.

[The Legend · Rating 5 out of 5]

I admit the summary made me a bit Leery. Honestly thought she was going to be a zombie from the way it was order and tons of political and talking. Feared it would be a bit bland and lack any spirit.

However, I was quite wrong and after the initial 'wake up' period all Isekai'd protagonist go through, it really kicked off. Now I might be a bit Bias due to the MC making a Fairy Tail reference once she realized she can summon weapons out of her inventory but this character is really a fresh take.

Now there are lots of books with plucky smart mouth and wise cracking characters but this one is quite good. Plus the whole Minnesota thing is hilarious, the nice and polite vibe and accent in the Audible version conflicting with the moments of swearing and gumption.

My favorite part though has to be, the character isn't a idiot who forgets everything about earth. I swear that annoys me to no end in this genre when say a 'Gamer' shows up in a new world but for some reason doesn't know about loot or levels or experience. I get that the author does it to explain things to the reader but it's a poor way to do it and makes the character seem stupid.

Not with our MC here, she totally remembers raids, looting, and all the books she read. Her first thoughts in waking up in this new world is 'Holy shit, I've been Isekai'd' Where other characters in books are like...Where am I, how is this possible. Whats going on. As if they've never heard of portal fantasy or Isekai....I love that this MC actually uses her knowledge of fantasy and books from earth and isn't all..."What's Mana?" "How do I use magic." No..she goes through methods of trying to see what works from what fantasy authors on earth have used. From chants to 'will' to cultivating breathing, she tries it to control her magic because those are methods she'd read in books.

So finally yes, thank you. Thank you for making a character who didn't get a pop culture lobotomy when she got to the new world.

I won't get into the story itself due to spoilers but I can recommend this book alone on the entertainment value of the main character and her 'talking to herself' jokes.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tower of Aetherius is the first book in a new Isekai series. I enjoy the Isekai idea of a main character being dropped into a whole new world they have to survive, especially when blended with the LitRPG feel of someone living inside a videogame system with upgrades and magic. I'm also always on the lookout for books with humor in them. This book hit the stride with all three of these genres by about Chapter 5. Before that Aesca/Aetheria is running for her life through crumbling ruins. About the time she can take a breath and find her snarky inner self is where we learn a little more about what got her into this situation. Aetheria also discovers that while this world does not have any videogame interfaces, she does have a sort of "inventory system". Her reaction to this discovery made me realize that she and I were going to get along just fine.

The Vault appeared limitless and had no problem accommodating the chairs and coffee table she tossed inside.
"Oh man, this is going to be Skyrim all over again. Twenty thousand cheese wheels sliding down a mountain to kill my enemies. Maybe one of these houses will have a cheese cellar."

I love that Aetheria wanders around looting all the houses she finds at first and even tries a new attack: falling table! Where she pulls a table out of her inventory and drops it on her pretend foe.

Aetheria is tasked with beating all of the levels in ten instanced towers. The challenges have varied encounters with enemies, puzzles to be solved, and skills to be learned. Aetheria is philosophical about whether everyone she meets inside the tower instances are the equivalent of other sentient beings or NPC's. Overall Aetheria leaves almost no challenge unscathed but she's ultimately overpowered and blows through everything in her way.

[Artemis · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5 stars. OP MC's romp trough the tower.

This book has on paper interesting characters, places, powers and lore. In practice there doesn't seem to be depth to either story or characters beyond the basic background they are given at introduction.

As for being progression Fantasy... Yes, but eh... MC starts with being over powered in her new incarnation, beats monsters and puzzles without effort and gains power. I'd summarise it as MC being offered everything on a golden platter by higher powers.

Characters themselves are shallow in personalities, development, goals and story. There were many times I was expecting something to be more than it seemed to be on surface level, but alas, nothing came from those.

I would rate this as something you can easily listen to while doing other things. It does not have any significant plots or storyline to keep track of or complex aspects you need or have to think on.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book doesn't work for me.

It could have, I think. I like the idea of a main character who knows all the secret ways from simply having been immersed in the culture of fantasy's in real life.

I found myself wondering if I'd missed things constantly (I don't think so). She's crazy overpowered with no real limits as best as I can tell, so I certainly never believed she was going to lose. T Rex, beat it, enemy army, beat it. What are the stakes here? Now some training and . . .

I fully admit, I did not actually finish this - I couldn't hate read it, because it's not that bad, but it definitely wasn't for me, I just didn't connect to it.

[Cordyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this quite a lot. I found Aetheria/Aeska very likeable. While I do tend to prefer books with lots of action, adventure, battles, Etc, I do have to be able to tolerate the main lead. No evil, unless in search for redemption, characters for me. What made this all the better was the narrator of the audio book. I think she did an excellent job. In the middle of the second now.

[Mr. J · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first I disliked the speed and ease of progression. As the book progressed, it became I nice change of pace from most progression fantasy. The humor was excellent and I really liked the accents of Rea and Ark. Completely atypical of narration. Just simple OP MC and shenanigans.

[Dickson Tan]

This is a power fantasy which I wasn't in the mood for, there's been no tention at all because the MC is so overpowered. I hoped this would improve but there was no sign of that happening by the time I got to halfway through the book.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. A slow start, and kind of long, but entertaining enough to get me to continue with book 2

[Will Knight]

Note to self: not doing it for me.