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Creation's Bane #6
Creation's Bane
I never wanted any of this.
Sure, I’ll take the universe-shattering powers—who wouldn’t?
But there’s always a bloody price.
You don’t inherit the ability to bend creation to your will and get to ride off into the sunset.
Oh no, every power-hungry dickhead in the universe wants a piece of the action, especially the former God of Creation.
Not that I asked for the title—or any of the mess that comes with it.
But, if I want to achieve my dream of being left the hell alone, it’s going to cost me.
And that price? Pain… so much pain.
Sure, I’ll take the universe-shattering powers—who wouldn’t?
But there’s always a bloody price.
You don’t inherit the ability to bend creation to your will and get to ride off into the sunset.
Oh no, every power-hungry dickhead in the universe wants a piece of the action, especially the former God of Creation.
Not that I asked for the title—or any of the mess that comes with it.
But, if I want to achieve my dream of being left the hell alone, it’s going to cost me.
And that price? Pain… so much pain.
- GenresFantasy
662 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2024
44 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 6, 2025
Say one thing about this series, it is remarkably consistent. My review for every book has gone somewhere along the lines of, "I loved it, but there is one aspect holding me back from a full five-star review." Unfortunately, this is a perfect summary of this series as a whole.
I loved reading this series. Clive is a wonderful protagonist, and the characters he surrounds himself with are well-rounded, believable, and have great relationships that add emotional impact to the story overall. The light-hearted writing style constantly delivers jokes that land and keep you smiling, while the high stakes, darker content, and heavy-hitting scenes balance the tone and keep the story from feeling silly. The progression is top-notch and doesn't slow down for a moment. Most importantly to this reader, this is a story about exceptional people who live up to their potential, which is precisely how I would describe what I want to read most in a story.
That being said, this is also a series with significant flaws. It has way too much action for the sake of action, not because it is working in service to the story. This meant the pacing dragged at times, especially in the first three books. The second issue is that the author was writing a story about an overpowered protagonist but didn't know what to do with him when he reached that overpowered status. Therefore, he hobbled the main character in books four and five.
The final issue, which was present in every book but was most notable in this one, as it was the last book, was the story's difficulty managing escalating tension. If you were to plot the tension of a story on a graph where the X axis was the passage of time and the Y axis was the scale of tension ranging from 1 to 100%, you should see a graph that looks like a jagged mountain range where the peaks of those mountains gradually increase in height.
This shape is appropriate because a story should constantly build tension but periodically let off steam before building tension again. It should be a gradual progression of escalation that only hits its highest peak right at the climax of the story. A constant state of tension can't be maintained. It leads to exhaustion and eventual failure if left long enough.
The trouble is that each of these books has a graph that starts at zero, escalates to close to 100% tension, and then there is an almost flat line right to the end of the book where either a little of that tension is released, or, more commonly, it is maintained in the state of a cliffhanger, so the next book starts at a position of close to 100% tension.
This was the central problem of this novel. The last book ended with Hakan returning, taking us to peak tension to start this novel. Then, from very early on in this novel, there were multiple moments that felt like the start of the eventual climax that would release the built-up pressure, only for something to happen to maintain that level of tension throughout. Unfortunately, this led to me getting halfway through this book and wishing it would have ended already.
This meant I kept zoning out as the book progressed, as it increasingly lost my interest. By the time the final climax arrived, I had pretty much checked out and didn't really care anymore. It robbed the finale of all the impact it should have had based on the buildup to that point, and it robbed the series of the ending it deserved.
Speaking of a robbed ending, it's also frustrating how quickly the story finishes as soon as the climax happens. For a series this long, it would have been nice to have stuck around a bit after the steam had been let off to see how the dust settles. There were so many characters in this book that I got attached to throughout the story, and I wanted to see what life looked like for them after all was said and done.
So overall, this was a series that aimed for the stars and only missed by a small amount. I think there's a five-star story in this series that could be achieved with another editing pass. Tighten up the earlier books so each action-based chapter is more meaningful, address some of the issues that hobbled Clive's potential in the later books, and finally add in a few more points in the series to let off a little of the built up tension, and you'd have one of the best LitRPG series I have read.
However, even without any of that, this is still an excellent story that I already know I will revisit at some point in the future. Most of my issues with this series were out of frustration as they were all that was standing in the way of a story that could have been damn near perfect. Despite none of the books ever quite getting to 5 stars, I highly recommend this series, and I'm eager to read other books from this author very soon.
I loved reading this series. Clive is a wonderful protagonist, and the characters he surrounds himself with are well-rounded, believable, and have great relationships that add emotional impact to the story overall. The light-hearted writing style constantly delivers jokes that land and keep you smiling, while the high stakes, darker content, and heavy-hitting scenes balance the tone and keep the story from feeling silly. The progression is top-notch and doesn't slow down for a moment. Most importantly to this reader, this is a story about exceptional people who live up to their potential, which is precisely how I would describe what I want to read most in a story.
That being said, this is also a series with significant flaws. It has way too much action for the sake of action, not because it is working in service to the story. This meant the pacing dragged at times, especially in the first three books. The second issue is that the author was writing a story about an overpowered protagonist but didn't know what to do with him when he reached that overpowered status. Therefore, he hobbled the main character in books four and five.
The final issue, which was present in every book but was most notable in this one, as it was the last book, was the story's difficulty managing escalating tension. If you were to plot the tension of a story on a graph where the X axis was the passage of time and the Y axis was the scale of tension ranging from 1 to 100%, you should see a graph that looks like a jagged mountain range where the peaks of those mountains gradually increase in height.
This shape is appropriate because a story should constantly build tension but periodically let off steam before building tension again. It should be a gradual progression of escalation that only hits its highest peak right at the climax of the story. A constant state of tension can't be maintained. It leads to exhaustion and eventual failure if left long enough.
The trouble is that each of these books has a graph that starts at zero, escalates to close to 100% tension, and then there is an almost flat line right to the end of the book where either a little of that tension is released, or, more commonly, it is maintained in the state of a cliffhanger, so the next book starts at a position of close to 100% tension.
This was the central problem of this novel. The last book ended with Hakan returning, taking us to peak tension to start this novel. Then, from very early on in this novel, there were multiple moments that felt like the start of the eventual climax that would release the built-up pressure, only for something to happen to maintain that level of tension throughout. Unfortunately, this led to me getting halfway through this book and wishing it would have ended already.
This meant I kept zoning out as the book progressed, as it increasingly lost my interest. By the time the final climax arrived, I had pretty much checked out and didn't really care anymore. It robbed the finale of all the impact it should have had based on the buildup to that point, and it robbed the series of the ending it deserved.
Speaking of a robbed ending, it's also frustrating how quickly the story finishes as soon as the climax happens. For a series this long, it would have been nice to have stuck around a bit after the steam had been let off to see how the dust settles. There were so many characters in this book that I got attached to throughout the story, and I wanted to see what life looked like for them after all was said and done.
So overall, this was a series that aimed for the stars and only missed by a small amount. I think there's a five-star story in this series that could be achieved with another editing pass. Tighten up the earlier books so each action-based chapter is more meaningful, address some of the issues that hobbled Clive's potential in the later books, and finally add in a few more points in the series to let off a little of the built up tension, and you'd have one of the best LitRPG series I have read.
However, even without any of that, this is still an excellent story that I already know I will revisit at some point in the future. Most of my issues with this series were out of frustration as they were all that was standing in the way of a story that could have been damn near perfect. Despite none of the books ever quite getting to 5 stars, I highly recommend this series, and I'm eager to read other books from this author very soon.
April 17, 2025
Was that book even edited?
The amount of wrong quotation mark is seriously worrying. There's "Hakan" written towards the end where Nattom should have been, which made me re-read the chapter until I realised it was just a mistake ..
It's a tough read, despite the story being decent. But kuddos for finishing the story, it's rare in the genre.
The amount of wrong quotation mark is seriously worrying. There's "Hakan" written towards the end where Nattom should have been, which made me re-read the chapter until I realised it was just a mistake ..
It's a tough read, despite the story being decent. But kuddos for finishing the story, it's rare in the genre.
November 8, 2024
I loved this book, and how the ending came about was totally worth waiting for. I'm hoping the author now carries on with his other projects as this was a great journey for Clive and Co and the quality of this series just got better each book. Can't recommend this one enough to read.
May 11, 2025
Thanks for the ride — and what a ride it was!
Clive, you lovable sweet B.
4.5/5
Clive, you lovable sweet B.
4.5/5
October 18, 2025
3.4 stars. It just felt like the MC was a bit of a bell end himself as he didn't want to change. still fun series would recommend.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews