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The Battle
(Play to Live #5)
by
The Russian cluster. The ground shakes as the enemy approaches. The angered gods frown as they look down from the sky. Intelligence agencies are locked in a brutal fight. Hundreds of thousands of sentient beings happily slaughter each other. This is no longer a game quest, nor a petty fight between clans over some land rich in resources. This is war!
A war of civilizations ...more
A war of civilizations ...more
Kindle Edition, 295 pages
Published
August 15th 2015
by D. Rus
(first published 2014)
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Julie Winter
This comes out on Audible June 28, 2016!!
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of The Battle (Play to Live #5)
Lots of things happen in the book, but they sort of feel disjointed. For this reason my plot description would have the same disjoint feeling. In the previous book Max became an owner of a very interesting (to put it mildly) dungeon with monsters closely resembling Star War droids.
High-level droids. Max almost got his butt kicked; not a good idea considering what would happen to him if he dies (he still have not solved his little problem from an earlier book).
At the same time Russian cluster of ...more
High-level droids. Max almost got his butt kicked; not a good idea considering what would happen to him if he dies (he still have not solved his little problem from an earlier book).
At the same time Russian cluster of ...more
This book had its redeeming moments of entertainment, but it is by far my least liked of this series and I would not re-read or recommend this one.
Simply stated the story is all over the place and hard to follow for the reader. I will read book 6, so that says a lot regarding the strength of the previous books when you consider that I really didn't care for this one. Hopefully, book six returns to form. ...more
Simply stated the story is all over the place and hard to follow for the reader. I will read book 6, so that says a lot regarding the strength of the previous books when you consider that I really didn't care for this one. Hopefully, book six returns to form. ...more
A bit disappointed. It's not that bad. It's looks like a bad one when compared to the prequels.
But I still haven't lost hope on this series. Will reach next one as soon as I get my hands on them. ...more
But I still haven't lost hope on this series. Will reach next one as soon as I get my hands on them. ...more
This series is falling apart, sad to say. Author is more into recounting his prejudices than telling a story. What happened? Doubt I will continue.
Uhm, absolutely horrible! Even though there were hints of sexism in previous books, I got through them while clenching me teeth because I really enjoyed the story. The author is male, I thought, so I'll try to forgive him when he comments on female bodies provided that's all he does. However, this volume was too much for me to bear. Trying to subdue female elven warriors when they're training hard for the protagonist's damn sake - for real? Beating feminist ideas out of them and having them as p
...more
I enjoyed this book, but not as much as the previous volumes within the series. This is primarily due to poor organization. This volume was very chaotically written with events often being out of order or lacking a clear divergence in the script. I should never have to go back and reread to try to figure out what the heck is happening due to a sudden and undirected shift in the story. Good book, but this quickly became a tiresome trait after the gajillionith time. Not sure if this was just due t
...more
I liked the previous books in the series more, as they focused mainly on Max. This book seems to focus more on the overall strategy of the clan and war.
Ah the struggle of LitRPG...
Imagine a story set during WW2 with Hitler as the MC. Now add the fact that suddenly Hitler would decide to move to the frontlines and shoot enemies personally instead of being the leader of the empire regularly. In his absence as a leader we wouldn't be told what happens during the war, only a specific frontline.
You can see that this would really mess up any story, trying to tell the story of a leader or the story of a soldier.
This book suffers from this problem, ou ...more
Imagine a story set during WW2 with Hitler as the MC. Now add the fact that suddenly Hitler would decide to move to the frontlines and shoot enemies personally instead of being the leader of the empire regularly. In his absence as a leader we wouldn't be told what happens during the war, only a specific frontline.
You can see that this would really mess up any story, trying to tell the story of a leader or the story of a soldier.
This book suffers from this problem, ou ...more
I cannot emphasize enough my deep disappointment with the book and the whole story. First few books were just amazing, nice pace, interesting plot, some good leveling and character development. I really liked the realistic feeling of the world and world building, everything was logical. However, starting with the third book everything started to be a mess. I found the plot too hectic, characters stopped being people and became smth else, no normal character development. It seemed that the author
...more
Serious editing needed
The time flow and story flow need some serious work. Was this 2 books mashed incorrectly into one? I loved the others. This one is way way below those.
The time flow and story flow need some serious work. Was this 2 books mashed incorrectly into one? I loved the others. This one is way way below those.
I couldn't finish this book.
I was liking this series, although I had some reservations. But I only managed about 40 percent of this one before choking on the author's increasingly evident racism, sexism and overall hatred of others.
Also, the general quality has dropped considerably. The point of view changes so much it's hard to follow, the editing and proofreading has gotten worse, the story is no longer shown as much as told, the main character starts pontificating over politics for pages at ...more
I was liking this series, although I had some reservations. But I only managed about 40 percent of this one before choking on the author's increasingly evident racism, sexism and overall hatred of others.
Also, the general quality has dropped considerably. The point of view changes so much it's hard to follow, the editing and proofreading has gotten worse, the story is no longer shown as much as told, the main character starts pontificating over politics for pages at ...more
It's sad, because I really enjoyed the rest of the series. But this one was mostly boring. Battle scene after battle scene that the main characters always seem to get out of. Not much tension. Not to mention that it was really hard to follow what was going on. But what really pushed it over the edge was the casual and overt racial slurs, not to mention the sexism. (Really? Max wants to beat the feminism out of the female warrior elves?) Even without that, Max is just not a likeable character any
...more
Mediocre Series Gone Bad
The book gets 2 stars not as a piece of litRPG but rather as an interesting look into the a male Russian psyche. Judging by the popularity of the series, this particular mentality is not closeted. The first few books in this series hinted at misogynist, xenophobic, and Russian nationalist views, but this book spares no expense at laying such views bare ad nauseam.
The book was a mess. Data dumps and meandering-Max-thought-vomit abounded. Characters did not experience and g ...more
The book gets 2 stars not as a piece of litRPG but rather as an interesting look into the a male Russian psyche. Judging by the popularity of the series, this particular mentality is not closeted. The first few books in this series hinted at misogynist, xenophobic, and Russian nationalist views, but this book spares no expense at laying such views bare ad nauseam.
The book was a mess. Data dumps and meandering-Max-thought-vomit abounded. Characters did not experience and g ...more
The series was good, but as it progressed the author inserted more and more of his ugly opinions on other races and women. Female characters are called down for being independent and not subservient to their man. Blacks are called Afros and Chinese speak "Ching Chong". Gay men are only interested in having sex with young boys and raping weak men into submission.
...more
The pace/language was definitely off. It was to fast, without enough paragraphs or explanations of the why and who and wheres. So that I had to read some passages 3 or 4 times to understand who is acting and in which form or why he is doing it
GET THIS BOOK!! If you love ‘Play to Live’, you will love The Battle!!
First of all: The Battle is a good book! It lives up to the writing skill of the previous books. Have you put off getting this title based on reviews? I urge you to STOP listening to other people opinions in this case! If you enjoyed the series so far you must try this book for yourself!! I eagerly waited and waited for the sequel to The Inferno to come out and when it did I listened to the reviews and did not grab it. I did ...more
First of all: The Battle is a good book! It lives up to the writing skill of the previous books. Have you put off getting this title based on reviews? I urge you to STOP listening to other people opinions in this case! If you enjoyed the series so far you must try this book for yourself!! I eagerly waited and waited for the sequel to The Inferno to come out and when it did I listened to the reviews and did not grab it. I did ...more
I don't write reviews often, almost never actually, but when I do it's because of something a bit more extreme then usual. Usually because it's terribly bad in some way.
This review isn't just about one book in the series, it's about all seven of them. The books themselves are terribly short at around 200-250 pages, the last one going under 200.
Let me start by saying that if you cannot read around sexism, misogyny, racism, Russian nationalism, homophobia/hate, etc. This entire series is not for y ...more
This review isn't just about one book in the series, it's about all seven of them. The books themselves are terribly short at around 200-250 pages, the last one going under 200.
Let me start by saying that if you cannot read around sexism, misogyny, racism, Russian nationalism, homophobia/hate, etc. This entire series is not for y ...more
I should mention that I listened to the sixth book, The War, before writing this review. My reason was to see if there was a silver lining to this book.
Did I love the book? Far from it. At first, Max does some prep for the WAR (not just a battle) by exploring Tavor's dungeon which was a temple to Chronos. The first half of the book was pretty good and had my attention. However, the second half (probably 60%) of this book felt more like a report than a story. The second half covered the WAR the C ...more
Did I love the book? Far from it. At first, Max does some prep for the WAR (not just a battle) by exploring Tavor's dungeon which was a temple to Chronos. The first half of the book was pretty good and had my attention. However, the second half (probably 60%) of this book felt more like a report than a story. The second half covered the WAR the C ...more
I'm a little worried because I already have the next two books in the series, but this one... what was this even? It felt like a confusing mess of events without enough of a breather or transition from one thing to the next. Worse, it didn't feel like anything of any really weight happened. I mean, a lot happened, so maybe it's that it didn't feel like anything was really given any gravity, as each event was crammed up against the next one. Maybe it's that the series is starting to remind me of
...more
I liked this series much more when it was focused on the main character and his journey. It seems that it's branching out to try to develop a lot of side characters and plots while our leading man sort of goes stagnant. I was looking forward to living vicariously through his leveling process. Shouldn't he be one of the supremo top elite skilled players by now, rather than just getting lucky and pulling aces out of his sleeves every time things get rough? Feeling more and more like I'm reading a
...more
I fell asleep here and there and got kinda lost.
To me, there was too much battle and not enough story, which I guess I can understand since this book is called The Battle.
The other books in the series were better. I'm still going to finish the series, might as well. ...more
To me, there was too much battle and not enough story, which I guess I can understand since this book is called The Battle.
The other books in the series were better. I'm still going to finish the series, might as well. ...more
I enjoyed the earlier books a bit more - this one felt a bit more rushed, both in the writing and in the plot. The feel of the writing is heavily influenced by the translation though, I'm sure - so I'm still really looking forward to reading book #6.
...more
Im not deep into LitRPG, so I just read these mostly as enjoyable little time wasters while flying for work. So far the series has been ok, but then this book I have no idea whats going on. Cant follow anything, nothing make sense. Maybe something was lost in translation...
Wtf?
This is the most confusing of the books so far. Too many storylines that come out of nowhere and/or don't get resolved well. Way too much jumping around and the battles are not fleshed out at all ...more
This is the most confusing of the books so far. Too many storylines that come out of nowhere and/or don't get resolved well. Way too much jumping around and the battles are not fleshed out at all ...more
By far the worst so far in the series. Jumps around way too much and makes no sense in many different places. Does not explain how things have progressed to the point they are or how new skills and abilities were obtained or even that they were.
Still going
As the scope gets wider and wider the story sometimes is all over the place with different perspectives making it a bit confusing. That said, it’s still fun and the long anticipated war has arrived.
As the scope gets wider and wider the story sometimes is all over the place with different perspectives making it a bit confusing. That said, it’s still fun and the long anticipated war has arrived.
Enjoyable book 5
Carrying along with the same great world building we have seen in books 1-4, book 5 keeps pushing the story along, keeping you reading for long after you should be asleep.
Carrying along with the same great world building we have seen in books 1-4, book 5 keeps pushing the story along, keeping you reading for long after you should be asleep.
I didn't enjoy this book as much as the previous.
Maybe it's my currently emotional state putting everything out of wack? Who knows.
Book was okay, will pick up the sequel sometime.
3/5 Stars ...more
Maybe it's my currently emotional state putting everything out of wack? Who knows.
Book was okay, will pick up the sequel sometime.
3/5 Stars ...more
I think I'm really worn out of the series.
...more
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D. Rus is a young Russian author whose books took the Russian literary market by storm in 2013. AlterWorld - the first novel of his Play to Live series - made him a bestselling author overnight as critics now credit him with single-handedly creating a new science fiction genre: LitRPG. Set in the virtual reality of MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games - his books tell stories o
...more
Other books in the series
Play to Live
(9 books)
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