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Breaker of Horizons #1
Breaker of Horizons
Nic has been Selected.
Chosen to leave his own body behind and become a monster.
Chosen to live or die on his own wits. His own strengths.
He'll adventure out into a new realm as a footsoldier for the System's relentless integration of new worlds. Fighting to break the natives into submission.
But Nic has never loved the System, or cared for his home planet, a depleted husk of a world that the System forgot long ago. With blue skies overhead and green forest to the horizons, he might just fall in love with this strange planet named Earth...
That would leave him with few friends and a thousand enemies. That would leave him clawing, biting, scratching to survive.
Chosen to leave his own body behind and become a monster.
Chosen to live or die on his own wits. His own strengths.
He'll adventure out into a new realm as a footsoldier for the System's relentless integration of new worlds. Fighting to break the natives into submission.
But Nic has never loved the System, or cared for his home planet, a depleted husk of a world that the System forgot long ago. With blue skies overhead and green forest to the horizons, he might just fall in love with this strange planet named Earth...
That would leave him with few friends and a thousand enemies. That would leave him clawing, biting, scratching to survive.
684 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 18, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
August 16, 2023
This was a whim that paid off. Mostly. Nic starts as something of a tragic figure. He's in a dead-end position on his System-damned world and "wins" a ticket out of the hopeless track he is on when he gets picked to join a system invasion of a place called "Earth". He jumps at the chance, even knowing that he'll be stuffed into a monster and that the inhabitants will likely kill him on sight.
Nic has nowhere to go but up, so it's interesting to be along with him as he grabs his opportunity and takes it for all he can squeeze out of it. He has become a humanoid based on an Axolotl. So he's amphibious, has some immunity to poisons, and regenerates. Okay, loosely based. Also, he's kind of squishy and by no means top of the predator tree.
But he's determined and has some carry-over skills that turn out to be much easier on a planet ripe in "essence" like Earth apparently is. The pace is strong and held my interest for the most part (I'll get to that). I liked Nic and I liked that he never gives up despite the odds stacked against him. He takes a lot of crazy risks, but none of them outright too stupid to live. Plus, he grows quite a bit over the course of the story and that hits all my power-fantasy highs.
The biggest drag on my engagement is that Nic's adventure pattern seemed templated in many ways and I started getting bored with the conflict. This is an odd response because the author is crazy creative and none of the situations were terribly similar, really. Except... Nic's traversal of those conflicts indulged kind of the same pattern, no matter how convoluted the problem. He makes plans. They help him overcome the obvious difficulty. But most of the conflicts then ramped up with some surprise or wrinkle or addition forcing Nic to scramble. Which he does, but taking damage and becoming desperate. And then he succeeds by the thinnest possible margin. And then heads off to the next challenge.
So while the situations and challenges were very divergent, the actual action had a certain pattern to them. At least, for this reader. I want to be careful here, because there were some fantastically interesting settings and lots of different types of challenges. And very visually presented and interesting in their own rights. But I started feeling like they were all the same despite this huge diversity.
Other minor niggles that sometimes drew me out of the story include a completely misrepresenting cover (I kept waiting for the six-armed salamander to show up and be a friend, but ). Also, I often wondered how the heck Nic knew so many details of Earth. Like, he's apparently familiar with machine-gun fire, telephone poles, and mailboxes and such that had no parallel in his homeworld (which was a magitech dystopia with no mention of guns or phones).
Anyway, this is 3½ stars that I'm going to round up on the strength of both my appreciation for Nic and for imaginative settings and characters. I'm not convinced I'll go with the next in the series because the oversetting we get a taste of in the end doesn't thrill me. I'm almost never a fan of the protagonist who has absolutely every powerful hand turned against him. That degree of unjust tends to stick in my craw.
A note about Chaste: Nic is the only of his race that we meet and I'm grateful to say we have no idea if he's biologically compatible in that way. Plus, he's kind of a loner anyway. So there's no intimacy or anything even close to sex so this is very chaste.
Nic has nowhere to go but up, so it's interesting to be along with him as he grabs his opportunity and takes it for all he can squeeze out of it. He has become a humanoid based on an Axolotl. So he's amphibious, has some immunity to poisons, and regenerates. Okay, loosely based. Also, he's kind of squishy and by no means top of the predator tree.
But he's determined and has some carry-over skills that turn out to be much easier on a planet ripe in "essence" like Earth apparently is. The pace is strong and held my interest for the most part (I'll get to that). I liked Nic and I liked that he never gives up despite the odds stacked against him. He takes a lot of crazy risks, but none of them outright too stupid to live. Plus, he grows quite a bit over the course of the story and that hits all my power-fantasy highs.
The biggest drag on my engagement is that Nic's adventure pattern seemed templated in many ways and I started getting bored with the conflict. This is an odd response because the author is crazy creative and none of the situations were terribly similar, really. Except... Nic's traversal of those conflicts indulged kind of the same pattern, no matter how convoluted the problem. He makes plans. They help him overcome the obvious difficulty. But most of the conflicts then ramped up with some surprise or wrinkle or addition forcing Nic to scramble. Which he does, but taking damage and becoming desperate. And then he succeeds by the thinnest possible margin. And then heads off to the next challenge.
So while the situations and challenges were very divergent, the actual action had a certain pattern to them. At least, for this reader. I want to be careful here, because there were some fantastically interesting settings and lots of different types of challenges. And very visually presented and interesting in their own rights. But I started feeling like they were all the same despite this huge diversity.
Other minor niggles that sometimes drew me out of the story include a completely misrepresenting cover (I kept waiting for the six-armed salamander to show up and be a friend, but ). Also, I often wondered how the heck Nic knew so many details of Earth. Like, he's apparently familiar with machine-gun fire, telephone poles, and mailboxes and such that had no parallel in his homeworld (which was a magitech dystopia with no mention of guns or phones).
Anyway, this is 3½ stars that I'm going to round up on the strength of both my appreciation for Nic and for imaginative settings and characters. I'm not convinced I'll go with the next in the series because the oversetting we get a taste of in the end doesn't thrill me. I'm almost never a fan of the protagonist who has absolutely every powerful hand turned against him. That degree of unjust tends to stick in my craw.
A note about Chaste: Nic is the only of his race that we meet and I'm grateful to say we have no idea if he's biologically compatible in that way. Plus, he's kind of a loner anyway. So there's no intimacy or anything even close to sex so this is very chaste.
January 13, 2022
This book suffers from a common malady with works originally published as a serial web novel. The parts that are interesting and advance the plot/character development/story are good, but there is a TON of material that is terribly repetitive and serves no purpose other than to pad the length and keep people "coming back for more".
Be aware that none of the book is "bad", there is just so much that doesn't add anything and for me just wore thin.
Be aware that none of the book is "bad", there is just so much that doesn't add anything and for me just wore thin.
January 5, 2023
LitRPG as a term has unfortunately turned into a marketing buzzword to the extent books like this describe themselves on Amazan as "A LitRPG Adventure". This isn't LitRPG. It's a cultivation story that takes place during a System Apocalypse from the invader's perspective, which is an interesting premise. They should have rolled with that instead of selling a promise they didn't plan to fulfill (A LitRPG Adventure!!). I went 40% on my Kindle before dropping it.
This story was lacking in everything that scratches the gamelit itch for me while unfortunately having many of the cultivation tropes that annoy me. Rather than harp on that, it is worth mentioning something that I liked even if this story ultimately wasn't for me.
The main character is a young adult orphan on a dungeon planet within the System. When a new planet is discovered by the System and "integrated", wealthy members of any System worlds can buy their way to the planet as a freelance invader to grow stronger and acquire treasures. There is also a lottery of sorts for the non-wealthy that allows the winner to transplant their consciousness into the body of a monster that spawns on the new planet. Our MC is such a lottery winner and spawns as a 2-3 foot tall axolotl lizard person with a few poison abilities.
I thought this premise had a lot of potential and for the first part of the book, I considered this to be one of the best MC as a Monster stories I've come across.
Unfortunately, I thought the character was kind of dumb, he always seemed to find the exact types of treasures he needed for the next plot point, and the story utterly failed to provide any tension since we are usually following a character running around by himself getting into life-or-death struggles...but Plot Armor. I also dislike the random power curves and nonsense mechanics in most cultivation stories, so there wasn't much to get me invested for the long term.
This book might still be for people who like cultivation stories, MC as a monster isekai, or stories that have a solo MC. I like the MC monster angle, but the plot just didn't move fast enough for me.
This story was lacking in everything that scratches the gamelit itch for me while unfortunately having many of the cultivation tropes that annoy me. Rather than harp on that, it is worth mentioning something that I liked even if this story ultimately wasn't for me.
The main character is a young adult orphan on a dungeon planet within the System. When a new planet is discovered by the System and "integrated", wealthy members of any System worlds can buy their way to the planet as a freelance invader to grow stronger and acquire treasures. There is also a lottery of sorts for the non-wealthy that allows the winner to transplant their consciousness into the body of a monster that spawns on the new planet. Our MC is such a lottery winner and spawns as a 2-3 foot tall axolotl lizard person with a few poison abilities.
I thought this premise had a lot of potential and for the first part of the book, I considered this to be one of the best MC as a Monster stories I've come across.
Unfortunately, I thought the character was kind of dumb, he always seemed to find the exact types of treasures he needed for the next plot point, and the story utterly failed to provide any tension since we are usually following a character running around by himself getting into life-or-death struggles...but Plot Armor. I also dislike the random power curves and nonsense mechanics in most cultivation stories, so there wasn't much to get me invested for the long term.
This book might still be for people who like cultivation stories, MC as a monster isekai, or stories that have a solo MC. I like the MC monster angle, but the plot just didn't move fast enough for me.
November 13, 2022
It's like Defiance...
But different, and kinda shoots in many different directions all at once. MC just bounces from one thing to another but with less grace and flow than Defiance. To be honest, I didn't find anything about the book to be particularly entertaining. The story was okay, but nothing special. The game like systems are minimal, there's no stats, the cultivation system is strange and doesn't make alot of sense, especially concepts and dao.
The main thing I consider a flaw here that other readers might not, is the theme. The theme being everyone/everything vs the MC. There are no good guys, everyone is a murderhobo. And the politics at the end... Eh. Wasn't needed, made it worse for me. Some of these would be more acceptable if I enjoyed reading the book, but to be honest I found myself skipping many pages due to boredom.
Conclusion: this book may be great for some people, but I didn't enjoy it as much.
But different, and kinda shoots in many different directions all at once. MC just bounces from one thing to another but with less grace and flow than Defiance. To be honest, I didn't find anything about the book to be particularly entertaining. The story was okay, but nothing special. The game like systems are minimal, there's no stats, the cultivation system is strange and doesn't make alot of sense, especially concepts and dao.
The main thing I consider a flaw here that other readers might not, is the theme. The theme being everyone/everything vs the MC. There are no good guys, everyone is a murderhobo. And the politics at the end... Eh. Wasn't needed, made it worse for me. Some of these would be more acceptable if I enjoyed reading the book, but to be honest I found myself skipping many pages due to boredom.
Conclusion: this book may be great for some people, but I didn't enjoy it as much.
November 4, 2022
Yeah, I just finished listening to another fun litRPG. This one written by NoDragons and read by the fabulous Pavi Proczko.
I really loved that the MC, Nick was an Axolotl, Axolotls are one of my favorite creatures in real life! Axolotl's have a unique ability as the only animal with the ability to regrow any limb in it's body! And as Nick cultivates his stats, this ability gets faster!
The book is an action-driven story with plenty of characterization. And it's a perfect start to begin the series.
Grab the book for hours of listening pleasure.
Here's a couple of quotes that I liked.
"...the smell of dark."
"He spat out a curse contained in a bubble."
I really loved that the MC, Nick was an Axolotl, Axolotls are one of my favorite creatures in real life! Axolotl's have a unique ability as the only animal with the ability to regrow any limb in it's body! And as Nick cultivates his stats, this ability gets faster!
The book is an action-driven story with plenty of characterization. And it's a perfect start to begin the series.
Grab the book for hours of listening pleasure.
Here's a couple of quotes that I liked.
"...the smell of dark."
"He spat out a curse contained in a bubble."
March 4, 2023
The plot is different and has huge potential. The protagonist gets the chance to flee a life in the slums of an exploited world and join the forces of the system who seek to incorporate and exploit new worlds by killing off the natives as cannon fodder.
Even though being human he ends up as an intelligent newt in the swamps on the new world. He is alone surrounded by a plethora of dangers he has to discover and handle. I found it fascinating that a lot of the supposed animals were in fact people before who unfortunately can´t communicate with other species any more. The protagonist faces the same problem as his body is not suited for human talk no longer.
The situation on the planet is complex. There is no good or evil. Just the law of the jungle. While most of the human natives of the planet are lost and overwhelmed with the new situation there are some opportunists who amass support and hoard ressources by any means necessary. Some of them are even proteges of dubious powers with their own hidden motives. The invaders are split into different original races and different newly granted races, refugees and privileged elite hunting groups who all fight everybody else for ressources and superiority.
I found the fact that several easier cultivation methods were later revealed to be traps supposed to stall or prevent further progress.
The MC is a bit too cheeky and over confident for my taste and quite often only is saved by excessive plot armor which gets more and more annoying.
Even though being human he ends up as an intelligent newt in the swamps on the new world. He is alone surrounded by a plethora of dangers he has to discover and handle. I found it fascinating that a lot of the supposed animals were in fact people before who unfortunately can´t communicate with other species any more. The protagonist faces the same problem as his body is not suited for human talk no longer.
The situation on the planet is complex. There is no good or evil. Just the law of the jungle. While most of the human natives of the planet are lost and overwhelmed with the new situation there are some opportunists who amass support and hoard ressources by any means necessary. Some of them are even proteges of dubious powers with their own hidden motives. The invaders are split into different original races and different newly granted races, refugees and privileged elite hunting groups who all fight everybody else for ressources and superiority.
I found the fact that several easier cultivation methods were later revealed to be traps supposed to stall or prevent further progress.
The MC is a bit too cheeky and over confident for my taste and quite often only is saved by excessive plot armor which gets more and more annoying.
October 26, 2022
book one
Mistakes: I found a few and will try to list them on GoodReads.
While I did find some mistakes the story is good enough to overshadow them.
I am disappointed with myself for not reading this sooner.
Plot: An orphan on an overcrowded world is given a chance to switch to the body of a random monster and used in the invasion of earth. Travel with him as he grows not only through battle but also through the friends he makes.
Characters: The main character is really fun and interesting to follow.
9/10
Mistakes: I found a few and will try to list them on GoodReads.
While I did find some mistakes the story is good enough to overshadow them.
I am disappointed with myself for not reading this sooner.
Plot: An orphan on an overcrowded world is given a chance to switch to the body of a random monster and used in the invasion of earth. Travel with him as he grows not only through battle but also through the friends he makes.
Characters: The main character is really fun and interesting to follow.
9/10
February 26, 2023
Wow I was blown away by this LitRPG adventure and cultivation massive tome of a book, the first in the series by an author who I had never read before but who I surely hope to read more from. Nicholas Winterhome lived in a city known as City d23 where poor people like himself were treated as slaves and bullied relentlessly. He was an orphan and he knew that their dismal city was forgotten by the system so when he was chosen through winning the lottery he opted to become a monster and venture to a new world called Earth. He was now supposed to be a soldier working for the system and hunting down those deemed as rebels but Nic was no fan of the system and he found he was loving life on earth with all it's beauty even though surrounded by danger. He cultivated and worked hard at strengthening his puny body, he had started out as a small lizard but Nic was never one to shy away from problems or fights. He leapt from one near-death experience to another enjoying the thrill of living a life of a cultivator rather than a slave. He set out to prove to himself he could make something of himself and he always kept in mind Tarquin and his other friends, the ones he'd left behind and who he intended to one day return to save from the drab life they led. Meantime he had enemies to get rid of, namely Baby Boots, Azmin Hale, the Inquisitor and others as well as those he had befriended, the outcasts like himself who he went out of his way to save. I love this heroic character who let nothing stand in his way and I would love to continue following his story as Pathos and Logos try to get him to do their bidding, and I am betting on Nic to continue forging his own path becoming the slave to none of the Gods or the System!
July 9, 2025
A word to the author :
1- this is not LITRPG. I don't really care that it's cultivation x system integration and not LITRPG, but for some that matters a lot. Label your stuff accurately please.
2- "show as I say, don't tell as I do" doesn't work . Pick a lane. You can't spend so much time telling in detail your highly convoluted cultivation system and at the same time leave the mythology of the system for the reader to parse..
3- solo levelling is NOT A STORY. It's boring. It's not solved by the sophont, or AI, or dungeon fairy, or system helper.
Pedantic corner : petroglyphs? "rock carvings"? really? Just use glyph, or rune, symbol. "writing petroglyphs with a pen" is just stupid.
1- this is not LITRPG. I don't really care that it's cultivation x system integration and not LITRPG, but for some that matters a lot. Label your stuff accurately please.
2- "show as I say, don't tell as I do" doesn't work . Pick a lane. You can't spend so much time telling in detail your highly convoluted cultivation system and at the same time leave the mythology of the system for the reader to parse..
3- solo levelling is NOT A STORY. It's boring. It's not solved by the sophont, or AI, or dungeon fairy, or system helper.
Pedantic corner : petroglyphs? "rock carvings"? really? Just use glyph, or rune, symbol. "writing petroglyphs with a pen" is just stupid.
October 22, 2022
Don’t let the cute exterior fool you!
So the whole axolotl thing admittedly made me a little skeptical, but man this was a surprisingly good book! Nic is full of edge at the system and the at he’s been continually screwed over, and the new world is his best shot to get ahead. I liked how much he struggles throughout the book, while also managing to be a heck of a fighter. The evolution options that were offered weren’t my favorite because of the limited nature of them, but they’re still cool and I’ll look forward to more!
So the whole axolotl thing admittedly made me a little skeptical, but man this was a surprisingly good book! Nic is full of edge at the system and the at he’s been continually screwed over, and the new world is his best shot to get ahead. I liked how much he struggles throughout the book, while also managing to be a heck of a fighter. The evolution options that were offered weren’t my favorite because of the limited nature of them, but they’re still cool and I’ll look forward to more!
March 31, 2023
Interesting, vicious, and a focus on cute
This system is extremely complex, and I feel like I only have the tiniest glimpse of a massive corruption. Nic is fascinating. I love that he is an axolotl, and all the references to different beings cuteness is funny. I honestly hope at this point that he can surpass the system gods and bring some empathy to the system. Still, it was a fun read.
This system is extremely complex, and I feel like I only have the tiniest glimpse of a massive corruption. Nic is fascinating. I love that he is an axolotl, and all the references to different beings cuteness is funny. I honestly hope at this point that he can surpass the system gods and bring some empathy to the system. Still, it was a fun read.
October 25, 2022
KU Review
Monster evolution but presented in a more traditional adventurer story. Really well crafted story. The underlying conflict sounds like it will lead to some interesting times for the mc. Look forward to it.
As the title says this is a review for Kindle Unlimited and as such is a reflection of my enjoyment of the book and in no way reflects cost to value analysis.
Monster evolution but presented in a more traditional adventurer story. Really well crafted story. The underlying conflict sounds like it will lead to some interesting times for the mc. Look forward to it.
As the title says this is a review for Kindle Unlimited and as such is a reflection of my enjoyment of the book and in no way reflects cost to value analysis.
December 16, 2023
Pure, delicious LitRPG action
I enjoyed this immensely. Fun, exciting, emotional, with an MC I REALLY like, some villains I REALLY don’t like, all in an inventive universe. Not what you’d call deep, but so much better than some crappy wish-fulfillment like so many cultivation novels are. This is LitRPG done right.
I enjoyed this immensely. Fun, exciting, emotional, with an MC I REALLY like, some villains I REALLY don’t like, all in an inventive universe. Not what you’d call deep, but so much better than some crappy wish-fulfillment like so many cultivation novels are. This is LitRPG done right.
October 18, 2022
Great book
Really enjoyed the book recommend to anybody that likes fantasy novels. I love this genre as a whole, however it often gets repetitive, but this book manages to be unique enough from other books of this genre making it one of my favorites
Really enjoyed the book recommend to anybody that likes fantasy novels. I love this genre as a whole, however it often gets repetitive, but this book manages to be unique enough from other books of this genre making it one of my favorites
November 2, 2022
Buy it!
A great start to a new series. A scamp and a scoundrel he is and absolutely admirable. Great world building and a great Loot RPG style. Monsters and mayhem climb to conquer the worlds!
A great start to a new series. A scamp and a scoundrel he is and absolutely admirable. Great world building and a great Loot RPG style. Monsters and mayhem climb to conquer the worlds!
November 5, 2022
What?
He was transformed into a newt but walked on two legs?Then there was pages showing pages and pages showing the same thing with one item being upgraded!! The heh day of LITRPG is almost ovewith which I'm really looking too!!
He was transformed into a newt but walked on two legs?Then there was pages showing pages and pages showing the same thing with one item being upgraded!! The heh day of LITRPG is almost ovewith which I'm really looking too!!
January 16, 2023
Again, decent start
Like so many, a great start to an interesting take. Now, to see if it can be kept up and avoid bogging down in the increasingly slow rise to power with the usual half step, pseudo step, etc. common to the genre.
It makes it boring or stalls the series out.
Like so many, a great start to an interesting take. Now, to see if it can be kept up and avoid bogging down in the increasingly slow rise to power with the usual half step, pseudo step, etc. common to the genre.
It makes it boring or stalls the series out.
January 22, 2023
Odd, but interesting entry into the litrpg collection. I like the main character, he sure does struggle to overcome a lot, and even at the end, when he believes he's won the battle, forces still plot against him. Likely to read the second one, gotta see this guy get his due after all.
January 24, 2023
Great read
Really enjoyed the crafting and the results.
MC is a hella of a guy and I'm with him all they way.
Last but not least, thank you ever so much for not going straight to trying to be a dragon!
Really enjoyed the crafting and the results.
MC is a hella of a guy and I'm with him all they way.
Last but not least, thank you ever so much for not going straight to trying to be a dragon!
February 3, 2023
I didn't expect to like this as much as I do. An axolotl as the main character sounds strange but it's not. Nic is a great character with a clear purpose and a huge drive. I really enjoyed the non-stop action and the overarching storyline as well. I also adore Inkspur!
February 15, 2023
Awesomeness
This story of a demi human winning the lottery to get out of the slums and invade Earth as the System takes over was Fan-tastic. Unique cultivation magic and creatures.
This story of a demi human winning the lottery to get out of the slums and invade Earth as the System takes over was Fan-tastic. Unique cultivation magic and creatures.
April 12, 2023
Nic choose to abandon his humanity to become a monster out of proverty and slave like life. He fought enemies and friends but the system chose to favor their chosen one. This story is hard to imagine especially the fighting part but nice plot. Enjoyable reading.
Borrowed from KU
Borrowed from KU
October 24, 2022
Fantastic start to a new series!
What a unique merging of multiple fun genres. Pacing was great. Lots of action while relationships were appropriate for the setting.
What a unique merging of multiple fun genres. Pacing was great. Lots of action while relationships were appropriate for the setting.
December 27, 2022
Loved it; now to forget about it somehow until the sequel.
January 30, 2023
Very good 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.
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.
July 24, 2023
Not bad. An interesting spin on things with the monster perspective during a system apocalypse. Fun enough :)
September 1, 2023
Exactly what I'm looking for with the genre. Proactive MC, refreshing system of progression, good character writing, and fun spectacle.
October 13, 2023
From nothing to Warrior
Very through. He leveled nicely. I wish he would have gotten a great reward at the end. Have to see what awaits.
Very through. He leveled nicely. I wish he would have gotten a great reward at the end. Have to see what awaits.
July 28, 2024
This is an interesting one not sure why I like it as much as I do to be honest
October 25, 2022
The beginning didn’t really draw me in, but it’s pretty good once it gets going.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews