Hedonia the Arcane Utopia (LitRPG)

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

LitRPG Progression Fantasy (action-packed with some slice of life).

James, the bipolar maniac with a good heart, wanted to reincarnate into a utopic world, a heavenly realm. But he wasn't good enough for heaven. What he got was far from it - a world infested by the Darkness.

Despite the Darkness already taking over a huge part of the world, there is a place called Hedonia that is still striving towards its goal to create a utopia.

Which might not be such an impossible goal now that the progression-obsessed James is here. That is, if the Darkness doesn't destroy the world long before that happens.

Things aren't as black and white as they seem though. The Darkness is dangerous, but using it is necessary to build the utopia they desire.

Out of the countless worlds James could've reincarnated in, he still chose to come here though. His goals perfectly align with Hedonia's. He'll gain power at any cost in order to ensure that the Darkness won't destroy his new, cozy home.

Schedule: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2022
Author: John Lerbinski

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 3.5/ 5.0
Followers: 200
Views: 143,050

Reviews

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Community Reviews(5)

Kdanger3398Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Enjoyed this one. The world-building was well done and the RPG game mechanics were well integrated into the narrative without being distracting. The synopsis of the story was well written and if a person is into LitRPG he can jump straight because I bet he will like it. The main character James is likeable because his character is well written and the author does not ruin his personality by making him a pervert. The author has done some superb work on grammar and I appreciate it because wrong grammar can sometimes ruin the whole story. The plot was decent but not extraordinary because you can find stories that have similar plots like this nowadays but what makes this story different is its vivid world-building. One additional point which I can mention is that the names of the chapters are really funny like for example the name of chapter 3 is "Dragons are filthy little vermin". After all, I am looking forward to seeing where this story goes next! I will be picking up more LitRPG novels from now on.
Paul James KeyesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a story about a young man finding himself… after his death.
I particularly enjoyed the rules as they are setup, involving our universe being like a game in which you are reincarnated into different worlds after you die
The game aspect is featured heavily throughout, so hopefully that’s a positive for you.
The prose doesn’t waste a lot of words. It’s brevity keeps the pace moving at a decent clip.
There were few grammar issues with this story, and it read well, which is more than I can say for too many stories on this site
The characters feel authentic and were interesting. James was less controversial than a lot of the horny characters I keep coming across on this site lol
There is a decent amount of world building in this story, which I always appreciate. It’s packed full of surprises, and doesn’t fall into overused troupes.
It starts out a little slow, but the action picks up after the first few chapters, so be sure to give it a little bit of time to pick up speed. I would say it’s even a slow burn. There’s a lot of content here if you like its style and the litRPG genre. Overall, while there may be some room to improve, it is already a solid read.
I’ll update this review if my opinion changes as I read on.
Rookie12Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Usually, I am not a fan of LitRPG, they feel a bit weird to me. But occasionally I like reading novels outside of my preferred genre, and this story is something that I liked.
Story, Style and Character, all of them are solid five stars for daring to innovate with ideas. Without spoilering much, here is why:
First, the reincarnation idea. In short, this verse is based on the fact that a person can choose where he will be reincarnated after his untimely death, and he has several options based on his (good or bad) deeds. Because the MC is neither a saint nor a bad guy, just an average person, he sadly has no way into the most paradise-like types of worlds, so he chooses the second best option, a world that can in time become utopia. This little tidbit of information helps us greatly to understand why the MC would risk his life in various adventures. The author expertly woven a portion of the MC's motivation to risk his life into the worldbuilding.
The progression system is explained really well. The MC himself comes across as a likeable person, who is willing to abuse his magic to get ahead in life, but so far, still comes across as a good-natured person, who is willing to learn new things. Side characters are not the greatest in the genre, but the author knows his strengths really well and plays on them, crafting well enough characters for us, the readers, to give a damn, which is a plus in my opinion.
The fact that the MC has a pretty OP combination of powers (In my opinion, pretty much all the negatives of the jack-of-all-trades skill are negated with his soul of demon power, which allows him to imbue his spells with additional mana to make them stronger.) is balanced by the fact that the MC must spend more mana on the spell. Also, this litRPg explains how mana recovery works, a minor detail that many other stories skip.
The worldbuilding, as said above, is simply great. The world has an analog of our real world internet, but there is a damn good reason in the stor
prodigyabRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is very creative and ingenious.
It keeps throwing interesting little concepts at you that are very intriguing. But it's also simple to understand.
The language is simple but effective, brevity is one of its strengths.
It's also paced quite well. The progression is very fast, but there seem to be a lot of nice and pleasant, quiet moments as well where they just show the MC and his friends hanging out and taking it easy, with plenty of action so that the relaxing moments feel welcome.
It's definitely not tropey. Seems even anti-tropes somtimes, it takes a trope and you think it's going to say something tropey, but then it does another thing.
I like how quick and to the point it is. Also the slice of life elements are a nice balance to the very fun action moments.
Reading this makes me relaxed, it's not emotionally draining. It's a good read that makes me relax and take it easy, while also being interested and excited. Feels good man.
NecessityRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
I only got to chapter 9, not even getting of the first page of chapters of a currently 168 chapter long webnovel, so take this with a grain of salt.
The MC is very impulsive and not in that "I've got good instincts" kinda way. He seems quite aware that he doesn't make good plans but doesn't seem to care about it. Neither does his friends, who he makes way too easily and popped out of nowhere.
Honestly, I suppose I'm confused about why certain choices where made;
The "jack of all, master of none" trait would seem to be great for a skill scholar and would work great if he learnt several disparate skills that synergised well, the author abandoned it 25 chapters in without really using it.
His half demon soul getting stronger sounds like a great curruptive influence, that no one seems concerned about and I'm not sure will go anywhere. His friends are the son of a archmage and a girl who is studying him, it hasn't said it so far but I'm not sure either of them would care if he died, they are that suspicious to me and them being pricks would actually be more enjoyable to me.
So,in conclusion, the writing and dialogue isn't great to me and the main 3 characters aren't that likable.