In the Key of Ether

Information

Status

Ongoing

Year

2022

Author

LlamaLlumps

• Book: 1 MissAdventures with Admiral Amy
  Feb 22, 2024
• Ch: 291 Epilog
  Feb 20, 2024
• Ch: 290 Space Oddity
  Feb 20, 2024
• Ch: 289 Should I Stay Or Should I Go
  Feb 20, 2024
• Ch: 288 No Parking On The Dance Floor
  Feb 19, 2024
• Ch: 287 Maneater
  Feb 18, 2024
• Ch: 286 Sunshine Superman
  Feb 16, 2024
• Ch: 285 Get Up And Bar The Door
  Feb 15, 2024
• Ch: 284 Whistle Past The Graveyard
  Feb 14, 2024
• Ch: 283 Putting The Fun Back In Funeral
  Feb 12, 2024
• Ch: 282 Naval Lint, In MY Bellybutton?
  Feb 11, 2024
• Ch: 281 Honeymoon Suite
  Feb 10, 2024
• Ch: 280 A Kraken The Wall
  Feb 9, 2024
• Ch:279 And The Law… Won?
  Feb 8, 2024
• Ch: 278 I Fought The Law
  Feb 7, 2024
• Ch: 277 Murder Was The Case
  Feb 6, 2024
• Ch: 276 Blood On The Dance Floor
  Feb 4, 2024
• Ch: 275 Back In Black
  Feb 4, 2024
• Ch: 274 Late In The Evening
  Feb 3, 2024
• Ch: 273 In My Fig Tree
  Feb 2, 2024

Reviews

Community Reviews(10)

• TxouminRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  I'll start by saying i've been lurking on RR for two years, had to create an account to promote this piece of wonder
  This is a blissfull work of art
  It may however not be for anybody, If you find this thanks to the litrpg tag and were hoping for a quick read into big numbers and what not, pass along, or better yet, settle in for a sweet change that you'll never regret and get reading this. Be warned, the pace feels slowish in its own manner mainly due to the writting style, which you may or not adhere to but I personnaly find so endearing
  Potential warning aside, this is a perfect score albeit I can't say for sure on grammar as a non native speaker.
  So far this is a slice of life, focused on world building, characters interaction and development, you see the premise of a bigger scheme sure, but above all, it's a story of music, dancing, budding love and music, much much blisfull music that'll accompany you throghout the chapters, always present, as the words flows.
  Style : slow paced, it strongly differs from the norm by how it feels, albeit being your usual 3rd person narration, not always easy to follow sometimes if you're a fast reader, but marvelous nonetheless, some slight discrepency still.
  Story : Gary is a broken soul that ends up elsewhere and try to forge a new life for himself, this forego the usual tropes of an isekai to find its own peculiar rythm that just draws you in.
  Characters : A lovely and credible MC accomapgnied by host of character, many from the first few chapters, but most feels well fleshed out or to be soon. The interactions rings true and heartfelt.
• Black_SheepRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Story goes way beyond what I was expecting.
  long chapters ☑️
  loveable cast ☑️
  imersive and engaging ☑️
  fresh and unique ☑️
  You can't ask for much more.
  My friend LlamaLlumps has crafted an adventure through a fantasy land that touches on all aspects of life. There's love, adventure, death and plenty of wholesome moments. For story I give this 5 out of 5
  The style is one of kind, poetic and rythmic. Characters have unique voices. The writing is easy to understand except for when its intentionally difficult and everything flows together so well that it pulls you along. 5/5 on style
  Grammar is really good definitely an easy read and very clear. 5/5
  characters now here's where this one really shines. There are so many unforgettable characters and they definitely the heart and sole of this story. You'll be attached in no time at all. They'll make you laugh and cry as you take this journey with them. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. So check it out.
  As I mentioned before, I do know the Author, but my admiration for this work is sole based on the literature. There's a lot of heart and love in this novel and unlike a lot of LitRPGs I've seen, this one isn't just endless stat screens and system messages.
• Caelum MhirRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  In the Key of Ether takes you through the unexpected life of Gary. An innocuous hero, whose music changes the world around him.
  Style: This is not a typical story. The story meanders through the life of Gary and his friends, with moments of complete oddity and delight. Musical references and poetic language offer spice to the narration. This is a story to be imbibed slowly, with your feet up, a good snack, and a fresh drink. This story is whimsical and pleasant to read. The worldbuilding is wonderful and complex.
  Grammar: The grammar is clean and accurate. There may be an occasional issue, but nothing distracting.
  Story: Homeless, alone, and injured, Gary finds himself transported to another world. This story follows his discovery of himself, his talents and powers, and the building of a family through embracing deep friendships. It is both an adventure and a slice of life because his everyday life is an adventure.
  Characters: The characters are diverse and colorful. Gary, the MC, uses creativity, genius, and music to interact with his new home and friends. His friends become your friends because each has their own timbre and draw. One of my favorites is a horse with a mind of his own. There are endless choices.
  Overall: A thoroughly enjoyable tale. An interesting mixture of adventure, introspection, and humor. Perhaps leaning towards humor. Those enamored with music will like the constant references and play with lyrics. Fast-paced, creative, and unique. I can honestly say I have never read anything quite like it, but I am hooked and looking forward to reading more.  Be patient as you read and let the story develop. At first, you may wonder what you have stumbled into, give it time, and you will find a fanciful world to explore with unique and entertaining characters. This story should come with a warning, however. I found myself binge-reading through a weekend – about 30 chapters, or 90,000+ words!
• JEPayneRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Perfect score across the board. Is that to say its absolutely flawless? No, there's some little idiosyncrasies with the grammar, but it's 5 stars anyway because style, story and character won't let me go above 5. I'd dial them all up to 11 if I could! This is an amazing slice of life isekai that forgoes (at least at the start) epic battles and exaggerated anime villains for one of the most entertaining and heartfelt comedies I've read anywhere, let alone on this site.
  Story - starts off bloody miserable. Gary has nothing and it hurt getting there. And then he gets isekaid and things change almost immediately. With his cheeky personality and protag abilities broadly revolving around crafting, music and 'crowd control' he sets to work building a new life for himself and it is such a goddamm pleasure to read.
  Style - the humour in this work is fantastic. It's endearing and relateable, the authorial voice synergistic with the story and characters to create an incredible piece of work.
  Grammar - the author doesn't use line breaks for new speakers sometimes. That's it, everything else is great!
  Character - my God, the characters! Every single one of them is incredible despite it being a fairly large cast from very early on. Individually they're exceptionally well crafted, but their interactions with each other is where they really shine. Despite being larger than life, they're all relatable and endearing, especially the MC, the chronic sh*tstirrer extroadinaire with a heart of gold and not as much skill at social machinations as he would like to believe.
  All in all, one of my all time favourites on rr, and I'm usually not interested in something unless someone dies every chapter!
• A.T. OliverRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  For an Isekai and LitRPG I would consider this fairly unique. Not through any one big element, but through the author's use of character and music.
  Style: The author does well in describing the characters and the environment. While chapters seem overly long, reading them feels quick and concise. Flow is good too!
  Story: Without spoiling, the story involves the main character struggling through life before finding himself in a new and interesting world where magic, classes, and most of your typical LitRPG tropes are alive and well. Which is fine.
  What makes it particularly interesting is the character himself and his interests (cont in the next section)
  Character: This is truly where the story shines. Gary is a very well-realized character that you'll find yourself rooting for. What makes him (and the Author) even better is his love for music and how the story revolves around it in ways that I found inspiring. Would read for the character alone.
  Grammar: This is where I found the most shortcomings. Run-on sentences, missing punctuation. The occasional odd choice of word or phrase. All these things didn't take away from my enjoyment but were noticeable. So if you are sensitive to these things you may have some trouble. I would definitely recommend the author run chapters through Grammarly.
  Overall: All in all, this is a story worth reading with an interesting plot and even more interesting realized character in a setting that is more than serviceable.
• FantasySeekerRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 3.5

  I get the point of both Steamrolla, Tooshar, and Joaquin. It doesn't feel natural for an "adult" soul to behave like a child and simply go with whatever the plot says before the said "adult" soul builds his common sense.
  It's like traveling to another country; you will not blindly trust anyone and the idea is to focus on tourism and culture before building any relationship with the locals.
  There's also the "loser mindset" trope, a characteristic of bad isekai: [mc reacts to] then [plot happens].
  MC reacts to being in another world, then InfoDump+Heritage happens; MC reacts to the city, then Otho happens; etc, etc.
  Well, otakus (myself included) do like stories about losers because stuff happens without too much thinking, and when you are tired of stuff you get fan service to forget the said stuff happened.
  Let's say, a certain character tries to mindcontrol MC = stuff, then you get the fanservice "teenage romance/drama" and then you forget whatever happened and proceed to get the next stuff, the next fanservice and yay! You have read a "blissful work of art".
  It gets old real quick, for me at least. There's also the "lazy mindset" and the "entrepreneur mindset", the first one tends to build "an OP MC that solves everything" and the second always results in Mary Sue. Which is fine, this is what isekai is about, easy wish fulfillment. But the good isekai will try to alternate.
  Sometimes MC feels like a loser, then tries to do something, stuff happens and MC solves everything because he is OP but the solution wasn't perfect and it results in more troubles and more stuff happens because MC is OP and now he needs to do something otherwise he is bound to feel like a loser. - See, this is a brief explanation of Overlord vol 1.
  Now, back to this novel, MC just reacts to stuff for 5 long chapters. It feels like a Chinese novel, but you can't fast-read because it's slow-paced and that's why it feels so bothersome to read.
• MutalithRoyal Road

  ★★★ 2.5

  REVIEWED AT CHAPTER 7
  Overall, this story had a lot of potential at the beginning with an interesting setup and what seemed like a character with a lot of emotional baggage who had lived a hard life. However, things quickly diverged and went in a very strange direction after the first couple of chapters. The MC went from a traumatized person deeply distrustful of authority and any sort of institution to someone willing to bend over to please anyone around him. There was no gradual transition for this but merely a short conversation with a single character (Otho), who we will get to shortly. After this he suddenly finds himself in an orphanage despite having gone through a long cycle of abuse in the foster system in his previous world. After this he just becomes a doormat as every single character he meets belittles him, manipulates him, and continually puts him down. They even begin to invade his personal space and show no care for his discomfort when put into various situations and he just lets it happen.
  Now for the style the author enjoys the use of flowery and sometimes overly descriptive prose that almost seems to detract from the story. If you've ever read Wheel of Time it is very similar to Robert Jordans writing style. Additionally, the author really piles on the musical references which can be difficult to follow if you're not musically educated.
  Now for the story one of my biggest issues with it is the fact that there never really seems to be a complete thought. We will start reading about a plot point, get halfway there, and then just suddenly move to something else. Instead of flowing the story just feels like you're constantly leaping around never staying in one spot for long. This leaves you feeling like nothing ever really gets resolved and instead it's always on to the next shiny thing. I think one of the best examples of this is in ch 7
  when Gary and Ivy conspire to get Shai's brother to fall in love with Ivy by having him join the "bath club". Howe
• ToosharRoyal Road

  ★★ 1.5

  The book starts out with an intelligent, hyper independent young man reincarnating, with abilities solely focused around being able to support himself easily, ie summoning his own house etc, and then as soon as the opportunity presents he joins an orphanage? What? He was 18 before Isekai, the same now as far as I can tell, That massive jarring disconnect just killed it for me, to go from a proudly self sufficient independent guy to this? The first two chapters revolve around how fiercely independent he is to now doing whatever a vague authority figure tells him?
• TebelloRoyal Road

  ★ 1.0

  I tried to like the story, I read on hoping there would be a payoff that made slogging through the chapters worth it, there was not.
  The first chapter sells a story of an interesting character starting an adventure in a new world. The MC quickly loses all personality traits and any semblance of character motivations.
  The story is painful to read.
  STYLE
  The style jumps all over the place. at times it is written like a brief summary of a story but it is often written like someone frantically trying to explain a dream they half remember.
  STORY
  The story has no real substance, don't believe the lies of the first chapter. Nothing set up has a pay off, the MC just goes from being bullied by one person to the next. That is the whole story, there are no larger over arching goals or journey and there is no pleasing slice of life to be found anywhere in the story.
  GRAMMAR
  The grammar is fine, there are a few mistakes but they don't impact the reading experience in any significant way. The author will fix them if you point it out so I feel it's fair to give them credit for that.
  CHARACTER
  Every character introduced so far has been selfish, manipulative, and a bully. That is the same characteristic for them all so they just blend together and become almost indistinguishable. Except for the main character, they are just an empty shell where a character should be, they don't act like a person with emotions or motivations, they just smile and float along never acting on character motivations or emotions.
• justomnipotentRoyal Road

  ★ 0.5

  poor form all round really to slow in some but to fast in others greys personally changes at a drop of a hat to make the story fit. would building built around every other person blind sheep overall average and peoples accents are poorly written and dizzying to read. Gods are far to trusted for very little gain or out right disadvantage especially when nonsentient items existed on large scale before. World building would be good if it was just world building with no plot.