The Gift Of Judgement

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Tal was spending the last moments of his life the best he could - turning to the game-world of Valeria to escape reality. What he didn't know, was that he was actively participating in a recruitment program.Ultimately, Tal was given a choice. One that would see his whole life turned upside down.

Enter the ancient world of Valeria. A world of gods, demons, and myriad other magical creatures. A world scorched by the ever-hungry, and slowly expanding Shroud. A world where the magic ‘System’ is flailing wildly, summoning individuals from all over the multiverse in a desperate bid to preserve the worlds under its contention.

Marked as a 'Contender' and teleported to the very real world of Valeria, Tal finds himself alone and trapped in a mysterious Tower. There, he learns just how much of a boon The Tower truly is. If only he can survive long enough to find a way out of its halls.

Authors Note:

Patreon:Not currently avaiable

Discord:https://discord.gg/dCJ94YRtEK

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2022
Author: Josh Wells

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 3.8/ 5.0
Followers: 319
Views: 50,248

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

Jack0fheartRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story was great fun to read! I highly enjoyed the impactful beginning and the excellent imagery.
Style Score 5/5: Despite being so early in the story, it gets full marks for the simple fact Tal chose the exact opposite decision to my last Dungeon's and Dragons character which was a warlock pacted to an imp (homebrew rules ftw)
Story Score 5/5: It's still early, but well written with very clear indications of forethought and planning from the author on where they intend to take the plot.
Grammar Score 5/5: Easily the least important rating of them all. The story is far and above my requirements for a legible story. There are absolutely no glaringly obvious mistakes that distract from immersion.
Character Score 5/5: As a reader, we're still getting familiar with Tal's personality. He behaves very level-headedly for someone dumped into an unfamiliar environment. Perhaps a little too trusting at times, but that's part of character development. I'm certain he won't make the same mistakes twice.
All in all, this is very promising story which I recommend to anyone who enjoys fast paced action with interesting and unexpected interactions mixed in. I look forward to seeing the author keeping up with this story. Well done, this is definitely added to the follow list! ♥
MOROSERoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is based on the familiar format of a system-based isekai, with Tal Cael entering another world and meeting an assortment of both threatening and supportive characters as he adapts to this new world. Alongside this is the system itself, which prods him along on the journey while protecting him.
Style: The style is fairly conventional, a rough-and-tumble, direct description of the protagonist's journey. It conveys most of the information and action necessary for this genre, and gives a good sense of the protagonist's struggle to fit into this world. However, the slightly surreal and unfamiliar nature of the world could be brought out slightly more clearly, to create a sense of wonder and curiosity about this isekai world. However, that isn't necessary, just one possibility.
Story: The story so far is a solid example of the genre, with an MC appearing in the world and tasked with adapting to it in order to fulfill his role. The struggles of this are portrayed adequately, and there is a sense of an overall journey.
Grammar: The grammar is fine. It is occasionally casual, but that is intentional to set the tone.
Character: The characters so far are often archetypal, but they are portrayed decently and the dialogue is often done well. Some of the characters could be portrayed in a slightly more striking or exaggerated manner, rather than simply as the MC's supports on the journey. However, there is still plenty of time to develop the characters in interesting directions, since it is early in the story. It introduces the characters in a fairly familiar, but sometimes evocative, manner and leaves space for the author to develop them as the story progresses.
CKJ5Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Story 5/5: The Gift of Judgement is an isekai/LItRPG with all of the trappings one would expect from the genre. The author does an excellent job with the setup to get the MC, Tal, into the new world. While I am not overly familiar with genre tropes, I felt Tal’s situation was unique and fresh. After arriving in the new world, Tal has a few encounters with an imp and tiger as he becomes at ease with his new surroundings and starts to learn the ins and outs of the rules of the new world.
Style 4.5/5: The Gift of Judgement is told from a third-person perspective in a genre that focuses on first-person narratives. I prefer third-person, so I applaud this decision. The only thing I did not enjoy in the overall style was the abundance of blue boxes. Now I understand this is a genre norm, but I feel they take me out of the story. I also understand that this is probably a problem only for me, but I could do with less frequent blue boxes.
Grammar 5/5: Outside of a few typos, the grammar was on point.
Character 4.5/5: Tal is a likable MC with an incredible backstory, but I did find how quickly he came to terms with his situation to be a little weak. The side characters are fun and well-written.
The author avoids some of the tropes of the genre but stays true to the trappings of the genre. The Gift of Judgement doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it doesn’t have to do that. It is a fun story with room to grow. I would suggest it if you are a fan of isekai/LItRPG stories or if you are looking for an entry point into the genre.
Florian HannemannRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a solid story, with a slightly different way of doing the usual Isekai elements but very well done.
Style:
I really enjoy the writing style of the author. The pacing is good, scenes are painted without too much detail, yet still vivid and believable. There were a few points were I was thrown a little out of the story, but that was rarely the case.
Grammar:
Nothing bad to say about it.
Story:
The story is the best thing about the book for me so far. The main character is drawn into a game world in a very believable way. The Lit RPG elements get introduced slowly and not in a way that feels like a manual was dumped on me.Yet the story still starts strong, captivating the reader and making me want to get to know the world more.
Character:
I'm only at chapter 5, so far the main character, Tal, is the only character I feel confident talking about. I feel conflicted about Tal though, while he seems like a person I want to know more about and I love the backstory of being a sick kid he has, there were times when his dialogue didn't feel natural to me. Still the simple fact that I want to learn more about him, his adventures in this new world and even his past, speaks for itself.
The dwarfen character also seems fun and I think has very nice sidekick potential.
Interested to see where it will go!
Angel Wings Of WitchesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I really enjoyed this story, and it's definitely one of my favourites.
The story is great, it's full of action and adventure. The plot twists and turns in unexpected ways and you never know what's going to happen. It's also very intriguing and captivating, I couldn't put it down.
I really liked the characters in this story, they were all developed well. Even the minor ones! The MC in particular is very well-developed and interesting. The supporting cast is great too, I loved them all.
Overall: This story is absolutely wonderful.
MisterViiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This is a solid LITRPG, text boxes and all. The main character Tal is decent enough, the main issue is that is path has been pretty clear cut so far. There have been issues, like with the Imp, but not ones where a decision would be a struggle. I would call this a Hero LITRPG
Style: The writing is well done and consistant. The pacing, descriptions, are all on point. I never felt confused about the scene I was reading.
Grammar: No mistakes so take a 5/5
Story: The story is good, but there are a few things that made me scratch my head a bit. I called this story a hero LITRPG, well grandpa grabbed him and just yeeted him off right away. Then it was right into a tower with challenges. While the bigger context of the story is told in the blurb. He finds a tavern, but there was no questioning for information, just about bindings.
Character: We really only get the MC so far. I would say stoic, in the mold of a hero. The main issue I have is his lack of drive to gather information, or grill anything he can talk to about the systems/rules goveroning the tower he is in. He trained with Doldahr for a while, but it was all about fighting and training.
The story is a good read, with a classic hero LITRPG focus, with good fight scenes, and a focused protagonist in the mold of a hero. Definitely worth a read.
jasper3671Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I love this story so far, really something that I don't see a lot of around. The only reason I couldn't award this story the full 5 stars, is due to a few writing cliches that briefly takes me out of the fictional world. Excellent work for early on, however.
Wandering JoeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Overall: Fairly interesting premise of a poor man, being ported through the strange system of the unknown Tower. Tal is a gamer, as his health was always poor prior to his summoning. He knows certain things, yet the beginning of the first steps into the mysterious Tower are very careful. Perhaps a little too much, but considering the circumstances and the personality of the Tal, I guess it is fine as it is.
Style: Style from the 3rd person perspective. I love these, so I have no reason to judge it worse. Yet, I still do, because of the type of issue I had. Lots of times, the paragraphs are glued together into one, while thoughts and assumptions of Tal are within the paragraphs written in Italic. This slightly bothered my experience, but one could get used to it for sure. Normal dialogues are there as well, which leads to tougher reading on my side.
Grammar: I don't judge it, it is fine as everything that an author can manage. No issue.
Story: The story starts interestingly enough, where the very beginning of the rebirth, of the Tower was done with very little telling. There are others, like him summoned there, as they are Chosen, or Selected by the Tower that have not been fully fleshed out, but the mystery is obvious.
Characters: Tal is a normal lad. A person with flesh out problems within the 1st chapter that one could truly understand. Who knows, his personality would shift or change in a different way. There are also some mysterious beings, from the beginning. Some Grandpa, Tal's forceful abduction while he curses as his fate. A certain aspect of it is surely believable and likable. There is also a player? dwarf who chose to teach him for whatever reason? I guess the explanation will suffice since Tal is an obvious noob, so... It seems it will be very MC-heavy, while no particular character is all that interesting to me, apart from Tal. It all resembles a gemelit series I've read to some extent, so I bet there will be some interesting side characters if the au
A V DalcourtRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
A well written slow progression LitRPG isekai.
Style: Written in 3rd person, the tone of the story is consistent, and the events are very clear if only a little rushed over. The downside here is that there is frequent head popping, particularly in the training montage involving the dwarf in an effort to get us to sympathize with the character, as a result the attempt at the emotional manipulation feels forced and unnatural. That doesn’t mean that the character itself isn’t interesting.
Another quirk of the genre, which means this detail is a personal preference, is that the writer tells us a lot of what’s happening instead of taking the time to craft a moment of visual clarity. Such scenes come of as worth mentioning, but not worth sharing in the experience – which is adds to the feeling that some scenes feel rushed, potentially for the sake of hitting a publishing deadline.
Story: It’s starts off as a typical LitRPG isekai – Tal in this case is dying of something, his parents are fighting because of said illness, and he’s just using gaming for escapism. In the next chapter, he’s pulled into the game world, resulting in the death of a physical self. Pretty standard LitRPG stuff at this point.
Tal finds himself stuck in a tower – which due to the limited descriptions, I wasn’t really able to piece together the tone, atmosphere, or theme’s he hoped to convey with the tower itself or even in any of the room he ends up frequenting. We end up getting told that he’s found rooms to rest in, but little else.
He's lucky that he starts off in a place that’s called the forked tongue (or the Devil’s tongue) which I think is the bar and not so much the floor he’s on though I’m not sure. One of the proprietors takes Tal under his wing and his initiation into the dangers of the tower begins.
Character: I don’t know much about Tal in terms of personality, beyond determined. He ends up stating that he stopped thinking of the training dwarf as friend, but for me the emotional withdra
Inkwell RabbitRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
This is a first impressions review, as I haven't read what is entirely available, but read far enough to get the gist.
Story:
There isn't really a story, like in the traditional sense of a developing plot or antagonists or too many supporting characters that elivate the progression that I read in the 10 chapters I went through.
Tal gets wisked away inside a game he was playing. No real reason was given that he was. Tal kinda sucked at the game, never getting out of the tutorial, so it's not like 'The Last Star Fighter' where the MC is exceptional at it and is recruited to be a fighter pilot.
No Tal is just brought in the game and has to explore the Tower. Can't really say much else.
Style:
I can tell either the author has been writing for a long time or he has read plenty of books, because he's got a good base for skills. His narration is solid, descriptions are there for the most part, and he has a good plan of how he wants to tell his story. I would say my complaint is that, although Josh has an excellent array of vocabulary, Tal carries that as well. He sounds so unatural for a kid, whether he is a teen or child. But he could just be a well-read theater teen, so its not that jarring.
However this is another problem with the story. We know nothing about the characters or the setting other than Tal is a bed-ridden sick kid and he is trapped in a game. Its a tower. Really there's absolutely no world building going on. It's like cooking with no taste buds. Sure the food can look pretty, but we dont know what it tastes like. The world is here, its got a system, hes in a tower...thats all we get.
I should remark on the combat, because that's my forte in writing. Josh needs to use less floaty descriptions and focus on pacing and impactful wording.
I think if the author worked on combat and world building, he would find himself a real solid writer.
Character
Tal....Tal comes off pretty whiny. Maybe it's because I was in the military and went through boot camp, but Tal fo