Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Although it starts out with a bit of promise, this series falls flat by the time you get to book number four. It starts out as LitRPG with some absurd but acceptable plot points. However, as you make it to book three the series changes significantly. The hero becomes a more or less invincible being with godly powers, and it basically ceases to follow the genre. Instead, it becomes a propaganda piece for the Russian state. Problems I have with the series as it progresses: 1. The further you get in, the more mentions there are of Russia as a great peacemaker that never starts fights but always finishes them. The reader is pushed to believe that 'The Motherland' is the only righteous country and all others are enemies. 2. Stalin is mentioned repeatedly in later books as a great and wonderful leader and his views are pushed as the only way to succeed in life. 3. Multiple instances of racism. The worst villains always end up being from an 'evil' ethnicity. The Chinese are derided as weak and lacking morals (unless they follow a communist belief system) , 'blacks' are vile and hateful, Pols are conniving and backstabbing, and so on. Initially the racist comments are infrequent and short, but as you get deeper into the books they turn into paragraph long rants on the weaknesses of other races or ethnicities. 4. The characters become more and more homophobic as the series progresses and begin espousing 'traditional' families headed by strongmen with submissive wives. 5. Sexism is blatant and frequent. Women must be beautiful, willing to sexually satisfy the men around them at will (if the women are single), intelligent but not ambitious, and willing to take background support roles without recognition . Some female characters start as strong and independent, but eventually are depicted as freaks, selfish betrayers, or monsters. The exceptions are when they transform into submissive weaklings after finding a strong man who can tame them. 6. Evil is only evil if it's committed against Russians. Torture, banishment to hell dimensions, utter destruction of souls, and so on are committed by the hero character repeatedly as the series goes on, but are always 'special cases' with justifications that exempt him from judgement. 7. As you get into book 5, things really go downhill. The Russian Bear is mentioned more and more, the great Russian president makes a personal appearance, and murder, terrorism, and other acts of violence against non-Russians are repeatedly justified to protect the motherland. I can't tell you how the series ends, because I just couldn't keep reading any further.