Armsmaster's Summons

By: James Solomon

Narrated by: Benjamin Fife

Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Asa Ward is a reasonably content man. He was working at his own small town gunsmithing shop and is caught unaware when he was summoned to a different world.

Now he must cope with what to do in this strange new world of magic where people and even gods are after him for his knowledge of weaponry. All he wants now is to find a way home. Forced to learn the magic system in his newfound world if he wants a way home, he never knows when others are watching to steal his knowledge of non-magical weapons.

Armsmaster's Summons is a fantasy isekai adventure featuring some LitRPG elements, a unique magic system, and a protagonist watched by the gods themselves as they all begin to uncover the very nature of their authority.

©2022 James Solomon (P)2023 James Solomon

Ok first start

So, to start with the narration was the best part of this book. The story was average for the isekai/cultivation style books. The biggest drawback was the several instances of the MC begging for God to help him, and then a literal deus ex happens. I was fully into the story when it just seemed like the author realized he wanted to make it into a series and just fast forwarded thru the ending.
Most of the book was paced pretty well. It's just right at the end that it sped up to the point that I had to re-listen to the last about 5 chapters to figure out why it ended so abruptly.
I would buy the next book just to figure out what happens. But if the next book speeds up right at the end when the story's really firing up, I would have to very much reconsider any more after that

give it a shot

Asa has a realistic "pov" of being isekai'd. I enjoyed the fact that he doesn't automatically understand how things work in the new world. For example, he isn't an instant pro using his inventory. The start is a bit slow but gets better as the story progresses. The narrator does a decent enough job, and to be honest, he grows on you but I'm still not sure if I like him or not. Also, I like the star wars mentions.

Family Man's Isekai

I got the feeling through most of the book that it would be a one and done kind of story. That changed near the end when suddenly, that was not the case. All that said, though, I felt like the pacing was pretty good.

I've noticed a few other reviews touch on a few things that I also found notable: The MC is very Christian. While I think there's certainly an argument to be made that the character's application of said faith can be a tad heavy handed at times, I also think it was a very important addition to the story. Often, I feel like in an isekai style story, as soon as the character is in the new world, they allow their original world to simply slough off them like a second skin the not only no longer need, but never wanted to begin with. Unlike other stories, while this one was a tad rough around the edges, keeping to a character that actually seeks to return to their world, to reunite with their family, and to regain normalcy is a pretty big thing. For such a character, holding onto their faith in a world filled with an alternate pantheon feels pretty important.

Heavy handed also was the pop-culture referencing. That said, if you're reading this style of book, you're going to get them all. You'll either smile or roll your eyes, but the book as a whole feels pretty tongue-in-cheek, so even if you do, it's kind of what you expect and at the very least for me, I embraced it wholeheartedly.

As far as the voice acting goes, I think overall it was pretty consistent, and generally pleasant. There were a few rough spots in the beginning, but I couldn't tell if that was direction, or actor choice. The voice effects used for some characters were very offputting, though. Had they been more prevalent, I'd be inclined to rate something lower, but would be inclined to not have it ding the Performance score as I'm sure that's something production had more of a hand in.

All in all, I'll look forward to the next book, but I'd have been far happier with this one had it been about an hour longer and finished up in this one, I think. It felt like it had the potential to resolve soon, but decided not to.

Gunsmith in a Fantasy World

A bit of a slow start, but solid world building. This was a pleasant surprise.

Outstanding

The book is outstanding. As a Christian myself, I generally don’t care for Christian stories as they are typically full of cliched tropes done poorly, preachy sermons in the form of dialogue that don’t fit the plot, etc., but this book was SO well done. Seriously one of my favorite reads all year! Extremely interesting magic system. Well thought out main character. Satisfying ending while leaving me excited for book two.

In the category of Christian fiction, this book takes the gold medal and makes it look easy, but that category aside, this is genuinely one of the best books I have read all year long. I enjoyed this right up there with Mistborn, Ender’s Game, and Bobiverse. Outstanding book.

The performance was well done, the narrator did a great job with the characters. Had to speed it up to 1.35, but that’s not uncommon for me. My only real complaint with the narration is there are a number of recording mistakes later in the book where sentences in the same flow of narration have obvious cuts and sound very different in quality. That said - great narration and I have literally no idea how difficult to fix that minor complaint would even be. It also did not pull me from the story.

Excellent story with lite LitRPG elements

I really enjoyed the story. Like most LitRPG the MC experiences isekai into a new world/universe, there a plenty nerdy quips and sly nods to cultural references that no one from the new world understand.

Unlike other LitRPG that I’ve read, the MC doesn’t fall into a quest to level up and become the strongest. Asa’s goal is simply, figure out a way to get home to his wife and kids. Asa maintains his fundamental beliefs and principles throughout the story despite some intimidating trials.

The narrator’s pacing and cadence was pleasant and didn’t detract from the story at all. There were a couple points that I felt could have used better inflection to play up the emotional aspect of the story which is why I gave the performance 4 stars.

A little heavy on the christian crap

Overall the concept story and pacing was great. the constant christian fan boy babble was a bit off-putting.

reasonably entertaining Freshman effort

it's pretty obvious this is the authors first book, there there is definite room to improve the plot progression and creating characters with more depth. having said this is LITRPG and as an outlet for escapism I don't regret the listen. The premise is interesting, the pacing was enough to keep me engaged and just enough relatable content to let me lose myself.

as has been pointed out the Christian theme can be a little jarring in the context of LITRPG but that's a creative choice on the part of the author and isn't necessarily preachy, just an aspect of the character.

knowing how brutal ratings are, this is honestly a 4 star book but I'm giving it 4.5 considering it's his first book and rounding it up to 5 to provide encouragement to the author to keep honing his craft

Great read!

I enjoyed it, there is some build up to get to actual magic action. I would have liked to see more in the realms of him actually using guns in a magical way also.

Christian guy from Texas gets Isekai'd

No spoilers, but... listen I'm a Christian and even that was a bit too corny for me.

To sum it up, too much Jesus, not enough guns.