The Path of Ascension 3 (The Path of Ascension #3) (2024)

This is third in a series that builds up over time. Definitely read in order.

I'll be perfectly honest here, I didn't read this book. Okay, that's only partially true. I read this book while it was up on Royal Road because I decided I didn't want to wait for the author to publish the next bit. Which means I read a rawer, less edited version some bit ago.

That said, I'm still completely engrossed in the story even though I've caught up to the author's releasing on RR. This book contains a "babies first war" with Matt, Liz, and Aster picking a side and participating in battles where higher Tier observers yank people out before they can die. Which isn't before they experience some extreme pain as healers can put you back together so long as they have a brain to work with. And can I just say how I love that they have post-death counseling and the role therapists play in the series? Very well done.

Also in this story, we have the return of Melinda (the super healer in the first book) and her team. They're still friends and I love the dynamic with these characters during the tense trials of a war in all but fact. And the new people Matt and Liz find to extend their team, even if only temporarily during the war.

In all, I'm calling this a great win and an entire five stars. And I'd say I'm totally looking forward to the next book, but I've already read that one, too, on Royal Road...

A note about Chaste: This book has Matt and Liz become much closer and eventually become intimate in that way. It's about time. The author pulls the curtains closed way before any details hit, so I consider it still chaste. That's a close call, though, so substitute your taste as you find comfortable.

This is another entry in a pretty consistent series. If you've enjoyed the first two books, then you'll probably enjoy this one too.

Not a lot happens in this volume in the grand scheme of things. It felt more like a daily life experience as Matt & Company experience a training war. It's a mercenary experience since they are fighting for points and prizes rather than any true loyalty to either side. A "death" instead results in a point penalty and two weeks on the sidelines after a high-tier referee observer plucks them out of trouble.

Matt and Liz's relationship takes the next step, which is fine. I can't help but shrug at the whole thing. It's not really what I'm here for, but at least the author isn't beating me over the head with it too often.

I still wish the writing would improve a few notches. There were a lot of proofreading errors and flat writing. That being said, it rarely interfered with my ability to follow or picture the scene, so it's not the biggest deal. It just is what it is.

I'm curious about where this story's actually going. It honestly feels like we are still in the 1st Act and the genuine obstacles haven't shown up yet. The story isn't in any hurry to get there, which isn't a bad thing if you're in the mood for it. This series is pretty nice leisure reading in between other books.

Baby's First War

Enjoyable book, everything just keeps getting turned up and up as the story continues.

Great character development, with the MC gaining confidence as the story continues.

Will definitely get the next one when it's available.

Here’s the thing

I read this previously, and there are some changes.

All of the chapters focused on Melinda and her team were cut. Not a terrible loss, but some nuance is missing.

There’s also a humorous seen towards the end that was substantially changed. Having read the original, it’s even funnier now.

I will pre-order book for as soon as it is available.

This book edges on being too good. I’m not sure it could be better or what would happen to a person reading it if it were better.

I am still enjoying the series, but some of its shortcomings are starting to become more apparent in this third installment. Chiefly, the lack of a copy editor, as I mentioned in my review of the first book. But secondarily, there are a lot of sub-plots and directions that seem to get kicked off, only to never be heard from again.

Both of these issues are extremely common for web serials published on RoyalRoad and the like, and again, I am enjoying the series overall, but boy would it be better with a bit more polishing.

I enjoyed the first two books so much that I read up to chapter 200 which is probably the next couple of books. The training war will most likely be the emphasis of book 3. I enjoyed this arc more than the golem war. Really great story.

KU Review

A war with no casualties? Sounds like a good way to train our pathers. A step away from the fast advancement and experimentation, but a fun entry full of action.

General disclaimer: I want to be clear in that I do not factor cost into any review and as such, this is simply a reflection of my enjoyment of the book and in no way reflects cost to value analysis.

Idk if it’s this book but the world building is done really well to an extent I was shocked by

This book just (by the barest of margins) scrapes a 3-star review out of this reader instead of a 2. The only reason for this is that I read until the end and plan to read the next book in the series because of my attachment to the characters and my interest in the potential of this series. As a novel though, this was pretty subpar.

The problem continues to be the same issue that I pointed out in my previous two reviews; action without meaning.

Action is only interesting in novels when it is meaningful to the story being told. Using that action as an excuse to show off cool powers or abilities will only take you so far. Without either meaningful stakes or an opportunity to advance the story in some significant way, action soon becomes tedious and starts to slow the story down instead of making it more lively.

This novel has a war where there are no real stakes because there is a plot device where no one dies. "Death" in battle instead just gets that person a 2-week time out before they can get back to the fight. So instantly all of the stakes behind a war get pulled right out of the story. There's no longer anything on the line, and the characters don't really have to worry about encountering any moral boundaries when they know they aren't really killing anyone.

So with the war side of the story providing a gaping void of filler for this novel, it relies once again on the core premise of this series to save it; cultivation/character progression. This is called the Path of Ascension, therefore ascending should be at the core of every decision driving these books. The first story saw 5 levels of progression for our main characters. The second story saw just one. Here... well moving the characters further along their path seemed to be entirely forgotten until right at the end, and by then it was too little too late.

It's a shame because every time this story did get back to that side of things, the story got interesting again. The time Matt spent enchanting, training and exploring his powers was genuinely interesting. But there's just so little of it to hold my interest.

So finally we are left with the final element of this novel that did manage to keep me reading to the end, and that is the characters themselves. I like them... pretty much all of them actually. I like their chemistry, their actions and their potential. One of the most fun moments in this novel was a reunion between Matt and the friends he made in the first novel. I am invested in them and their story and I would like to see them succeed and go on to great things.

So overall, this book was a bit of a disappointment to me. It prioritised action over storytelling and bogged the characters down in a war that forced them to stagnate their progress. There were many head nods to how they might have made small steps forward as though this was all part of some bigger plan thanks to their management team, but honestly, they made way more progress in the first book than they did in the second and third books combined, so I'm doubting that strategy.

I'll probably pick up the next novel to continue following Matt's story, but I am hoping for more. It will need to do a lot to win me over though, because I am someone who likes to re-read previous books before starting a new one to make sure the story is fresh in my mind, and I have no intention of re-reading this one any time soon. If the next book isn't all that good either, then I'll probably write this series off.

After the disaster that was the golem war, Matt, Liz, and Aster have been enjoying their less-frenetic delving (while also making buckets of money). But when a Pather war is announced for the planet they're on, and their manager-to-be requires them to participate, it's back to fighting in the real world. And this war is going to push them in a number of unexpected ways . . .

So this is another long fight arc, but it's much better executed than the golem war (even though the team basically doesn't Tier up again). Everyone still manages to make progress, both with getting new skills, and learning to use their existing kits better. Additionally, one big thing that changes in this book is that the three of them learn to work as a team with some new people.

And the new characters are pretty fun. Since this is a long-term team up, there's a lot of depth to each of the new cast. I especially like the focus on Annie and her assassination specialty, as it provides a look at some of the sneakier battle styles.

I also really like Kelley, a crafter Matt befriends, as the two of them can geek out about magic and enchanting together. Matt hasn't really had this kind of down time with friends in a long while, so it's fun watching the two of them try to make (and break) things.

War-wise, the battles have their ups and downs. There are some nice small scale and large scale conflicts, and Matt ends up with a bigger role than he wanted in some parts. And in others he's just another cog in the machine, trying to hold a small patch of ground. I do like how towards the end the focus expands out a bit more and we can see the bigger picture behind the kingdom and the queendom. It does a lot to humanize the prince and his sister Cora, and show what they've had to deal with growing up, and how their reactions are similar even though they went in different directions.

Overall this was a good next arc for the series. The lack of Tier progression is once again making the series feel a bit like it's stalling, but at least there are a lot of other areas where the characters are growing and changing. I rate this book Recommended.

good story, good character, introspection, but storyline and power progression are too slow.

First of all, I enjoy the story that’s why I’m giving this book this particular rating. What I didn’t like, was the fact that the location for the main characters were static. They were on a planet in a war game. I had to slog a little bit and skim through parts of the book because it wasn’t all that interesting. The characters did not tear up, they started at tier six at the beginning of the book and ended at tier 6. Their own personal growth did not develop in this particular book. The MC and his sidekicks are likable and so are the teams they allied themselves with. In my opinion, I think, instead of letting us know what’s in some of the side characters mind the author should concentrate on what’s happening in the growth and the tearing up, or leveling up of the MC. Yes, they did get skills that help them in battle, but they did not receive any power increases. according to the storyline, nothing should really happen until they reach tier 10, is that going to be five books from now? there are plenty of storyline threads that are being unraveled but unfortunately, the story progression and power up levels are very slow. If you don’t mind these issues you would like this book.

Rating 4.0 stars

This was a good addition to the series. This series has a good balance between the world building, magic, fighting and character interactions. The group is part of a mock war to get experience. This is interesting because they really don't have any stake in which side they chose - the kingdom or the queendom. the group chose the kingdom for a couple of reasons. They didn't like the prince, but they did like his second in command. They had been with that group already, so they decided to continue there. Problems happened when people on the kingdom side betrayed them. It was interesting to follow along and think about what I would do in those situations. Would I change sides at that point? What do you do when you don't like the side that you are on but don't really like the other side either? Is better to be loyal or to look out for yourself? Is being loyal the best thing in the end? That part kept me on my toes. I didn't know who was going to win. The only thing I knew is that I wanted Matt, Liz and Aster to do well but that didn't necessarily mean that their side needed to win. Overall, I enjoyed the series and am looking forward to the next one.

Review of Books 1-4

Quite a engaging & fun read. Good enough that I binged all 4 books in 3 weeks.

What I liked the best:
+ Easy prose. Immersive enough to drag you in, but not too flowery to drag down the pace.
+ Engaging characters. The MC and his supporting cast are loveable and ones that I wanted to flourish and win. Though not overtly complicated, there's enough moral ambiguity to not make things all vanilla.
+ Macro world & characters. This is phenomenal. Loved the macro politics that defines actions of those we follow. The world is set up very well and it all makes sense. The macro super-powerful characters are exciting and I was happy whenever they make an appearance. The gradual buildup in scope perfectly baited me to binge finish this.

What I liked less:
- There's a lot of mana magic math. Pages of stats showing how certain attributes progress over the next few hundred years / 50 levels. There's also lot of calculations to explain the math behind power progression. It just felt dry to me and after the first few tries, I just skipped all those without any noticeable difference in reading enjoyment.

Highly recommended.

This book took a turn off the path and into war games

The first two books were amazing, easily a five star and a four star respectively. I gave the second book a star less as it took a sudden dark turn and at times was hard to read; but that helped the characters progress.

This book I am genuinely at a loss of understanding as the characters did not do any delving worthy of keeping them on their path which they recognized and decided to fix that. However, they were forced to stay by higher powers to compete in war games where they absolutely did not increase their path.

I personally HATE reading about war. This book was difficult to say the least to finish as I can't find it in me to care about anything in this book except Matt and his party. There were pages I just scanned to get through the book as fast as possible.

If you like reading about intricacies of war and tactics and strategies than you will love this book... For the rest of you, possibly skip it.

good book but it was disappointing at the same time.

The writing is excellent, but the storyline is somewhat disappointing in this novel. The main characters go through a lot in this story still seems to stagnate on level growth to a certain degree. The only level growth they experience is at the beginning of the story and it’s really a left over from the last book. At this rate it would take a dozen Books before they make any significant increase. I have a feeling that the author will tell most of the stories at the lower levels, and then do time skips. So far the story is still worth reading, but it dragged quite a bit during this book. The whole story came across as the main characters being more like side characters in a different story.

A great addition to one of the best LitRPG series

This was a lot of fun, a great read, and I can't wait for the next book. The only issue I had is that it needs some serious editing.

Dear Publisher, please invest in a few rounds of editing and proofreading. A few errors are inevitable, but there were soooo many in this book. Random periods, words that should have been upper case, and so many autocorrect fails ("manage" instead of "imagine," for example).

Maybe it's just me, but every error kicks me out of the story and it drives me crazy. Luckily, I love the series enough I didn't let the multitude of errors stop me from finishing it, and I'll definitely buy the next book, but I fervently hope that one gets more attention.

The overall story is still good but book 3 is a fundamentally flawed addition

Spoilers ahead: It is a book where the characters are in no real danger, have no real control or command or overall strategic input, don't really interact with past characters and can't continue forward with the team they were a part of. Just at its basis it is one of the most pointless books I've ever read, theres some redeeming aspects but if you think about it it's just kinda boring since none of it matters. Best part was the last 5% where the more entrenched characters interact. I have no idea how they are going to progress to meaningful levels when it takes thousands of years. Overall strategy of the series needs to be rethought imo.

I hope we don't get half a story again this time round.

I don't really like this big fake battle that is going on. It is shaping up to be another book two, where nothing much happened progress wise.

I also don't like how everyone keeps saying "this war wasn't going to be short".

I'm more than halfway into this book, and it seems it will be just like book two.... nothing really happens and you have to read this boring fake war.

I finished this book. Compared to book one, which had so much activity, nothing happens.
I'm willing to give book four a go, if it is just like book two and three, I'm dropping the series, as it will be obvious that the author is trying to milk the series.

2.5/5 Stars

Let the war games start. And that is exactly what this volume is about, the war between the Kingdom and the Queendom over the planet and Matt's role in it. It is also very much a game, which is immediately my biggest complain about the book. There is no real threat, creating what is basically one long tournament arc and I have never been a big fan of those. It is well written though, with some decent character developments, both in regards to personality and skills/powers (which at times can take up a lot of pages) add the enjoyable characters and intriguing world and I still enjoyed the story well enough to buy the next volume when it becomes available.

Epic!

I couldn’t put this book down, really addictive read. CM struck a good balance between advancement, battles, character building and crafting. I am loving the strength balance CM has struck, the main characters are strong but he has not been tempted to rush giving them too many new skills. I would happily read a dozen books just to have their advancement feel natural.

There was also a significant improvement to editing. Still occasionally words missing in sentences or a similar looking word but not the right one being used. Improvement of 80-90% though which is massive.

More more more please!

War games and convoluted plots

Matt's team, including some temporary additions, do a lot of growing up. I actually really love that mental health and it's related treatments are important to this bookverse. I like Luna, and not just because of her name (my oldest's name is Lunari). Luna is going to be a harsh task master. I agree with Matt that politics is mentally draining and exhausting. The war seems to be a combination of brutality, toddler squabbling, and almost every person looking for their own individual successes. Can't say I like any of the new nobility. Well, as long as Albert and Juni are part of that. Fun read, and made me laugh.

Path of Ascension book 3 is the third book in this series, and it hasn't let up one bit. It's still as fast paced as it was in book one, and it's still just as much fun to read. I liked this one, and I think I'm going to go ahead and read the next one now.
This one was entirely focused on the phony war, which ended in a rather unusual way, and now we get to see how the main character does when he can progress as he was doing before, it should be an interesting story.

At the time I listened to this book I ocelated back and forth as to how much I liked it... I had been afraid that this would become a series about a never-ending war. But that's not the case. I finally realized that I liked it a lot! And Ohhhh Man what an amazing ending! I definitely need to follow Matt and Liz as they continue on the Path of Ascension in order to get stronger. Only now they have the help from an active trainer.
So grab the book with the promise of a great read and a dynamite ending. What'ja you got to lose? Let C Mantis and JS Arguin take you away!

My Rating System:
5- Perfect for my taste, I could not physically stop reading/listening and wanted more afterward.
4- Almost perfect, could not stop reading/listening, probably wanted more afterward.
3- I enjoyed the book and could see others loving it, I need to think if I want more.
2- I can see why others might like the book, but I could not, I do not want more.
1- What is this? What went wrong? Why did they do this? This doesn't make any sense! (No idea who it is for, but definitely not for me).

[Audiobook Version]

Just wrapped up book 4 via royal road earlier this week, so have certainly read this. While I have found much there that I've enjoyed (20 open tabs, and I know I've finished some stories there as well), this is among the better ones.

I sometimes like the pesky tables, numbers, etc. This story SOMETIMES has them - not overwhelmingly, but just enough that I haven't recommended it to my brother the way I did some less heavy-number stories as he likes to listen to audible. Little blue boxes don't translate well between the senses.

Okay, so if you’ve reached this book you either like the series or you don’t. If you don’t, then why are you here for this review?

That said, the third book is pretty good but does draw out scenes a bit too much. To make those scenes worse, they have Matt go through some existential crisis BS which, in my opinion, takes away from the story and his development.

Overall though, I enjoyed the book even with my gripe about the drawn out moments. I like that this books series doesn’t just have the MC constantly break all stereotypes and win everything. He gets clapped and learns.

I've enjoyed books one and two of this series. Then came book three. At first, I was disappointed that Matt, Liz, and Aster the ice fox hadn't moved on to a new locale from the planet they had been on in book two. Instead, a war is brewing, and the group have to decide which side they'll be on. It's almost like the author shrugged his/her shoulders and said, "Well, we're already here. Let's see what I can have them do. Oh, a war sounds like fun."

I won't spoil anything past this point. The war is interesting only in the levels and new skills it provides to the group. I agree with another reviewer that the leveling is quite slow, and I have a feeling it's only going to get slower. There is a bit of humor early on, but that fades away as the war intensifies.

I'll sum this up by saying that I wanted to like this book. And I did enjoy parts of it, enough so that I gave it a good rating. The parts I didn't enjoy where when the war was going full blast. Normally, that wouldn't be the case, but then we find out why the war happened in the first place.

The editing is decent but not great, and the stats are consistent. I'm giving it a generous 5/5*

More of the same as books 1 and 2.

Saying that, I struggled a bit with this one - the "practice war" was an interesting idea, but it really dragged on. There were a few times that I nearly gave up on this, but somehow, it just kept my attention over and above that needed to not DNF.

Also seemed like there were a few plot threads to nowhere, but that's probably due to it starting life as a webnovel and needing editing.

Looking forward to seeing what happens with the management team :}

I thought this was better than the 2nd book which is saying a lot since I really enjoyed that one. The war on the planet, while it doesn’t have consequences in a sense, did have consequences. I’m still iffy on the Liz/Matt romance but Atleast, other than a few scenes, it wasn’t as prevalent as the 2nd book. Overall the writing was good like usual and the progression system is fun. Will be reading book 4 when that comes out in September.