#BookReview: Arena Manager by Chad Opo
Hey Space Cadets; I hope this review finds you well! I found this book when we interviewed Royal Guard Publishing on my podcast, The Blasters & Blades Podcast. You can listen to it on YouTube, Rumble, BitChute, or on Spotify. My podcast is my sanity-safe space where we talk about all things speculative fiction. Our guest, the RGP owner, Jessica, was on to talk about her company. In the pre-show, this book came up, and I jumped at the chance to read and review it. This really is the fault of Melissa McShane since she introduced me to the LitRPG genre.
What is this book about? It’s the standard portal fantasy, where the main character is sucked into a new realm after he’s blown up in the process of being teleported from his hometown to his girlfriend in England. He wakes up in a world where a game-like system, or god, controls their daily life through a progression fantasy novel. I really liked this one, despite how dark it is as a story. This novel is an epic romp through combat in a fantasy world. The story has plenty of action to keep you on the edge of your seat. It has cool creatures and gladiatorial arenas. I’d call it The Gladiator meets Tolkien but with dark undertones. So, grab your mead, sharpen your steel, and prepare for the thrill ride of a lifetime!
The Story
Assemble, Train, Compete, Dominate.
Frank lived for his three sons, busting his back to see they thrived in comfort. His good for nothing wife, she made him the happiest man in the world when she finally agreed to his divorce terms. His glorious day turned to ruin when an explosion hurls him through an unformed portal connection.
Lost to eternity and stuck in the void, a happenstance encounter allows him to relocate to the fantasy world of Dorbin. There’s a drawback to Dorbin. It’s a violent planet filled with ruthless cutthroats, hideous mythical creatures, and all the activities a heathen could ever wish for. Even the national militaries turn a blind eye to the atrocities, only enforcing the laws when they see fit.
The designer of Dorbin calls themselves the Creator. The Creator established a system of kiosks for trading, point tracking, and quest rewards. The being is all powerful and incredibly uncaring, and yet, they gave him a second chance. He arrives marred from the explosion, unable to speak the local language, and about infinitely cleaner than anyone else on the planet.
The challenges for Frank will be steep, the learning curve arduous, and the chances of going home are slim to none. It doesn’t take long for Frank to realize there’s no place in Dorbin for the weak or the meek. If he wants to survive, he will have to earn it and the ends sure as hell justify the means; especially when he selects to become an arena manager - a dominus of the pits.
Now that we’ve sold you on the novel’s premise let’s dive in deeper. First, the prose from Chad Opo was conversationally poetic, made even more incredible when you listen to Marcus Jahn and Alexa Roosevelt narrate the story. I listened to some sections several times to hear the neat accents these two put together for this epic production! Since this is the first novel I’ve read by this author, I can’t tell you if this is representative of his entire body of work, but after this trilogy, I’m game to try them out!
I could keep going about the quality of their prose, but let’s move on to the other facets of this story. This storyteller knew how to expertly pace the story so that it flowed smoothly from one plot point to another. It kept my attention while giving me room to breathe and process the various parts of this epic adventure. Even better, this novel felt like it was setting up book two to kick the action up a notch, and I’m here for it.
Another aspect of this story that is worth evaluating is the audiobook quality. This was produced by Royal Guard Publishing and was narrated by Marcus Jahn and Alexa Roosevelt. They hit the ball out of the park, telling me a story that I couldn’t put down. They kept me going when I should’ve been doing other things; I should hate them for that! They nailed the various character accents, keeping my ears engaged from start to finish.
I don’t have a lot of experience in this genre, but I’m finding I love the isekai story trope. The way he ended up in the new world was believable, quickly getting us to the meat of the story. Even the way Frank handled it worked and felt real to me. I can’t speak to the other books in this genre trope, but this was a mature story that takes place in an extremely dark LitRPG world. I’m not a huge fan of the darker stories, but there was enough hope here to keep me engaged and turning the page of this adventure. The setting that he ended up in when he portaled into this world was grim, but despite that, Frank was a rational guy, operating as you’d expect someone from our world to do in a dark world with dark consequences.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the combat that occurred in this book. The writing quality was such that I was able to visualize the action. That’s a huge plus for me and something that kicks a novel up a grade, in my estimation. When I read a novel, I tend to see it like a movie in my brain. This means that I love more descriptions than most modern readers. In this way, Chad Opo more than delivered and I think you’re going to love it too.
Another facet of how Chad described the combat scenes stood out to me as well. It was in how the author kept in mind the limitations of the human or humanoid body. There was not a single scene where the combat required the character to bend the body in ways that aren’t possible without breaking. I jokingly refer to this as my Barbie Test. Could you maneuver the action figure to act out this fight scene? It’s a pass-fail situation, and Chad Opo passed with flying colors! The author clearly knows his way around combative sports. He showed that he knew how to write believable Medieval Warfare that felt real, which is important in an action-heavy novel.
Some of the action in this story happened in the arena, and it was what you’d expect. The combat was visceral, gritty, and over quickly. It was a mad melee of blades, fists, and magic. Because it was so quick, there was very little need for complex strategies. These fights were brute force versus brute force, regardless of the weapon or magical nature of the attack. However, the fighting also happened on the battlefield. The main character, Frank, ran a mercenary company that funded his arena dreams. Those combat scenes were complex and well thought out. The author used strategies that made sense for the situation, which I loved. He clearly knows how to wargame out a situation. Those sequences worked for me, and I’m here for more of it!
Finally, I really loved the complex relationship dynamics. The main character, Frank, has a few love interests and tries to stay aloof with them. He wanted to be a “good time Charlie” but ended up falling for these ladies. I was cheering for him when he ended up loving his new ‘found family.’ Sure, it was in his own unique way, but it was there. Even better, all of these lovers felt different! There were no cookie-cutter personalities, with everyone being fully actualized and real. They had their own independent motivations and it showed in the quality of the story and the writing. The author, Chad, knows how to spin a yarn we’re all invested in. He made us hate whom we’re supposed to hate and love the good guys… moral ambiguity and all.
The Characters
This story is primarily told through the singular first-person view of the main character, Frank Ingrid. We get one intermission scene through the eyes of the Chaos Mage elf named Sapphire, but that was a drop in the bucket when compared to the larger narrative from Frank. Our dark, erstwhile champion starts this novel at home on Earth, trying to use their portal transportation system. Think Stargate franchise, except some bad people blow it up just as he was stepping through. He wakes up in the world of Dorbin, which is run by a system very similar to an RPG game.
When he wakes up in a strange void, he finds himself a cripple from the explosion. We don’t know how long he was in that limbo, and neither did he. Frank just wakes up in the void under the laylines. From there, a disembodied voice talks to him and sends him to this strange new land so he stops polluting the lay lines. I loved that he doesn’t wallow in his pain when he returns to alertness, instead choosing to just live his best life.
During the course of the book, we get to watch him level up as he learns about the Dorbin System by grinding out quests. I loved that he hit the ground running and never wallowed. As someone who deals with chronic pain from an injury I received in Iraq, I know how easy it is to give in to the disability. I loved that Frank chose another path, making the best of a bad situation. He embraces his life despite his pain at being pulled away from his sons during the accident. He realizes that he can’t go backward, so he presses ahead.
When he starts to explore Dorbin, he is shocked at the barbaric culture that is a mix between the pre-Christian Imperial Rome and the Middle Ages. There is slavery and blood sport combat to the death in the arena for the amusement of others. Women are less than valued in this society and are at best property and at worst, well… you can imagine. I’m trying to be subtle here, but the struggle snuggle is common and nobody really blinks an eye at it. In the midst of that, Frank tries to do better. He doesn’t force himself on anyone, though as an Arena Manager class and mercenary captain, he does deal in slaves. However, he also frees a lot of slaves and makes them mercenaries so they’re free when they leave him. He saves orphans, abused women, and the downtrodden, giving them a second lease on life.
Those were the good qualities, but he had a dark side as well. Sometimes, I really loved this character. Other times, I wanted to beat him to a bloody pulp. He takes slaves from the various fantasy races and fights them to death in the arena for his own profit. He revels in the fights of other gladiators and beasts, cheering on the carnage. And I do mean carnage. The author, Chad Opo, doesn’t shy away from that aspect of this novel. When he said he was inspired by GRR Martin and the Game of Thrones, he meant it.
During the course of this book series, we don’t get to watch him grow in the traditional sense; he starts as a fully actualized adult who knows who he is. He is a man of principle, and his character is already firmly rooted in his belief in helping out those less fortunate than himself. However, we do see him overcome his limitations and the setbacks that life throws his way. We see a man mourning his family and his failed marriage. We see a man who deeply loves his people, his chosen family, in Team Zepplin, his mercenary company.
I said all of that to say this. The main character, Frank Ingrid, is a complex person. He wasn’t some cookie-cutter, plug-and-play bozo. Nope, he was deep and nuanced in his worldview. His actions throughout the novel reflect that. In some writing, there is a tendency to give you a cardboard character who makes a mockery of what it means to be good or evil. In this book, we see a more nuanced take, and the story is better for those shades of grey.
The final point that I wanted to discuss with regard to these characters was the sheer amounts of secondary characters who flew across the pages of the novel. Seriously, that breeze gave me whiplash! Because of that, it was hard to track who was who during the course of this book. I’m an audiobook guy, but I was constantly forced to use the ebook so that I could do word searches for various names. I needed to proactively figure out what was going on. I know that this is nitpicking, but I try to make these reviews deep and as insightful as I can. As an author myself and longtime reader, I don’t know how else he could’ve told this story. The massive scope of the intersection of plot and world-building required a lot of secondary characters.
The World
What’s not to love about the world-building in this novel? It was expertly handled by Chad Opo, who knows how to tell a compelling story set in this dark but fully actualized world that he’s created. Everything was extremely fleshed out, giving this setting a very lived-in feel. Unlike some authors, Chad didn’t info dump all of his world-building up front. Instead, he fed it to us in drips and drabs. He expertly strung the reader along and left me wanting more.
But I couldn’t talk about the world without reiterating how dark this book was. I’m not normally one for the Martin School of Writing; I prefer happy endings and hope to reign supreme in the books where I spend my leisure time. This novel wasn’t that; it was a Game of Throne-Esq fantasy novel with all of the darkness that the author promised in the ad copy.
Things weren’t all doom and gloom, though. We saw fantasy creatures galore, practically a monster’s manual worth! We saw swords, sorcery, and even castles! Dragons, who doesn’t love a good dragon? But wait, there’s more! This book had griffins and Pegasus, too! Wait, is it pegasusi? What is the plural here? Anyway, there were also many nation-states, which meant there was no weirdly stilted world where things felt unnatural. It was dark brutal, and sometimes there was an underlying evil… but it felt real and lived in.
Politics
This novel was apolitical in the sense that it didn’t deal with any real-world politics. However, we did see some political struggles as Frank had to navigate the medieval politics of Dorbin’s corrupt nobility. It was a background struggle in this novel, mostly because Frank is a one-man Killdozer who had a “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” attitude. We do see some racial politics, and by that, I mean between humans, orcs, and all of the other fantasy races. There are ancient tensions and grudges that play into the lay of the land that Frank has to navigate. What I did love to see was freedom being lionized through the story as Frank routinely freed the slaves and made them mercenaries instead.
Dorbin, where the story takes place, is a medieval setting. This proto-Europe backdrop is par for the course of a modern fantasy novel. Chad Opo just embraces the darker side of human nature. In addition to the world that’s trying to kill the main character, the main characters must fight against the system itself and the gods who control it. Frank fights against the existential evil of greed, the pursuit of power, and an unthinking quest for vengeance. Predictably, it ends badly for everyone involved. Like in the real world, there are no real winners in war. Except for Frank, he wins gold crowns for Team Zepplin. But this is nothing new; you’ve probably heard that before; it’s a tale as old as time.
Content Warning
I couldn’t write a content warning any better than the author did. From his own ad copy, we get a sense of the dark undertones I mentioned in the opening. This book is set in a brutal fantasy world that predates modern society’s values. It contains violence, gore, slavery, and other grimdark traits, along with fantastical beings and LitRPG elements. Think Game of Thrones with bloody gladiator fighting, mercenary teambuilding, and set from one man’s perspective. If you don’t have the stomach for such content, have a nice day. If you want action, violence, and to be entertained, welcome to Team Zeppelin.
Who is it for?
Did you enjoy reading the A Song of Ice and Fire novels? Love watching the Game of Thrones HBO Series? Then this book is for you because you’re the target audience! This LitRPG novel, by Chad Opo, has the conversational prose of Tom Clancy, the darkness of George RR Martin, and the world-building of David Eddings. This book embraced the darkness, brightened the light, and will surely be a book you’ll want to re-read on occasion!
Why buy it
This is the story of the everyman, an underdog cripple who eeks out his own path in the land of warriors. He overcomes his medical issues to achieve greatness in this fantasy name. If you like dark fantasy and don’t mind the violence and brutality of the realm, then this is a book you’re sure to love! If you love a thrill ride that would make Attila the Hun and George RR Martin proud, this is the novel for you!
Seriously, why haven’t you clicked the link and bought this book already? If this tale doesn’t make you pull your hair out, you’ll end up a Chad Opo superfan! If you don’t love it too, then you didn’t read the same book that I did! Once you buy and read the book, come back and share your thoughts! Oh, and be sure to leave a review!
Buy the first novel here and try it out for yourself! Or buy the boxed set here.