UNINTENDED CULTIVATOR: Volume 9

Unintended Cultivator: Volume 9 by Eric Dontigney
Book 9 in the Unintended Cultivator series
Narrated by Adam Verner
Genre: fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Unintended Cultivator: Volume 9:

In the Jianghu, there is only the illusion of peace…

Sen has returned from the capital and reluctantly begun the work of building a sect. Yet the endless politics, rivalries, and logistical burdens of leadership weigh heavily on a man who once answered to no one. Every day pulls him deeper into a life he never truly wanted.

Only the looming war with the spirit beasts keeps him from abandoning it all.

Yet, not even distance can allow someone as famous as Judgment’s Gale to go undisturbed for long. Emissaries from sects begin to intrude on his small corner of the world. Some come with benign intentions, while others come to put the former wandering cultivator in his place.

Once, Sen could simply walk away. Now he has a sect to protect and a daughter whose safety he will defend at any cost. Sen may find that war of a different kind is unavoidable…

Source: Info in the "About Unintended Cultivator: Volume 9" was taken from amazon on 19/07/2026.

Buy Link(s):

 

Glimmer Of Night

My Thoughts:

Another middle chunk of a bigger book with cliffhanger ending. Not meant to be read on it's own.

It's been a while since I've read book 8 and I've read numerous LitRPG and/or similar books since then. So when I started with this book, it was a bit slow with me trying to remember the characters and events from previous books that were mentioned in here. Despite that, it didn't take me long to get engrossed into the story again!

I tried to stretch it out. I took breaks. I picked up other books. It still finished too soon for me! It felt a whole lot shorter than 12 hours and a half!

Falling Leaf

Happy to see Glimmer Of Night and Falling Leaf again! It's like meeting old friends again! What I wished though was that there was more of Ai! She was mentioned several times but only mostly in third person. Someone else was thinking of her. Or she was talked about by other people. Precious little of actually her and her birds!

This book is mostly about the sect war and the impending war with the Beast King. Which to me means that more books are coming our way! Can't wait for Book 10!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 3.5
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 3
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (12 hours and 31 minutes listening time)
Plot = 2
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Unintended Cultivator Series:

 

Meet The Author

About Eric Dontigney:

Raised in Western New York, Eric Dontigney has lived in New Mexico, Florida, Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. He currently resides near Dayton, OH. He is a fan of photo-realism and impressionist paintings, coffee, and well-made food.

Not wishing to tarnish the good names of writers who have come before him, he refuses to name influences. He will admit to reading Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ayn Rand, Stephen J. Cannell, Jim Butcher, Kate Chopin, Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, Camus, James Baldwin, Tim O'Brien, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Stephen King.

ericdontigney.com | x | facebook | instagram | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Adam Verner:

Adam Verner is a full-time narrator and voice talent with over one hundred titles recorded. He is the recipient of AudioFile Earphones Awards for Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck and The Big It by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. Adam earned his MFA in acting from the Chicago College of the Fine Arts at Roosevelt University.

www.adamverner.com | x | facebook | instagram | threads | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

THE FUSIONIST

The Fusionist by Jonathan Brooks
Book 1 in the Magical Fusion series
Narrated by Miles Meili
Genre: LitRPG fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About The Fusionist:

A young man and his axe, along with a magical life he never asked for…

Larek Holsten is different from most people, living in the Kingdom of Androthe where his 7-foot-tall frame is looked at with suspicion and anger from its shorter residents; but as long as it helps him become the best Logger he can be, he doesn’t let it bother him all that much. He and his best friend, an axe with a powerful Fusion that causes it to become sharper and stronger than a normal tool, are feared by the trees in the magical forest north of his home, as he can fell the quickly growing monoliths faster than anyone else in the community.

Unfortunately, after visiting the local village, a deliberate misunderstanding lands Larek in trouble; as a result, he is taken away from his family and the only home he has ever known. Along the way, his dormant magical potential is discovered by those more knowledgeable than him, and he is ordered to attend some sort of academy for Mages.

The problem? Contrary to many who might jump at the chance of wielding powerful magic to fight the monsters that threaten the towns and cities around the Kingdom, Larek has absolutely no desire to become a Mage, especially when he has no choice in the matter. All he wants is to be allowed to return home to his family and to chop down the trees in the Rushwood Forest.

But once he discovers a unique talent that stems from his newly unlocked latent power, he might just have to stick around to see what he can do…

Source: Info in the "About The Fusionist" was taken from amazon on 21/09/2026.

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

First chunk of a bigger book.

I like the way the author slowly introduced the world building and first explains what the initials are, i.e., AP means Advancement Points, before further using the initials in the book. A few LitRPG I've read just dropped these initials without explanation or anything, assuming that the reader is also a gamer. I am not a gamer so I struggle to understand what these initials are. When I do not understand something in the book, it makes it a lot less interesting to me.

I also like the way the author explained the magic system and the origins/nature of the Scissions. It made the world building more believable. It makes it easier to suspend disbelief.

This is my first Miles Meili audiobook listen and I like the way he makes Larek's voice different from everyone else. However, he also reads with a tiny bit of a singsong which I am not very fond of.

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 3
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 2
World building = 5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = (16 hours and 58 minutes listening time)
Plot = 2
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Magical Fusion Series:

 

Meet The Author

About Jonathan Brooks:

Jonathan Brooks had worked in retail for most of his life but have been an avid reader of fantasy books since around age 12. In addition, he has been playing videogames since he got an Atari 2600 when he was 5 years old. Consequently, he fell in love with the LitRPG, GameLit, and Dungeon Core genres when he first learned about them. Currently, he has 86 books published and more on the way!

blog | instagram | facebook | patreon | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Miles Meili:

Miles Meili is an actor and voice actor (ACTRA and SAG/AFTRA member) based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Miles Meili was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He has been an audiobook enthusiast since they were called "books on tape". He started his career as a performer in Halifax, Nova Scotia, then moved to Seoul, South Korea where he lived for 10 years. There, he recorded audiobooks, e-learning, video games, cartoons, documentary voice over, commercials and more. He also appeared in Korean films and television shows, expat films, and on stage. He now lives in Toronto, Ontario with his wife, Kate, and daughter, Piper.

www.milesmeili.com | facebook | instagram | youtube | linkedin | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The print book/ebook and/or audiobook were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

THE DARK HEALER (Book 4)

The Dark Healer (Book #4) by Alex Toxic and Nadya Lee
Book 4 in The Dark Healer series
Narrated by Christopher P. Brown
Genre: urban progression fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About The Dark Healer (Book #4):

A thousand years ago, the abomination came into the world. It poisoned the earth and turned animals and people into horrible mutants. Necromancers were the only ones who could combat it.

The Richter clan fought this threat. Whose plans did they ruin by doing so? Who wanted the world to die?

Max will find the answers to these questions, even if he has to extract them by force.

Source: Info in the "About The Dark Healer (Book #4)" was taken from amazon on 16/05/2025.

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

Like all the books in this series, this one picked up just where the last book left off and it is just another middle chunk of a bigger book. Middle plot, too. No beginning. Cliffhanger ending. Not recommended to be read on it's own.

In this book we meet Octavia Scipion. It seems that Max has multiple love interest now. Emre Demir continues to be nice to Max. And we are introduced to the border foci and more facets of this world.

Again, Christopher P. Brown did a good job of narrating this book!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 3
Writing Style = 3.5
Ending = 1
World building = 5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = (7 hours and 28 minutes listening time)
Plot = 1
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Dark Healer Series:

 

Meet The Authors

About Nadya Lee:

Ever since she was a little girl, Nadya Lee knew exactly what she wanted to be: either a President, a singer, or an author.

The first option just didn’t work out for some reason

The second option eventually became her hobby. Nadya still loves singing and does it at every opportunity, accompanying herself on a guitar.

Likewise, writing remained her hobby for quite a while. Nadya wrote poems, articles and even fanfics, keeping an occasional blog on various subjects including book reviews. Books and video games have always been an important part of her life.

Then one day she just woke up in the morning and decided she’d procrastinated enough. Time to put pen to paper.

So here she is, hoping that her audience might enjoy reading her books just as much as she enjoys writing them.

www.nadialee.net | x | facebook | pinterest | instagram | amazon | goodreads

About Alex Toxic:

Alex Toxic was born in 1978. He liked reading and playing video games from childhood. These two hobbies found ideal common ground when the LitRPG genre arrived.

Alex dreamed of becoming an author but the profession seemed just too complicated to him. So he began working first as a journalist, then as a TV anchor and then as a documentary filmmaker.

There came a point when Alex had run out of books he wanted to read. The authors simply couldn’t write new ones fast enough. The only way out was to write a book of his own. That’s how he launched into the passion that would with time become his primary profession.

Alex believes that the most important thing in a book is its main character. He or she has to be strong and unrelenting in the face of whatever challenge arises in their path, and they must always triumph.

amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Christopher P. Brown:

Christopher P. Brown is an audiobook narrator whose passion is using his scripted theater and improvisation training and experience to bring stories and characters to life. He holds graduate degrees (MA and PhD) in literature, linguistics, and leadership studies. Chris is also bilingual, with professional proficiency in both Spanish and English, and can tackle narration projects in either language, or both of them. Chris grew up in western Michigan, and has lived in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Washington DC area, and now resides in San Diego, California.

christopherbrownaudio.com | tiktok | facebook | linkedin | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The print book/ebook and/or audiobook were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.