The Primal Hunter #1 – A LITRPG BOOK REVIEW
The Primal Hunter, thus forth referred to as Primal, is another big-ticket book that got its start on Royal Road—which, if you’re unfamiliar, is a website known for hosting fiction publicized over time in serial format from the author directly to the community.
This is our SPOILER full book review of Book 1 in the series.
*UPDATE*
Okay, I’ve read book two. Most of my complaints about Jake are addressed in a very interesting way, turning what I thought was poor writing and boring character into a powerful moment of self-reflection for the character. I’m not changing my review here, as it was reviewed as a stand-alone novel, but I think it’s worth considering this updated perspective as you read on.
Rating 6/10
The Primal Hunter gets a lot right, and just as much wrong. Fans of action-heavy novels with fights for the sake of fights, LITRPG skills, and fantasy-tinged vibes will get their fix here. For those who want a protagonist actually involved in the plot, seek relief elsewhere.
That said, there are some interesting relationships developing in the book and I DO want to see more them. When the book steps outside the obligatory protagonist slays X monster scene, the storytelling picks up and I see hints of potential ahead.
A Solid 6/10.
This rating is of course subjective, but it’s coming from someone who enjoys a lot of action in my books, and it’s saying something that I find the action in Primal overdone.
Summary
Primal is a LITRPG novel first and foremost. LITRPG books are a relatively new genre that takes video game and pen & paper gameplay elements: like skills, levels, and stat points, and inserts them into the novel as an active part of the universe’s magic system.
For example, each fight in the novel ends with the protagonist earning experience points, which feed into the character’s leveling process to enable them to level up, gain new skills, and stats, unlocking class options.
There’s also a mix of cultivation fantasy at play in Primal. The end goal of leveling in the universe is power; power that equates to immortality and godhood as the character becomes more than human and transcends into something more.
- Cultivation fantasy is a very old genre seen new light in recent years. The basic concept is that a character is seeking enlightenment, expunging the toxins and impurities within them inherent to being moral, finding new truths about themselves and the universe, and through them ascending to godhood or god-like status.
- Traditional, cultivation fantasy is Eastern-oriented, focusing on Chi, Tao, and Buddhist principles. Western audiences have adapted the genre to fit a more generalized format. For the anime fans out there, elements of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z brush on cultivation.
The traditional, path of power motif is strongly at play in the novel. As common in progression novels, each character has a unique and deeply personal path to power they must follow, one discovered through conflict and a deeper understanding of themselves. No two paths are alike, making for interesting character development and a variety of classes, abilities, and fighting styles.
All of this is brought to us under the backdrop of THE SYSTEM—a vague and all powerful force that encapsulates the LITRPG elements in the universe for unknown goals.
Typical for a book in this genre, Primal opens with our protagonist a bit lost in life. Jake, a financial advisor loner who’s been spurned in the past, and his office colleagues, find themselves whisked away to an isolated pocket dimension called THE TUTORIAL as their world, nay, their entire universe, is integrated into the system.
Expect blood, death, and absolute mayhem to follow when 1000+ people with loose connections at best are forced into a situation where killing one another directly benefits themselves with no apparent consequence.
What follows is Jake finding that he is a bit different from his co-workers. Jake enjoys the challenge of the fight and feels alive for the first time in years, and a unique inherited power awakens from within. Things happen, Jake goes his separate way and most of the story progresses between two divided narratives and several points of view—with Jake being the primary.
Broken down, there is one plot following Jake as he fights monsters to get stronger. He learns new skills, studies ancient powers, and has a mostly solo adventure on the path to power. The other plot is everyone else: politics, tribal leadership, war, personal relationships developing and being broken, and generally a lot of more direct storytelling and plot over action.
Jake makes an appearance once or twice in the second plot, but his role is limited in scope and he’s mostly an outsider with little real effect on happenings. Who does have an effect is William—debatably a more important character thus far to the immediate plot than Jake.
William is a 17-year-old psychopath released into the tutorial from a mental health facility, off his meds, and out to ‘win’ by ensuring no survivors. William is everything a psychopath should be: emotionally manipulative, able to blend in, intelligent, ego-driven to a fault, and absolutely lacking empathy.
We often get multiple points of view both from and about William. Chapters from William’s PoV are what you would expect from a psychopath. He’s entitled, narcissistic, arrogant, and generally thinks he’s the protagonist of The Tutorial and everyone exists for his rise to power.
Chapters from other characters when viewing William’s actions from the outside tell a different story, often seeing him as childish and naive in his arrogance for thinking he’s followed everyone. It’s an interesting mix to see.
But more about William later in this article. For now, know that the plot ends with the tutorial unfinished, most of the people within it dead, and Jake laser-focused on hunting monsters with a new quest to kill the big bosses of the area.
Oh, and he makes a new best friend in the form of an ancient primordial snake-turned-dragon god.
The Good
I’m a sucker for anything related to mortals interacting with gods on a direct level. We see that here. Jake befriends an ancient God and earns his favor, the two conversing several times throughout the story and showing how mortals and immortals alike can be lonely and in need of connection.
I enjoyed the direct interaction between two characters of such vast disparity in life experience and power, and how ultimately it was in treating one another like just another guy that mattered most. That and The Malefic Viper, the god in question, is a pretty chill and funny dude. Think 4-chan troll without all the alt-right bigotry and you have his personality.
Another good aspect is William. William went from being an annoying character I wanted to see killed off as soon as possible, to being someone I find utterly fascinating and hope will grow further as the series progresses. The author is playing with the trope of the psychopath in interesting ways, and I’m in to see more.
Last, based on the glimpses we see of how the author handles interpersonal drama, politics, and war, I see a lot of potential for future books. We’re not quite there yet, but I think once we move on from the tutorial we could be in for more direct storytelling with our protagonist. . . or not if he wastes the character on more solo adventures.
The Meh
I’ll be upfront, I don’t have a massive attention span. That said, I’ve gotten through a lot of slow-burn cultivation novels without issue. I often found myself zoning out in this book during long combat scenes. It’s not that the action scenes are poorly written, quite the opposite.
The issue is that there are no personal stakes in most action other than survival in and of itself, and . . . well, it’s book one of a series. The question of if Jake survives or not is not really a mystery.
By far and large most action in Primal is Jake fighting random monster X: X being monster badger, raptor, bore, ect, ect. We see Jake use new and old skills alike, gain power, and rinse and repeat the process with a new monster.
I get that these kinds of books will have action in them for the sake of action and to show the progression of the character. But they’re usually interspaced with character growth, interparty relationships, and major plot happenings. Not so here. Or at least, not a lot.
It’s a problem and one I’m not altogether hopeful that the author will fix going forward, seeing as the next book is squared up to be all about hunting more monsters. Then again, the book is called The Primal Hunter . . . so perhaps I’m the odd man out here.
The Bad
I have no unearthly idea why the author thought it would be a good idea to separate the main protagonist from the entire plot of the book. It made for a different experience than usual, sure, but it was boring, and often felt like everything of note was happening just over the hill while we were stuck watching Jake fight his 20th badger.
You can have multi-narrative books with a wide variety of protagonists and side characters. But there needs to be a unifying thread between them. That simply does not exist for Jake in this novel.
Another issue is that I had a very hard time identifying with a single character in this book. The main character is a financial advisor whose only humanizing factor is that he was cheated on when younger and withdrew into himself. It’s something, but it’s not a lot to go on. He also is semi-sociopathic in that he goes from never having gotten into a fight to smiling and covered in the blood of slain people at the drop of a hat.
I suppose one could argue that not everyone would react the same in such a situation. Some people would probably not care as much about killing. Most would though, and that our protagonist only shies away from it when the death is so horrific as to be akin to torture is disconnecting to say the least.
Adding to it all is that Jake had life easy otherwise. By his own admission he could buy anything he wanted if he chose to do so and has little of note about his life outside of a failed archery career due to an injury—and the before mentioned cheating.
The most I can say for Jake is that he’s driven to power. And that on its own is interesting to follow. It’s just not enough.
*Take note that the author is a retired former corporate officer worker. So while I’m sure the character is very relatable to him, he makes up a pretty small percentage of people.*
Then we get to Jacob . . . a sort of foil to Jake. Jacob is Jake’s supervisor from his office place. Don’t ask me why the author named two main characters Jake and Jacob, I have no clue why. Jacob is even more unrelatable than Jake.
Jacob comes from a rich family, strolled into his position, everyone likes him, he’s affable and social, he gets the girl, and is a natural leader. In other words, the exact opposite of the kind of person your average reader will identify with. He’s a privileged normie. One who gets massive power handed to him for no other reason than existing later in the book. He’s, quite frankly, the kind of character an author usually sets up as a rival for the main character, not as someone to look up to—which is the case for Jake.
William is a bit different. He was so unrelatable that he became the most interesting character. Villains often are. By the end of the book, we see a big change in William. Due to System shenanigans, William is cured of his psychopathy and able to feel emotions.
Immediately afterward the only person William has ever connected to on an emotional level kills himself to literally pour his essence into a suit of armor he made for William so that he can murder more people.
Okay, add some trauma into the mix. I hope the author doesn’t brush by this and explores this issue going forward.
End of the day, the plot separating the protagonist from the plot and the unreliability of the cast makes for a read that I’m hesitant to move forward with.
Final Thoughts
This book was a slog for me to get through. I managed to do so due to the glimmers of potential and the good moments, but man, the long drawn-out fight scenes and near complete division of plot from action killed me.
I’m a bit worried going forward that this is how the series will play out. We’ll get a chapter or two of great story and characters, to end up with Jake lone wolfing it and going off to kill monsters on his own, as the plot rolls on without him.
I’m giving the series another chance and will soldier on. In a field with a lot of standout novels in recent years, and more every month, Primal needs to do better going forward to keep my attention.
The audio edition of Primal was narrated by a fan favorite in the genre—Travis Baldree. Baldree is the narrator of the Cradle series, and more besides, and brings his signature magic to this series as well. Zero complaints on the performance front.
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