Audiobook Review – Cultivation (Battle Mage Farmer, Book 3) by Seth Ring, Narrated by Michael Kramer (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: LitRPG/Fantasy
Length: 12 hours and 28 minutes
Publisher:‎ Recorded Books
Release Date: November 22, 2022
ASIN: B0BJW53LV6
Stand Alone or Series: Book 3 in the Battle Mage Farmer series
Source: Borrowed audiobook from Audible
Rating: 3/5 stars

“The apocalypse is approaching as his Doom Points tick up and John is finding it harder and harder to keep it together. His deepening knowledge of magic seems to be helping but as a hidden society creeps out of the shadows, intent on throwing the world into chaos, it may not be enough.

The only good news seems to be the new crops springing up on his farm. Balancing his growing relationship with Ellie and the increasing productivity of the farm with the impending destruction of everything he fought for, John has no choice but to step back into the limelight, whether he wants to or not.”

Series Info/Source: This is the 3rd book in the Battle Mage Farmer series. I borrowed this on audiobook from Audible.

Thoughts: This series continues to be excruciatingly slow. I like the world, the magic, and the characters. However, Ring spends so much time over-explaining small details we just do not need to spend time on, and it really drags the story out. Really, these books should be half the length and two books should be combined in to one.

This continues the story of John and Ellie. John is trying to figure out how to stop the apocalypse, and Ellie is learning to harness her new powers. They end up taking on a undead threat as the number of undead plaguing the valley starts to increase.

My husband has been enjoying these a bit more than me, but for this book even he was getting frustrated. We’ve been listening to these together in the car, but I decided not to continue with the series after this one. He was going to give it one more book…however…we were getting these through the Audible Plus catalog and it looks like all but the first three books have been removed from there. So we would have to use credits to get the audiobooks or buy them outright. After finding that out, he was like, “Never mind, totally not worth it.”

It’s really a pity that the pacing isn’t better here. I do love the characters, and I find the world intriguing. There are some good battle scenes, and some new characters have entered the story. Things are just explained in such long, excruciating detail that you can miss hours of this audiobook without really missing anything. I know; I’ve fallen asleep a couple of times and will wake up and be “Are they still talking to the raiders?”,my husband will be “Yep and that is pretty much all that has been going on for the last hour.”

We originally started this after loving Dungeon Crawler Carl and looking for some other good LitRPG. Our search will continue.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this series has some strong points but the slow pace of the story and over-explanation of things in the story are outweighing the good parts for me. I really love these characters and find the world intriguing. However, I don’t need things to be so over-explained and find it frustrating to stay engaged. I won’t be continuing this series.