Alright so, understand this one's from only the first three books, namely because that's what was out when I was younger, so there was enough nostalgia to get through them, but also because I have a lot more books I'm trying to get through right now and thanks to a few problems in this series it's a bit hard for me to get through them.
But heres another review i guess
Book review for the magic 2.0 series:
It's not quite a lit RPG like the rest of what I'll probably be reviewing on here, but, in my opinion, the difference between 'transported into a coded system based on fantasy' and 'finding out your entire world is code, getting in trouble with the government and hiding away in midevil England to act like you've become magical sorcerer' is negligible enough that I think it's alright for it to be here.
Thanks to this being a bit divorced from the usual group, there is a couple niceties. A lot of the tropes that plague lit RPG are completely absent. No single chapter/ exclusively fan service beast people, none of the stat page stuff that can be really tiring for a lot of people. The sci fi half of the concept isn't completely ignored or half mentioned, despite being mostly comedy, it genuinely explored what a simulated world might be like. Id even say it's one of the best investigations of the concept from a more positive angle.
Then there's the kind of problems, there is a lot of 'boys will be boys' stuff in here, which on one hand is addressed to some extent, like with martin having to address that just not hitting on a girl isn't enough to not skeev them out, but also not endlessly pressuring them to think your the best ever, but on the other hand there's a lot of times where ribbing turns into cruelty and it's just not properly addressed, like literally every 'prank' scene within the books. That does mean these are flawed characters, and given it's actually weaved into the plot you can come in for that, but it also doesn't go fully away when the develop, so if locker room stuff is nauseating for you, it might be better to skip out on this one.
Theres also the 'kind of' problem with the women. Their much more actionable then most scifi/lit RPG type stuff, but it is on the long list of 'yes, the first man they meet is going to be the one they end up with' even if the two main women in the first three I would say are actually interesting, flawed characters. Brittany has much less of this problem, but gwen is, later on, mostly defined by the ways in which she clashes and interacts with martin, rather then allways developing on her own, and there's a lot of women being alien creatures to the men, though again, the fact that the men are also shown as overly emotional, prideful people makes that a bit better? The best scenes are the ones where everyone's exasperated about each other, with all very bad reasons for why. Also I don't know if Atlantis is really clever, or misogynistic.... or both. Essentially don't lump it in with harem, rape fantasy or any of the genuinely horrendous stuff in isekai and lit RPG, but onto the long list of being a little better about it would make it a top ten, for me at least.
It is absolutely one of the better in the, let's call it 'group of really smart guys get in trouble and nearly kill each other' genre, like i.t. crowd or *eugh* revenge of the nerds, but I still wouldn't recommend this first to women, like I might with threadbare or so I'm a spider so what(yes it's an anime, it defined the genre on both sides, sue me).
If you want an interesting sci fi, alot of shenanigans with idiots fucking with each other, or the somewhat existential concept of being able to edit your own biology and the world around you as long as you know c++, id say give it a shot. Honestly, I want more people to read his one, I have a lot of half formed opinions on it that I want more people to help put words to.
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