Accidental Champion

As of the time of writing this review, I’ve read all three available books.

Blurb

He didn’t plan on becoming a top champion of the world. Then, the System arrived…

Xavier Collins was sitting in class when the System integrated Earth into the Greater Universe, where countless vast kingdoms, empires, and collectives battle for domination.

He didn’t know what choosing to be a Champion would entail. He just liked the sound of it.

But when he’s teleported to the aptly-named Tower of Champions, he must face challenges against those who have known about the System since birth.

Chance may have gotten him a standing start, but now he has to earn the place he’s stumbled into if he’s going to save his world. Time to power up and fight for Earth!

Thoughts

Initially I planned to just read the first book (as it was the only one on Kindle) and then leave a review. That didn’t happen. Instead, I read through all three books out on Royal Road as well, stopping only when I ran out of chapters. This is an addictive series.

We follow Xavier as Earth gets integrated/invaded, and he opts to become a Champion (over a soldier or support class). After a brief introduction, this takes him to the extended tutorial area, the Tower of Champions, where he has to clear the first ten floors before he’s able to return to Earth.

Thankfully, the floors here are varied, in particular the fifth floor was a highlight to read. We spend a long time on these ten floors, to be fair, and I started feeling like the book might have fallen down the trap of spending too much time off-world before we form a connection to the places and people left behind. Some of that I think is still true, but on the other hand, who doesn’t like jumping straight into 100% action progression grindy goodness?

Xavier, while the most OP by far, isn’t alone in his journey. Howard, Siobhan, and Justin make up his party of four, and Xavier’s interactions with them help keep the story grounded and not just internal monologues. Those characters get brief PoV scenes to help flesh them out, and they do feel nice and distinct.

The few jumps back to Earth while Xavier is away help flesh out the desperation of those stuck in Safe Zones, and I’m glad that the plotline with Alistair Reed wasn’t dragged out in an inauthentic way. I know that’s vague, but saying more would give away the plot and we can’t have that. In terms of things that could have been dragged out a bit more, I’d say that the base building side of things post-return-to-Earth could have had a lot more detail and progression aspects in it. Even if Xavier isn’t personally too interested in it, when he didn’t even bother to look at the upgrade pathways and costs offered by Guardian I got real frustrated because all the base-releated item drops had got me hyped for some serious development there.

Anyway… in terms of powers, Xavier leans heavily into the mage class, willpower, spirit, and intelligence being his highest stats. Offense is the best defense, and no one has more offense than Xavier. It’s a nice change from punch mages, and I appreciated the reference to the Punch Mage class offered and quickly rejected.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this one, and I’m impatient for another book of content.