Victor of Tucson

Blurb

Victor can’t wait to get the hell out of high school, go to the local community college on a sports scholarship, and start his own life. But that’s all put on hold when he enters his abuela’s house and somehow ends up stepping into a world unlike anything he’s ever known, filled with fantastical meta-humans; walking, talking devils; and other creatures one usually needs some serious pharmaceuticals to see.

Fanwath is no dream, though. In fact, it’s a nightmare. Sold into slavery as a pit fighter, Victor quickly learns his new home is controlled by the “System” and the only way to get ahead is to fight, kill, and collect the precious “Energy” that means the difference between a long life and an early grave. And according to his stats, Victor’s starting out at a solid zero.

Lucky for him, no one in this world has ever met his kind before—which means they have no idea what he’s really capable of. But they’re about to find out…

Thoughts

As of writing this review, I’ve read both published KU books.

Alright, so the best part about book one for me was that it didn’t screw around. Often on RR arcs can be very long things, but not in Pit Fighter. There aren’t hundreds of fights up through the pit fighting ring, stuff happens, circumstances constantly change, and Victor has to change with it. Funnily enough, I was tossing up between reading Pit Fighter and Path of the Berserker on my flight home, and I thought “Eh, maybe not a berserker.”

Jokes on me, Victor’s main skill is going berserk, and his highest spirit affinity is with rage.

It’s well-written and fun, and the author ensures that Victor quickly gains more feathers in his cap than “Get mad and hit shit even harder”, which was really nice to see. I’d love to see more experimenting around the whole spirit affinity side of the magic system, and I feel like we’ll get there, just not in the first two books. Victor has his class ups, class evolutions, skill point angst, and all that stuff we know and love. In fact, on a positive note, when Victor is offered things like a class upgrade and presented several options, there aren’t four common-tier classes and one legendary-tier one. It made his ruminating on what to pick actually fun to read, instead of eye-rolling.

Characters are done well, though it’s only in the second book do you get to dig deeper into the characters, simply by the fact that there are so many changes in book one for Victor that there isn’t a constant companion or set party to follow with him. That was what I really appreciated about book two, even if I was hankering for more magic system exploration. (It’s my favourite thing, I could read a whole chapter of tinkering with mana/energy.)

Anyway, I think if you enjoy other action-filled direct-confrontation MC’s (Defiance of the Fall, Ghost of Truthseeker, Outcast in Another World, etc), you’ll definitely enjoy this entry. I’m curious as to where it’s going to go in the next few books to set itself apart.