Bonded Summoner [A Harem Fantasy LITRPG]

A novel that is more than the sum of it's parts, and is steadily improving as the author gains confidence and experience.  If you enjoy Daniel Schinoffen or Virgil Knightley, you will probably enjoy this.

The author has written a very specific type of Harem novel that fits in a popular niche within that genre- the Cozy Harem Novel.  It's just nice.  The charicters are nice to one another, largely honest, entirely enthusastic about the MC and the grand adventure they are all on.  Nothing too terrible happens to anyone, and all the really awful things happened off page, in the past.  The MC has some reasonable concerns about intra-party dynamics but dosen't let them screw him up.  Or the harem up.  He actually listens when the women in his life tell him they 100% want a harem.  It's just cozy.  And you know what?  Sometimes, I really want cozy.  

I review novels on a like-to-like comparison basis, so two wildly different novels can both be 5 stars in their respective genres and niches.  So, keep that in mind if you think I am too high or low- I am comparing to other Harem novels, and as much as possible, to cozy harem novels.  Not Conrad's Heart Of Darkness.

Style- This is the author's first novel on this site, and frankly the early chapters feel kind of rough.  A lot of webnovels, and particualrly harem novels, suffer from what I call "float."  What does the refuge look like?  We don't know.  His old apartment, orginaly, and it's bigger now, but really, we don't know.  What's the sofa like?  The beds?  How does it smell?  Does one room have crappy lighting?  We don't know.  So we just kind of float in the setting.  Same thing with the stats and spells- they are there, they have an impact on the story, but it lacks immediacy and weight.

On a more positive note, he can write action scenes quite well, which is not easy.  You are never lost in terms of where the plot is, or what is happening, or who is in a scene.  The author has created a nice framework in which he can tell whatever sort of dungeon crawling or adventure stories he likes, which I can appreciate.

Story- Again, this is a like-to-like rating.  The story is very utilitarian, which is a good thing in this particular niche.  The story is "Go level up, so you can go have cosmic adventures... leveling up and fighting THE BIG BAD."  Which is good!  You aren't here for a tense, multi-layered political/theological thriller.  You are here for the Harem.  You want an MC that isn't a loser and isn't some irritating Chad, and you want him sorrounded by loving, supportive, staggeringy beautiful women.  This book has that.  It's good that it keeps the focus on that.  The plot is on rails and it should be, because we are here for the view.  So, four stars for a genre and niche appropriate plot.

Grammer-  No noticable problems, or at least nothing that pulled me out of the story.  Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this even being a review catagory.  The grammer in Bonded Summoner is fine.  I'm sure some nitpicky soul can find something to kevetch about, but my sadistic instincts didn't ping.

Charicter-  The charicters are, to my mind, the biggest thing that makes Harem a divisive genre.  It sure ain't the male wish fufilment aspect (he said, waving at the entire rest of the site.)  Charicters, particularly female charicters, tend to be defined by a couple of traits or quirks.  This is to make it easy to remember the charicters when they start to pile up in quantity.  This book is no exception to that.  You have the brash, sexually agressive, dragon-demon.  A shy, romantic valkyrie.  A giant lamia with low self esteem and repressed yandere impulses.  A nice-guy MC.  And you know what?  It works.  The charicters are distinct and fun, none are off-putting, and you see how they work together.  It's a cozy, and these are cozy charicters.  

Summary-  Bonded Summoner is an enjoyable read, and a good example of the Cozy Harem niche.  While it does have it's problems stylisticly, a lot of those problems are endemic to the harem genre.  When compared to other harem novels, it does quite well.  More importantly, the author is steadily improving as he goes.  If you enjoy this genre, it's an easy reccomend.  

Honestly, I love it so far. I think it's well written even without being edited professionally on RR. I enjoy the interaction between all the characters, the skill builds, and different races/types of classes and initiated included. Also, Im a sucker for summoners. Please keep up the great work. I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future. 🙂

Amazing story!

(1) Love the system, very well thought out and developed.

(1b) Characters are well developed and they all continuously better themselves - we really get to know the characters and how they think over time.  It is also amazing to see them grow and change as the story progresses.

(2) Things keep moving forward without being bogged down in minutiae. 

(3) Struggle is against clearly evil abstract entity, so most of character interactions are all with good people fighting the good fight - makes story overall more positive in my mind.

I've enjoyed reading almost every chapter I have, there are some that are slow burn; however, it makes up for it with all the moments the characters are actually bonding, or spending time improving themselves and each other, or getting to know about each other's past. There are moments where you can see its rocky between the group, yet they come together and become stronger for it. I've enjoyed most of the characters that have been introduced and their personalities. Now some people may not like this niche and that's fine, I found it to be entertaining, funny, a bit stressful at parts due to the conflict, and heartfelt at others. I know it's one I check all the time during the week just so I can read the next chapter.

  Give it a read and see if you like it! I know I fug right in once I got a bit hooked on it. The idea of good and evil Gods can be a little wonky but if you pay attention to sum of the writing you can see how ambiguous some of these "good" God's are with their decisions. I also really like the choice the Main party ends up choosing as their sponsore/God. There are some parts with the writing that can be jarring when referring to people or when a fight is going on. Yet if you have the capacity to string it together then it's not much of a problem at all. 

what i prefer in a book is good characters, and in "Bonded summoner" i realy like both the mc and his girls but also hestia and odin.

frankly you make me remember "Those who aspired to become gods" whith how you do your characters. i have good hope for book 2.

thank you JJBookerson i love it.

I can tell the author put a lot of work into this. I am enjoying every chapter so far! Keep it up. The characters are interesting. I like that they do fun stuff and not just bunch of fighting. I did not expect to enjoy this book so much as it isn’t my usual genre. The book was well-paced and has a certain rhythm to the story lines. 

Bonded summoner is fun to read. 

I can't wait for book 3 to come out!

After 15 chapters it seems we are going nowhere fast, MC is clearing what seems like entire dungeons in a matter of days, that are higher lvl than him, while getting close to no exp for it. Seems too fast, while not close to rewarding enough at the same time. As we have no explanation on how lvls work yet, and what is considered high lvl and whatnot, i can't really complain too much about this one, feels a bit weird though.

Characters are shallow, but seems interesting enough, if the author ever goes more indepth with them, and make them stand out a bit more i think  that would help a bit with the overall feel of the story. Right now they feel a teeny bit "mary sue" ish. 

I want to see emotion. The MC has never killed anything before, still he just kinda shrugs off killing humanoid monsters. He feels nothing when he takes wounds that could be lethal. The entire situation he is in, can not be considered anywhere close to normal. Where is the panic? But it is still kinda early days, so for now it's not bothering me too much.

Only thing that really annoyed me, and will most likely make me drop this, is the way the author repeats himself. Some of the chapters have several paragraphs, telling you the same exact thing, just with slightly different wording. About a single subject. Seems to be done to reach a word count quota or something?

Other than that, it's a decent enough read. Not the worst i have read on this site by far, but quite a ways off from being considered good. The premise of the story shows promise though. And if this is the authors first work, he/she will only get better at writing the more they do it. 

So for now im giving it a mid rating, not good, not bad. Will keep an eye on it, as i like these kinds of novels.

As the title says, I see that this story gets massive inspiration from Dungeon Cleaners Inc by J. R. Saileri. 

And honestly, that's not a bad thing. I actually quite like the setting from that book, which means that this one is very enjoyable.

Haven't found a whole lot of problems with this. The grammar is good, the flow is nice and nothing really feels out of place.

The characters are decent enough. Feels like the MC is a tad cardboardy while his lovers are more built up (which is kinda funny because in HaremLit is usually the other way around). There isn’t a singular villain per se, so I can’t really talk much about it.

The only thing I would say is that the Framework feels a little... sterile? Again compared to DGInc, the MC there has fewer interactions with the system but it feels more like what people would actually do in a universe-wide internet (forums, markets, bartering, etc.). Here the system feels more... I don't know, robotic? It's hard to explain.

All in all, it's a great book that fits well with other HaremLit works. Hopefully the author is able to complete this story and not abandon it.

I have found this to be highly entertaining. I enjoy the characters all of them so far looking forward to more of each of them and perhaps the addition of a few more. I enjoy reading this a lot because Jake's style mirrors much of my own place style in MMOs tend to be what most call over prepared for situation. I hope this continues for a long time the story is fun and very well written . The author has my deepest thanks for providing such wonderful entertainment and my deepest respects for being willing to share their art with us all.

No spoilers, but definitely worth the read.  I enjoy all of the characters, although, I hope tha the author will continue to provide more character development for both the girls and the MC.  I especially like being able to skip smut, since author puts them in their own separate chapters.