Quest Academy: Silvers

Disappointed the author got money from my page turns.

Oh, Quest Academy: Silvers. I’ll admit it. You got me. I hated you so much that I couldn’t put you down. You were SO BAD that I actually rage-finished you. You’re probably my most annotated book of the year. Why? Because I highlighted every section I cringed at. I think I highlighted the whole book. I read seven-hundred pages of this crap. Seven-hundred pages. This is the first time I’ve ever read a book on Kindle Unlimited and been disappointed that the author got money from my page turns. 

Where to begin?

In Quest Academy: Silvers, our hero, Salvatore Argento, enrolls for his first year at Quest Academy, a school designed to train up the next generation of heroes to battle demons. Each hero is born with a unique power that gives them advantages in combat or crafting, and our protagonist, Sal, is cursed with the burden of having the most powerful power of them all: the ability to replicate other people’s powers. But wait—there’s a catch. Oh, you might think, he must temporarily copy the powers in a much weaker form. That must be the limitation. Sadly, dear reader, you would be sorely mistaken. In fact, Sal’s weakness is that he can copy a better version of someone’s power. And keep it permanently. (Technically Sal’s stated weakness is that it’s hard for him to learn to control these powers, but he never actually struggles with that in the book.)

Oh by the way, Salvatore is a billionaire’s son—but don’t worry, they’re nice billionaires who are somehow completely down to earth and aware of their privilege. They make fun of the stuck-up billionaires and treat their employees fairly, so Sal never has to struggle with having to learn empathy for his dirt-poor peers.

Anyway, Salvatore and his friends (all hot women, except the men who are dumb) must train hard to win the school tournament and defeat the demon scourge that threatens to invade the school.

So, what’s wrong with Quest Academy? You’ve read worse LitRPG before, right?

Before we get to the truly terrible messages this book sends, let’s get into why it just plain sucks in general.

First of all, as I’ve alluded to, the main character has no flaws. Nordon gives him a halfhearted weakness—it’s supposedly hard for him to control new powers—but this weakness never comes into play to the point of being completely irrelevant. All the other characters’ powers are also irrelevant because the main character just completely outclasses them. All in all, he’s just so ridiculously overpowered that there’s really no point to the story.

He’s also an incredibly boring character; he has the personality of a bag of flour. Yet somehow every single woman in the story (including MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN) falls head over heels for this high school-aged kid. He makes one girl a new weapon, and she immediately rips off her clothing and wants to have sex with him. Then he acts totally casual when she says she doesn’t want to be exclusive (which I guess is supposed to show that he respects women? Yay?). Later, when sees her making out with another guy, he gives her a thumbs up. Then, that guy gets all macho man and tries to fight Salvatore, because—unlike Salvatore—most men are driven purely by testosterone and are unable to see women as anything but objects. Thank goodness we have Sal to protect all these women!

Salvatore also has to defend a girl’s honor when guys keep hitting on her at the club—she shares an understanding look with Salvatore, who immediately comes up to dance with her to save her from the slobbering men. Oh, did I mention Sal is an expert at ballroom dancing? Well somehow he is. Yippee. 

But not only do girls Salvatore’s age go after him—no, no. He won’t stop until he’s collected all the MILFs in the land. He gets “private lessons” with one of his professors, who constantly makes sexual innuendos towards Sal and makes jokes about people thinking they’re sleeping together.  At a party, one middle-aged woman asks if he’s old enough to drink, then winks at him before he can respond and tells him, “It’ll be our little secret.” He works with an adult assistant, who continually tries to seduce him, even telling him that if they didn’t work together she would want to sleep with him. (Although my running theory is that she was really just faking being attracted to him—like “Ah darn…if only we weren’t business partners I would…love…to sleep with you. Darn. I guess we’ll just have to stay friends. By the way, thanks for letting me manage all your investments.”) He sells a weapon to another adult woman who “looks Sal up and down,” accuses him of at staring at her breasts, and asks how old he is (with the implication that she wants to sleep with him). I don’t think the author understands that this is predator behavior. Adult women should not be flirting with teenage boys (even “jokingly”) especially if they are in a position of power! Just because the author clearly wants middle-aged women falling all over him doesn’t mean that’s appropriate (or even realistic) to include that in a book where the MC is a teenager.

Women were also described as wearing “tight armor” and having “impressive curves,” or moving “in a sensual fashion.” Again, a few descriptions like this aren’t necessarily the worst, but after almost every single woman is described in the same way, it just starts to feel icky.

Honestly, as a woman reading this, I wanted to vomit. This was clearly a harem romance thinly disguised at LitRPG, so I can only assume the book’s target audience is men who are afraid to admit they really just want to read romance.

The plot is also pretty mid—there’s really nothing special about this story. If I hadn’t been so disgusted by the blatant objectification of women, I don’t think I would have continued past chapter three. (It was kind of like reading someone’s cringey Facebook post—I just couldn’t look away.)

Anyway, save yourself the nausea and stay away!!! There is much better LitRPG out there—I promise you.