All the Skills 5: A Deck-Building LitRPG Audiobook – All the Skills, Book 5

It was one of those gray Portland afternoons where the sky looks like it’s shuffling its own deck of moody clouds, and I found myself craving a story that could light a fire in my imagination. With headphones on, coffee warming my hands, I pressed play on Honour Rae’s *All the Skills 5: A Deck-Building LitRPG*—and for the next eleven hours, the real world all but disappeared.

This fifth entry in an already electrifying series launches us straight into the Blood Moon Hive: think Mad Max meets Dungeons & Dragons with a dash of corporate backstabbing… if everyone at your office were dragon riders and chaos gremlins. Arthur (our ever-irrepressible MC) and Brixaby (my favorite snarky dragon companion since—well, ever) are drawn into new dangers that feel both grimmer and weirder than anything they’ve faced so far.

What instantly hooked me wasn’t just the razor-sharp plot or card-based power system—which is genuinely one of the coolest magic structures in LitRPG right now—but how much emotional punch this story packs amid its wild ride. Arthur barrels through life like he’s always holding a Royal Flush; whether he’s bluffing hive leaders or stacking absurdly powerful skill combos, his blend of reckless hope and clever grit feels oddly relatable to anyone who’s tried to make sense out of chaos (hello, teaching middle school art during lockdown!). His choices often had me torn between wanting to cheer him on and yell “don’t go in there!”—but that tension kept me glued from start to finish.

Brixaby absolutely steals scenes throughout this book. As someone who adores complicated best-friend dynamics—and maybe has been known to adopt stray cats with questionable attitudes—I adored every sarcastic aside and vulnerable moment from our hoarder-dragon hero. The stakes for him are real this time: facing threats against dragons amps up both suspense and genuine emotion. Their friendship deepens in ways that caught me off guard; I even caught myself getting misty-eyed when neither character could quite admit how much they cared.

Blood Moon Hive itself is practically a character—equal parts nightmare funhouse and leadership seminar gone feral—with shifting alliances, scourgling eruptions as background noise, and side characters who straddle that line between ally-of-convenience and sudden deathtrap. The environment pushes Arthur not just physically but morally; questions about trust run deep here, reminding me how often leadership is less about power than about refusing to lose yourself under pressure.

I have to rave about Luke Daniels’ narration: his ability to embody both Arthur’s frantic inner monologue and Brixaby’s dry wit is sheer brilliance (plus monster voices! Plus side character madness! It truly felt like eavesdropping on an epic tabletop session). Daniels delivers each twist with infectious energy; he makes tense moments pop while wringing maximum humor from every sarcastic exchange.

Were there any drawbacks? Maybe just one—the breakneck pacing occasionally left me wishing for slightly more downtime with quieter side characters or world lore between set pieces. Still, Rae never lets things spiral into filler territory; every new Legendary card reveal had my heart racing all over again (“Did she really just pull THAT combo?”).

For fans of progression fantasy—or anyone hungry for high-stakes adventure layered with strategy, humor, surprising tenderness, and some seriously memorable dragons—you won’t find many audiobooks more fun or addictive than *All the Skills 5*. My advice? Start at Book 1 if you haven’t already: by the time you reach this point in Arthur’s journey you’ll be hollering “play that card!” along with the rest of us.