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The Way of the Shaman #1
Survival Quest
Barliona: a virtual world jam-packed with monsters, battles-and, predictably, players. Millions of them come to Barliona, looking forward to the things they can't get in real life: elves and magic, dragons and princesses, and unforgettable combat. The game has become so popular that players now choose to spend months online without returning home. In Barliona, anything goes: You can assault fellow players, level up, become a mythical hero, a wizard, or a legendary thief. The only rule that attempted to regulate the game demanded that no player be allowed to feel actual pain. But there's an exception to every rule. For a certain bunch of players, Barliona has become their personal hell. They are criminals sent to Barliona to serve their time. They aren't in it for the dragons' gold or the abundant loot. All they want is to survive the virtual inferno. They face the ultimate survival quest.
270 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
About the author
Vasily Mahanenko
74 books1,024 followersBe the first to know when Vasily Mahanenko’s next book is available! Follow him at https://www.bookbub.com/profile/v-mah... to get an alert whenever he has a new release, preorder, or discount!
Vasily Mahanenko is a fantasy author working in the new genre of LitRPG - the MMO-based fantasy and sci fi. His Way of the Shaman series took Russian literature by storm in 2012.
Vasily dipped into his college-days insider knowledge as a hardcore gamer in order to create a believable world of the virtual-reality MMO game. His bestselling series combines fiction and video games, telling the story of Shaman and his friends stuck in the ruthless reality of Barliona. He used his more than ten years' experience as an ERP implementation project manager to approach his writing in a well-organized manner, working to a strict schedule, a set of deadlines and even a budget. At the moment, the series boasts six novels with the seventh one in the works - this time the author expands on stories of Shaman's companions and those who helped and supported him in his trials and tribulations.
The first book of the series has already been translated into English, with more translations to follow, aiming to make the Way of the Shaman series available to the English-language reader in its entirety.
Vasily's other passion is space exploration which is why he now works on a follow-up series entitled Galaktiona. Set in a space-simulator based world, the first book of the series in already finished while Vasily works on its sequel.
Vasily Mahanenko is a fantasy author working in the new genre of LitRPG - the MMO-based fantasy and sci fi. His Way of the Shaman series took Russian literature by storm in 2012.
Vasily dipped into his college-days insider knowledge as a hardcore gamer in order to create a believable world of the virtual-reality MMO game. His bestselling series combines fiction and video games, telling the story of Shaman and his friends stuck in the ruthless reality of Barliona. He used his more than ten years' experience as an ERP implementation project manager to approach his writing in a well-organized manner, working to a strict schedule, a set of deadlines and even a budget. At the moment, the series boasts six novels with the seventh one in the works - this time the author expands on stories of Shaman's companions and those who helped and supported him in his trials and tribulations.
The first book of the series has already been translated into English, with more translations to follow, aiming to make the Way of the Shaman series available to the English-language reader in its entirety.
Vasily's other passion is space exploration which is why he now works on a follow-up series entitled Galaktiona. Set in a space-simulator based world, the first book of the series in already finished while Vasily works on its sequel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 600 reviews
October 16, 2015
2 stars for good potential. I liked what I saw of the book but the writing style was too undeveloped to carry me very far. I felt there was a lot of waste here as far as things being poorly expressed as opposed to displayed in the manner a more experienced writer would employ. Eventually that bogged the book down. My time is too precious to spend slogging through a book I am not fully enjoying. Sadly this was not the book for me. Perhaps you will fare better.
June 4, 2022
This is the best VRMMO story i've read, certainly better than the later books of the Alterworld series. Since the vrmmo sub-genre is a staple of eastern fantasy, this book blends some of better points of both western and eastern fantasy.
Synopsis is a guy is quasi-tricked (we don't know if the 'tricker' does it deliberately or not) into hacking a public utility and gets sentenced to prison, the term to be served sweat shop style making virtual objects in the monopoly virtual world.
The vr prison system for non-violent prisoners quickly shows its darker elements within the game constraints and the MC needs to powerup and make allies within this environment. The overall thrust is toward earning a (big) threshold of (what ammounts to) good-will points with the prison system AI / overseer. The satisfaction of which allows prisoners out of the "prison world" into the "general world" (remembering that 40% of the population at large plays the game) in a probation type fashion.
It's all quite cleverly done, the MCs actions read as clever and thought out without relying on luck etc. The rational for both the crime and the prison system is convincing. The game mechanics are extremely good. This is a solid addition to a fledgling (in the west at least) sub-genre and will hopefully lead to more books within it, both from this author and others.
Synopsis is a guy is quasi-tricked (we don't know if the 'tricker' does it deliberately or not) into hacking a public utility and gets sentenced to prison, the term to be served sweat shop style making virtual objects in the monopoly virtual world.
The vr prison system for non-violent prisoners quickly shows its darker elements within the game constraints and the MC needs to powerup and make allies within this environment. The overall thrust is toward earning a (big) threshold of (what ammounts to) good-will points with the prison system AI / overseer. The satisfaction of which allows prisoners out of the "prison world" into the "general world" (remembering that 40% of the population at large plays the game) in a probation type fashion.
It's all quite cleverly done, the MCs actions read as clever and thought out without relying on luck etc. The rational for both the crime and the prison system is convincing. The game mechanics are extremely good. This is a solid addition to a fledgling (in the west at least) sub-genre and will hopefully lead to more books within it, both from this author and others.
May 3, 2016
This is the first RPG based book I've read (well Ready Player One is based on game play but not like this and the Alter World series). I read the 2 in this series and then picked up the Alter World series.
In my humble opinion this is a superior series and I wait with the proverbial bated breath for the next book.
Okay what have we got here? There is in the near future a MMORPG that is extremely popular and EVERYONE loves it...well not everyone. See it turns out that it's much less expensive to store prisoners in a game capsule and let them do their time that way. See they have to be what they are assigned to be (our hero become a Shaman who's a Jeweler...a combination so rare as to almost be unheard of. They are sent to work in the mines of Barliona. Their one hope is to amass enough reputation and such to get paraoled into the regular game...
Will our hero make it? will he be a good miner? will he learn to be a great jeweler? Will excitement ensue?
Yeah, want to know? read the book.
Highly recommended. Enjoy.
In my humble opinion this is a superior series and I wait with the proverbial bated breath for the next book.
Okay what have we got here? There is in the near future a MMORPG that is extremely popular and EVERYONE loves it...well not everyone. See it turns out that it's much less expensive to store prisoners in a game capsule and let them do their time that way. See they have to be what they are assigned to be (our hero become a Shaman who's a Jeweler...a combination so rare as to almost be unheard of. They are sent to work in the mines of Barliona. Their one hope is to amass enough reputation and such to get paraoled into the regular game...
Will our hero make it? will he be a good miner? will he learn to be a great jeweler? Will excitement ensue?
Yeah, want to know? read the book.
Highly recommended. Enjoy.
September 28, 2018
A problem I have with most LitRPGs is that RPG mechanics are only fun in a broader context. If you increase a character's strength in a game, you know the effect it will have on secondary statistics and future challenges. But in a book where events just stumble forward arbitrarily, "Strength increased to 11" has no more meaning than "Cantankerousness increased to 1,000,000" or "Slithyness increased to Eleventeen." There are no meaningful game mechanics, just a facade of them.
After the pointless opening in the real world, the book starts out a little better than some. You know the challenges the main character faces in prison and you have a general sense for what resources he has to face them. I actually read parts of this fairly quickly, but then the book slowly became a chore as that context was made irrelevant.
Any potential conflict ends easily and briefly, only to be replaced by another that will be resolved just as easily. This book at least has a couple overarching elements, but they're close to irrelevant most of the time. There's no meaningful progression outside of the inflation of arbitrary numbers, which are especially bad when the narrative constantly pats the protagonist on the back for things that will be obsoleted a dozen pages later.
As a game and a system, nothing makes very much sense - and I don't feel this is nitpicking when the book itself is so detail-oriented. Making prisoners mine digital resources is nonsense, both in terms of game design and prison design. For a game that merges stats and skills, and has a hard limit of four elective stats, it's absurd for there to be stats like Amiability, Meanness, and Chattiness. The game itself is also pretty unbalanced, filled with trivial bonuses that will just be overwhelmed by special bonuses that are orders of magnitude higher. This last one is especially frustrating: it's pointless to hear how many rats he killed every day when the actual progression in the book will be driven by huge bonuses out of nowhere anyway.
More on the worldbuilding side, it makes no sense that this world has developed VR that can produce pure euphoria, but it only gets used in a small part of the prison system. I could list all the ways this should impact society, much less corrective prisons, but it wouldn't matter. This, and every other element of the story, exists only to prop up a shell of a game that offers only illusory progression.
It might seem like I'm trying to level up Meanness here, but I think I have to give up on this genre. I haven't ran into anything that I'd really call "literature + RPG" - most of it seems to be more like "literature + bland and derivative free-to-play MMO."
After the pointless opening in the real world, the book starts out a little better than some. You know the challenges the main character faces in prison and you have a general sense for what resources he has to face them. I actually read parts of this fairly quickly, but then the book slowly became a chore as that context was made irrelevant.
Any potential conflict ends easily and briefly, only to be replaced by another that will be resolved just as easily. This book at least has a couple overarching elements, but they're close to irrelevant most of the time. There's no meaningful progression outside of the inflation of arbitrary numbers, which are especially bad when the narrative constantly pats the protagonist on the back for things that will be obsoleted a dozen pages later.
As a game and a system, nothing makes very much sense - and I don't feel this is nitpicking when the book itself is so detail-oriented. Making prisoners mine digital resources is nonsense, both in terms of game design and prison design. For a game that merges stats and skills, and has a hard limit of four elective stats, it's absurd for there to be stats like Amiability, Meanness, and Chattiness. The game itself is also pretty unbalanced, filled with trivial bonuses that will just be overwhelmed by special bonuses that are orders of magnitude higher. This last one is especially frustrating: it's pointless to hear how many rats he killed every day when the actual progression in the book will be driven by huge bonuses out of nowhere anyway.
More on the worldbuilding side, it makes no sense that this world has developed VR that can produce pure euphoria, but it only gets used in a small part of the prison system. I could list all the ways this should impact society, much less corrective prisons, but it wouldn't matter. This, and every other element of the story, exists only to prop up a shell of a game that offers only illusory progression.
It might seem like I'm trying to level up Meanness here, but I think I have to give up on this genre. I haven't ran into anything that I'd really call "literature + RPG" - most of it seems to be more like "literature + bland and derivative free-to-play MMO."
July 19, 2018
BARDZO FILMOWA RECENZJA: bit.ly/okonszaman
Przyjemność z czytania - ona jest ostatecznie zawsze najważniejsza.
I przyznaję, że jako gracz, z tą książką dobrze się bawiłem. To moja pierwsza styczność z gatunkiem litRPG. Gdybym miał Wam po swojemu zdefiniować, to taki, w którym doznania z czytania są podobne jak z grania w grę.
Chociaż ukrywał nie będę, że z każdą kolejną stroną chęć rzucenia się na pada od konsoli była niemal nie do powstrzymania. 🎮💚
Tylko chwalę?
A co jeśli powiem wiem, że mam po prostu + 10 szczęścia do dobrych książek?
Minusy:
- jeżeli nigdy w gry nie grałeś/aś, możesz zagubić się w labiryncie gamingowych definicji
- bardzo zrównoważony jest nasz Szaman; przydałoby się zaopatrzyć go w więcej negatywnych cech w kolejnych częściach.
Daję 3,5/5
Przyjemność z czytania - ona jest ostatecznie zawsze najważniejsza.
I przyznaję, że jako gracz, z tą książką dobrze się bawiłem. To moja pierwsza styczność z gatunkiem litRPG. Gdybym miał Wam po swojemu zdefiniować, to taki, w którym doznania z czytania są podobne jak z grania w grę.
Chociaż ukrywał nie będę, że z każdą kolejną stroną chęć rzucenia się na pada od konsoli była niemal nie do powstrzymania. 🎮💚
Tylko chwalę?
A co jeśli powiem wiem, że mam po prostu + 10 szczęścia do dobrych książek?
Minusy:
- jeżeli nigdy w gry nie grałeś/aś, możesz zagubić się w labiryncie gamingowych definicji
- bardzo zrównoważony jest nasz Szaman; przydałoby się zaopatrzyć go w więcej negatywnych cech w kolejnych częściach.
Daję 3,5/5
March 26, 2017
3.5/5; 4 stars; B+
Jonathan Yen really made this book for me. I was stuck in the middle of ebook but when I started to listen to the audiobook it captured my interest again. I think that was due to the excellent narration.
I really appreciate the creativity of the author in building such a complex game world. A huge amount of thought has gone into making the world that the prisoners have to function in.
I don't think I will pursue the series however, since I am not an avid gamer and this book didn't light a spark in me the way it probably would have if games and quests were my thing.
Jonathan Yen really made this book for me. I was stuck in the middle of ebook but when I started to listen to the audiobook it captured my interest again. I think that was due to the excellent narration.
I really appreciate the creativity of the author in building such a complex game world. A huge amount of thought has gone into making the world that the prisoners have to function in.
I don't think I will pursue the series however, since I am not an avid gamer and this book didn't light a spark in me the way it probably would have if games and quests were my thing.
February 19, 2021
2,75
Kurcze, a tyle się nasłuchałam polecajek o tej książce. Nie jest zła, ale prawda jest taka, że gdy już ogarnie się mechanikę gry (a w zasadzie fakt, że jej nie ma i wszystko jest podyktowane głównym bohaterem) oraz to, że głównemu bohaterowi zawsze wszystko się udaje, książka przestaje sprawiać radość i nudzi. Bohater taki sobie, ma za mało głębi moim zdaniem, wirtualna gra niedopracowana. Najlepiej bawiłam się na samym początku.
Kurcze, a tyle się nasłuchałam polecajek o tej książce. Nie jest zła, ale prawda jest taka, że gdy już ogarnie się mechanikę gry (a w zasadzie fakt, że jej nie ma i wszystko jest podyktowane głównym bohaterem) oraz to, że głównemu bohaterowi zawsze wszystko się udaje, książka przestaje sprawiać radość i nudzi. Bohater taki sobie, ma za mało głębi moim zdaniem, wirtualna gra niedopracowana. Najlepiej bawiłam się na samym początku.
June 12, 2015
Could not force myself to read past Chapter 3. One star for writing a book.
September 2, 2022
More of a 1.5 in my rating scale. Really ass, but not so terrible that I will remember this mindless drivel. I'll forget about it shortly. Frankly... What's MCs name??
To begin with, this book is extremely poorly translated. Every sentence felt google translated, and the vast variety of grammatical errors were extremely distracting.
That being said, the translator translated the book as it was, and likely didn't add too much of their own "personal flare". As such, I have reason to believe the author sucks at writing too.
No normal person would genuinely type that much string-of-thought rambling and think "Ah, yes, the readers will love this". I cannot believe how many paragraphs were dedicated to the main character contemplating an item, negotiating with the inanimate object, and heavily detailing the steps it takes to coil/cut/craft an object. Not to mention the literal random tangents of utter nonsense. Literally, just random paragraphs for no reason and then MC going "fuck wait let's focus!!! So I recoiled the copper...." The sheer audacity of the author to let that enter a final copy! Their editor should have slapped them silly for trying.
The book has so much unnecessary description for mundane tasks that I can safely say that 30% of it could be completely deleted with no detriment to content, and another 20% condensed into something much shorter and more digestible. This book is 270 pages, and yet I truly believe the same plot points and effect could have been reached in 150-- 100 pages if an apt writer were given the opportunity.
I diligently read the first 50%, keeping paragraph skipping and skimming to a minimum so that I could understand the world and leveling system. Despite this, it was very hard to follow and I found myself often losing interest. The leveling system wasn't well explained, but isn't hard to understand. Strange that they reach orgasm-level pleasure on level up, but to each their own Author. Overall, a very standard world. Not much effort was put in in my opinion. You could read a similar "fully immersive" game Isekai and have nearly the same world and basic leveling system.
The second half of the book I allowed myself to skip unnecessary walls of text (yes, they were literal pages of nonsense). It was significantly more enjoyable to just... Ignore all the trash and pick out the EXTREMELY ROUGH gems of plot that were sprinkled in every few pages. However, it was not good. And having to do that is a testament to how bad this book was.
It's also pretty cool to note MC appears to be a misogynist. Only woman in the story and he immediately hits on her and sees her only as an object for dating/sex, makes a stupid remark about her intelligence, Immediately deems her emotional and tries to gaslight her, and makes her out to be an antagonist? Don't get me wrong, she's a bitch and this whole thing didn't make sense (literally just explain yourself), but MC kinda sucks.
Now, in terms of plot... Everything is just so convenient. There's no true struggle in this book. Anything negative that happens is immediately counteracted by a supercharged positive, OR the consequence is shifted to another character. It was so incredibly boring to watch the MC not struggle once. Any solution necessary is easily provided to him with the coincidence of his kit, another character telling him what to do, or literally just luck. I mean, let's just look at the first problem he encounters:
This lack of dynamic conflict made the entire ordeal an eye roll. We know he's fine and we know he's gonna stay fine. Doesn't make a compelling plot now does it?
Also, this book was NOT about a shaman. This book was about a jewelcrafter, who happens to be a shaman, grinding his levels. The whole book revolved around jewelcrafting and mining. Literally just mindless XP grinding with half-baked quests that literally guided him to be OP (for his level and predicament). Even he calls himself a cheater. I'm totally fine with characters farming and being OP, but if it's gonna be your whole book at least make it interesting!
The whole book went like this:
????? Any normal farming book would at least make the MC think. This one is braindead. He's OP, but there's NO good fight sequence. None. And even in the subpar fight scenes, they're reduced to further garbage by the writing style.
Like holy fuck dude, I read 250 pages begging the MC to do something interesting. Terrible first book. Who reads this and goes "god, I'm so excited to read the next book and watch him ramble about coiling copper for 3 pages because he didn't do it right in his head!!!".
This should've been a book .5 in my opinion, since the shaman shit isn't super relevant until the last 15% of the book.
To begin with, this book is extremely poorly translated. Every sentence felt google translated, and the vast variety of grammatical errors were extremely distracting.
That being said, the translator translated the book as it was, and likely didn't add too much of their own "personal flare". As such, I have reason to believe the author sucks at writing too.
No normal person would genuinely type that much string-of-thought rambling and think "Ah, yes, the readers will love this". I cannot believe how many paragraphs were dedicated to the main character contemplating an item, negotiating with the inanimate object, and heavily detailing the steps it takes to coil/cut/craft an object. Not to mention the literal random tangents of utter nonsense. Literally, just random paragraphs for no reason and then MC going "fuck wait let's focus!!! So I recoiled the copper...." The sheer audacity of the author to let that enter a final copy! Their editor should have slapped them silly for trying.
The book has so much unnecessary description for mundane tasks that I can safely say that 30% of it could be completely deleted with no detriment to content, and another 20% condensed into something much shorter and more digestible. This book is 270 pages, and yet I truly believe the same plot points and effect could have been reached in 150-- 100 pages if an apt writer were given the opportunity.
I diligently read the first 50%, keeping paragraph skipping and skimming to a minimum so that I could understand the world and leveling system. Despite this, it was very hard to follow and I found myself often losing interest. The leveling system wasn't well explained, but isn't hard to understand. Strange that they reach orgasm-level pleasure on level up, but to each their own Author. Overall, a very standard world. Not much effort was put in in my opinion. You could read a similar "fully immersive" game Isekai and have nearly the same world and basic leveling system.
The second half of the book I allowed myself to skip unnecessary walls of text (yes, they were literal pages of nonsense). It was significantly more enjoyable to just... Ignore all the trash and pick out the EXTREMELY ROUGH gems of plot that were sprinkled in every few pages. However, it was not good. And having to do that is a testament to how bad this book was.
It's also pretty cool to note MC appears to be a misogynist. Only woman in the story and he immediately hits on her and sees her only as an object for dating/sex, makes a stupid remark about her intelligence, Immediately deems her emotional and tries to gaslight her, and makes her out to be an antagonist? Don't get me wrong, she's a bitch and this whole thing didn't make sense (literally just explain yourself), but MC kinda sucks.
Now, in terms of plot... Everything is just so convenient. There's no true struggle in this book. Anything negative that happens is immediately counteracted by a supercharged positive, OR the consequence is shifted to another character. It was so incredibly boring to watch the MC not struggle once. Any solution necessary is easily provided to him with the coincidence of his kit, another character telling him what to do, or literally just luck. I mean, let's just look at the first problem he encounters:
This lack of dynamic conflict made the entire ordeal an eye roll. We know he's fine and we know he's gonna stay fine. Doesn't make a compelling plot now does it?
Also, this book was NOT about a shaman. This book was about a jewelcrafter, who happens to be a shaman, grinding his levels. The whole book revolved around jewelcrafting and mining. Literally just mindless XP grinding with half-baked quests that literally guided him to be OP (for his level and predicament). Even he calls himself a cheater. I'm totally fine with characters farming and being OP, but if it's gonna be your whole book at least make it interesting!
The whole book went like this:
????? Any normal farming book would at least make the MC think. This one is braindead. He's OP, but there's NO good fight sequence. None. And even in the subpar fight scenes, they're reduced to further garbage by the writing style.
Like holy fuck dude, I read 250 pages begging the MC to do something interesting. Terrible first book. Who reads this and goes "god, I'm so excited to read the next book and watch him ramble about coiling copper for 3 pages because he didn't do it right in his head!!!".
This should've been a book .5 in my opinion, since the shaman shit isn't super relevant until the last 15% of the book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 19, 2018
This was my first foray into the genre of LitRPG and this quite possibly is an obvious conclusion but you'd have to be a fan of RPG, (World of Warcraft for instance), to enjoy this book. The main character, sentenced to a prison term inside a virtual world, spends a considerable amount of time detailing his 'leveling' of character and various skills and professions. The protagonist was well developed and made for an interesting read.
January 16, 2018
So I got introduced to LitRPG ... yeah like D&D. I have to say, this book got my inner nerd that loved AD&D thinking on calling friends to see who was up for a session. Now its been years but I already sent them a few messages and everyone want to read this book if it woke up the D&D soul back up.
About the book. "Survival Quest" is the first in a series by Vasily Mahanenko and based on it I am already picking up the rest of the series.
At times I kept thinking of "Ready Player One" but their is a difference. The contest on "R.P.O" gives you urgency and as a 1 off it really stands out. The Way of the Shaman is a much longer play on VRMMO (Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online for you muggles out there). So while two different methods for full immersion are displayed the two are totally different. But if it helps this is as close to "Ready Player One" I have felt since I read it.
After getting caught in a mistake our main character Mahan has been thrown in jail. Now the future has jails that are really different. They place the prisoner into a full immersion capsule and let him into a VRMMO game called Barliona. That Barliona has taken over the world is easy to see. So prisoners get sent to Mines to surprise mine for precious and semi precious metals. This way they pay for their maintenance in Barliona. The difference between a regular player and an inmate is that the inmate have sensors without limits. Pain receptors are fully turned on. Pain is not always that great specially in games that feature brute force attacks, swords, hammers and magical attacks.
Anyway Mahan advances in a much faster manner in the prison mine. He figures a way to move ahead and the adventures begin.
Just as in Ready Player One this one is Highly Recommended.
About the book. "Survival Quest" is the first in a series by Vasily Mahanenko and based on it I am already picking up the rest of the series.
At times I kept thinking of "Ready Player One" but their is a difference. The contest on "R.P.O" gives you urgency and as a 1 off it really stands out. The Way of the Shaman is a much longer play on VRMMO (Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online for you muggles out there). So while two different methods for full immersion are displayed the two are totally different. But if it helps this is as close to "Ready Player One" I have felt since I read it.
After getting caught in a mistake our main character Mahan has been thrown in jail. Now the future has jails that are really different. They place the prisoner into a full immersion capsule and let him into a VRMMO game called Barliona. That Barliona has taken over the world is easy to see. So prisoners get sent to Mines to surprise mine for precious and semi precious metals. This way they pay for their maintenance in Barliona. The difference between a regular player and an inmate is that the inmate have sensors without limits. Pain receptors are fully turned on. Pain is not always that great specially in games that feature brute force attacks, swords, hammers and magical attacks.
Anyway Mahan advances in a much faster manner in the prison mine. He figures a way to move ahead and the adventures begin.
Just as in Ready Player One this one is Highly Recommended.
November 29, 2021
Pretty good litrpg. A lot of good ups and downs, twists and turns. Also very interesting level scaling and game mechanics. Only boring side is 80% of the book was the guy in a dungeon prison, trying to free himself by doing quests and levelling up…
December 27, 2019
For some reason, LitRPG books can be moderately interesting and enjoyable even when they're mediocre or bad. This one was bad. It's clear from the beginning that it wasn't written or edited by native speakers of English.
In the entire book, there is one female character. The main plot is set in motion when in the space of a single page, the main character meets her, insults her, hits on her, and then and they enter into a wager, with his forfeit being to work in the sewers for a month, or hers to "be his girl for a whole month, without showing in any way that she finds any of it unpleasant" (this wager is seen as unremarkable). In connection with this incident, the first pages feature some internal dialogue about how women are irrational, untrustworthy, and so on. Then there are literally no female characters for the entire rest of the book, until this character is referenced again... in a minor way, which prompts the main character to wonder whether she is playing in the game world, and then, for no apparent reason, whether he might encounter her in a brothel.
The book is essentially a fanfiction of MMORPGs, except that events happen solely because the plot requires them to (the main character is stuck on a problem? He is tapped on the shoulder by a new character to offer him the solution). The game mechanics are often nonsensical and the universe is silly (prisoners spend years mining virtual resources in the game world because... that's the most efficient way to get them). For no apparent reason, the main character is offered special legendary quests and unusual perks.
If you might derive some minor enjoyment from even a low-quality LitRPG book with many problems, then this book might be for you. But I suggest reading other books in the genre instead, or even similar free fiction online.
In the entire book, there is one female character. The main plot is set in motion when in the space of a single page, the main character meets her, insults her, hits on her, and then and they enter into a wager, with his forfeit being to work in the sewers for a month, or hers to "be his girl for a whole month, without showing in any way that she finds any of it unpleasant" (this wager is seen as unremarkable). In connection with this incident, the first pages feature some internal dialogue about how women are irrational, untrustworthy, and so on. Then there are literally no female characters for the entire rest of the book, until this character is referenced again... in a minor way, which prompts the main character to wonder whether she is playing in the game world, and then, for no apparent reason, whether he might encounter her in a brothel.
The book is essentially a fanfiction of MMORPGs, except that events happen solely because the plot requires them to (the main character is stuck on a problem? He is tapped on the shoulder by a new character to offer him the solution). The game mechanics are often nonsensical and the universe is silly (prisoners spend years mining virtual resources in the game world because... that's the most efficient way to get them). For no apparent reason, the main character is offered special legendary quests and unusual perks.
If you might derive some minor enjoyment from even a low-quality LitRPG book with many problems, then this book might be for you. But I suggest reading other books in the genre instead, or even similar free fiction online.
January 4, 2018
"Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200."
*Minor spoilers ahead*
Survival Quest is a fine addition to the litrpg genre. One of the items that helps differentiate this title from its fellows is that our protagonist does not deliberately seek out the vrmmorpg world he is placed into. Instead, he is made to join the digital realm after accidentally exercising his hacking skills on an unintended target, earning him the equivalent role of a gold farmer. As he played the relevant game as a hobby prior to his incarceration, he is familiar with some, but not all of the steps he must take to level up in his new role. The immersive experience he is put through gives him advantages and disadvantages that help to advance our protagonist, as well as the plot. The main downside to this title is that as of the time of this review, the book has no sequel available for purchase, leaving readers right with our protagonist preparing himself for the mostly unknown challenges that await him.
*Edit* Several sequels have been made available, providing more opportunities for our protagonist to rise to the occasion, or to fall flat from flying too close to the Sun. Going into the sequels, it is important to keep in mind that the world Barliona is a living one, host to the sort of dynamic quests that you do not get to see very often in today's MMO's. Each player does have the power to shape the world around them, and the world will respond to these changes.
*Minor spoilers ahead*
Survival Quest is a fine addition to the litrpg genre. One of the items that helps differentiate this title from its fellows is that our protagonist does not deliberately seek out the vrmmorpg world he is placed into. Instead, he is made to join the digital realm after accidentally exercising his hacking skills on an unintended target, earning him the equivalent role of a gold farmer. As he played the relevant game as a hobby prior to his incarceration, he is familiar with some, but not all of the steps he must take to level up in his new role. The immersive experience he is put through gives him advantages and disadvantages that help to advance our protagonist, as well as the plot. The main downside to this title is that as of the time of this review, the book has no sequel available for purchase, leaving readers right with our protagonist preparing himself for the mostly unknown challenges that await him.
*Edit* Several sequels have been made available, providing more opportunities for our protagonist to rise to the occasion, or to fall flat from flying too close to the Sun. Going into the sequels, it is important to keep in mind that the world Barliona is a living one, host to the sort of dynamic quests that you do not get to see very often in today's MMO's. Each player does have the power to shape the world around them, and the world will respond to these changes.
July 7, 2016
Marvelous read. Best starting book of an litrpg novel series. It's a witty yet pleasant narrator. And takes us through an experience which even the most advanced mmorpg can't deliver.
August 24, 2018
Rating 3.75 stars
Listened on audiobook. This was a very enjoyable listen. I have been going through a lot of LitRPG style books lately. While I am not much of a gamer myself, these books are usually written in a style that I really like. My favorite type of genre is Hard Fantasy, which mainly focuses on allowing the reader to understand the complexities of the magic system, how the system works and where magic comes from, all the details have a consistency that readers will understand. With all the LitRPG books I have read so far, they start off the same; person is from one place and get sent into another world somehow. Whether by magic, science or technology it does not matter. The point is that every character has to learn about a brand new world, which allows me to learn about that world from a "beginners" standpoint. This allows for me to pick up all the rules and parameters of the magic system, which in turn allows me to put myself in each characters place. While each book is different and some are written better than others, that premise has made me fall in love with the genre.
In this world, there is a massive online game that is called Barliona. Like most books in the genre, this world has orcs, dwarves, elves, etc. Most people spend their time going on quests, trying to level up and just have fun. However, there is another type of person that has to "play the game", and those are inmates. In the real world there is a lot more crime since the automation has lead to less jobs, which in turn has led to less people able to work and afford to live. With so much crime, there is not enough space to house the criminals. That is when someone came up with the idea of storing the criminals in suspension pods and placing them in the game so they cane "work" off their debt to society. Money in the game can be used in the real world too, so by making money working in the game, the prisoners are also helping society. Now there is a catch; most normal players have their sensations turned off when they are playing, so if they are attacked they feel no pain. The prisoners on the other hand don't have that limitation, so if they are attacked or hurt, or even killed, they feel every bit of the pain. They also can't leave the game until their sentence is served.
Our main character Man, was sent into the game for 8 years for inadvertently breaking the law. He did not mean any harm and one could argue what he did was an accident, but there was a lot of damage done, so he was sent into the game. In the game he was assigned to be a human Shaman. This is actually my first experience of hearing about shaman's in this type of book. His profession, which again was assigned for him, was a jeweler. He was sent to a mine to work off his debt. If he gained enough reputation points with the guards, there was a chance that he can get an early parole and spend the rest of his sentence in the "main game" instead of the prisoner section of the game. Overall the story was very detailed, and the world building was involved. Leveling up skills and attribute points were explained well. There was not much to the story, except that Man is in prison and he is trying to get a good reputation so he can get into the main game. Even though that premise is relatively simple, how it is accomplished is still very interesting. While the world building is very complex, I felt the characters were a little "simple".
I would recommend this book for anyone into Lit RPG.
Listened on audiobook. This was a very enjoyable listen. I have been going through a lot of LitRPG style books lately. While I am not much of a gamer myself, these books are usually written in a style that I really like. My favorite type of genre is Hard Fantasy, which mainly focuses on allowing the reader to understand the complexities of the magic system, how the system works and where magic comes from, all the details have a consistency that readers will understand. With all the LitRPG books I have read so far, they start off the same; person is from one place and get sent into another world somehow. Whether by magic, science or technology it does not matter. The point is that every character has to learn about a brand new world, which allows me to learn about that world from a "beginners" standpoint. This allows for me to pick up all the rules and parameters of the magic system, which in turn allows me to put myself in each characters place. While each book is different and some are written better than others, that premise has made me fall in love with the genre.
In this world, there is a massive online game that is called Barliona. Like most books in the genre, this world has orcs, dwarves, elves, etc. Most people spend their time going on quests, trying to level up and just have fun. However, there is another type of person that has to "play the game", and those are inmates. In the real world there is a lot more crime since the automation has lead to less jobs, which in turn has led to less people able to work and afford to live. With so much crime, there is not enough space to house the criminals. That is when someone came up with the idea of storing the criminals in suspension pods and placing them in the game so they cane "work" off their debt to society. Money in the game can be used in the real world too, so by making money working in the game, the prisoners are also helping society. Now there is a catch; most normal players have their sensations turned off when they are playing, so if they are attacked they feel no pain. The prisoners on the other hand don't have that limitation, so if they are attacked or hurt, or even killed, they feel every bit of the pain. They also can't leave the game until their sentence is served.
Our main character Man, was sent into the game for 8 years for inadvertently breaking the law. He did not mean any harm and one could argue what he did was an accident, but there was a lot of damage done, so he was sent into the game. In the game he was assigned to be a human Shaman. This is actually my first experience of hearing about shaman's in this type of book. His profession, which again was assigned for him, was a jeweler. He was sent to a mine to work off his debt. If he gained enough reputation points with the guards, there was a chance that he can get an early parole and spend the rest of his sentence in the "main game" instead of the prisoner section of the game. Overall the story was very detailed, and the world building was involved. Leveling up skills and attribute points were explained well. There was not much to the story, except that Man is in prison and he is trying to get a good reputation so he can get into the main game. Even though that premise is relatively simple, how it is accomplished is still very interesting. While the world building is very complex, I felt the characters were a little "simple".
I would recommend this book for anyone into Lit RPG.
May 19, 2017
This book introduced me to LitRPG, a genre I didn't even know existed! For the first 40-50% of the book I was completely enthralled. I used to be a big-time MMORPG player, if you're never played an MMO you might not understand what's going on but if you have, then this is potentially a really exciting genre for you. To me LitRPG seems like a hybrid of cyberpunk and medieval fantasy but it's different enough from both that it becomes its own unique genre entirely.
The first half of the book had me glued to my kindle, I couldn't get enough of it. The problem was that the story dragged on for too long and halfway in I started to get bored waiting for something to happen. Most of us are used to books in the fantasy genre being humongous, epic novels. This book however is a part of a series. It's not a natural series though like LOTR or Game of Thrones, instead it's an artificial one designed to get you to buy more books in-order to complete the story. I don't have a problem with that but this should have been shorter, I really hate the new trend of padding out short books into longer lengths in-order to artificially hit larger page counts.
This book basically covers the STARTER AREA in an MMO and the first 75% of the book was the training mode for crafting. Those who have played MMORPG's before will recognize exactly what I'm talking about. Once you get passed the initial excitement of discovering a cool new genre you start to see all of the flaws in the novel. For instance, the characters are all incredibly 1-dimensional, the villains are dull, the conflicts are stupid, and the Marty Stu hero is so naive that he comes across as annoying. Like in a real MMO some of the characters in the book are NPC's (non-playable characters) but the writing is so weak that you can't tell the difference between the NPC's and the supposed human players. That's not because the NPC's are so advanced in this world, it's because all of the characters are poorly written. I had a lot of trouble visualizing the characters in the world because the writing was so flat.
Speaking of the writing. Apparently this was a book originally written in Russian that has been translated to English. I don't know if it was a problem with the translation, or if the problems already existed in the original language but this book sorely needs a proper edit. I think it's a combination of the two. I'm far from a grammar nazi and I'm usually not bothered by a missed word or two but a huge amount of the book is clumsily written. Every couple pages I found myself having to re-read a paragraph multiple times to figure out what the author was trying to say. The characters all talk and answer questions in a very unrealistic manner. The author doesn't know how to properly write dialogue and he has no clue how real humans behave, which is probably why his NPC's and humans all behave strangely.
I think a cool twist would have been that 99% of the "people" in the gameworld were actually NPC's and there were only a few... very few... real humans playing the game. It could turn out that a couple of the NPC's were actually people pretending to be NPC's and the entire project was an experiment in advanced AI. That's the only thing that would justify to me how weird everyone acts, otherwise you have to chalk it up to really poor writing.
I don't plan on reading more of this series but I was very entertained by the first half of the book and I would be interested in finding better work written by other authors in this genre. I think LitRPG has a lot of potential!
The first half of the book had me glued to my kindle, I couldn't get enough of it. The problem was that the story dragged on for too long and halfway in I started to get bored waiting for something to happen. Most of us are used to books in the fantasy genre being humongous, epic novels. This book however is a part of a series. It's not a natural series though like LOTR or Game of Thrones, instead it's an artificial one designed to get you to buy more books in-order to complete the story. I don't have a problem with that but this should have been shorter, I really hate the new trend of padding out short books into longer lengths in-order to artificially hit larger page counts.
This book basically covers the STARTER AREA in an MMO and the first 75% of the book was the training mode for crafting. Those who have played MMORPG's before will recognize exactly what I'm talking about. Once you get passed the initial excitement of discovering a cool new genre you start to see all of the flaws in the novel. For instance, the characters are all incredibly 1-dimensional, the villains are dull, the conflicts are stupid, and the Marty Stu hero is so naive that he comes across as annoying. Like in a real MMO some of the characters in the book are NPC's (non-playable characters) but the writing is so weak that you can't tell the difference between the NPC's and the supposed human players. That's not because the NPC's are so advanced in this world, it's because all of the characters are poorly written. I had a lot of trouble visualizing the characters in the world because the writing was so flat.
Speaking of the writing. Apparently this was a book originally written in Russian that has been translated to English. I don't know if it was a problem with the translation, or if the problems already existed in the original language but this book sorely needs a proper edit. I think it's a combination of the two. I'm far from a grammar nazi and I'm usually not bothered by a missed word or two but a huge amount of the book is clumsily written. Every couple pages I found myself having to re-read a paragraph multiple times to figure out what the author was trying to say. The characters all talk and answer questions in a very unrealistic manner. The author doesn't know how to properly write dialogue and he has no clue how real humans behave, which is probably why his NPC's and humans all behave strangely.
I think a cool twist would have been that 99% of the "people" in the gameworld were actually NPC's and there were only a few... very few... real humans playing the game. It could turn out that a couple of the NPC's were actually people pretending to be NPC's and the entire project was an experiment in advanced AI. That's the only thing that would justify to me how weird everyone acts, otherwise you have to chalk it up to really poor writing.
I don't plan on reading more of this series but I was very entertained by the first half of the book and I would be interested in finding better work written by other authors in this genre. I think LitRPG has a lot of potential!
May 22, 2020
This book was pretty steady and constant all the way through i thought. There was no real dramatic climatic event but just a steady plot that just kept on going. I thought that most of the challenges that our main character Mahan faced were too easy and that they were always completed fast. I think with more challenge the author would be able to grow the characters out more in order for them to connect more with the reader. I am excited to see this "Main game World" and how that differs from the prison world were i did not really think of it much has a prison more as a mining job that for Mahan after a month he did not even have to mine at all! What kind of loophole in the prison system is that? I am going to continue with this series as I have fun reading it. Looking forward to seeing what is next.
February 6, 2024
Honestly it totally nailed the LitRPG progression system. This was a fun read that I thoroughly enjoyed even when it seemed like nothing was happening.
I liked all the characters, everything felt smooth, and it could be pretty funny.
Probably my favorite progression novel I’ve read in a long time.
I liked all the characters, everything felt smooth, and it could be pretty funny.
Probably my favorite progression novel I’ve read in a long time.
Read
April 15, 2017I don't know what to say. I have a thing for litRPG? I read this a year or two ago, before the rest of the series had been translated. And now I'm rereading it. So that I can read the rest of the series.
So, okay, I'm mostly skimming, because I've read it before. But still. I'm rereading/skimming it and I'm not getting annoyed. So... it is what it is....
So, okay, I'm mostly skimming, because I've read it before. But still. I'm rereading/skimming it and I'm not getting annoyed. So... it is what it is....
August 14, 2022
Super ciekawy zamysł, mega wykreowany świat… główny bohater niestety ma jak dla mnie nierealistycznie za dużo szczęścia. Styl pisania przyjemny, ale powolny i trzeba poprzyswajać sobie zasady gry… oprócz tego fajna rozrywka
January 16, 2023
to było ciekawe
inna książka niż te, które przeważnie czytam
co nie zmienia faktu, że się wkręciłam i będę zabierać się za kolejne tomy!
inna książka niż te, które przeważnie czytam
co nie zmienia faktu, że się wkręciłam i będę zabierać się za kolejne tomy!
January 27, 2019
Jsem trochu rozpolcený. Na jednu stranu je fakt, že se o téhle knize dá jen těžko mluvit jako o románu. Je to v podstatě jen přes tři sta stránek dlouhý popis levelování. Hrdina je za trest poslaný do virtuální hry, kde si má odpykat osm let dolováním, s velmi nepraktickou postavou. Jenže samozřejmě se ukáže, že ta postava má své výhody a hrdina rychle začne růst na síle.
Pokud jste někdy hráli RPG a vyskočily na vás nápisy "vaše charisma vzrostla o jedna", "našel jste prsten, který vám přidává +2 k síle", "máte osm bodů, které si můžete rozdělit ke svým schopnostem" či "jste mrtvý - přicházíte o všechny nasbírané předměty", tak tady se budete cítit jako doma. Právě tyhle texty tvoří tak třetinu celé knihy. Vážně, většina textu je o tom, jak hrdina kope do země a občas zabije nějakou krysu a zlepšuje se. Teprve na posledních stránkách je nějaká trochu akční výprava, zbytek je skutečně čisté levelování. Gamesa, u které nemusíte mačkat čudlíky, asi jako sledovat, jak někdo jiný hraje na počítači Baldurs Gate.
Ale na druhou stranu, přečetl jsem to za dva dny. Na starého pařana má tahle kniha až hypnotický vliv. Něco asi jako když hrajete na počítači, chcete už jít spát, ale zbývá vám získat posledních pár bodů zkušenosti, než se dostanete na další level a budete si moc vylepšit kouzlo... a pak ho samozřejmě ještě musíte vyzkoušet... a hele, stačí ještě pár bodů a vzroste mi síla, to musím zvládnout. Spánek je přežitek.
Já tomu říkám "levelovací hypnóza". Tenhle ustavičný pokrok směrem vzhůru (který v životě nenajdete) je strašně návykový. A funguje i v téhle knize. Člověk čte dál a čeká, jaké další schopnosti hrdina získá. A musí se Mahanenkovi nechat, že své RPG zná, jeho počítačová realita je poměrně přesvědčivá. Ale víc než tohle v knize nenajdete. Líbilo se mi to asi jako by se kokainistovi líbila knížka, kde by měl na začátku každé kapitoly připravenou lajnu. Nesouvisí to s kvalitou knihy, ale spíš s tím, že mé hráčské já dokáže prosté navyšování levelů automaticky přivést do rauše.
Ale... není to v podstatě princip solidního braku? Odhalit čtenářova slabá místa a pak je zasáhnout? Tohle je v podstatě pro nás hráče něco jako Stmívání pro ženské, takové levelovací porno. Přímočaré, jednoduché, bez zbytečných zdržujících nápadů, zaměřené na to podstatné. Rozhodně to není dobrý román, není tam vlastně nic, co by stálo za zapamatování, ale na navození levelovací hypnózy to funguje skvěle.
Pokud jste někdy hráli RPG a vyskočily na vás nápisy "vaše charisma vzrostla o jedna", "našel jste prsten, který vám přidává +2 k síle", "máte osm bodů, které si můžete rozdělit ke svým schopnostem" či "jste mrtvý - přicházíte o všechny nasbírané předměty", tak tady se budete cítit jako doma. Právě tyhle texty tvoří tak třetinu celé knihy. Vážně, většina textu je o tom, jak hrdina kope do země a občas zabije nějakou krysu a zlepšuje se. Teprve na posledních stránkách je nějaká trochu akční výprava, zbytek je skutečně čisté levelování. Gamesa, u které nemusíte mačkat čudlíky, asi jako sledovat, jak někdo jiný hraje na počítači Baldurs Gate.
Ale na druhou stranu, přečetl jsem to za dva dny. Na starého pařana má tahle kniha až hypnotický vliv. Něco asi jako když hrajete na počítači, chcete už jít spát, ale zbývá vám získat posledních pár bodů zkušenosti, než se dostanete na další level a budete si moc vylepšit kouzlo... a pak ho samozřejmě ještě musíte vyzkoušet... a hele, stačí ještě pár bodů a vzroste mi síla, to musím zvládnout. Spánek je přežitek.
Já tomu říkám "levelovací hypnóza". Tenhle ustavičný pokrok směrem vzhůru (který v životě nenajdete) je strašně návykový. A funguje i v téhle knize. Člověk čte dál a čeká, jaké další schopnosti hrdina získá. A musí se Mahanenkovi nechat, že své RPG zná, jeho počítačová realita je poměrně přesvědčivá. Ale víc než tohle v knize nenajdete. Líbilo se mi to asi jako by se kokainistovi líbila knížka, kde by měl na začátku každé kapitoly připravenou lajnu. Nesouvisí to s kvalitou knihy, ale spíš s tím, že mé hráčské já dokáže prosté navyšování levelů automaticky přivést do rauše.
Ale... není to v podstatě princip solidního braku? Odhalit čtenářova slabá místa a pak je zasáhnout? Tohle je v podstatě pro nás hráče něco jako Stmívání pro ženské, takové levelovací porno. Přímočaré, jednoduché, bez zbytečných zdržujících nápadů, zaměřené na to podstatné. Rozhodně to není dobrý román, není tam vlastně nic, co by stálo za zapamatování, ale na navození levelovací hypnózy to funguje skvěle.
November 4, 2017
I kept reading it for some reason. So I guess it was at least that entertaining.
Biggest gripe was the PG tone of the whole book. It's gets to a point where that soft language becomes unbelievable. Get bit by a giant rat and you say 'gosh darn it'. Just gross. Also, the whole persona of the MC is too PG, where he scoffs at a guy for giving his friend shit. 'feel bad for the guy for having such a horrible friend that would give him a hard time' not the exact quote but the idea. Seriously that shit made me want to puke.
It comes down to the characters are simply unbelievable or just a bunch of wet towels.
Second complaint, the setting and whole plot was just too boring. Like intentionally boring. Lets wallow us monotony, 'I'm in a prison where I hit rocks and kill rats' lets describe that 400 times. You couldn't ask for a less action packed story.
I'm just shocked the reviews of this book are so good. like what book were you guys reading. But then again for some reason I decided to finish it so it must have some appeal.
Biggest gripe was the PG tone of the whole book. It's gets to a point where that soft language becomes unbelievable. Get bit by a giant rat and you say 'gosh darn it'. Just gross. Also, the whole persona of the MC is too PG, where he scoffs at a guy for giving his friend shit. 'feel bad for the guy for having such a horrible friend that would give him a hard time' not the exact quote but the idea. Seriously that shit made me want to puke.
It comes down to the characters are simply unbelievable or just a bunch of wet towels.
Second complaint, the setting and whole plot was just too boring. Like intentionally boring. Lets wallow us monotony, 'I'm in a prison where I hit rocks and kill rats' lets describe that 400 times. You couldn't ask for a less action packed story.
I'm just shocked the reviews of this book are so good. like what book were you guys reading. But then again for some reason I decided to finish it so it must have some appeal.
November 7, 2017
I didn't make it to the actual video game world part of this book. The main character turns out to be a neckbeard and the writing was a snoozefest. Disappointing, because the video game world idea is pretty cool.
Summary of first few pages:
IT-worker guy goes to training class on security testing systems (trying to hack them). He meets an "attractive girl" who works in IT security for the city's sewage system. He tells her that her job is bad because it's not very hard and because sewage "stinks". Heh. She gets mad. He tries to placate the "enchanting lady".
She tells him she will go out with him for a month if he spends a week trying to hack the sewage system, since he thinks it's so easy. Apparently he thinks that's a good deal, and even spends some money buying new hacker stuff just for this job. He succeeds, but it turns out that she probably tricked him and he ends up hacking the real thing, so he gets sentenced to go to "prison" in the game world. As a shaman jeweler. Mining video game ore. Sigh.
Summary of first few pages:
IT-worker guy goes to training class on security testing systems (trying to hack them). He meets an "attractive girl" who works in IT security for the city's sewage system. He tells her that her job is bad because it's not very hard and because sewage "stinks". Heh. She gets mad. He tries to placate the "enchanting lady".
She tells him she will go out with him for a month if he spends a week trying to hack the sewage system, since he thinks it's so easy. Apparently he thinks that's a good deal, and even spends some money buying new hacker stuff just for this job. He succeeds, but it turns out that she probably tricked him and he ends up hacking the real thing, so he gets sentenced to go to "prison" in the game world. As a shaman jeweler. Mining video game ore. Sigh.
April 25, 2015
Top notch!
This novel deserves all 5 stars just based on its story and it's ability to keep you hooked from start to finish. But it has some issues with its wording and a few scrambled sentences but that can be fixed with a edit or two.
I've read quite a few litrpg and this is a fresh and new perspective.
MC isn't your normal game fanatic who could tell you almost anything about the game, noire is a newbie still learning how to crawl. Instead he's somewhere around the middle who's been around the block a few times and knows what he needs to know.
Normally in litrpg's you have a MC who knows everything from past games and utilizes it in New one or a MC who's new and doesn't have a clue and wings it.
Instead this character discovers that the game he thought he knew was nothing compared to what it could be.
This novel deserves all 5 stars just based on its story and it's ability to keep you hooked from start to finish. But it has some issues with its wording and a few scrambled sentences but that can be fixed with a edit or two.
I've read quite a few litrpg and this is a fresh and new perspective.
MC isn't your normal game fanatic who could tell you almost anything about the game, noire is a newbie still learning how to crawl. Instead he's somewhere around the middle who's been around the block a few times and knows what he needs to know.
Normally in litrpg's you have a MC who knows everything from past games and utilizes it in New one or a MC who's new and doesn't have a clue and wings it.
Instead this character discovers that the game he thought he knew was nothing compared to what it could be.
December 1, 2020
Jako osoba, która pół dzieciństwa spędziła grając w erpegi, czułem się jednak zbyt znudzony. Motyw uwięzienia w grze jest już dość mocno wyeksploatowany w ostatnich latach, przez co miałem ciągle dość mocne uczucie, że gdzieś to już czytałem, tylko że lepsze. Postaci są płaskie i nie mają żadnych cech charakteru, ciągłe deus ex machina, genialny główny bohater, który w kilka miesięcy rozwiązuje wszystkie problemy i wymyśla rozwiązania, na które nikt nie wpadł przez poprzednie lata, przewidywalna fabuła, to wszystko razem może i by się wybroniło, gdyby było tam ciut więcej akcji, ale niestety. Być może jest to tylko kwestia pierwszego tomu, po kolejne sięgnę z ciekawości, lecz już z mniejszym entuzjazmem.
May 5, 2015
Very enjoyable read
For anyone who's played any MMO's or RPG's this book is awesome. The story from the character's point of view is great and I enjoyed the way each advancement cane with hardship. Definitely something to suggest and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
For anyone who's played any MMO's or RPG's this book is awesome. The story from the character's point of view is great and I enjoyed the way each advancement cane with hardship. Definitely something to suggest and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
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