LitRPG
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Yeah, and?
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And that barefoot runner chick is the worst character I've read in a long time. I understand she got pushed to the backburner eventually, but not soon enough for me. Fuck that series.
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Ok, I just finished the Awaken online series +. I'm feeling like it's worth a more extensive review with spoilers, so here goes.
Overall I'd give it a 7 out of 10. It's got issues, the author clearly mails in some stuff, loses interest in characters, and occasionally has no clue where he wants the story to go, but overall it's a fun read. I plowed through the 15 books pretty much without issue. I liked that he didn't limit it to in game experiences and dealt with issues around artificial intelligence, not that any of these were new or novel. The main character was relatable enough and his decisions mostly made sense although the author loves to keep the reader in the dark in order to show how smart the main guy is. The related Ember series building Finn up was stupid and should have been handled in a single character perspective book if that. The same goes for the books around Frank and Eliza. I'm pretty sure they could have just entered the story as fleshed out characters and it would have been fine. Doms book was more interesting...mostly. Overall though pretty solid series.
Overall I'd give it a 7 out of 10. It's got issues, the author clearly mails in some stuff, loses interest in characters, and occasionally has no clue where he wants the story to go, but overall it's a fun read. I plowed through the 15 books pretty much without issue. I liked that he didn't limit it to in game experiences and dealt with issues around artificial intelligence, not that any of these were new or novel. The main character was relatable enough and his decisions mostly made sense although the author loves to keep the reader in the dark in order to show how smart the main guy is. The related Ember series building Finn up was stupid and should have been handled in a single character perspective book if that. The same goes for the books around Frank and Eliza. I'm pretty sure they could have just entered the story as fleshed out characters and it would have been fine. Doms book was more interesting...mostly. Overall though pretty solid series.
Eliza- She's fine as a secondary character but in no way can carry a whole book. If the author had just said, oh yeah, there's this other powerful character off in Seaside who likes plants and has ice affinity it would have been fine. Of course there are other super powerful characters in a large game world.
Finn- I'll admit, he was an absolutely essential character to add in to the story, maybe his daughter not so much but what would a modern book be without a girl boss. He didn't need a separate 3 book series though, that shit got real boring and overworked fast. He absolutely should have had his own book and carried on as a secondary main throughout the story.
Dom- an unneeded character but one of the better ones in the series. I really liked how he was handled and how he showed that Jason wasn't a one off. Him having terminal cancer and being broke, then being cured and being rich, then having cancer again showed how bored the author was by the final book. Anyhow, breaking the game by having his respawn being mostly instant was a great idea. Actually, having all of the travelers being broken within the game due to respawn was a great idea as was Jason's answer to it.
Alex - a fucked up character and kind of a massive stereotype as was his father but they drove some of the ideas and fumbles home. His father had what amounted to clones made of him and was able to download memories into them. Somehow that wasn't an option for Dom? Maybe upload his mind, save it until the clone is ready, and put it in the new body. Anyhow Jason needed a foil, he got one and used it like he used all of the people with talents, as assets to be exploited.
Frank was just dumb. Having him be the large soft wussy guy whose redemption arc is him falling for a game character who is partially in wolf form most of the time...Yeah. After his book the author basically just deserts him. In a power fantasy he was too limited which is why he had to create the Smiles character. Smiles was Frank mach2 but not retarded and actually good at stuff. I honestly think he is a symptom of a larger issue the author is dealing with, which leads me to the hilarity around DEI.
Dei- The author doesn't really include much of it and when he does he contradicts himself quickly, usually within a few pages. Frank is a good example of that. He falls for a furry only to have the in game AI, who is in cat form most of the time, point out that the wolf chick is just him, and he then changes to her form clearly mocking him. Another example would be him trying to show the dangers of corporate control of systems, and the solution is for them to form a corporation to compete with the one they don't like, like good capitalists. This pattern happens dozens of times.
The thing I liked more than I should have- Time compression. I've seen this is other books, even in other litrpgs. For some reason Bagwell did d fantastic job of explaining how broken that is and how much it would affect our lives. Yeah I know, people are lazy and they'd just piss it away, but as an idea it's fantastic.
The really stupid thing that bothered me for no reason- When Jason would trigger some sort of massive war involving most of the player base the company would both celebrate and panic. Server load was the panic and that can make sense. But celebrating because of viewership? All the players were in game playing, not watching on their phones. If they are saying that car mechanic Jose' would hear that some people were doing a thing online and he should stop working and watch it, yeah...no. It's beyond stupid.
The ending -Again beyond stupid and completely mailed in. I liked the final book more than most of the other books and he just shits the bed in the final 10%. Kind of sad really.
Finn- I'll admit, he was an absolutely essential character to add in to the story, maybe his daughter not so much but what would a modern book be without a girl boss. He didn't need a separate 3 book series though, that shit got real boring and overworked fast. He absolutely should have had his own book and carried on as a secondary main throughout the story.
Dom- an unneeded character but one of the better ones in the series. I really liked how he was handled and how he showed that Jason wasn't a one off. Him having terminal cancer and being broke, then being cured and being rich, then having cancer again showed how bored the author was by the final book. Anyhow, breaking the game by having his respawn being mostly instant was a great idea. Actually, having all of the travelers being broken within the game due to respawn was a great idea as was Jason's answer to it.
Alex - a fucked up character and kind of a massive stereotype as was his father but they drove some of the ideas and fumbles home. His father had what amounted to clones made of him and was able to download memories into them. Somehow that wasn't an option for Dom? Maybe upload his mind, save it until the clone is ready, and put it in the new body. Anyhow Jason needed a foil, he got one and used it like he used all of the people with talents, as assets to be exploited.
Frank was just dumb. Having him be the large soft wussy guy whose redemption arc is him falling for a game character who is partially in wolf form most of the time...Yeah. After his book the author basically just deserts him. In a power fantasy he was too limited which is why he had to create the Smiles character. Smiles was Frank mach2 but not retarded and actually good at stuff. I honestly think he is a symptom of a larger issue the author is dealing with, which leads me to the hilarity around DEI.
Dei- The author doesn't really include much of it and when he does he contradicts himself quickly, usually within a few pages. Frank is a good example of that. He falls for a furry only to have the in game AI, who is in cat form most of the time, point out that the wolf chick is just him, and he then changes to her form clearly mocking him. Another example would be him trying to show the dangers of corporate control of systems, and the solution is for them to form a corporation to compete with the one they don't like, like good capitalists. This pattern happens dozens of times.
The thing I liked more than I should have- Time compression. I've seen this is other books, even in other litrpgs. For some reason Bagwell did d fantastic job of explaining how broken that is and how much it would affect our lives. Yeah I know, people are lazy and they'd just piss it away, but as an idea it's fantastic.
The really stupid thing that bothered me for no reason- When Jason would trigger some sort of massive war involving most of the player base the company would both celebrate and panic. Server load was the panic and that can make sense. But celebrating because of viewership? All the players were in game playing, not watching on their phones. If they are saying that car mechanic Jose' would hear that some people were doing a thing online and he should stop working and watch it, yeah...no. It's beyond stupid.
The ending -Again beyond stupid and completely mailed in. I liked the final book more than most of the other books and he just shits the bed in the final 10%. Kind of sad really.
Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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Still fighting depression/burnout (retirement, here I come), and I exhausted my Baen backlog. So, I picked an old series, Sean Oswald's Welcome to the Multiverse. Systems are basically merged god pantheons, and competing for resources and fighters for said competition. Earth gets put in a competition with four other worlds - the first gets all the resources, the second and third become dungeon worlds with an expected 90% death rate, and the last two are used for mining resources, and anyone who can't leave in time dies. The MC gets recruited as a Forerunner, the five people who try to score points, because his uncle (who died during the competition) set up a succession to his closest blood relative.
MC gets showered by every loot, title and bonus imaginable. His CHA is so high, women wet their pants in his presence (yes, that's in the book). He grabs stuff from all sorts of other systems and becomes the usual one-in-a-million-years wonder. So obviously, everyone sends their daughters to seduce him.
Problem: he does have a girlfriend. And he's not tempted by harem stuff.
Overall, it's not a very complicated or original series, but it's very easy reading (some minor editing problems).
Rating: 6/10.
MC gets showered by every loot, title and bonus imaginable. His CHA is so high, women wet their pants in his presence (yes, that's in the book). He grabs stuff from all sorts of other systems and becomes the usual one-in-a-million-years wonder. So obviously, everyone sends their daughters to seduce him.
Problem: he does have a girlfriend. And he's not tempted by harem stuff.
Overall, it's not a very complicated or original series, but it's very easy reading (some minor editing problems).
Rating: 6/10.
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Void
Yeah, and?
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I've been wondering about that series. Thanks for the review.
Speaking of editing, I've read at least 2 different series in the past month or so that uses "grizzly" when it should be "grisly." One isn't even litrpg, but I'm guessing it is still an indie publication.
Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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