Format:
Audible.
As of this review: the entire 8 book series and this trilogy are available in Kindle Unlimited. All titles (including “box sets”) are available to whispersync at a discount.
Publisher’s Synopsis:
Follow NPC Maddie on her journey of self-discovery. Through the deadly desert plains to the inner programming that makes her who she is.
Rellim’s Thoughts:
This is my first experience with litRPG. As a competent gamer (mostly with my kids, but I’m familiar with and have played RPG/MMORPGs on a variety of platforms as well as having gamer fluency) and as an avid reader/listener of books in a lot of genres ~ I thought this would be really interesting. It is. The concept is really neat and some parts of pulled off incredibly well. I was sucked into the world fairly quickly and mostly enjoyed this trilogy. Maddie’s POV as a sentient NPC is an intriguing concept and I enjoyed getting to know her as well as following along on her adventures. It’s sort of like Mad Max meets Lara Croft.
I did have some issues:
* World-Building. Being in a game, there’s a vast world here but it’s rules/parameters/expectations weren’t consistently applied, or explained at all. In some respects, I thought it was the author relying on generic RPG concepts – but they were often violated and no real reason was given. At times, it felt like a sci-fi/fantasy novel that someone dropped bits of gaming lingo in to.
* The world isn’t described well. Some beings are described okay and I feel like I know what they look like – but others are almost completely nondescript. Like the “Hog”. I kept waiting to get an understanding of what this vehicle looks like and most of the info is about undefined modifications that Maddie made to it. With the exception of hair color – almost none of the characters are physically described.
* The Complete Trilogy. This makes it sound like it’s three books. The whole thing is about 9.5 hours long. The way it’s written is as a serial of 3 novellas or a single book broken into 3 parts.
Overall, I enjoyed it – but it didn’t wow me and it isn’t really something I’d listen to repeatedly. It’s also likely the the narrator made the book more enjoyable than if I’d just tried to read it myself.
Narration:
Andrea Parsneau is terrific. She does an excellent job with giving each character – even secondary, tertiary, and minute ones – their own unique voice/accent/cadence. I never had any issues figuring out who was talking at any given time. Parsneau is able to evoke a myriad of emotions and I will seek out her other works in the future.
I received a free copy of this audiobook from Story Origin and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
About the author:
Dawn has been creating sci-fi and fantasy stories for many years. Until her life and attention turned to scripts, and she started work on The Secret King, a 13-episode Sci-Fi TV series, with a great passion for this medium. Dawn returned to her first love of prose years later where she revelled in the world of The Secret King, and has since enjoyed collaborations with many others, in worlds across the galaxies. This last few years her experience has expanded. From Drama, Sci-Fi, Mil Sci-fi, to Gamelit. Dawn’s built a solid portfolio of writing, publishing, consulting and audio proofing.
You can connect with Dawn Chapman here:
Narrator:
Andrea’s narrative works can be heard in the Fantasy, Scifi, LitRPG, Romance and Satire genres, with even more to come!
You can connect with Andrea Parsneau here:
Rellim Reads 