In fear of an impending economic crisis, a drastic change in leadership and society occurs in Great Britain. The residents are told they're no longer citizens, that they have to earn that right by paying off their fair share of the national debt, but they don't have to rely solely on their jobs and careers for this gargantuan task. They can pay it off by playing Legends of Tarthirious, an MMORPG, and collecting resources and items in-game to convert into real life money.
The year is 2035, and Kylia Redmond has six short months to pay off her debt, but little does she know that her problems are going to become a whole lot worse over the coming months. From political scheming, watchful military police, and someone who clearly doesn't want her to be free of debt, Kylia's world is going to be turned upside down and burned before she can so much as log in.
My Opinion: 168 pages, $0.99 as e-book, $8.99 paperback, available on Kindle Unlimited.
A great story. Characters are believable and the premise of the world is plausible. It takes a little while to get to the game world where Kylia gets a new character but once there it’s a pretty fun journey. There’s lots of interesting banter and flirting between her and other characters. Some of the humor is probably UK specific but it’s still entertaining.
Things I think could have been used better. 1) Backstory - Great backstory setup about UK government being sort of privatized and each resident having to pay off their fair share before they regain their citizenship. 2) There’s also a sense of urgency is created in the backstory of Kylia having to pay off not only her debt but her deceased families debt.
These two points are set up well and a significant bit of writing is devoted to them but there isn’t really any pay off and they’re not used in the main story.
If she’s on such an urgent time scale why isn’t she spending all her spare time grinding to maximize her income potential? Instead Kylia is a bit more casual with her gaming strategy and even goes out on a date or two. I enjoyed reading about all this but those two points just feel like a wasted story opportunity. 7 out 10.
Legends of Tarthirious : Book One of Kylia's Story