Jack Halberd’s great uncle disappeared for 40 years. Then, as suddenly as he went, he reappeared. He couldn’t speak, and nobody had a clue where he’d been. He spent the last 12 years of his life in a care home, and Jack was the only person to visit him.
After his uncle’s death, Jack goes to collect his belongings from the home. There, he finds something strange. A bracelet that he’s never seen before. Even stranger, one of the nurses tells him that his uncle tried to say something before he died. After 12 years of being mute, he tried to communicate. He had a cryptic message for Jack.
When Jack leaves the care home, his thoughts are preoccupied, and he gets into an accident. When he wakes up, he’s not in the city anymore. He’s in the middle of a strange countryside, surrounded by signs written in a language he can’t understand. In the distance, there is a castle.
As Jack walks toward the castle, he doesn’t realize that this is the only the beginning of his story. That he has powers, and a destiny…and an enemy. He’s about to learn where his uncle disappeared to for forty years, and that he himself has a role to play.
A kingdom awaits him. His kingdom. It’s time for Jack to reclaim the forgotten throne, and begin an adventure that will see him battle forces too dark to imagine.
My Opinion: 86 pages, $0.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
75% of this story is portal fantasy and real world story. It’s not till the last 10% that things get LitRPGish at all. Even then, there’s a brief explanation of some mechanics, then the story teleports the main character away, and then it ends.
There’s enough here that it’s LitRPG but it’s not good LitRPG, yet. The storytelling that's done is not bad. However, too much time is spent presenting it as a fantasy story. The long real world intro almost feel like the chopped off beginning of a novel. I hope the next episode gets better because I see potential in the serial. It just wasn't realized in this first episode.
Score: 4 out of 10.