After exiting Awaken Online to find himself holding a knife and standing over two dead bodies, Jason is now being investigated for murder. To make matters worse, Claire has stumbled upon evidence of Alfred's involvement in the incident and the CPSC is circling - just waiting for Cerillion Entertainment to make a mistake.
With his real-life in shambles and his enemies in-game growing in strength, Jason re-enters Awaken Online truly desperate - the game now his only lifeline. He will need to move quickly to complete the Old Man's quest and to obtain the power he was promised.
My Opinion: 600 pages??, $6.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
The beginning of the in-game storyline is a bit slow but picks up by the 25% mark. The cliff hanger from the end of book 2 is resolved a little quickly for me, but overall a good addition to the series. The real life storyline with Claire searching for evidence of what AI Alfred is doing is a surprisingly good part of the story. The in-game storyline is good but also familiar. Nothing really surprising happens with it but it’s still good action adventure stuff. The last fight is of course the most intense and action filled.
There are a few moments of interesting contemplation when the main character (MC) talks with one of the developers and then the AI about what the consequences of the time compression tech will have on society.
Game mechanics wise, everything is the same as it was in the other books. Jason levels a bit and creates a few new types of undead. But he doesn’t get any new necromancer powers and on the whole the game progression details feel a little more muted in this one.
Still, overall, a very good story. There is of course another cliffhanger. It doesn’t effect the story that came before it but is a good hook to read the next book, whenever that comes out.
Score: 7.5 out of 10