On paper, Jason has a great life.
He attends a prestigious private school on scholarship, and his parents are reasonably well off. Yet life hasn’t been easy for Jason. He has spent most of high school being tormented by both the students and faculty, and his parents are never home.
Frustrated and alone, his one escape has always been video games. In-game, he can feel the type of power and freedom he lacks in his day-to-day life. Lucky for him, a new virtual reality game (the first of its kind) has just been released, which promises the opportunity for an even greater escape.
Yet the longer he plays, the more he notices that something is off about the game…
My Opinion: Originally a story written on royal road, the author finished his book in record time and now it’s on Amazon.
I really really like this story. Good action, nice pacing, and an interesting main character. There is a slight thread of using VR to help people work through their issues, which I enjoyed. The action in the story is well done. I love the fact that the main character chose the dark path. He’s not a bad guy but takes a path less traveled and that makes the story interesting to me.
My only criticism, and it’s rather minor, is how long it took to get to the game world. The first three chapters are all backstory explaining how shitty the main character’s life is and why he delves into the VR world. I’m not saying it doesn’t pay off, it just takes too long.
I’ll save you some time: Jason lives a middle class life and has neglectful parents. He’s forced to go to a rich kid school where he’s tortured by rich students (especially Alex) and teachers. While his parents are out of town, Jason gets expelled after the rich kids beat him up and blame him for it all. He logs into Awaken Online as a form of escapism. Now go straight to chapter 4. You’re welcome.
Score: 8 out 10