In the middle of attacking a difficult boss, Jamie gets sucked into the game. It’s not long before he learns there’s no way back home and that the only people around him are NPCs. He spends his days completing quests, hoping one will lead him back to reality. But the days go on and he wonders if he will ever see his family and best friend again.
Then he meets her—another player. She got sucked into the game months ago and has been stuck there ever since. Together, they embark on the journey back to Earth. But is there a way out of this fantasy world or are they doomed to live there forever?
My Opinion: 251 pages, $3.99, available on Kindle Unlimited
Author Dee J. Stone is the pseudonym for two sisters who have written almost 30 books on Amazon, including a teen superhero series and several long romance series. The author’s first foray into LitRPG is less than spectacular and honestly feels like an attempt at cashing in on a new trendy genre.
While the story is set in a game world, there is no character progression according to the game rules. The character gets one level up but it’s so weird to read that he’s suddenly level 12 when no level was given before and no description of XP is ever given for completing quests. Also leveling up doesn’t seem to have any impact on the character’s power. The extent of game mechanics being shown are the character’s inventory, quest dialogue, and a few game notifications.
For the first 30% of the novel, the NPCs in the game worlds are absolutely boring and flat. They’re not A.I. with personality or the ability to deviate from their scripted dialogue. The only way the player can interact with the NPCS is by reading his own scripted dialogue options. So the main character basically talks to himself the first ⅓ of the book.
Then the NPCs suddenly become self-aware and the dialogue improves about a 30% into the story without any explanation why.
The main character doesn’t even run into the other player trapped in the world until 40% into the story. At which point it turns into a teen romance novel, which is the type of story the authors normally write.
Which brings me to the worst part of the story. The game world. It’s just boring.
So no recommendation from me. I’d give it a 3 out 10.
Sucked into an RPG: a LitRPG Novel