Inhabited by clumsy dwarves and cute Elfas, the cyberspace of the Crystal Sphere - the latest state-of-the-art MMORPG game - is not as benign as it might seem. Unbeknownst to most players, this is a test site for the latest technogenic device: the neuroimplant, allowing players to experience the full range of real-life sensations, including pain, exhaustion and death.
Alexatis is one of the few test subjects. His predecessors have already perished, destroyed by the lethal challenges of their new environment. Will he survive in a world which for most of his fellow players is still harmless entertainment?
A prequel to A. Livadny's Phantom Server, the Neuro series will shed a new light on many of the truths that the author has kept from his earlier readers. New characters will join the team already familiar to A. Livadny's fans, assisting them in their quest for survival until they discover the fatal truth:
Cyberspace feeds on human emotion.
My Opinion: 286 pages, $3.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
Full Disclosure- Got an advanced copy to review. Have since picked up the story on Kindle Unlimited.
A novel set in the same real life universe as the Phantom Server series. This story is set before humanity had fully been moved into mega cities. You don’t have to have read the Phantom Server series to read this one but if you have you’ll get little references that will make you giggle.
The story of Alexatis, the first test subject of a revolutionary new neural interface. He’ll have to live in the fantasy VR game The Crystal Sphere as its first full immersion player and learn how to survive when he is one of the only players that can feel pain.
Story focuses mostly on the main character learning about the game world, how it works and his unique class Neuro which is tied to his neural implant and gives him some amazing abilities and skills, if he can master then. Learn about this about the 30% mark, won’t spoil the cool abilities that might be a little OP.
Few translation errors but nothing so big that it breaks immersion in the story.
Hinted at subplot of the neural implant users being closely watched and monitored ominously, and some of the same techo concerns that are present in the Phantom Server series.
The Crystal Sphere a 7 out 10.