When disaster strikes a cargo flight over the arctic, pilot Andre decides it's time to upload. He pays to have his brain sliced and scanned so his mind can live in the computerized, virtual world of Talespace... maybe forever.
Since Talespace runs on the logic of a game, Andre takes full advantage. He becomes a high-flying pegasus called Diver, learning the magic of the sky and battling monsters for the Night Queen. He's just in time for a fun little war and the chance to build a new kingdom from scratch.
Though his everyday life is full of spells and quests, the real world is still out there. To protect his new home, Diver will need to change more than his body, and seek adventure that blurs the line between the virtual and real worlds.
A novel in the emerging LitRPG genre, combining hard science with games and fantasy. "Learning To Fly" is part of the "Thousand Tales" series, but no knowledge of it is needed. Dive in here!
My Opinion: 405 pages, $3.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
The thousand tales series has often been hit or miss when it comes to being LitRPG. I don’t believe it was originally written as LitRPG as much as it was written as VR SciFi. This is especially true in the first few books.
However, in more recent standalone novels in the series, the author has added enough ‘obviously stated game elements’ to qualify the novels as LitRPG. Still, you can tell that the emphasis in all the series is still the story of self discovery by the characters through the Thousand Tales VR game world. There, in what amounts to a type of digital afterlife since you have to get your brain sliced up and scanned before you can become a permanent resident, people get the chance to become who they’ve always wanted to be.
In the latest standalone novel, Learning to Fly, you basically get that story. A pilot opts to enter Thousand Tales as a permanent resident and goes on a journey of self discovery and adventure, first as a horse, but then after he earns his wings, as a pegasus.
The story is light on the game mechanics but that’s a choice of the author. I’ve read enough of the series that I understand how the game world works.
The novel is also lighter on the action than I prefer but that’s more a matter of personal preference.
Overall, the novel is fine. It’s not badly written. You can tell it’s gone through editing and I only noticed a few tiny spelling errors. However, it’s also not an great grab you by the seat of your pants story, for me. If you’re a fan of the Thousand Tales novels, you’ll like this one. But this novel doesn’t really add anything new to the series.
Score: 6 out of 10.