The vast forests of the elven kingdom, full of wild animals; the wastelands of the orcs, with everpresent drought and death; the dwarven mountains, on top of which the wyverns and harpies have built their nests; the majestic Ilian ridge that protects the great lands from the evil of the Sunset Empire, cursed by all the gods.
Kraven has a new home now, the World of Noria. It would be great if he were just a carefree traveler in this beautiful world.
But it's not that simple. His body is imprisoned in a regeneration capsule, an imprisonment he needs to live, and his mind is now part of this new, virtual world. Who is he now? What is he? He's become an unusual player, a unique bit of code that has appeared as the result of a system error.
All he has now is his character and his will to go on. His goal is to become stronger and survive in this cruel world. And who could be stronger than the “Shadows”, the most famous assassin's guild in Noria?
My Opinion: 266 pages, $2.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
This is a translation of a Russian series and according to the author, it has 5 books in the series that he plans to get translated as well as another scifi Litrpg series. As a translation, be aware that there are some semi-regular issues associated with that. Some phrases don't translate perfectly from Russian. Like Ring-Ring instead of Ding for notifications. Or slightly odd translations of colloquialisms like: A happy 13.
Now, as for the review, the story just misses being good for me. The setup is trapped in the game with the main character (MC) not being able to access the outside world through game features. There are some minor storylines with outside family and girlfriend looking for him in game, but it doesn’t really amount to much. The in game storyline is a little confusing, not in what happens but in how it’s able to happen. Without getting spoilery, the main storyline with the MC feels more like something that belongs in a normal fantasy story or a transported to a game world story, not one set in an VRMMO.
The game mechanics in the story are fairly detailed and there are some very believable MMO moments on the rare occasions when the MC interacts with players. Fairly normal MMO stuff: Character sheets, stats, item descriptions, quests, XP, etc. There are a couple things that feel out of place, but I’ve already mentioned that.
Overall, the story is decent. Good action. Lots of RPG stuff. It ends up being rather slice of life, where you follow the MC around as he trains and some stuff happens to him, but besides a couple interesting mini story arcs, that’s kind of all that happens. Additionally, the end is just left in the air without much resolution to the big plotlines.
Score: 6 out of 10