Rohan is an NPC in the real world, stuck at a job he despises. His only escape is the fantasy paperbacks that share his bed at night.
Once a gaming addict, Rohan renounced gaming ten years back, thanks to a painful incident in his life. When Prithvi Online—a VRMMORPG unlike any other—is unleashed, Rohan does his best to avoid it. That he cannot “afford” the game helps as well.
But when a friend brings an opportunity to play Prithvi Online for free, Rohan can resist no more. He lets his resolution slip.
However, something fishy is going on in the world of Prithvi. And strange notifications asking to maintain a distance from hooded people only deepen the mystery.
Soon Rohan’s life in the game is turned upside down as he uncovers a plot that can have deadly consequences to the world of Prithvi… and the real world as well.
My Opinion: 151 pages, $2.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
The writing in the novel reflects non-native American speaking patterns. Which makes sense considering the story takes place in India but the shift might bother some people. Here are a couple examples.
“My eyes had been losing it…”
“Don’t you ever want to leave this blasted job…”
“the man also told me…”
I got used to it and honestly I think it adds a nice flare of cultural perspective to the novel. The story gets credit for trying to use Indian mythology in the game part of the story but it’s unfortunately a minor aspect of the game mythology. There’s very little world building for the game and the descriptions of the game world felt flat. I felt more connected to the real world story which is set in India. That part was really quite interesting as it gave me a glimpse into a culture I’m not used to reading about. However, the real world sections only make up about 15% of the story.
The main character (MC) is interesting up until the time he enters the game. Then it gets less interesting. The game mechanics aren’t anything special and overall are rather minimal. The game story is mostly slice of life with the MC wondering from fight to fight against the Rak, a warrior demon race. Who also appear to be the only kind of monster to kill the entire novel. So understandably, combat gets repetitive fairly quickly. Even the introduction of permadeath isn’t that interesting because it doesn't affect the MC since it only applies to digitized citizens.
The end is a cliffhanger that has no setup or foreshadowing. And frankly doesn't make any sense.
Still, it’s not bad. It just that the novel never grabbed me and caught my attention so it never became particularly interesting for me.
5 out of 10