Ariair Online, the latest in massively multiplayer online gaming, and was hyped to be the first fully immersive virtual reality game on the market. To Jasper, an old hand at online gaming, it was simple, he needed to buy it.
But what started as a simple game purchase for Jasper and his friends to pass the time, became an obsession. Jasper began his journey finding that Ariair Online has more secrets hidden away than he could have imagined.
Only time will tell how deep Jasper goes into this new world.
My Opinion: 250 Pages?? or 61K words, $2.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
This is a slice of life novel has a rather slow start but once it gets going it is full of action, adventure, and RPG leveling.
The first 3% of the novel reads like a straight fantasy novel, but don’t be fooled. It’s just the amazing trailer for VR game in the story. Still, even in that trailer, there are story elements that get played up later.
Storywise, this is a slice of life story that tries to be more. The story introduces you to the main character, his school, a few other real life characters and then he logs into a full immersion VR game. The real life stuff storyline has potential long term but most of it in this novel is setup and the in-game storyline completely over shadows it. In game, the MC goes on adventures, gets some interesting powers, clears some dungeons, and levels up. It’s actually rather an exciting journey once he gets to the first dungeon (25% mark) and the series plotline with the orbs of power has good story telling potential but is only really seen at the beginning and at the very end of this novel and is used more as a hook for the next book.
On the topic of game mechanics, this is relatively detailed. You have full character sheets, items descriptions, spell descriptions, ability descriptions, explanations of the magic system, and some good varied build choices. You definitely get enough info to plan your own character. Though some people will complain that there’s too much info since a good 6% of the novel is dedicated to just the character creation section. While you don’t get damage notifications after a certain point, combat never feels wand wavy and even when the MC helps defeat a boss that’s a much higher level it doesn’t feel unreasonable since he’s helping and not soloing it.
Overall, I like the story. There’s lots of places it can go in the real world and in the game world. The beginning is slow and a little bit of an info dump but once you get to that first dungeon, the pace and the action really pick up. I look forward to reading book 2.
Score: 7.4 out of 10