What was once virtual, is now reality.
Trapped in the middle of an alien invasion, Logan James, a down-on-his-luck dollar store cashier, discovers there’s only one way out…
Compete in an alien-imposed game, a global battle royale called the Melee.
Forced to fight with his best friend Dwayne and a cute cashier named Alicia, he finds that the rules are simple: battle against the other participants and an army of the galaxy’s worst monsters and villains, level up, amass experience points and loot, and use any means necessary to reach the center of the Earth in 19 days.
Hundreds of people will live.
Hundreds of millions will die.
My Opinion: 350 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
Meh. Even though the setup of the story is one I've read before, I hoped for something better than this. Even though the aliens arrive and announce their kill game by the 4% mark, with the exception of one good action scene, you suffer through another 27% of boring background and character description for people that don't matter. Sure, I get it's part of trying to create an emotional bond with them so it feels impactful when they die or create tension with people preparing for 'the bad that may come'. However, I never cared about the main character (MC), much less all the randomly named and killed people and all the talk about preparing wasn't tense, it was tedious.
Once the game actually starts at the 31% mark, the action is good. But the MC seems magically good at shooting and killing when he was just a washed up baseball player a few days before. The game stuff amounts to descriptions of monsters with levels, HP, weaknesses, powers, and strengths. Also XP from player kills can be used to purchase upgrades and levels. The story is more GameLit than LitRPG, and is more like a multiplayer shooter than an RPG.
With the exception of one fight scene I found the first 35% very boring. That's how I felt about most of the story. Good fights, the rest not particularly interesting. Overall, the story didn't entertain me.
Score: 6 out of 10
Melee: A LitRPG Adventure - Book 1