The fourth installment in the best selling Awaken Online series!
Following Jason's evolution into a Keeper, he finds his fledgling city once again in turmoil. A new and deadly enemy threatens the Twilight Throne -- one that has no difficulty contending with Jason and the members of Original Sin.
Jason must work quickly to consolidate his city's power. That means securing the villages within the Twilight Throne's influence, finding a steady stream of income, and growing the city's military strength. Even as the group grapples with these changes, they notice that something is stirring up the native undead around the city, although the source of this strange influence is uncertain.
One thing is clear, however. Jason might have evolved, but his enemies have adapted with him. If the Twilight Throne is to survive, the group must grow stronger and Jason must learn to control his newfound abilities.
Otherwise, the darkness may very well claim them all.
My Opinion: 690 pages, $6.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
The reviews are mostly positive for the story and you definitely can’t argue with the popularity with the novel sitting in the top 100 on Amazon for over a week. For me, this is a good story but I’m starting to get a little bored with the in-game storyline. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t bad. There’s still lots of action-adventure and a great grand battle scene at the end. But the in-game villain in the story feels very monster of the week to me. Just someone introduced to show the MC that he’s weak and force him to train and then see the MC beat him at the end. A very Dragon Ball Z kind of thing. There’s nothing wrong with that, I really like DBZ, but it’s a little predictable.
The real life storyline, for me, was actually more interesting. It was good to see some real resolution to the MCs feelings towards his parents, and all those threats about emergent AI come to some kind of resolution.
A few things that were actually annoying: The Jason-Riley misunderstanding in the first part of the story was just bothersome. I know it’s there so that the resolution feels better later, but the misunderstanding feels forced. Alex/Alexion as a villain just feels too weak and all the easy wins he gets feel cheap.
Overall, still a good entertaining story. A little predictable. But still a solid read for most fans of the series.
Score: 7.2 out of 10