“Offered a choice by powers far greater than himself between returning home at great risk, or entering a world named Ethria where he might find another, supposedly safer, path home, Daniel “Rayid” Tear will enter Ethria. A world that operates similar to the video games Daniel has always enjoyed, Ethria is a place where power can be found in many forms, both light and dark, and whose true purpose is unknown even to most of its denizens.
Taking the long way home, Daniel will make another choice, to help a group of persecuted people whose story mirrors that of his pioneer ancestors. But In a time when Gods are changing, the people of every race suffer, the foundations of nations shift, and change and danger are in the very air, what can one under-leveled, foreign wizard do?
All the while at the roof of the world, at the base of the Sawtooth Mountains a darkness grows, a creature plots, and an ancient evil from the foundations of the world seeks to re-emerge onto Ethria.”
My Opinion: 598 pages, $3.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
This is a ‘transported to a RPG world’ story that is a bit wordy, but is an entertaining read with some good fun dialogue and world building.
The story starts with the main character (MC), Daniel, playing a game to establish his gamer cred but by the 9% mark, he’s in the new RPG fantasy world. Once there, he’s there for the whole story. The big plot in the story is that the MC is supposed to help a couple of gods in this world by creating a place for their long lost descendants. But the story doesn’t focus on that aspect instead the MC meets lots of fantasy people, trains with his fairy guide, gets into fights, and levels up.
The first half of the novel is setup for big conflicts, a good bit of slice of life adventuring, lots of world building, loads of RPG and magic systems explained, and lots and lots of dialogue. The last half of the story is almost all combat. The structure and pacing of the novel could have probably used some evening out with more conflict sprinkled in the dialogue heavy 1st half, and a few more slow moments in the 2nd half.
Game mechanic wise, this is a pretty solid system. There’s loads of information about the RPG progression system and while most of it is going to feel familiar, there are a couple of unique mechanics that I thought were interesting. While there are a few places where some of the modified spells could have been setup better, for the most part, the author goes out of his way to make sure the story follows the system setup including negative consequences for spell casting. Considering that part of the plot is creating a place for people to live, I’d thought there would be more town building but that only ends up being a minor aspect of the story.
Overall, this is a rather good story. Especially considering it’s the author’s first time publishing. There are a few semi-regular spelling or grammar issues, but nothing that bothered me or ruined the story. However, I really liked how the author made the game mechanics an intricate part of the story, the good snarky sense of humor, and the good world building. There is a bit too much dialogue but overall I liked how it was used to build characters and world building.
Score: 7.5 out of 10