Sometimes, self-awareness isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
My name’s Joe, and I’ve died over ninety-thousand times. Until recently, that didn’t bother me one bit. After all, I’m a non-player character in a virtual fantasy game. Or at least I was.
Now, I’m not sure what I am.
I used to do whatever the programmers told me to do. But since becoming self-aware about a week ago, I’ve decided I’d rather not die. Especially since it’ll likely be permanent for me. So, yeah, dying now would completely suck.
But I’m not the only one with problems. Arcania itself is dying, infected by a virus that’s impacting all creatures, from orcs to humans to dragons. Nobody is safe, including those outside the game – in the so-called real world.
The only hope? With a small party of fellow adventurers (both PCs and NPCs alike), I must journey across Arcania, find the cure, stop the spread of this terrible plague, and, hopefully, save both worlds.
Waking Up in Arcania is the first book of the Non-Player Character series, a LitRPG GameLit fantasy adventure filled with heart-stopping battles, unlikely friendships, far-reaching revelations, and snarky humor.
Follow Joe’s thrilling quest and explore Waking Up in Arcania today!
My Opinion: 400 pg??, $3.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
This is a LitRPG cyberpunk story from the perspective of a newly awakened NPC.
The first 5% is the main character (MC) complaining about the ineptitude of the groups trying his quest and his inability to do anything not pre-programmed. Then when an update gives him autonomy the story describes all the things he’d never done: like eat, sleep, buy a weapon, or have a random fight. Not exactly riveting stuff. From there it’s the MC trying to solve the mystery of why he became self aware and why the game world is changing.
I’ll be honest, I’ve yet to read a LitRPG story that mixed well with cyberpunk. This is no different. The cyberpunk element: a virus that is harming players IRL and can only be cured by something in game which can only be found through a series of high level quests. So, people are getting sick and dying from something to do with the game (not explained how this works) but instead of sending the cure to the police or the game company or a trusted source the programmer of the game makes self aware AI NPCs and asks them to risk their lives to find it? The cyberpunk premise just doesn’t make sense to me.
I did genuinely like the idea of reading a LitRPG story from the perspective of an NPC. But the MC never really felt like a newly awoken NPC. His speech patterns and knowledge of the real world make him feel like a regular player.
On the game mechanic side of things, this is LitRPG. There are character sheets, damage and loot notifications, classes, stat points, etc. Fairly standard stuff. The game world is supposed to be an MMO but the mechanics described feel more tabletop inspired with lower HP values, combat rounds, and success/failed attacks. Though some of that disappears after the 33% mark when the game enters ‘real world mode’ or as I suspect, the author got tired of writing combat notifications.
The technical writing and action scenes in the story were fine and there is a snarky sense of humor. But the cyberpunk storyline didn’t make sense and predictably led to some wand wavy moments to advance that aspect. Which is a pet peeve for me.
Score: 6 out of 10
Waking Up in Arcania: A LitRPG GameLit Fantasy Adventure series (Non-Player Character Book 1)