This isn't a game. This is his new life.
Dave has been wandering through life for a long time. His day job bores him and he never seems to be able to meet his family's expectations. The only escape he's ever had is his love of MMORPGs.
But when he becomes the subject of a test without even knowing it, he's portaled into a game-world called Eloria with no way out. It's a frequent daydream of his, however, in none of those dreams did his wife and daughter ever accompany him.
Now, Dave must balance protecting his family with exploring his dream... oh, and trying to stay alive. Monstrous beasts roam Eloria, worst of all, an undead army led by the vile Death Knight.
He'll have to adapt fast and learn to cooperate if he hopes to make a new home for his family. And just maybe, along the way, he'll find out why they're living a life in exile.
Experience the epic first installment of a LitRPG saga perfect for fans of C.M Carney, Blaise Corvin, and Charles Dean.
My Opinion: 654 pages, $2.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
This is a multi-narrative story that primarily focuses on a family that is transported to an RPG world. The beginning of the novel is probably the hardest to get through as the initial family dynamics and petty arguments are frankly annoying. There are multiple side narratives that only really tie into the family’s storyline at the end, but when they do all connect it’s pretty good.
The main storyline is sort of a mess of an RPG Swiss Family Robinson, with a family of 5 being sent to an RPG world where they have to fight monsters and survive long enough to figure out the rules. There are some annoying family dynamics and petty arguments amongst the five. But by mid story those phase out as the family adjusts to having depend on each other for survival. Though only three of the family members, the husband, wife and teen daughter, do any fighting or leveling. The other two younger kids are kinda just around to put in danger, at least in this book.
The game mechanics come through really well and there's a good balance between game and realism to combat. There are definitely some wand wavy moments in the story that include: the healer mom gaining 7 levels just from choosing a class, some obvious power leveling in fights, and some miraculous saves. But outside those places the game mechanics are followed faithfully with that are many levels higher than the family being really challenging if not impossible and the family runs rather than fights. I also thought the zone pulling was a nice exploit.
The multiple perspectives did a good amount of world building as they showed off various factions and kingdoms in the RPG world. But frankly, they initially left me uncaring for most of the scenes. I was left with the impression that the scenes only existed to setup future storylines or world build, so they felt disconnected to the characters I did like, the Nelson family. That is until the end when many, but not all, of these side storylines finally connected with the main one in an epic way.
Overall, the story was really good, especially the last 15%, with only a few issues keeping it from being great for me.
Score: 7.8 out of 10