Zachariah Dracoulis

Galactic Badlands: A LitRPG Space Western

There are cowboy boots on his feet, pop-up hints appearing in his vision, and, oh yeah, there’s a mariachi band in his head.

The world's not going to slow down and let him catch up though, no, it's going to throw a chrome hover car at him and hope he gets the picture.

Charles isn't what you'd call inept though, and before long he's proving himself as a quick shooter, fast learner, and more than willing to immerse himself in his pseudo-digital reality full of cruel crimelords, dangerous wild animals, and all manner of fun allies in this, the first novel of the Galactic Badlands saga.

Legends of Tarthirious: The Complete Collection

The Legends of Tarthirious series is composed of five separate stories originally published as a kind of serial series. The first book is my favorite. It has so much potential. It setup a world where citizens of the U.K. had to pay back the national debt by a certain period or they'd get deported. Kylia, the main character (MC) was not only responsible for her part of the debt, but an inherited portion from her family when they died. The game she plays is her way to get ahead and pay. Otherwise she faces deportation. This is a good premise, it makes the game stuff matter. It also introduces this threat from rebel forces that want to take the system down. Good real world stuff too.

Unfortunately, starting right from book 2 the premise shifts. It becomes more about moving Kylia and trying to keep her out of the hands of the 'bad guys.' The game stuff, while still a big part of the content of the novels, stops mattering to the story. Since Kylia no longer has any hope of paying her debt back all she's really playing for is fun, to hang out with her boyfriend, or just to kill some time till the story gets back to the real world stuff. Even though some of the game stuff it is entertaining as short stories, they don't effect the novel story at all. Which makes them ultimately feel pointless and like filler.

I kept reading each novel in the series hoping it would get better or at least as interesting as the first book but it never did. The  last book felt a bit rushed to tie everything up and while it does, overall the whole thing wasn't very satisfying.

Legends of Tarthirious : Book Five of Kylia's Story (Legends of Tarthirious (A LitRPG) 5)

Kylia is struggling to deal with the recent death of her fiance, Gerald, and decides to do the only sane and sensible thing.

Throw herself into the virtual world of Tarthirious.

In Tarthirious, Kylia's avatar, Armelia, is having struggles with morality and whether or not the pesky thing is actually important when it comes to having a good time and completing quests.

In this, the fast-paced, action-packed conclusion to the Legends of Tarthirious saga, the story twists, turns, and surprises at every corner as it reaches its stunning climax, whether Kylia's ready for it or not.

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Fragged 6 (Fragged (A LitRPG Short Story Series))

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The Metois are closing in, Zoey's clan is growing, and it looks like the Fighters' luck is about to change.

Following the events of Issue Five which saw Zoey and her clan deciding it was time to take the fight to the Metois, the budding group is starting to have internal trust issues, not that that matters to Zoey, who's recently decided that life just isn't that bad, but at the same time is struggling to stay out of her head.

In this, the sixth issue of Fragged, Zoey and her friends start to push back against the seemingly unstoppable Metois while at the same time narrowly avoiding encounters with massive dinosaurs and struggling to keep each other alive.

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Fragged 5 (Fragged (A LitRPG Short Story Series))

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In this, the mid-season finale of Fragged, Zoey's Fighters grows in size, the Metois are closing in, and more than a few personal issues get in the way of the clan performing to the best of their abilities.

Allies have been shot, new friendships have been made, and a feeling of genuine happiness has settled on Zoey who just barely escaped the events of Fragged 4. However, even in her moment of joy, Zoey knows that there's always going to be something that ruins her emotional high.

Things seem to be business as usual at Home Base though, Miles and Paul even seem to be getting along in their own, wary way, but after a suspicious crate drop draws Zoey away the bigger, more worrying picture starts to take form.

Prepare for sassiness, drama, and, as always, good ol' fashion violence as heads butt, old feelings are brought up, and Zoey's Fighters struggle to put out the fires of chaos and disarray that are spreading across Thren.

Fragged 4 (Fragged (A LitRPG Short Story Series))

Following the events at Piggly Diggly's farm, Zoey is in a difficult situation as she brings a new member, a former Metois soldier named Miles, into the fold.

The other members of Zoey's Fighters are less than happy with this decision, and she too has some niggling feeling that at any moment the turncoat could be revealed to be a traitor... again.

Zoey's doing everything she can to get past that concern and the other stress that has been brought down upon her, but after what was supposed to be a simple clean up job turns into something a whole lot more deadly she can't help but feel that she's not going to get back to a place of security and stability any time soon.

In this issue of Fragged, Zoey's dealing with everything from a stegosaurus herd on her front lawn to being attacked by a rogue sniper, all the while doing her best to stay in charge of her clan as it becomes increasingly clear that they have almost no respect for her or her authority.

Things have got to get better for her at some point, right?

 

My Opinion: 54 pages, $0.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited

The author admits that while writing Fragged 3 it got too long and he decided to split it into Fragged 3 and 4. I think the readers could tell but it’s nice that the author is honest about it.

Nothing really happens. There are a couple of fights, a few skills go up, and a new player joins Zoey’s group after a fight with some muties. Overall, just kind of meh. The next episode seems like it will have the group being attacked and hopefully that will be more interesting and the story will have more RPGness than a couple combat skills going up.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Fragged 4 (Fragged (A LitRPG Short Story Series))

http://amzn.to/2x2G45L

Legends of Tarthirious : Book Four of Kylia's Story (Legends of Tarthirious (A LitRPG) 4)

After surviving an attempted bombing and watching her informant, Bishop, get murdered on live television, Kylia feels like she's got a target on her back, a target that she thinks even the MPs can't shake off of her.

Things aren't all bad for Kylia though, and as things progress well with her boyfriend, Gerald, she starts to see that maybe there's hope for her in the fast and ever-changing world she's stuck in.

In this, the second last part of the Legends of Tarthirious saga, Kylia's life starts to get back on track despite the veritable plethora of curveballs that have been thrown her way.

Fragged 3 (Fragged (A LitRPG Short Story Series))

Dinos. Violence. More use of the dreaded 'F' word than possibly necessary.

Here we go again...

This third issue in the Fragged series sees Zoey's Fighters land under the scrutiny of a law that many a gamer has found themselves stuck with, Murphy's Law that is

Sure, they've seen their fair share of bad luck; getting trapped out after dark, attacked by an angry t-rex, etcetera, etcetera. However, those types of things pale in comparison to what lays in wait for them as things don't necessarily go FUBAR, but certainly become so Charlie Foxtroted that they'll be begging for things to go back to the nice and simple 'bad' classification.

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Fragged 2 (Fragged (A LitRPG Short Story Series))

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The second episode in the Fragged serial series.

Zoey, the main character (MC), is joined by her two player friends Chad and Paul.   They work to improve the community the MC founded. They want to expand their buildings underground but they need a few more resources. So, in addition to surviving the local monsters, they’ll have to rob a few neighbors to get the things they need.

This is a short cool mix of survival, crafting, and killing.

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Fragged (Fragged (A LitRPG Short Story Series) Book 1)

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A LitRPG short story with crafting, nudity, gratuitous violence, dinosaurs, and profanity. What more could you want?

Zoey has just been screwed over by someone in her clan, a screwing over that resulted with her getting hit with a permadeath and having to restart from scratch in the dystopian game world of Thren, a land of dinosaurs, rabid humans, and more than a few other deadly threats.

After what happened, Zoey doesn't know if she can trust anyone in the game again, let alone any of her clan members, and makes the decision that she's going to go it alone for the foreseeable future

Legends of Tarthirious : Book Three of Kylia's Story

With just two short months left on the clock, Kylia Redmond has started to finally pull her life together and gain some stability after the weeks of arrest, near-death, and complete Hell that has surrounded her.

With more focus on having fun in the game and setting goals she can reach, the fun loving gamer's discovering that as hard as she tries, she can't seem to shake the feeling that there's just another thing waiting around the corner.

In this, the third chapter of Kylia's story, we see Kylia start to become tired of mindlessly accepting every quest she gets in order to try and stave off the inevitability of losing her citizenship, and starts to simply enjoy what time she has left.

Legends of Tarthirious : Book Two of Kylia's Story

I’d break this short story into two parts: 1) Real world- The consequences of Kylie’s arrest and release on charges of cheating in the game are felt as the public vents their frustration at the debt payback system. 2) The game world- Kylie’s character goes on a series of random and unrelated quests to gain experience and gold.

Legends of Tarthirious : Book One of Kylia's Story

In fear of an impending economic crisis, a drastic change in leadership and society occurs in Great Britain. The residents are told they're no longer citizens, that they have to earn that right by paying off their fair share of the national debt, but they don't have to rely solely on their jobs and careers for this gargantuan task. They can pay it off by playing Legends of Tarthirious, an MMORPG, and collecting resources and items in-game to convert into real life money.

The year is 2035, and Kylia Redmond has six short months to pay off her debt, but little does she know that her problems are going to become a whole lot worse.