LitRPG Podcast 016
Welcome to Episode 16 of the LitRPG Podcast. The only podcast dedicated to LitRPG.
I’m Ramon Mejia. I’m here to bring you the latest LitRPG news, reviews, and author interviews.
Before we begin I want to give a big shout out to our newest Patreon supporters: Luke Chmilenko $10/month pledge. We also got our first paypal donation, it was super generous. I’ve contacted the donator thanking them but haven’t heard back letting me know if they want their identity revealed. So thank you and may your endeavors continue to go well.
https://www.patreon.com/geekbytespodcast
This week I’ll be telling you about the latest LitRPG News and LitRPG pre-orders coming up.
New Releases and Reviews:
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LitRPG News
The Gam3 Audiobook
One of my favorite Sci-Fi LitRPG novel, Opening Moves: The Gam3, is getting an audiobook edition. Available Nov. 29th. If you want to sign up for a fee audible trial and get two free audiobooks please use the link below. We’ll get a couple of bucks for referring you and it’ll help support the podcast.
Free Audible Trial - Two free audiobooks
Aleron Kong new cover art
Last week we showed you the new cover art for Book 1 and Book 2 in the Chaos Seeds series. This week Aleron Kong has released the new cover art for the third book in his Chaos Seeds series. Looks pretty nice. Though I don’t recall Richter getting a helmet.
Travis Bagwell Contest
Travis Bagwell, author of the best selling LitRPG novel Awaken Online, has completed his author web page and to celebrate he’s giving away 10 free audiobooks. To enter the contest just sign up for his newsletter. The contest is only valid in U.S. and U.K. apparently though.
LitRPG name a book contest
Michael Scott Earle has written a LitRPG story on the royal road. Unfortunately, he’s having a hard time coming up with a good title. He’s asking for your help and is running a contest with over $200 in prizes to get it. First prize gets a $100 gift card to Amazon. 2nd gets a $50 gift card. Other prizes are signed copies of the novels, etc...
Click on the link to read the story on RRL- then leave your entries on the first contest rule page.
http://royalroadl.com/fiction/chapter/103455
Upcoming LitRPG:
The Phantom Castle (The Way of the Shaman: Book #4) (Nov. 28th)
The Cadet (LitRPG. Squadcom-13. Book:1) (Dec. 5th)
The Way of the Outcast (Mirror World Book #3) (Dec. 19th)
Video Game Plotline Tester (The Dark Herbalist Book #1) (Jan. 3rd, 2017)
You're in Game! LitRPG Stories from Bestselling Authors (Jan. 20th, 2017)
The Beginning (Dark Paladin Book #1) LitRPG Series (Feb. 7, 2017)
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New Releases and Reviews
Stuck In Game
After a terrible car accident puts seventeen-year- old Noah Newbolt into a coma, he is hooked up to the innovative Dream Engine—a virtual reality helmet that immerses the player in an online fantasy game. The Dream Engine keeps Noah’s mind alive while doctors frantically work to heal his body, but dying in the game could send Noah back into a coma, forever. Meanwhile, Noah’s girlfriend, Sue, is suffering injuries from the same car crash, and the doctors grow confused when she seemingly fails to connect to the game. Then Noah encounters a mysterious avatar who suggests the last remnants of Sue’s consciousness are being held prisoner in the most dangerous part of the game. Noah takes it upon himself to rescue Sue, allying himself with a group of high-level players. But as he rises through the ranks, his high status earns him the ire of top players across the world. Can Noah stay alive—and awake—long enough to save Sue and escape the game? NOTE: Stuck in the Game is a cyberpunk, video game science fiction & fantasy novel.
My Opinion: 224 pages. $2.99, available on Kindle Unlimited.
Stuck in the Game was brought to my attention on twitter by Future House Books when they tagged the LitRPG podcast. Unfortunately they also described it there as Sword Art Online + Ready Player One. So my expectations were higher than they should have been. The story has a setup similar to Sword Art Online but that’s the only real similarity. There’s no similarity to Ready Player One. That aside, it’s a pretty decent story.
A young man and his girlfriend get into a car accident. They’re both brain damaged and hooked up to a dream based VR system. Because of the delicate nature of his brain and the mechanics of the game, if he dies in the game though he might fall into an irreversible coma.
In game he gets a mysterious message hinting that the girlfriend, who was also in the car accident might be trapped somewhere in the game world and he of course goes off to find her. While this story point is brought up in the book description, it doesn’t show up in the story till about half way through the book. That annoyed me a little.
Other than that it’s a perfectly fine ‘trapped in a game’ story with lots of leveling, decent fights, and an interesting magic system. I’d rate the story 6 out of 10. Better than average.
Homeland: Ingame 2
A litrpg novel, Homeland has Tor returning to the Virtual world, time has passed and changes have happened. He has three missions, to take care of the House of Pain. To deal with the Old Bastards and to stop the Eldest. The virtual world and the real world are becoming closer and the government is now working to control both. This novel deals with adult situations and language, please be aware of this.
My Opinion: 326 pages. $3.25 and available on Kindle Unlimited.
Tor returns to the game after winning a prize of over five million credits. His last hack in the game having been confiscated, he now has the money to setup a secure gaming sight, a back door into the game, and military grade nanobots to give him an edge when he returns there to stop the Old Bastards and their abuse of the regular players.
I’ve tried to read this series before and I always have a hard time getting through it. It’s not bad story, it just never really hooked me. I never connected with the main character. The only real complaint I have about the book are the spelling and grammar errors. There are no errors so huge that I stopped reading but there were small errors or missing words on a semi-regular basis. I know it bothers some people. Oh, and this story is definitely for the grownups since some parts of the story involve sexual situations.
Omegaverse Book 5
Having just begun to relax from their first adventures together, Wulfgar and his friends - Lauren, Snorri, and Rydra - were enjoying themselves in the tavern. They were reliving their harrowing fight with the Lich, which they barely survived, when a messenger arrived with a new quest.
A messenger from the King.
Now they needed to find out why they were being singled out for special attention! And there was only one way to accomplish that - to embark on the quest from King Clive!
My Opinion: 257 pages, $4.98 and available on Kindle Unlimited.
A welcome addition to the series. The book starts out with Duncan /Wulfgar continuing his journey to find his lost friend, Shannon. He’s accompanied by the friends he’s made in this fantasy game world and is sent by the AI king, Clive, to investigate an outpost that has stopped sending in messages.
That’s the setup. The payoff is a bit different however. While I won’t spoil it, there is a plot twist that is both exciting and disappointing. I was expecting the search for Shannon to take a lot longer (book 6 maybe) and end with her being a major villain or something. It doesn’t. The other part of the plot twist does open up some new possibilities for the story so it kind of makes up for that disappointment. Still, the story has lots of action, adventure, and even some town building stuff.
While not as strong an entry as book 4, overall, I had a good time reading the story and hope book 6 comes out soon.
Oh. The book also has two additional sections at the end. One a short story, the other a sneak preview at a new series the author is writing.
Books 1-4 http://amzn.to/2fEOaZ8
Strength Build 2.0 and 3.0
My Opinion: 45 pages. $0.99 each. Available on Kindle Unlimited. This is a serialized series so the stories are intentionally short. Thankfully, these books spend significantly more time in the game world, as the time spent in the real world is my least favorite part of each story. The pacing still feels a little rushed but each additional book seems to find a better balance between action and the story. Still mostly an action oriented story with a little ‘woe is me’ real world stuff thrown in. I’ve enjoyed these books more than I did book 1.
Our hero Nick Stanners is still playing a live broadcast VR game. In Book 2 get the pixel runner player duel wielding maces and in book 3 he gets all platemailed and swinging a halberd. It’s not spoilers folks, it’s on the covers. There are also some interesting plot twists in book 3 that I found interesting.
Some people are annoyed with the short format of each book in the series. However, I’m trying to appreciate it the same way I do an anime series. Each book takes me about 30-60 minutes to read and has its own miniature arc with plenty of action scenes. I’d pay $0.99 on itunes for a tv episode, so why not these books?
Hopefully, the author will put the books together in an omnibus for those people that can’t stand 50-60 page books.
Strength Build 2.0 http://amzn.to/2gf1web
Strength Build 3.0 http://amzn.to/2gl3kne
Related
Strength Build: A LitRPG Saga (Book 1 - The Fields of Durandor)
That’s it for the podcast.
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Go read some LitRPG!
Music Credits
"Blip Stream" "Mighty Like Us" "Big Shift" "Vivacity"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/