LitRPG Podcast 227 - Shattered Sword, Biomedical Self-Engineering, The Emissary Bard, City of the Dead
LitRPG Podcast 227 - Shattered Sword, Biomedical Self-Engineering, The Emissary Bard, City of the Dead
May 22nd, 2020
Hello everyone, welcome to episode 227 of the LitRPG podcast. I’m Ramon Mejia. This is week 8 of the quarantine mustache experiment and it’s finally filling out.
I’m here to bring you the latest LitRPG news, reviews, and author interviews. We have 4 new reviews just for you.
New Releases and Reviews:
Shattered Sword: A LitRPG Adventure (Eternal Online Book 1) (05:46)
Slice of life, good sword fights, and gathering
Score: 7.8 out of 10
Biomedical Self-Engineering: Book 1 (10:43)
Lacks much conflict but interesting Real life LitRPG
Score: 7.4 out of 10
The Emissary Bard (World Of Chains Book 3) (15:14)
More good bard action
Score: 7.5 out of 10
City of the Dead (The Alchemist Book #1): LitRPG Series (17:03)
Such a great story
Score: 8 out of 10
(Play Music 2)
LitRPG News
Lavelle Jackson, author of Tusk & Blade LitRPG series, had some art work commissioned and he showed it off this week. The art work was done by Talimore on Fiverr. There she illustrates fantasy characters in her art style.
https://www.fiverr.com/talimore/draw-your-fantasy-character-in-my-style
Out Now!
Gloominess +4: The Cradle of Gods. A LitRPG series: Book 4
False Skies (Challenger's Call Book 5)
Spring Mutiny: A LitRPG Sci-Fi Adventure (Space Seasons Book 2)
Animal Eye: A GameLit Adventure (Animal Instinct Book 1)
New LitRPG Audiobooks
God Hand: Peaks of Power Book 2
Temper: An Apocalyptic LitRPG Series - Red Mage, Book 2
Castle of the Noobs - Noobtown, Book 3
Respawn: Lives 1-5 : Respawn, Book 1
Upcoming LitRPG:
Poor Cultivation (The Slayer of Heaven Book 1): A LitRPG Wuxia Series (May 26th, 2020)
Legendary Dungeon Seed (May 28th, 2020)
Earthdom: A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG (Ether Collapse Book 3) (May 29th, 2020)
Path of Alchemy: BlackFlame Online Litrpg/Gamelit Universe (Glory of Formation Emperor Book 4) (May 31st, 2020)
Fugitivity (The Fairy’s Tale - Book 2) (June 3rd, 2020)
Four Beheadings and a Funeral: A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure (The Good Guys Book 9) (June 4th, 2020)
Aces High (Reality Benders Book #6): LitRPG Series (June 9th, 2020)
Silverspear (Rise to Omniscience Book 6) (June 12th, 2020)
The SyStem: Multiverse: Book 1 (June 13th, 2020)
Glitchworld (June 14th, 2020)
Forest of Desire (The Alchemist Book #2): LitRPG Series (June 15th, 2020)
Summer Friction: A LitRPG Sci-Fi Adventure (Space Seasons Book 3) (June 26th, 2020)
Greenfire: (Sky Realms Online Book 4): A LitRPG Series (June 30th, 2020)
A Cat and His Human (League of Losers Book #1): LitRPG Series (June 30th, 2020)
Stars Asunder: Book 9 in The System Apocalypse (July 1st, 2020)
The Enchanter (Project Stellar Book 2): LitRPG Series (July 8th, 2020)
Dragon Seekers: A LitRPG Journey (Legends Online Book 6) (July 9th, 2020)
Watcher's Question: A LitRPG Saga (Life in Exile Book 2) (July 14th, 2020)
The Ruined Temple: A LitRPG Adventure (Eternal Online Book 2) (July 28th, 2020)
Arrow of Justice - A LitRPG Novel: (Book 1 of the Vindication 2.0 LitRPG Universe) (July 31st, 2020)
War of the Posers (The Bad Guys Book 4) (Aug. 8th, 2020)
Intellectum [RealRPG series] Book 1 (Aug. 18th, 2020)
Small Unit Tactics (Volume #1): LitRPG Series (Aug. 27th, 2020)
Onto New Releases and Reviews
(Play Music 3)
New Releases and Reviews
(Picture 1)
Shattered Sword: A LitRPG Adventure (Eternal Online Book 1)
A broke gamer. A deadly online world. Can Dahlia level up fast enough to keep the debt collectors at bay?
Dahlia has to pay off her dead father’s bills or risk her life in the lithium mines. Which... no thank you. Besides, the world is run by tech, and this gamer girl is determined to explore the virtual world her father was so obsessed with and get rich while she’s at it.
So, she sells everything and rents a premium VR pod to play Eternal Online.
Enter the toughest realm available? Check.
Discover the fastest way to loot without dying?… in progress.
But when Dahlia finds an epic quest chain that others have overlooked, she thinks she’s struck gold. What she doesn’t expect is to make friends with two deadly warriors and one powerful creature, or find a world boss gunning for them all.
My Opinion: 450 pages, $2.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
This is one of the odder releases, with the audiobook coming out months ahead of the ebook release. Additionally, when I finally started to read the ebook, it was strangely familiar. Then I realized I’d read a short story from the author that was supposed to be the start of a serial LitRPG series, The Broken Sword. I realized this was likely the expanded version of that.
This is a VR game story, where the main character (MC) plans to pay off her inherited debt by earning transferable funds in a VR game. She gets to take with her one object that will be scanned into the game. She chooses her family katana. But upon entering the game, she’s told by the AI that her sword is too powerful for a new player and is broken up into pieces and scattered around the game world. If she can find and reassemble all the pieces she’ll have a truly powerful weapon. There’s also a subplot about her father, and why he spent so much time in the game after his wife died.
But the story is mostly a slice of life adventure. You follow the MC as she explores the world, fights desperately against monsters, harvests plants and animal parts, and practices her skills. All in the effort to become powerful enough to earn a living, find the missing parts of her sword, and pay off the massive debt she is in.
Game mechanic wise, it's fairly standard. Character sheets, stats, skills, special abilities, classes, levels, and quests. There's gathering and crafting in addition to the fighting. All of which feels rather solid, progression wise, and was interesting to follow.
Overall, it's a good read, even if the story has a few loose story threads. The MCs IRL sword skills give her just enough edge to help her fight in game without making her over powered. It was also just as entertaining to read about her raising her class skills and try to puzzle out the best plants to harvest and animals to skin to make the best profit.
Score: 7.8 out of 10
Shattered Sword: A LitRPG Adventure (Eternal Online Book 1)
Biomedical Self-Engineering: Book 1
Divorced and working as a security guard in Portland, 73 year old Carl is attacked by an unknown creature before he is able to taser it to death. After being released from the hospital, he discovers by accident that he is unwittingly acquiring DNA samples from other people he touches.
He discovers a number of shocking facts about himself when a blue box appears in his right eye, Most importantly, he discovers that his health is nowhere near to what he assumed it would be. Can he reverse the negative aspects of his health using these blue boxes somehow? And can he reverse his poor financial situation after his wife took half his pension just before retirement?
Biomedical Self-Engineering is a LitRPG slice of life adventure, following Carl as he discovers new ways of living life when he is nearing the end of his own. There are no explicit scenes, no harems, and only one swear word at the very end.
My Opinion: 228 pages, $4.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
While the title is a mouthful, it does describe the power set of the main character (MC). This is a real world LitRPG story where the elderly MC gains upgrade powers after he fights off a monster while working as a guard during his retirement years. When he returns home after almost dying, he finds that he has an interface and special points he can use to cure his arthritis, cancer, glaucoma, and the many other illnesses he hadn’t even known he had. Not only that but he can use these same points to upgrade himself. The only problem is that the number of points he has are finite, which sends him on the hunt for ways to get more and how to use his new powers to improve his life.
Like many real life LitRPG stories, this is a slice of life format. The story simply follows the MC as he upgrades himself, gathers more points, and uses his new powers to increase his wealth. There is also a small undeveloped secondary storyline with aliens and hints about other people with similar powers. There is no combat in the story besides one brief scene but it was entertaining to read about a smart character who figures out ways to exploit his upgrade abilities. It was also fun to think about what I'd do in a similar situation.
The only thing I wished I would have seen in the story was more conflict. Not necessarily physical fights, but some opposition to what the MC was doing. For the most part he accomplishes most of what he sets out to do with few obstacles even slowing him down.
Overall, it's an original take on the real life LitRPG premise that was enjoyable to read, if you’re ok with the slice of life story. Small side note. I liked all the old movies mentioned in the story. Which means I have the same taste in movies as a 73 year old man.
Score: 7.4 out of 10
Biomedical Self-Engineering: Book 1
The Emissary Bard (World Of Chains Book 3)
"Double, double, bard in trouble. Mob will catch him in a couple..."
Okay, the mobsters looking for Daniel still hadn't found him. That was the good news.
Bad news? The net was tightening - and Daniel was running out of places to hide inside the Dawnlight Forest in the World of Chains. His skills and achievements as a bard did not help avoid attention - quite the opposite, in fact.
Maybe it was time to leave the forest? Or maybe... maybe take that Council quest and search for a more long-term solution to his predicament?
My Opinion: 700 pages ??, $4.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
This is another quality story from the author that combines a snarky lovable bard main character (MC) with RPG adventure, humor, and good group dynamics. The MC deals not only with his personal development as a bard, but with the town and the new community members he brought in the last book. In addition, there is plenty of adventuring and monster fighting with good progression for all the members of his team. The plot feels a little slice of life in the beginning, but all the adventures tie together by the end of the story in a good conclusion.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
The Emissary Bard (World Of Chains Book 3)
City of the Dead (The Alchemist Book #1): LitRPG Series
There are whole anthologies of stories out there about what humankind does when a game enters their world. But what about when they’re living in one where a game arrived thousands of years before? What if they’re the survivors of a bloody struggle, having fought for and earned their place on the planet?
Tailyn Vlashich was a young nobody far away from all those grander issues. All he cared about was one thing: making his way through a harsh world where the emperor, evil foes, and an impartial god held sway. And the god, of course, demanded nothing less than that all things were done in accordance with its divine will.
My Opinion: 425 pages, $3.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
Full disclosure: I received an advanced copy for review. I purchased a copy when it became available.
This is a story where a fantasy world has inherent RPG mechanics. The world is so used to the RPG rules that it’s become part of the culture. So much so that you can give your child bonuses by sacrificing money or lives, though there are other dark consequences to doing so.
The novel description does little to tell you what the story is about. After a series of tragic events, a father tries to give his last infant son an advantage in a world where stats mean everything. The main character (MC) is given a huge +32 bonus by his father who sacrifices not only every gold coin he'd been able to save but also his life. The MC will grow up an orphan, but will have that advantage.
Time skip to when the MC is 10 years old. He’s not treated well by the town and is considered a good for nothing, even though he does his best to help out. Another series of events lands the kid in several harrowing circumstances but he comes out of it with an RPG advantage that will change the course of his life. There’s a lot of good world building in the first half of the story and after about the 50% mark the story is full of action and battles and of course there are traditional Mahanenko twists along the way to the end.
The game mechanics are woven into the fabric of the world with great respect for the god that sees all and rewards all with notifications and quest rewards. The MCs progression reminds me of the series Underdog, where an orphan with an inability to level instead gets other rewards that boost his potential power. The other aspects of the RPG system are original with spells cast via rechargeable cards. A skill and ability system that is powered by rare resources or quest rewards. At about the 50% mark you start to see small connections to another story the author wrote.
Overall, this is just a great story that had me up late at night reading till it was done.
Score: 8 out of 10
City of the Dead (The Alchemist Book #1): LitRPG Series
That’s it everyone! Thank you for watching/listening.
You can follow us on
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/litrpgpodcast/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LitRPGPodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3-eBvpm-g7IkjfVktObGAA
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/geekbytespodcast
Our Webpage: www.litrpgpodcast.com
Other LitRPG facebook pages
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPG.books
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGsociety/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheFantasyNation/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/541733016223492/
If you enjoy the podcast and want to support us you can also find all the other ways to support the podcast at www.litrpgpodcast.com/support
Thanks for hanging out with me today. Until we can hangout again, remember to go read some LitRPG!
(Music 4)
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/