Memories Continue Online Book 1 Stephan Morse
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It described such an unusually deep and complex world, yet touched only a small part of it. There is so much more to see, to do and experience...
Right now I'm having one of those 'next episode' cravings. It's never fun when an episode of your favorite TV show is over and you need to wait for a week to get the next fix. Theoretically, I suppose I could go and get the sequel now, but I still have 3 or 4 promised reviews
After all was said and done, this book left me wondering for a good hour more.It described such an unusually deep and complex world, yet touched only a small part of it. There is so much more to see, to do and experience...
Right now I'm having one of those 'next episode' cravings. It's never fun when an episode of your favorite TV show is over and you need to wait for a week to get the next fix. Theoretically, I suppose I could go and get the sequel now, but I still have 3 or 4 promised reviews to finish... Sometimes I hate free books :D
Cliffhangers, am I right? ;-)
Authors have stopped asking for the text "this book has been provided for free in exchange for an honest review", or similar, to be included. Not sure what is up with that, but I'm fine either way. I'd give it an honest review regardless.
Memories, written by Stephan Morse and narrated by Pavi Proczko, was a big unknown for me. I was offered to do a review and, aside from seeing a cover (According to some - very important!) and knowing it's a virtual world fantasy, I knew nothing about it.
Yes, I know - A common trap. And also the one I frequently fall into. "Some people would learn by now," I can almost hear you sigh. But I'm determined to find that one LitRPG gem that I can proudly stand behind and tell everyone about.
So, can I do it here?
Well, yes and no.
"What, the hell, kind of answer is that?!" <- You must say "The hell!" here, otherwise it sounds fake.
I don't think I have enough data points to make that call.
"The goddamn book is almost 13 hours long! What more do you need??"
A sequel! I need a sequel!
This is either the best introduction to an amazing series I've seen since the Herbert's Dune or the biggest disappointment I'm going to have in a very long, long time.
Now that I've answered your questions and effectively told you nothing, let's start from the beginning.
Loading: The Begining
It is confusing.
I had absolutely no idea what was happening but was following along. Soon, it will start making sense, right?
And it did. Although you have to listen to a good chunk of the first hour without interruption. Many different puzzle pieces are floating about and you'll need to pay attention to be able to solve it later. Honestly, I was kind of like the movie Memento. I re-listened the first chapter now, but didn't really have to - It didn't make any of it clearer :) So I got back to that damn cliffhanger. I so desperately want to know what happens next! And also what happened before...
Ugh, it's tricky to explain. Let me try again. I'll borrow the synopsis this time :)
Grant Legate had a good life. Eventually, Murphy's Law kicked him in the teeth. Just once was enough to set him back for almost three years. He lost his fiancee, was fired from his prior job, and is only now stable enough to stand on his own two feet. Meanwhile, the rest of the world moved on, growing enamored of a virtual reality game that allowed its players to completely submerge in a fantasy land.
This alternate world has helped many others see to the core of who they are. By giving them an outlet to be the hero, play the villain, explore a new world and innovate its setting. Grant Legate will get a chance to play, and see who he really is when push comes to shove. Learning rules for a new world isn't easy, especially when nothing is as straightforward as it seems. The machine has a plan, and Grant's just one of the many cogs turning the wheels.
Introduction to Grant Legate is very long and we don't really know when it actually starts. But it is damn interesting! Of course, just like with every fantasy book you'll have to suspend your reality here as well. Still, the world Morse created is rich and offers much. His writing style is simply beautiful.
Luckily, there weren't any drawn-out descriptions of whatever, but even if there were I'd listen attentively through multiple pages just to hear of which particular shade of early-summer-green that mentioned leaf was. Also, the previous sentence is completely unnecessarily complicated. I'm afraid to go back and fix it, it will take me 10 minutes. Just ignore it and read on, m'kay? ;-)
So, nothing was happening. And everything was happening. I was never bored. I listened through.
I patiently listened through. It was like an awesome therapy!
Many different characters took the stage and it was very unclear who is who for a while and who should we care for or why. That was fine. It was interesting. I realized I was 3 hours into the book and things have just then started happening. Slowly!
It was deep, complex and complete. Unbelievably interesting! I could have imagined myself in each one of depicted situations, possibly making the same mistakes. This was real.
The story doesn't give you complete puzzle, ever. A lot is left over to you to fill in and that leads to very interesting situations. I was so sure of something that I must have imagined as a filler - the story never told it - that I was genuinely surprised when it proved to be the wrong conclusion! Oh, this book is great!
Additionally, these bits and pieces not only help the immersion into the book but leave plenty of space for the author to fill in later on.
I'd say it doesn't come as a surprise that the Continue Online series is comprised of 5 books with, if I'm not wrong, 6th one in the making.
I don't know if that is physically possible, but I'm going to enjoy the hell out of this series!
So, in conclusion - The book starts slow, moves slow, and is slow. And I loved every minute of it!
I've never heard of Pavi Proczko before but he knows his job well. He may not have a spectacular range of different voices but I'd have no one else reading the sequel.
Wait! Is he reading the sequel?!
*panic*
*checking*
NO!
NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!
This can't be happening! There is only one audiobook published out of five! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Oh, I'm going to write some letters now! I need the sequel!!!
In case it's not clear, this book is a must-read. If you don't like it, it's fine. You don't like LitRPG. I can live with that.
WAIT!!!
Turns out I cannot use the search function!
Yay! Of course there are more books! All five of them, actually! Oh, good. Gooooood! This started causing me the actual physical pain :-)
And yes, Pavi reads all the sequels. Whoosh!
Yep, all is right with the world. Carry on. Nothing to see here ;-)
Well, nothing aside from a 10.000-character review. I went full retard here...
Everybody knows you never go full retard.
I could have written a book for the time it took me to write this. Well, maybe a chapter. Okay, okay, I could have thought of a good title for it! But, trust me on this, that would have been a really good title!
So, instead have my review novel! Did you like it? :-)
Also, I really like the word really and I really cannot proofread all of this now >.< You'll just have to excuse any of my mistakes :-)
You are awesome! <3
Memories (Continue Online #1)
by Stephan Morse (Goodreads Author), Pavi Proczko (Narrator) Verdict Unbelievable!
Runtime 12:41
Overall 
Performance
Story
but for the love of all things sacred, please get an editor who you are a) not related to, b) not sleeping with and c) you have no desire to sleep with.
Editing is a hard job, which requires lots of patience and skill, and whoever did your editing for this book did a very sub-par job.
On the one hand I went into this expecting a litrpg experience and while the tale has all the components, the result is anything but that. The story blurb I read on Amazon makes it sound very different from the usual fare and that proved to be correct. The story is set in some indeterminable future, where a company creates an artificial intelligence which is then used to build the most p
Having just finished with the first book in this series, I am left both disappointed and profoundly surprised.On the one hand I went into this expecting a litrpg experience and while the tale has all the components, the result is anything but that. The story blurb I read on Amazon makes it sound very different from the usual fare and that proved to be correct. The story is set in some indeterminable future, where a company creates an artificial intelligence which is then used to build the most popular virtual reality game in the world (and the technology to use it, of course). If it sounds like your bog standard setting then you are exactly right, the author certainly played it very safe and rehashed an overused plot to build his story on.
As mentioned already, this story is clearly missing any kind of focus on the traditional litrpg genre I had been expecting. While the components are present, they are mostly used as tools for the stage that is being used in this character-driven tale. Okay, so I felt a little bit misled about that, but I like science fiction well enough and was all set to like it a lot, because it is surprisingly well edited for an independent author. Sadly, there is barely enough to the sci-fi part of this story either, from which the reader can only just infer the basic plot. Despite its full novel length, I'm not much smarter than I was from reading the blurb on the Amazon shop.
So what is Continue Online about, then? Clearly it merely uses the litrpg genre as a storytelling tool and only scratches the surface of the promised sci-fi plot. This is very character-driven instead. Grant Legate, the protagonist of this tale, has experienced a painful loss in his past and he carries those scars with him to this day. That he still (view spoiler)[dances with a virtual reality representation of his former fiancé years after her death (hide spoiler)] only shows how messed up he still is. To make a long story short, this book is almost entirely a character introspection, where everyone else (be they real or artificial persons, though sometimes those lines blur) are merely tools toward the goal of exploring the protagonist's character.
If you want to read a story with lots of soul-searching introspection and only a smidgen of litrpg/sci-fi to aid in the setting, then this is no doubt the perfect story for you. This approach comes with serious drawbacks though, since the tale jumps between following the protagonist at work in a cookie-cutter sci-fi future to his time in virtual reality, where he ends up being passive and boring for the majority of the book.
It took Stephan Morse so many words, yet at the end not a lot was truly said and, worst of all, I feel like we're barely past the beginning of the main storyline. This is becoming more and more of an issue with independent writers, because the easiest way for them to make a decent profit is to stretch their works out beyond what is reasonable or healthy. In this case, it resulted in the creation of a novel-length story at almost 120k words that barely does more than set the scene for the rest of the tale, something which is usually called a prologue.
This could have been an exciting mixture. Throw in a bit of a modern genre, include a few classic science fiction ideas, introduce a well fleshed-out character and then mix it all together. Even the quality of the writing is good and I thought the majority of the dialogue flowed very well. If only the plot development had been handled better. Whether it was due to an author's commercial considerations or for some other reason like his inexperience with writing a novel, that's not for me to say. The end result is 2.5 stars (rounded up to 3) because it honestly was (only) okay, but I don't feel a desire to continue reading any of the next 3 books that have been published so far and I can't give a general recommendation either.
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This book... is an odd one. From the description it sounds like a pretty standard litRPG. Main character heads into virtual online game, adventures and personal growth ensue. But that's really not what this book is about at all. Continue Online is about trauma and one man's struggle to overcome the loss that has defined his life for years.
Character development is at the core of Continue Online and it is told (almost
I was given this book to read as a judge for the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off.This book... is an odd one. From the description it sounds like a pretty standard litRPG. Main character heads into virtual online game, adventures and personal growth ensue. But that's really not what this book is about at all. Continue Online is about trauma and one man's struggle to overcome the loss that has defined his life for years.
Character development is at the core of Continue Online and it is told (almost) entirely from the 1st person perspective of Grant Legate. After losing his fiancée and burying himself in his job, he is given the prize of a life time, a chance to experience the hottest game on the planet as an Ultimate Edition player. Rather than launch into the game sword swinging and spells slinging, Grant goes at it slowly... very slowly. We get a good sense of who Grant is early on and how his character is (not) dealing with his trauma. As the story develops, so too does Grant's personality. He learns to enjoy life again, along with some rather heavy self discoveries.
Setting wise we swap between a fairly standard sci-fi future with self driving cars and robots and all the other stuff we've seen a million times, and a fairly standard fantasy MMO world. Only we barely get to see the world. We're supposed to infer that it is gigantic by the minute details of even the smallest characters. We literally get to see the day to day life of an NPC. But mostly we're just told that it's a really big world and we should be impressed by its size.
The narrative is slow. At times it meanders aimlessly, and at other times it takes three pages describing a game of pool. There is no action, and most of the character development actually comes through Grant living another person's life. It's an interesting concept, I just didn't really like how it was handled. In all honesty, I was bored for most of this read.
Continue Online has an interesting concept and a lot of good character interaction. If you are looking for a slow paced book about character introspection, with light litRPG elements, this one is for you. It wasn't for me.
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The main character is not the most stable individual around and he's still mourning his fiance. Surprisingly he gets an Ultimate Edition of a very popular game and enter
This one definitely raised the bar for LitRPG novels by a long shot. Good grammer, good style, good story. What makes this one so fascinating is, that the slow beginning was just the needed foundation not only for an online adventure, but for intricate mind games and cospiracies. If you get bored, hang on, you will not regret it.The main character is not the most stable individual around and he's still mourning his fiance. Surprisingly he gets an Ultimate Edition of a very popular game and enters the game. And the deeper into virtual reality he gets, the more the game becomes reality for him... for there are hidden dangers, plots, and a path that can only become darker.
All this plays before a unique take-on of an online world. Don't underestimate these NPCs!
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The story's action was rather slow, of course, but it had quite a nice buildup. Although, I had admittedly wondered "When will we get to the actual goddamn game?" more than a few times. I wouldn't recommend this story for anyone who's looking
This book was a rather pleasant read. Grant really spoke to me, and he was (unfortunately for me) incredibly relatable. His character is a lot more believable than some other ones you typically see in stories. He's probably my favorite part about this book.The story's action was rather slow, of course, but it had quite a nice buildup. Although, I had admittedly wondered "When will we get to the actual goddamn game?" more than a few times. I wouldn't recommend this story for anyone who's looking for the typical LitRPG formula. This book alone will not satisfy you. (The others might, but I can't be sure as I've only read the first few chapters of the second book.) It's a book of characters, above all.
In any case, it's a great read.
...more An honest and unexpected diamond in the rough.
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The Bad: My issues stem from no explanation being given as to why the protagonist equates consensual PvP in a video game to literal murder. The same gos for killing mindless NPC's, not advanced AI ones that never come back, as literally murder as well. This would be okay if he wan't going on and on about it every single time there is a conflict.
The Neutral
The Good: Overall it's a good series. The writing is good, the plot is decent, enjoyable characters, some decent humor, great world building.The Bad: My issues stem from no explanation being given as to why the protagonist equates consensual PvP in a video game to literal murder. The same gos for killing mindless NPC's, not advanced AI ones that never come back, as literally murder as well. This would be okay if he wan't going on and on about it every single time there is a conflict.
The Neutral: Also the prologues in all the books, + interlude chapters and flash back chapters are all easily skipable without missing anything, which is nice cause those suck to read anyway, imo.
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It's the beginning of the VR age and a game called continue comes on the market. The world shifts to match you and is a complete game for life. The characters were good and all fit well to
This is not my usual book. I had a certain task to fill on a challenge and this book fit it. Dam I'm hooked. The ideas in this book blew my mind. Very much like the film (as I haven't read the book) ready player one. while reading the book all I could think off was how much my son would love it in a few years.It's the beginning of the VR age and a game called continue comes on the market. The world shifts to match you and is a complete game for life. The characters were good and all fit well together. The story has everything in it and you just get sucked right in. An excellent read and I'll be continuing with the story when I can.
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Review of Continue Online – e - book – by Stephan Morse
Concept/world-building – 4
Plot - 4
Character – 5
Dialogue – 4
Prose – 5
Conflict/resolution – 4
Overall rating 4.5
Available links and news you can get from Stephen's website - https://frustratedego.com/
Because I'm writing up this review for the LitRPG special edition magazine, I'm wanting to give a lot more detail to this review, so here goes.
It takes me a good while to get through a book, not an audiobook. So this was read before bed at n
Review of Continue Online – e - book – by Stephan Morse
Concept/world-building – 4
Plot - 4
Character – 5
Dialogue – 4
Prose – 5
Conflict/resolution – 4
Overall rating 4.5
Available links and news you can get from Stephen's website - https://frustratedego.com/
Because I'm writing up this review for the LitRPG special edition magazine, I'm wanting to give a lot more detail to this review, so here goes.
It takes me a good while to get through a book, not an audiobook. So this was read before bed at night.
As far as LitRPG goes, I'm still wetting my appetite, absorbing all the audiobooks I can, and devouring works from Royal Road Legends.
For me, this novel stands out already for its incredible emotional impact as well as the attention to detail, both inside the VR world, and the Mc's outside life. There were some excellent visuals in here, of the Mc as well. I mean who doesn't wander around their own home in underwear?
The novel itself takes a little time to get going, and I didn't mind that because instead of a prologue, which I do tend to skip. The writer gave us some very interesting passages of time. And then we're launched into the main story.
Grant and his family are just like most people, they have a connection, but don't always get along. I think that is one of the deciding factors as to why I enjoyed reading this as much as I did. I also thought a lot about the darker tendencies of the story. It's very deep. It deals with a lot of inner struggles, and I believe that's why the game helps out our sometimes depressed MC.
I enjoyed the journey that Grant goes on. When his niece shows him inside the game he is hooked, just as much as I was on the book. Old Man Carver, is an interesting characters his life is almost peaceful within the game, ie, not quite as exciting as some, but the fact is he's not really all there to go hunting big monsters, and such. This book has a much deeper level than all the regular litRPG's, and his journal is very interesting, as is his life as an NPC.
With lots of humorous events throughout the novel, and I admit, I'm hard to make laugh. I also found this to be one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. I do hope there were supposed to be funny moments because I couldn't help myself but laugh, maybe it's my brit humour 'go moo at that' lmao.
I don't want to spoil anything else for this reading journey, but there are some well-defined sub characters, backstory, world-building and more.
On the whole, this was a refreshing change to some of the litRPG books' I've read and listened to so far, and it was and hopefully will be (as I'm heading to pick up the next one) one of the more memorable this year.
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Grant Legate had a good life until his fiancé unexpectedly died in an accident. Then his world fell apart. After a couple of suicide attempts and a stay in a mental hospital, Grant is slowly putting his life together with the help of his twin sister and young niece.
Work is Grant's life now. Grant and his robotic coworker repair machines that allow people to experience virtual alternative realities. In these
My original Memories audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.Grant Legate had a good life until his fiancé unexpectedly died in an accident. Then his world fell apart. After a couple of suicide attempts and a stay in a mental hospital, Grant is slowly putting his life together with the help of his twin sister and young niece.
Work is Grant's life now. Grant and his robotic coworker repair machines that allow people to experience virtual alternative realities. In these machines, called ARCs, anyone can be anything they want to be.
Just about everyone has an ARC and there is plenty of work in repairing them.
Grant spends so much time at work that he gets way more work done than his colleagues and because of this, his boss gives him a gift. A copy of Continue Online, the Ultimate Edition. At first, Grant is hesitant to accept the gift and not sure that he wants to play. But his boss makes him take some of the vacation time he never used so, Grants gives the game a try.
Pretty much everyone plays Continue Online however only a handful of people are able to get a copy of the Ultimate Edition which has many unique features not offered to regular players. Once in the game, Grant is offered an unusual opportunity by the Voices of the game. The Voices are basically gods within the game. He takes the opportunity and what he learns helps him to move forward with his life.
Continue Online Part One: Memories is not what I have come to expect from a LitRPG book. In most LitRPG books, there's a lot of talk about hit points, stamina, and other stats pertaining to the game. While there are mentions of those in this book, the plot is much more action driven. You hear more about the character's lives and what they are actually doing. There is much more interaction between the characters and their environment. In my opinion, Memories is the perfect starter book for someone who is just starting out reading LitRPG.
Overall Pavi Prozcko does a good with the narration and characters voices. When I first started listening his voice sounded a bit monotone, however, once the book got to the main human characters, the narration was very good. Production quality was high, no audible hisses or pops.
Stephan Morse was able to take all the action and adventure from the LitRPG genre and make anyone feel like they are in the Continue Online game. Even if the reader has never played that type of game before. I definitely going to listen to the rest of this series.
Audiobook was provided for review by the author.
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I've come to expect certain things when it comes to litRPGs. While I enjoy the framework, they do tend to be trashy low quality works of self insert fan fiction. As a whole, they tend to be very niche works that only appeal to gamers (speficly RPG gamers). Then there's Memories...
This... isn't really a LitRPG. Oh sure, it uses the man plays an immersive MMO VR game setting, but Morse does it right and uses that just as the setting to tell an incredibly engaging, character driven native that
Wow.I've come to expect certain things when it comes to litRPGs. While I enjoy the framework, they do tend to be trashy low quality works of self insert fan fiction. As a whole, they tend to be very niche works that only appeal to gamers (speficly RPG gamers). Then there's Memories...
This... isn't really a LitRPG. Oh sure, it uses the man plays an immersive MMO VR game setting, but Morse does it right and uses that just as the setting to tell an incredibly engaging, character driven native that blindsided me right in the feels immediately, and stayed engaging and touching all they way through the prologue, I was seriously blown away.
(view spoiler)[So, mild spoilers, but the main character, rather than being dropped into a game world and starting the classic hack and slash to power that 99% of LitRPG's do. He is instead drafted into playing the part of an elderly "NPC" quest giver for a week/month (time dilation). Most of the story involves him learning about the old man he's portraying and dealing with his own trauma's. Unlike most LitRPGs, the game setting is 100% necessary to tell the story and isn't just a way of dressing up a generic fantasy book. (hide spoiler)]
I can't praise this book high enough, it's a shame it's lumped into such a notorious genre.
...more I love this book. Not only is it a wonderful escape from reality, it caused me to think about how to improve myself in real life. Not because it's preachy--it's not--but because it lets you in on the deep thinking of other people, all while being fabulously entertaining! (Far from an easy balance to maintain!)
All in all a great read.
It's also important to me to note that this is a complete book, not one of those annoying little serialized novelettes that are too short and
I love this book. Not only is it a wonderful escape from reality, it caused me to think about how to improve myself in real life. Not because it's preachy--it's not--but because it lets you in on the deep thinking of other people, all while being fabulously entertaining! (Far from an easy balance to maintain!)
All in all a great read.
It's also important to me to note that this is a complete book, not one of those annoying little serialized novelettes that are too short and usually end with a "cliffhanger" designed to rope you into buying the next installment.
Finally, I got this e-book for free from readcheaply.com but I love it so much I am going to go purchase a full price copy to show support for the author and everyone else who helped this book see the light of day. (I don't mean to suggest that anyone else needs to do similarly, it's something I personally feel I want to do.)
This book caught me off guard. I've read a few books in the Litrpg Genre and as such I thought I knew what to expect from this story. I was very wrong. Most LitRPG stories are mostly lighthearted, but not Continue Online: Memories. This book deals with some heavy emotions. It does so fantastically though. I could very much relate to the main character in this novel. He was pretty real to me.
His unusual experience in this game world was also very interesting and moving as well. Thi
This book caught me off guard. I've read a few books in the Litrpg Genre and as such I thought I knew what to expect from this story. I was very wrong. Most LitRPG stories are mostly lighthearted, but not Continue Online: Memories. This book deals with some heavy emotions. It does so fantastically though. I could very much relate to the main character in this novel. He was pretty real to me.
His unusual experience in this game world was also very interesting and moving as well. This is definitely one of the best LitRPG novels I've read so far and I'm looking forward to reading more of this series!
Most of this book is plot and characters build up and normal I would find that boring but this book does it really good. Even making sure that people that don't play MMORPG games can follow like explaining what NPC (A non-player character is a computer (scripted) in a game character that is not controlled by a Human player) means.
I have to say that this book got to me a little too much. I could really live into the main character the way he thinks, acts and feel.Most of this book is plot and characters build up and normal I would find that boring but this book does it really good. Even making sure that people that don't play MMORPG games can follow like explaining what NPC (A non-player character is a computer (scripted) in a game character that is not controlled by a Human player) means.
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I hade a love hate relationship with this book or more like hate love because the hate came first but as I kept moving forward into the story it got pretty good.
About recommending this book, that's tough, I do but not for all games for sure will love it so I have no problems recommending it for that group, about anyone else I don't know what to say.
When I first started this book I thought hmm a little slow but he was just laying the groundwork for what would turn out be a very thoughtful and entertaining book. I couldn't recommend it higher.
Starts slow but it takes offWhen I first started this book I thought hmm a little slow but he was just laying the groundwork for what would turn out be a very thoughtful and entertaining book. I couldn't recommend it higher.
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By far.Builds a bit slowly but is well worth it. Very refreshing,as it have ideas not present in other books from subtype.
O
Memories is the first book in the Continue online series by Stephan Morse. It follows Grant Legate, a man who lost his wife and has now thrown himself into his work while most everyone else has become obsessed with the latest Virtual Reality "pods" that allow people to fully immerse into fantasy worlds. When Grant finally catches up with the rest of the world and tries the most popular Fantasy game, Continue Online he finds more than he expected and gets to experience the game in a unique way.Overall I enjoyed this book and while this plot has been done before, I felt that Memories put enough of a fresh spin on it that it kept it interesting and unique. The story provides enough mystery and intrigue throughout to keep my interest. There were times I felt that the plot was moving a little slow but not enough to really diminish my enjoyment of the story, though it came close a couple times.
As a long time gamer and MMO player, there were a couple elements that bothered me throughout the book. First off Grant is employed by the company who makes the Virtual Reality systems as well as the hottest game "Continue Online", yet seems to know very little about the game and some of the VR systems functions. Before even trying the game Grant goes online to learn about the game but finds nothing useful. It is later hinted at that any specifics about the game put online have been deleted or taken down but it is not very well explained. The game also has no manual or instructions what-so-ever, yet millions of people including young teens are able to figure out the game easily - still, Grant seems to be completely lost despite being a gamer in his youth and working for the very company who makes the VR system AND game!
I was also a tiny bit frustrated that the end of the book barely answered any questions presented in the story, not even the main mystery that drives the protagonist throughout the story. I get it, this is a series and you want to leave some threads dangling to entice readers to continue reading the series but when none of the mysteries are answered it ends up accomplishing the opposite effect. I am more hesitant to jump into Book two as I do not want to invest my time into another book and find myself at the end of that book with still no answers! This has happened to me enough times before that I can often recognize the signs and this book has several of them. I will likely give book two a chance mainly because I am interested in the plot and world enough to give it a shot.
I listened to this story in Audiobook form, narrated by Pavi Proczko. At first, I was not sure about the narration as it felt a little robotic and dry... but there is a reason for that which I will not give away here as to not spoil anything. Once the story was underway and more characters were introduced the narration started to shine through and I was overall satisfied with the performance and would be willing to listen to more of Pavi's works and see other sides of his narration.
I would recommend this book to people who like Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Role Playing Games, Virtual Reality, and Artificial Intelligence.
**I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.**
...more THE BAD: This is a matter of taste. It's not a normal LitRPG at all. There's little or no sense of character progression in the LitRPG sense. There is significant character progression in the normal, literary dramatic sense, but not in the LitRPG sense. It really doesn't feel like LitRPG though technically it is. It doesn't even really feel like fantasy (which technically it isn't - it's sci-fi set partly in a virtual fantasy world). I don'
THE GOOD: It's a well written story. It's very original.THE BAD: This is a matter of taste. It's not a normal LitRPG at all. There's little or no sense of character progression in the LitRPG sense. There is significant character progression in the normal, literary dramatic sense, but not in the LitRPG sense. It really doesn't feel like LitRPG though technically it is. It doesn't even really feel like fantasy (which technically it isn't - it's sci-fi set partly in a virtual fantasy world). I don't like this because I'm a huge fan of LitRPG and went into this expecting LitRPG all the way, not a regular novel with elements of LitRPG.
A huge chunk of the story has to do with the main character's past emotional trauma and how he deals with it. There's not much in the way of adventure or danger in the virtual world. You don't have much in the way of monster fights, joining parties, discovering new skills, developing skills or stats, or the classic LitRPG trope where the main character discovers or cleverly devises some trick that makes him much more successful than almost everyone else. This story is all about the emotional journey, not the physical one.
If Harry Potter were written this way, he'd spend the first half of the book staying with his non-wizard relatives and dealing with their dysfunctional family issues in a totally mundane way without magic. Then he'd go to Hogwarts and we'd get to sit in on his classes and watch him doing magic homework for most of the rest of the book. Then at the very end after having barely noticed Ron and Hermione for the most part he'd have an adventure with them. The main focus of the book would be his family issues with his non-wizard relatives. Hogwarts would be a side thing. We wouldn't even find out about Voldemort. And yet it would be the kind of book that might be made into a successful, Oscar-winning movie - that I wouldn't want to go see. People who don't like fantasy would rave about what a good movie it was, saying things like, "Normally I hate fantasy, but I really liked this!"
Apparently the next book in the series involves him playing a different character. (This isn't really much of a spoiler at all as it becomes quite obvious early on that this would be the case.) That's fine from a standard literary point of view, but it completely rules out normal LitRPG character progression. Based on the descriptions of each book in the series, it looks like the author does this multiple times, starting over with a new avatar in each book.
...more
Th
This is book one in the Continue Online series, and it's unlike any LitRPG novel I've read so far. Grant Legate works with an AI companion to repair virtual reality capsules. Grant throws himself into his work to distract from his recent loss and bouts of depression. When he's gifted a copy of the virtual reality game Continue Online, he finally takes the time to explore the game that the rest of the world is obsessed with. Once he does, he faces questions about the concept of reality and AI.The author created an absolutely fascinating virtual reality world, and I can't wait to see Grant explore more of it. This wasn't a traditional LitRPG novel with hack and slash action scenes, level stats, and awesome gear. This book was more intellectual and explored more mature concepts. Like James, it asked more questions than it answered. It was very character driven, Grant was a broken man and it didn't shy away from showing the depths of his pain. While that could be difficult to read at times, it was deep, and real, and so worth reading.
The narration was well done, it fully immersed me in the story. His character voices aren't overacted and dramatic and they don't detract from the actual story. I requested a copy of the audiobook, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review.
...more Honestly, the bulk of this book is not really game related at all. The main character hasn't even technically started playing the game yet, and I've finished the book. The book starts with a lengthy history lesson,that's basically just talking about how cool the technology is. Not to knock it down, but as a computer programmer, I hate that hah. They're always pretty bad. At about 20 pages, we meet the main character. About 50, we start on the game.
I realized very quickly I
Different from expectedHonestly, the bulk of this book is not really game related at all. The main character hasn't even technically started playing the game yet, and I've finished the book. The book starts with a lengthy history lesson,that's basically just talking about how cool the technology is. Not to knock it down, but as a computer programmer, I hate that hah. They're always pretty bad. At about 20 pages, we meet the main character. About 50, we start on the game.
I realized very quickly I was not the target audience for this book, but I liked the style and message enough to finish it. But the timeline jumps around a lot and makes it hard to get invested. You don't really learn anything about the main character until about halfway through the book, and Grant just doesn't really seem interesting, or relatable in any way to me. Especially considering that the stakes for this entire book for him was basically "idk, I guess I have nothing better to do.."
Overall I'd like more time with the main character, and some kind of stakes. I likely won't be reading the rest of the series, since it's barely talked about the game systems, and that is most of what I enjoy about litRPGs.
...more Other books in the series
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