2/5 stars
Synopsis
Warning! This section contains spoilers, if you would like to avoid these spoilers, jump to the review below.
The story started with Jake being dragged down a white corridor. He was queasy and disoriented, and couldn’t remember how he got there. But then he remembered a girl lying in a pool of blood, and was horrified to figure out he did that to her.
Because of satellite surveillance, authorities saw exactly what he did, and he was immediately convicted. The guard Jake was with said he was driving drunk and hit the girl he killed. Jake discovered that metal discs had been implanted into his body.
Jake learned that the prison was a labor camp. As an incentive to work, the prisoners were allowed to do a virtual reality game during their sleep.
Jake entered the virtual reality game and immediately had to fight because he entered a city illegally.
Jake was betrayed and killed, and then he started his first shift in the real world. He really wanted to get back into the virtual reality game after that.
The main character ran into some guards with another person again as he was trying to complete a quest, so he had to run. They tried hiding in a crypt, but the guards had seen this move many times before and shut the door, locking them in. They had to fight their way through.
They encountered another person in the crypt, and had to fight a necromancer.
After escaping the crypt, they did some training.
The main character got a quest from a dwarf. He went about trying to figure out how to complete the quest, but was stopped by one of the people who went through the crypt with him. She then had him speak with someone in her guild who told him how the city worked.
The main character logged out and worked for some time, then went back into the game. He started working on a guild quest.
During his guild trial, the main character was betrayed by the person who he thought was a friend.
Things erupted into chaos when the main character completed his guild trial, and he had to fight his way out.
Review
I thought this book had an intriguing idea. The main character was a prisoner who didn’t really remember what he did to get sent to prison. The prison was grueling and unpleasant, but if the prisoners worked hard, they would earn the right to do the virtual reality game during their sleep. An “incentive,” is what the main character was told.
I appreciate that the author didn’t write every single second of the backbreaking labor when the main character was out of the game. However, I feel like he glossed over those parts far too quickly. The only reason the main character was able to do the virtual reality game was because he was in prison for committing a crime. The only reason for the story was because of the main character being in the prison. So I feel like the author should have shown him in prison, should have shown more of what the daily life was like. Because the author didn’t show the contrast between the two realities (the prison and the game), I didn’t feel like there were any stakes. So what if the main character had to log out or was killed? After only a few sentences of backbreaking labor, he was back in the game. I think he only exited the game about three times in the entire book.
I had an issue with the main character exiting the game. I felt like the author broke his own rules. The main character was told he could be in the game as he slept, but he had to work hard to earn time in the game. As far as I could tell, as long as he didn’t die, the main character could stay in the game as long as he wanted. I feel like he should have at least been forced out of the game once his sleep period was over. If he had been forced out after his allotted sleep time was up, it would introduce more emotion and tension to the story. For example, if he was in the middle of a fight or quest, him being forced out of the game could make it so he failed his quest, or he died in game. He was able to stay in the game as long as he wanted, however, and that ruined the tension and the stakes of the book. After the first time he died, he didn’t log out again until nearly the halfway point.
I also feel like the author broke his own rules when the main character died in the game. The very first time the main character died in game, he woke up and was immediately shocked from an implant in his neck. The prison guard told him that the shock was the consequence of dying. However, later on in the book, the main character died again and didn’t get shocked. He woke up, and the same guard who told him the consequences of dying told him to relax, that he wasn’t going to be shocked. Why? I thought the rules were if the guy died, he got shocked.
Did this character have any consequences in the book? He killed a girl, and got sent to prison. He had to shovel stinky trash, but then once he was done doing that he was able to go play a game. In prison. After killing someone else! The author should have put more consequences in the book for the main character. Especially because generally once someone is sent to prison, their life is no longer their own. The book almost made it seem like the main character was on a vacation. He didn’t have any consequences in the game either. He died? No worries, he could just respawn and nothing would have changed. He didn’t take a hit to his experience points or level, or lose his items. What were the stakes of the book? Why should I have cared about this character and what was happening to him?
This book was a little disappointing because I didn’t really start enjoying the story until about 70% of the way through the book. Unfortunately, I feel like the parts before that point were almost a waste. Nothing seemed to happen. Well, things happened, but they felt mostly like fluff. From the book description, I got the impression that the game and the prison were linked in some important, unknown way. I don’t feel like the author dropped enough hints of this. The only hints that I got that the game was more than it seemed was at the end when the main character saw the person he accidentally killed, and then talked to a woman in the prison who was his goddess in the game. That was it. Those two things were probably intended to be big, impactful reveals, but they didn’t have any set up or hints throughout the book, so they weren’t as impactful as the author intended.
Overall, I felt like the book had a lot of potential. I just think the author needed to provide more substance.
Fireheart Books 