3/5 stars
Synopsis
Warning! This section contains spoilers, if you would like to avoid these spoilers, jump to the review below.
The book started out with the main character, Devon, and some other people attacking a monster boss who was undefeated. The group was whittled down, then Devon struck a killing blow. But then the monster boss unleashed a fail safe attack, and everyone died. Devon then logged out.
After logging out, Devon went to her job as a tour guide. The point of view shifted to a man who was trying to recruit her for a new game that was going to be released. Devon accepted, and got an interface installed on her head that would allow her to play the game. She logged in, and immediately realized she was as weak as a newborn kitten.
Devon was attacked, and knocked unconscious. She woke up in the hut of a medicine woman in the Tribe of Uruquat. Uruquat was an ogre, and declared she needed to repay the tribe for healing her by hunting snakes.
Devon ended up killing Uruquat, and taking his place as leader. Devon chose to be a sorcerer. She then traveled to search for a new spot for the village to settle. As she was searching, Devon came across a group of dwarves. There was an incident between the dwarves and the humans where they started fighting. Devon felt like something was off about the fight, so she went to investigate. She found evidence that more players had come to the area.
Devon got the issue sorted out, and the dwarves joined her group, upgrading her camp to a village. She found the source of corrupted animals in the forest. She tried to fix it, but ended up dying.
When Devon discovered the source of corruption she also found a pendant that she had a quest for. She exited the area, and discovered that someone in her camp was planning on betraying them. So she followed him and the enemy, and attacked. But the man from her camp double crossed the man he was working for, stabbing him. Devon couldn’t stop her attack in time, and killed the man from her camp.
Devon went to a shrine and got the man she accidentally killed to be resurrected.
Throughout the book, there were several different point of view changes. One of the point of view changes was to the man who recruited Devon. Devon had reported to him that she was feeling increased pain when playing. He had been trying to find an answer for her, but was unsuccessful. At the end of the book, another player who reported increased pain had fallen into a coma, and the man who recruited Devon was desperately trying to reach her to prevent her from being the next person to become comatose.
Review
The premise of book was interesting. The beginning of book caught my interest when I started reading, so I didn’t have to force myself to continue reading. However, the middle of the book was slow and really hard to get through. I debated stopping reading because the author didn’t keep tension throughout the middle, and I had to force myself to continue. It was disappointing as well that Devon became completely absorbed in the game world. She abandoned the real world. The book blurb implied that the entire reason she accepted the gaming job was to help herself financially in the real world. That the job would help her in her life. But that facet of the story wasn’t really shown or explored.
Throughout the middle of the book there were vague hints about something not being right, but the hints just made me annoyed rather than make me more interested in the book. The hints didn’t tie into anything. What was the point of them? Even at the end of the book, there were too many hints that had just been left hanging.
The middle of the book, as I said above, was really hard to get through. Devon didn’t grow and the story didn’t progress. The middle of the book was just pages and pages of the administrative duties someone running a village would have to complete. Yes, it was something that Devon needed to do, but I felt like it shouldn’t have been the main focus of the story. A little side plot, yes. The main plot? No. The author should have shortened the administrative duties or glossed over them, replacing them with something that made the story move forward. The book needed more plot progression or more character progression.
The death of the one character at the end was a nice touch. It added a try/fail cycle. However, the tension/emotion that was built up because of Devon killing him was completely undone by her getting him resurrected. Where are the consequences for Devon? Her getting him resurrected completely cheapened the story. Honestly, I was really mad when she got him resurrected. She messed up, but instead of having consequences for messing up, she was able to go to a shrine, ask a god nicely, and everything was fixed. If an author is going to do that, at least make it so that the character has to actually work for the thing they asked for!
Fireheart Books 