Inferno

Play to Live #4

by D. Rus

The fabric of reality is bursting at the seams. The gnolls' negotiators are knocking at the gates of the Kremlin. Ancient half-forgotten gods take on a new lease on life as AlterWorld's avatars. A spark of the Creator's almighty will is still alive in the hearts of millions of players, obeying the impulses of their faith and knowledge while reshaping the Universe to suit their unspoken needs. Initially AlterWorld came complete with infernal planes. So how about confronting a few demons? Not the cartoon characters dreamed up by some game These are the true spawn of evil, archdemons and princes of hell, the vengeful retributors that our faith has delivered unto this newborn world. Max has a lot on his plate. As a clan and alliance leader, he has to repay his debt to the gods and prepare for the upcoming battle for the First Temple. And still, how could he say no to a potential ally? Could he leave desperate fellow players without help? And how could he ignore the vast unclaimed territories just begging to be taken? Soon the volcanic wastelands of Inferno will shudder from the march of the steel legions. Its lands will awaken to the tramping of the countless mounts, players' pets, and familiars—and groan under the thunderous gait of the many assault golems.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Virtual Reality, Audiobook, Magic, Fiction, Russia

205 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 16, 2015

About the author

D. Rus is a young Russian author whose books took the Russian literary market by storm in 2013. AlterWorld - the first novel of his Play to Live series - made him a bestselling author overnight as critics now credit him with single-handedly creating a new science fiction genre: LitRPG. Set in the virtual reality of MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games - his books tell stories of real people who'd become stuck in the game and are forced to follow its rules while preserving their intergrity and fighting to make their new world a better place. The five books of the series have created a huge following as more authors followed suit, making LitRPG the latest bestselling Russian genre that merges science fiction, fantasy and gaming conventions. D. Rus has been nominated for Start, one of Russia's prestigious literary prizes for the best debut science fiction novel. The first two novels of the Play to Live series - AlterWorld and The Clan - have been translated into English, and talks are under way to have the rest of the series published on Amazon.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Max is the main protagonist and he's a pretty lovable character. He's chosen to go "perma" into "Alterworld". Meaning he has essentially had his consciousness permanently placed within his character in the virtual game Alterworld. Initially, this was not thought possible, but when discovered, many people decided to take this same route as they were terminally ill, or just escaping a dysfunctional life.

Governments come into play and in this book you really start to see the fabrics of the real life and virtual intermingle. You have all sorts of characters to include Wizards, Death Knights, Zombies, Elves, Drow, Orcs, dragons, all sorts of beasts, and gods. Just to name some. The forces of Light and Dark clash, but you quickly learn that your traditional understanding of good and evil may not line up with the Alterworlds.



Gamers will love these books. However, it's just as rewarding for those of us who do not game. If you read my previous reviews, you'll learn that I fall in the latter category.

Max has been very successful in his Alterworld endeavors and has attracted the attention of many. He's placed himself in a position to own a castle, strengthened his clan, and has recruited many allies. Which is fortunate as he has also created many enemies. Some of which are of the deity type.

These books are just fun to read and quick pick me ups from the usual intricate fantasy I read. A friend of mine has aptly coined a name for this type of entertainment, "brain candy"!

I think many of you will enjoy these books. I'm not extremely proficient at writing reviews that illustrate all the key points such as underlying meanings, world building, character development etc. So just know that I love the concept and characters and the author has done a great job at creating a fun fascinating story that will allow you to escape into your own mind's eye of what living in a limitless virtual reality might have to offer. Becoming a force to be reckoned with or a pawn in the games of others.

I have enjoyed these books immensely! There are seven total so far. The author is Russian and has created an awesome adventure. The hang up is that only the first four books have been translated to English.

The good news is that the author has set up a crowdfunding operation to expedite the translation process as he doesn't have the 7k-10k needed for the translation cost just lying around.

Give these books a shot and if you like them please consider contributing to the cause so we do not have to wait as long for the remaining books to be translated. In eight days, he has raised approximately 5k of the needed 7k. You may find the campaign here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tr...

[Lazybee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! talk about an over powered hero. Book was excellent as usual.

[Strina K · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave this series a tremendous amount of leeway simply because a) litRPG as *genre* is pretty gross re: gender and b) when reading a translated work, things may get lost or distorted from what the author intended.

BUT NOPE. I AM SO ANGRY THAT I HAD THIS SERIES RECOMMENDED TO ME *MULTIPLE TIMES*. THE AUTHOR LITERALLY GOES *FULL MEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST* AT ONE POINT, AND THAT'S NOT EVEN TOUCHING ON THE INCREASINGLY BLATANT RACISM.

I AM SAD I ONLY OWN A DIGITAL COPY BECAUSE I WOULD SINCERELY LIKE TO SET THIS ENTIRE SERIES ON FIRE AND SALT THE ASHES.

[H2h1z · Rating 5 out of 5]

The *snicker snicker* godly MC makes me wish I know Russian just so I could read all the books at once. Sadly I am short on funds currently or else the translation fund would get a blip up from me but alas I can still petition other reader. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, UN-HOLY, JUST OR CHAOTIC OR EVEN NEUTRAL, DONATE!!!!! TO!!!! THE!!!!! TRANSLATION!!!!!!! FUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cause this book is killing me with anticipation for my next fix of VRMMO goodness.

[Johnathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t know what to say, Max’s racism and sexism just doesn’t seem like it fits. I can excuse his admiration of Stalin and Lenin as a cultural bias but it just doesn’t fit his character to be racist. In earlier books he’s mentioned several times that he doesn’t judge people by their appearance and race because you can be anything in alterworld yet now he’s cool with casual racism towards different Asian nations? Just weird and out of character.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aspects of this book weren't quite as fun as the first few, because it didn't read as much like a game- which is the point, of course, as the game expands into a new world. I'm already itching to read the next one and find out where Max and his fledgling power base go from here, as legions, influenced from beyond the world he's trying to tame, converge upon him!

[Rishad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read.The first third or so was a little slow and devoid of the usual emotion this series carry...but picked up nicely after!

[Theresa Applegate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better and better

Loved the first book and they get better . The development of the story is moving at a good clip, also the lead is a engaging person with a sense of humor.

[Steeve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great...again

Satisfying read, the end closes the books well, but at the same time leaves you hanging, craving for more. Another great adventure, Inferno was well worth the wait.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's interesting reading a current Russian writer, to get a feeling for a real present day Russian's feeling of the world and his own country even in a SF setting. Another good reason to read this exciting series.

[Gage Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish the book I can't stand idiotic characters. I mean the mc let a bunch of guys kidnap kids and his mother because he thought it would be safe to invite a ton of strangers into his castle. I just lost interest at that point. The author tried throwing out so much drama it just became boring.

[Zrzi čte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jak já jsem se na tohle těšila! A i když jsem si čtení užívala, zárověň mi vadilo to zběsilé tempo kterým se děj odehrával. Navíc mě mrzelo naprosté přeskočení rozloučení s Táňou, vtáhnutí Glebovi mamky nebo rozšíření školky. Prostě se mi zdálo že celý děj spíš klouže po povrchu než aby šel do hloubky. Pořád si ale hřeju naději, že je to tak schválně kvůli Glebově ztrátě a že se k tomu ještě v dalším díle autor vrátí.
Čekala jsem kdy se na scéně znovu objeví magor Trevor a co na Gleba vymyslí a i když ten si s ním poradil poměrně elegantně, myslím že našemu veleknězi ještě způsobí nejden problém. Ale to asi až se Gleb vypořádá s akutnější hrozbou - útokem na Velechrám, který bude ještě težší než si kdo mohl představit.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the book came out several days early on Amazon and Wooped for joy. Sad to say I wasn't able to read for several more days.

Great addition to the series and definitely reading the rest once they come out.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

So it's become an average sort of fun romp through a generic fantasy world. Not nearly what I was expecting for a series that started so strong. Stop messing around in the modern world. I'm here to read fantasy.

[Katharina · Rating 4 out of 5]

to short :-(


http://igg.me/at/rus/x/10898701 for all who want to read the next one sooner

[Ints · Rating 3 out of 5]

Panesās problēmu globalizācija uz vispasaules mērogu. Un draņķa amerikāņi apspiež krievus pat virtuālajā spēlē! lasīt gan joprojām nav interesanti, lai gan sāku nojaust kā tas viss beigsies.

[Snow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is without a doubt the best series in the litRPG genre.

[Pavic124 · Rating 2 out of 5]

more like 1,5 stars really.
Overall the story takes a somewhat downward path.

[Cergorach · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't write reviews often, almost never actually, but when I do it's because of something a bit more extreme then usual. Usually because it's terribly bad in some way.

This review isn't just about one book in the series, it's about all seven of them. The books themselves are terribly short at around 200-250 pages, the last one going under 200.

Let me start by saying that if you cannot read around sexism, misogyny, racism, Russian nationalism, homophobia/hate, etc. This entire series is not for you the first (free) book isn't that bad, the farther you go into the series, the worse it becomes and you'll be able to ignore it less and less. If you love that sort of thing, this series will rate an absolute 5 out of 5 for you, you won't notice the other things wrong in the books, I just don't want to know you. If you can read around those things, I still am not certain that you should read this series.

One really annoying thing in the series is inconsistency, some of it you could write of due to a bad translation (from Russian), but it's so rampant that I suspect that it's the author and no one did any actual good editing. The author is also very bad at math and numbers in general, the average of a price of 10.000 and 100.000 isn't 50.000, it's 55.000. That's the most obvious example, but there are many, many others. On their own not an issue, but combined with the inconsistencies, it's starts to annoy.

The first book is free, it's the least offensive in the lineup, but the rest of the series isn't worth $5-$7 for a digital copy that's so short and certainly not the $17 for a physical copy.

Not everything is bad though, I read through the series in a week and quite often the writer had my attention with cool ideas that made me want to see what happened next. But then absolutely grinding to a halt when he went of again about the "place of the woman and the role of the man" or a "girlfriends training manual". Being an Goblin, Orc, or Troll is alright, even an actual demon is (initially) welcomed as an ally, but if you black, yellow or god forbid, Jewish... *facepalm* This isn't unique to this series or this character by this author, I checked out his other book and found similar issues. It's as if it was written with a certain target audience in mind...

This could have been an interesting and enjoyable experience if all the bigotry was removed and a good editor went over the book with a fine tooth-comb removing all the inconsistencies.

I'm no white knight, I can read/watch around a lot of stuff that I don't agree with or have no interest in. But even I have limits and this sorely tested them. There is bigotry in a lot of older titles, written in a different time, for example The Destroyer series which was mostly written in the 60s-70s, but this is from a (Russian) kid and written in 2012-2015.

There are far better, more consistent, and less offensive titles that cover this genre.

[Jonathan Pettit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent LitRPG! Love the series! Still very entertaining. Max / Lathe continues to do things that change the "game" mechanics. The metagame narration is great, especially where item statistics are given, or where the game impacts the real world economics and politics. Max continues to level his death knight in uncharacteristic style, shocking his opponents and making alliances where they normally shouldn't exist. Some weird comments due to the Russian translation, but easy enough to ignore. I will continue the series! Great narration by Michael Goldstrom.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a roller coaster for emotions.

You felt personally prosecuted when all of these big and powerful people set their eyes on and started to mess with the protagonist.

Then you have that moment of seething betrayal when Max's Mom just went with that guy, no questions asked. Doesn't she know she is Prime Blackmail material against Max?

Then you got a sense of satisfaction at the end.

I think I will give this series a rest for a while, and read other things.

3/5 Stars

[SiriRainbow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Přetrvávající dravé tempo a čím dál větší nároky na velekněze. Hra je definitivně tentam. . Do věci jsou zapojené reálie běžným uživatelem nemyslitelné. Příběhové odbočky nadnárodních významů jsou stále znepokojivější A středem všeho je nechtíc právě velekněz. Aspoň v mezičase stihl navštívit pekelnou lokaci, splatit pár dluhů a získat další spojence i nepřátele.
Ze série je průběžně cítit autorův silný nacionalismus, který působí dotěrně a zkresleně.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great installment!

Again I am not disappointed. Though this book is quite a bit shorter than the previous ones, it's quality and story are beyond them. It can still get thick and heavy and a little hard to read at times, but that simply means that we have to actually take a break and look up from the pages every now and then, which isn't always all that bad a thing.

[Lubos Elexa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asi každý autor LitRPG časom skĺzne k megalomanstvu...tento nie je výnimkou. A v tej megalomanii masové scény strácajú zmysel, príliš veľa simultánnych akcií zahlcuje dej a predstavivosť. Čo je škoda. Ku koncu už autor trochu skáče v deji, niektoré línie vybavuje náznakovo alebo sa k nim krátko vracia dávno po ich uzavretí. A stále platí, že scény z reality sú rušivé.

[Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read.

This is a continuing LitRPG story with book 4. Big battles, new areas are explored and a villain is taken care of. New loot and the story ends in a big bang (to be continued in the next book).

[Oleksii Shyliaiev · Rating 4 out of 5]

ГГ жжет дальше и справляется с новыми виртуальными трудностями. Сдобрено шутками-прибаутками и игровыми жаргонными словечками. Слушать интересно, вылетает из головы через полчаса после прослушивания.
Не мое.
У меня все.

[Brad Theado · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love love love this

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

power escalation too quickly

[Michael Ngo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fun series, interested in seeing where it goes from here.

[Laura May · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...