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Dark Paladin #1
The Beginning
Is it easy to survive in the game world? You could say yes, if you didn’t know what the additional conditions were. They are unusual: it’s the real world in which you have lived all your life. The enemy, craving to destroy you. Your own class who couldn’t care less about you. Are you still sure that survival is easy? Then welcome to THE GAME! It will prove you wrong.
382 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 7, 2017
546 people are currently reading
426 people want to read
About the author
Vasily Mahanenko
96 books1,095 followersBe the first to know when Vasily Mahanenko’s next book is available! Follow him at https://www.bookbub.com/profile/v-mah... to get an alert whenever he has a new release, preorder, or discount!
Vasily Mahanenko is a fantasy author working in the new genre of LitRPG - the MMO-based fantasy and sci fi. His Way of the Shaman series took Russian literature by storm in 2012.
Vasily dipped into his college-days insider knowledge as a hardcore gamer in order to create a believable world of the virtual-reality MMO game. His bestselling series combines fiction and video games, telling the story of Shaman and his friends stuck in the ruthless reality of Barliona. He used his more than ten years' experience as an ERP implementation project manager to approach his writing in a well-organized manner, working to a strict schedule, a set of deadlines and even a budget. At the moment, the series boasts six novels with the seventh one in the works - this time the author expands on stories of Shaman's companions and those who helped and supported him in his trials and tribulations.
The first book of the series has already been translated into English, with more translations to follow, aiming to make the Way of the Shaman series available to the English-language reader in its entirety.
Vasily's other passion is space exploration which is why he now works on a follow-up series entitled Galaktiona. Set in a space-simulator based world, the first book of the series in already finished while Vasily works on its sequel.
Vasily Mahanenko is a fantasy author working in the new genre of LitRPG - the MMO-based fantasy and sci fi. His Way of the Shaman series took Russian literature by storm in 2012.
Vasily dipped into his college-days insider knowledge as a hardcore gamer in order to create a believable world of the virtual-reality MMO game. His bestselling series combines fiction and video games, telling the story of Shaman and his friends stuck in the ruthless reality of Barliona. He used his more than ten years' experience as an ERP implementation project manager to approach his writing in a well-organized manner, working to a strict schedule, a set of deadlines and even a budget. At the moment, the series boasts six novels with the seventh one in the works - this time the author expands on stories of Shaman's companions and those who helped and supported him in his trials and tribulations.
The first book of the series has already been translated into English, with more translations to follow, aiming to make the Way of the Shaman series available to the English-language reader in its entirety.
Vasily's other passion is space exploration which is why he now works on a follow-up series entitled Galaktiona. Set in a space-simulator based world, the first book of the series in already finished while Vasily works on its sequel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
May 24, 2017
This is one of those "oh surprise the world is a game" type litrpgs.
The main character is a unlikable dick. Actually says "but she wasn't attractive so I wasn't bothered about helping her". His moods randomly change, he'll go from being hot headed to calm.
I gave up when I met the money obsessed jewish character.
Just don't bother.
The main character is a unlikable dick. Actually says "but she wasn't attractive so I wasn't bothered about helping her". His moods randomly change, he'll go from being hot headed to calm.
I gave up when I met the money obsessed jewish character.
Just don't bother.
February 23, 2017
Not a fan of can't-trust-anyone or overly-cynical MCs, so was hard to focus for the story. Others might enjoy, but sadly that just kind of ruined most of it for me.
March 23, 2017
Constant misuse of quotation marks
While I overall liked The Dark Paladin, the formatting for characters speech was oddly haphazard, and confusing. Sometimes a new paragraph starts, and it takes you a couple lines to realize it's speech, not narration; since the quotation marks only close, not open, or vice-versa. Don't know how something like that makes it to the final product...
While I overall liked The Dark Paladin, the formatting for characters speech was oddly haphazard, and confusing. Sometimes a new paragraph starts, and it takes you a couple lines to realize it's speech, not narration; since the quotation marks only close, not open, or vice-versa. Don't know how something like that makes it to the final product...
April 26, 2018
I didn't really like this book. It is an awesome setup and all, it's just not my cup of tea. The MC is always on the wrong side of things and lets his emotions run away with everything. Also, the MC is secretly some super important person who's been reincarnated. So that's supposed to add to his mystery/luck? I don't know. It feels like the book falls apart in different places and at the end of it all, it's a MC with anger issues doling out "Justice!" It's not a bad story at all, I just have no feelings at all for ANY of the characters in the book at all.....none....
Ok, overall plot. Guy's in the Army. Weird stuff starts happening, people are dying. MC ends up somehow killing the person who's doing weird shit. Ends up finding out he's been upgraded from NPC to player. Catch, all players are pretty much jerks. MC tries to be a good guy. It's not working, then goes the Punisher route for the rest of the book. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. I mean there's more there and I'm not trying to take away for anyone who might read this. But that's about all I got from this.......
Ok, overall plot. Guy's in the Army. Weird stuff starts happening, people are dying. MC ends up somehow killing the person who's doing weird shit. Ends up finding out he's been upgraded from NPC to player. Catch, all players are pretty much jerks. MC tries to be a good guy. It's not working, then goes the Punisher route for the rest of the book. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. I mean there's more there and I'm not trying to take away for anyone who might read this. But that's about all I got from this.......
March 7, 2017
Nope...not for me.
February 26, 2021
I had great expectations of this book based on the Way of the Shaman series. I was completely disappointed. Imagine the most toxic gamer community you have ever played in. Now imagine the most horrible, grueling, unforgiving and uninformative tutorial level you ever went through. Finally, imagine the most horrible, destructive and anti-social players you have met. You now understand what this book has to offer.
The main character dies and wakes up in a video game having moved from being an NPC who thought he was alive to now being a PC who knows he is alive. Except he was also just told that he has to compete to stay alive. We follow him through a dog-eat-dog tutorial level where, as a bonus, some of the dogs have powerful masters who have helped them prepare for the tutorial level ahead of time.
SPOILERS BELOW
Throughout the book, everyone is out for themselves. Everyone lies. Everyone backstabs. If you see people make an agreement, assume one or both of them are lying or have left themselves wiggle room. In fact, if you see a character speaking, assume they are lying because most of the time you are right. And be prepared for a main character who grows into a monster. Not because he has a reason but because...??? But he does. Not that you will connect with him much since he is an idiot who barely gets past trying to understand the most basic surface level information in front of him. Critical thinking is not his strong suit.
The main character dies and wakes up in a video game having moved from being an NPC who thought he was alive to now being a PC who knows he is alive. Except he was also just told that he has to compete to stay alive. We follow him through a dog-eat-dog tutorial level where, as a bonus, some of the dogs have powerful masters who have helped them prepare for the tutorial level ahead of time.
SPOILERS BELOW
Throughout the book, everyone is out for themselves. Everyone lies. Everyone backstabs. If you see people make an agreement, assume one or both of them are lying or have left themselves wiggle room. In fact, if you see a character speaking, assume they are lying because most of the time you are right. And be prepared for a main character who grows into a monster. Not because he has a reason but because...??? But he does. Not that you will connect with him much since he is an idiot who barely gets past trying to understand the most basic surface level information in front of him. Critical thinking is not his strong suit.
April 27, 2018
27.4.2018 - 4,5*
Kniha mě překvapila, především proto, že nebyla tím, co jsem čekala. Nejspíše nebyla ani to, co jsem v žádném případě nečekala, což mělo dopad ještě větší. *smích*
Šílené. Ve smyslu nepříčetně-temně-špinavě-mimo-tabulky co se sakra stalo?! šílené.
Propracované. Autor přišel s celým konceptem, který sice není úplně originální, ale rozhodně nevšední a unikátně zpracovaný.
Je to prostě napsané jinak, než litRPG, které jsem zatím četla, a to se mi na tom tak líbilo, i když to má místy své mouchy. ^^
Kniha mě překvapila, především proto, že nebyla tím, co jsem čekala. Nejspíše nebyla ani to, co jsem v žádném případě nečekala, což mělo dopad ještě větší. *smích*
Šílené. Ve smyslu nepříčetně-temně-špinavě-mimo-tabulky co se sakra stalo?! šílené.
Propracované. Autor přišel s celým konceptem, který sice není úplně originální, ale rozhodně nevšední a unikátně zpracovaný.
Je to prostě napsané jinak, než litRPG, které jsem zatím četla, a to se mi na tom tak líbilo, i když to má místy své mouchy. ^^
September 25, 2017
good but not as good as the way of the shaman
May 12, 2019
It's an interesting adventure' and not bad perse, yet the reincarnation aspect is bullshit and the ending of this book is really bad... didnt hook me to keep reading the other 2 books.
June 3, 2017
Pretty good book all things considered. Kind of funny I should read this right after reading the "Crucible Shard" and finishing "Gank" given that series similar themes. Both series star Evil Paladin characters in a universe of multiple game worlds with time distortion helping accomplish tasks. If the series hadn't been published so close together I would have accused one of copying the other. Not that the tone or story arcs are at all similar.
The Beginning is a dark book, the kind of story where being stabbed in the back reaches the level of being expected and subterfuge is everywhere. The mentality gets rather irritating actually and there are several times where I wanted to reach out and smack a character for their irrational behavior. Still, it is supposed to be part of the lore so I guess it gets a pass. The story is very interesting though. Perhaps it just speaks to my personal preferences as a gamer, but Yaro's choice in specialization is exactly the way I would have gone, The result was me having a very hard time putting the book down.
The problem with the book is actually in the game setup and logic. The Dark Side / Light Side split along with class split along with species split along with the profession split and the general FYIGM attitude of all the players would make for a chaos factions and of shifting allegiances. I can't really see how a setup like this is supposed to function rationally and I think his next book is going to struggle with that. Also, there's a really random moment about 3/4ths of the way into the book with an extremely off the wall encounter with a racial stereotype.
I'm certainly interested in continuing, I just hope Vasily is able to focus the chaos during the next one.
The Beginning is a dark book, the kind of story where being stabbed in the back reaches the level of being expected and subterfuge is everywhere. The mentality gets rather irritating actually and there are several times where I wanted to reach out and smack a character for their irrational behavior. Still, it is supposed to be part of the lore so I guess it gets a pass. The story is very interesting though. Perhaps it just speaks to my personal preferences as a gamer, but Yaro's choice in specialization is exactly the way I would have gone, The result was me having a very hard time putting the book down.
The problem with the book is actually in the game setup and logic. The Dark Side / Light Side split along with class split along with species split along with the profession split and the general FYIGM attitude of all the players would make for a chaos factions and of shifting allegiances. I can't really see how a setup like this is supposed to function rationally and I think his next book is going to struggle with that. Also, there's a really random moment about 3/4ths of the way into the book with an extremely off the wall encounter with a racial stereotype.
I'm certainly interested in continuing, I just hope Vasily is able to focus the chaos during the next one.
February 15, 2018
And here is a new collection from the author of the well known "Way of the Shaman LitRPG" books.
In this book there are many pro and cons at the same time. The author is experienced and you know that he planned things. There are many layers in the book and you know that you'll read something entertaining. The plot is quite original and the character has weaknesses, is not perfect and is far from the usual McGyver.
At the same time we have some problems... (which prevent me from giving 5 stars). The book is obviously of Russian origin. This is not a problem most of the time but the author seems to believe that most countries are run the same way.
At the beginning we have been explained how badly trained soldiers were and that they didn't even have live ammunition.... Save that it was quite hard for me to read that as all the soldiers that I know about (in my country) get a least a very decent training. Something expected for a Russian audience is quite hard to get for a non Russian one.
A second example... So the greedy seller is talking with a Jewish accent... This is so cliché (and so obviously racist) that I fall from the chair.
A third one: elves are the "new rich guys" who run the world and don't even care about the basic population... Well... Again not here.
As a consequence I think that books should be translated AND edited so as to turn them into something more efficient for international audiences.
In this book there are many pro and cons at the same time. The author is experienced and you know that he planned things. There are many layers in the book and you know that you'll read something entertaining. The plot is quite original and the character has weaknesses, is not perfect and is far from the usual McGyver.
At the same time we have some problems... (which prevent me from giving 5 stars). The book is obviously of Russian origin. This is not a problem most of the time but the author seems to believe that most countries are run the same way.
At the beginning we have been explained how badly trained soldiers were and that they didn't even have live ammunition.... Save that it was quite hard for me to read that as all the soldiers that I know about (in my country) get a least a very decent training. Something expected for a Russian audience is quite hard to get for a non Russian one.
A second example... So the greedy seller is talking with a Jewish accent... This is so cliché (and so obviously racist) that I fall from the chair.
A third one: elves are the "new rich guys" who run the world and don't even care about the basic population... Well... Again not here.
As a consequence I think that books should be translated AND edited so as to turn them into something more efficient for international audiences.
November 6, 2018
I am genuinely shocked by how bad this book is. I love Mahanenko's The Way of the Shaman series and wanted to support some of his newer works but instead of improving or at least maintaining the quality of work it deteriorated. If this was the first book of his I read I would not have even given his other works a chance. The audio book is 17 hrs of flat horrible characters and tons of info dumps. Mahanenko has created such an interesting world in the Way of the Shaman with interesting relationships and quest but when reading this it seems like his first attempt at a litRPG.
Nothing about this book is endearing or even interesting. Usually if I see potential in a book I would at least continue to the next on in the series but I see absolutely no way that this book can improve considering the current characters and plot.
Nothing about this book is endearing or even interesting. Usually if I see potential in a book I would at least continue to the next on in the series but I see absolutely no way that this book can improve considering the current characters and plot.
August 15, 2018
So to Start this is not a review of This book but a Review of the Whole Dark Paladin Series.
So I liked the premise of this Book Series and found the first book compelling and entertaining. However I felt that the theme of the series is Undermined by the second and third books and ends up a little flat.
A main mechanic of the series is the Light and dark aspects for the players. The moral stance that a person makes when it comes to their actions plays a big role in their development. I felt that in the end of the Series it was a largely discarded feature and that all of the main Protagonists moral decisions were irrelevant.
That said I did really enjoy (The Beginning) just don expect to have a wow moment at the end of the series.
So I liked the premise of this Book Series and found the first book compelling and entertaining. However I felt that the theme of the series is Undermined by the second and third books and ends up a little flat.
A main mechanic of the series is the Light and dark aspects for the players. The moral stance that a person makes when it comes to their actions plays a big role in their development. I felt that in the end of the Series it was a largely discarded feature and that all of the main Protagonists moral decisions were irrelevant.
That said I did really enjoy (The Beginning) just don expect to have a wow moment at the end of the series.
March 15, 2023
Book 1 of the Dark Paladin series. As most people know, I am a Vasily Mahanenko fan boy. This series is far less polished than the other two I have read. This leaves me feeling that this must be an older series. I see certain aspects that permeate all of his writing worlds. This is a edge of the seat wild ride into a game world. This world is very harsh and communicates not having faith in anyone and doing anything you can to survive. I hope that the series moves away from that in the next book. Still. I recommend this one bit to ages 16 and up due too mature themes.
Joseph McKnight
http://www.Josephmcknight.com
Joseph McKnight
http://www.Josephmcknight.com
August 2, 2017
Overall the book was entertaining. Some character interactions were quick but happened multiple times throughout the story. The short interactions were difficult to keep track of at times. As with most beginning books in a series there were lots of questions left open - fewer questions were answered than you got answers for. Character development was OK and the level up descriptions became a bit tedious. The fights were well laid out and entertaining. I recommend this book for fans of LitRPG. Fans of fantasy books in general might find this book lacking.
July 24, 2017
Can't wait for the next
This book was really good. At first it was kinda slow but once it started going I found it hard to put it down. If it was not for fact that was falling a sleep I would finished in one sitting. The book ties in many myths and legends in the modern video game world of fantasy. The character faces many problems and betrayal as he tries to find his way in this new version of the world he once new.
This book was really good. At first it was kinda slow but once it started going I found it hard to put it down. If it was not for fact that was falling a sleep I would finished in one sitting. The book ties in many myths and legends in the modern video game world of fantasy. The character faces many problems and betrayal as he tries to find his way in this new version of the world he once new.
November 19, 2017
I love almost everything Vasily Mahanenko does. He's got it all down to a formula. This book in particular was the first one of his works that I read as I'm a fan of evil, or self motivated protagonists. Though the characters took a back seat to the world building and game building aspects, this was still on of my favorite books that he did. You could tell that he let it all out here, I consider it a fantastic book.
July 3, 2018
not a bad presume for the book series with the world is actually a RPG but i don't know it felt to.. mean spirited.. a game were you cant trust anyone or anything and a player who basically only knows 1 attack... ehhhh i read the other 2 books after this as well and i did chuckle a little bit at some times like the "oops" part but this book series really wasn't for me plus also felt like some strings were left hanging in book 3
October 4, 2018
Pretty good story overall.
If you've ever wondered what it'd be like if the world we lived in was just an illusion and true reality was an MMORPG, compete with leveling, upgrades, and respawning, than this is the book for you.
If not, you may find it kind of depressing.
It's book one of a series, but I'm happy to check out here. Game over, man.
If you've ever wondered what it'd be like if the world we lived in was just an illusion and true reality was an MMORPG, compete with leveling, upgrades, and respawning, than this is the book for you.
If not, you may find it kind of depressing.
It's book one of a series, but I'm happy to check out here. Game over, man.
May 5, 2017
It was interesting not nearly as good as his way of the shaman book series but still well worth reading. the world and game mechanics that this litrpg has is interesting. would recommend to any fan of the litrpg genre.
April 11, 2018
Not nearly as captivating as the shaman books
I found the world to be ok but the flow of the story and most of the plot were kind of annoying to follow...I loved the way of the shaman and this wasn't nearly as well written...
I found the world to be ok but the flow of the story and most of the plot were kind of annoying to follow...I loved the way of the shaman and this wasn't nearly as well written...
April 17, 2018
Not a bad start.
In sore need of a copywriter. Many missing or misplaced quotation marks make it hard to read but the story is intriguing. Stands out from other litrpg stories enough for me to keep reading the series.
In sore need of a copywriter. Many missing or misplaced quotation marks make it hard to read but the story is intriguing. Stands out from other litrpg stories enough for me to keep reading the series.
May 16, 2018
It was okay. I am not willing to buy the next book, but if I could get it with kindle unlimited I would definitely read it. Interesting take on LitRPG, the world is a game and you're actually an npc. Interesting skill set by the main character, and system being used. Enjoyed reading it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 18, 2019
Not a particularly bad book, and the rest of the series follows the plot quite nicely. The very ending of the series falls quite flat. Mahanenko's Shaman series was much better. It feels the translator for this book was nowhere near as good as the Shaman series.
March 11, 2020
Good story development but one the most male chauvinistic series I have read so far. The way the female gender is described, the author Vasily Mahanenko is down right pitiful. It seems the author have been periodically abused by women throughout his life to have such a mentality.
March 12, 2023
Veľmi rozbitá kniha so "skákavým" dejom, nesympatickým a počas celej série nevyrovnaným hrdinom. Celý "herný" koncept bol nepochopiteľný a to vrátane časového a priestorového pochopenia. Pribúdali nové a nové vrstvy deja a ignorovali sa tie staré.
April 13, 2023
dark paladin - judge goes through training academy with help of two panther druids and a necromancer. Impressive new concepts. very surprising changes in the story. Good!!!
A bit too much emphasis on long explaination, also the jewish trader is just low - therefore two stars less.
A bit too much emphasis on long explaination, also the jewish trader is just low - therefore two stars less.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 9, 2017
Way too complex
August 25, 2017
Intrigued
What an interesting book, the main character is interesting to follow and we find that he's in the game but is more than he seems.
What an interesting book, the main character is interesting to follow and we find that he's in the game but is more than he seems.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews