The Beginning

Dark Paladin #1

by Vasily Mahanenko, Alexandra Tussing (Translator)

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.

Genres: Litrpg, Fantasy, Audiobook, Fiction, Science Fiction, Amazon

382 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 7, 2017

About the author

Be 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.

Reviews

[Billie]

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.

[Dark Ape]

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.

[Noah Merle]

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...

[Matt Reno]

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.

[DJay]

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.......

[atmatos]

Nope...not for me.

[Moira]

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. ^^

[Daniel]

good but not as good as the way of the shaman

[Roberto]

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.

[Kiba Snowpaw]

Final Rating: 3.19/5.00

Starting score: 2.50
+0.38 for an original afterlife premise with immediate, personal stakes
+0.34 for an intricate Game whose systems, history, and politics interlock
+0.27 for Yari's adaptive progression through the Explorer and Judge paths
+0.22 for tactical action and problem solving that reward attention
+0.18 for morally ambitious themes of identity, power, and survival
+0.14 for a climax that expands the trilogy's central conflict
+0.13 for generally clear narration and effective momentum in action
-0.24 for excessive instruction, information dumps, and uneven pacing
-0.18 for thin relationships and character reversals driven by manipulation
-0.14 for convenient rules, luck, and inconsistent protagonist reasoning
-0.18 for awkward translated wording, grammar, and spoken sentence flow
-0.11 for sexist jokes, stereotypes, and reductive cultural commentary
-0.12 for inconsistent character voices and mismatched emotional delivery
Calculated final score: 3.19/5.00

THE GAME BENEATH THE GRAVE, AND THE FANGS BENEATH THE RULES

ESSENTIAL CONTEXT

This opening volume completes an Academy survival arc while deliberately leaving the Game, its Emperor, and the threatened Restart unresolved for the trilogy. Its opening therefore establishes context rather than merely delaying the wider adventure. Its considerable length matters because this is not merely an adventure decorated with levels. It is also an initiation course in classes, artifacts, Energy, specialties, allegiances, contracts, respawning, and the brutal economy beneath those mechanics. The English text is translated, which matters when I separate conceptual complexity from sentences that sound unnatural through headphones. The content is much darker than the playful interface suggests: violent death, dismemberment, torture, genocide, erasure of families, coercive control, sexual comments, and a universe treating most sentient lives as expendable NPC resources. Listeners expecting a welcoming game tutorial should know that this Academy resembles a frozen killing ground where every footprint may belong to someone planning to eat the wolf who made it.

HOOK AND THESIS

The first great bite is viciously effective. Yari does not put on a headset or wake in a convenient fantasy body. He dies as a soldier stopping a genuine magical attacker, then discovers that Earth has always been one location inside a cosmic Game. Becoming a player exposes the machinery that made his life disposable, and his new class destroys the human connections he left behind as part of his conversion. The premise turns familiar LitRPG furniture into existential horror. Levels are not harmless numbers when losing the last one means erasure, NPCs are not simulated dolls when they possess memories and love, and respawning is not comforting when immortality belongs to a privileged minority harvesting everyone else. My fur rose because the system attacks Yari's belief that his mother, sister, comrades, and former identity mattered. “A world that calls my pack background scenery has already earned the marks of my claws.”

My central judgment is that this is ferociously imaginative but poorly disciplined. Its best achievement is how mechanics, metaphysics, and moral injury reinforce one another. Yari chooses a Book of Knowledge, develops as an Explorer, and becomes a Judge, so observation and interpretation become his weapons, advancement path, and excuse for deciding who deserves punishment. That is strong LitRPG design because the build reveals its user. Yet the audiobook explains its cleverness until discovery becomes lecture, bends rules when Yari needs a route forward, and accelerates relationships through mind control, bargains, or survival necessity instead of earned trust. Kevin Kraft keeps the journey intelligible and gives danger forward pressure, but his vocal distinctions and emotional choices do not remain stable across the cast. The result deserves more than neutrality because its ideas leave deep tracks across the snow, but not four stars because too many tracks circle the same tutorial ground.

BASIC PLOT SUMMARY

After his death, Sergey accepts the player name Yaropolk, usually shortened to Yari, and selects the Paladin class he favored in games. He awakens in his own grave, physically weakened and unable to understand the interface that now governs him. Archibald, a powerful catlike Paladin, retrieves him and explains the first cruelty of this new existence: when a recruit becomes a player, members of that class erase the person's old connections, while the recruit must survive an Academy where a level-one death can be final. Yari also made an enemy by killing the mage Devir during his last battle on Earth, giving Devir and his students a direct reason to hunt him. His own Paladins offer limited preparation, conflicting agendas, and little confidence that he will return. What follows is not a clean heroic quest but an education conducted under threat, with other recruits competing for teachers, resources, experience, information, and the limited right to keep existing.

Inside the Academy, Yari activates the Book of Knowledge and chooses development paths centered on exploration and judgment rather than a conventional sword. He must locate mandatory teachers, uncover hidden lessons, conserve finite Energy, gain levels, and survive factions that treat weaker recruits as loot. His uneasy orbit includes Logir and Monstrichello among the Paladins, the dangerously persuasive druid Dolgunata, the clipped and formidable necromancer Zangar, and Marinar, an underestimated alchemist. Alliances form, fracture, and reform as the group crosses the Academy's strange forest, training spaces, caves, Labyrinth, and wastelands. Yari learns that Light and Darkness are not reliable moral categories, that the Game converts suffering into fuel, and that apparently sacred institutions depend upon exploitation. The immediate goal is graduation, but the closing movement reveals that his choices have touched something much larger than one recruit's survival. I will keep the precise trigger spoiler-light: completing the Academy does not close the Game behind him. It prepares the board for a crisis capable of reshaping every world upon it.

PRAISE AND CRITIQUE

The world-building is the audiobook's strongest earned reward. The Game has hierarchy, economy, political classes, stable player populations, initiation loopholes, legal mechanisms, and human myths recast as conflicts between immortal factions. Energy works especially well because it connects combat balance to ethics. Light players draw from physical sources, while Dark players draw from emotion, yet both systems conceal exploitation. The point is not the lazy equation of Light with goodness and Darkness with evil. Institutions choose flattering names for whatever feeds them. Yari's Judge specialty formalizes another danger: he can investigate misconduct and impose system-backed punishment, but certainty becomes power before wisdom matures. Every fact becomes potentially useful in battle, law, or survival. The limitation is density. The Game often arrives as consecutive speeches explaining rules, exceptions, history, and counterexamples. I enjoy crunchy mechanics, but in audio I cannot skim familiar material or glance back at a definition. The snow keeps falling until the trail I admired is half buried.

Yari's progression satisfies when victory grows from observation rather than destiny. The Book records only what he consciously notices, forcing him to look harder, ask narrower questions, study opponents, and exploit wording. His artifact evolves through practical qualities, while the Judge path rewards sound inquiry but can punish a careless verdict. He bargains for information, tests assumptions, combines modern knowledge with magical materials, and uses agreements to constrain betrayal. Combat then cashes those ideas in: immunity, Energy depletion, terrain, respawn timing, and team roles matter, while Zangar's speed and Dolgunata's control demand more than raw force. The climax makes self-sacrifice into a terrible tactic, and Kraft drives it forward without incoherent shouting. Still, the narrative sometimes confuses cleverness with retrospective permission. An unknown rule often validates Yari's latest gamble, while luck or a hidden interaction arrives before failure becomes permanent. Frequent respawns also make ordinary death resemble costly fast travel. I admire a wolf who reads the wind; I become less impressed when the storm changes direction to follow his nose.

Kevin Kraft's baseline narration is clear, firm, and well suited to Yari's sarcastic first-person perspective. He handles system notices without making every notification sound like an advertisement, maintains enough pace to carry explanatory material, and brings welcome force to combat. Zangar's abbreviated speech is recognizable, the reptilian sibilance is easy to identify, and the antagonists usually possess sufficient weight to signal danger. Quiet reflection, however, is less reliable. Yari's shock, grief, calculation, and comedy sometimes receive similar vocal pressure, so an intimate wound can pass with the same momentum as another rule explanation. The broad cast also strains consistency. In crowded exchanges I sometimes needed dialogue context rather than voice alone to identify the speaker, and Yari's own register could shift around emphatic character work. Female voices and several secondary Paladins are more functional than individualized. I did not hear a recurrent volume jump, intrusive noise, or broken transition serious enough to justify a separate production deduction. My complaint is performance continuity and emotional interpretation, not a demonstrated technical failure in the recording.

CRITICISM

Pacing is the greatest complete-experience weakness. The Academy is designed as instruction, so some explanation is unavoidable, but the novel layers tutorial upon tutorial: interface operation, artifacts, specialties, Judge procedure, Game history, Light and Darkness, Energy sources, hidden teachers, contracts, Labyrinth keys, crafting, combined attacks, and still more exceptions. Yari then repeats information while evaluating options, testing theories, or telling a companion what I have already heard. Long training pockets cover months or years, which is an interesting use of extratemporal space but also flattens momentum. A character can emerge psychologically altered after one transition, while the listener has mainly heard summaries of repetition. The seventeen-hour performance makes this especially punishing because statistics and explanations occupy real, unskippable time. The Way of the Shaman also loves systems, but its quests and social relationships more often carry the rule learning forward. Here the Academy itself is the plot, so the manual and the adventure keep fighting for the same breath. Kraft's steady delivery prevents confusion, but steadiness cannot make every lecture dramatic.

The relationships are less convincing than the systems controlling them. Yari begins with a powerful emotional foundation in his mother, sister, and dead comrades, but those losses become motivation more often than continuing grief. The Academy cast is built from betrayal, coercion, contracts, tactical dependence, and direct mental manipulation. That produces justified paranoia, yet it also lets the author force abrupt reversals without doing the slower work of trust. Logir's hostility and later shifts are filtered through romantic fixation and external influence; Dolgunata can be ally, predator, teacher, temptation, and manipulator according to the current need; Zangar's partnership is intellectually interesting but emotionally glacial; Marinar arrives late and carries mystery more than established intimacy. I can believe people cooperate when survival requires it. I do not automatically believe that cooperation has become a pack. When the story insists that trust is weakness, it deprives itself of the warmth that would make betrayal truly hurt. Ice only breaks our hearts when we once believed it could carry us home.

Yari himself is compelling and frustrating in equal measure. His earliest terror, grief, gamer instincts, and military reflexes give him several believable layers, and his willingness to ask embarrassing questions is often wiser than false confidence. Yet the novel alternates between portraying him as an observant strategist and a novice who misses facts needed to prolong instruction. He condemns genocide, then creates a respawn massacre to force information. He recognizes manipulation, then repeatedly accepts bargains whose danger is obvious. He claims justice while allowing anger and personal benefit to shape which cases matter. Those contradictions could form a powerful portrait of moral corrosion, and sometimes they do. Too often, however, the System confirms his verdict or rewards his extremity quickly enough that the narrative seems more impressed than alarmed. The final score loses points not because Yari behaves badly, but because consequence and self-examination do not consistently match the gravity of his choices. A dark protagonist can carry a magnificent story; the ice beneath him must still crack when he puts too much weight on it.

The English wording further roughens the listen. There are literal constructions, dropped articles, tense slips, ungainly dialogue tags, and phrases whose meaning is recoverable but whose rhythm is foreign to natural spoken English. Expressions equivalent to information becoming added, a matter not being subject for discussion, or someone being woman rather than a woman expose translation seams. Repetitions such as things turning out, happening once again, or Yari being taken aback make the narrative voice feel mechanically familiar over seventeen hours. Kraft can clarify syntax through stress, but occasionally his emphasis makes an already stiff sentence sound more theatrical. The cultural material needs equal scrutiny. Broad claims about nations, religions, elves, soldiers, and human history are treated as clever Game explanations even when they reduce complicated peoples to stereotypes. Sexist remarks, the excuse that irrationality is simply feminine, and Yari's early inspection of his sexual function are not automatically forbidden in dark fiction, but here they usually reveal little beyond juvenile attitude. My ears pinned back because provocation without examination is not moral complexity. It is frost painted over shallow ground.

EVALUATION AND PERSONAL IMPACT

Compared with the more familiar MMO structure of The Way of the Shaman, this audiobook takes the bolder metaphysical risk. Barliona asks what virtual imprisonment and game incentives do to a person inside a known manufactured environment. The Game here claims human history, religion, death, and identity as components of one predatory operating system. Compared with The Land, it offers less cheerful accumulation and far less community building. Richter's settlement progression turns power into a place where others may belong; Yari's Academy teaches him that every alliance may be a trap and every life may be a resource. That bleakness is not a flaw of preference by itself. In fact, it gives this novel a distinctive howl within LitRPG. The weakness is that relentless distrust eventually narrows the emotional range. Suspicion becomes so rational that loyalty can barely exist except as a temporary contract. I want darkness that tests the pack, not darkness that makes the very idea of a pack look foolish.

The solitude during Yari's training reached deeper into me than the louder battles. He talks to an unresponsive teacher because silence threatens the structure of his mind, and I understand why a voice, a task, or a routine can become a rope across an inner crevasse. There are times when I keep functioning through exhaustion and grief because stillness leaves too much room for pain to circle the den. After losing my father, work was not proof that I felt nothing. It was a harness I fastened because being alone with my thoughts felt worse. Yari similarly converts loss into training, questions, and objectives. The audiobook recognizes the survival value of that discipline, but it rarely asks when endurance stops protecting him and begins freezing the wound in place. His pain becomes efficiency. That moved me, yet it also left me hungry for scenes in which he mourns without immediately converting sorrow into a mechanic, enemy, or plan.

CONCLUSION

I recommend this to experienced LitRPG listeners who enjoy dense systems, hostile tutorials, morally compromised protagonists, cosmic conspiracies, intricate build choices, and survival stories where information is more lethal than steel. Listeners wanting a warm party dynamic, graceful translated prose, measured progression, consistent character voices, or relief from prolonged explanation may struggle. The narration is competent enough that I would listen to Kevin Kraft again, but not strong enough to erase the translation's stiffness or make every member of this cast unmistakable. I would continue the trilogy because the Restart, the Emperor, Archibald's motives, the Judge path, and Yari's endangered humanity create genuine curiosity. The additions total 1.66 and the deductions total 0.97, producing 3.19/5.00. It is a sharp, uneven blade: capable of cutting deep, but still burdened by rough metal along the edge. From my den in HowlStrom, I will follow Yari's tracks beyond the Academy, yet I will keep one paw on solid ice and one ear turned toward the pack, because any Game that teaches a wolf to survive by trusting no one may preserve his body while quietly teaching his soul to die alone.

[Chris Evans]

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. Both also involve a 'real world' that isn't actually real. 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, not the being a Judge part, just the explorer. My favorite class in Final Fantasy XIV is also the Arcanist with their book weapons and summons. 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.
The teachers through the portion of the game he's playing are all rather standard in appearance and action. Sure some talk more and are willing to bend the rules more but all pretty basic. He even explains at one point that their appearance in the game is based on what the person sees as being wise. Yet at the 3/4ths mark he runs into a teacher that is a Gnome that seems to be made up entirely of Jewish stereotypes. So, this short harry teacher proceeds to try to negotiate his way into getting as much money out of Yaro as possible while throwing out Yittish words like crazy (Despite them already stating that there is only one language in the game). The deviation from the standard teacher was just so jarring and unexplained that it took me right out of the story and left me confused. Was it supposed to be some kind of inside joke between the author and someone?
I just don't get why it was there.

I'm certainly interested in continuing, I just hope Vasily is able to focus the chaos during the next one.

[Matthieu]

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.

[NiteHaze]

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.

[John]

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.

[Joseph D.]

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

[Phillip W. Raisor Jr.]

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.

[David Anthony Beard]

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.

[John Cruo]

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.

[Levi]

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

[Jake]

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.

[Patrick Duffy]

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.

[Ryan Cushman]

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...

[Rico]

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.

[Arya]

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.

[Simon Forsyth]

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.

[Dhana Latchmi Mahesh]

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.

[Lubos Elexa]

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.

[Danae]

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.

[Brad Theado]

Way too complex

[Suprio]

3.5