Auger & Augment

Blood of the Boundless #1

by Wilson A. Bateman

Zenzuck has given up everything to secure a new life in The Boundless, a first-of-its-kind virtual reality world that shatters the boundary between real life and video games.

Alone in a world of gods, war, and magic, where death comes swiftly and never offers release, can he forge a life for himself outside of anything he's ever known?

Will his demons let him?

Content Warning: Profanity, Violence, and just a touch of The Gay.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy

318 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 25, 2018

Reviews

[Lance Wheeler · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of loose ends

Good book. Problem is, it is just a bunch of Ioose ends. Very few things go anywhere it have any massaging that is explained. By the end of the book you have not gone very far but left a whole lot of garbage to clean up. I would give this book a 5 out of 5 if it wasn't for those dang ends dragging all over the place.

[cliff Askey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolute delight

I was almost put off by the prelude but am so glad I wasn't. Well written engaging adult story that doesn't rely on anything but good characters plot and concepts. The game aspects were relevant and realistic and progression wasn't rushed or handled.
A great example of the genre.
Recommended

[Colin Hardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept of a Literary Role Playing Game, or in other words a book that follows the precepts of a role-playing game, is an interesting one, as it would appear to provide a crossover between two genres that have much in common (Fantasy literature and Fantasy gaming). The difficulty arises in the mechanisms of each. The novel format allows for the development of characters and their environment through the pursuance of a goal-oriented plot, which often requires that the villain is bested. Role-playing games require the player to develop, through luck or choice, their core skills, often through a battle against opponents. This is determined through a points-based mechanism where success is obtained through a simple mathematical exercise. The quests, followed by the gamers, were historically controlled by a non-player dungeon-master in either a dungeon-like environment or one that is more open-ended; many recent games provide quests based on card selection. What is most noticeable is that the novel format is quite passive, whereas the game requires selectivity and strategy. Thematic games do provide some attempt to allow the player to take on a role, but more often the characters take second place to the action.

This novel attempts to incorporate the numerical aspects of skill development from gaming into the novel along with some of the jargon that would be familiar to gamers. With regards to the mathematics, whilst this is interesting it does slow down and interrupts the flow of the story. Of course, this is an inherent part of gaming but does not add to the reading experience. Similarly, the use of jargon and ultimately abbreviations is actually quite confusing to the non-gamer. That said, the mechanism does provide a pragmatic rationale for actions taken by the characters. As noted, one of the perceived weaknesses of games is that they do not allow for well-rounded character development. Sadly, this is the case with this story as the characters lack any real presence except through their actions. Fragments of backstory are revealed, but they do little to make the characters recognizable. In fact, by the end of the book I had forgotten who the characters were, either in terms of creature, sex or personality, they were simply names. The lead character lacks depth; his homosexuality is introduced through a reaction to another character and is largely dropped thereafter. Similarly, his relationship with family members is quite superficial. Plot development is also weak. There are clearly identified tasks, but there does not seem to be a specific goal. The setting of the story and the overarching concept is very interesting, but it does tend to get overshadowed by the lesser task-based scenes. Dungeons are introduced as an arena for action and the feel of them is more like rounds in a game than novel-like.

There is no romantic chemistry in the book. One scene provides one kiss, but even that comes at a cost. Relationships between individuals do seem to grow throughout the story but as the characters are not developed there is no real sense of familiarity or empathy for the reader.

Given that the distractions outlined above affect the story, it is good to note that the flow of the plat is not significantly distracted and the themes are quite interesting and hold the reader’s attention. This is not a difficult read and the writing style is approachable.

This is the first in a series of books and quite a number of threads remain unresolved. The story ends at a natural break point, but there is no cliffhanger as such.

Please note that whilst this book has a gay character, it is not a romantic novel.

2.5 stars

This review is also posted at Gay Book Reviews

[Alister · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book and I, we did not click.

This book has interesting concepts and is fresh in many aspects, even if the litRPG elements feel a little borked - certainly non-standard at any rate. I can roll with that. The entire plot, however, feels like it takes a back seat to the MC's emotional issues and self-loathing which are _constantly_ in forefront to the point that everything else seems like set-dressing.



It might be that he is a realistic character. It might be that people who hate themselves are indeed under-represented as MCs, but it might also be there is a reason for that. It is a major downer and drowns out much enjoyment that you might otherwise take.



If you want to play with self-loathing, an MC with a little more self-awareness and a sword of +1 snark is much less tiresome and abrasive.



Furthermore his emotional issues are magically resolved by a god literally descending and flicking him between the eyes. Convenient - I won't complain about the deus ex machina, but I will question whether being mind-f*cked can be considered self-discovery. If not, why the hell did we just waste all that time and melodrama on angst when it was meaningless and irrelevant, contributing nothing to the MC's character growth?

The real question though is why didn't it happen chapters and chapters earlier? >:|

The book isn't bad - not objectively and not subjectively - in regards to many technical aspects of writing and story-crafting, but the end result is 'sour'. I suspect you have to be in a particular headspace or coming from a particular set of experiences to enjoy it. This one was a miss for me.

I rate it [★★★] as the book is cohesive and executed solidly, and was reasonably fresh. By my reckoning that makes it at least Average. Any lesser rating would do it a disservice.

[Dovile Vasiliauskaite · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my continued pursuit of a good LitRPG story, I came across this rather unknown work.

The overall quality of the story was average - ok quality, but some of the aspects really made it stand on it's own and makes me want to continue reading the sequel.

Pros
The story is enjoyable.
I loved the fact the dwellers of the Boundless word knew about the coming of the players and
that the rulers of the world had prepared elaborate plans for tricking players into servitude. Cursed rings given as reward for intro quests, exploitation of player immortality... it read like a fresh new twist on a classical fairytale about a crafty peasant tricking supernatural being into marriage, favor or servitude.
Some uses of magic were interesting and innovative. Exploading branches come to mind.
I will also miss MC's ability to give out quests

Cons
The premise of how the players had gotten into the Boundless game is rather weak.
The characters are rather plain and their development is lacking.
The book ends very much like a pilot episode of TV series.

~
So the main character is a gay teen. I believe it, because only a teen could decide to abandon his family without telling them anything! and to run away into a virtual reality, because he thinks he is misfit, is bullied at school and doesn't want to tell his parents that he might be gay. And that was just one of numerous egocentric and fear driven decisions that MC made. On the plus side that means that there is a lot of place of for the main character to grow and he does grow. I also liked that the book was not focused on a romantic relationship and was more about finding friends and finding yourself.

[Stephanie Bibb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Auger and Augment had some really good moments of description, and some villains you can really dislike There’s one particularly charismatic scoundrel that I immediately knew was bad news, and the servants of the king were delightful to read about with their different personalities.

There were some really interesting moments at the beginning and end, but it seriously drags out during the middle portion, which is the main reason I rated it 3 vs 4 stars.

There’s a pretty interesting magic system regarding the ether flow as well as the auger.

Leaves on a cliffhanger, though the main arc is complete. Definitely an angsty teen, and leans toward YA, so this might not appeal to everybody. Also definitely on the “crunchy” side of LitRPG / GameLit, or at least medium-crunchy, with quite a few stats shown. Overall, though, Auger and Augment had some enjoyable moments.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing

Hmmm...enjoyed this overall and was well written, was a bit confused in parts by the skillset of the MC, and he is a bit annoying in places, however plenty of unanswered questions to look fwd to in the next book.

[Alex Matheny · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great story

I felt a bit attacked in chapter one, but it really made me care so very much about the mc. So excited to read this series.

[fane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking for lgbt litrpg a while and I finally found it. Thank you for the wonderful book