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Project Chrysalis #1
Gestation
To face Death itself, to hide from deadly guards, to conduct dark rituals and to use forbidden death magic? Being sent to Hell is definitely not what 12-year-old Anji would have ever expected from a government orphanage program.
Chrysalis — the project of the century. It is a hyper-realistic fantasy RPG game, set in the Middle Ages. Leveling up, distributing attribute points, and choosing your way of life are only a few ways the players play the game. Chrysalis is the perfect virtual space where every orphan under the care of the government is placed in an in-game family to receive all the love and care of parents they so desperately need. This project helps kids socialize and mold them into the adults of the future. They are in charge of how they grow up in the virtual space, which was built to advance society.
But something went seriously wrong for Anji.
He has lost everything that he had been so happy to finally receive. Now, instead of a loving mama and strict but generous father, he has bloodthirsty demons and flesh-eating worms. Instead of fishing and baking lessons, he has to perform bloody rituals to survive the nine circles of Hell. Instead of the dreams of a happy childhood, his wounded child’s soul suffers demonification.
Betrayed, for the sake of someone else's master plan, he appeared in the most hopeless place of Chrysalis. It is full of ash, despair and… possibilities? Sagie, Anji’s in-game username, fueled by homesickness and revenge, will go through the Hell to face what is hidden in the darkest corners. The road will be long and difficult, but those who can, do.
Once, long ago, the first wave of Wanderers appeared in the world of Chrysalis. They had proved themselves by killing the ancient gods. Now it is time for the second wave of Wanderers and for new young gods, dreaming about a wide-scaled and deadly war. The beta-test is now open to people. While they are “playing” in Chrysalis, they have no idea about the truth behind the Project.
Project Chrysalis: Book one: Gestation is the first of four books of a brand new LitRPG series. This is a story of a battle for your dreams. It is full of turns, twists, riddles, and revelations; it is a story of… Oh, sorry. No spoilers today.
The story of Sagie has just begun.
But first, one line of advice: do not believe your own eyes.
Chrysalis — the project of the century. It is a hyper-realistic fantasy RPG game, set in the Middle Ages. Leveling up, distributing attribute points, and choosing your way of life are only a few ways the players play the game. Chrysalis is the perfect virtual space where every orphan under the care of the government is placed in an in-game family to receive all the love and care of parents they so desperately need. This project helps kids socialize and mold them into the adults of the future. They are in charge of how they grow up in the virtual space, which was built to advance society.
But something went seriously wrong for Anji.
He has lost everything that he had been so happy to finally receive. Now, instead of a loving mama and strict but generous father, he has bloodthirsty demons and flesh-eating worms. Instead of fishing and baking lessons, he has to perform bloody rituals to survive the nine circles of Hell. Instead of the dreams of a happy childhood, his wounded child’s soul suffers demonification.
Betrayed, for the sake of someone else's master plan, he appeared in the most hopeless place of Chrysalis. It is full of ash, despair and… possibilities? Sagie, Anji’s in-game username, fueled by homesickness and revenge, will go through the Hell to face what is hidden in the darkest corners. The road will be long and difficult, but those who can, do.
Once, long ago, the first wave of Wanderers appeared in the world of Chrysalis. They had proved themselves by killing the ancient gods. Now it is time for the second wave of Wanderers and for new young gods, dreaming about a wide-scaled and deadly war. The beta-test is now open to people. While they are “playing” in Chrysalis, they have no idea about the truth behind the Project.
Project Chrysalis: Book one: Gestation is the first of four books of a brand new LitRPG series. This is a story of a battle for your dreams. It is full of turns, twists, riddles, and revelations; it is a story of… Oh, sorry. No spoilers today.
The story of Sagie has just begun.
But first, one line of advice: do not believe your own eyes.
280 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2018
536 people are currently reading
632 people want to read
About the author
John Gold
26 books54 followersMy childhood can be simply described in one word: rebellious. Both of my parents were working all the time, so us kids had total freedom to do whatever we wanted. Being an inquisitive child, I spent days reading books and encyclopedias. I called it expanding my horizons. My parents called it being lazy. I read every book my hands could get a hold on. Back then, we didn’t have the luxury of the internet.
The first computer, and therefore first time on the internet, in my life appeared when I entered university. It brought entirely new worlds to me. After classes, I would search through breathtaking stories describing unseen worlds, their histories, and characters. The most lasting impression for me was the Fallout series.
I remember everything as if it was just yesterday…
At 22, I went through a pre-midlife crisis. I was finding out my place in the world, trying different jobs and directions for life. Restaurants, websites, freelance, ghostwriting — everything I did, I gave it my all. Life was like a game to me: you earn resources and gold and spend them on armor and equipment.
At the end of 2013, I read my first LitRPG book. I read all of the stories from the first LitRPG wave in Russia. It was a revelation! The two things I liked the most, internet gaming and books, were now seamlessly combined to produce heroic stories. Needless to say, I became a fan of the genre. It was like reading and playing at the same time, a game you could only dream of!
I was full of emotions and energy and purely inspired. I had so many things to say and write that eventually I put pen to paper. The story just wrote itself: a world of mystery, elaborate plot twists, and devious characters. No free hugs, no super luck, no powers and definitely no magic for free. That was the book I ended up writing.
If I’m being totally honest, sometimes I cried when I wrote the traumatizing and dramatic life experiences of Anji. I was with him, side by side, and I felt his pain as if it was my own. And I wanted to share our story with the world.
I’ve put my soul into this story, so after six months, all four books were ready. I’m not going to say much about the story itself or the ending. That would be unfair.
The most important thing to remember while reading: everything will be alright in the end. If it’s not alright, then it’s not the end.
The first computer, and therefore first time on the internet, in my life appeared when I entered university. It brought entirely new worlds to me. After classes, I would search through breathtaking stories describing unseen worlds, their histories, and characters. The most lasting impression for me was the Fallout series.
I remember everything as if it was just yesterday…
At 22, I went through a pre-midlife crisis. I was finding out my place in the world, trying different jobs and directions for life. Restaurants, websites, freelance, ghostwriting — everything I did, I gave it my all. Life was like a game to me: you earn resources and gold and spend them on armor and equipment.
At the end of 2013, I read my first LitRPG book. I read all of the stories from the first LitRPG wave in Russia. It was a revelation! The two things I liked the most, internet gaming and books, were now seamlessly combined to produce heroic stories. Needless to say, I became a fan of the genre. It was like reading and playing at the same time, a game you could only dream of!
I was full of emotions and energy and purely inspired. I had so many things to say and write that eventually I put pen to paper. The story just wrote itself: a world of mystery, elaborate plot twists, and devious characters. No free hugs, no super luck, no powers and definitely no magic for free. That was the book I ended up writing.
If I’m being totally honest, sometimes I cried when I wrote the traumatizing and dramatic life experiences of Anji. I was with him, side by side, and I felt his pain as if it was my own. And I wanted to share our story with the world.
I’ve put my soul into this story, so after six months, all four books were ready. I’m not going to say much about the story itself or the ending. That would be unfair.
The most important thing to remember while reading: everything will be alright in the end. If it’s not alright, then it’s not the end.
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March 15, 2019I picked up this weird LitRPG fantasy mostly because it had a similar sounding premise to the Demons of Astlan by J. L. Langland. Both this book and Langland's story had a similar set-up with a kid from Earth being sucked into a demon world! The bad news is Gestation lacks in pretty much every area when compared to Demom of Astlan so if you like the idea you may as well just read Langland's series.
The story had the potential to be a lot of fun. Project Chrysalis is a brand new fully immersive VR world. The government use it to pair orphan children with loving parents in the VR world. Anji, a 12 year old boy, is one such orphan but something goes wrong for him when he is murdered in the game in a ritual sacrifice and his soul ends up in Hell!
I know it sounds pretty horrific for a 12 year old to have to deal with but to be honest this is the type of tale where the realism is so low that a lot of the happenings have no emotional resonance to them. The horrors of the demon realm were actually the least disturbing part of Anji's story. His time with his foster parents in the VR world and his time in the orphanage in the real world were both a lot more disturbing! I'm not sure what the author John Gold was aiming for but it left me with the impression he had been raised in an abusive household. It helped the story that Anji was a bit of a sociopath and was never a realistic 12 year old. He really should have been wrote as 16 or 17 minimum as he acted that age at least. It was one of the real flaws of the story.
The worldbuilding was the typical LitRPG set up. Set in a vaguely sci-fi future where fully immersive VR technology is available so people have the option to live in a game world. The twist in this story was the fact that it was set far enough in the future that the tech was widely used and humanity had advanced to the point of having a splinter colony on the moon that was completely independent and more technologically advanced than the countries on Earth.
The biggest flaw in this book was the chronic stats list. I listened to the audio and it was around 10 hours long. If the chronic stats had been cut the book would have been 7 or 8 hours max. It really was that bad. It had all the symptoms of an author milking the flaws in the Kindle Unlimited system. The endless lists of stats would be easy to skip in ebook format (as I'm sure 100% of readers do!) but with audio one is stuck listening to them over and over and over AGAIN! It became repetitive and boring and definitely hurt the pacing of the story. The strange thing is the stats calmed down a lot after the 60% mark of the story and only made a return to early levels in the last 10%. It was like someone told the author he was taking the piss but rather than go back and rewrite the early parts of the story he just continued writing the next bit with the advice in mind. It was bizarre. I'd not even be too surprised to learn this book was written by two different authors. My guess is the first author got bored of writing all the stats over and over again so hired a hack to finish the story.
Another big flaw in the story was the fact that Gold (and the hack) were not great at making me visualise their world. It was often a little confusing to tell what was happening in the real world and what was happening in the VR world. It was easy to figure out with Anji but less clear with the few secondary characters the story bounced to from time to time. The stats themselves seemed to make little actual sense. 3 hours of them and all I got was the fact that Anji was slowly growing his strength in a lot of areas. Your regular fantasy author could have packed that info into a few sentences throughout the story!!!
The characters in the story were mostly throwaway and Anji was too unrealistic to truly connect with but despite that fact, and all the other flaws, I've mentioned plus the somewhat amateur writing I did feel like the story had a weird pull to it. I blasted through this one pretty quickly which is to its credit as I had 3 other reads on the go from various genres and this is the book that held my attention the best of the bunch. I do feel like the building blocks for a good story were in here somewhere. In the hands of a good author this could have been a really decent book!
Rating: 3 stars. I pondered 2.5 stars due to all the flaws but I'm going with the full 3 stars since this was weirdly engaging despite its issues.
Audio Note: I feel like Jef Holbrook did OK with the audio.
The story had the potential to be a lot of fun. Project Chrysalis is a brand new fully immersive VR world. The government use it to pair orphan children with loving parents in the VR world. Anji, a 12 year old boy, is one such orphan but something goes wrong for him when he is murdered in the game in a ritual sacrifice and his soul ends up in Hell!
I know it sounds pretty horrific for a 12 year old to have to deal with but to be honest this is the type of tale where the realism is so low that a lot of the happenings have no emotional resonance to them. The horrors of the demon realm were actually the least disturbing part of Anji's story. His time with his foster parents in the VR world and his time in the orphanage in the real world were both a lot more disturbing! I'm not sure what the author John Gold was aiming for but it left me with the impression he had been raised in an abusive household. It helped the story that Anji was a bit of a sociopath and was never a realistic 12 year old. He really should have been wrote as 16 or 17 minimum as he acted that age at least. It was one of the real flaws of the story.
The worldbuilding was the typical LitRPG set up. Set in a vaguely sci-fi future where fully immersive VR technology is available so people have the option to live in a game world. The twist in this story was the fact that it was set far enough in the future that the tech was widely used and humanity had advanced to the point of having a splinter colony on the moon that was completely independent and more technologically advanced than the countries on Earth.
The biggest flaw in this book was the chronic stats list. I listened to the audio and it was around 10 hours long. If the chronic stats had been cut the book would have been 7 or 8 hours max. It really was that bad. It had all the symptoms of an author milking the flaws in the Kindle Unlimited system. The endless lists of stats would be easy to skip in ebook format (as I'm sure 100% of readers do!) but with audio one is stuck listening to them over and over and over AGAIN! It became repetitive and boring and definitely hurt the pacing of the story. The strange thing is the stats calmed down a lot after the 60% mark of the story and only made a return to early levels in the last 10%. It was like someone told the author he was taking the piss but rather than go back and rewrite the early parts of the story he just continued writing the next bit with the advice in mind. It was bizarre. I'd not even be too surprised to learn this book was written by two different authors. My guess is the first author got bored of writing all the stats over and over again so hired a hack to finish the story.
Another big flaw in the story was the fact that Gold (and the hack) were not great at making me visualise their world. It was often a little confusing to tell what was happening in the real world and what was happening in the VR world. It was easy to figure out with Anji but less clear with the few secondary characters the story bounced to from time to time. The stats themselves seemed to make little actual sense. 3 hours of them and all I got was the fact that Anji was slowly growing his strength in a lot of areas. Your regular fantasy author could have packed that info into a few sentences throughout the story!!!
The characters in the story were mostly throwaway and Anji was too unrealistic to truly connect with but despite that fact, and all the other flaws, I've mentioned plus the somewhat amateur writing I did feel like the story had a weird pull to it. I blasted through this one pretty quickly which is to its credit as I had 3 other reads on the go from various genres and this is the book that held my attention the best of the bunch. I do feel like the building blocks for a good story were in here somewhere. In the hands of a good author this could have been a really decent book!
Rating: 3 stars. I pondered 2.5 stars due to all the flaws but I'm going with the full 3 stars since this was weirdly engaging despite its issues.
Audio Note: I feel like Jef Holbrook did OK with the audio.
August 19, 2018
I have no idea why I like this book
I don't know how I'm enjoying this series, but I am.
In game progression makes absolutely no sense, rationale for our main character being so OP is very thin. Out of game, everyone behaves irrationally; the psychologist actually threatens to remove medical care for our main character's only friend, in an attempt to get him to open up, then she acts surprised when it has the opposite effect, then she does absolutely nothing to counter the abuses she suspects of the orphanage manager.
This kind of rediculousness may or may not be accurate examples of crappy people, but the behaviour wouldn't be possible with the absurd amount of oversight and control we see from Luna.
As I said; despite the absurd progression, and irrational characters, I'm still somehow enjoying the story.
I don't know how I'm enjoying this series, but I am.
In game progression makes absolutely no sense, rationale for our main character being so OP is very thin. Out of game, everyone behaves irrationally; the psychologist actually threatens to remove medical care for our main character's only friend, in an attempt to get him to open up, then she acts surprised when it has the opposite effect, then she does absolutely nothing to counter the abuses she suspects of the orphanage manager.
This kind of rediculousness may or may not be accurate examples of crappy people, but the behaviour wouldn't be possible with the absurd amount of oversight and control we see from Luna.
As I said; despite the absurd progression, and irrational characters, I'm still somehow enjoying the story.
June 13, 2018
As the author's first book in a brand new series, it did well enough in setting up the in-game world as well as the real-life world. The characters at times blend into each other since there are so many. At some points, I didn't understand which characters were gods and which were wanderers. The story has great potential though, and I can't wait for book 2!
May 23, 2019
Title: Gestation
Author: John Gold
Published: May 22, 2018
Publisher: Litworld Ltd.
Right off the bat, I’m going to disclose that I have never read a LitRPG book before. To be even more honest, I didn’t even know there was such a genre, and I really didn’t know what to expect as far as content. So, from what I gathered from half-hearted research, the plot and setting takes place within a virtual reality. A popular book-to-movie example is Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. So, that is the gist of the genre: someone playing a fully-immersive MMORPG where you feel and experience everything realistically.
Now, I have played a handful of these games, and have extensively played Black Desert Online, which is a very popular Korean MMORPG. If there is one thing that any player knows, it’s that success is determined by leveling up, obtaining the best loot from mobs, and the constant finger-and-thumb breaking repetition of GRINDING. Which, paired with an uninteresting storyline/plot, chased me away from the game. I haven’t returned since. Now, once they come out with deep-dive technology, I’ll consider hopping back on. (Unless we experience the horrors of Sword Art Online, an anime where players are trapped in-game and will die in real-life if they die within the game… (Or if someone attempts to disconnect them from the system, which will promptly kill them, too.)
Anyways, the synopsis of Gestation was interesting enough. I liked the cover, and they compared it to Sword Art Online, which I liked—for the first half of the season. I was thinking that it would be a change in pace, considering I don’t read a lot of Sci-Fi, and I wanted to see what LitRPGs were about. When I was looking at the author, Gold expressed that much of his inspiration comes from video games and other really popular LitRPG authors in Russia. Yeah, I guess Russians like LitRPGs?
I gotta say , I really liked it, but still found myself annoyed with some of the aspects. Anji, the main character, was extremely OP. He’s your typical angsty, genius, orphan with a serious superiority complex. Regardless, I was rooting for him! I wanted him to stick it to everyone who stepped on him. The rest of the characters were pretty one-dimensional. Granted, many of them were NPCs (Non-playable characters.*Video-game lingo!) But I needed more from him. Why was he like this? Surely not ALL orphans turn out to be rather sociopathic?
Continuing with my minor complaints, I was rather nonplussed at the beginning from the serious lack of world-building. Clearly this is a post-Earth future. But why? I felt like I was *LITERALLY* floating in space, confused and disoriented. There was little foundation, and I felt like I was just trying to puzzle everything together as the story moved along.
The in-game grind and leveling. There is a point where something BIG happens to Anji. He gets betrayed and thrown (quite literally) in dire circumstances. This becomes a huge portion of the story, and it’s essentially a dialogue of him leveling up his skills, evolving into something else. This process takes 1.5-ish years, and it ends up being for nothing. I just felt that it was unnecessary to see the numerical values of his skills increase.
Overall, I think that with every work, there are kinks to be worked out and wrestled with. As much as I enjoyed the concept, there were some definite holes that needed filling! I would, however, recommended this book to anyone interested in the genre.
September 16, 2018
LitRPG is a literary genre that combines both – mechanisms of online games AND usually science-fiction or fantasy novel. And with the increasing love to computer and online games, extraordinary connection between literature and game world started breathing. Now it is very popular genre with innumerable amount of books reader can choose from. And true to be told there are pretty jewels among these books.
Gestation is a book with a little bit confusing and impressive beginning at once. Confusing because it was really harder sometimes to concentrate and get connected with characters and virtual reality. And impressive? Well that beginning was written in a pretty catchy style.
The concept of this book, main character, settling and finally game alone all of these aspects are screaming with a huge potential. But sadly to said these were not used for 100%. Let’s begin with a game itself. Medieval world where Anji can start his new life with family he has never had and to be whoever he wants to be. But virtual world was so plain and impersonal. Like we were watching it from a far distance. Anji as a main character wasn’t helping it either. He was determined, adventurous and brave but despite that he was not the character you would be extremely fond of. The good thing is that author lets him go and develop. And as a lone child he became someone thirsty for vengeance.
The main plot was very interesting, sometimes predictable but really touching. Both of worlds were violent and brutal. Too many action scenes, enough blood and thrilling moments? Oh yes! But somewhere in here there is the same problem like in the world. We are watching it from a very far distance; we are not experiencing it, not living the story together with main protagonists.
I would like to give more stars, higher rating but there are many BUT. At the end author created cursed cliffhanger that makes you want to continue in this story.
Gestation is a book with a little bit confusing and impressive beginning at once. Confusing because it was really harder sometimes to concentrate and get connected with characters and virtual reality. And impressive? Well that beginning was written in a pretty catchy style.
The concept of this book, main character, settling and finally game alone all of these aspects are screaming with a huge potential. But sadly to said these were not used for 100%. Let’s begin with a game itself. Medieval world where Anji can start his new life with family he has never had and to be whoever he wants to be. But virtual world was so plain and impersonal. Like we were watching it from a far distance. Anji as a main character wasn’t helping it either. He was determined, adventurous and brave but despite that he was not the character you would be extremely fond of. The good thing is that author lets him go and develop. And as a lone child he became someone thirsty for vengeance.
The main plot was very interesting, sometimes predictable but really touching. Both of worlds were violent and brutal. Too many action scenes, enough blood and thrilling moments? Oh yes! But somewhere in here there is the same problem like in the world. We are watching it from a very far distance; we are not experiencing it, not living the story together with main protagonists.
I would like to give more stars, higher rating but there are many BUT. At the end author created cursed cliffhanger that makes you want to continue in this story.
June 22, 2018
Thank you to the author for the opportunity to read and review his book!
I have never read a LitRPG book before this one and it was an interesting experience.
Here’s the synopsis of the book.
Synopsis (from Amazon):
[start]
To face Death itself, to hide from deadly guards, to conduct dark rituals and to use forbidden death magic? Being sent to Hell is definitely not what 12-year-old Anji would have ever expected from a government orphanage program.
Chrysalis — the project of the century. It is a hyper-realistic fantasy RPG game, set in the Middle Ages. Leveling up, distributing attribute points, and choosing your way of life are only a few ways the players play the game. Chrysalis is the perfect virtual space where every orphan under the care of the government is placed in an in-game family to receive all the love and care of parents they so desperately need. This project helps kids socialize and mold them into the adults of the future. They are in charge of how they grow up in the virtual space, which was built to advance society.
But something went seriously wrong for Anji.
[end] (full description on Amazon)
The description of this book instantly got me interested in this book.
It took me a bit to get into this book. The setting was hard to picture at first and the characters were hard to connect with. The lines between the virtual reality and the actual orphanage blurred and it was hard to picture either worlds.
As I kept reading, however, I started getting interested in Anji’s character. He develops from a young reserved kid fighting to survive to an unpredictable and unnerving force.
Both worlds surprised me at how harsh and cruel they were. The virtual world was almost worst than the real world. I found myself feeling disgusted at certain scenes. It felt unnecessary.
So I would give the caution that there are scenes of physical abuse and violence in this book.
The plot overall was interesting and had lots of cool twists. Parts of it felt rushed but overall this book is worth checking out, although it might not have been my cup of tea.
I would recommend this book to those who like virtual gaming worlds, LitRPG, fantasy and sci-fi books.
The ending of the book got me intrigued and interested in what the next book holds.
-Amelia 📚
I have never read a LitRPG book before this one and it was an interesting experience.
Here’s the synopsis of the book.
Synopsis (from Amazon):
[start]
To face Death itself, to hide from deadly guards, to conduct dark rituals and to use forbidden death magic? Being sent to Hell is definitely not what 12-year-old Anji would have ever expected from a government orphanage program.
Chrysalis — the project of the century. It is a hyper-realistic fantasy RPG game, set in the Middle Ages. Leveling up, distributing attribute points, and choosing your way of life are only a few ways the players play the game. Chrysalis is the perfect virtual space where every orphan under the care of the government is placed in an in-game family to receive all the love and care of parents they so desperately need. This project helps kids socialize and mold them into the adults of the future. They are in charge of how they grow up in the virtual space, which was built to advance society.
But something went seriously wrong for Anji.
[end] (full description on Amazon)
The description of this book instantly got me interested in this book.
It took me a bit to get into this book. The setting was hard to picture at first and the characters were hard to connect with. The lines between the virtual reality and the actual orphanage blurred and it was hard to picture either worlds.
As I kept reading, however, I started getting interested in Anji’s character. He develops from a young reserved kid fighting to survive to an unpredictable and unnerving force.
Both worlds surprised me at how harsh and cruel they were. The virtual world was almost worst than the real world. I found myself feeling disgusted at certain scenes. It felt unnecessary.
So I would give the caution that there are scenes of physical abuse and violence in this book.
The plot overall was interesting and had lots of cool twists. Parts of it felt rushed but overall this book is worth checking out, although it might not have been my cup of tea.
I would recommend this book to those who like virtual gaming worlds, LitRPG, fantasy and sci-fi books.
The ending of the book got me intrigued and interested in what the next book holds.
-Amelia 📚
July 30, 2018
I have mixed feeling about this book. The story has a lot of potential but the writing style wasn’t really good. The first 30 pages were pretty good, it gave a good introduction to this very mechanical virtual world. Everything past that point in the story was really hard to read because the author goes on pages just trying to explain things that didn’t really needed to be said.
When Sagie entered Hell I was so ready to finally get into the story, I thought that was where everything was going to get exciting. Unfortunately I thought it was only a bunch of repetition. I get that the character was going through the different circles in Hell but there wasn’t any excitement to it.
The story really could have used some major plot twists. Everything was pretty predictable. The author could have also included more of the 7 senses to improve the story telling. I didn’t really feel like I was there, so adding the sense of smell, touch, and taste could have been really effective in making this story whole.
I didn’t feel connected to the main character at all. Some authors can really make you root for a character and this story didn’t make me feel that. Authors will bring in a side character for the sole purpose of character development, maybe if Sagie had that, his character would have felt...more human.
I wish I could give this a higher rating because of how much potential the storyline had but because of all the little tweaks that should have been made during editing I felt like the rate is appropriate. It was a good story, just not a great one.
When Sagie entered Hell I was so ready to finally get into the story, I thought that was where everything was going to get exciting. Unfortunately I thought it was only a bunch of repetition. I get that the character was going through the different circles in Hell but there wasn’t any excitement to it.
The story really could have used some major plot twists. Everything was pretty predictable. The author could have also included more of the 7 senses to improve the story telling. I didn’t really feel like I was there, so adding the sense of smell, touch, and taste could have been really effective in making this story whole.
I didn’t feel connected to the main character at all. Some authors can really make you root for a character and this story didn’t make me feel that. Authors will bring in a side character for the sole purpose of character development, maybe if Sagie had that, his character would have felt...more human.
I wish I could give this a higher rating because of how much potential the storyline had but because of all the little tweaks that should have been made during editing I felt like the rate is appropriate. It was a good story, just not a great one.
July 6, 2018
This is a more of a review of both books so far. The tone of the books is pretty refreshing considering the copious amounts of LITRPG out there. With that said there are some things I had reservations about reading both books.
There are A LOT of mechanics in this series. A little too much in my opinion and the plot suffers or there isn't enough plot b/c of the amount of pages dedicated to mechanics, the author literally goes into how every statistic is powered leveled, not once but twice b/c of how the story played out.
The huge emphasis on mechanics is of unexpected in comparison to other Russian LITRPGs I have read including Fayroll where relationships, meaning who know who, plays a bigger role in determining quests, fights and so on. The main character is a loner by exploiting a mechanic becomes very overpowered and just kind of wanders about kicking ass, which is more of a Western LITRPG troupe.
The main character is really....odd. He is mature and wise in some ways, in other ways he has huge blind spots. I was under the impression that he was genius level, but the mistake he made towards the end of the second novel made me scratch my head a bit, it just seem inconsistent to his established suspicious methodical character...maybe I am thinking about it too much.
There are a lot of unnecessary fights, fights that are just there so the characters level up. It kind of reminds me of the typical action RPGs like Diablo, just a lot of slaughtering huge amounts of mobs using AOE spells. That kinds of take the tensions out many of the fights b/c the enemies become fodder for the most part. A lot of LITRPG get around this by making mobs strong and dangerous to the characters so that each kill is a mortal fight and the exp obtained is hard earned.
I wanted to give a better rating b/c this series really stands out in the crowded LITRPG field, but there are just so many little things and the big things I listed above that prevent me from giving the series a better ratings. The 3 stars mean I still like the series, but I have serious issues here and there.
There are A LOT of mechanics in this series. A little too much in my opinion and the plot suffers or there isn't enough plot b/c of the amount of pages dedicated to mechanics, the author literally goes into how every statistic is powered leveled, not once but twice b/c of how the story played out.
The huge emphasis on mechanics is of unexpected in comparison to other Russian LITRPGs I have read including Fayroll where relationships, meaning who know who, plays a bigger role in determining quests, fights and so on. The main character is a loner by exploiting a mechanic becomes very overpowered and just kind of wanders about kicking ass, which is more of a Western LITRPG troupe.
The main character is really....odd. He is mature and wise in some ways, in other ways he has huge blind spots. I was under the impression that he was genius level, but the mistake he made towards the end of the second novel made me scratch my head a bit, it just seem inconsistent to his established suspicious methodical character...maybe I am thinking about it too much.
There are a lot of unnecessary fights, fights that are just there so the characters level up. It kind of reminds me of the typical action RPGs like Diablo, just a lot of slaughtering huge amounts of mobs using AOE spells. That kinds of take the tensions out many of the fights b/c the enemies become fodder for the most part. A lot of LITRPG get around this by making mobs strong and dangerous to the characters so that each kill is a mortal fight and the exp obtained is hard earned.
I wanted to give a better rating b/c this series really stands out in the crowded LITRPG field, but there are just so many little things and the big things I listed above that prevent me from giving the series a better ratings. The 3 stars mean I still like the series, but I have serious issues here and there.
July 4, 2018
This was a really interesting book. First things first. This book has a LOT of information coming at you. A LOT. I'm not going to say that this is a fast moving book, but there are a lot of little things happening at the same time. There's the fall of a god, the betrayal, the birth of new gods, being sent to hell, and then the gods warring amongst themselves, not to mention all of the drama IRL in this book. Add in the fact that things that affect you in the game have real effects on people outside the game.
With that all said, this is a story about a boy who simply wants to get accepted and just gets screwed 9 ways to Sunday, and when everything is said and done, he does the only thing that's left for him to do. He fights back as hard as he can and doesn't give an inch. The kid in the book truly does have good intentions all throughout the story, but he just keeps catching a raw deal and after being sent to hell, he starts to change into the monster that everyone wants him to become.
This is possibly one of the darker slice of life stories that I met where the boy goes from hugging his father in one chapter to literally offering up something like 2,000 demons for power. Yeah, like I said, ish gets real.
With that all said, this is a story about a boy who simply wants to get accepted and just gets screwed 9 ways to Sunday, and when everything is said and done, he does the only thing that's left for him to do. He fights back as hard as he can and doesn't give an inch. The kid in the book truly does have good intentions all throughout the story, but he just keeps catching a raw deal and after being sent to hell, he starts to change into the monster that everyone wants him to become.
This is possibly one of the darker slice of life stories that I met where the boy goes from hugging his father in one chapter to literally offering up something like 2,000 demons for power. Yeah, like I said, ish gets real.
September 20, 2020
Well Done
I will be honest, I held off on this book because of the description. Part of me wondered if this was going to be a dark version of Harry Potter in an orphanage or if this was going to be a evil version of a modern Sherlock Holmes. I am happy to say this was neither of those. The main character is young but definitely acts decades older than his age due to his difficult life situations. The terrors of living in a cruel world have shaped the main character into a young man that would appear heartless and in all honesty terrifying to those other than those he cares for. Unfortunately the number of those he cares for is fairly low. The story building is fantastic and the multiple world buildings are well written. I think the only weird thing with this book when reading it as an e-book is that there’s no real break in chapters. Other than that it was such a fantastic read and I am so excited to be picking up the next volume. Would certainly recommend!
I will be honest, I held off on this book because of the description. Part of me wondered if this was going to be a dark version of Harry Potter in an orphanage or if this was going to be a evil version of a modern Sherlock Holmes. I am happy to say this was neither of those. The main character is young but definitely acts decades older than his age due to his difficult life situations. The terrors of living in a cruel world have shaped the main character into a young man that would appear heartless and in all honesty terrifying to those other than those he cares for. Unfortunately the number of those he cares for is fairly low. The story building is fantastic and the multiple world buildings are well written. I think the only weird thing with this book when reading it as an e-book is that there’s no real break in chapters. Other than that it was such a fantastic read and I am so excited to be picking up the next volume. Would certainly recommend!
February 1, 2019
Unlike most other litrpg's this one centres around a twelve year old kid. the story is original and fresh by litrpg standards, though most of the book is just stat grinding.
Our main character is an orphan in a future in which orphans are given npc families in a game to aid in emotional development. Our main character happens to be a super genius who's also great at fighting, so he can beat up the other orphans when they try getting money from him. We join him right when he first joins the game leading to litrpg stuff with some real world sections with his psychologist sprinkled in.
The main problem with the book is the writing. I almost felt insulted by how bad it was. The book claims the main character speaks like an eighteen year old, which would be much more believable if the author didn't write like at a twelve year old level.
Our main character is an orphan in a future in which orphans are given npc families in a game to aid in emotional development. Our main character happens to be a super genius who's also great at fighting, so he can beat up the other orphans when they try getting money from him. We join him right when he first joins the game leading to litrpg stuff with some real world sections with his psychologist sprinkled in.
The main problem with the book is the writing. I almost felt insulted by how bad it was. The book claims the main character speaks like an eighteen year old, which would be much more believable if the author didn't write like at a twelve year old level.
July 21, 2018
So creepy but riveting!
In this noir tale a brilliant adolescent strives to survive in an orphanage that is horrific with its corrupt supervisor and his gang of bullies. A psychologist tries to figure out the enigma that is Anji, but she is woefully unprepared for his genius. The orphans are placed in a programme calledProject Chrysalis which places them in VR with NPC parents. In this manner the rebellious behaviour lessens allowing the children to gain a modicum of hope for a normal future. However, even inthis Anji is stymied, betrayed by those who thought were friends and must fight his way from hell and level up to wreak vengeance.
In this noir tale a brilliant adolescent strives to survive in an orphanage that is horrific with its corrupt supervisor and his gang of bullies. A psychologist tries to figure out the enigma that is Anji, but she is woefully unprepared for his genius. The orphans are placed in a programme calledProject Chrysalis which places them in VR with NPC parents. In this manner the rebellious behaviour lessens allowing the children to gain a modicum of hope for a normal future. However, even inthis Anji is stymied, betrayed by those who thought were friends and must fight his way from hell and level up to wreak vengeance.
June 2, 2018
Interesting, yet somewhat adolescent.
This was an interesting book to say the least. The main character is quite crazy! I found that it was rather childishly written at times and then more mature at others, not sure if that was done purposely or not. As it did not seem to correlate with anything related to the plot. The litrpg elements are in full swing within this book. Regardless of any hiccups this is a very entertaining read. Read this!!!
This was an interesting book to say the least. The main character is quite crazy! I found that it was rather childishly written at times and then more mature at others, not sure if that was done purposely or not. As it did not seem to correlate with anything related to the plot. The litrpg elements are in full swing within this book. Regardless of any hiccups this is a very entertaining read. Read this!!!
July 15, 2018
This was very well done, and one of the better LitRPG books I've read recently. It started out a bit more violent than I generally prefer, but it did settle down after a few chapters. It turned out to be quite an excellent story, and one I'll be sure to follow when more books in the series are released. This series won't be to everyone's liking, since it's not your typical LitRPG scenario, but those who do manage to stick with it, I think will enjoy it quite a bit.
January 25, 2019
This book was very confusing, with its language but also some weird world building and plot twists. Most of the characters were horrible people (the psychologist shouldn't be let near children) and the world was way too dark and without compassion for my tastes. Also, the ending was too abrupt. Basically, the only reason I enjoyed it to a degree is that I like litrpgs where the MC plays solo a lot and this book does that really well.
January 13, 2020
Don’t bother
It’s decent. Has an interesting main character and a rather unique plot. Only first book is free with kindle unlimited, other books are $6 each. Hate it when authors do that. Also the book shoe horns in a random female character at the end where the main character goes OOC and takes an instant liking to. Won’t bother reading the next three in the series. Mainly because it’s not worth $18.
It’s decent. Has an interesting main character and a rather unique plot. Only first book is free with kindle unlimited, other books are $6 each. Hate it when authors do that. Also the book shoe horns in a random female character at the end where the main character goes OOC and takes an instant liking to. Won’t bother reading the next three in the series. Mainly because it’s not worth $18.
November 8, 2021
This was the best LitRPG book that I have read in a while. I read it in one go because I kept wanting to find out what would happen next. It is just a really entertaining story of a person escaping and working their way out of really bad real world conditions through a videogame. Something about the story was very compelling to me, although I cannot figure out exactly what. I would highly recommend it though.
July 6, 2018
Interesting story and a much better translation than most.
However the math is wrong in almost every single stat sheet. Sometimes words and sentences don't make sense, I assume because of translation.
Transitions can be a bit abrupt, like the author knew where he was going and why, but didn't spend the time to explain it to the reader.
Overall the story carried the book for me, and I enjoyed it.
However the math is wrong in almost every single stat sheet. Sometimes words and sentences don't make sense, I assume because of translation.
Transitions can be a bit abrupt, like the author knew where he was going and why, but didn't spend the time to explain it to the reader.
Overall the story carried the book for me, and I enjoyed it.
July 15, 2018
Good Details and Characters
The book has excellent detail and good characters, great LitRPG content, and very fine editing. The plot is intriguing, and fun to follow, but there’s no indication where it will go. (Which can be good or bad, depending on your preference.) I’ll likely read the next book to see where it leads.
The book has excellent detail and good characters, great LitRPG content, and very fine editing. The plot is intriguing, and fun to follow, but there’s no indication where it will go. (Which can be good or bad, depending on your preference.) I’ll likely read the next book to see where it leads.
May 17, 2019
3.5
Dante's Inferno meets GameLit is about the best way I can describe this book. I vacillated between giving it a 3 and 4, and decided on the 4 since I found the book clever and the idea of marrying something like Inferno to modern day GameLit very commendable. I'm hoping to listen to the others in the series soon.
Dante's Inferno meets GameLit is about the best way I can describe this book. I vacillated between giving it a 3 and 4, and decided on the 4 since I found the book clever and the idea of marrying something like Inferno to modern day GameLit very commendable. I'm hoping to listen to the others in the series soon.
May 31, 2020
DNF - first person perspective after the prologue.
There are few authors that can make a first person perspective interesting, this isn't one of them. I only made it 2% through before I gave up on the diary of an angsty 12 year old. If you can identify with reading the diary of a tween, that's your business.
There are few authors that can make a first person perspective interesting, this isn't one of them. I only made it 2% through before I gave up on the diary of an angsty 12 year old. If you can identify with reading the diary of a tween, that's your business.
February 18, 2021
Meh
This was an ok story. Somethings are left out which makes for really large plot holes that you can slowly fill after reading later chapters. So as the title of this review say Meh. Definitely won't pay for the 2nd book and if it was for free on Prime I might read it if I run out of other series to read.
This was an ok story. Somethings are left out which makes for really large plot holes that you can slowly fill after reading later chapters. So as the title of this review say Meh. Definitely won't pay for the 2nd book and if it was for free on Prime I might read it if I run out of other series to read.
May 25, 2018
Wow
Very dense and interesting. I couldn't put this one down. Power leveling in hell. Old gods. Dragons. So much stuff in here. One of the better books I' be read in a while. Not fluffy or fun. Intense and intelligent.
Very dense and interesting. I couldn't put this one down. Power leveling in hell. Old gods. Dragons. So much stuff in here. One of the better books I' be read in a while. Not fluffy or fun. Intense and intelligent.
January 22, 2019
good book. fun to listen as an audiobook.
good progression. true litrpg.
lots of skipping thru time.
example: the MC started training his fire resist stat. 2 weeks later..he attained 67% resistance.
so...telling rather than showing. - 1 star
still worth a listen.
bye
good progression. true litrpg.
lots of skipping thru time.
example: the MC started training his fire resist stat. 2 weeks later..he attained 67% resistance.
so...telling rather than showing. - 1 star
still worth a listen.
bye
April 9, 2019
Of this book, the first half is the strongest. The second feels a bit rushed in my oppinion, although this is understandable since writing all of the stuff out is more or less a repeat of the first part of the book.
July 11, 2019
Deeply weird, psychologically twisted, but I kind of liked this one. Do not expect a lot of logic and know from the start that the author gets off on having his protagonist suffer and be unable to find happiness at any turn.
February 21, 2020
Brilliant
A little hard to follow in places, but this book is fantastic. Completely different to the norm, the classes, skills and other RPG aspects are well written and thoroughly enjoyable.
A little hard to follow in places, but this book is fantastic. Completely different to the norm, the classes, skills and other RPG aspects are well written and thoroughly enjoyable.
January 12, 2024
Good book
Good book, shame that the rest of the series is not available on Kindle Unlimited. I'd suggest to the author to make them available as getting KU money is better than none.
Good book, shame that the rest of the series is not available on Kindle Unlimited. I'd suggest to the author to make them available as getting KU money is better than none.
May 31, 2018
Compelling
Strength of the story kept me going inspite of certain parts which did not translate very well or was confusing.
Strength of the story kept me going inspite of certain parts which did not translate very well or was confusing.
June 2, 2018
Just Awesome
Have been reading litrpg for a while and this is the best book this year so far. Highly recommend it.
Have been reading litrpg for a while and this is the best book this year so far. Highly recommend it.
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