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Saga Online #1
Occultist
Damien thought his exams would be bad enough. Then his mother collapsed with a failing heart.
In a desperate move Damien throws himself into the Streamer Contest of Saga Online, the latest fantasy VR-MMORPG. Winning will provide the funds for his mom’s surgery. Yet early betrayal and a close run in with a vampire almost ruin his attempt before he even begins.
Stuck at the bottom of a dungeon with no gear, no allies and little hope, Damien must embrace the undiscovered Occultist class, master control of his new demonic minions and take the contest by storm.
His plan is simple enough. Topple the most famous player in Saga Online.
Summon your imps. Prepare for battle!
In a desperate move Damien throws himself into the Streamer Contest of Saga Online, the latest fantasy VR-MMORPG. Winning will provide the funds for his mom’s surgery. Yet early betrayal and a close run in with a vampire almost ruin his attempt before he even begins.
Stuck at the bottom of a dungeon with no gear, no allies and little hope, Damien must embrace the undiscovered Occultist class, master control of his new demonic minions and take the contest by storm.
His plan is simple enough. Topple the most famous player in Saga Online.
Summon your imps. Prepare for battle!
471 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 21, 2019
1090 people are currently reading
952 people want to read
About the author
Oliver Mayes
3 books171 followersHaving studied (a word used here in its loosest possible sense) Chinese in Edinburgh University for four years, Oliver Mayes has spent the last seven years living in cities across China, working (also a loose definition) a variety of different vocations. He eventually found his calling in the education sector, where he has employed his debatable talent with varying success for five years.
In literature, his strongest influences are Terry Pratchett, Issac Assimov and Douglas Adams, although there’s a special place in his heart for Steven King’s ‘The Dark Tower’ series. His gaming experience is diverse: he has vague, terrifying memories of playing platformers on the Sega, which gave way to the glory days of Pokemon Blue (where the Pocket Monsters all looked weird), Final Fantasy 9 (apparently the easiest but he loved the characters and their stories) and Command and Conquer: Tiberium Sun (along with the other thousand or so Command and Conquer titles).
He strongly believes that every game has some element of problem solving which can provide value in the real world when viewed from the correct angle, but his favorites have always been RPGs, Strategy and Turn-Based Strategy games, which he enjoys to this day.
His greatest gaming success was creating a Skyrim character named ‘Tony Stark’, levelling his Enchanting and Armorsmithing skills to 100 and creating innumerable sets of heavy armor that reduced the mana cost of his destruction spells to zero. He proceeded to destroy anything and everything that looked at him funny by spamming Impact buffed Fireballs until the game glitched out and gave up on him at approximately level 65. This is an example of the ‘direct approach’ to problem solving.
In literature, his strongest influences are Terry Pratchett, Issac Assimov and Douglas Adams, although there’s a special place in his heart for Steven King’s ‘The Dark Tower’ series. His gaming experience is diverse: he has vague, terrifying memories of playing platformers on the Sega, which gave way to the glory days of Pokemon Blue (where the Pocket Monsters all looked weird), Final Fantasy 9 (apparently the easiest but he loved the characters and their stories) and Command and Conquer: Tiberium Sun (along with the other thousand or so Command and Conquer titles).
He strongly believes that every game has some element of problem solving which can provide value in the real world when viewed from the correct angle, but his favorites have always been RPGs, Strategy and Turn-Based Strategy games, which he enjoys to this day.
His greatest gaming success was creating a Skyrim character named ‘Tony Stark’, levelling his Enchanting and Armorsmithing skills to 100 and creating innumerable sets of heavy armor that reduced the mana cost of his destruction spells to zero. He proceeded to destroy anything and everything that looked at him funny by spamming Impact buffed Fireballs until the game glitched out and gave up on him at approximately level 65. This is an example of the ‘direct approach’ to problem solving.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 221 reviews
January 28, 2019
*I read the ARC and this is a honest review*
There is no other way to put it - Occultist is a blast from the start to the end. I ended up reading it in one session - 4 hours straight in bed, beyond midnight. It is just that gripping and enjoyable.
Yes, this is a LitRPG. And yes, it might have some callbacks to other ones. But, this book is the real thing. It is genuinely funny where those other ones weren't (*cough* Ready Player One *cough*). Puns, actual jokes, pop culture references abound. In addition to the humour, the characters are amazing - each and every one of them. Bartholomew and Noigel are the stand-outs. The writing is excellent too.
The LitRPG side is pretty much your standard stuff (I guess it has to be). The class in focus is the titular 'Occultist'. The Occultist is basically a summoner class, at least in this book. If I remember correctly, I think the 'Warlock' class in D&D is quite similar. Obviously, any class with this kind of ominous name that deals with demons and the undead has heavy connotations of being evil.
The cool thing in this book is how the author is able to make the 'good' guy play the 'evil' class and vice versa. This is again, another stand out feature.
Anyway, enough rambling. I had fun reading this book. I think you will too, even if you are not a fan of LitRPGs.
There is no other way to put it - Occultist is a blast from the start to the end. I ended up reading it in one session - 4 hours straight in bed, beyond midnight. It is just that gripping and enjoyable.
Yes, this is a LitRPG. And yes, it might have some callbacks to other ones. But, this book is the real thing. It is genuinely funny where those other ones weren't (*cough* Ready Player One *cough*). Puns, actual jokes, pop culture references abound. In addition to the humour, the characters are amazing - each and every one of them. Bartholomew and Noigel are the stand-outs. The writing is excellent too.
The LitRPG side is pretty much your standard stuff (I guess it has to be). The class in focus is the titular 'Occultist'. The Occultist is basically a summoner class, at least in this book. If I remember correctly, I think the 'Warlock' class in D&D is quite similar. Obviously, any class with this kind of ominous name that deals with demons and the undead has heavy connotations of being evil.
The cool thing in this book is how the author is able to make the 'good' guy play the 'evil' class and vice versa. This is again, another stand out feature.
Anyway, enough rambling. I had fun reading this book. I think you will too, even if you are not a fan of LitRPGs.
February 7, 2019
First of all, I'd like to thank my friend Michael Miller (author of the Dragon's Blade trilogy and Battlespire) for bringing my attention to this LitRPG tale. You can follow the author Oliver Mayes here on GR or find him on Facebook. This book becomes available 21st February and is a debut novel. If you are interested you can visit www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGPortal/ for more on this.
This is a mixture of urban and fantasy adventure. A VR RPG. It is about Damien; a sixteen-year-old boy whose mother is suffering from health problems. She wants him to concentrate on his studying but he wants to play Saga Online. After her health takes a turn for the worse Damien finds himself on the run trying to avoid being taken in by the authorities.
He ends up seeking the help of a player online but is double-crossed which inadvertently leads him to the discovery of a new character class; Occultist.
He needs to gain enough views and popularity online in order to win a competition to save his mother's life. This has action and fights galore. It has humour and it has one or two sentimental bits that will likely bring a tear to the eye.
You can subscribe to Portal Books mailing list if you would like to read work by other authors in this group like:
Michael Miller (Battlespire)
Laura M Hughes (God of Gnomes)
Steven Kelliher (Mastermind: Titan Online)
Jonathan Smidt (Bone Dungeon)
Alex Knight (The Nova Online series)
Scott McCoskey (Aether Frontier)
Graeme Penman (Dungeons of Strata)
Tim Johnson (Cryokight)
Doing so now will grant access to sci-fi novelette Survivors from the Nova Online series.
www.subcribepage.com/survivors
These books have triggered my own age-old liking for RPG and I have been playing a little bit of Skyrim since reading this. But I have plenty more reading to do so I'd best get on with it!
Thanks for reading.
This is a mixture of urban and fantasy adventure. A VR RPG. It is about Damien; a sixteen-year-old boy whose mother is suffering from health problems. She wants him to concentrate on his studying but he wants to play Saga Online. After her health takes a turn for the worse Damien finds himself on the run trying to avoid being taken in by the authorities.
He ends up seeking the help of a player online but is double-crossed which inadvertently leads him to the discovery of a new character class; Occultist.
He needs to gain enough views and popularity online in order to win a competition to save his mother's life. This has action and fights galore. It has humour and it has one or two sentimental bits that will likely bring a tear to the eye.
You can subscribe to Portal Books mailing list if you would like to read work by other authors in this group like:
Michael Miller (Battlespire)
Laura M Hughes (God of Gnomes)
Steven Kelliher (Mastermind: Titan Online)
Jonathan Smidt (Bone Dungeon)
Alex Knight (The Nova Online series)
Scott McCoskey (Aether Frontier)
Graeme Penman (Dungeons of Strata)
Tim Johnson (Cryokight)
Doing so now will grant access to sci-fi novelette Survivors from the Nova Online series.
www.subcribepage.com/survivors
These books have triggered my own age-old liking for RPG and I have been playing a little bit of Skyrim since reading this. But I have plenty more reading to do so I'd best get on with it!
Thanks for reading.
June 23, 2019
Rating 1.0 stars DNF
I had this on audiobook and gave it about 3 hours. After the first 2 hours I put it down, but tried to give it another chance but could only make it another hour. The story follows Damien who is an underage gamer. He also is on the poorer echelon of society. He lied about his age and was able to get a gig as a beta tester for a VR game. It is unclear if he is making any money off of this. He does his handler a favor by going into a live broadcast underprepared and gets in trouble with his mother. His mother is sick and she is very upset with Damien because he didn't finish his school work like he promised and played the game instead. Damien has test coming up in the next month which will decide if he is able to go to college with a scholarship.
This book was not for me.
I had this on audiobook and gave it about 3 hours. After the first 2 hours I put it down, but tried to give it another chance but could only make it another hour. The story follows Damien who is an underage gamer. He also is on the poorer echelon of society. He lied about his age and was able to get a gig as a beta tester for a VR game. It is unclear if he is making any money off of this. He does his handler a favor by going into a live broadcast underprepared and gets in trouble with his mother. His mother is sick and she is very upset with Damien because he didn't finish his school work like he promised and played the game instead. Damien has test coming up in the next month which will decide if he is able to go to college with a scholarship.
This book was not for me.
March 20, 2019
The sixteen years old MC, Damien, lives with his mother in a world that has a dystopian feel to it. Damien's mother suffers from a heart condition and is on the waiting list for a transplant, but the chance of her actually getting a heart is very small. Damien can only see one way out: to get her a bionic heart. The only problem is that they're incredibly expensive. Desperate times calls for desperate measures, and and Damien is just that. A plan slowly starts to form in his head, if he can win the Saga Online competition where the price is one hundred thousand dollars, they're problem would be solved. What is a relatively simple plan, turns out to not be that easy to achieve. Thanks to unforeseen interference and circumstances, Damien starts out at the bottom of the dungeon. As he cannot do anything about this, he has to accept that he ended up with the Occultist class.
As an Occultist Damien can summon Noigel, an impish creature that fights at his side. A long with the NPC (non player character) Bartholomew, who's also Damien's teacher, you got a hilarious anti hero dream team. The dialogue and banter between these three is in a league of its own. It's funny, snarky, brutal and downright show stealing. Though, there's other characters I feel that these three are the most interesting on the "hero" side, without revealing too much. When it comes to opponents Aetherius is close to being the perfect antagonist. He's everything no one outside the online troll community could possibly like! Not only is he conceited, alluring and petty. He's the kind of character who loves to arrange someones downfall, just so he can kick them after the fall. In other words: he's the very essence of an antagonist you'll love to hate - while anxiously wait to see if he gets what he deserves.
The world building is not only thorough, it's clever. Oliver Mayes introduces readers to both the in-game world of Saga Online, and the sad world Damien really lives in. The game mechanics are clearly explained as and when needed, and while it resembles other online games it's different enough to be both intriguing and capturing. Oliver Mayes writing is truly exceptional. Everything is well thought through, and he does such a great job at staying true to the characters he created.
As an Occultist Damien can summon Noigel, an impish creature that fights at his side. A long with the NPC (non player character) Bartholomew, who's also Damien's teacher, you got a hilarious anti hero dream team. The dialogue and banter between these three is in a league of its own. It's funny, snarky, brutal and downright show stealing. Though, there's other characters I feel that these three are the most interesting on the "hero" side, without revealing too much. When it comes to opponents Aetherius is close to being the perfect antagonist. He's everything no one outside the online troll community could possibly like! Not only is he conceited, alluring and petty. He's the kind of character who loves to arrange someones downfall, just so he can kick them after the fall. In other words: he's the very essence of an antagonist you'll love to hate - while anxiously wait to see if he gets what he deserves.
The world building is not only thorough, it's clever. Oliver Mayes introduces readers to both the in-game world of Saga Online, and the sad world Damien really lives in. The game mechanics are clearly explained as and when needed, and while it resembles other online games it's different enough to be both intriguing and capturing. Oliver Mayes writing is truly exceptional. Everything is well thought through, and he does such a great job at staying true to the characters he created.
February 28, 2019
I didn't have much left when I decided I wasn't going to finish this book.
-It took too long to get to the reveal that was spoiled by the title and cover
-The MC wasn't very likable or clever or kind or brave or a hero or a villain.
-The MC was a bad gamer making stupid choices and had to be saved by the game system just happening to have hidden classes and skills that way. It always felt like luck, not skill or strategy. He is stopped from making a bad decision by something random, or someone helps him at the last moment, or he stumbles and cracks his head on a figurative pot of gold. He always fails to think beyond his next step or about how others would react to his actions. He once comments that he is more of a strategy player, than one that is suited for brute strength... That made me actually roll my eyes, I'm ashamed to say.
-The pacing and stakes were somehow ...off. Sometimes it felt like an action thriller, but in the next scene, all the tension was gone.
-Too many "bad guys" and too much "bad luck". It was hard to keep track and it felt a bit unnecessary.
I think I would have loved this book if it wasn't for the MC. I like stories of (light) revenge and finding your unique strength in a situation that seems to only be a handicap. So I'm really bummed that I just didn't like this one despite all it had going for it.
-It took too long to get to the reveal that was spoiled by the title and cover
-The MC wasn't very likable or clever or kind or brave or a hero or a villain.
-The MC was a bad gamer making stupid choices and had to be saved by the game system just happening to have hidden classes and skills that way. It always felt like luck, not skill or strategy. He is stopped from making a bad decision by something random, or someone helps him at the last moment, or he stumbles and cracks his head on a figurative pot of gold. He always fails to think beyond his next step or about how others would react to his actions. He once comments that he is more of a strategy player, than one that is suited for brute strength... That made me actually roll my eyes, I'm ashamed to say.
-The pacing and stakes were somehow ...off. Sometimes it felt like an action thriller, but in the next scene, all the tension was gone.
-Too many "bad guys" and too much "bad luck". It was hard to keep track and it felt a bit unnecessary.
I think I would have loved this book if it wasn't for the MC. I like stories of (light) revenge and finding your unique strength in a situation that seems to only be a handicap. So I'm really bummed that I just didn't like this one despite all it had going for it.
February 20, 2019
I received an eARC of this book from the publisher.
Oliver Mayes has given us an incredibly fun read in Occultist. This novel is a litRPG—a subgenre of fantasy where the story revolves around RPG games or game worlds where character stats and game quests often play a central role in the plot—that keeps the pages turning telling a really fun story. If you’re looking for a lighter read between epic stories and enjoy litRPG, this is definitely one to consider.
The story of Occultist plays out in the game world of Saga Online as well as the real world of a near future (late 21st century?) megalopolis. The main character, Damien, enters a streaming competition to earn money for a new bionic heart for his mother—which leads to a number of hijinks in the game world as well as putting him on the run from the government which wants to put him in the foster care system until his mother recovers. In this way, Occultist is actually an intensely personal story. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, the fate of the world doesn’t hang in the balance, but rather one boys’ life. I found myself engaged from the first chapter, often telling myself I would read just one more chapter before bed—and that often turned into two or more. In addition to the great pacing, Mayes gives us a fun game world and an interesting take on min/maxing a character. This will definitely have an appeal to those who enjoy D&D or MMORPGs. I never felt like the gaming elements overpowered the story, however. They played just enough of a role, and were explained just enough, to be engaging and important without being overbearing. That’s a hard balance to strike, but I think Mayes did so wonderfully. The real world portions are a little vague on worldbuilding at times, but still keep you engaged and really allow you to see the personal side of Damien. I’m curious to see where any additional books in the series may go, as I think there is a lot of potential for interesting stories in this world.
The largest weakness, for me, in Occultist was the side characters, particularly the antagonists. Damien is an interesting character—though he is a bit single-minded at times, that makes sense given his attempts to save his mother. The side characters aren’t very well fleshed out and often appeared flat or one-dimensional to me. This was most noticeable with antagonists who ended up feeling sort of vanilla. It wouldn’t have been surprising to find the main antagonist had a mustache he twirled. He was just a jerk, and we never really got to see why he was a jerk or his motivations for trying to ruin Damien’s life. I think more well-rounded side characters would have taken this from a fun read to something beyond.
Regardless, Occultist by Oliver Mayes is a litRPG that I’m happy to recommend to fans of the subgenre or to folks looking to get a taste of what the subgenre is like. It’s a fun, easy read that doesn’t ever drag. Well worth your time.
4/5 stars
5 – I loved this, couldn’t put it down, move it to the top of your TBR pile
4 – I really enjoyed this, add it to the TBR pile
3 – It was ok, depending on your preferences it may be worth your time
2 – I didn’t like this book, it has significant flaws and I can’t recommend it
1 – I loathe this book with a most loathsome loathing
Oliver Mayes has given us an incredibly fun read in Occultist. This novel is a litRPG—a subgenre of fantasy where the story revolves around RPG games or game worlds where character stats and game quests often play a central role in the plot—that keeps the pages turning telling a really fun story. If you’re looking for a lighter read between epic stories and enjoy litRPG, this is definitely one to consider.
The story of Occultist plays out in the game world of Saga Online as well as the real world of a near future (late 21st century?) megalopolis. The main character, Damien, enters a streaming competition to earn money for a new bionic heart for his mother—which leads to a number of hijinks in the game world as well as putting him on the run from the government which wants to put him in the foster care system until his mother recovers. In this way, Occultist is actually an intensely personal story. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, the fate of the world doesn’t hang in the balance, but rather one boys’ life. I found myself engaged from the first chapter, often telling myself I would read just one more chapter before bed—and that often turned into two or more. In addition to the great pacing, Mayes gives us a fun game world and an interesting take on min/maxing a character. This will definitely have an appeal to those who enjoy D&D or MMORPGs. I never felt like the gaming elements overpowered the story, however. They played just enough of a role, and were explained just enough, to be engaging and important without being overbearing. That’s a hard balance to strike, but I think Mayes did so wonderfully. The real world portions are a little vague on worldbuilding at times, but still keep you engaged and really allow you to see the personal side of Damien. I’m curious to see where any additional books in the series may go, as I think there is a lot of potential for interesting stories in this world.
The largest weakness, for me, in Occultist was the side characters, particularly the antagonists. Damien is an interesting character—though he is a bit single-minded at times, that makes sense given his attempts to save his mother. The side characters aren’t very well fleshed out and often appeared flat or one-dimensional to me. This was most noticeable with antagonists who ended up feeling sort of vanilla. It wouldn’t have been surprising to find the main antagonist had a mustache he twirled. He was just a jerk, and we never really got to see why he was a jerk or his motivations for trying to ruin Damien’s life. I think more well-rounded side characters would have taken this from a fun read to something beyond.
Regardless, Occultist by Oliver Mayes is a litRPG that I’m happy to recommend to fans of the subgenre or to folks looking to get a taste of what the subgenre is like. It’s a fun, easy read that doesn’t ever drag. Well worth your time.
4/5 stars
5 – I loved this, couldn’t put it down, move it to the top of your TBR pile
4 – I really enjoyed this, add it to the TBR pile
3 – It was ok, depending on your preferences it may be worth your time
2 – I didn’t like this book, it has significant flaws and I can’t recommend it
1 – I loathe this book with a most loathsome loathing
March 13, 2019
Full review to feature on http://fantasy-hive.co.uk/
Preview:
Occultist surprised me in the best of ways – it introduced me to more books that I probably wouldn’t have given a chance before. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have its own issues (and there are a few), but I’ll give credit where it’s due.
Whilst not my first outing in the LitRPG realm, Occultist is the first published novel in the genre that I have really enjoyed. Despite a few failings, this is a fantastic book which I hope will produce a sequel. It’s a shame that it's targeted towards LitRPG readers on the whole, as this has real general-fantasy appeal (more so if its issues were addressed). Give this a chance, because like me, you might be pleasantly surprised!
Preview:
Occultist surprised me in the best of ways – it introduced me to more books that I probably wouldn’t have given a chance before. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have its own issues (and there are a few), but I’ll give credit where it’s due.
Whilst not my first outing in the LitRPG realm, Occultist is the first published novel in the genre that I have really enjoyed. Despite a few failings, this is a fantastic book which I hope will produce a sequel. It’s a shame that it's targeted towards LitRPG readers on the whole, as this has real general-fantasy appeal (more so if its issues were addressed). Give this a chance, because like me, you might be pleasantly surprised!
February 22, 2019
Kick ass LitRPG.
I finished this on a long plane journey in a single sitting!
If you're like me, you love LitRPG, because it's all about the clever use of game mechanics to advance the story.
This book was a lot of things, funny, quick-paced, a good story and a great bad guy who you genuinely (love to) hate.
But what really shines is the combat! The fight scenes are the best. The way the main character uses his very custom build to his advantage to wreak havoc on opponents many levels above him is awesome. So many times I was happily surprised with his clever/cunning solutions. Without giving it away, you'll never look at an imp in the same way again!
The book was also super polished, I just had the sense from page 1. that this was an author who really knew his stuff.
Will be reading more of this series.
I finished this on a long plane journey in a single sitting!
If you're like me, you love LitRPG, because it's all about the clever use of game mechanics to advance the story.
This book was a lot of things, funny, quick-paced, a good story and a great bad guy who you genuinely (love to) hate.
But what really shines is the combat! The fight scenes are the best. The way the main character uses his very custom build to his advantage to wreak havoc on opponents many levels above him is awesome. So many times I was happily surprised with his clever/cunning solutions. Without giving it away, you'll never look at an imp in the same way again!
The book was also super polished, I just had the sense from page 1. that this was an author who really knew his stuff.
Will be reading more of this series.
February 23, 2019
** Thanks to Portal Books and the author for giving me the chance to read this in advance of its release **
The LitRPG genre (the best-known example being Ready Player One) is something of a narrow one. There are only a few levers to pull: the main character's real life scenario, the game mechanics, the main character's chosen "class" in-game and the conflicts therein.
The Occultist looks to mix this up a bit with the main character choosing a less traditional class, of occultist - that is, he learns the ability to summon a variety of demons and spells/abilities to use with them. This would mark The Occultist out from the crowd, if it weren't for Awaken Online already having done almost the exact same. In AO, Jason chooses a dark class and summons zombies, skeletons etc, and a large part of the early stages of this book really bear a very close resemblance to AO. We have the main character's problems at home, leading him to want to escape into the game, and to find a way to make money from his gaming hobby. The chosen in-game path is almost identical. There is an extremely strong, popular player that he wants to compete with.
From early on, I was thinking this book was a rip-off of AO. But the second half of the book is really where the book marks itself apart from AO. Whereas that book's action was focused on large scale strategy in battles, here we are scurrying around in the background picking players off one by one and there are some truly excellent action sequences, where the abilities and spells learned and the demons at Damien's disposal are used to some really creative effects. Damien looks to get some revenge on his nemesis and also to try and "level up" quickly (again, a key component of LitRPG books), and tries to pick off players as they battle other players, or take on perilous dungeons.
A lot of LitRPG books have had a very immersive gaming element, at times it was more like reading a more traditional fantasy book but where the main character was more clear what he was doing and what skills/abilities he was using. Here you are always aware the character is in a game: he "equips" clothes rather than getting dressed, there is no need for eating or sleeping, what can and can't be done, what you get from killing another character etc is so much more in line with games than in other books. This again marked it out from other books, and gave it a very different feel.
Another major selling point of The Occultist is that it doesn't mess around with time dilation (game time running at a much faster rate than real time). I don't see why so many of the other books in this genre feel the need to build this in, as it is then hard to keep it consistent, and doesn't really feel right or necessary at any time.
Also, Damien's real world troubles take more focus than in other books, as he struggles to find somewhere to live and is on the run.
My only real gripe about the book is the title of the game - Saga Online, which sounds less like an exciting MMOPRG and more like the web portal for booking a pensioners' cruise.
In summary, not an original idea (but hard to have such a thing in this genre) but a superbly well told, exciting and fun read. I heartily recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy books, games like the Witcher or just anyone looking for some real fun escapism.
The LitRPG genre (the best-known example being Ready Player One) is something of a narrow one. There are only a few levers to pull: the main character's real life scenario, the game mechanics, the main character's chosen "class" in-game and the conflicts therein.
The Occultist looks to mix this up a bit with the main character choosing a less traditional class, of occultist - that is, he learns the ability to summon a variety of demons and spells/abilities to use with them. This would mark The Occultist out from the crowd, if it weren't for Awaken Online already having done almost the exact same. In AO, Jason chooses a dark class and summons zombies, skeletons etc, and a large part of the early stages of this book really bear a very close resemblance to AO. We have the main character's problems at home, leading him to want to escape into the game, and to find a way to make money from his gaming hobby. The chosen in-game path is almost identical. There is an extremely strong, popular player that he wants to compete with.
From early on, I was thinking this book was a rip-off of AO. But the second half of the book is really where the book marks itself apart from AO. Whereas that book's action was focused on large scale strategy in battles, here we are scurrying around in the background picking players off one by one and there are some truly excellent action sequences, where the abilities and spells learned and the demons at Damien's disposal are used to some really creative effects. Damien looks to get some revenge on his nemesis and also to try and "level up" quickly (again, a key component of LitRPG books), and tries to pick off players as they battle other players, or take on perilous dungeons.
A lot of LitRPG books have had a very immersive gaming element, at times it was more like reading a more traditional fantasy book but where the main character was more clear what he was doing and what skills/abilities he was using. Here you are always aware the character is in a game: he "equips" clothes rather than getting dressed, there is no need for eating or sleeping, what can and can't be done, what you get from killing another character etc is so much more in line with games than in other books. This again marked it out from other books, and gave it a very different feel.
Another major selling point of The Occultist is that it doesn't mess around with time dilation (game time running at a much faster rate than real time). I don't see why so many of the other books in this genre feel the need to build this in, as it is then hard to keep it consistent, and doesn't really feel right or necessary at any time.
Also, Damien's real world troubles take more focus than in other books, as he struggles to find somewhere to live and is on the run.
My only real gripe about the book is the title of the game - Saga Online, which sounds less like an exciting MMOPRG and more like the web portal for booking a pensioners' cruise.
In summary, not an original idea (but hard to have such a thing in this genre) but a superbly well told, exciting and fun read. I heartily recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy books, games like the Witcher or just anyone looking for some real fun escapism.
February 25, 2019
Hugely entertaining LitRPG with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Highly recommended for both fans of and newcomers to the genre!
February 24, 2019
The ARC of Occultist was provided by the author in exchange for a review.
Occultist is a LitRPG from debut author Oliver Mayes. It isn't perfect, but damn if it isn't a hell of a ride.
Damien is a poor kid struggling to balance his studies with his gaming. His sick mother takes a turn and lands in hospital, leaving Damien to find a way to make enough money to save her. He decides his only option is to take a tilt at winning the streaming competition in his game of choice, but after a disastrous start he's left even further from his goal.
The book sets its hook deep and early, in medias res, giving some small background on the game world while simultaneously setting the stakes for Damien and introducing some of the key cast. It gets to the inciting event nice and quick, adds further conflict (both in game and out) in a natural way, and leaves the hero with the steepest of hills to climb. It's a very tight opening, right up there with the best of the sub-genre.
Damien falls into an ultra-rare class - the titular Occultist - and begins levelling. The class powers are an interesting mix of summoner and assassin, and Damien's antics as he progresses are enjoyable, learning his abilities and working on his plan for the streaming competition. There is further conflict and increasing tension outside the game also. Even so, this middle third is the weakest part of the book, and there is a strange lack of character. Damien doesn't have much of a supporting cast at this point, so maybe this was the author's intent - to reflect his isolation. I can't help but feel there were some missed opportunities here though. It could have done with a bit more self-reflection from Damien - on his dying mother, on being alone, on the people whose livelihoods he's ruined, and it could have done with more characterisation of those chasing him outside the game, the people he meets along the way, and in the game, a bit more groundwork laid for the antagonist and at least some foreshadowing of Damien's companion before she appears.
The last third of the book is back to near-perfection though, as Damien is joined by another player and the competition nears its conclusion. The final battle and the climax is a thing of beauty, and the denouement - while perhaps a little abrupt - puts a bow on things nicely.
Occultist is a more complete story than many within its sub-genre, and I'm rather curious to discover where the story will continue from here.
Occultist is a LitRPG from debut author Oliver Mayes. It isn't perfect, but damn if it isn't a hell of a ride.
Damien is a poor kid struggling to balance his studies with his gaming. His sick mother takes a turn and lands in hospital, leaving Damien to find a way to make enough money to save her. He decides his only option is to take a tilt at winning the streaming competition in his game of choice, but after a disastrous start he's left even further from his goal.
The book sets its hook deep and early, in medias res, giving some small background on the game world while simultaneously setting the stakes for Damien and introducing some of the key cast. It gets to the inciting event nice and quick, adds further conflict (both in game and out) in a natural way, and leaves the hero with the steepest of hills to climb. It's a very tight opening, right up there with the best of the sub-genre.
Damien falls into an ultra-rare class - the titular Occultist - and begins levelling. The class powers are an interesting mix of summoner and assassin, and Damien's antics as he progresses are enjoyable, learning his abilities and working on his plan for the streaming competition. There is further conflict and increasing tension outside the game also. Even so, this middle third is the weakest part of the book, and there is a strange lack of character. Damien doesn't have much of a supporting cast at this point, so maybe this was the author's intent - to reflect his isolation. I can't help but feel there were some missed opportunities here though. It could have done with a bit more self-reflection from Damien - on his dying mother, on being alone, on the people whose livelihoods he's ruined, and it could have done with more characterisation of those chasing him outside the game, the people he meets along the way, and in the game, a bit more groundwork laid for the antagonist and at least some foreshadowing of Damien's companion before she appears.
The last third of the book is back to near-perfection though, as Damien is joined by another player and the competition nears its conclusion. The final battle and the climax is a thing of beauty, and the denouement - while perhaps a little abrupt - puts a bow on things nicely.
Occultist is a more complete story than many within its sub-genre, and I'm rather curious to discover where the story will continue from here.
February 26, 2019
A litRPG done right. Fun and enjoyable take on the genre. 4/5
This book really nails a lot of the problem areas seen in other litRPG books. It sets good real world stakes for a believable protagonist, sets a good reason for the characters unique class, and good in game set up for side character motivations.
The book quickly takes you into the game and sets up the motivation. The pacing in this book is really well done and makes it so you don't want to put it down. In most litRPGs its hard to find a way to convincingly level the main protagonist and the unique class really creates an interesting way to do this.
The one issue I had with this book is thats its a bit predictable at points. This happened a few times and didn't detract from the story too much but is worth mentioning. I also really appreciated how the cute girl he meets online keeps their relationship platonic throughtout the book.
Overall I would recommend this to anyone who likes the litRPG genre or who is interested in checking it out.
This book really nails a lot of the problem areas seen in other litRPG books. It sets good real world stakes for a believable protagonist, sets a good reason for the characters unique class, and good in game set up for side character motivations.
The book quickly takes you into the game and sets up the motivation. The pacing in this book is really well done and makes it so you don't want to put it down. In most litRPGs its hard to find a way to convincingly level the main protagonist and the unique class really creates an interesting way to do this.
The one issue I had with this book is thats its a bit predictable at points. This happened a few times and didn't detract from the story too much but is worth mentioning. I also really appreciated how the cute girl he meets online keeps their relationship platonic throughtout the book.
Overall I would recommend this to anyone who likes the litRPG genre or who is interested in checking it out.
September 30, 2019
Yep, base-building is definitely my preferred theme in LitRPG. That's why I really enjoy Awaken Online and Life Reset. This book, while much less "deep" than the above, fits into the category quite nicely.
It's not pretentious. It's not really original either. But it's definitely well written, and manages to keep us engaged with a well-balanced IRL/VR yo-yo. The social comment was a bit heavy, but hey, I still had fun.
Yeah, it's nice, readable, the action is engaging. And it NOT a blatant wish-fulfilment spew. Managing to rise above that hurdle is a major plus in my book.
Well done.
It's not pretentious. It's not really original either. But it's definitely well written, and manages to keep us engaged with a well-balanced IRL/VR yo-yo. The social comment was a bit heavy, but hey, I still had fun.
Yeah, it's nice, readable, the action is engaging. And it NOT a blatant wish-fulfilment spew. Managing to rise above that hurdle is a major plus in my book.
Well done.
December 26, 2023
You will love this book even if you are not into RPG. Mayes has a great way of incorporating so many different sub genres of gamification into the book. Give it a try. You won’t be disappointed!
March 19, 2019
I find LitRPG hit and miss (and, to be honest, more miss than hit). This, however, was fantastic. A really engaging story that was difficult to stop reading. Can't wait for a sequel.
March 28, 2019
Occultist, put simply, is my kind of LitRPG - 4.5/5 rounded up.
Occultist is the first in a series written by Oliver Mayes for Portal Books. For the longest time, it and Warden graced the homepage with little information about it but the cover image. Now that I've had a chance to read it, I can say it was worth the curious wait.
Spoiler free, the novel has heavy character development, good story, numbers and stats are there and important, but not the center of the concept. There may be a few silly suspensions of disbelief, but as a whole, I really, really liked the story. When if it weren't for the ending, it would have only been four stars, but that ending. God, that ending made me laugh so hard in a good way.
Best, battle cry reasoning ever. HYAHHHHH!
I look forward to the next in the series, but honestly, I'm not sure if it needs a second since it's wrapped up so nicely. I hope that when Mayes comes back to Saga Online, he has another funstory to tell.
Occultist is the first in a series written by Oliver Mayes for Portal Books. For the longest time, it and Warden graced the homepage with little information about it but the cover image. Now that I've had a chance to read it, I can say it was worth the curious wait.
Spoiler free, the novel has heavy character development, good story, numbers and stats are there and important, but not the center of the concept. There may be a few silly suspensions of disbelief, but as a whole, I really, really liked the story. When if it weren't for the ending, it would have only been four stars, but that ending. God, that ending made me laugh so hard in a good way.
Best, battle cry reasoning ever. HYAHHHHH!
I look forward to the next in the series, but honestly, I'm not sure if it needs a second since it's wrapped up so nicely. I hope that when Mayes comes back to Saga Online, he has another funstory to tell.
February 26, 2019
One of my all time favorite LitRPG books.
I’ve read a considerable amount of books in this genre, but Occultist has definitely made its way into the top ten. The humor and unconventional tactics the main character uses are stunning, and I often found myself laughing along or gasping in surprise at particularly spectacular moments. The ending kill is the ideal combination of both, although there are also quite a few other hilarious instances scattered throughout. I look forward to seeing more work from this author, especially a continuation of this series.
I’ve read a considerable amount of books in this genre, but Occultist has definitely made its way into the top ten. The humor and unconventional tactics the main character uses are stunning, and I often found myself laughing along or gasping in surprise at particularly spectacular moments. The ending kill is the ideal combination of both, although there are also quite a few other hilarious instances scattered throughout. I look forward to seeing more work from this author, especially a continuation of this series.
February 26, 2019
Rise of the hero
At first i didnt want to read this book. It was a last choice to say the least. The description and the reviews were just not doing it for me. But then i gave it a chance and mannnnnn, this book wildly exceeded all expectations. The writing, the characters, the feels. I freaking loved this book. I took frequent breaks while at work to keep reading this through. Totally worth it. I hope there is more to come.
At first i didnt want to read this book. It was a last choice to say the least. The description and the reviews were just not doing it for me. But then i gave it a chance and mannnnnn, this book wildly exceeded all expectations. The writing, the characters, the feels. I freaking loved this book. I took frequent breaks while at work to keep reading this through. Totally worth it. I hope there is more to come.
February 22, 2019
I liked it!
This was well written and edited. The main character was certainly OP, and his skills would get nerfed in a heartbeat, but the book was really good.
This was well written and edited. The main character was certainly OP, and his skills would get nerfed in a heartbeat, but the book was really good.
March 2, 2019
This review originally appeared over at BookNest.eu ! Give the blog some luvin'!
Oliver Mayes’ debut novel, Occultist, has made a litRPG believer out of me, an accomplishment I wasn’t certain would ever be in the cards for me. All this, considering how each time I’d picked up a book in this particular subgenre of speculative fiction, I ended up walking away with devilishly bad impressions. In my experience, the litRPG genre suffers from several issues, the biggest of which are an over-reliance on nostalgia and a trend towards dense exposition, and I mean walls upon walls of text as unreadable as a bad 80’s AD&D module! But this isn’t about the subgenre as a whole, it’s about the first instalment in the Saga Online series, so let’s get into it!
Damien is sixteen years old, and lives with his mum in a world that’s got more than a hint of dystopia to it. He’s been enormously lucky getting to test a new VR headset for Moebius, the corporation behind online juggernaut Saga Online. On the night that everything goes to hell, Damien is asked by his Moebius handler Kevin to test a new enemy during a livestream; little does he know that the livestream in question exposes him to thousands of viewers, all inspired by the flippant behaviour he shows towards the horrifying new enemy boss rampaging towards him. What should’ve been a moment of triumph turns horrible when Damien gets into a colossal fight with his mum; everything turns worse yet when after the fight, she collapses and nearly dies from her heart condition. The resulting turmoil sees her waiting in line for a heart transplant with little chance of getting it before her condition proves fatal. The only alternative is a bionic heart – but these are prohibitively expensive. A desperate plan hatches in Damien’s head at this point – if he can win the Saga Online Streamer Competition, he’d get a hundred thousand dollars, more than enough for his mother’s medical expenses! Easy enough, right?
Well, maybe not. Through a number of unexpected bumps, Damien ends up at the very bottom of a dungeon, forced to accept the occultist class as his own, on the blank new character he’s been forced to create following the ridiculous amount of clones his livestream has borne into existence!
Noigel, Damien’s most important summon, and the only one with personality to speak of, was a delightful treat that could’ve played out much more annoying if not for the restraint his more impish personality traits are used with. Interactions between him, Damien and Bartholomew are nothing short of laugh-out-loud hilarious and a highlight of the writing and dialogue. Speaking of Bartholomew, now here’s an NPC (non-player character) that I want to see in a game! A vampire that’s equal parts snarky and brutal, Bartholomew is an entertaining and horrifying master and teacher to Damien, with an attitude towards him that can best be described as “Make the best of what you’ve got, no matter how fleshy, wormy and annoying what you’ve got is.” It was a pleasure to see this relationship evolve.
There’s one further character who is a major help to Damien in his hour of need, but I’d be getting into spoiler territory if I were to disclose too much about her. Let’s just say that she’s a hammer-swinging badass whose unique insight into the man we’ll next talk about is instrumental to Damien’s survival.
I’m particularly pleased with the antagonist, Aetherius. We’ve all met conceited assholes on the internet, the sort of ‘edgelords,’ as I believe Damien himself calls him, the type that build up a false image of themselves that’s alluring to the outside eye but prone to crack eventually. Aetherius is the kind of guy you’ll love to hate and will eagerly wait to get his comeuppance. On the true-and-tested scale of Umbridge-to-Voldemort, he’s definitely the sort of villain that’s easy to hate not because he’s inhuman and anathema to everything we, the readers, hold dear but because he exhibits all those aspects of ourselves we work hard not to fall into the habit of – pettiness, personal advancement over the welfare of others, the propensity to kick people when they’re down with a smile plastered on…among others! Suffice to say, wonderful job on creating someone I came not only to dislike but actively hate.
On the topic of worldbuilding: excellent job both within the game and outside. Saga Online seems like a vast game with a lot happening in it but rather than spending time to reveal every little detail of the virtual world, author Oliver Mayes never forgets whose headspace he’s in. Damien’s race against time only ever allows him to interact with a limited part of Saga Online’s world, and there’s no unnecessary introduction of elements of it that never come into play.
Not much was revealed about the real world, other than the fact that citizens are placed in different credit brackets according to their earnings (or that’s what I got), and that Damien and his mom are at the low end of this system, which explains why her heart hasn’t been replaced by a bionic ticker, as is the prerogative of the rich. As with Saga Online, we never get much of an in-depth explanation as to the state of the overarching world. That makes sense – Damien, our focalizer, is a sixteen-year-old boy. He’s been born in this world, and he takes it as is. Whatever we see through his eyes is instantly believable, and his world feels very much real.
I was pleased to discover that the game mechanics of Saga Online were explained in a clear and succinct manner. Further, to an MMORPG/RPG player like myself, they came across as familiar enough to be intuitive while also different enough from existing games to prove intriguing and capture the interest. If there’s one compliment I could give Saga Online above all others, it’s this: I legitimately wish this game existed in a VR generation or three from now. Reading about it was like reading the diary of a particularly eloquent World of Warcraft role-player…only, the gameplay of Saga Online sounds more fun in several orders of magnitude. Granted, there are some questions that would need clearing up about balancing boss fights and changing up dungeon design, maybe even an explanation into how damage works in broader terms – but now I’m thinking like a game designer and not a book reviewer.
Just like in real MMOs and RPGs, each class’ abilities are clearly defined – including those of the occultist. Working through these closely limited boundaries, Damien’s tactical mind shines. Though at first I was somewhat sad I wouldn’t be getting an occultist casting high-damage intelligence spells, the accent on controlling a small army of minions (that only grows as Damien progresses to a higher level) quickly grabbed me. To all my fellow gamers, lemme just say, some Diablo 2 Necromancer flashbacks were to be had!
The number of different applications Damien finds for his abilities, the way he deploys his minions –there are five different types of them, each more impressive than the last – and his proclivity towards preparing the most delightfully sneaky of ambushes, traps and backstabs brings about a number of really well-written combat sections.
What I could complain about – and this isn’t that big of an issue, really – is that the events that lead to Damien being an occultist are maybe a little bit too neat. On account of how quick it all happens though, that really was a non-factor for me. This ‘neatness’ does continue once or twice more, later on in the novel when one important character finds themselves in the exact spot where they could check in on Damien’s mother. I can chalk it up to good luck but some readers might find this slightly annoying.
To conclude this overlong review, I trust I’ve done a good job of explaining why I had an absolute blast reading Oliver Mayes’ Occultist. This book appealed to me not just as a reader but also as a gamer, and I am looking forward to more of it.
My score for this novel is:
• The Prose: 7.5/10 – to me, a score of ’seven’ and above here implies perfectly serviceable, good prose that has few to no issues. It won’t woo you with complex, beautiful language but it serves to tell a wonderful story.
• Pacing: 9/10
• Main Character & Supporting Cast: 10/10
• Antagonist: 4.5/5
• Action: 5/5
• Worldbuilding: 4/5
• Personal Enjoyment: 5/5
All this translates to a score of 4.5 out of 5, or a 9 out of 10!
TL;DR: Occultist is an excellent, solid read that I have an easy time recommending to any of the following:
• Gamers looking for a really fun read;
• litRPG fans;
• People who want to see assholes on the internet get their comeuppance;
• YA readers;
• Anyone looking for a read on the lighter side of fantasy, but also capable of enjoying the occasional toe-dipping in darker topics;
• And More! Prob’ly.
I’d like to thank publisher Portal Books for approaching me and offering a free copy of the novel in return for an honest review.
Oliver Mayes’ debut novel, Occultist, has made a litRPG believer out of me, an accomplishment I wasn’t certain would ever be in the cards for me. All this, considering how each time I’d picked up a book in this particular subgenre of speculative fiction, I ended up walking away with devilishly bad impressions. In my experience, the litRPG genre suffers from several issues, the biggest of which are an over-reliance on nostalgia and a trend towards dense exposition, and I mean walls upon walls of text as unreadable as a bad 80’s AD&D module! But this isn’t about the subgenre as a whole, it’s about the first instalment in the Saga Online series, so let’s get into it!
Damien is sixteen years old, and lives with his mum in a world that’s got more than a hint of dystopia to it. He’s been enormously lucky getting to test a new VR headset for Moebius, the corporation behind online juggernaut Saga Online. On the night that everything goes to hell, Damien is asked by his Moebius handler Kevin to test a new enemy during a livestream; little does he know that the livestream in question exposes him to thousands of viewers, all inspired by the flippant behaviour he shows towards the horrifying new enemy boss rampaging towards him. What should’ve been a moment of triumph turns horrible when Damien gets into a colossal fight with his mum; everything turns worse yet when after the fight, she collapses and nearly dies from her heart condition. The resulting turmoil sees her waiting in line for a heart transplant with little chance of getting it before her condition proves fatal. The only alternative is a bionic heart – but these are prohibitively expensive. A desperate plan hatches in Damien’s head at this point – if he can win the Saga Online Streamer Competition, he’d get a hundred thousand dollars, more than enough for his mother’s medical expenses! Easy enough, right?
Well, maybe not. Through a number of unexpected bumps, Damien ends up at the very bottom of a dungeon, forced to accept the occultist class as his own, on the blank new character he’s been forced to create following the ridiculous amount of clones his livestream has borne into existence!
Noigel, Damien’s most important summon, and the only one with personality to speak of, was a delightful treat that could’ve played out much more annoying if not for the restraint his more impish personality traits are used with. Interactions between him, Damien and Bartholomew are nothing short of laugh-out-loud hilarious and a highlight of the writing and dialogue. Speaking of Bartholomew, now here’s an NPC (non-player character) that I want to see in a game! A vampire that’s equal parts snarky and brutal, Bartholomew is an entertaining and horrifying master and teacher to Damien, with an attitude towards him that can best be described as “Make the best of what you’ve got, no matter how fleshy, wormy and annoying what you’ve got is.” It was a pleasure to see this relationship evolve.
There’s one further character who is a major help to Damien in his hour of need, but I’d be getting into spoiler territory if I were to disclose too much about her. Let’s just say that she’s a hammer-swinging badass whose unique insight into the man we’ll next talk about is instrumental to Damien’s survival.
I’m particularly pleased with the antagonist, Aetherius. We’ve all met conceited assholes on the internet, the sort of ‘edgelords,’ as I believe Damien himself calls him, the type that build up a false image of themselves that’s alluring to the outside eye but prone to crack eventually. Aetherius is the kind of guy you’ll love to hate and will eagerly wait to get his comeuppance. On the true-and-tested scale of Umbridge-to-Voldemort, he’s definitely the sort of villain that’s easy to hate not because he’s inhuman and anathema to everything we, the readers, hold dear but because he exhibits all those aspects of ourselves we work hard not to fall into the habit of – pettiness, personal advancement over the welfare of others, the propensity to kick people when they’re down with a smile plastered on…among others! Suffice to say, wonderful job on creating someone I came not only to dislike but actively hate.
On the topic of worldbuilding: excellent job both within the game and outside. Saga Online seems like a vast game with a lot happening in it but rather than spending time to reveal every little detail of the virtual world, author Oliver Mayes never forgets whose headspace he’s in. Damien’s race against time only ever allows him to interact with a limited part of Saga Online’s world, and there’s no unnecessary introduction of elements of it that never come into play.
Not much was revealed about the real world, other than the fact that citizens are placed in different credit brackets according to their earnings (or that’s what I got), and that Damien and his mom are at the low end of this system, which explains why her heart hasn’t been replaced by a bionic ticker, as is the prerogative of the rich. As with Saga Online, we never get much of an in-depth explanation as to the state of the overarching world. That makes sense – Damien, our focalizer, is a sixteen-year-old boy. He’s been born in this world, and he takes it as is. Whatever we see through his eyes is instantly believable, and his world feels very much real.
I was pleased to discover that the game mechanics of Saga Online were explained in a clear and succinct manner. Further, to an MMORPG/RPG player like myself, they came across as familiar enough to be intuitive while also different enough from existing games to prove intriguing and capture the interest. If there’s one compliment I could give Saga Online above all others, it’s this: I legitimately wish this game existed in a VR generation or three from now. Reading about it was like reading the diary of a particularly eloquent World of Warcraft role-player…only, the gameplay of Saga Online sounds more fun in several orders of magnitude. Granted, there are some questions that would need clearing up about balancing boss fights and changing up dungeon design, maybe even an explanation into how damage works in broader terms – but now I’m thinking like a game designer and not a book reviewer.
Just like in real MMOs and RPGs, each class’ abilities are clearly defined – including those of the occultist. Working through these closely limited boundaries, Damien’s tactical mind shines. Though at first I was somewhat sad I wouldn’t be getting an occultist casting high-damage intelligence spells, the accent on controlling a small army of minions (that only grows as Damien progresses to a higher level) quickly grabbed me. To all my fellow gamers, lemme just say, some Diablo 2 Necromancer flashbacks were to be had!
The number of different applications Damien finds for his abilities, the way he deploys his minions –there are five different types of them, each more impressive than the last – and his proclivity towards preparing the most delightfully sneaky of ambushes, traps and backstabs brings about a number of really well-written combat sections.
What I could complain about – and this isn’t that big of an issue, really – is that the events that lead to Damien being an occultist are maybe a little bit too neat. On account of how quick it all happens though, that really was a non-factor for me. This ‘neatness’ does continue once or twice more, later on in the novel when one important character finds themselves in the exact spot where they could check in on Damien’s mother. I can chalk it up to good luck but some readers might find this slightly annoying.
To conclude this overlong review, I trust I’ve done a good job of explaining why I had an absolute blast reading Oliver Mayes’ Occultist. This book appealed to me not just as a reader but also as a gamer, and I am looking forward to more of it.
My score for this novel is:
• The Prose: 7.5/10 – to me, a score of ’seven’ and above here implies perfectly serviceable, good prose that has few to no issues. It won’t woo you with complex, beautiful language but it serves to tell a wonderful story.
• Pacing: 9/10
• Main Character & Supporting Cast: 10/10
• Antagonist: 4.5/5
• Action: 5/5
• Worldbuilding: 4/5
• Personal Enjoyment: 5/5
All this translates to a score of 4.5 out of 5, or a 9 out of 10!
TL;DR: Occultist is an excellent, solid read that I have an easy time recommending to any of the following:
• Gamers looking for a really fun read;
• litRPG fans;
• People who want to see assholes on the internet get their comeuppance;
• YA readers;
• Anyone looking for a read on the lighter side of fantasy, but also capable of enjoying the occasional toe-dipping in darker topics;
• And More! Prob’ly.
I’d like to thank publisher Portal Books for approaching me and offering a free copy of the novel in return for an honest review.
June 21, 2019
Fully formed, in and out
This story came through very genuine. While I was expecting the ending that happened, the way that the author pieced everything to matter was great.
In a lot of Gamelit novels, we are mostly concerned about what happens in game but the RL sections were just as important to the overall story as what was happening in game.
This was nearly a 5 star for me.
This story came through very genuine. While I was expecting the ending that happened, the way that the author pieced everything to matter was great.
In a lot of Gamelit novels, we are mostly concerned about what happens in game but the RL sections were just as important to the overall story as what was happening in game.
This was nearly a 5 star for me.
December 31, 2021
From a game design perspective Saga online makes no sense. The hidden class system is completely broken, to find one of these classes you have to go so far against what the system actually tells you to do it’s not even funny. When you start Saga online you land in a starting zone with immediate prompts to go pick a class and jump into basic training. If you try to leave this zone the system informs you that this is a really bad idea, even though it is the only way to randomly stumble upon a hidden class master. Now if you could reroll your class then this wouldn’t really be a problem but since you are locked in once you pick something it’s basically like the game is tricking you into picking a class, thinking that that is the only selection there is, but in actuality you have to stumble ass over backwards into a hidden class master if you want something more exotic.
So, this will be a bit nitpicky, but the actual streaming portion of the book doesn’t really make any sense either. First, when they say streaming what they actually mean is just making a video. Normally when you say streaming you mean live-streaming, that is having a live video feed. Even so the numbers do not really add up. The most popular streamer in this game has around 2 million viewers for his page, but this is nothing compared to popular streamers today or youtubers. If this is around 80-100 years in the future, and video games continue to expand in popularity along with increase in a population that plays games then it would make sense for the numbers to be in the tens of millions.
Something that personally irks me having read a couple of Litrpg stories is how they are all missing a part of the video game community, spend any amount of time in a multiplayer game of your choice or on a forum discussing video games, or in a popular video game stream and a fact will be revealed to you. That is the fundamental degeneracy and sweatiness of the people who make video games their hobbies. These people who have humor as dark as their mom’s basement and will type up horrific profanities with Dorito-stained fingers. But these stories always feel like a cleaned-up version of the nerd-drama that happens. I want people fighting over loot, E-girl scandals and people being complete assholes on the regular.
Another thing that grinds my gears is how stories like these often take place in a VR-MMO, but they are almost always about a single players rise to glory through solo grinding. This book almost entirely eschews the social experience that is at the core of these games and makes it seem like playing solo is a valid or superior way to go about things. For the first 80% of the game the only people in the game that the mc talks to is the bad guy for about two seconds in the set up and then a couple of AI NPC’s. Even when there is a large-scale battle it feels like its just a glorified single player game where Damien pulls all the strings to kill a bunch of faceless goons.
LITRPGs have managed to take the fantastical and somehow make it boring and mundane. Every deeper question like, how does this fantasy society work, how do the people living in a fantastical world view life in a way that differs from a human living in our age, how does the magic work, and so on, is instantly negated by the fact that it is all just a game system, so it literally does not matter. In-world politics, creature ecosystems, magic, history and lore, are questions that does not matter because the player doesn’t actually live in this world, they are just tourists so these questions don’t really matter and have zero impact on the plot. Besides that, the world building is about as vanilla fantasy as you get. There are elves, vampires, demons and they all behave exactly how you have been conditioned to think that these things behave. Instead of creating a living, breathing world that makes sense the author just copy-pasted a fantasy world from a bog-standard rpg.
The world outside the game is even more confusing. The time-period is somewhere around 2100 but you would have me believe that people still work 9-5 when we can produce AI so believable that one can have a spontaneous conversation with one and they adapt on the fly like Barthe-whatever his name was. That once automatically driven cars become the norm that people would still be allowed to drive around as a possible security risk. That people with access to deep VR tech still use keyboards and have landlines in their homes.
Damien is the definition of bland. He is 16, lives with his mom, has not had anything interesting or character defining happen to him that shows through his mannerisms. There are so many questions that pop up for me about him, like, does he not have any friends? And if so, why is this never brought up? Is this normal is this world of seeming schooling from a distance? How did he get into contact with Kevin if he does not have any social network? He feels like such a blank slate character, he does not have any defining personality that really stands out and he barely feels connected to the world at large before the story. He is not that smart, not brave, he does not have deep game knowledge, no intrinsic goal except save mom, he is not particularly funny or charming. He doesn’t have any interesting realizations like how the discovering a brand-new class would give him a leg up in a popularity contest or how obviously the enemy guild would respond when he declared war on them, instead he just blunders into these things and they just work out because plot armor. For a person whose sole interest seem to be playing video games and watching other people do the same he isn’t particularly talented, and he mostly lucks into stuff, I mean he literally falls on top of a hidden class.
I rolled my eyes when Lilliane was introduced. Of course, the nice medical student gamer girl was also going to be superhot. It would have humanized her to have her edit her in-game avatar to look better than her real life but no, she is just an all-around good person, which also makes he completely boring and lifeless.
It is really annoying how a character explains something and then Damien takes that and translates it into ‘gaming’ lingo. The readers gets exposed to the same information twice and it is horribly inefficient use of page space. That goes double for all the abilities in the game. Every time Damien learns a new spell, he is presented with a whole bunch of exposition that goes along with it like mana costs and health and so on. Problem is that most of it is not relevant to the actual story. Damien never goes out of mana so being presented with the mana costs serve no purpose, the soul well never gets attacked so knowing how much health it has is totally irrelevant. Yet these are brought up time and time again, breaking the flow of the story but adding very little. LITRPG’s tend to throw a bunch of stats at you like this was a game, but the difference is that a reader lacks the context of what this actually means. Say you looked at your character sheet in a rpg and saw that you had 5 strength. You could then easily cross reference this with another character the same level as you, or a mob, to see if this is good, bad or mediocre. You have access to the HP/MP of every other character easily and other stats are easy to look up, so you get a bigger picture perspective on what these stats actually mean. The problem comes when you try to transfer this information into book form. Since the author can’t just info dump constantly about ability numbers and stat sheets without breaking the story, you are left with something in between a game and a book and it is utterly useless info that doesn’t contribute anything to the story being told.
The structure of the book is.. good. Why I say it that way is because it feels like the author wrote from an instruction manual about how to keep tension flow. It starts to become obvious when a dip in the story is going to happen, and then when the story needs a victory. For me it breaks immersion when I start to see the scaffolding of how the book was constructed.
To summarize my thoughts on the occultist: it is a pretty basic Litrpg story, there is nothing new or all that interesting here. The systems aren’t that well thought out, the world building is basic, the characters are well meaning and bland. Instead of prioritizing in-game social dynamics and drama there is instead a total focus on a single, rather boring, players rise to glory through bad game design.
Even though I tend to be hyper-critical I still think this is a good first time showing for the author. The story made sense; the language used was functional enough it was perfectly readable even though it is not to my tastes. I can see why other people that don’t care about my complaints would enjoy it. The author has potential to grow and I hope he stops using the crux of the litrpg formula since I think it mostly just acts as a hinderance.
So, this will be a bit nitpicky, but the actual streaming portion of the book doesn’t really make any sense either. First, when they say streaming what they actually mean is just making a video. Normally when you say streaming you mean live-streaming, that is having a live video feed. Even so the numbers do not really add up. The most popular streamer in this game has around 2 million viewers for his page, but this is nothing compared to popular streamers today or youtubers. If this is around 80-100 years in the future, and video games continue to expand in popularity along with increase in a population that plays games then it would make sense for the numbers to be in the tens of millions.
Something that personally irks me having read a couple of Litrpg stories is how they are all missing a part of the video game community, spend any amount of time in a multiplayer game of your choice or on a forum discussing video games, or in a popular video game stream and a fact will be revealed to you. That is the fundamental degeneracy and sweatiness of the people who make video games their hobbies. These people who have humor as dark as their mom’s basement and will type up horrific profanities with Dorito-stained fingers. But these stories always feel like a cleaned-up version of the nerd-drama that happens. I want people fighting over loot, E-girl scandals and people being complete assholes on the regular.
Another thing that grinds my gears is how stories like these often take place in a VR-MMO, but they are almost always about a single players rise to glory through solo grinding. This book almost entirely eschews the social experience that is at the core of these games and makes it seem like playing solo is a valid or superior way to go about things. For the first 80% of the game the only people in the game that the mc talks to is the bad guy for about two seconds in the set up and then a couple of AI NPC’s. Even when there is a large-scale battle it feels like its just a glorified single player game where Damien pulls all the strings to kill a bunch of faceless goons.
LITRPGs have managed to take the fantastical and somehow make it boring and mundane. Every deeper question like, how does this fantasy society work, how do the people living in a fantastical world view life in a way that differs from a human living in our age, how does the magic work, and so on, is instantly negated by the fact that it is all just a game system, so it literally does not matter. In-world politics, creature ecosystems, magic, history and lore, are questions that does not matter because the player doesn’t actually live in this world, they are just tourists so these questions don’t really matter and have zero impact on the plot. Besides that, the world building is about as vanilla fantasy as you get. There are elves, vampires, demons and they all behave exactly how you have been conditioned to think that these things behave. Instead of creating a living, breathing world that makes sense the author just copy-pasted a fantasy world from a bog-standard rpg.
The world outside the game is even more confusing. The time-period is somewhere around 2100 but you would have me believe that people still work 9-5 when we can produce AI so believable that one can have a spontaneous conversation with one and they adapt on the fly like Barthe-whatever his name was. That once automatically driven cars become the norm that people would still be allowed to drive around as a possible security risk. That people with access to deep VR tech still use keyboards and have landlines in their homes.
Damien is the definition of bland. He is 16, lives with his mom, has not had anything interesting or character defining happen to him that shows through his mannerisms. There are so many questions that pop up for me about him, like, does he not have any friends? And if so, why is this never brought up? Is this normal is this world of seeming schooling from a distance? How did he get into contact with Kevin if he does not have any social network? He feels like such a blank slate character, he does not have any defining personality that really stands out and he barely feels connected to the world at large before the story. He is not that smart, not brave, he does not have deep game knowledge, no intrinsic goal except save mom, he is not particularly funny or charming. He doesn’t have any interesting realizations like how the discovering a brand-new class would give him a leg up in a popularity contest or how obviously the enemy guild would respond when he declared war on them, instead he just blunders into these things and they just work out because plot armor. For a person whose sole interest seem to be playing video games and watching other people do the same he isn’t particularly talented, and he mostly lucks into stuff, I mean he literally falls on top of a hidden class.
I rolled my eyes when Lilliane was introduced. Of course, the nice medical student gamer girl was also going to be superhot. It would have humanized her to have her edit her in-game avatar to look better than her real life but no, she is just an all-around good person, which also makes he completely boring and lifeless.
It is really annoying how a character explains something and then Damien takes that and translates it into ‘gaming’ lingo. The readers gets exposed to the same information twice and it is horribly inefficient use of page space. That goes double for all the abilities in the game. Every time Damien learns a new spell, he is presented with a whole bunch of exposition that goes along with it like mana costs and health and so on. Problem is that most of it is not relevant to the actual story. Damien never goes out of mana so being presented with the mana costs serve no purpose, the soul well never gets attacked so knowing how much health it has is totally irrelevant. Yet these are brought up time and time again, breaking the flow of the story but adding very little. LITRPG’s tend to throw a bunch of stats at you like this was a game, but the difference is that a reader lacks the context of what this actually means. Say you looked at your character sheet in a rpg and saw that you had 5 strength. You could then easily cross reference this with another character the same level as you, or a mob, to see if this is good, bad or mediocre. You have access to the HP/MP of every other character easily and other stats are easy to look up, so you get a bigger picture perspective on what these stats actually mean. The problem comes when you try to transfer this information into book form. Since the author can’t just info dump constantly about ability numbers and stat sheets without breaking the story, you are left with something in between a game and a book and it is utterly useless info that doesn’t contribute anything to the story being told.
The structure of the book is.. good. Why I say it that way is because it feels like the author wrote from an instruction manual about how to keep tension flow. It starts to become obvious when a dip in the story is going to happen, and then when the story needs a victory. For me it breaks immersion when I start to see the scaffolding of how the book was constructed.
To summarize my thoughts on the occultist: it is a pretty basic Litrpg story, there is nothing new or all that interesting here. The systems aren’t that well thought out, the world building is basic, the characters are well meaning and bland. Instead of prioritizing in-game social dynamics and drama there is instead a total focus on a single, rather boring, players rise to glory through bad game design.
Even though I tend to be hyper-critical I still think this is a good first time showing for the author. The story made sense; the language used was functional enough it was perfectly readable even though it is not to my tastes. I can see why other people that don’t care about my complaints would enjoy it. The author has potential to grow and I hope he stops using the crux of the litrpg formula since I think it mostly just acts as a hinderance.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 3, 2019
OH MY GOD! THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD!
Any fantasy fan would like and appreciate this book. Oliver Mayes is a professional-level storyteller, which means that he's a demigod-level LitRPG storyteller. The plot was compelling and the pace was perfect. The stat numbers game, min/max strategy, level progression, and new skill/talent/spell acquisition elements are all there, but they never make you feel like you're reading a changelog or Excel spreadsheet. LitRPG fans should read if they liked Cradle, Sufficiently Advanced Magic, and/or Dante's Immortality.
I would say that this is a great book for a fantasy fan thinking about checking out LitRPGs, but that would imply that there are other great, yet-unmentioned, LitRPGs that one could move on to.
[PROS]
- A little cultivation and a little progression fantasy (on par with Arcane Ascension).
- Protagonist literally lands on a hidden class of character (much like Dante's Immortality).
- Hidden class is a cross between warlock (WoW), necromancer (Diablo, WC), and witch doctor (Diablo). Class pets exhibit awesome personalities and customs (think of PG13 Dominion of Blades).
- Battles are described very well and the RPG mechanics are integrated into the action without turning the whole thing into a combat log readout.
- There's plenty of gamer nostalgia, but it is done with care and subtlety, instead of bouncing from one old meme to another.
- Chapters that take place in the real world, never make you go into VR world withdrawals. There's plottin' and action to be had in the real world.
- The plot is a crafted like a highway. There are no holes in the pavement. There will be sings, on the side, to let you know what's coming up. If you find yourself taking an exit, you'll find a convenience station to fill up on gas and beef jerky, before the on-ramp gets you back on track.
** THE AUDIOBOOK IS SO VERY GOOD! **
[CONS AND NEUTRAL ELEMENTS]
- This is probably the only con: there are a few cringe'y lines in there, that deal with internet and gaming culture, specifically, dialogue and online comments. IN MAYES DEFENSE, I'm pretty sure there isn't a way to de-cringe that which lies at the crossroads of the internet and gaming. This is a TINY con. Altogether, there's probably less than ten lines of cringe in the entire book.
Any fantasy fan would like and appreciate this book. Oliver Mayes is a professional-level storyteller, which means that he's a demigod-level LitRPG storyteller. The plot was compelling and the pace was perfect. The stat numbers game, min/max strategy, level progression, and new skill/talent/spell acquisition elements are all there, but they never make you feel like you're reading a changelog or Excel spreadsheet. LitRPG fans should read if they liked Cradle, Sufficiently Advanced Magic, and/or Dante's Immortality.
I would say that this is a great book for a fantasy fan thinking about checking out LitRPGs, but that would imply that there are other great, yet-unmentioned, LitRPGs that one could move on to.
[PROS]
- A little cultivation and a little progression fantasy (on par with Arcane Ascension).
- Protagonist literally lands on a hidden class of character (much like Dante's Immortality).
- Hidden class is a cross between warlock (WoW), necromancer (Diablo, WC), and witch doctor (Diablo). Class pets exhibit awesome personalities and customs (think of PG13 Dominion of Blades).
- Battles are described very well and the RPG mechanics are integrated into the action without turning the whole thing into a combat log readout.
- There's plenty of gamer nostalgia, but it is done with care and subtlety, instead of bouncing from one old meme to another.
- Chapters that take place in the real world, never make you go into VR world withdrawals. There's plottin' and action to be had in the real world.
- The plot is a crafted like a highway. There are no holes in the pavement. There will be sings, on the side, to let you know what's coming up. If you find yourself taking an exit, you'll find a convenience station to fill up on gas and beef jerky, before the on-ramp gets you back on track.
** THE AUDIOBOOK IS SO VERY GOOD! **
[CONS AND NEUTRAL ELEMENTS]
- This is probably the only con: there are a few cringe'y lines in there, that deal with internet and gaming culture, specifically, dialogue and online comments. IN MAYES DEFENSE, I'm pretty sure there isn't a way to de-cringe that which lies at the crossroads of the internet and gaming. This is a TINY con. Altogether, there's probably less than ten lines of cringe in the entire book.
February 25, 2019
Damn good
It's not often you find books about pkers that you can get behind more often than not the pking mcs are slot like aetherus or whatever the douche bags name was. Whereas damien was enjoyable he killed players because his class pushed for pvp and he only killed asshats I loved it and am looking forward to book 2. The only complaint I really had was from time to time Mayes would have damien thinking of his mother yet wrote it as 'Cassandra needs this' might be a cultural thing but if I were to even think of my mom by her name especially if she was in the hospital she would get out of bed and beat the imps out of me. A good read and a real page Turner you need to give this one a shot
It's not often you find books about pkers that you can get behind more often than not the pking mcs are slot like aetherus or whatever the douche bags name was. Whereas damien was enjoyable he killed players because his class pushed for pvp and he only killed asshats I loved it and am looking forward to book 2. The only complaint I really had was from time to time Mayes would have damien thinking of his mother yet wrote it as 'Cassandra needs this' might be a cultural thing but if I were to even think of my mom by her name especially if she was in the hospital she would get out of bed and beat the imps out of me. A good read and a real page Turner you need to give this one a shot
February 26, 2019
RPG Goodness
I’ve avoided reading the litrpg books for a while. Hesitant to sully my memories of rolling for stats while creating new characters, I guess. I really should have just let that go. I’ve read two so far and enjoyed them both thoroughly. They’re well written, well plotted, and you really get to enjoy the growth of the person behind the toon, as well as the leveling aspects of the toon itself. I’m old enough to have played D&D, then Everquest, and World of Warcraft, and these books bring back a lot of memories. Thanks for the great work. Oh! Good editing, too. Nothing worse than a bad editor.
I’ve avoided reading the litrpg books for a while. Hesitant to sully my memories of rolling for stats while creating new characters, I guess. I really should have just let that go. I’ve read two so far and enjoyed them both thoroughly. They’re well written, well plotted, and you really get to enjoy the growth of the person behind the toon, as well as the leveling aspects of the toon itself. I’m old enough to have played D&D, then Everquest, and World of Warcraft, and these books bring back a lot of memories. Thanks for the great work. Oh! Good editing, too. Nothing worse than a bad editor.
March 4, 2019
Book one
Mistakes: I found only two. The MC hit PvP 20 twice, and it's scarfed not scoffed.
Plot: I was laughing throughout this book. The humour was really well done. You also get a complete story, no stupid cliffhanger ending.
Characters: While at times the MC seemed more like 13 instead of 16 when it came to his mother, the interactions with other characters was well done and full of laughter for me as the reader.
9/10 Been a long time since I've laughed that much while reading a book.
Mistakes: I found only two. The MC hit PvP 20 twice, and it's scarfed not scoffed.
Plot: I was laughing throughout this book. The humour was really well done. You also get a complete story, no stupid cliffhanger ending.
Characters: While at times the MC seemed more like 13 instead of 16 when it came to his mother, the interactions with other characters was well done and full of laughter for me as the reader.
9/10 Been a long time since I've laughed that much while reading a book.
March 13, 2019
best in its genre i’ve found so far
The balance between the RPG and story elements in this book is wonderful.
Well written, with a knack for witty descriptions that at times made me actually laugh out loud.
the only thing i didn’t enjoy all that much was some aspects of the main character. he seems to be entirely incapable of thinking for himself when it comes to his real life, he’s reactionary, dramatic, really stupid at some points... in other words, he’s a 16 year-old. Since that matches with his age in the story, it wasn’t really a negative.
if you like litRPG, or even just fantasy books, this is a great example of this genre done right.
The balance between the RPG and story elements in this book is wonderful.
Well written, with a knack for witty descriptions that at times made me actually laugh out loud.
the only thing i didn’t enjoy all that much was some aspects of the main character. he seems to be entirely incapable of thinking for himself when it comes to his real life, he’s reactionary, dramatic, really stupid at some points... in other words, he’s a 16 year-old. Since that matches with his age in the story, it wasn’t really a negative.
if you like litRPG, or even just fantasy books, this is a great example of this genre done right.
March 12, 2019
Great
I thought this was a really good book. The game play and mechanics were good. I enjoyed the new spells, abilities, and building upgrades. Author did a good job keeping a good pace with action and story and character development. I found the real world part a little annoying, but it was small enough to not really to take away from all the good. There were a couple holes for me, which many authors do this at the end of a story. What were MC's gains from the epic battle and when he reached level 30 there was a building upgrade never explained. Maybe all of this is left for the beginning of the next book. Overall I thought it was great and I hope the author continues writing.
I thought this was a really good book. The game play and mechanics were good. I enjoyed the new spells, abilities, and building upgrades. Author did a good job keeping a good pace with action and story and character development. I found the real world part a little annoying, but it was small enough to not really to take away from all the good. There were a couple holes for me, which many authors do this at the end of a story. What were MC's gains from the epic battle and when he reached level 30 there was a building upgrade never explained. Maybe all of this is left for the beginning of the next book. Overall I thought it was great and I hope the author continues writing.
Read
February 23, 2019Such a great read!
This book was way more than I expected! It was so much fun. I love litrpg that explores new classes, so that pulled me in. Then the humor and excitement kept me there. The interactions between Daemien, Bartholomew and Niogel are awesome. And who doesn't like a bully getting his due? I also really liked the moral of the story. I want to be a Scorpious!
This book was way more than I expected! It was so much fun. I love litrpg that explores new classes, so that pulled me in. Then the humor and excitement kept me there. The interactions between Daemien, Bartholomew and Niogel are awesome. And who doesn't like a bully getting his due? I also really liked the moral of the story. I want to be a Scorpious!
March 10, 2019
Great book
honestly I was only 30% into the book or so when I knew for a fact if nothing changed this was going to get a five star review. I laughed for a good solid 2-3 minutes at that point. There were so many little things throughout this book that just made it a very enjoyable and a fun read. I am going to be watching out for the sequel.
honestly I was only 30% into the book or so when I knew for a fact if nothing changed this was going to get a five star review. I laughed for a good solid 2-3 minutes at that point. There were so many little things throughout this book that just made it a very enjoyable and a fun read. I am going to be watching out for the sequel.
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