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The Greystone Chronicles #1
Io Online
In the latter half of the 21st century, Alexander and his guild mates play Io Online for fun and to earn a living. It’s the largest VRMMORPG on the planet, and the source of income that supports families around the globe. While completing a rare “First Kill” dungeon in hopes of epic loot, they discover that demons, who have not been seen in the realm for ages, have once again invaded Io.
Given the chance to test a new experimental immersion system, the friends must give up their high level characters and begin again at level one. As they work through the noob zone quests, they discover that the new immersion system allows them to play in ways that hadn’t been possible before. Casting is faster. Movement more fluid. Even magic itself behaves differently.
They quickly run afoul of a party of player killers, and become the targets of an entire PK guild bent on spawn camping them until they leave the game. War has been declared.
The fight expands into populated areas, where innocent citizens are murdered, and player accounts are terminated. The guild works to help citizens rebuild what has been destroyed, but are repeatedly forced to stop and defend against enemy attacks.
After the gods of Io and a powerful being of darkness get involved, Alexander and his friends learn the hard way that their in-game actions have consequences, both in the game, and in the real world.
**This is a LITRPG novel. Which means that in addition to monster fights, dungeon runs, crafting adventures, and battles of swords and magic, there are game elements involved. If you’ve not played MMORPG’s or even tabletop RPG’s, or you don’t know what those terms mean, this book may not be for you. For the uninitiated, there is a sort of cheat-sheet narrative in the back of the book.
Warning: This book contains adult language.
Given the chance to test a new experimental immersion system, the friends must give up their high level characters and begin again at level one. As they work through the noob zone quests, they discover that the new immersion system allows them to play in ways that hadn’t been possible before. Casting is faster. Movement more fluid. Even magic itself behaves differently.
They quickly run afoul of a party of player killers, and become the targets of an entire PK guild bent on spawn camping them until they leave the game. War has been declared.
The fight expands into populated areas, where innocent citizens are murdered, and player accounts are terminated. The guild works to help citizens rebuild what has been destroyed, but are repeatedly forced to stop and defend against enemy attacks.
After the gods of Io and a powerful being of darkness get involved, Alexander and his friends learn the hard way that their in-game actions have consequences, both in the game, and in the real world.
**This is a LITRPG novel. Which means that in addition to monster fights, dungeon runs, crafting adventures, and battles of swords and magic, there are game elements involved. If you’ve not played MMORPG’s or even tabletop RPG’s, or you don’t know what those terms mean, this book may not be for you. For the uninitiated, there is a sort of cheat-sheet narrative in the back of the book.
Warning: This book contains adult language.
443 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 1, 2019
886 people are currently reading
423 people want to read
About the author
Dave Willmarth
31 books628 followersDave is a part-time author who would love to live full time in the game worlds he creates.
A gamer since the 70's, he loves the idea of being able to mix the science of virtual reality with the fantasy worlds inspired by great writers such as JRR Tokien and CS Lewis.
Dave has always wanted to be a writer. Over the past three decades he started and put away a dozen novels, distracted by work or life.
The dream of being an author seemed distant.
That is until recently, when he discovered the LitRPG/GameLit genre full of books that combined his love for video games and epic fantasy adventures. He was inspired by the books he read, and the authors who wrote them. So much so that he sat down and wrote the first two books of The Greystone Chronicles in just over a month. He published the first as an experiment, and was shocked at the response. These days he sits in his man cave late at night and writes the stories of characters he'd like to be, in worlds virtually without limits.
A gamer since the 70's, he loves the idea of being able to mix the science of virtual reality with the fantasy worlds inspired by great writers such as JRR Tokien and CS Lewis.
Dave has always wanted to be a writer. Over the past three decades he started and put away a dozen novels, distracted by work or life.
The dream of being an author seemed distant.
That is until recently, when he discovered the LitRPG/GameLit genre full of books that combined his love for video games and epic fantasy adventures. He was inspired by the books he read, and the authors who wrote them. So much so that he sat down and wrote the first two books of The Greystone Chronicles in just over a month. He published the first as an experiment, and was shocked at the response. These days he sits in his man cave late at night and writes the stories of characters he'd like to be, in worlds virtually without limits.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 123 reviews
July 24, 2018
I don't normally write reviews, mostly because I feel everyone has such personal tastes that it's hard to write something useful, but also I'm lazy.
That disclaimer aside I'm chosing to write one for this novel because it's a new author and I'm trying to add some constructive critiscm. So in a certain sense this is more directed towards the author than potential readers.
So here we go pro/cons:
Pros - characters
That's it, but it's a true strength for me. The author writes with a glowingly hopefully optimism that I genuinely enjoyed. He has a balanced cast that interacts well together, but tends to fall back on tropes and reuse jokes which can counter act this strength.
Cons - I'm just going to focus what I felt were the most salient mistakes. Which to me are twofold:
1 - The lack of true struggle/conflict for the heroes. They never face a real challenge, thus there is absolutely no plot. They have nothing but cardboard cutouts as antagonists.
2 - Litrpg as a genre even more than traditional fantasy tries to clearly define character growth through defined metrics, whether it be levels, character stats, magic schools or whatever. If you choose to use that model you need to make the characters operate under the same conditions as everyone in the same reality. So consistent growth curves, clearly delineated
boundaries, and relative values need to matter, otherwise what is the point of creating such a distinctive ranking system within the narrative?
Just a few thoughts that might prevent your future endeavors from projecting to much wish fulfillment. I really did enjoy your characters empathy, but I just couldn't stay immersed in the book's reality.
That disclaimer aside I'm chosing to write one for this novel because it's a new author and I'm trying to add some constructive critiscm. So in a certain sense this is more directed towards the author than potential readers.
So here we go pro/cons:
Pros - characters
That's it, but it's a true strength for me. The author writes with a glowingly hopefully optimism that I genuinely enjoyed. He has a balanced cast that interacts well together, but tends to fall back on tropes and reuse jokes which can counter act this strength.
Cons - I'm just going to focus what I felt were the most salient mistakes. Which to me are twofold:
1 - The lack of true struggle/conflict for the heroes. They never face a real challenge, thus there is absolutely no plot. They have nothing but cardboard cutouts as antagonists.
2 - Litrpg as a genre even more than traditional fantasy tries to clearly define character growth through defined metrics, whether it be levels, character stats, magic schools or whatever. If you choose to use that model you need to make the characters operate under the same conditions as everyone in the same reality. So consistent growth curves, clearly delineated
boundaries, and relative values need to matter, otherwise what is the point of creating such a distinctive ranking system within the narrative?
Just a few thoughts that might prevent your future endeavors from projecting to much wish fulfillment. I really did enjoy your characters empathy, but I just couldn't stay immersed in the book's reality.
May 24, 2018
This was a LitRPG done well. It didn't have many specifics in line with Ready Player One yet I kept having flashbacks of it. It felt good :-)
Io Online is set some 50+ years in the future. Time of a complicated political situation and generally bad state of humanity. People became immersed in the VR MMO RPG, playing a game and selling loot on the in-game Auction House for real cash. Many people actually depended on Io Online to provide for their families. RP1, right?
Being fully immersed in the gaming world using Virtual Reality technology is awesome. And they made it awesome-r!
However, the story is very different and has no ties to RP1 but the vague setting of the real world and Oasis. I liked it. It was truly interesting and I cared about what was going on, inside the VR and in the real world.
I particularly liked the world building. You can tell it was heavily influenced by the World of Warcraft, but I didn't mind. Sometimes it's better not to reinvent the wheel and instead write inside already known, and widely accepted and used, framework.
That let the writer go nuts on the in-game magic rules. Which led to one the issues I had with the book. It looks like if you are smart enough you can always come up with a creative resolution to the problem and beat everyone. But why aren't your opponents a bit smarter? The main character had it too easy for my liking.
I needed more dark, more gloom and despair. Here we had difficulties and everyone pitched in to help resolve them. Like a day at work, rather than fighting a full out war.
Yes, let's declare war to the only Player vs Player guild on the server while we are lowbies! What's the worse that can happen?
Yet, this isn't the thing that bothered me the most. It was fun, had a few really awesome jokes, and writing style allowed Jeff Hays to turn his star power to 11. I've seen many videos on his YouTube page and, although he has a lot of fun when working, I know it requires a lot of time and effort. He and Laurie nailed this book.
So, why 4* if this was a great book?
God damn building. Dave went so far above the scope of "helping villagers rebuild their razed town". He came up with some pretty interesting concepts about material shaping and molding and got seriously carried away. I mean - he went full nuts with it.
The book is 15-ish minutes shy of 15 hours. 2 of those hours were spent almost exclusively learning about different building blueprints and ways that stone can be shaped to build 20x40 room, 30x30, 10x40... you get the point.
Jeff's narrations always have consistent speed so it was a breeze to listen to the book on 1.30x speed. Still, I had the hardest of times forcing myself not to skip ahead. It was a completely new feeling - I want to listen to the book and I want to skip parts of it at the same time. Did not like.
I see Dave wrote two more books in the series and I'm really looking forward to reading them. But if this becomes a trend I'll be very disappointed. Hopefully, people pointed this out before book 2 went live :-)
Aside from that annoying episode, I really did enjoy the book. And I really like Norse mythology ;-)
I'm sure you'll like it to.
Io Online (The Greystone Chronicles #1)
by Dave Willmarth (Goodreads Author), Jeff Hays (Narrator)
Verdict: Very good! If you can, pick audiobook over the regular one.
Io Online is set some 50+ years in the future. Time of a complicated political situation and generally bad state of humanity. People became immersed in the VR MMO RPG, playing a game and selling loot on the in-game Auction House for real cash. Many people actually depended on Io Online to provide for their families. RP1, right?
Being fully immersed in the gaming world using Virtual Reality technology is awesome. And they made it awesome-r!
However, the story is very different and has no ties to RP1 but the vague setting of the real world and Oasis. I liked it. It was truly interesting and I cared about what was going on, inside the VR and in the real world.
I particularly liked the world building. You can tell it was heavily influenced by the World of Warcraft, but I didn't mind. Sometimes it's better not to reinvent the wheel and instead write inside already known, and widely accepted and used, framework.
That let the writer go nuts on the in-game magic rules. Which led to one the issues I had with the book. It looks like if you are smart enough you can always come up with a creative resolution to the problem and beat everyone. But why aren't your opponents a bit smarter? The main character had it too easy for my liking.
I needed more dark, more gloom and despair. Here we had difficulties and everyone pitched in to help resolve them. Like a day at work, rather than fighting a full out war.
Yes, let's declare war to the only Player vs Player guild on the server while we are lowbies! What's the worse that can happen?
Yet, this isn't the thing that bothered me the most. It was fun, had a few really awesome jokes, and writing style allowed Jeff Hays to turn his star power to 11. I've seen many videos on his YouTube page and, although he has a lot of fun when working, I know it requires a lot of time and effort. He and Laurie nailed this book.
So, why 4* if this was a great book?
God damn building. Dave went so far above the scope of "helping villagers rebuild their razed town". He came up with some pretty interesting concepts about material shaping and molding and got seriously carried away. I mean - he went full nuts with it.
The book is 15-ish minutes shy of 15 hours. 2 of those hours were spent almost exclusively learning about different building blueprints and ways that stone can be shaped to build 20x40 room, 30x30, 10x40... you get the point.
Jeff's narrations always have consistent speed so it was a breeze to listen to the book on 1.30x speed. Still, I had the hardest of times forcing myself not to skip ahead. It was a completely new feeling - I want to listen to the book and I want to skip parts of it at the same time. Did not like.
I see Dave wrote two more books in the series and I'm really looking forward to reading them. But if this becomes a trend I'll be very disappointed. Hopefully, people pointed this out before book 2 went live :-)
Aside from that annoying episode, I really did enjoy the book. And I really like Norse mythology ;-)
I'm sure you'll like it to.
Io Online (The Greystone Chronicles #1)
by Dave Willmarth (Goodreads Author), Jeff Hays (Narrator)
Verdict: Very good! If you can, pick audiobook over the regular one.
Overall
Performance
Story
October 26, 2017
I find the blurb misleading
Simply put, the war against the PK guild doesn't really fill many pages. Changes in the real world aren't even really hinted at till the end, except for some of the MC's getting better housing.
Most of the book seems to focus on the group of low PvP players doing the impossible and taking down enemies that are normally thirty levels higher, or more, than our group of heroes.
I don't know about you, but every game I've ever played it I jumped a job thirty levels higher than I was, I died. Same with a group.
This book needs editing badly. To many times to count, the wrong word was used. Crown instead of crowd. Things like that.
Then there are numbers in the book that if you click on will take you to the back of the book were it seems he added the questions and his answers from readers on royal roadl. This needs to be removed.
If you need to post an explanation to try and clarify something you wrote, well it means you need to go back and do a rewrite to express that section of your story more clearly.
I'm glad I read this on KU, as I can only give it three stars. However, with some polish this book can easily be a 4.5.
Simply put, the war against the PK guild doesn't really fill many pages. Changes in the real world aren't even really hinted at till the end, except for some of the MC's getting better housing.
Most of the book seems to focus on the group of low PvP players doing the impossible and taking down enemies that are normally thirty levels higher, or more, than our group of heroes.
I don't know about you, but every game I've ever played it I jumped a job thirty levels higher than I was, I died. Same with a group.
This book needs editing badly. To many times to count, the wrong word was used. Crown instead of crowd. Things like that.
Then there are numbers in the book that if you click on will take you to the back of the book were it seems he added the questions and his answers from readers on royal roadl. This needs to be removed.
If you need to post an explanation to try and clarify something you wrote, well it means you need to go back and do a rewrite to express that section of your story more clearly.
I'm glad I read this on KU, as I can only give it three stars. However, with some polish this book can easily be a 4.5.
December 18, 2017
This was a great read. Disregard the cover, buy the book.
I love how the flashbacks add to the story, and how the RL stuff connects to the IG parts and vice versa.
The one thing that didn't cause this to be a 5 star LitRPG is that the main character undeniably wins every encounter against the book's antagonist.
I'm writing this after having finished the second in the series as well, so the same problem exists on the second book, but nonetheless, it's a fresh take on the genre and it has tons of guild/village/city building, which is awesome.
I love how the flashbacks add to the story, and how the RL stuff connects to the IG parts and vice versa.
The one thing that didn't cause this to be a 5 star LitRPG is that the main character undeniably wins every encounter against the book's antagonist.
I'm writing this after having finished the second in the series as well, so the same problem exists on the second book, but nonetheless, it's a fresh take on the genre and it has tons of guild/village/city building, which is awesome.
did-not-finish
January 21, 2024I got through 6 chapters and I'm calling it quits on this. It's just... so boring.
It's taken this long to even introduce them to the beginning of the initiating event - the new immersion system mentioned in the blurb - and I'd estimate this is around 25-30% of the book. And it's not like this beginning exposition was important or helped to build the characters and world-building or infodumping, it was mostly filler and should have been edited down quite a lot.
The writing is also super basic with too much detail about the wrong things. As in, written like this:
But it's EVERY LINE. The WHOLE time.
The female characters are very one-dimensional and interchangeable. They all act like a stereotype, giggling schoolgirls. They all giggle, smile, and blush and that's the extent of their personality. When two women talk to each other, it's always about "girl stuff" (verbatim what the story says) or about the male characters. They all act the same age even though I'm pretty sure they're not supposed to be.
The main male character, Alex, is supposed to be someone we feel for because he has a neurodegenerative disease, but he's also spoiled rich as sin and clearly has everything handed to him on a silver platter, including zero real struggle with his disease, so I feel nothing for this dude.
I skimmed some other reviews to see if this gets any better and it seems like it doesn't. Despite "starting over" as part of the immersion pods, they're not really starting over because they keep all of their gear, a fancy new guildhall, established reputations, and a bunch of other stuff handed to them. They're also not in a new game - it's the same game, but they're playing with an extra privileged super special system that allows them benefits others don't have, so it doesn't sound like fair gameplay at all.
I'm really not feeling this.
Sidenote: I listened to the audiobook and I got really over the narrator including the "he said" and "she said", especially since there's more male characters than female characters but a female narrator. So you'd end up with the male voice actor saying the line and then the female narrator needlessly adding "he said" afterwards. It ruined the flow of conversation. Not that there was much to ruin because there was no saving this writing anyway but it certainly didn't help.
It's taken this long to even introduce them to the beginning of the initiating event - the new immersion system mentioned in the blurb - and I'd estimate this is around 25-30% of the book. And it's not like this beginning exposition was important or helped to build the characters and world-building or infodumping, it was mostly filler and should have been edited down quite a lot.
The writing is also super basic with too much detail about the wrong things. As in, written like this:
He felt thirsty so he grabbed a cup out of the cupboard and filled it with water. He took a long drink before setting the cup on the counter. No longer thirsty, he now decided he needed to use the bathroom. He made his way to the bathroom. After doing his business, he decided to brush his teeth and shower. All of his basic needs taken care of, he realized he was hungry so went to the kitchen to see what his live-in maid/nurse/housekeeper/chef/masseuse was preparing.
But it's EVERY LINE. The WHOLE time.
The female characters are very one-dimensional and interchangeable. They all act like a stereotype, giggling schoolgirls. They all giggle, smile, and blush and that's the extent of their personality. When two women talk to each other, it's always about "girl stuff" (verbatim what the story says) or about the male characters. They all act the same age even though I'm pretty sure they're not supposed to be.
The main male character, Alex, is supposed to be someone we feel for because he has a neurodegenerative disease, but he's also spoiled rich as sin and clearly has everything handed to him on a silver platter, including zero real struggle with his disease, so I feel nothing for this dude.
I skimmed some other reviews to see if this gets any better and it seems like it doesn't. Despite "starting over" as part of the immersion pods, they're not really starting over because they keep all of their gear, a fancy new guildhall, established reputations, and a bunch of other stuff handed to them. They're also not in a new game - it's the same game, but they're playing with an extra privileged super special system that allows them benefits others don't have, so it doesn't sound like fair gameplay at all.
I'm really not feeling this.
Sidenote: I listened to the audiobook and I got really over the narrator including the "he said" and "she said", especially since there's more male characters than female characters but a female narrator. So you'd end up with the male voice actor saying the line and then the female narrator needlessly adding "he said" afterwards. It ruined the flow of conversation. Not that there was much to ruin because there was no saving this writing anyway but it certainly didn't help.
September 27, 2019
I once again made the mistake of seeing a book, reading a description, and deciding it wasn't really for me despite knowing that the author does amazing work. This time it was with Dave Willmarth's IO Online (The Greystone Chronicles #1). While I enjoy LitRPG and love GameLit I tend to shy away from the books where the characters are just "Playing a game" not trapped, no death, no stuck, no otherwise high stakes as it just doesn't have enough tension for me. With that out there I was more than pleasantly surprised with this as the author came up with multiple ways to raise the tension and stakes for the main character without resorting to any of that. The story mostly revolves around a group of friends adventuring together in a game world, testing experimental VR equipment (based on when this was written I can see several other authors took inspiration directly from how the author designed it in this book to use in their own.) Battling Demons and Player Killers, and pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the worlds immersion system. There is a lot more to it but I don't want to spoil the story. There is plenty of magic use and theory crafting, Lots of "base" building, Just enough action, comedy, and piles of epic loot. Pretty sure this book had the first time I've almost pee'd myself laughing at a scene ever. It also has a few emotional scenes that lead you the other way. The main characters are all great and it's a joy to listen to their adventure> I'm not saying the book is perfect because it isn't, Things come a little easily to the main characters (there is logic behind it in the book) and other players all seem to be on the level of Bulk and Skull from MMPR or Wile E. Coyote which I'm going to chalk that up to the real world possibly not being in the best of states this is reflected in people working in the game full time to support their real world families, so I'm going to just assume many of them quit school to play the game full time before they developed critical thinking skills. As always the narrators over at SBTL did a fantastic job at bringing the book to life. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series and I highly recommend this one.
December 4, 2021
Gary Stu much?
2 stars because I read the whole thing instead of dnfing.
2 stars because I read the whole thing instead of dnfing.
February 14, 2018
One of the best in litRPG
This is by far one of the best in litRPG genre. A great in game experience, super back end RL supporting story, a great cast of characters (guildies) we have all known in our gaming experience. I am moving right on to book 2!
This is by far one of the best in litRPG genre. A great in game experience, super back end RL supporting story, a great cast of characters (guildies) we have all known in our gaming experience. I am moving right on to book 2!
December 1, 2018
Good story. The character's are interesting and the story length is good.
January 29, 2018
A great LitRPG read
For fans of the LitRPG genre, this series is a cut above many. The premise of how the main character ends up in a VRMMO is well constructed and the characters and story are very smoothly written. Very entertaining!
For fans of the LitRPG genre, this series is a cut above many. The premise of how the main character ends up in a VRMMO is well constructed and the characters and story are very smoothly written. Very entertaining!
March 10, 2018
For a long time Alexander has known he was dying. It was inevitable, he had been diagnosed with NDS, Neuromuscular Degenerative Syndrome, he had years left, but he refused to let it stop him doing what he loved. He was a gamer, and IO Online was his passion. He and his friends played religiously, braving the world, raiding the dungeons, and bringing hope to player and NPC alike, but they are about to experience it in a way they never imagined. Full immersion. An experimental pod has been created, and they were selected to test drive this new design, the catch is, they all had to start new level one characters. Not too bad, until they make enemies of PWP, a powerful player killer guild who will stop at nothing to see them destroyed. But there is more to this guild that meets the eye, and the dangers they pose of more real than Alexander could have imagined. Can he put an end to this guild of terrorists, when they not only outnumber their small group, but out-level them too, and what are these whispers of unrest, trouble is coming, and it seems Alexander has found himself in the firing line.
I really enjoyed Dave Willmarth's The Greystone Chronicles. It was an immersive and entertaining read from beginning to end. Those familiar with some of the more popular MMORPGs will recognise a few system inspirations, and some genius adaptations of magic and class skills. Reading this was like playing a good game, I just didn't want to stop. The characters are brilliant, deep, and well developed with great relationships and personalities. More than once I found myself laughing aloud, there were some scenes that brought to mind some of my own gaming nightmares with mob pulling. I have already added book two to my to read list. If you want action, adventure, conflict, danger, and strife then look no further, and be prepared for the added bonus of humour, intelligent thinking, and planning, there has to be when being pitted against level death* characters seek revenge. I can't wait to start on book two. Epic drop!
I really enjoyed Dave Willmarth's The Greystone Chronicles. It was an immersive and entertaining read from beginning to end. Those familiar with some of the more popular MMORPGs will recognise a few system inspirations, and some genius adaptations of magic and class skills. Reading this was like playing a good game, I just didn't want to stop. The characters are brilliant, deep, and well developed with great relationships and personalities. More than once I found myself laughing aloud, there were some scenes that brought to mind some of my own gaming nightmares with mob pulling. I have already added book two to my to read list. If you want action, adventure, conflict, danger, and strife then look no further, and be prepared for the added bonus of humour, intelligent thinking, and planning, there has to be when being pitted against level death* characters seek revenge. I can't wait to start on book two. Epic drop!
April 11, 2018
This is a very low stress book. Purposefully or not the author gave this story the soothing, threatless, atmosphere of a bunch of friends playing a game and easily overcoming every challenge they are presented with. There isn't even any real drama as all the protagonists and friendly npc's are good matured and helpful. While it is possible to make an engaging low stress book, Willmarth doesn't manage it here. The world and events just aren't engaging enough to makeup for the lack of tension in the plot.
So here's the main issues with the story. Making this a standard LitRPG was a bad choice. The fact that everything was in a digital world reduced the impact of both the losses and successes of the characters. Further, the rule set didn't act like a game and was extreamly inconsistent. The levels of the characters and enemies regularly didn't matter and often were completely forgotten. Skills had no structure behind them, the characters could just do what ever they wanted when ever they wanted.
What would have worked better would have been a more pseudo LitRPG like The Land: Founding or Dungeon Born, where there are game like elements but in a real fantasy world. Really though, the LitRPG elements are so minimal, a straight Fantasy book might have been best.
**Audobook note ** Stop with the laughing, it's annoying.
So here's the main issues with the story. Making this a standard LitRPG was a bad choice. The fact that everything was in a digital world reduced the impact of both the losses and successes of the characters. Further, the rule set didn't act like a game and was extreamly inconsistent. The levels of the characters and enemies regularly didn't matter and often were completely forgotten. Skills had no structure behind them, the characters could just do what ever they wanted when ever they wanted.
What would have worked better would have been a more pseudo LitRPG like The Land: Founding or Dungeon Born, where there are game like elements but in a real fantasy world. Really though, the LitRPG elements are so minimal, a straight Fantasy book might have been best.
**Audobook note ** Stop with the laughing, it's annoying.
January 13, 2018
A book with real feeling
I enjoyed this book so much I could not put it down. I started late in the day and spent all night reading it. I found myself laughing, tearing up, and smiling a lot. Very good book that I would recommend to everyone. Thank you very much and keep them coming.
I enjoyed this book so much I could not put it down. I started late in the day and spent all night reading it. I found myself laughing, tearing up, and smiling a lot. Very good book that I would recommend to everyone. Thank you very much and keep them coming.
January 4, 2018
Pretty good book. It had a lower than average nunber of typos and grammar errors when compared with most other litrpg books I've read. It could use more proofreading, but otherwise it's a good book, and I can actually recommend it without reservations. It's too bad more pk guilds don't suffer similar fates, it would make a lot more games much more enjoyable by a lot more players. So yeah I am all over this one. I always enjoy seeing pk players and especially whole pk guilds getting what they deserve. That isn't the only reason this was a good book though. I've always enjoyed books and games where players build to improve things, or just because it is worthwhile to do so, and this book has that in droves. How can you not love that?
October 22, 2017
Fun new author
A Fun new series by a new author. It took me a bit to get into it as it was a bit slows to get into the main plot compared to many other litRPG stories but once it got going, I really enjoyed it. It is fairly light on the amount of stats, just enough to keep you in tune with the MC's progression.
Definitely going to read the next in the series when it comes out.
A Fun new series by a new author. It took me a bit to get into it as it was a bit slows to get into the main plot compared to many other litRPG stories but once it got going, I really enjoyed it. It is fairly light on the amount of stats, just enough to keep you in tune with the MC's progression.
Definitely going to read the next in the series when it comes out.
November 8, 2017
Gamer world: easy mode
I liked the world and the characters. I had a slow time reading this book. I thought that the characters weren't challenged. Real conflict with consequences did show up by the end. I think I'll enjoy the next one better. I thought the descriptions of gaming terms after the story was a nice touch. I read it after hearing Jeff Hays read a section where the party interacts with a goblin, my favorite part of the book.
I liked the world and the characters. I had a slow time reading this book. I thought that the characters weren't challenged. Real conflict with consequences did show up by the end. I think I'll enjoy the next one better. I thought the descriptions of gaming terms after the story was a nice touch. I read it after hearing Jeff Hays read a section where the party interacts with a goblin, my favorite part of the book.
October 27, 2017
Well done
I'm not a professional reviewer or anything, but I know what I like. I like good storytelling, and I found plenty of that in The Greystone Chronicles. It was a fun experience that was only marred by the Monte haul loot/rewards that were showered on the protagonists. I'm looking forward to seeing how the plot develops in book two. Great job Dave!
I'm not a professional reviewer or anything, but I know what I like. I like good storytelling, and I found plenty of that in The Greystone Chronicles. It was a fun experience that was only marred by the Monte haul loot/rewards that were showered on the protagonists. I'm looking forward to seeing how the plot develops in book two. Great job Dave!
January 4, 2018
The Greystone Chronicles
Great debut book, starts off slow building the characters and storyline as it goes. I love the sheer fantasy of being able to leave the mundane world and become whatever character you like. But also behave in a way that you would like to be treated in the real world. Looking forward to reading the next in the series. Fab
Great debut book, starts off slow building the characters and storyline as it goes. I love the sheer fantasy of being able to leave the mundane world and become whatever character you like. But also behave in a way that you would like to be treated in the real world. Looking forward to reading the next in the series. Fab
October 21, 2017
Awesome
A great read. A few typos, but not enough to distract. Good storyline. I had a lot of fun reading this, and lemme tell ya, the bunnies were hysterical. I laughed so much it hurt. I highly recommend this book.
A great read. A few typos, but not enough to distract. Good storyline. I had a lot of fun reading this, and lemme tell ya, the bunnies were hysterical. I laughed so much it hurt. I highly recommend this book.
October 23, 2017
Loved it
I love this book I'm definitely eagerly anticipating the next book so hurry up and make it haha I'm in love with fibble I swear I laughed so hard anytime he was involved the characters just draw you in everybody is really filled out
I love this book I'm definitely eagerly anticipating the next book so hurry up and make it haha I'm in love with fibble I swear I laughed so hard anytime he was involved the characters just draw you in everybody is really filled out
October 25, 2017
Very enjoyable
Character and story development was very good although a few of the descriptive sections went on a bit too long for me. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to the next installment.
Character and story development was very good although a few of the descriptive sections went on a bit too long for me. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to the next installment.
November 29, 2017
Could not put it down
This book was great. I loved the characters, I loved the game, and I could not put this book down. The characters are overly altruistic, but honestly this world could use more of that. One to the next book!!
This book was great. I loved the characters, I loved the game, and I could not put this book down. The characters are overly altruistic, but honestly this world could use more of that. One to the next book!!
February 15, 2018
Great read.
Fast paced,. Good read interesting characters . IRL story also enjoyable and worth following. Village building component as is crafting. MC's overpowered. Can't wait for book 2
Fast paced,. Good read interesting characters . IRL story also enjoyable and worth following. Village building component as is crafting. MC's overpowered. Can't wait for book 2
September 20, 2025
Yup favorite new Author
Engrossing and a great read. Finished it in one day and am off to start book 2. I laughed, I cried and got very angry throughout the book. Sure sign of a must read series.
Engrossing and a great read. Finished it in one day and am off to start book 2. I laughed, I cried and got very angry throughout the book. Sure sign of a must read series.
October 26, 2017
Pew pew pew
Goram what a great book.
Bynyips,a shooting goblin pew pew.
I highly recommend this book.
Read it,READ IT THE NOW MORTALS.
Thank you for letting me vist your world
Hugs
Goram what a great book.
Bynyips,a shooting goblin pew pew.
I highly recommend this book.
Read it,READ IT THE NOW MORTALS.
Thank you for letting me vist your world
Hugs
November 8, 2017
Feel good litrpg.
This is a feel good book, lots of fun to read.
Little to no bad word.
No erotica or adult situations.
This is a feel good book, lots of fun to read.
Little to no bad word.
No erotica or adult situations.
November 10, 2017
Great
Really good flow from beginning to end. No clunky plot sidelines or miracles. An enjoyable read from beginning to end
Really good flow from beginning to end. No clunky plot sidelines or miracles. An enjoyable read from beginning to end
November 27, 2017
Home run
Great book, had a hard time putting it down. Well thought out characters and can't wait to see what they are up to in the next book.
Great book, had a hard time putting it down. Well thought out characters and can't wait to see what they are up to in the next book.
November 28, 2017
Wow. this book exceeded my expectations way beyond what I was thinking it would. This will be a standard bearer for litrpg for me.
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