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Forsaken Talents #1
A Dark Path
From International Best-Selling Author Stuart Thaman:
The Seven Portals to Wonder changed the world. The most advanced AI ever created powered the worlds, bringing infinite possibilities and endless adventure to everyone across the globe. War on Earth practically ceased as most of the planet's population became addicted to the game.
Ben Hales was no different. He spent a few years saving enough money to buy lifetime passes for himself and his daughter, Ingrid. Now he has the cash, and Ingrid just turned 16, the minimum age required to play.
Not everything—or everyone—in Wonder is quite as it seems. Evil lurks both inside and outside the game, and that evil finds Ben all too soon.
Ravaged by loss and consumed by hatred, Ben awakens an ancient necromancer and a host of long-forgotten classes. Now he's building his citadel of darkness and raising an army of the dead with a singular goal: revenge.
If it means the death of everyone inside Wonder... so be it.
Check out Stuart Thaman's other epic fantasy and LitRPG novels! You can find them all at stuartthamanbooks.com today!
The Seven Portals to Wonder changed the world. The most advanced AI ever created powered the worlds, bringing infinite possibilities and endless adventure to everyone across the globe. War on Earth practically ceased as most of the planet's population became addicted to the game.
Ben Hales was no different. He spent a few years saving enough money to buy lifetime passes for himself and his daughter, Ingrid. Now he has the cash, and Ingrid just turned 16, the minimum age required to play.
Not everything—or everyone—in Wonder is quite as it seems. Evil lurks both inside and outside the game, and that evil finds Ben all too soon.
Ravaged by loss and consumed by hatred, Ben awakens an ancient necromancer and a host of long-forgotten classes. Now he's building his citadel of darkness and raising an army of the dead with a singular goal: revenge.
If it means the death of everyone inside Wonder... so be it.
Check out Stuart Thaman's other epic fantasy and LitRPG novels! You can find them all at stuartthamanbooks.com today!
- GenresFantasy
378 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 15, 2019
81 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
About the author
Stuart Thaman
24 books99 followersInternational best-selling author Stuart Thaman!
Stuart Thaman was born and grew up in Ohio. He attended Hillsdale College as well as Chase College of Law and currently holds degrees in politics, German, classical political philosophy, and law. He is a licensed and practicing member of the Kentucky Bar.
Stuart Thaman is also the lead guitarist for the extreme metal band Saxo Grammaticus.
Check out all the wonderful words of epic fantasy and LitRPG at www.stuartthamanbooks.com. Join the mailing list for a free book!
Head over to www.nefhousepublishing.com for even more cool stuff!
Stuart Thaman was born and grew up in Ohio. He attended Hillsdale College as well as Chase College of Law and currently holds degrees in politics, German, classical political philosophy, and law. He is a licensed and practicing member of the Kentucky Bar.
Stuart Thaman is also the lead guitarist for the extreme metal band Saxo Grammaticus.
Check out all the wonderful words of epic fantasy and LitRPG at www.stuartthamanbooks.com. Join the mailing list for a free book!
Head over to www.nefhousepublishing.com for even more cool stuff!
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 12, 2024
“I listened to their death screams and a smile came over my lips”. Ben Hales. There is an 80’s Metallica song where a rhetorical question and its quite predictable answer produced a memorable chorus. “Am I evil - yes I am” This pretty much describes Benjamin Hales, main character of A Dark Path. Ben is evil and he not only knows it but also loves it. You will be hard pressed to find an ounce of good on the guy. He betrays, inflicts pain unnecessarily, laughs at your agony - devious is his middle name. Perhaps, the only thing he has going for him is a kind of dark loyalty for he unfailingly rewards those who are willing to assist him in his evil-doings. And he has good reason for turning into such a bastard. He needs to be one if he wants to get his revenge in this LitRPG world of Wonder, a simulated fantasy life that has become the favorite pastime in mankind’s future. Read for yourself, but don’t be surprised if Ben Hales, exhaling dark clouds of malignant spores and putrescence thoroughly corrupts you and makes you join the evil forces of his black citadel.
November 23, 2019
A Dark Path starts out with an interesting idea where one game has eliminated the need for fighting and disputes in the real world. A dad has finally earned enough gold in game to pay for his daughters lifetime pass. He brings her into the game and is reminded of the days leading up to his wife’s passing from cancer. Showing his daughter around he brings up his concerns about how killing in the game might defect her morality. Before I get into any specific spoilers let’s just say that unless you chalk up the rest of his actions to losing his mind the fathers character changes quickly and in a manner that honestly left me disconnected form the rest of the story.
***SPOILERS***During the first of its kind a glitch in the games completely cuts off the ability fro the game to reconstruct your body in the real life making all deaths permanent. Before this is explained to all the characters Ben’s daughter is killed and is gone for good. Ben decides that revenge is his only recourse which is understandable and goes to the dark side to gain enough power to accomplish his revenge. My problem with the book is after spending the first part of the book worrying about the morality of killing NPCs he immediately decides that even permanently killing humans who will not respawn is okay with him. Going so far as to kill people who are innocent of everything and just happen to be next to his people when he wants to show off his power. ***SPOILERS***
The book ends in a place that leads it wide open for continuing the series but the lack of consistency in the main characters will mean that I will probably not be continuing this series. This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
***SPOILERS***During the first of its kind a glitch in the games completely cuts off the ability fro the game to reconstruct your body in the real life making all deaths permanent. Before this is explained to all the characters Ben’s daughter is killed and is gone for good. Ben decides that revenge is his only recourse which is understandable and goes to the dark side to gain enough power to accomplish his revenge. My problem with the book is after spending the first part of the book worrying about the morality of killing NPCs he immediately decides that even permanently killing humans who will not respawn is okay with him. Going so far as to kill people who are innocent of everything and just happen to be next to his people when he wants to show off his power. ***SPOILERS***
The book ends in a place that leads it wide open for continuing the series but the lack of consistency in the main characters will mean that I will probably not be continuing this series. This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 28, 2022
This book is a waste of time. This is a bland power fantasy, terribly written by a mediocre story teller. The language used is jarring, from improper equivalents from a thesaurus (perihelion ffs) to awkward descriptions (a human necromancer that "roars" to the sky). There is no real conflict and no plausibility.
The author uses an MMORPG with levels and skills, describes them, then proceeds to disregard them completely. You have a higher level enemy with better equipment and class, but the hero kills him without trouble. Not by any feat of intelligence, just because. Turns out the paladin was wearing an incredibly powerful legendary armour and our protagonist is now unkillable. How did he manage to kill that enemy, then?! And thorough the book enemies are presented as higher level, incredible threats to the protagonist, only to be dispatched by the main character with no effort, strategy or intelligence whatsoever a few paragraphs later.
The reason to transform our protagonist into an immoral villain overlord is far fetched, but I could forgive that is the rest was interesting.
The story development is abysmal, the characters are cardboard without any depth, conflicts are inexistent and the prose isn't interesting at all. I simply don't see the reason this book needs to be read.
Summary: a man becomes evil because his daughter is killed. He then becomes powerful because the author wants it and all apparent challenges are actually nothing to him. Everyone fears and obeys him, because. That's it.
The author uses an MMORPG with levels and skills, describes them, then proceeds to disregard them completely. You have a higher level enemy with better equipment and class, but the hero kills him without trouble. Not by any feat of intelligence, just because. Turns out the paladin was wearing an incredibly powerful legendary armour and our protagonist is now unkillable. How did he manage to kill that enemy, then?! And thorough the book enemies are presented as higher level, incredible threats to the protagonist, only to be dispatched by the main character with no effort, strategy or intelligence whatsoever a few paragraphs later.
The reason to transform our protagonist into an immoral villain overlord is far fetched, but I could forgive that is the rest was interesting.
The story development is abysmal, the characters are cardboard without any depth, conflicts are inexistent and the prose isn't interesting at all. I simply don't see the reason this book needs to be read.
Summary: a man becomes evil because his daughter is killed. He then becomes powerful because the author wants it and all apparent challenges are actually nothing to him. Everyone fears and obeys him, because. That's it.
November 18, 2019
This was a good audiobook. The story was exciting and bit slow moving, engrossing with well-constructed characters and an undertone fantasy. There was quite a lot of character building in this book and the plot kept me engaged, twists, turns, quests and other adventures kept the fill of a video game in this plot and by the end we get a cliffhanger, the narration was really good.
August 24, 2019
‘Meh’ read
Dropped Ch 10/16
Dropped Ch 10/16
December 17, 2019
Great Book!
A great book, where a guy becomes the bad guy, a real bad guy, for a real reason. Well worth the read
A great book, where a guy becomes the bad guy, a real bad guy, for a real reason. Well worth the read
July 25, 2023
I started this because I saw something where the author was saying this is not VR, and was annoyed by people saying it is. It's TECHNICALLY not VR, but AR is pretty much the same thing (although it does avoid some VR problems, it still has most of them).
Most of my problems come from the setting. It's very clearly a fake game world, with repeatable quests (unless they suddenly matter because plot), respawning NPCs, and only players really mattering. Somehow this game is so popular that it basically takes over the world... and everybody is just okay with a company (which doesn't seem to follow basic security practices) ruling everything? Barely anybody even murders outside the game, despite there being a fee to play.
Then there's the problem of people not acting like gamers. MC gets his special class by doing something that would realistically be found within a week of launch at most, and yet nobody has apparently done it before.
MC specifically is also really inconsistent. At first he worries about hurting NPCs, then suddenly he changes to being a total psycho. I wanted to read this BECAUSE I heard he was evil, but why the total 180 out of nowhere? It's not even when *event* happens. He does change a bit immediately, but then changes way more out of nowhere like a day later. And then a couple hours later he changes again? Here's what I'm talking about:
If you like VR novels and want an evil protagonist, you'll probably like it. Most of my problems are ones that I have with pretty much any VR novel, and if you can get over those plotholes then I doubt you'll mind the rest. I'm giving it 2 stars despite me dropping it a third through because it has the balls to use an evil protagonist, which is way too rare imo.
Most of my problems come from the setting. It's very clearly a fake game world, with repeatable quests (unless they suddenly matter because plot), respawning NPCs, and only players really mattering. Somehow this game is so popular that it basically takes over the world... and everybody is just okay with a company (which doesn't seem to follow basic security practices) ruling everything? Barely anybody even murders outside the game, despite there being a fee to play.
Then there's the problem of people not acting like gamers. MC gets his special class by doing something that would realistically be found within a week of launch at most, and yet nobody has apparently done it before.
MC specifically is also really inconsistent. At first he worries about hurting NPCs, then suddenly he changes to being a total psycho. I wanted to read this BECAUSE I heard he was evil, but why the total 180 out of nowhere? It's not even when *event* happens. He does change a bit immediately, but then changes way more out of nowhere like a day later. And then a couple hours later he changes again? Here's what I'm talking about:
If you like VR novels and want an evil protagonist, you'll probably like it. Most of my problems are ones that I have with pretty much any VR novel, and if you can get over those plotholes then I doubt you'll mind the rest. I'm giving it 2 stars despite me dropping it a third through because it has the balls to use an evil protagonist, which is way too rare imo.
May 6, 2024
DNF at 12%
The story takes place in a future where people seem to earn their money in an online game. The protagonist seems very unmotivated and/or unfit to do so. He is only level 9 without a class and still wastes his time at the noob beginner area - supposedly to wait for his teenage daughter to join him. Instead of using his earnings for any weapons, skills, equipment or use it for their real life he gloriously decides to waste it on buying his daughter some fancy dress for the game *rofl*. This virtual dress is not only useless but also will stain and be damaged in the game.. What a great way to spend your only money..
The two start their lame noob adventures..
The story takes place in a future where people seem to earn their money in an online game. The protagonist seems very unmotivated and/or unfit to do so. He is only level 9 without a class and still wastes his time at the noob beginner area - supposedly to wait for his teenage daughter to join him. Instead of using his earnings for any weapons, skills, equipment or use it for their real life he gloriously decides to waste it on buying his daughter some fancy dress for the game *rofl*. This virtual dress is not only useless but also will stain and be damaged in the game.. What a great way to spend your only money..
The two start their lame noob adventures..
December 29, 2022
Audiobook: I found this first book of the "Forsaken Talents" series entertaining. Creating a world where everyone gets addicted to a game world was quite clever. The story was fast paced. My biggest issue was that the motivation of the protagonist just didn't seem enough to drive the man to becoming a psychopath. J. Scott Bennett's narration was enjoyable. I was given a free copy of the audiobook, and I have voluntarily posted this review.
February 7, 2021
Reading about and cheering on an obvious bad guy is different! 👍🏽👍🏽
September 24, 2023
I didn't realize I was on the last page...
I just finished the book. In about 5 minutes I will have book 2. I don't want to stop reading this.
I just finished the book. In about 5 minutes I will have book 2. I don't want to stop reading this.
April 1, 2020
This book suffers a common problem in power fantasy litrpg genre. If all it took for the MC to become a total sociopath was a death of his kid. Maybe he was always a sociopath. In this light, the MC becomes far less compelling and just annoying. Usually in such stories, MC is put in a overly bad world to justify the MC's exaggerated actions. But the this authors paints a very generic fantasy world. which makes the MC continuous decisions as over exaggerations.
June 4, 2020
2.5 stars
Starts off with a father/daughter duo before it predictably descends into a John Wick/lotus blackening. Had the story actually been about a father/daughter duo dealing with a LITRPG apocalypse, this story might have been more interesting. Instead the main character is just someone who senselessly goes around murdering and committing acts of crime. This is past anti-hero and firmly into villain territory. Which I wouldn’t mind if the main character had more personality than a tea bag. His actions don’t even make sense for the revenge of his daughter. How is any of this really helping his cause?
There are interesting things that happen in this book, interesting world elements, but it can’t save the blandless of the book and the plot. The plot holes are large and fail to hold interest enough to distract.
Dialogue is weak, characterization is weak.
Not recommended.
Starts off with a father/daughter duo before it predictably descends into a John Wick/lotus blackening. Had the story actually been about a father/daughter duo dealing with a LITRPG apocalypse, this story might have been more interesting. Instead the main character is just someone who senselessly goes around murdering and committing acts of crime. This is past anti-hero and firmly into villain territory. Which I wouldn’t mind if the main character had more personality than a tea bag. His actions don’t even make sense for the revenge of his daughter. How is any of this really helping his cause?
There are interesting things that happen in this book, interesting world elements, but it can’t save the blandless of the book and the plot. The plot holes are large and fail to hold interest enough to distract.
Dialogue is weak, characterization is weak.
Not recommended.
November 23, 2019
The real world is set sometime in the future. The world has been at peace for two years now. So, the population takes out their frustrations and aggression in Seven Portals to Wonder Online, the leading VRMMORPG. The tale begins quite docile. Our protagonist Ben Hales is tutoring his sixteen-year-old daughter Ingrid, this being her first time in-game, the basics of Wonder Online. As I said, aggression and violence had been shifted to Wonder Online, Ben and Ingrid were not immune. Rage and revenge forced Ben to seek a dark path. Joining with an ancient necromancer, Ben decides his path to revenge is through building his own evil empire. Thus the true story begins as Ben becomes more arrogant, evil and powerful. We follow Ben’s rise to power as he creates and expands Undercroft Citadel. Excellent story, finely detailed and well thought out. Great start to a new series. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
December 6, 2019
This was a fun and weird read. I play a lot of video games, and this was reminiscent of missions/quests I would have to do in ones such as Fallout and/or Skyrim. What I particularly liked about this book is we're basically shown the conception of a Raider gang, and it's rather refreshing having that point of view.
Narration was done well and suited the style of book.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request via Audioboom and have voluntarily left this review.
Narration was done well and suited the style of book.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request via Audioboom and have voluntarily left this review.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews