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Demoness
The game-testing job was in a dodgy part of town but paid a $10K signing bonus so James Katz went along, just hoping it wasn’t a multilevel marketing scam. Turns out he testing an immersive Fantasy RPG run by an adaptive Ai, Lucy.
Now he’s stuffed in a padded egg, projected into the Nine Realms. It’s realer than real. He can feel it all, pleasure, pain, when a crazed Orc beats him to death...
Quickly killed, he awakens in a graveyard where Scarlet, a hot demoness, bargains a contract with him: she’ll help him out of his grave if he’ll take her to the mysterious Tenth Realm.
He’s in for a week but this is no mere game. The system is beyond anything in existence... and happens to be run by a crime gang in the bad part of town.
There is danger both in and out of the game, and it seems Lucy, the Ai, wants more than the Lubochenko crime family know, or understand.
James soon finds himself caught up in a spider venom operation where the good choice isn’t always clear. But with Scarlet, the hotter than hot demoness by his side, anything is possible.
Warning: adult scenes, themes, violence, greased-up barbarians, ink demons, the undead, talking rabbits, kidnapping, slavery, talking cats, goblins, hot demonesses, a hot pixie, spells, fireballs, lightning bolts, delicious stew, a missing hermit and harem harem harem.
Now he’s stuffed in a padded egg, projected into the Nine Realms. It’s realer than real. He can feel it all, pleasure, pain, when a crazed Orc beats him to death...
Quickly killed, he awakens in a graveyard where Scarlet, a hot demoness, bargains a contract with him: she’ll help him out of his grave if he’ll take her to the mysterious Tenth Realm.
He’s in for a week but this is no mere game. The system is beyond anything in existence... and happens to be run by a crime gang in the bad part of town.
There is danger both in and out of the game, and it seems Lucy, the Ai, wants more than the Lubochenko crime family know, or understand.
James soon finds himself caught up in a spider venom operation where the good choice isn’t always clear. But with Scarlet, the hotter than hot demoness by his side, anything is possible.
Warning: adult scenes, themes, violence, greased-up barbarians, ink demons, the undead, talking rabbits, kidnapping, slavery, talking cats, goblins, hot demonesses, a hot pixie, spells, fireballs, lightning bolts, delicious stew, a missing hermit and harem harem harem.
220 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 9, 2020
101 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 11, 2022
Overall, it was okay, and better than similar books I've tried.
The protagonist James Katz is unemployed and desperate, and goes for a shady job opportunity by what seems to be the Russian Mafia to test out a new VR system. The whole VR system seems to be built by or for this special AI called Lucy. He is to playtest the world to see how the AI responds. The AI seems to adapt to his experiences and even read his thoughts.
The protagonist gets to this virtual fantasy world. The VR system feels completely real to him. He immediately dies to an ogre first, then wakes up in a graveyard, and there makes a deal and bonds with a demoness. He goes to try to kill some rabbits to level up, but turns out every animal in this world speaks and thinks and has a family, etc. Making killing even forest animals very immoral in this world.
By taking a simple quest to get some spider fangs it spirals out and turns out the spiders are being kidnapped and enslaved and their poison stolen from them, and there is a wider conspiracy by the big bad.
The fantasy story has this issue, where it doesn't know what tone the book wants to be. It tries to constantly raise the stakes, and despite the protagonist being unable to die permanently, some other characters can, and so the story tries to portray them as human and as realistic as possible to make their deaths feel significant, despite the fact that this is a virtual world and virtual characters. Yet, then in some life and death situations the characters keep making stupid and inappropriate jokes, thus making it difficult to take anything else in the narrative seriously.
The fantasy narrative itself is quite generic, once you get over the detail that every animal in this world speaks and is sentient. Which itself is also inconsistent, as murdering a bunny was considered morally wrong, even if for food, yet they all ate pork, without any issue.
The most interesting part of the story however, is the AI herself, and when there were glimpses and hints at what the AI was, could do, or what was her purpose. There were some characters in the virtual world who knew about Lucy (the AI) and had different understanding of her, from perhaps a goddess that created this world, or even as a villain to be bested.
In the real world, the Russian Mafia was specifically creating this VR system to test this AI, but we are given almost no extra details. There is clearly a wider mystery to this AI, both in the virtual world and in the real world, but we get no answers. In fact, pretty much everything we know about the AI is in the book's blurb, and by reading the book we only get more questions, without any clear answers.
The big bad storyline for this book is wrapped up, but the more interesting part of the story is pretty much not explored at all, until the end when they also introduce a completely new storyline and the book abruptly ends. It seems there won't be a sequel to this, so we will never know. However, some of the longer glimpses we did get at potential motivation for the Mafia, and how the AI works, were somewhat disappointing. Those aspects were the most intriguing when the book kept dropping vague (and sometimes ominous) hints. So, maybe it is for the best that we don't get to know the truth behind the mystery, as reality is often disappointing.
Either way, the book was okay. It had both funny moments, and cringeworthy moments. The main story was somewhat generic, without a clear tone to it, but it also droped enough tidbits of mystery to keep up the intrigue. If there ever was a sequel, I'd probably read it.
The protagonist James Katz is unemployed and desperate, and goes for a shady job opportunity by what seems to be the Russian Mafia to test out a new VR system. The whole VR system seems to be built by or for this special AI called Lucy. He is to playtest the world to see how the AI responds. The AI seems to adapt to his experiences and even read his thoughts.
The protagonist gets to this virtual fantasy world. The VR system feels completely real to him. He immediately dies to an ogre first, then wakes up in a graveyard, and there makes a deal and bonds with a demoness. He goes to try to kill some rabbits to level up, but turns out every animal in this world speaks and thinks and has a family, etc. Making killing even forest animals very immoral in this world.
By taking a simple quest to get some spider fangs it spirals out and turns out the spiders are being kidnapped and enslaved and their poison stolen from them, and there is a wider conspiracy by the big bad.
The fantasy story has this issue, where it doesn't know what tone the book wants to be. It tries to constantly raise the stakes, and despite the protagonist being unable to die permanently, some other characters can, and so the story tries to portray them as human and as realistic as possible to make their deaths feel significant, despite the fact that this is a virtual world and virtual characters. Yet, then in some life and death situations the characters keep making stupid and inappropriate jokes, thus making it difficult to take anything else in the narrative seriously.
The fantasy narrative itself is quite generic, once you get over the detail that every animal in this world speaks and is sentient. Which itself is also inconsistent, as murdering a bunny was considered morally wrong, even if for food, yet they all ate pork, without any issue.
The most interesting part of the story however, is the AI herself, and when there were glimpses and hints at what the AI was, could do, or what was her purpose. There were some characters in the virtual world who knew about Lucy (the AI) and had different understanding of her, from perhaps a goddess that created this world, or even as a villain to be bested.
In the real world, the Russian Mafia was specifically creating this VR system to test this AI, but we are given almost no extra details. There is clearly a wider mystery to this AI, both in the virtual world and in the real world, but we get no answers. In fact, pretty much everything we know about the AI is in the book's blurb, and by reading the book we only get more questions, without any clear answers.
The big bad storyline for this book is wrapped up, but the more interesting part of the story is pretty much not explored at all, until the end when they also introduce a completely new storyline and the book abruptly ends. It seems there won't be a sequel to this, so we will never know. However, some of the longer glimpses we did get at potential motivation for the Mafia, and how the AI works, were somewhat disappointing. Those aspects were the most intriguing when the book kept dropping vague (and sometimes ominous) hints. So, maybe it is for the best that we don't get to know the truth behind the mystery, as reality is often disappointing.
Either way, the book was okay. It had both funny moments, and cringeworthy moments. The main story was somewhat generic, without a clear tone to it, but it also droped enough tidbits of mystery to keep up the intrigue. If there ever was a sequel, I'd probably read it.
September 1, 2020
This one pleasantly surprised me. I (intellectually) know better than to judge books just by their cover, but I subconsciously expected this to be mediocre at best.
In fact, it's clever, well-written (a couple of minor typos) and even a bit humorous at times. The premise is nothing new, but in almost all cases execution counts higher than novelty of concept, and quality execution here makes a good book. The MC is one of the better balanced/realistic I've seen, something that is increasingly important to me in books of this type. Not quite a 5, but a very good read if you like the genre.
In fact, it's clever, well-written (a couple of minor typos) and even a bit humorous at times. The premise is nothing new, but in almost all cases execution counts higher than novelty of concept, and quality execution here makes a good book. The MC is one of the better balanced/realistic I've seen, something that is increasingly important to me in books of this type. Not quite a 5, but a very good read if you like the genre.
June 25, 2020
Umm ok not bad
The author has supplied the standard fare, not bad but not great. I mean no disrespect Mr. Nix, this is a pretty good premise with a pretty good plotline but the AI was not developed or even a part of the main plotline. If you are going to include something like that in your blurb , there should be a little more development please. Would read a second one. It's a fun afternoon.
The author has supplied the standard fare, not bad but not great. I mean no disrespect Mr. Nix, this is a pretty good premise with a pretty good plotline but the AI was not developed or even a part of the main plotline. If you are going to include something like that in your blurb , there should be a little more development please. Would read a second one. It's a fun afternoon.
August 28, 2020
Much better than I expected.
I thought this book was going to be a guilty pleasure. The cover had that look about it, which is not to say the artwork is bad, but the style made me think it was trashy. It is, but in a good way.
The story has the Harem elements but I was genuinely involved in the plot by the end of the book and I will definitely get the sequel if one ever happens.
I thought this book was going to be a guilty pleasure. The cover had that look about it, which is not to say the artwork is bad, but the style made me think it was trashy. It is, but in a good way.
The story has the Harem elements but I was genuinely involved in the plot by the end of the book and I will definitely get the sequel if one ever happens.
June 22, 2020
Excellent book
I found it very engaging, i liked the characters right away.
I enjoyed how the character came to the realization that what he did and how he did it truly mattered.
Really looking forward to the next book!
I found it very engaging, i liked the characters right away.
I enjoyed how the character came to the realization that what he did and how he did it truly mattered.
Really looking forward to the next book!
June 16, 2020
A Wild Ride
This is the sort of book that runs away with your mind without leaving you winded. It was quite the page turner, I can't wait to find out what happens next?!?!
This is the sort of book that runs away with your mind without leaving you winded. It was quite the page turner, I can't wait to find out what happens next?!?!
July 24, 2020
Good read
Well written story that pulls you in. Cliffhanger at the end. Waiting for next book. Highly recommend this story for an escape.
Well written story that pulls you in. Cliffhanger at the end. Waiting for next book. Highly recommend this story for an escape.
November 8, 2020
Great story when's next
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews