The Arbiter: Midgard

by Devin Auspland

Is it possible for justice in a Virtual Realm full of criminals? Jailed for eternity for a crime he didn’t commit, Toaby is sent to Yggdrasil, a virtual reality prison based on Norse Mythology. Artificial Intelligences embodying the Norse Gods run the prison. They offer Toaby the unique class of Arbiter and task him with bringing order to their world full of Earth’s worst criminals. Reluctant to accept, the Gods offer him the chance to clear his name for a job well done.

With the arrival of the arbiter, a virtual cage of linked minds receives a new dose of truth. Finding unlikely allies in his new prison, Toaby sets out on his mission to lay down the law. He proceeds to do so until he crosses paths with a raiding group led by mass-murderer and psychopath Max, who vows to destroy everything Toaby stands for.

Can Toaby bring justice to a land full of lawless rangers? Will he ever be able to convince his daughter he's not guilty of her mother’s murder? Can he survive amongst the world's worst criminals? Find out this and more in, The Arbiter: Midgard!

Audiobook

About the author

I live outside Buffalo NY with my wife, 2 dogs and 2 cats. By day I work as a Contracts Manager but I’m a writer by night.

After enjoying several Fantasy and LitRPG books, I decided it was time to create my own cast of characters and world to put them in. It has been a huge investment of time and a lot of late nights but I’m also ready to share my story with the world.

I hope that you get as much enjoyment out of it as I have writing it.

If you want to know more about my first book, Endless Fantasy Online: The Phoenix Kingdom, you can do so here. And if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

Reviews

[Jonathan Ricketts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good storytelling

I enjoyed this and look forward to more. This requires 12 words from Amazon... why can I not just say ‘read this it is good’

[RJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tiberius (Toaby), an accountant for a large corporation, is sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife. He is framed by the president of the company for discovering irregularities in the financial accounts. If this is not enough, he is drugged, and his conscience is uploaded to the virtual world known as Yggdrasil. In this story, Yggdrasil is a virtual reality prison, administered by AI representing the Norse gods. The author’s conception of Yggdrasil is incorrect. Yggdrasil, in Norse mythology, is The World Tree; an eternal green ash tree in the middle of the world, with branches that stretch out over all of the nine realms. The author makes his concept fit by sending prisoners to Niflheim (hell) after their virtual death. Niflheim, the underworld; one of the roots of The World Tree. There may be other Norse mythology references but I’m not positive. In The Crossroads village, they purchased a well. The clean water made the food taste better and when eating, received a buff (a temporary status increase). This may refer to Mimir’s Well within The World Tree, which bestowed wisdom when drinking from it. Toaby found himself the new sheriff in town. Getting used to his new position and the abilities provided within was the least of his problems. Imposing his new position on the inhabitants of Yggdrasil was going to be the real issue, especially when it came to Max, the lead psychopath for a group of murdering raiders. While administering justice, Toaby had to kill many offenders, which began to wear on his soul. Toaby was in danger of crossing the thin line between hero and villain. We follow Toaby as he builds The Crossroads and imposes justice. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

[Debra Jeakins · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE ARBITER is the first in the MIDGARD series BY DEVIN AUSPLAND.

Toaby,falsely accused of murdering his wife is given the option: Go go prison forever or be sent to Yggdrasil , a virtual prison world created by the very people Toaby worked for,but also, the very company that set him up to take the fall for his wife's murder! Toaby, finds Yggdrasil a violent world,run by the Norse gods. Murder is common and the the gods want Toaby to become the Arbiter,the sheriff of Midgard and bring law and order . Not a very easy task Toaby finds out. The creatures of the forest are deadly and the raiders and bad guys do NOT want Toaby to do his job. As a matter of fact,they want Toaby dead!

I loved this audiobook! It starts out a bit slow but once Toaby gets a few deaths under his belt the excitement and action mounts. The narration, done by Nicholas Cain was excellent. He brought just the right amount of tone to each of the multitudes of characters

I cant wait for book two!!!

I received this audiobook free in exchange for an honest review.

[Ryan Pascall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book well enough but I had issues. For one, there is not enough character growth in this first part to make me want to follow the series.

Class-wise I never felt the MC was getting anywhere and it felt far too slow. Equally, given the circumstances in which the protagonist is placed in the game, the lack of urgency or emotional angst he portrays was surprising and I found it extremely hard to care about his plight both in and outside of the game.

Narration was also ok but the lack of character voices did sometimes make it a little confusing as to who was talking but otherwise I had no issue with their portrayal of emotion or narrative-cues.

I expect that the character may become more interesting in later parts of this series but I regret I won't be moving on at the moment but maybe in the future I will.

[Pablo García · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do not know who is more mentally challenged, the author who created a mentally challenged main character in Tiberius, or the main character, that was framed for the brutal murder of his wife, to hide any possibilities of discovering corruption within his former company, Techavant. As a former accountant, not having any plans to fall back on, for his daughter Lilly, when he decided to throw his life and the life of his wife away, in the first and second page of this shoddy and nonsensical VRMMORPG (I was sentenced to death and then placed in a video game, isekai-ed, fantasy novel series.)
With little to no main character descriptions, with no real world building, no maps, no inside illustrations, no character summaries, no logic, rationality or common sense, this game-like tragedy is unreadable. I do not recommend it, or the series.

[Kerry-Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first bit of the book I was thinking about the other sci-fan books, programmes and films that this reminded me of. Not like it's copied, just that the structure was similar.
But after the first few chapters I really started to enjoy the story arcs and the overall story line. The characters - Curtis and Hiro amongst my favourites - were really well described and had great storylines, and for those that allowed us further information, the back stories worked brilliantly.
The world building was great! The monsters and animals alike were brilliant. I'm definitely not unhappy that Puppy Spiders and Horned Bunnies live in the book and not the UK!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review

[Georgia Tumbleweed McNabb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reason this got a 4 Stars instead of 5 Stars is when the System is giving updates on levels there is so much echo that it is difficult to understand what is being said. The Narrator did a wonderful job with the characters voices and the storyline otherwise. I am not into RPG,but I throughly enjoyed this story and will be interested in listening to the next Audible book in this Series. Enjoyed the Narrator's out takes at the end of the book, really made me laugh!!

[Joseph James · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fair representation of the genre

main reason for 4 stars and not less; I couldn't put it down because its paced so well. the story is engaging. couldn't go 5 stars because of a few errors and I'm not feeling the urge to read it again some day. I still recommend it, especially to someone new to the genre.

[Peter]

Great book

Stellar work from Devin Auspland! Lots of action and adventure, monsters and magic, Gods and madness. Looking forward to the next one!