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Astra Epsilon #1
Ascension (A Space LitRPG)
Do you want to avoid perishing in a hail of asteroids? Us too. That’s why we created Astra Epsilon: the perfect escape for your mind, even though your body is about to be destroyed.
As the end of the world rapidly approaches—both figuratively and literally—Astra Epsilon seems to be the last hope humanity has of sidestepping that awkward thing called death. With only a few weeks to spare, two brothers and a trio of roommates arrive at the local Ascension Port, intent on unloading their minds into the game—rather than waiting idly for their inevitable doom. The two groups find themselves joined together by random chance to make the obligate team of five. They Ascend, leaving their Earthly bodies behind. As they awaken, now scattered across a random solar system in their new universe, they begin their first quest: to reunite. However, that task is made significantly harder by the hostile alien race that controls the system in which they spawn. Beginning at level 1, with equipment that’s more a liability than a help, no knowledge of their new universe’s mechanics, and a Class of Worthless Scrub, can the teammates fight their way toward each other to complete their first quest? Or will it be their last?
As the end of the world rapidly approaches—both figuratively and literally—Astra Epsilon seems to be the last hope humanity has of sidestepping that awkward thing called death. With only a few weeks to spare, two brothers and a trio of roommates arrive at the local Ascension Port, intent on unloading their minds into the game—rather than waiting idly for their inevitable doom. The two groups find themselves joined together by random chance to make the obligate team of five. They Ascend, leaving their Earthly bodies behind. As they awaken, now scattered across a random solar system in their new universe, they begin their first quest: to reunite. However, that task is made significantly harder by the hostile alien race that controls the system in which they spawn. Beginning at level 1, with equipment that’s more a liability than a help, no knowledge of their new universe’s mechanics, and a Class of Worthless Scrub, can the teammates fight their way toward each other to complete their first quest? Or will it be their last?
719 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2021
66 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 7, 2021
200 hundred pages into this and I am bored and do not care about the characters.
That is not good. The intro is so quick that you never get a sense of the characters then, due to story reasons, their personalities are essentially removed. Add in dry writing told from the characters viewpoint so you have no idea what is going on. I think this was done on purpose to give it a sense of slow reveal. But with boring characters in a rather long book, this decision was not the best. If this gets better further in, I just don't care enough to find out.
That is not good. The intro is so quick that you never get a sense of the characters then, due to story reasons, their personalities are essentially removed. Add in dry writing told from the characters viewpoint so you have no idea what is going on. I think this was done on purpose to give it a sense of slow reveal. But with boring characters in a rather long book, this decision was not the best. If this gets better further in, I just don't care enough to find out.
May 2, 2023
KU Review
Haven’t gotten to read many space litrpgs but this was pretty solid. I liked the premise for environment. Definitely a non-typical apocalypse story.
General disclaimer: I want to be clear in that I do not factor cost into any review and as such, this is simply a reflection of my enjoyment of the book and in no way reflects cost to value analysis.
Haven’t gotten to read many space litrpgs but this was pretty solid. I liked the premise for environment. Definitely a non-typical apocalypse story.
General disclaimer: I want to be clear in that I do not factor cost into any review and as such, this is simply a reflection of my enjoyment of the book and in no way reflects cost to value analysis.
November 10, 2021
Very different & not very good...to be honest, I only finished half the novel; it just got too weird...
December 12, 2021
DNF
I tried to get through this book but couldn't. I would read a couple of pages, sometimes a chapter or two and had to put it down for a day or so.
So much in this seems immature. Most of the characters are very unlikable, unless you like drug addicts and people who are permanently in a foul mood and nasty to everyone around them. The other 3 characters are meek and stupid.
It was irritating to have to read the introduction to the virtual world 5 times! Did we really have to see the stats box for the same equipment 5 times? Then we have to jump around from character to character constantly. There only way to keep them apart is to figure it out by whether the character wants drugs, wants to yell at everyone, is lusting after the one who wants to yell at everyone or the other two who want to meet up with their brother.
The virtual world this author came up with had convinced me the author should not be allowed to lead anyone ever!
Who in their right mind would take a group of people who are going to die, throw them a lifeline of a virtual world, then strip them of their identities, then throw them into the world without explaining how ANYTHING works, give them a worthless weapon and drop them into a hostile area separated from their group members?
It's cruel and shows an extremely warped mind on part of the author.
I tried to get through this book but couldn't. I would read a couple of pages, sometimes a chapter or two and had to put it down for a day or so.
So much in this seems immature. Most of the characters are very unlikable, unless you like drug addicts and people who are permanently in a foul mood and nasty to everyone around them. The other 3 characters are meek and stupid.
It was irritating to have to read the introduction to the virtual world 5 times! Did we really have to see the stats box for the same equipment 5 times? Then we have to jump around from character to character constantly. There only way to keep them apart is to figure it out by whether the character wants drugs, wants to yell at everyone, is lusting after the one who wants to yell at everyone or the other two who want to meet up with their brother.
The virtual world this author came up with had convinced me the author should not be allowed to lead anyone ever!
Who in their right mind would take a group of people who are going to die, throw them a lifeline of a virtual world, then strip them of their identities, then throw them into the world without explaining how ANYTHING works, give them a worthless weapon and drop them into a hostile area separated from their group members?
It's cruel and shows an extremely warped mind on part of the author.
November 28, 2021
I'm guessing that since this was the first book, there will be more space based material in the other books in the series. If you're a scifi fan, this one is a good start, but there's truly only a minimal amount of scifi elements to it. Other races, sure, but that's hardly scifi, There's some space based things like ships, other planets, and the like, but honestly, there's so little of it, it probably could have been left out with only minor impact on the story. To me, that does not a good scifi story make, but that's just me I guess. Regardless of this minor oversight, the story itself wasn't bad, and as long as it stacks up well in future books in the series, I can allow for all the world building that occurred in this one, and hopefully we'll see more of the scifi aspects as things progress. Pure LitRPG fans may be disappointed too, as there were stats and skills and such, but they were handled in a nonstandard way, which may bother some. I liked it though, and wouldn't mind seeing similar things in other books. I didn't like the way the stats were presented though. Often times it was just a graphical image of the charts themselves. This method is not accessible to visually impaired readers using screen readers, so a lot of which may have made this book more enjoyable (I really like the stats and things) was lost because of that quirk.
Anyway, recommended on the whole, because I liked the story, and think it could turn out very well after we get a bit more world building and more character development.
Anyway, recommended on the whole, because I liked the story, and think it could turn out very well after we get a bit more world building and more character development.
November 21, 2021
Book one
Mistakes: Any I found will be listed on Goodreads.
Plot: Uploading the mind into a game to escape a world ending disaster. I'm not the biggest fan of this type of story due to the fact that I feel like the leveling and skill systems are to easy. If you're going to be trapped in a game for an extremely long time shouldn't things be harder so as to take more time?
We will have to wait and see with this story as the layout seems to have a difference from other works of this type.
Characters: There are five main characters. So you get repetitive information as they each learn some of the same skills. Other than that, I like most of them and look forward to more.
8/10
Mistakes: Any I found will be listed on Goodreads.
Plot: Uploading the mind into a game to escape a world ending disaster. I'm not the biggest fan of this type of story due to the fact that I feel like the leveling and skill systems are to easy. If you're going to be trapped in a game for an extremely long time shouldn't things be harder so as to take more time?
We will have to wait and see with this story as the layout seems to have a difference from other works of this type.
Characters: There are five main characters. So you get repetitive information as they each learn some of the same skills. Other than that, I like most of them and look forward to more.
8/10
November 2, 2021
Fun, creative, and beautifully written
Once I sat down and started reading in this book I couldn't stop until I was finished. All of the characters and settings in the world are beautifully written and it's very easy to imagine them. I think my favorite character is Syzygy has he reminds me of just about every D&D character I've ever played. Typically it's always some sort of gnome rogue 😄
Aside from one or two small spelling errors the book was wonderfully edited and I like just about everything in it. Can't wait for the second book to come out.
Once I sat down and started reading in this book I couldn't stop until I was finished. All of the characters and settings in the world are beautifully written and it's very easy to imagine them. I think my favorite character is Syzygy has he reminds me of just about every D&D character I've ever played. Typically it's always some sort of gnome rogue 😄
Aside from one or two small spelling errors the book was wonderfully edited and I like just about everything in it. Can't wait for the second book to come out.
November 16, 2021
Great storyline
Characters with distinct personalities and fast pasted enough to keep me interested in all of them. Normally I hate switching character perspectives but this one was done quite well.
Characters with distinct personalities and fast pasted enough to keep me interested in all of them. Normally I hate switching character perspectives but this one was done quite well.
January 21, 2022
ugh
Overall a poorly written story. Maybe English is the author’s 2nd language…. Also, the author’s portrayal or someone who is “intelligent” seems to mean average or below average in effect. If food, it’d be a bad gas station snack.
Overall a poorly written story. Maybe English is the author’s 2nd language…. Also, the author’s portrayal or someone who is “intelligent” seems to mean average or below average in effect. If food, it’d be a bad gas station snack.
September 25, 2023
Any interest was killed by a full chapter of straight exposition, especially when that exposition brings up something as absurd as devoting 1/5 of a humanity rescue plan to creating a video game with no explanation as to why.
June 18, 2023
Stuck as a support gnome named Sisi for all eternity. Yea...I'm not interested in sisi adventurers.
August 1, 2025
recommended as "pure science fiction litrpg" on Facebook - and the description sounds perfect
September 7, 2024
This is some of the most fun I’ve had with a book in a long time. This was the Dungeons and Dragons in space I never got to play in real life, but as so glad this book let me experience it. There are some flaws, but they’re easy to overlook with how I finished a 600 page book so quickly and effortlessly. Cannot wait to read the second one, and probably start playing Baldur’s Gate 3 again now.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews