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TransDimensional Hunter #1
Into the Real
NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR JOHN RINGO AND USA TODAY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR LYDIA SHERRER JOIN FORCES ON A NEW SF NOVEL OF ALIEN INVASION. Ender's Game meets Mean Girls meets Pokémon Go.
Lynn Raven may be the boss master of WarMonger 2050 with her online persona of "Larry the Snake," but when the CEO of Tsunami Entertainment personally asks her, as a favor, to beta test a new augmented reality game, she has to face her greatest Going outside and dealing with, ugh, people.
As she becomes more immersed in the game, the stakes rise and so do the obstacles. Strife between teammates, a ruthless rival team, and these strange glitches that make it seem like the game algorithm (or maybe “game AI”?) has it in for her. Now she has to face a new is she willing to step into the real to win the future she’s always wanted?
What do you do when a game and real life merge?
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
About Into the Real:
"The futuristic world of the gamers and the game itself will interest sf Teens will relate to Lynn, the main character, and if they are gamers, they will enjoy her gamer and VR adventures." --Booklist
About John
“. . . the thinking reader’s zombie novel . . . Ringo fleshes out his theme with convincing details . . . the proceedings become oddly plausible.”—Publishers Weekly on Under a Graveyard Sky
“[Ringo’s work is] peopled with three-dimensional characters and spiced with personal drama as well as tactical finesse.”—Library Journal
“Explosive . . . fans . . . will appreciate Ringo’s lively narrative and flavorful characters.”—Publishers Weekly
“. . . practically impossible not to read in one sitting . . . exceedingly impressive . . . executed with skill, verve, and wit.”—Booklist
“Crackerjack storytelling.”—Starlog
John Ringo brings fighting to life. He is the creator of the Posleen Wars series, which has become a New York Times best-selling series with more than one million copies in print. The series contains A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, Hell’s Faire, and Eye of the Storm. In addition, Ringo has penned the Council War series. Adding another dimension to his skills, Ringo created nationally best-selling techno-thriller novels about Mike Harmon (Ghost, Kildar, Choosers of the Slain, Unto the Breach, and A Deeper Blue). His techno-thriller The Last Centurion was also a national bestseller. A more playful twist on the future is found in novels of the Looking-Glass Into the Looking Glass, Vorpal Blade, Manxome Foe, and Claws That Catch, the last three in collaboration with Travis S. Taylor. His audience was further enhanced with four collaborations with fellow New York Times best-selling author David March Upcountry, March to the Sea, March to the Stars, and We Few. There are an additional seven collaborations from the Posleen The Hero, written with Michael Z.
Lynn Raven may be the boss master of WarMonger 2050 with her online persona of "Larry the Snake," but when the CEO of Tsunami Entertainment personally asks her, as a favor, to beta test a new augmented reality game, she has to face her greatest Going outside and dealing with, ugh, people.
As she becomes more immersed in the game, the stakes rise and so do the obstacles. Strife between teammates, a ruthless rival team, and these strange glitches that make it seem like the game algorithm (or maybe “game AI”?) has it in for her. Now she has to face a new is she willing to step into the real to win the future she’s always wanted?
What do you do when a game and real life merge?
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
About Into the Real:
"The futuristic world of the gamers and the game itself will interest sf Teens will relate to Lynn, the main character, and if they are gamers, they will enjoy her gamer and VR adventures." --Booklist
About John
“. . . the thinking reader’s zombie novel . . . Ringo fleshes out his theme with convincing details . . . the proceedings become oddly plausible.”—Publishers Weekly on Under a Graveyard Sky
“[Ringo’s work is] peopled with three-dimensional characters and spiced with personal drama as well as tactical finesse.”—Library Journal
“Explosive . . . fans . . . will appreciate Ringo’s lively narrative and flavorful characters.”—Publishers Weekly
“. . . practically impossible not to read in one sitting . . . exceedingly impressive . . . executed with skill, verve, and wit.”—Booklist
“Crackerjack storytelling.”—Starlog
John Ringo brings fighting to life. He is the creator of the Posleen Wars series, which has become a New York Times best-selling series with more than one million copies in print. The series contains A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, Hell’s Faire, and Eye of the Storm. In addition, Ringo has penned the Council War series. Adding another dimension to his skills, Ringo created nationally best-selling techno-thriller novels about Mike Harmon (Ghost, Kildar, Choosers of the Slain, Unto the Breach, and A Deeper Blue). His techno-thriller The Last Centurion was also a national bestseller. A more playful twist on the future is found in novels of the Looking-Glass Into the Looking Glass, Vorpal Blade, Manxome Foe, and Claws That Catch, the last three in collaboration with Travis S. Taylor. His audience was further enhanced with four collaborations with fellow New York Times best-selling author David March Upcountry, March to the Sea, March to the Stars, and We Few. There are an additional seven collaborations from the Posleen The Hero, written with Michael Z.
559 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 5, 2022
158 people are currently reading
415 people want to read
About the author
John Ringo
101 books1,830 followersJohn Ringo is a prolific author who has written in a wide variety of genres. His early life included a great deal of travel. He visited 23 foreign countries, and attended fourteen different schools. After graduation Ringo enlisted in the US military for four years, after which he studied marine biology.
In 1999 he wrote and published his first novel "A Hymn Before Battle", which proved successful. Since 2000 Ringo has been a full time author.
He has written science fiction, military fiction, and fantasy.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
In 1999 he wrote and published his first novel "A Hymn Before Battle", which proved successful. Since 2000 Ringo has been a full time author.
He has written science fiction, military fiction, and fantasy.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 157 reviews
August 7, 2022
Fcuking EPIC! If you're looking for a great YA scifi/urban fantasy read give this a go, 'cause I loved this, and I'm really looking forward to reading the next one.
I knew there was something fishy with the TD Hunters game and that confirmation was so satisfying - yet scary, to get at the very end. The MC - Lynn Raven, her growth throughout the book was truly pleasant to see. Her growing confidence in herself and in her abilities which gave her the boost she rightfully needed to speak up, take names and kick some freaking arse!
I knew there was something fishy with the TD Hunters game and that confirmation was so satisfying - yet scary, to get at the very end. The MC - Lynn Raven, her growth throughout the book was truly pleasant to see. Her growing confidence in herself and in her abilities which gave her the boost she rightfully needed to speak up, take names and kick some freaking arse!
April 29, 2022
This is an interesting combo of a hard-core military scifi writer and a YA fae writer, treading a well-worn plot. It's pretty good, with the combined styles meshing nicely. I figured out the twist early on, but the adventure and the character development kept me interested. The teen angst was not overdone, and there are several options for a teen romance to be introduced in the next book.
I'm not sure I will read the next one, given the presumed plot trajectory.
I'm not sure I will read the next one, given the presumed plot trajectory.
October 19, 2023
Book One
Absolutely the best book I’ve read to date in 2022!
I look forward to seeing what book two has in store for us.
The only thing I worry about is that the series will come to a rushed and rather abrupt end like some of Ringo’s other series have. This has the potential to be one of the best series out there.
10/10
Absolutely the best book I’ve read to date in 2022!
I look forward to seeing what book two has in store for us.
The only thing I worry about is that the series will come to a rushed and rather abrupt end like some of Ringo’s other series have. This has the potential to be one of the best series out there.
10/10
November 5, 2022
3.5 at times
When Baen started advertising this new book, I was immediately intrigued and it sounded like a really fun read. So, I picked up a copy around when it was first released. Based on reader reactions, this appears to be much more Sherrer than Ringo on the author side of things. Ringo probably offered up some military ideas here and there, but the bulk of the story is not military sci-fi, so fans of Ringo might find it disappointing in that regard. The other problem some readers may face is this is written very much as a Young Adult book, but it feels like its being marketed to adults, so I get the impression the demographic target is a bit off. Not saying you can't enjoy both, I do, but when I read the original blurbs it felt like this was going to become intense military sci-fi and that just never really happened.
Now, this book really isn't a flop in my opinion, though it was a bit slow for me to get into. I'm still on the fence with the whole thing, but I think I have a more favorable opinion of the story than a negative opinion at the end of the day. The story follows Lynn Raven, a teenage girl who is your fairly stereo-typical gamer, that people think of as "gamer people" or "neets" if you want to borrow from Japan. This really comes as a coming of age story for Lynn, which is where this really has that Young Adult genre appeal. Lynn is a shy, theoretically out of shape person in real life. She hangs out with a group of other gamer nerds, that probably don't have much going for them beyond video games. They all play a popular video game called WarMonger, basically Call of Duty, only Lynn plays in secret, because sexism is a real thing out there. The friends she hangs out with don't even know she plays the game. Online Lynn has developed a persona called Larry Coughlin and with modern technology using a voice modulator she plays as a grizzled ex-commando. She is, in reality, one of the top players of the game and actually manages to make quite a bit of money doing it. Which she hides from her mom, even though Lynn has taken on the responsibility of paying the bills. When it comes to Lynn and her character development, I think Sherrer did an excellent job. I really liked Lynn throughout the entire book, so that aspect kept me reading when areas of the book were bogged down. Having a really well developed character really held the book together for me, if Lynn was extremely annoying or had some other frustrating trait, this book would have collapsed. Her faults are relatively minor, but I've read books where I've just hated the main characters because they are so utterly stupid, growing with Lynn, felt more natural and when she made stupid mistakes they were reasonable as happens with teenagers.
Lynn's life takes on a major change when she is personally contacted by the CEO of one of the largest gaming companies in the world, Tsunami Entertainment. (Weirdly, this is also the name of the gaming company in the movie Free Guy.) Anyway, he'd been following her work on WarMonger and wanted her to Beta Test a new game his company was developing, Transdimensional Hunter. Or TD Hunter for short. Naturally she said yes, but she couldn't tell her friends, because she'd have to explain why she even got beta testing access to the most popular up coming game out there. And here's where the novel starts to take a nose dive for me. There is entirely too much time spent explaining the game and how it works and the monsters you fight. Hundreds of pages devoted to this and the novel just feels about a hundred pages too long. I understand TD Hunter is a game made to be played in the real world, so Lynn is forced to exercise, but we could have fast forwarded the training montage at least a little bit and told us a few key moments. A huge chunk of the middle of the book just feels like fluff. Like the author got so into developing the "cool game" that no one will ever be able to play that she just had to tell us all about it. I can understand that, but I don't want to read a hundred pages of game mechanics. All it did was make the book feel slow at these points. This bloated the chapters to often being 20+ pages long, which was just more than they needed to be most of the time.
The novel eventually picks up again when the game is released and it is announced that a team challenge is happening and there is a huge prize attached. This forces her to talk to her friend group and deal with one of her friends, Ronnie, who insists on being team captain, even though he is not great at that job. Furthermore Ronnie doesn't really like Lynn and his sexist attitude towards her makes it hard for things to work. Lynn, overcoming these challenges she faced was an excellent read. Throw into the mix another rival between her and the popular girl, who are ex friends from before high school and it makes for a pretty interesting dynamic. I kind of understand why a major amount of time is devoted to Lynn as a solo gamer at the beginning of the book, but, for me, it really didn't pick up until she started interacting more regularly with other people in the world around her. Though, that is part of the whole "coming of age" portion of Lynn's story. Letting her Larry Coughlin side show more, because of her knowledge and confidence in gaming.
Since this is labelled as Science Fiction, I spent almost the entire novel expecting the TD monsters to be real. I kept waiting for that to happen. This book stared to read more and more like something out of Ready Player One as it went on, but it never happened. The monsters Lynn and her team fight never exist in our reality. However, allusions to strange happenings are made throughout the book, so it's pretty obvious the citizens of Earth are being trained for something about to happen and this military training is dressed up as a video game. Which is pretty standard at this point anyway. In the end we get a very tiny glimpse into the future of the oncoming war that is probably going to happen, but it's not explained and the book ends with an ominous "to be continued..."
To be honest, I'm rather on the fence as to whether or not I'm going to read the next book. For a long time when I was reading this, I had told myself I am definitely not going to read the sequel to this, because it's just not that interesting and I just can't read about more game mechanics. However, by the end of the story, I'm not as solidly decided. If I do read the follow-up, it's going to be a rather whimsical decision as I do have quite a few other books already in my possession that I'd probably find more joy in reading rather than satisfying my curiosity about what happens next in this particular world. In the end, I wouldn't say this is a must read, unfortunately.
When Baen started advertising this new book, I was immediately intrigued and it sounded like a really fun read. So, I picked up a copy around when it was first released. Based on reader reactions, this appears to be much more Sherrer than Ringo on the author side of things. Ringo probably offered up some military ideas here and there, but the bulk of the story is not military sci-fi, so fans of Ringo might find it disappointing in that regard. The other problem some readers may face is this is written very much as a Young Adult book, but it feels like its being marketed to adults, so I get the impression the demographic target is a bit off. Not saying you can't enjoy both, I do, but when I read the original blurbs it felt like this was going to become intense military sci-fi and that just never really happened.
Now, this book really isn't a flop in my opinion, though it was a bit slow for me to get into. I'm still on the fence with the whole thing, but I think I have a more favorable opinion of the story than a negative opinion at the end of the day. The story follows Lynn Raven, a teenage girl who is your fairly stereo-typical gamer, that people think of as "gamer people" or "neets" if you want to borrow from Japan. This really comes as a coming of age story for Lynn, which is where this really has that Young Adult genre appeal. Lynn is a shy, theoretically out of shape person in real life. She hangs out with a group of other gamer nerds, that probably don't have much going for them beyond video games. They all play a popular video game called WarMonger, basically Call of Duty, only Lynn plays in secret, because sexism is a real thing out there. The friends she hangs out with don't even know she plays the game. Online Lynn has developed a persona called Larry Coughlin and with modern technology using a voice modulator she plays as a grizzled ex-commando. She is, in reality, one of the top players of the game and actually manages to make quite a bit of money doing it. Which she hides from her mom, even though Lynn has taken on the responsibility of paying the bills. When it comes to Lynn and her character development, I think Sherrer did an excellent job. I really liked Lynn throughout the entire book, so that aspect kept me reading when areas of the book were bogged down. Having a really well developed character really held the book together for me, if Lynn was extremely annoying or had some other frustrating trait, this book would have collapsed. Her faults are relatively minor, but I've read books where I've just hated the main characters because they are so utterly stupid, growing with Lynn, felt more natural and when she made stupid mistakes they were reasonable as happens with teenagers.
Lynn's life takes on a major change when she is personally contacted by the CEO of one of the largest gaming companies in the world, Tsunami Entertainment. (Weirdly, this is also the name of the gaming company in the movie Free Guy.) Anyway, he'd been following her work on WarMonger and wanted her to Beta Test a new game his company was developing, Transdimensional Hunter. Or TD Hunter for short. Naturally she said yes, but she couldn't tell her friends, because she'd have to explain why she even got beta testing access to the most popular up coming game out there. And here's where the novel starts to take a nose dive for me. There is entirely too much time spent explaining the game and how it works and the monsters you fight. Hundreds of pages devoted to this and the novel just feels about a hundred pages too long. I understand TD Hunter is a game made to be played in the real world, so Lynn is forced to exercise, but we could have fast forwarded the training montage at least a little bit and told us a few key moments. A huge chunk of the middle of the book just feels like fluff. Like the author got so into developing the "cool game" that no one will ever be able to play that she just had to tell us all about it. I can understand that, but I don't want to read a hundred pages of game mechanics. All it did was make the book feel slow at these points. This bloated the chapters to often being 20+ pages long, which was just more than they needed to be most of the time.
The novel eventually picks up again when the game is released and it is announced that a team challenge is happening and there is a huge prize attached. This forces her to talk to her friend group and deal with one of her friends, Ronnie, who insists on being team captain, even though he is not great at that job. Furthermore Ronnie doesn't really like Lynn and his sexist attitude towards her makes it hard for things to work. Lynn, overcoming these challenges she faced was an excellent read. Throw into the mix another rival between her and the popular girl, who are ex friends from before high school and it makes for a pretty interesting dynamic. I kind of understand why a major amount of time is devoted to Lynn as a solo gamer at the beginning of the book, but, for me, it really didn't pick up until she started interacting more regularly with other people in the world around her. Though, that is part of the whole "coming of age" portion of Lynn's story. Letting her Larry Coughlin side show more, because of her knowledge and confidence in gaming.
Since this is labelled as Science Fiction, I spent almost the entire novel expecting the TD monsters to be real. I kept waiting for that to happen. This book stared to read more and more like something out of Ready Player One as it went on, but it never happened. The monsters Lynn and her team fight never exist in our reality. However, allusions to strange happenings are made throughout the book, so it's pretty obvious the citizens of Earth are being trained for something about to happen and this military training is dressed up as a video game. Which is pretty standard at this point anyway. In the end we get a very tiny glimpse into the future of the oncoming war that is probably going to happen, but it's not explained and the book ends with an ominous "to be continued..."
To be honest, I'm rather on the fence as to whether or not I'm going to read the next book. For a long time when I was reading this, I had told myself I am definitely not going to read the sequel to this, because it's just not that interesting and I just can't read about more game mechanics. However, by the end of the story, I'm not as solidly decided. If I do read the follow-up, it's going to be a rather whimsical decision as I do have quite a few other books already in my possession that I'd probably find more joy in reading rather than satisfying my curiosity about what happens next in this particular world. In the end, I wouldn't say this is a must read, unfortunately.
May 12, 2023
There were sections of this book that could have been trimmed, except that the authors desperately wanted to expound on their vision of near-future technology. I also wasn't a fan of the schoolyard bullying – except to say it was necessary as a growth opportunity for the protagonist, Lynn Raven.
Despite the book mostly missing my favored genres, I enjoyed almost every moment of it. The characters were realistic, as was the dialogue. The premise is original and interesting. And the plot is mostly paced well. This is a fun read and made me want more. There's more coming right?
Despite the book mostly missing my favored genres, I enjoyed almost every moment of it. The characters were realistic, as was the dialogue. The premise is original and interesting. And the plot is mostly paced well. This is a fun read and made me want more. There's more coming right?
April 7, 2022
What RPGlit should be!
John Ringo + Lydia Sherrer + immersive RPG! Put all this together and you end up with a story that you read, but you feel like you are right there, in the story, with Lynn and the other characters! Oh!!! The monsters as well! This is how RPGlit should be written! Into The Real makes you feel like you are a part of the story. You are able to identify with Lynn and the struggles she has delt with her whole life to this point. When she is offered the opportunity of a lifetime, several lifetimes really, she takes it! As the story progresses, Lynn must do whatever is necessary to succeed. Failure is not an option. As a reader, you will begin to think that there is more going on here than just a bunch of gamers trying to win a fantastic prize! I am so excited about the next book in this series! But, like everyone else, I will need to be patient and wait. You really cannot rush quality, especially when it's an amazing story like Into The Real! And check out that cover!
John Ringo + Lydia Sherrer + immersive RPG! Put all this together and you end up with a story that you read, but you feel like you are right there, in the story, with Lynn and the other characters! Oh!!! The monsters as well! This is how RPGlit should be written! Into The Real makes you feel like you are a part of the story. You are able to identify with Lynn and the struggles she has delt with her whole life to this point. When she is offered the opportunity of a lifetime, several lifetimes really, she takes it! As the story progresses, Lynn must do whatever is necessary to succeed. Failure is not an option. As a reader, you will begin to think that there is more going on here than just a bunch of gamers trying to win a fantastic prize! I am so excited about the next book in this series! But, like everyone else, I will need to be patient and wait. You really cannot rush quality, especially when it's an amazing story like Into The Real! And check out that cover!
April 10, 2022
wow
I will be honest while I’ve always loved John Ringo’s work, especially with David Weber I’ve also always considered it a bit umm campy. His main characters always have pluck but aren’t exactly well rounded. I’m assuming his new writing partner Lydia Sherrer was able to fix that problem this time. As someone very much into VR I understand how AR also will likely work. The technical knowledge displayed in this novel’s writing was impressive.
This book can easily stand shoulder to shoulder with Ready Player One. In its own way it deserves to dominate the zeitgeist if not now then in the coming years. I just hope the series gets an actual ending. Ringo, left to his own devices tends to lose interest and go on to other projects. I get that he needs to make money, but this series needs 3-5 books with a clear ending. I hope his publisher is demanding he give a clear outline on how the series will continue and end.
I highly recommend gamers and sci if fans read this book.
I will be honest while I’ve always loved John Ringo’s work, especially with David Weber I’ve also always considered it a bit umm campy. His main characters always have pluck but aren’t exactly well rounded. I’m assuming his new writing partner Lydia Sherrer was able to fix that problem this time. As someone very much into VR I understand how AR also will likely work. The technical knowledge displayed in this novel’s writing was impressive.
This book can easily stand shoulder to shoulder with Ready Player One. In its own way it deserves to dominate the zeitgeist if not now then in the coming years. I just hope the series gets an actual ending. Ringo, left to his own devices tends to lose interest and go on to other projects. I get that he needs to make money, but this series needs 3-5 books with a clear ending. I hope his publisher is demanding he give a clear outline on how the series will continue and end.
I highly recommend gamers and sci if fans read this book.
May 1, 2023
Into the Real really hit the spot for me this weekend! I started it Saturday morning and kept going until I finished it Sunday afternoon. Kudos to Lydia Sherrer and John Ringo for writing this page-turner! This title could have been a gimmick title - using an AR game and unwitting players to fight an unknown enemy - but the authors invested in world-building and character development so that the reader has a vested interest in keeping up with the story. The premise is simple - take a group of high school gamers and get them to play a new game that requires them to go out "Into the Real" to fight AR foes. There are levels to obtain, prizes to be won, and a team tournament that could lead to a monetary prize, free education, and a job. But to get there, the players need to put in the time and effort. And then there is the reveal right at the end that puts a whole new spin on the game. Looking forward to the 2nd book in the series!
April 24, 2022
It took me a while to get into this story but I did enjoy it! Larry Couglin is definitely a Ringo character!
May 7, 2022
Gave up halfway through in boredom. Clichéd, plus a whiff of TERF. Glad I just borrowed it and didn’t pay for it.
January 8, 2023
I’ve been looking forward to this book since the moment I heard it described as Pokemon Go meets Monster Hunter—and by the standards both properties inspire in my brain, it does not disappoint. 😄
In John Ringo and Lydia Sherrer’s Into the Real, Lynn Raven is a shy couch potato of a teen who would rather stay home and play WarMonger 2050 than go be around people. Even her narrow circle of IRL gaming friends—all guys—are generally unappealing, because the alpha nerd of the group is of the “girls can’t play video games” variety and would become insufferable if he knew the truth of her gaming hobby. See, through the power of near-future voice modification technology, a lot of intense forum research, and a lot of practice, she moonlights as the grizzled military veteran Larry Coughlin, an absolute legend in WarMonger’s multiplayer circles, a well-paid in-game mercenary-for-hire, and most importantly, routine kicker of Ronnie’s in-game butt.
So legendary is she as Larry Coughlin that, when Tsunami Entertainment rolls out the invite-only beta for its upcoming augmented reality game, TransDimensional Hunter, she’s invited by the head of the company himself to test this new game. It’s a tremendous honor and testament to her skill … but stepping outside her home, into the real, to conspicuously play this highly-anticipated game means she risks revealing her online identity. It also means she’ll have to deal with, eew, people.
But it also presents an avenue for her to earn more real-world money through gaming, and things haven’t been easy for her and her mother since the death of her police officer father. So Lynn takes on the opportunity—and with it, the challenges of navigating adolescence, competitive gamer boys, savage popular girls … and maybe something even bigger than that.
In recent years, I’ve become a huge fan of the LitRPG/GameLit genre (obviously, since I now write in it), and while Into the Real lacks some of the more iconic qualities associated with indie LitRPG (detailed stat blocks, for example), it’s entirely worth a read for LitRPG fans, especially those looking for something a little more complex than the usual power-fantasy adventure that dominates the genre.
Into the Real stands out for many reasons. The most conspicuous one for me was that it not only follows a female main character—uncommon in LitRPG—but that it depicts the specific experience of being a female gamer in a male-dominated competitive hobby, while also exploring the challenges inherent in simply being a teenager.
There is a definite power fantasy element—Lynn’s masquerading as Larry Coughlin can’t be anything but—but in a clever subversion of the trope, it’s also presented as the mask she wears to cope with her very teenage insecurities. She’s self-conscious about her body and about being a girl gamer amidst a bunch of immature boys, while potentially having a crush on one of those boys. She also has to deal with socially vicious popular girls, even on the gaming front, when the local rich queen bee (and popular streamer) has her father pull some strings to get her into the closed beta-test for TD Hunter … and proceeds to harass Lynn in the process (sometimes violently). Larry Coughlin and WarMonger 2050 are the shields she hides behind when being Lynn Raven becomes too unpleasant—but in playing TD Hunter, she can only be Lynn Raven, and participation in the game itself forces her to face those hurdles and thus grow as a person.
All this to say, while I don’t think it was necessarily written for a YA audience, this is definitely a novel that teen gamer girls in particular can relate to.
And the experience of being a gamer girl is intrinsic to the story. One of Lynn’s greatest social challenges is Ronnie, alpha nerd of her friend group and firm believer that “girls got no game.” When a high-stakes TD Hunter competition is announced—requiring four-player teams—Ronnie begrudgingly lets her fill the fourth spot on the group’s team and then, despite insisting upon being the leader, fails to give her serious consideration when forming the team’s strategies (i.e. completely fails to act like a leader). A non-gamer might look at his character and view him as a stereotype … but anyone who has ever spent time on a gamer girl forum will recognize him instantly. Discussions on these forums are overwhelmingly dominated by girls trying to find other girls to game with, and it’s largely because of the disrespect and sexist harassment they receive in chat from players like Ronnie. It’s a genuine problem in gaming culture at large and Into the Real completely nails it with this storyline. Lynn has to overcome her difficulties with Ronnie if she—and her team—are to succeed in competition, and the way the story handles it is both realistic and wholly appropriate to its coming-of-age theme.
What makes this book succeed, though, is that alongside the strong realization of its themes, it’s a whole lot of fun, and it particularly nails the unique fun of gaming culture, while also presenting a genuinely cool view of what gaming could look like in the near future.
Lynn’s is a future where augmented reality glasses are common and used in daily life even outside gaming contexts, where smart fabrics can mold to fit individual body shapes, and where games as complex as TD Hunter not only have special shape-changing peripheral controllers, but virtual AI assistants to help manage in-game data. TD Hunter itself is a game that I found myself wanting to play as I read, largely because it reminded me so strongly of some of my own favorite games. The AR component of Pokemon Go makes it an obvious comparison, and given the game’s goal, Monster Hunter feels like an obvious comparison, too … but (speaking as someone who takes days off work to play new Monster Hunter games), it’s also wholly appropriate. TD Hunter is a game that understands the pleasure of tracking and discovering new monsters, gathering new data on them with each encounter, and heck, gathering loot in general. For that matter, it’s also not inaccurate to compare it to Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International series, given that modern-style weaponry is used in the game (and that there’s at least one MHI easter egg for sharp-eyed readers).
Also notable is how seriously the novel takes the physical aspect of the game. Lynn’s mom is a medical professional, and there are moments where she delivers advice that made me go, “Oh, one of those authors definitely played ridiculous amounts of Pokemon Go” (I say as I look at my own dedicated gaming bag of sunscreen, bottled waters, emergency protein snacks, and UV-blocking clothes). TD Hunter, of course, is on a whole other physical level, requiring players to jump around and physically exert themselves as if fighting real monsters, and while Lynn’s mom is cautious about the general safety of Lynn’s endeavor, she’s also refreshingly supportive and offers detailed dietary and general health information to enable her daughter to succeed without overwhelming her body. It’s a nice realistic detail in a genre that usually doesn’t pay attention to such mundane details. (Plus, it’s also great to see a parent in a teen-led story who isn’t an absolute idiot.)
The only place where Into the Real slips for me is the literal last set of paragraphs. These include a twist that sharp-eyed readers will see coming, and serve more to set up the next book in the series, rather than contributing anything significant to this one—but then, ultimately this first novel is about Lynn’s personal struggle, more so than the coming wider struggle that’s implied in the twist. Taking that into account, the book becomes a strong setup for what is sure to be a unique, fun series.
Ultimately, the thing that stands out most about Into the Real?
Many books about gaming get me so pumped to game that I stop mid-read to do just that—but Into the Real was so hypnotic I couldn’t bring myself to put it down, despite wanting to boot up my console for some Monster Hunter every other page. (And y’all know how I feel about Monster Hunter.) That said, it’s a must-read for gamers, but also for anyone who wants a fun, smart story about a shy teen finding her way through an exciting technological future.
In John Ringo and Lydia Sherrer’s Into the Real, Lynn Raven is a shy couch potato of a teen who would rather stay home and play WarMonger 2050 than go be around people. Even her narrow circle of IRL gaming friends—all guys—are generally unappealing, because the alpha nerd of the group is of the “girls can’t play video games” variety and would become insufferable if he knew the truth of her gaming hobby. See, through the power of near-future voice modification technology, a lot of intense forum research, and a lot of practice, she moonlights as the grizzled military veteran Larry Coughlin, an absolute legend in WarMonger’s multiplayer circles, a well-paid in-game mercenary-for-hire, and most importantly, routine kicker of Ronnie’s in-game butt.
So legendary is she as Larry Coughlin that, when Tsunami Entertainment rolls out the invite-only beta for its upcoming augmented reality game, TransDimensional Hunter, she’s invited by the head of the company himself to test this new game. It’s a tremendous honor and testament to her skill … but stepping outside her home, into the real, to conspicuously play this highly-anticipated game means she risks revealing her online identity. It also means she’ll have to deal with, eew, people.
But it also presents an avenue for her to earn more real-world money through gaming, and things haven’t been easy for her and her mother since the death of her police officer father. So Lynn takes on the opportunity—and with it, the challenges of navigating adolescence, competitive gamer boys, savage popular girls … and maybe something even bigger than that.
In recent years, I’ve become a huge fan of the LitRPG/GameLit genre (obviously, since I now write in it), and while Into the Real lacks some of the more iconic qualities associated with indie LitRPG (detailed stat blocks, for example), it’s entirely worth a read for LitRPG fans, especially those looking for something a little more complex than the usual power-fantasy adventure that dominates the genre.
Into the Real stands out for many reasons. The most conspicuous one for me was that it not only follows a female main character—uncommon in LitRPG—but that it depicts the specific experience of being a female gamer in a male-dominated competitive hobby, while also exploring the challenges inherent in simply being a teenager.
There is a definite power fantasy element—Lynn’s masquerading as Larry Coughlin can’t be anything but—but in a clever subversion of the trope, it’s also presented as the mask she wears to cope with her very teenage insecurities. She’s self-conscious about her body and about being a girl gamer amidst a bunch of immature boys, while potentially having a crush on one of those boys. She also has to deal with socially vicious popular girls, even on the gaming front, when the local rich queen bee (and popular streamer) has her father pull some strings to get her into the closed beta-test for TD Hunter … and proceeds to harass Lynn in the process (sometimes violently). Larry Coughlin and WarMonger 2050 are the shields she hides behind when being Lynn Raven becomes too unpleasant—but in playing TD Hunter, she can only be Lynn Raven, and participation in the game itself forces her to face those hurdles and thus grow as a person.
All this to say, while I don’t think it was necessarily written for a YA audience, this is definitely a novel that teen gamer girls in particular can relate to.
And the experience of being a gamer girl is intrinsic to the story. One of Lynn’s greatest social challenges is Ronnie, alpha nerd of her friend group and firm believer that “girls got no game.” When a high-stakes TD Hunter competition is announced—requiring four-player teams—Ronnie begrudgingly lets her fill the fourth spot on the group’s team and then, despite insisting upon being the leader, fails to give her serious consideration when forming the team’s strategies (i.e. completely fails to act like a leader). A non-gamer might look at his character and view him as a stereotype … but anyone who has ever spent time on a gamer girl forum will recognize him instantly. Discussions on these forums are overwhelmingly dominated by girls trying to find other girls to game with, and it’s largely because of the disrespect and sexist harassment they receive in chat from players like Ronnie. It’s a genuine problem in gaming culture at large and Into the Real completely nails it with this storyline. Lynn has to overcome her difficulties with Ronnie if she—and her team—are to succeed in competition, and the way the story handles it is both realistic and wholly appropriate to its coming-of-age theme.
What makes this book succeed, though, is that alongside the strong realization of its themes, it’s a whole lot of fun, and it particularly nails the unique fun of gaming culture, while also presenting a genuinely cool view of what gaming could look like in the near future.
Lynn’s is a future where augmented reality glasses are common and used in daily life even outside gaming contexts, where smart fabrics can mold to fit individual body shapes, and where games as complex as TD Hunter not only have special shape-changing peripheral controllers, but virtual AI assistants to help manage in-game data. TD Hunter itself is a game that I found myself wanting to play as I read, largely because it reminded me so strongly of some of my own favorite games. The AR component of Pokemon Go makes it an obvious comparison, and given the game’s goal, Monster Hunter feels like an obvious comparison, too … but (speaking as someone who takes days off work to play new Monster Hunter games), it’s also wholly appropriate. TD Hunter is a game that understands the pleasure of tracking and discovering new monsters, gathering new data on them with each encounter, and heck, gathering loot in general. For that matter, it’s also not inaccurate to compare it to Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International series, given that modern-style weaponry is used in the game (and that there’s at least one MHI easter egg for sharp-eyed readers).
Also notable is how seriously the novel takes the physical aspect of the game. Lynn’s mom is a medical professional, and there are moments where she delivers advice that made me go, “Oh, one of those authors definitely played ridiculous amounts of Pokemon Go” (I say as I look at my own dedicated gaming bag of sunscreen, bottled waters, emergency protein snacks, and UV-blocking clothes). TD Hunter, of course, is on a whole other physical level, requiring players to jump around and physically exert themselves as if fighting real monsters, and while Lynn’s mom is cautious about the general safety of Lynn’s endeavor, she’s also refreshingly supportive and offers detailed dietary and general health information to enable her daughter to succeed without overwhelming her body. It’s a nice realistic detail in a genre that usually doesn’t pay attention to such mundane details. (Plus, it’s also great to see a parent in a teen-led story who isn’t an absolute idiot.)
The only place where Into the Real slips for me is the literal last set of paragraphs. These include a twist that sharp-eyed readers will see coming, and serve more to set up the next book in the series, rather than contributing anything significant to this one—but then, ultimately this first novel is about Lynn’s personal struggle, more so than the coming wider struggle that’s implied in the twist. Taking that into account, the book becomes a strong setup for what is sure to be a unique, fun series.
Ultimately, the thing that stands out most about Into the Real?
Many books about gaming get me so pumped to game that I stop mid-read to do just that—but Into the Real was so hypnotic I couldn’t bring myself to put it down, despite wanting to boot up my console for some Monster Hunter every other page. (And y’all know how I feel about Monster Hunter.) That said, it’s a must-read for gamers, but also for anyone who wants a fun, smart story about a shy teen finding her way through an exciting technological future.
June 30, 2023
I gave this 2 stars with the understanding that it may be unfair. This is a YA novel and that is not a group of books that I normally read. Even so, I feel that 300 pages could easily have been removed and not affected the story. Also, so much game play was described that it was boring. But maybe the 12 year old me would have loved it.
January 24, 2025
Not my usual read, but once I started I couldn't quit...now on to book 2
April 10, 2022
3.5 Stars, an enjoyable read, even if it did bog down now and then.
April 13, 2022
I'm not familiar with Lydia Sherrer, but I assume this is 99% her book. Of course, I could be wrong, but this is a tale for children more than grown-ups. At most this is young adult, and extremely clean and boring young adult at that. This isn't John Ringo-like at all, and looking at Sherrer's other works briefly it seems to be the same "young adult style" stuff which does very little for me.
Obviously this is going to be spoilery.
We have here a girl who's in her latter teens heading for adulthood who has apparently never had any sexual feelings or encounters whatsoever, in a near-future setting. It's a tale of a weird girl (and she is weird) who's apparently asexual and somehow able to become an outstanding fighter in the real world, or rather augmented reality, in spite of being a gamer couch potato at the start.
She plays an AR game and fights (as far as she's concerned) completely harmless imaginary monsters that she can see in her AR glasses, while having some minor personal issues with a junior misogynist in her friend group - her all male friend group, where nothing sexual apparently ever comes up, for some reason, they're apparently all asexual and behave like 13-year olds.
The reveal at the end is not much of a reveal; an 8-year old with moderate intellect saw it coming from chapter one, and the reader will have waited the whole book for the revealed concept to have some impact on the story. Nope. Maybe next book, if you pony up for that one...
The whole thing is just unsatisfying. Nobody gets hurt, nobody has to make any major sacrifices, nobody even gains anything major in this book. It seems to be setting up a series where perhaps reason to care can be established, but I found this dull and wishy washy and appropriate for children. Which in this case makes it less appropriate for grown-ups. It's not poorly crafted, in spite of silliness like "the passion of a thousand suns" instead of the "heat of a thousand suns"... oh well, insofar as this series goes, I'll just quote Biff Tannen from the Back to the Future films: I'm going to make like a tree and get out of here...
Obviously this is going to be spoilery.
We have here a girl who's in her latter teens heading for adulthood who has apparently never had any sexual feelings or encounters whatsoever, in a near-future setting. It's a tale of a weird girl (and she is weird) who's apparently asexual and somehow able to become an outstanding fighter in the real world, or rather augmented reality, in spite of being a gamer couch potato at the start.
She plays an AR game and fights (as far as she's concerned) completely harmless imaginary monsters that she can see in her AR glasses, while having some minor personal issues with a junior misogynist in her friend group - her all male friend group, where nothing sexual apparently ever comes up, for some reason, they're apparently all asexual and behave like 13-year olds.
The reveal at the end is not much of a reveal; an 8-year old with moderate intellect saw it coming from chapter one, and the reader will have waited the whole book for the revealed concept to have some impact on the story. Nope. Maybe next book, if you pony up for that one...
The whole thing is just unsatisfying. Nobody gets hurt, nobody has to make any major sacrifices, nobody even gains anything major in this book. It seems to be setting up a series where perhaps reason to care can be established, but I found this dull and wishy washy and appropriate for children. Which in this case makes it less appropriate for grown-ups. It's not poorly crafted, in spite of silliness like "the passion of a thousand suns" instead of the "heat of a thousand suns"... oh well, insofar as this series goes, I'll just quote Biff Tannen from the Back to the Future films: I'm going to make like a tree and get out of here...
November 19, 2022
Into the Real is a coming of age story, where secretive introvert Lynn Raven learns to go outside, spend time with friends, and not conceal her hobbies. This stock story is told with all the emotional depth of a YA novel and all the emotional excitement of a textbook. Yeah, it's bad.
I regularly read 800 or 1000 page books, but Into the Real was so slow and boring that reading it felt like a chore. If I had editorial control, I'd chop half to two thirds of the content. Why do we need a chapter for a shopping scene? Why do we need half a chapter for playing Spoons? Why are the first two hundred pages basically irrelevant?!
At the end of the day, this book is a boring coming of age with minor sci-fi elements that never influence the plot. Seriously, the sci-fi elements are mere setting. Reading the description, you can already guess the twist about the game and TDMs, but surprise! The twist is that there is no twist! That's coming in the next book! If there is a next book, anyway. So the story of Lynn opening up and gaining confidence is left to carry the plot on its own, and boy does it fall on its face.
Edit: Gonna make a minor point here. If you're going to set a story a little ways into the future so that you can make references to current events, think about how it would look if a kid from today's present kept referencing their history. Just saying. 2040's Lynn making 2020 references and using 2010 memes is like a 2020 highschooler talking about the Bush election and "All your base are belong to us."
I regularly read 800 or 1000 page books, but Into the Real was so slow and boring that reading it felt like a chore. If I had editorial control, I'd chop half to two thirds of the content. Why do we need a chapter for a shopping scene? Why do we need half a chapter for playing Spoons? Why are the first two hundred pages basically irrelevant?!
At the end of the day, this book is a boring coming of age with minor sci-fi elements that never influence the plot. Seriously, the sci-fi elements are mere setting. Reading the description, you can already guess the twist about the game and TDMs, but surprise! The twist is that there is no twist! That's coming in the next book! If there is a next book, anyway. So the story of Lynn opening up and gaining confidence is left to carry the plot on its own, and boy does it fall on its face.
Edit: Gonna make a minor point here. If you're going to set a story a little ways into the future so that you can make references to current events, think about how it would look if a kid from today's present kept referencing their history. Just saying. 2040's Lynn making 2020 references and using 2010 memes is like a 2020 highschooler talking about the Bush election and "All your base are belong to us."
September 3, 2025
This LitRPG scratched a mindless escapism itch for me this week and I read it in two days. But a lot of the subtle social commentary was squicky. From the casual mention that of course our MC 17yo young woman doesn't think women should be in active combat units nor that trans women should play in womens sports (which really had nothing to do with the context where those statements were made), to the explicit statement by her mother that if she went out at night she might get raped (not "assaulted" or "attacked" but literally used the word "rape" multiple times, which my family members would never say to me as a teen), to the fact that the MC was a Mary Sue, the main antagonist was the Mean Girl, and the only other female with speaking lines was our Mary Sue's Ideal Mother. (Women are more than 50% of the population, ffs, use some as NPCs!) Something smelled off. Then I realized when I read the author's note that one of the authors is hardcore religious and saw on social media that the other is a MAGA and it all clicked into place. Some very definite ideas of gender coming through in this book, despite the use of a young woman as a gamer MC-- points for the effort of portraying a female MC gamer, but the tone is 20 years out of date and the politics are gross.
November 24, 2023
Transdimensional Hunter book 1 review
This book is a cracking good action book set in a plasable near future of delivery drones,AI, self driving cars, and immersive electronic alternative reality gaming where the world is being invaded by trans dimensional entities sucking electric power from the power grid and increasing people.
To combat this threat government's of the world put together an immersive gaming technology that is actually a weapon against this invasion.
The point of view of the story is from the protagonist, a teenaged gamer girl who has no clue as to the real stakes.
John Ringo does a wonderful job of capturing the clique politics of US high school's and the body image angst that teen age girls becoming young women all suffer.
The story builds to an action packed satisfactory climax. Five stars for very good world and character building that provides context for the action.
This book is a cracking good action book set in a plasable near future of delivery drones,AI, self driving cars, and immersive electronic alternative reality gaming where the world is being invaded by trans dimensional entities sucking electric power from the power grid and increasing people.
To combat this threat government's of the world put together an immersive gaming technology that is actually a weapon against this invasion.
The point of view of the story is from the protagonist, a teenaged gamer girl who has no clue as to the real stakes.
John Ringo does a wonderful job of capturing the clique politics of US high school's and the body image angst that teen age girls becoming young women all suffer.
The story builds to an action packed satisfactory climax. Five stars for very good world and character building that provides context for the action.
April 8, 2022
It's about to get Real
Knowing John Ringo's works you expect plenty of action. Lydia Sherrer brings snark and personalized backgrounds to the characters. I wasn't sure what to expect from this collaboration, but I like both authors, so I gave it a read. Excellent book. Great character development. Story line flows smoothly. My only complaint is that I stayed up way too late on a work night to finish it. Technically, I am also disappointed that I have to wait for the next one. However, I knew it was the first book of a series when I started.
Knowing John Ringo's works you expect plenty of action. Lydia Sherrer brings snark and personalized backgrounds to the characters. I wasn't sure what to expect from this collaboration, but I like both authors, so I gave it a read. Excellent book. Great character development. Story line flows smoothly. My only complaint is that I stayed up way too late on a work night to finish it. Technically, I am also disappointed that I have to wait for the next one. However, I knew it was the first book of a series when I started.
April 9, 2022
An excellent sci-fi adventure
I despise first person shooter video games IRL but loved this novel, set slightly in the future, anyways. From my perspective as wife of a gamer and daughter of a military officer, these aspects of the novel rang true. I loved the protagonist and her group of friends, who each underwent realistic character development. I cared about Lynn and how she'd do in her games. I was engrossed enough to ignore all but my most pressing daily routines, finishing the book in two days. I wish the next book in the series was already written...
I despise first person shooter video games IRL but loved this novel, set slightly in the future, anyways. From my perspective as wife of a gamer and daughter of a military officer, these aspects of the novel rang true. I loved the protagonist and her group of friends, who each underwent realistic character development. I cared about Lynn and how she'd do in her games. I was engrossed enough to ignore all but my most pressing daily routines, finishing the book in two days. I wish the next book in the series was already written...
April 10, 2022
Into The Real - or at least the augmented
Been a fan of Ringo's for years; I believe this is my first book of Sherrer's. I'm well pleased.
The characters are relatable and engaging. The near-future setting is believable. The game itself is engrossing (I certainly want to play it!). And while we all knew where the story was going, I for one found the journey thoroughly enjoyable, and look forward to the next book.
Been a fan of Ringo's for years; I believe this is my first book of Sherrer's. I'm well pleased.
The characters are relatable and engaging. The near-future setting is believable. The game itself is engrossing (I certainly want to play it!). And while we all knew where the story was going, I for one found the journey thoroughly enjoyable, and look forward to the next book.
May 28, 2024
This Review will contain Spoilers!
Demographic dissonance and heavy handed borderline dead horse issues. The young adult aspects tending to be eyeroll'ish and cliché in my opinion.
Paragraph after paragraph of contrived angst, obliviousness, nonsensical drama, and inane self-sabotaging actions taken or not leave the beginning of this story rather annoying to read. The first example that comes to mind is the oblivious mother and the fabulating daughter thing.
I am old enough now that the annoyance at the ham-fisted splaining directed at any young teenage reader just is what it is. --cottage cheese or cotton candy shoved down ones maw.
When I, as the reader, can intuit conversations between characters nearly verbatim, conversations consistently slanted negatively wherein the characters are purposefully made to lack wit and intelligence, I find myself annoyed with the author and disliking the characters. For me, that doesn't make for an enjoyable read. It is okay for characters to have faults but maybe stay further away from soap opera territory.
Had I picked this book up around the time I started reading fiction 25years back, in my late teenage years, this thing would have gotten yeeted across my bedroom or apartment with a frustrated - `Oh fer fucks sake!´ - in frustration at the characters followed with my ire focusing on the authors.
All that said its not awful, I've seen so much worse but its still annoying. Maybe nowadays all youngsters everywhere are in need of this sort of an enema, wtf do I know!?
- Questionable story aspects -
Having the five 17–18-year-old lifelong, serious to very serious, gamers all mostly used to playing on the same team stink at it to the extent that this group of characters do, well, it just boggles my mind. The characters are more or less supposed to be the resident group of gamer nerds. It just doesn't seem so; instead, it's like reading a story about mental dysfunction where the least cracked character is more like a realistic IRL average.
The main character also never learns from her experiences, meaning that the character doesn't seem to evolve. At times it actually seems like she thinks she is a Sergeant in some military force in her inane interactions with the captains of their team. As if she is under those same rules and can but swallow. This is very discordant with how the MC is portrayed early on as Larry the Merc. It's bordering on split personality disorder, but it's not. She is smart and bold one second, then an idiotic mouse the next, all too often to push through a plot point. It is almost as if two different authors were creating the character but their capacity to work together is something like the stories fictional characters Lynn and Ronny. Hmm imagine that. :p
To wrap this up well the story so far has me thinking that the authors took aim at their target audiences with a single shell of double-aught instead of two slugs the result being more kicked up dust than intended.
Demographic dissonance and heavy handed borderline dead horse issues. The young adult aspects tending to be eyeroll'ish and cliché in my opinion.
Paragraph after paragraph of contrived angst, obliviousness, nonsensical drama, and inane self-sabotaging actions taken or not leave the beginning of this story rather annoying to read. The first example that comes to mind is the oblivious mother and the fabulating daughter thing.
I am old enough now that the annoyance at the ham-fisted splaining directed at any young teenage reader just is what it is. --cottage cheese or cotton candy shoved down ones maw.
When I, as the reader, can intuit conversations between characters nearly verbatim, conversations consistently slanted negatively wherein the characters are purposefully made to lack wit and intelligence, I find myself annoyed with the author and disliking the characters. For me, that doesn't make for an enjoyable read. It is okay for characters to have faults but maybe stay further away from soap opera territory.
Had I picked this book up around the time I started reading fiction 25years back, in my late teenage years, this thing would have gotten yeeted across my bedroom or apartment with a frustrated - `Oh fer fucks sake!´ - in frustration at the characters followed with my ire focusing on the authors.
All that said its not awful, I've seen so much worse but its still annoying. Maybe nowadays all youngsters everywhere are in need of this sort of an enema, wtf do I know!?
- Questionable story aspects -
Having the five 17–18-year-old lifelong, serious to very serious, gamers all mostly used to playing on the same team stink at it to the extent that this group of characters do, well, it just boggles my mind. The characters are more or less supposed to be the resident group of gamer nerds. It just doesn't seem so; instead, it's like reading a story about mental dysfunction where the least cracked character is more like a realistic IRL average.
The main character also never learns from her experiences, meaning that the character doesn't seem to evolve. At times it actually seems like she thinks she is a Sergeant in some military force in her inane interactions with the captains of their team. As if she is under those same rules and can but swallow. This is very discordant with how the MC is portrayed early on as Larry the Merc. It's bordering on split personality disorder, but it's not. She is smart and bold one second, then an idiotic mouse the next, all too often to push through a plot point. It is almost as if two different authors were creating the character but their capacity to work together is something like the stories fictional characters Lynn and Ronny. Hmm imagine that. :p
To wrap this up well the story so far has me thinking that the authors took aim at their target audiences with a single shell of double-aught instead of two slugs the result being more kicked up dust than intended.
January 13, 2023
If you are, or used to be, a gamer you will probably like this book. If not, well you might still like it but the story is really one for gamers. None-gamers might find the story somewhat ludicrous and it is really quite ludicrous. It is a permutation of the old make-someone-believe-it-is-just-a-game-when-they-are-actually-fighting-real-aliens.
I do not think I have ever read a book or watched a movie where the premise of tricking someone into thinking that they are just playing a game made any real sense. It is contrived to say the least. But, I will not complain too much because it often makes for a fun story and, in the case of this book, I liked the story.
The main protagonist is a young introvert girlie who’s on-line persona, a kick-ass mercenary, is the direct opposite of herself. As the book title implies, she now has to venture out in the “real” and become that mercenary in the real world.
A lot of the book is about her learning and playing the game and, at the same time, developing her character and overcoming her introversion and taking command. On that quest she is accompanied by a very sentient-like and somewhat cheeky AI. I liked these parts of the book although, sometimes, the run-jump-slash-shoot-kill routine became a wee bit repetitive.
The game plays out in the real world although with AI glasses to turn the real world into something else. However, playing in the real world still means that she has to interact with it, in particular with people. In addition, later on in the book it becomes a team game and, being an introvert, this of course poses much more challenges to Lynn than just killing monsters.
Unfortunately the author has thrown in some really annoying characters. One being an utterly obnoxious as well as stupid bitch thinking she can win the game by tagging onto others as well as cheating. Another one being a dick “friend” of hers believing that girls cannot play combat games. The first ends up on a opposing team and the latter ends up on her team… of course.
These parts of the book I did not like very much. These two people are just annoyingly stupid and cringe worthy. I almost took off a star for that crap.
Throughout the book there are sprinkled vague hints about the game not really being what it first appears to be and the book ends in a bit of a teaser/cliffhanger on that subject.
Overall, I liked the book enough for a four star rating and I am rather eager to see where the story goes next. The ending made it clear that the author expected to make it into a series so I hope this book sells enough to make that happen.
I do not think I have ever read a book or watched a movie where the premise of tricking someone into thinking that they are just playing a game made any real sense. It is contrived to say the least. But, I will not complain too much because it often makes for a fun story and, in the case of this book, I liked the story.
The main protagonist is a young introvert girlie who’s on-line persona, a kick-ass mercenary, is the direct opposite of herself. As the book title implies, she now has to venture out in the “real” and become that mercenary in the real world.
A lot of the book is about her learning and playing the game and, at the same time, developing her character and overcoming her introversion and taking command. On that quest she is accompanied by a very sentient-like and somewhat cheeky AI. I liked these parts of the book although, sometimes, the run-jump-slash-shoot-kill routine became a wee bit repetitive.
The game plays out in the real world although with AI glasses to turn the real world into something else. However, playing in the real world still means that she has to interact with it, in particular with people. In addition, later on in the book it becomes a team game and, being an introvert, this of course poses much more challenges to Lynn than just killing monsters.
Unfortunately the author has thrown in some really annoying characters. One being an utterly obnoxious as well as stupid bitch thinking she can win the game by tagging onto others as well as cheating. Another one being a dick “friend” of hers believing that girls cannot play combat games. The first ends up on a opposing team and the latter ends up on her team… of course.
These parts of the book I did not like very much. These two people are just annoyingly stupid and cringe worthy. I almost took off a star for that crap.
Throughout the book there are sprinkled vague hints about the game not really being what it first appears to be and the book ends in a bit of a teaser/cliffhanger on that subject.
Overall, I liked the book enough for a four star rating and I am rather eager to see where the story goes next. The ending made it clear that the author expected to make it into a series so I hope this book sells enough to make that happen.
April 11, 2022
a fun fast-paced story of a teen coming into her own
really liked the story, though I was thrown by the gratuitous comment about transgender folk included near the beginning. Gratuitous, because there were no transgender characters, no reason for the subject even to be raised, except perhaps that the authors felt they needed to tick that box to make their core audience happy. Do we really need to rub salt in people’s wounds for no good reason? To strengthen the divide between members of our society when it already seems to be pushing us toward violence? What would Jerrold Thomas say? Maybe that we all need more Charity to go with our convictions?
But once you get past that bump in the road, the book is smooth and fast-paced. Despite being firmly game-centered, it’s very readable, even for a non-gamer, as the stats and game mechanics are handled well enough that they don’t interfere with the story.
Lynn is an engaging MC and her growth is rewarding. I found some aspects of her character both unusual (there are people who prefer to do jigsaw puzzles with the pieces face-down?) and fascinating (the enormous amounts of time and energy researching for her Warmonger game role—do people really do that for online games?)
Meanwhile, as a group the boys are clearly individual and generally pitch-perfect in their squabbling. We really only get to know much about Edgar and Ronnie in this book, so I’m hoping Mack and Dan get more scenes in the next installment.
The group’s common enemy, Elena, on the other hand, is a one-dimensional Mean Girl trope through and through. I’m hoping she gains more nuance (and skill) in the next book. I don’t know how her team continues to compete if they continue to be 4 serious athletes plus a bystander with delusions of authority.
The plot’s direction is telegraphed early, so no surprises there, though it will be interesting to see how the authors resolve the shift from in-game to IRL. . .
really liked the story, though I was thrown by the gratuitous comment about transgender folk included near the beginning. Gratuitous, because there were no transgender characters, no reason for the subject even to be raised, except perhaps that the authors felt they needed to tick that box to make their core audience happy. Do we really need to rub salt in people’s wounds for no good reason? To strengthen the divide between members of our society when it already seems to be pushing us toward violence? What would Jerrold Thomas say? Maybe that we all need more Charity to go with our convictions?
But once you get past that bump in the road, the book is smooth and fast-paced. Despite being firmly game-centered, it’s very readable, even for a non-gamer, as the stats and game mechanics are handled well enough that they don’t interfere with the story.
Lynn is an engaging MC and her growth is rewarding. I found some aspects of her character both unusual (there are people who prefer to do jigsaw puzzles with the pieces face-down?) and fascinating (the enormous amounts of time and energy researching for her Warmonger game role—do people really do that for online games?)
Meanwhile, as a group the boys are clearly individual and generally pitch-perfect in their squabbling. We really only get to know much about Edgar and Ronnie in this book, so I’m hoping Mack and Dan get more scenes in the next installment.
The group’s common enemy, Elena, on the other hand, is a one-dimensional Mean Girl trope through and through. I’m hoping she gains more nuance (and skill) in the next book. I don’t know how her team continues to compete if they continue to be 4 serious athletes plus a bystander with delusions of authority.
The plot’s direction is telegraphed early, so no surprises there, though it will be interesting to see how the authors resolve the shift from in-game to IRL. . .
May 19, 2022
When most people look at Lynn Raven, they see a shy 16-year-old High School girl with a weight problem. She sees herself as a gamer using her talents at gaming to help pay the bills and establish a college fund by selling her services and the loot she finds for cash. (Her mother works as an ER nurse, and the death of Mr. Raven left them with crushing debt)
But to the players of the online game WarMonger, she is Larry Coughlin, a special ops veteran of indeterminate age and vast experience, and teammate/assassin for hire. Her frequent targets are a group of classmates collectively known as the Baconville Bashers, led by Ronnie, who refused to let her join because "girls got no game."
Everything changes when she is contacted by the designer of a new AR (Augmented Reality) game called TransDimensiional Hunter. This game would be in the real world, using special computer equipment and visors that allow the players to "see" and "battle" the game's monsters. Of course, to a non-player, you would seem slightly weird jumping and dodging and swinging what looks like an electric blue baton, so the monsters tend to avoid populated areas.
Because of "Larry Coughlin's" success, the designer wants Lynn (who he knows is a teenage girl) to beta-test his new game. Lynn tries to disagree, saying that she's not athletic, but she is convinced that feedback from someone out-of-shape will help craft a game that everyone can play. As a sweetener, he promises to send her all the high-tech equipment necessary to play the game, hers to keep even if she decides not to join the game when it launches.
Lynn is still undecided until the equipment arrives, and she realizes that the contents of the box would cost "a couple of grand, easy"!
Needless to say, she is very good at the game, but she still has to deal with schoolwork, her mother, her classmates, and an elderly neighbor who also plays a non-combat AR game (that sounds a lot like Pokemon Go)
But to the players of the online game WarMonger, she is Larry Coughlin, a special ops veteran of indeterminate age and vast experience, and teammate/assassin for hire. Her frequent targets are a group of classmates collectively known as the Baconville Bashers, led by Ronnie, who refused to let her join because "girls got no game."
Everything changes when she is contacted by the designer of a new AR (Augmented Reality) game called TransDimensiional Hunter. This game would be in the real world, using special computer equipment and visors that allow the players to "see" and "battle" the game's monsters. Of course, to a non-player, you would seem slightly weird jumping and dodging and swinging what looks like an electric blue baton, so the monsters tend to avoid populated areas.
Because of "Larry Coughlin's" success, the designer wants Lynn (who he knows is a teenage girl) to beta-test his new game. Lynn tries to disagree, saying that she's not athletic, but she is convinced that feedback from someone out-of-shape will help craft a game that everyone can play. As a sweetener, he promises to send her all the high-tech equipment necessary to play the game, hers to keep even if she decides not to join the game when it launches.
Lynn is still undecided until the equipment arrives, and she realizes that the contents of the box would cost "a couple of grand, easy"!
Needless to say, she is very good at the game, but she still has to deal with schoolwork, her mother, her classmates, and an elderly neighbor who also plays a non-combat AR game (that sounds a lot like Pokemon Go)
January 1, 2024
Great YA; so-so Ringo
A bullied Secret Queen who is not properly respected by some gamer guys finds wild adventure when she as recruited to beta-test a cutting-edge Augmented Reality Game!
In a near-post covid-crazy future America, a high school heroine lives and breathes the FPS online game Warmonger. Successfully fooling everyone with her Larry personna - a former special forces merc - she has reached the Tier 1 status globally and universal respect from her gaming peers. She uses her status to monetize the game, helping her widowed single-mom stay afloat. In meat-space though, she's a chubby, painfully insecure outsider, barely tolerated by the "gamer-boy losers", as well as the regular target of the mean "popular girl". In true feminist Heroine's journey, Not-Larry has to Find Her Inner Power, and Learn How Wonderful She Really Is. And maybe find some romance.
But this is *also* a Ringo book, so the hero has to work away from a false position of strength, to real achievement. Larry is a part of the girl, yes, but a dishonest one. In the real world, the kid is flabby, self-absorbed, and afraid. The small family is dependent on Larry's earnings. The risk of taking on the AR game beta-testing job - particularly since it requires physical ability - is real. The hero has to fight herself, master her weaknesses, and learn to work with the young men on her team.
Because only by successfully mastering herself AND the AR game as a brotheband, can the hero triumph.
So miles better than most such YA. It is merely woke adjacent. For example, the misfit Iowa team is wonderfully Diverse: Lakota/Norse, Samoan, Lithuanian, Mexican, and ... Dan. But not everything is a racism or a sexism. There's no magic Negro, just a magic gay dude. And the gurrrrl power is in service to the Chosen One trope both sexes of teen readers love. Also the X-Com + Pokemon-Go game-play is good value, and the ending is fun.
A bullied Secret Queen who is not properly respected by some gamer guys finds wild adventure when she as recruited to beta-test a cutting-edge Augmented Reality Game!
In a near-post covid-crazy future America, a high school heroine lives and breathes the FPS online game Warmonger. Successfully fooling everyone with her Larry personna - a former special forces merc - she has reached the Tier 1 status globally and universal respect from her gaming peers. She uses her status to monetize the game, helping her widowed single-mom stay afloat. In meat-space though, she's a chubby, painfully insecure outsider, barely tolerated by the "gamer-boy losers", as well as the regular target of the mean "popular girl". In true feminist Heroine's journey, Not-Larry has to Find Her Inner Power, and Learn How Wonderful She Really Is. And maybe find some romance.
But this is *also* a Ringo book, so the hero has to work away from a false position of strength, to real achievement. Larry is a part of the girl, yes, but a dishonest one. In the real world, the kid is flabby, self-absorbed, and afraid. The small family is dependent on Larry's earnings. The risk of taking on the AR game beta-testing job - particularly since it requires physical ability - is real. The hero has to fight herself, master her weaknesses, and learn to work with the young men on her team.
Because only by successfully mastering herself AND the AR game as a brotheband, can the hero triumph.
So miles better than most such YA. It is merely woke adjacent. For example, the misfit Iowa team is wonderfully Diverse: Lakota/Norse, Samoan, Lithuanian, Mexican, and ... Dan. But not everything is a racism or a sexism. There's no magic Negro, just a magic gay dude. And the gurrrrl power is in service to the Chosen One trope both sexes of teen readers love. Also the X-Com + Pokemon-Go game-play is good value, and the ending is fun.
August 11, 2023
If I were a 12-15-year-old kid seriously into gaming, this would have been a stellar read. As I am very much not, I found all the technical gaming jargon extremely tedious and basically useless to the overall plot of the story. I can understand if one were coming from a serious gaming background, the technical stuff would have been interesting and engaging, but I wonder how many serious gamers actually put their game controllers aside for an hour or two to actually read a book. I could be wrong, but from what I've observed from my own experience, reading isn't a big time consumer unless it has something directly to do with the game.
That said, the main character was on the verge of being a 3-dimensional person, but the writing didn't quite get her there. She was on the cusp of being this really fabulous character, but she remained relatively flat from my perspective. I think the authors could have spent more of their time on character development instead of the pages and pages devoted to gaming jargon. Because, as it turns out, the reader really doesn't need to know all that the gamer characters know about gaming to understand what their tasks are.
Also, because the authors spend so much time describing the AR game the characters are playing and gaming in general, they don't get to the actual plot until around chapter 12 or 13. That would have been fine except that the book only has 16 chapters, so we aren't even getting into the real meat of the story until almost the end of the book. To make matters even worse, the authors wait until the last sentence of the book to tell you what the story is really about. It felt to me like this book could have used one more edit before it went to final publication. I generally like Lydia Sherrer's work, but this one was a disappointment.
That said, the main character was on the verge of being a 3-dimensional person, but the writing didn't quite get her there. She was on the cusp of being this really fabulous character, but she remained relatively flat from my perspective. I think the authors could have spent more of their time on character development instead of the pages and pages devoted to gaming jargon. Because, as it turns out, the reader really doesn't need to know all that the gamer characters know about gaming to understand what their tasks are.
Also, because the authors spend so much time describing the AR game the characters are playing and gaming in general, they don't get to the actual plot until around chapter 12 or 13. That would have been fine except that the book only has 16 chapters, so we aren't even getting into the real meat of the story until almost the end of the book. To make matters even worse, the authors wait until the last sentence of the book to tell you what the story is really about. It felt to me like this book could have used one more edit before it went to final publication. I generally like Lydia Sherrer's work, but this one was a disappointment.
April 10, 2022
I had this book in my TBR pile for weeks before it was released. The description of a girl getting sucked into a dangerous mission to save the world through her video game system had piqued my interest as I have enjoyed so many other stories that start in a similar fashion. It read to me to be right in the same vein as Ernest Cline's Armada and Ready Player One, which stretches back further to be compared to Foster's novelization of Last Starfighter, and I loved them all along the way.
The basic plot is 17-yr old Lynn is recruited to beta test the new big AR game Transdimensional Hunter. From there it splits off into horrible monsters, balanced by some great tongue-in-cheek humor, and the authors managed not to fall into YA love story territory while building relationships with their characters. I would recommend the story to anyone that loved any of the other stories and authors I already mentioned. The monsters are similar to other Ringo stories so those that like his looking glass stories will find relatable ground here as well. Book 2 and 3 of this series was reportedly already being worked on, and I will be day 1 readers for those! Look forward to finding more Lydia stories to enjoy.
The basic plot is 17-yr old Lynn is recruited to beta test the new big AR game Transdimensional Hunter. From there it splits off into horrible monsters, balanced by some great tongue-in-cheek humor, and the authors managed not to fall into YA love story territory while building relationships with their characters. I would recommend the story to anyone that loved any of the other stories and authors I already mentioned. The monsters are similar to other Ringo stories so those that like his looking glass stories will find relatable ground here as well. Book 2 and 3 of this series was reportedly already being worked on, and I will be day 1 readers for those! Look forward to finding more Lydia stories to enjoy.
June 19, 2022
Quite enjoyable. However, if what you crave is another John Ringo book with major macho ex-soldier protagonists, this book is probably not for you. (If you read the synopsis, you'll see that the main protagonist in this book is a teenage girl.) Readers who have enjoyed "Ready Player One" will likely find this book to their taste.
The book does a fairly decent job of envisioning what society might look like a couple of decades in the future, as well as what video-gaming might look like. It also pretty well captures the misogynistic attitudes of teenage boys toward "girl gamers", and the issues that girls have dealing with ingrained gamer cultures. I really liked how the main protagonist wasn't just a macho gamer, but was dealing with many of the things that teenage girls have to deal with in real life, and was also able to overcome some of her fears and move a bit out of her protected gamer shell and into a slightly more healthy relationship with her school friends.
Some of the plot twists were fairly predictable to me and easily foreseen, but the rest of the story more than made up for that. The enjoyment of this book is, as they say, in the journey.
I am definitely looking forward to the next book in this series.
The book does a fairly decent job of envisioning what society might look like a couple of decades in the future, as well as what video-gaming might look like. It also pretty well captures the misogynistic attitudes of teenage boys toward "girl gamers", and the issues that girls have dealing with ingrained gamer cultures. I really liked how the main protagonist wasn't just a macho gamer, but was dealing with many of the things that teenage girls have to deal with in real life, and was also able to overcome some of her fears and move a bit out of her protected gamer shell and into a slightly more healthy relationship with her school friends.
Some of the plot twists were fairly predictable to me and easily foreseen, but the rest of the story more than made up for that. The enjoyment of this book is, as they say, in the journey.
I am definitely looking forward to the next book in this series.
April 13, 2022
Those who are killed by the merciless and powerful Larry Coughlin, one of the top players in the game WarMonger, believe that he must be some kind of Delta Force agent or a retired SEAL in real life. Little do they know that he’s Lynn Raven, a quick-witted and tough couch potato high school girl who supports her mom. Soon, Lynn is invited to beta test an innovative new game, TransDimensional Hunter, which is an augmented reality game that will force her to go outside, or into the real. On the surface, it’s the usual “kill the monsters, save the world” game, but something suspicious brews behind the scenes.
Prolific author John Ringo joins with Lydia Sherrer to provide this immersive and highly technical near-future sci-fi story that is perfect for dedicated gamers and fans of Ready Player One. Many too will be curious to see how the aftereffects of the 2020s might change global culture, the virtual world, and the gaming industry. The disturbing realism is balanced by loads of dangerous monsters, clever tactics, explosive action, and a compelling twist at the end.
(This review was originally written for Library Journal magazine.)
Prolific author John Ringo joins with Lydia Sherrer to provide this immersive and highly technical near-future sci-fi story that is perfect for dedicated gamers and fans of Ready Player One. Many too will be curious to see how the aftereffects of the 2020s might change global culture, the virtual world, and the gaming industry. The disturbing realism is balanced by loads of dangerous monsters, clever tactics, explosive action, and a compelling twist at the end.
(This review was originally written for Library Journal magazine.)
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