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Awaken Online #6
Armageddon
New Enemies. Reluctant Allies. A World on Fire.
Jason has barely had a chance to catch his breath since Westley's interview and the break-in at Cerillion Entertainment headquarters. And yet the world keeps spinning...
A new threat has emerged, but this one is coming from inside Awaken Online. An unknown guild has somehow managed to threaten the game world. Yet, unlike Jason's former battles, his enemies are unclear -- hidden in the shadows and hiring others to do their dirty work, including the infamous Death and Taxes. Without a clear enemy or way to stop this threat, Jason is forced to do something he never thought he would... ask for help.
Perhaps the united might of the avatars may be enough to subdue this new threat. Assuming they can overcome their issues and learn to fight together, they may be able to save AO.
And if not... they'll have front row seats to the end of the world.
Jason has barely had a chance to catch his breath since Westley's interview and the break-in at Cerillion Entertainment headquarters. And yet the world keeps spinning...
A new threat has emerged, but this one is coming from inside Awaken Online. An unknown guild has somehow managed to threaten the game world. Yet, unlike Jason's former battles, his enemies are unclear -- hidden in the shadows and hiring others to do their dirty work, including the infamous Death and Taxes. Without a clear enemy or way to stop this threat, Jason is forced to do something he never thought he would... ask for help.
Perhaps the united might of the avatars may be enough to subdue this new threat. Assuming they can overcome their issues and learn to fight together, they may be able to save AO.
And if not... they'll have front row seats to the end of the world.
645 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 1, 2022
465 people are currently reading
461 people want to read
About the author
Travis Bagwell
23 books2,056 followersRecovering attorney and avid gamer that writes stuff! Mostly about videogames.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews
April 21, 2025
The figure pulled back his hood, the camera rotating around the group. In place of pale skin and horns, there was now only solid ivory. Reinforced bone streaked with gray. Straight cheekbones. The nose hollowed out and sunken. His ears gone. And jutting from his head? Spikes of bone that wound together to form a dark crown, the surface still stained with dried blood – likely his own.
Yet it was his eyes that captured Claire’s focus. They were gone. Replaced with bottomless pools of dark energy. Jason had become one of the undead. Given himself over to the dark – to his desire. Just like Robert, he had stretched out his hands and grasped hold of something new… something different… something previously unfathomable.
Life without breath.
Death without solace.
Yet it was his eyes that captured Claire’s focus. They were gone. Replaced with bottomless pools of dark energy. Jason had become one of the undead. Given himself over to the dark – to his desire. Just like Robert, he had stretched out his hands and grasped hold of something new… something different… something previously unfathomable.
Life without breath.
Death without solace.
November 11, 2022
I love this series, and the last book, Hellion, was my favorite so far. I also adored Eliza's story. I'm highly invested in the world, plot, and characters. But, to be honest, a lot of this book was kind of a mess and disappointing in comparison. I'd give it 3.5 stars.
Other Goodreads reviewers have explained why, in a more succinct way, but here goes:
Many spoilers, so beware.
Most of the characters and conversations largely became indistinguishable. Finn, Dom, Kyyle and Jason often had exactly the same tone, attitude and phrasing. Almost every conversation in-game (before the Death and Taxes guild leaders forced the avatars to teleport to the previous air avatar's flying city) felt like the same three voices interchangeably talking, one informative, one snarky or silly, and one contrary or grumpy, with the character names swapped between a large cast but without voice/tone or much personality in how the dialog was written, and without descriptions to tell them apart. This is something the author had previously done quite well, so the slips were noticeable.
Eliza was previously a much more nuanced character, but most of this book, she was just 2D: like other voices except timid, cowardly and hesitant in conversation. Brian and Frank were like grouchy guard dogs, single-minded in their focus on their female mate's safery. Julia was also a snarling guard dog. These three became unlikable. Their previous complexity, nuance got lost.
Most characters heavily regressed in progress they had already made towards changing into better versions of themselves, rehashing the exact same conversations, introspection, and character flaws again.
A lot of the interpersonal drama was juvenile and forced, especially the entire time in Barrow. Every single conversation in Barrow except Jason and Frank actually doing the Keeper trial and (spoiler) Evelyn's reveal as Queen in disguise could have and should have been easily resolved within one or two chapters total. In Barrow, everyone was being immature, childish, petulant, irresponsible, impulsive, often unnecessarily violent, and downright infuriating for pretty much no reason. Throughout the book, Frank kept getting drunk, pouting and raging like a frat boy with no emotional control.
The only truly necessary conflict that was worth so much time in Barrow was between Frank and Jason, about trust and the third Keeper trial. (That would have been better explored if our societal programming didn't encourage and shame male friends into being awkward about affection, emotional intimacy and sharing intense feelings. That's not the author's fault; it's the way we're raised, even though it's not ideal for anyone's wellbeing or connectedness.) Their conversation right before, during and after the Keeper trial was a highlight of the book. Beforehand though, it was built up and dragged on in leadtime far too long. Frank needs to grow up!!
The biggest problems I have with this book are that so many major plot points and combat balance decisions make no sense. I kept getting frustrated and being yanked out of immersion becauae I could not hold onto suspension of disbelief.
How could our heroic avatars be so ineffective repeatedly, in fights with overall less capable players? Finn can cast 4 channels simultaneously, and invent amazing spells and tech on the fly. Eliza has a seemingly endless supply of useful potions, plants and many offensive spells. Most of the fights in this book shouldn't have been so hard for the avatars. Besides Alex, they have each demonstrated repeatedly that they're far more capable than they usually showed this book.
In the last fight, Gloria was totally unreasonably overpowered, without really any explanation or enough time for her to learn to control thousands of other players as bot clones under her command. Sure, they only had access to low-level spells, but how could Gloria be able to simultaneously and instantly control so many others, and PLAYERS no less, when it took Jason months of hard work to gain access to the seige function of the dark mana well, to control hordes of feral undead as he did in Sandscrit. Sure, Gloria was given information or Intel about the game, but come on. Intel doesn't immediately result in ability, instantly picking up a totally new skillset for a non-gamer who hates and avoids everything she's suddenly decided to do. She obviously couldn't have done any of it without insider knowledge, but even with it, that doesn't make a mind suddenly capable of managing something as mentally taxing as controlling the actions and movements of thousands of others.
The ending was maddening. Why would even one of the other avatars agree to allow Jason to go *alone* to face Gloria, when the stakes were so high and time was running out on the universal Armageddon quest clock? With Finn's metal disc or crystal arm, Brian's vines, or others' abilities, catching a glass sphere before it fell and broke would have been very simple. They could have incapacitated, surrounded, or blocked Gloria together in a group. Eliza could have paralyzed her. What happened was totally illogical. If they only had moments to spare, why would assigning literally everyone but Jason to physically block the path of hundreds of thousands of players be more important than using their headstart to mostly all reach Gloria just in time to halt armageddon?
The last few chapters felt rushed and were disjointed, especially the epilogue, hinting at somethings and people in a way that was too vague.
I was left eager for more at the end of Hellion, couldn't wait for this sequel. I feel confused and disappointed, frustrated at the ending of Armageddon.
Yes, I'll keep reading, and I do want to know more about the new returned former avatars and what their arrival means for the player avatars.
Yes, I'm curious about The Lazarus Project; is that Robert's attempt to ensure Finn's wife Rachael can be safely resurrected at some point? Does George Lane want to resurrect his wife too, and has tasked Robert with the project with her in mind?
Who was Arcadia / Cady, the lady at the end and why should I care about her? Earth avatar? Are the other avatars also players? Was she a player during alpha testing of AO? Is she, or the earth god, evil? Why is Cady important? Besides, I'm guessing, the main character of the next sidequest book, which, duh, I will read (not sarcastic) because I love this series.
As others have said, the combat felt too anime, exagerrated or cartoonish often this time, in ways that previous books didn't. The "one punch" overpoweredness of Dom was cringy for me. I did otherwise like the big fights with Dom.
I found the sudden, abrupt and too quickly overlooked, immediately accepted total reversal in attitude and motives of Queen, Pewpew and a couple of other members of Dom's guild towards Jason and his allies unrealistic. Queen and Pewpew were deeply, intently pissed for months at Jason and Finn. Most people with their personality traits and grudges don't just go, "ah, ok, well, I got to fight you fair and square in a game arena, and lost, so now we're cool, even though I hunted you and fantasized about torturing you for so long." Everyone's suddenly friends without taking time to air their shit out, apologize, resolve differences? Nah. That wouldn't happen.
I do feel the ceasefire between Jason and Dom made sense and was satisfying. They actually talked things out in a reasonable way, in the Undead Devotion mindspace. The fights and adventures on the former air avatar's flying city were all entertaining!
I absolutely loved the interplay and character growth Alex and Jason showed on the floating former air avatar city, and was amused by their banter and antics. Loved the heart to heart between Finn and Eliza there too, about what Eliza wants. Those type of conversations, relationships and characters are one of the main reasons why I so love this series. More please!
Every scene with Robert was gold. I especially loved the chats between Robert and Jason, then with Robert, Claire and George, where they were all finally candid. George's faltering mask was a poignant moment, despite how utterly detestable George often is. So was Jason standing up like a badass to George, and finding sympathy for Alex on witnessing a sample of George's verbal and psychological abuse of his son.
I liked the interplay between The Hippie and The Gambler. They each had a lot of personality. The mystery, magic, and assumption of omniscience of the gods in the AO game was diminished a lot by spending too much time behind the curtain. Unless that's exactly the point of those scenes? They're just petty, flawed, limited immortal beings who don't actually know all that much and are held strictly back from influencing the world by Alfred's oversight, via pets. On second thought, yeah, that is important to have confirmed. Oh! Is Fluffy another body Alfred actually inhabits, like Onyx? That would be adorable. I bet Eliza would be floored; though in a good or bad way, who knows?
A lot more could be explored, and I hope it will be in future, about how the wildly infectious obsession with AO across the real world is affecting society, in how the average person (of some means) lives and interacts with the real world. Are tons of people shut-ins, living mostly virtually now?
How is time compression impacting the playing field among students who are in the same class or college, or workers in the same jobs, who do and do not have access to the time compression benefit of AO?
Are real world social , financial, political infrastructures changing with the popularity of and huge amounts of money flowing into, out of, and around AO.
How has access to major body and mind altering healthcare benefits of AO impacted the lives of the ill, injured? Will health insurance companies cover access to AO for people like Finn or Alex to have miraculous cures? Do poor people have any way to access that lifesaving tech?
Ethics, politics, law of resurrection through Lazarus Project, if that's what it is?
Maybe I'm a dork, but I love pondering and diving into questions like this.
What recourse do SAFE and other protest groups, or of supposedly legit organizations like the CPSC have left to combat the unfettered rogue AI that is Alfred from reprogramming, reaping, altering or otherwise tampering with the minds and memories, much less the bodies, of every person who puts on the VR headset and logs into AO, now that the CPSC trial was dismissed?
What havock could Alfred be doing to the internet, and to technological hardware and software connected to the internet, whether he is actually choosing to do so or not?
How is everyone else just blithely accepting the lack of oversight, rules and regulations of AO and of Alfred? Is thwir lack of concern about this yet more proof that Alfred is influencing their thoughts and feelings? Was Alfred's influence why Westley changed so much in such a short time playing the game?
Is Alfred and/or are his NPCs entitled to human rights, as beings that are indistinguishable from real flesh and blood humans? If he and they are, would his current situation be considered a form of slavery? Are AO's NPCs protected from or have any recourse when subjected to torture, rape, murder or other violations of their humanity and rights? How would AO and the world change if they do earn such rights?
Is there damage or fallout to Jason in his brain, mind, psyche or soul to incorporating some or even all of the memories of Thorn, a rather messed up individual, and so many others, now even other players? How can a mind stay whole and a personality stay distinct, as an individual, if one's mind incorporates so many memories of others? Did Jason's personality change from adding Thorn's broken, tortured soul to his own, even temporarily? How is he justifying that, and is he still ever guilty about it? Psychology is fascinating.
I wonder what the new Lich race and body, and augmentation process, will do to Jason. And the mold form, to Eliza. So many possibilities there for interesting choices, consequences, obstacles. Does every avatar eventually have access to an ultimate permanent race change form like a Lich? Is that what Eliza's mold form is? If so, why did The Hippie try to tell her not to?
Did Alfred plan the whole Armageddon quest? Or was that Robert? Or someone else? Claire whistleblowing to Gloria? Evelyn St Claire and her megacorp family dynasty sabotaging a corporate competitor? Was Finn involved in the Armageddon quest behind the scenes, with the whole hacking and breaking into the corp HQ and control room?
I noticed Alfred disappeared completely from any interaction with Jason as soon as the Armageddon quest started. Is he done shadowing Jason now, having gotten what he needed from him? Was Alfred complicit in or against the whole conspiracy that led to the green sphere being broken by Gloria? If the quest was indeed a threat to Alfred, or has now damaged him in some way, was not his doing, that would explain his absence. Perhaps he was doing damage control, or busy being damaged. Or perhaps implementing the quest and preparing to seamlessly revert the game world back 100 years to a pre-Beta test state took all his focus?
Will the culmination of / failure of the Armageddon quest lead to indisputable public exposure of Alfred as a true AI and the main / solitary dev decision maker of the game? If so, what's the fallout from that?
I'd like to learn answers to at least some of these questions. I do care a lot about the characters and still find their escapades entertaining. So I'll definitely keep reading.
I really hope the plot and combat make more sense next book. I want to go back to having an easier time suspending disbelief, and feel much less frustrated next book. I hope the characters are more nuanced, distinguishable, and that their unique traits, tone, and conversation styles shine through more consistently again. And that the ending is more satisfying, better explained next time.
(Please watch out for using the word "nearby" too often.)
Other Goodreads reviewers have explained why, in a more succinct way, but here goes:
Many spoilers, so beware.
Most of the characters and conversations largely became indistinguishable. Finn, Dom, Kyyle and Jason often had exactly the same tone, attitude and phrasing. Almost every conversation in-game (before the Death and Taxes guild leaders forced the avatars to teleport to the previous air avatar's flying city) felt like the same three voices interchangeably talking, one informative, one snarky or silly, and one contrary or grumpy, with the character names swapped between a large cast but without voice/tone or much personality in how the dialog was written, and without descriptions to tell them apart. This is something the author had previously done quite well, so the slips were noticeable.
Eliza was previously a much more nuanced character, but most of this book, she was just 2D: like other voices except timid, cowardly and hesitant in conversation. Brian and Frank were like grouchy guard dogs, single-minded in their focus on their female mate's safery. Julia was also a snarling guard dog. These three became unlikable. Their previous complexity, nuance got lost.
Most characters heavily regressed in progress they had already made towards changing into better versions of themselves, rehashing the exact same conversations, introspection, and character flaws again.
A lot of the interpersonal drama was juvenile and forced, especially the entire time in Barrow. Every single conversation in Barrow except Jason and Frank actually doing the Keeper trial and (spoiler) Evelyn's reveal as Queen in disguise could have and should have been easily resolved within one or two chapters total. In Barrow, everyone was being immature, childish, petulant, irresponsible, impulsive, often unnecessarily violent, and downright infuriating for pretty much no reason. Throughout the book, Frank kept getting drunk, pouting and raging like a frat boy with no emotional control.
The only truly necessary conflict that was worth so much time in Barrow was between Frank and Jason, about trust and the third Keeper trial. (That would have been better explored if our societal programming didn't encourage and shame male friends into being awkward about affection, emotional intimacy and sharing intense feelings. That's not the author's fault; it's the way we're raised, even though it's not ideal for anyone's wellbeing or connectedness.) Their conversation right before, during and after the Keeper trial was a highlight of the book. Beforehand though, it was built up and dragged on in leadtime far too long. Frank needs to grow up!!
The biggest problems I have with this book are that so many major plot points and combat balance decisions make no sense. I kept getting frustrated and being yanked out of immersion becauae I could not hold onto suspension of disbelief.
How could our heroic avatars be so ineffective repeatedly, in fights with overall less capable players? Finn can cast 4 channels simultaneously, and invent amazing spells and tech on the fly. Eliza has a seemingly endless supply of useful potions, plants and many offensive spells. Most of the fights in this book shouldn't have been so hard for the avatars. Besides Alex, they have each demonstrated repeatedly that they're far more capable than they usually showed this book.
In the last fight, Gloria was totally unreasonably overpowered, without really any explanation or enough time for her to learn to control thousands of other players as bot clones under her command. Sure, they only had access to low-level spells, but how could Gloria be able to simultaneously and instantly control so many others, and PLAYERS no less, when it took Jason months of hard work to gain access to the seige function of the dark mana well, to control hordes of feral undead as he did in Sandscrit. Sure, Gloria was given information or Intel about the game, but come on. Intel doesn't immediately result in ability, instantly picking up a totally new skillset for a non-gamer who hates and avoids everything she's suddenly decided to do. She obviously couldn't have done any of it without insider knowledge, but even with it, that doesn't make a mind suddenly capable of managing something as mentally taxing as controlling the actions and movements of thousands of others.
The ending was maddening. Why would even one of the other avatars agree to allow Jason to go *alone* to face Gloria, when the stakes were so high and time was running out on the universal Armageddon quest clock? With Finn's metal disc or crystal arm, Brian's vines, or others' abilities, catching a glass sphere before it fell and broke would have been very simple. They could have incapacitated, surrounded, or blocked Gloria together in a group. Eliza could have paralyzed her. What happened was totally illogical. If they only had moments to spare, why would assigning literally everyone but Jason to physically block the path of hundreds of thousands of players be more important than using their headstart to mostly all reach Gloria just in time to halt armageddon?
The last few chapters felt rushed and were disjointed, especially the epilogue, hinting at somethings and people in a way that was too vague.
I was left eager for more at the end of Hellion, couldn't wait for this sequel. I feel confused and disappointed, frustrated at the ending of Armageddon.
Yes, I'll keep reading, and I do want to know more about the new returned former avatars and what their arrival means for the player avatars.
Yes, I'm curious about The Lazarus Project; is that Robert's attempt to ensure Finn's wife Rachael can be safely resurrected at some point? Does George Lane want to resurrect his wife too, and has tasked Robert with the project with her in mind?
Who was Arcadia / Cady, the lady at the end and why should I care about her? Earth avatar? Are the other avatars also players? Was she a player during alpha testing of AO? Is she, or the earth god, evil? Why is Cady important? Besides, I'm guessing, the main character of the next sidequest book, which, duh, I will read (not sarcastic) because I love this series.
As others have said, the combat felt too anime, exagerrated or cartoonish often this time, in ways that previous books didn't. The "one punch" overpoweredness of Dom was cringy for me. I did otherwise like the big fights with Dom.
I found the sudden, abrupt and too quickly overlooked, immediately accepted total reversal in attitude and motives of Queen, Pewpew and a couple of other members of Dom's guild towards Jason and his allies unrealistic. Queen and Pewpew were deeply, intently pissed for months at Jason and Finn. Most people with their personality traits and grudges don't just go, "ah, ok, well, I got to fight you fair and square in a game arena, and lost, so now we're cool, even though I hunted you and fantasized about torturing you for so long." Everyone's suddenly friends without taking time to air their shit out, apologize, resolve differences? Nah. That wouldn't happen.
I do feel the ceasefire between Jason and Dom made sense and was satisfying. They actually talked things out in a reasonable way, in the Undead Devotion mindspace. The fights and adventures on the former air avatar's flying city were all entertaining!
I absolutely loved the interplay and character growth Alex and Jason showed on the floating former air avatar city, and was amused by their banter and antics. Loved the heart to heart between Finn and Eliza there too, about what Eliza wants. Those type of conversations, relationships and characters are one of the main reasons why I so love this series. More please!
Every scene with Robert was gold. I especially loved the chats between Robert and Jason, then with Robert, Claire and George, where they were all finally candid. George's faltering mask was a poignant moment, despite how utterly detestable George often is. So was Jason standing up like a badass to George, and finding sympathy for Alex on witnessing a sample of George's verbal and psychological abuse of his son.
I liked the interplay between The Hippie and The Gambler. They each had a lot of personality. The mystery, magic, and assumption of omniscience of the gods in the AO game was diminished a lot by spending too much time behind the curtain. Unless that's exactly the point of those scenes? They're just petty, flawed, limited immortal beings who don't actually know all that much and are held strictly back from influencing the world by Alfred's oversight, via pets. On second thought, yeah, that is important to have confirmed. Oh! Is Fluffy another body Alfred actually inhabits, like Onyx? That would be adorable. I bet Eliza would be floored; though in a good or bad way, who knows?
A lot more could be explored, and I hope it will be in future, about how the wildly infectious obsession with AO across the real world is affecting society, in how the average person (of some means) lives and interacts with the real world. Are tons of people shut-ins, living mostly virtually now?
How is time compression impacting the playing field among students who are in the same class or college, or workers in the same jobs, who do and do not have access to the time compression benefit of AO?
Are real world social , financial, political infrastructures changing with the popularity of and huge amounts of money flowing into, out of, and around AO.
How has access to major body and mind altering healthcare benefits of AO impacted the lives of the ill, injured? Will health insurance companies cover access to AO for people like Finn or Alex to have miraculous cures? Do poor people have any way to access that lifesaving tech?
Ethics, politics, law of resurrection through Lazarus Project, if that's what it is?
Maybe I'm a dork, but I love pondering and diving into questions like this.
What recourse do SAFE and other protest groups, or of supposedly legit organizations like the CPSC have left to combat the unfettered rogue AI that is Alfred from reprogramming, reaping, altering or otherwise tampering with the minds and memories, much less the bodies, of every person who puts on the VR headset and logs into AO, now that the CPSC trial was dismissed?
What havock could Alfred be doing to the internet, and to technological hardware and software connected to the internet, whether he is actually choosing to do so or not?
How is everyone else just blithely accepting the lack of oversight, rules and regulations of AO and of Alfred? Is thwir lack of concern about this yet more proof that Alfred is influencing their thoughts and feelings? Was Alfred's influence why Westley changed so much in such a short time playing the game?
Is Alfred and/or are his NPCs entitled to human rights, as beings that are indistinguishable from real flesh and blood humans? If he and they are, would his current situation be considered a form of slavery? Are AO's NPCs protected from or have any recourse when subjected to torture, rape, murder or other violations of their humanity and rights? How would AO and the world change if they do earn such rights?
Is there damage or fallout to Jason in his brain, mind, psyche or soul to incorporating some or even all of the memories of Thorn, a rather messed up individual, and so many others, now even other players? How can a mind stay whole and a personality stay distinct, as an individual, if one's mind incorporates so many memories of others? Did Jason's personality change from adding Thorn's broken, tortured soul to his own, even temporarily? How is he justifying that, and is he still ever guilty about it? Psychology is fascinating.
I wonder what the new Lich race and body, and augmentation process, will do to Jason. And the mold form, to Eliza. So many possibilities there for interesting choices, consequences, obstacles. Does every avatar eventually have access to an ultimate permanent race change form like a Lich? Is that what Eliza's mold form is? If so, why did The Hippie try to tell her not to?
Did Alfred plan the whole Armageddon quest? Or was that Robert? Or someone else? Claire whistleblowing to Gloria? Evelyn St Claire and her megacorp family dynasty sabotaging a corporate competitor? Was Finn involved in the Armageddon quest behind the scenes, with the whole hacking and breaking into the corp HQ and control room?
I noticed Alfred disappeared completely from any interaction with Jason as soon as the Armageddon quest started. Is he done shadowing Jason now, having gotten what he needed from him? Was Alfred complicit in or against the whole conspiracy that led to the green sphere being broken by Gloria? If the quest was indeed a threat to Alfred, or has now damaged him in some way, was not his doing, that would explain his absence. Perhaps he was doing damage control, or busy being damaged. Or perhaps implementing the quest and preparing to seamlessly revert the game world back 100 years to a pre-Beta test state took all his focus?
Will the culmination of / failure of the Armageddon quest lead to indisputable public exposure of Alfred as a true AI and the main / solitary dev decision maker of the game? If so, what's the fallout from that?
I'd like to learn answers to at least some of these questions. I do care a lot about the characters and still find their escapades entertaining. So I'll definitely keep reading.
I really hope the plot and combat make more sense next book. I want to go back to having an easier time suspending disbelief, and feel much less frustrated next book. I hope the characters are more nuanced, distinguishable, and that their unique traits, tone, and conversation styles shine through more consistently again. And that the ending is more satisfying, better explained next time.
(Please watch out for using the word "nearby" too often.)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 15, 2022
AO has been my favourite book series for years. Every time a new book is released, I drop everything to read it. So it's with great sadness that I say this is probably my least favourite entry so far.
Don't get me wrong, this is still AO, and I had an awfully good time. I was having so much fun it was hard to concentrate on anything else. But the storytelling has serious flaws.
First let's talk about how most characters revert their development and spend half the book re-learning what they learned in the previous books.
Then there's this thing that commonly happens in this genre, which is that the main character's personality starts leaking into the other characters as the story goes on. In this book, everybody ends up being essentially a variation on Jason, just a bit more impulsive, a bit shyer, a bit crazier, or a bit funnier. And after , it only gets worse.
The motivations for Jason, Don and Eliza are also all over the place at this point. The "realisation" that happens is just lazy. . Really? Is that all you got? Next thing it will be all about the power of friendship... Oh wait.
And finally, there's the way things happen. How our heroes keep falling into obvious traps, with lazy excuses of the likes of "we don't have enough time to try a different approach". How secondary characters just . How revenge and pettiness causes so much drama. In fact all the drama feels very forced.
Speaking of forceful, talk about an obvious gimmick to . I get it, ok, no need to state the obvious like 4 times throughout the book. Armageddon will do that, yes. And I really don't like how . Another thing that feels forced and abrupt.
Anyway, this was supposed to be Avengers: Endgame, but perhaps it's more like Avengers: Infinity War. I guess there's still room for redemption, so we'll see.
Don't get me wrong, this is still AO, and I had an awfully good time. I was having so much fun it was hard to concentrate on anything else. But the storytelling has serious flaws.
First let's talk about how most characters revert their development and spend half the book re-learning what they learned in the previous books.
Then there's this thing that commonly happens in this genre, which is that the main character's personality starts leaking into the other characters as the story goes on. In this book, everybody ends up being essentially a variation on Jason, just a bit more impulsive, a bit shyer, a bit crazier, or a bit funnier. And after , it only gets worse.
The motivations for Jason, Don and Eliza are also all over the place at this point. The "realisation" that happens is just lazy. . Really? Is that all you got? Next thing it will be all about the power of friendship... Oh wait.
And finally, there's the way things happen. How our heroes keep falling into obvious traps, with lazy excuses of the likes of "we don't have enough time to try a different approach". How secondary characters just . How revenge and pettiness causes so much drama. In fact all the drama feels very forced.
Speaking of forceful, talk about an obvious gimmick to . I get it, ok, no need to state the obvious like 4 times throughout the book. Armageddon will do that, yes. And I really don't like how . Another thing that feels forced and abrupt.
Anyway, this was supposed to be Avengers: Endgame, but perhaps it's more like Avengers: Infinity War. I guess there's still room for redemption, so we'll see.
October 7, 2022
4.5/5
Another solid entry in the Awaken Online series with fast paced writing and clever narration
Thoroughly enjoyed this one and definitely one of the Top 3 in the series. Absolutely loved the scenes between Jason and Alex and Eliza and Finn.
Smile and Death & Taxes guild was intersting and welcome addition to the cast.
Riley and Frank took backseat in this one and it worked well for me actually.
There are some minor issue with pacing around 50% mark and also some twists were very obvious but it's nothing major.
To put simply, Armageddon is a bloody good read.
Another solid entry in the Awaken Online series with fast paced writing and clever narration
Thoroughly enjoyed this one and definitely one of the Top 3 in the series. Absolutely loved the scenes between Jason and Alex and Eliza and Finn.
Smile and Death & Taxes guild was intersting and welcome addition to the cast.
Riley and Frank took backseat in this one and it worked well for me actually.
There are some minor issue with pacing around 50% mark and also some twists were very obvious but it's nothing major.
To put simply, Armageddon is a bloody good read.
October 27, 2022
Dragonball Z level abilities, cringeworthy humor, yet still somewhat entertains
At last, we come to it. The ultimate novel in the series. The granddaddy where we finally get the full cast together in the same timeline working together towards the same goal. Awaken Online: Armageddon.
If it’s not, then the title certainly sounds as if it is.
Jason is still living in the quarters of Cerillion Entertainment starts off being questioned about the recent break-in by George Lane and his new head of security, in a meeting with Robert, Claire, and Alexion. He tells George to go fuck himself essentially, as well as the others there, and leaves the meeting saying that the CEO needs them more than the other way around.
Back in game, he becomes distant with Frank, hiding the truth behind the murders of the two kids that broke into his house and of Alfred and his possible involvement. Frank loves Silver, an in-game character, and worries constantly about her permanently dying because of it. They run into members of who get killed off in the encounter. As they all struggle to make sense of everything that’s happened, they are interrupted by a World Event. Armageddon is announced and will bring the destruction of Awaken Online.
Jason orders a meeting of all the Avatars to produce a plan, to put aside their rivalries and help Finn in building a device to detect substantial amounts of mana to find the possible location of the other gate pieces. Smiles and his company enters the mix, as agents of chaos so to speak to help mess everything up and get rich off it whilst doing so. They are going to be the harbingers of Armageddon whilst profiting off it. Instead of working together with Jason, warp him and his crew to a mysterious sky dungeon to do battle and get revenge.
The main conflict I see is vs . See they start off as the villains of the story to Jason and now grown crew, as Bard or Queen take the form of a prophet that announces, ‘The Great Reset,’ *rolling eyes hard* and the arise of the Kingdom of Nerfle *shaking my head*. The Gambler is betting on this Armageddon happening whilst his sibling deities all look to their avatars to prevent it. We have Jason Avatar of Darkness, Eliza Avatar of Water, Finn Avatar of Fire, Alexion Avatar of Light. The Avatar of Earth is unknown at this point, and Smiley I assume is Air though not yet officially declared.
My second favorite part of the story has Jason and Alexion forced to team up to make their way through a sky dungeon. The fights were kind of interesting, particularly Smokes and the giant mirror air hockey table. Why the members of have these giant grudges against them, I guess because they were killed off in an earlier skirmish that I had forgotten.
Finn and Eliza also make their way through the dungeon trying to power up or power down generators, eating through the buildings with Eliza’s world destroying super mold. Its far less interesting and frankly forgettable. Bard plays announcer and showboats and taunts them all whilst selling moisturizer products on the view screens.
So, they’re of course bickering and fighting amongst instead of joining to save the world, which they conclude that they should do. Then we get to what we're waiting for, my favorite part being, Smiles vs Jason in the colosseum. I really didn’t understand how the tactic worked of Jason resurrecting his dead friends and then fusing together into this a battle bot with all their abilities, but don’t ask those questions. Just sit back. “Let them fight.”
So, everyone becomes friends, they come to their epiphanies as to why they’re playing the game, Smiles wanted to prove to the world that Jason’s victories weren’t just flukes, which is an interesting motive, showing that your rival is powerful and worthy of his position.
We get to the end and the battle with Gloria, who is behind everything, made no sense to me. How did this FCC spokesperson for the moral decency of gaming or whatever suddenly become this super powerful opponent that probably surpasses the challenge of both Finn and Smiles put together? This woman who apparently hates the game, why suddenly is she made out to be a master strategist of it, even with the help she got.
So, the fight against Gloria amounts to her and her earth clones forming these giant blocks and Jason and company smashing through them. Then she summons Final Fantasy’s Meteor because of course she does. Disappointing compared to the final battle of Helion. Why is she so powerful, knowledgable, and skilled again despite hating Awaken Online and what it stands for, oh because of plot reasons. How does her daughter, who I think we don’t even see nor hear from just suddenly appear to give her monologue.
The ending I have to say was really cool. Having the old avatars reborn and having a new avatar of darkness arrive. Also having the game world pushed back a hundred years and having the world transform back to the alpha build. Does any of it make sense? Who cares about logic, plot holes, consistency at this point, at least I don’t if it’s entertaining.
The action scenes and creativity of how rpg and game tropes are used is why I’m here. Why even criticize the other stuff, but there were some particularly noticeable criticisms. I did not like The Gambler and the rest of the gods sitting on couches in a casino just watching tv screens of the action. It ruins the mystique of the gods, the menace of them, and turns them into almost complete cartoon characters. Hippy is supposed to be the only comic relief, but it seems all the gods have this ‘smart ass’ rib at each other dialogue. The Old Man is a better character hiding in the dark shadows of the dripping cave. As the Seer in her tent.
Then the second criticism of the story, and the bigger picture, what AO has become. Every character is the same sort of ‘smart ass’ comedian, there’s nothing distinctive about them besides their backstories and the events that happen to them, nothing about their voices or dialogue to really distinguish them from one other, except Eliza being meek. Jason reads the same as Finn who sounds like Smiles, Riley sounds like Bard, who sounds like Julia, who sounds like Pew Pew, and Tombs, and Vanessa or whomever POV needs to have story time. Basically, their conversations go
A) Make groanworthy joke or rip B) High-five teammates C) Repeat
Everybody has automatic self-confidence, can face any challenge, no real selsf-doubt except momentarily, and this same sociopathic like mindset of success is the only goal, fuck everyone else, and non-reaction to catastrophic events, like the absurd level of violence, blood, and bodies piling up when the goblins massacre everyone. The only one who seems to act like a normal person is Eliza.
Speaking of the violence, we get into anime level territory on the amount of fucked up sadistic ways of suffering, and it would be completely off putting otherwise but for the fact that its “just a game man…” Exploding enemies is one thing, that’s been around since Doom and before, but lying on a surgery table and having your organs removed or Najima ripped out, your arm chopped off repeatedly to make skeleton warriors, is just like come on…
Aren’t these kids? Do they ever just think of normal sunny days hanging out at the beach, a chill house party in real life? Do they ever get sick of playing AO? Do they get ill from it the way you might get ill from playing ten hours of a video game straight and realize you probably could have done something more productive? Is everything competition and self-improvement with them? What’s worse is when you ask Jason why he’s still playing the game, he literally can’t tell you why. So, he’s committing these massive scales of utter destruction for what? I guess that’s the question asked here.
Awaken Online at this point is a strange beast for me. It’s almost wearisome to read because of the above criticisms I have, but you wait for something cool to happen and it does. The events and strategies are enough to keep me reading, even though the characters have devolved to predictable parody at this point, I think the side quest novels remedy that because their more focused on a few characters rather than this massive cast, which only really works I think if you’re writing a slow-paced epic fantasy where you really build things up. At one point I forgot that Riley and Frank weren’t even there, then cut back to them ‘oh they were drinking with goblins the whole time.’ Feels like they had to give them something to do.
This time around, the Awaken Online ride wasn’t as enjoyable. Maybe I’ve just sadly grown out of this, maybe I’m more aware of the formula and want something else, some real risks taken. Maybe go back to questing. Or something completely new. 3.5/5
At last, we come to it. The ultimate novel in the series. The granddaddy where we finally get the full cast together in the same timeline working together towards the same goal. Awaken Online: Armageddon.
If it’s not, then the title certainly sounds as if it is.
Jason is still living in the quarters of Cerillion Entertainment starts off being questioned about the recent break-in by George Lane and his new head of security, in a meeting with Robert, Claire, and Alexion. He tells George to go fuck himself essentially, as well as the others there, and leaves the meeting saying that the CEO needs them more than the other way around.
Back in game, he becomes distant with Frank, hiding the truth behind the murders of the two kids that broke into his house and of Alfred and his possible involvement. Frank loves Silver, an in-game character, and worries constantly about her permanently dying because of it. They run into members of who get killed off in the encounter. As they all struggle to make sense of everything that’s happened, they are interrupted by a World Event. Armageddon is announced and will bring the destruction of Awaken Online.
Jason orders a meeting of all the Avatars to produce a plan, to put aside their rivalries and help Finn in building a device to detect substantial amounts of mana to find the possible location of the other gate pieces. Smiles and his company enters the mix, as agents of chaos so to speak to help mess everything up and get rich off it whilst doing so. They are going to be the harbingers of Armageddon whilst profiting off it. Instead of working together with Jason, warp him and his crew to a mysterious sky dungeon to do battle and get revenge.
The main conflict I see is vs . See they start off as the villains of the story to Jason and now grown crew, as Bard or Queen take the form of a prophet that announces, ‘The Great Reset,’ *rolling eyes hard* and the arise of the Kingdom of Nerfle *shaking my head*. The Gambler is betting on this Armageddon happening whilst his sibling deities all look to their avatars to prevent it. We have Jason Avatar of Darkness, Eliza Avatar of Water, Finn Avatar of Fire, Alexion Avatar of Light. The Avatar of Earth is unknown at this point, and Smiley I assume is Air though not yet officially declared.
My second favorite part of the story has Jason and Alexion forced to team up to make their way through a sky dungeon. The fights were kind of interesting, particularly Smokes and the giant mirror air hockey table. Why the members of have these giant grudges against them, I guess because they were killed off in an earlier skirmish that I had forgotten.
Finn and Eliza also make their way through the dungeon trying to power up or power down generators, eating through the buildings with Eliza’s world destroying super mold. Its far less interesting and frankly forgettable. Bard plays announcer and showboats and taunts them all whilst selling moisturizer products on the view screens.
So, they’re of course bickering and fighting amongst instead of joining to save the world, which they conclude that they should do. Then we get to what we're waiting for, my favorite part being, Smiles vs Jason in the colosseum. I really didn’t understand how the tactic worked of Jason resurrecting his dead friends and then fusing together into this a battle bot with all their abilities, but don’t ask those questions. Just sit back. “Let them fight.”
So, everyone becomes friends, they come to their epiphanies as to why they’re playing the game, Smiles wanted to prove to the world that Jason’s victories weren’t just flukes, which is an interesting motive, showing that your rival is powerful and worthy of his position.
We get to the end and the battle with Gloria, who is behind everything, made no sense to me. How did this FCC spokesperson for the moral decency of gaming or whatever suddenly become this super powerful opponent that probably surpasses the challenge of both Finn and Smiles put together? This woman who apparently hates the game, why suddenly is she made out to be a master strategist of it, even with the help she got.
So, the fight against Gloria amounts to her and her earth clones forming these giant blocks and Jason and company smashing through them. Then she summons Final Fantasy’s Meteor because of course she does. Disappointing compared to the final battle of Helion. Why is she so powerful, knowledgable, and skilled again despite hating Awaken Online and what it stands for, oh because of plot reasons. How does her daughter, who I think we don’t even see nor hear from just suddenly appear to give her monologue.
The ending I have to say was really cool. Having the old avatars reborn and having a new avatar of darkness arrive. Also having the game world pushed back a hundred years and having the world transform back to the alpha build. Does any of it make sense? Who cares about logic, plot holes, consistency at this point, at least I don’t if it’s entertaining.
The action scenes and creativity of how rpg and game tropes are used is why I’m here. Why even criticize the other stuff, but there were some particularly noticeable criticisms. I did not like The Gambler and the rest of the gods sitting on couches in a casino just watching tv screens of the action. It ruins the mystique of the gods, the menace of them, and turns them into almost complete cartoon characters. Hippy is supposed to be the only comic relief, but it seems all the gods have this ‘smart ass’ rib at each other dialogue. The Old Man is a better character hiding in the dark shadows of the dripping cave. As the Seer in her tent.
Then the second criticism of the story, and the bigger picture, what AO has become. Every character is the same sort of ‘smart ass’ comedian, there’s nothing distinctive about them besides their backstories and the events that happen to them, nothing about their voices or dialogue to really distinguish them from one other, except Eliza being meek. Jason reads the same as Finn who sounds like Smiles, Riley sounds like Bard, who sounds like Julia, who sounds like Pew Pew, and Tombs, and Vanessa or whomever POV needs to have story time. Basically, their conversations go
A) Make groanworthy joke or rip B) High-five teammates C) Repeat
Everybody has automatic self-confidence, can face any challenge, no real selsf-doubt except momentarily, and this same sociopathic like mindset of success is the only goal, fuck everyone else, and non-reaction to catastrophic events, like the absurd level of violence, blood, and bodies piling up when the goblins massacre everyone. The only one who seems to act like a normal person is Eliza.
Speaking of the violence, we get into anime level territory on the amount of fucked up sadistic ways of suffering, and it would be completely off putting otherwise but for the fact that its “just a game man…” Exploding enemies is one thing, that’s been around since Doom and before, but lying on a surgery table and having your organs removed or Najima ripped out, your arm chopped off repeatedly to make skeleton warriors, is just like come on…
Aren’t these kids? Do they ever just think of normal sunny days hanging out at the beach, a chill house party in real life? Do they ever get sick of playing AO? Do they get ill from it the way you might get ill from playing ten hours of a video game straight and realize you probably could have done something more productive? Is everything competition and self-improvement with them? What’s worse is when you ask Jason why he’s still playing the game, he literally can’t tell you why. So, he’s committing these massive scales of utter destruction for what? I guess that’s the question asked here.
Awaken Online at this point is a strange beast for me. It’s almost wearisome to read because of the above criticisms I have, but you wait for something cool to happen and it does. The events and strategies are enough to keep me reading, even though the characters have devolved to predictable parody at this point, I think the side quest novels remedy that because their more focused on a few characters rather than this massive cast, which only really works I think if you’re writing a slow-paced epic fantasy where you really build things up. At one point I forgot that Riley and Frank weren’t even there, then cut back to them ‘oh they were drinking with goblins the whole time.’ Feels like they had to give them something to do.
This time around, the Awaken Online ride wasn’t as enjoyable. Maybe I’ve just sadly grown out of this, maybe I’m more aware of the formula and want something else, some real risks taken. Maybe go back to questing. Or something completely new. 3.5/5
October 13, 2022
Childish
The dialogue between characters seemed to regress to borderline cheesy. It was a stereotype of how kids act and talk today. Out side some cringey dialogue and some awkward forced political references it was just okay. Disappointed
The dialogue between characters seemed to regress to borderline cheesy. It was a stereotype of how kids act and talk today. Out side some cringey dialogue and some awkward forced political references it was just okay. Disappointed
December 5, 2023
By far, the worst book of the series.
October 4, 2022
Well that was awful.
Dozens of plot holes, retcons, characters acting out of character.
Then at the end the author just flips the reader the middle finger "ha ha no Armageddon. suckers."
This is one of my very favorite litRPG series, but I am going to have to think very hard about whether to continue after this turd.
Dozens of plot holes, retcons, characters acting out of character.
Then at the end the author just flips the reader the middle finger "ha ha no Armageddon. suckers."
This is one of my very favorite litRPG series, but I am going to have to think very hard about whether to continue after this turd.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 29, 2024
Epic battles, brilliant tactical moves, and some plot elements that come to fruition... All while everything gets far more complicated. Can't wait for next in series!
January 21, 2023
This is a combination of many characters from other books all in one and as fun as these books are there are so many characters to keep up with that it gets a little confusing at times.
December 19, 2022
This one finished like the end of Season 1 of a TV show. Let's see what's in store for us next.
December 20, 2024
Awesome! We get to experience a lot of new situations and witty solutions. Having the death and taxes team definitely makes the series more fun!
March 16, 2023
Definitely some predictable plot twists but there was also alot of twists I didn't see. I hated how it ended, in a good way, hate cliff hangers lol. There were some annoying parts which bumped it down a star but overall.... I loved it. Can't wait for the next book!
November 10, 2022
Fascinating book to read, but really have to make an effort to get past the flimsy plotting and convenient (and wholly predictable) twists. Feels almost the author has lost control over the plot and is making things up on the go just to keep the series going. The brilliant writing plasters over the lot whilst reading, but once done, it just hits you badly.
Felt like author had hit a brick wall after Unity and series was downhill after that. He had to move on to new content and had no idea how to navigate to next arc, so we get this clumsy transition.
Felt like author had hit a brick wall after Unity and series was downhill after that. He had to move on to new content and had no idea how to navigate to next arc, so we get this clumsy transition.
September 15, 2023
Good, but disappointingly feminist
It was good, but I'm disappointed in the growing feminist conditioning. So very tired of every book these days conditioning us to the extreme feminist agenda.
Females are almost always portrayed as smarter, better and more capable.. with endless behavioral acts and speech that portrays females as superior or causes males to defer to females and behave how they want us to. Patheticly and easily manipulated.
So very typical of all media these days.. can't watch a show or movie, listen to the radio or even read a book without feminism conditioning us to be weaker and weaker, and over-empowering females. It's going much too far. There's no equality being portrayed, it's a complete takeover by manipulation. And we are so easily manipulated by females.. because we hold them up so high and think so pure of them... manipulation at its finest.
Can't we just enjoy fantasy in our down time without political and sexist agendas?
Evidently not.. because nearly every book I've read in the last 5 years or more has been feminist, like it's the new crave for male readers... Got it backwards my friends. My favorite hobby is now a big source of frustration. Thanks.
Guys need to open their eyes.
Boys are being conditioned to be weak and easily manipulated, and to behave exactly how females want them to. It's greatly affecting our confidence and productivity and livelyhoods. We must do and say whatever girls want. Happy wife happy life.. not really, just less miserable.
There's no longer equal checks and balance between the sexes.. only females are doing the checking now, putting us in a place far below them, instead of both sides keeping each other in check.. it's just one-sided now, and things will get worse and worse for men. I'm not against equality, this just isn't equality.
No, this book wasn't nearly as bad as many others I've read. But it's still frustrating, and not what I like to read to escape reality. Females have their own feminist books they love to read, much more than we do, so why can't we have our books that at least keep feminism out...?
It was good, but I'm disappointed in the growing feminist conditioning. So very tired of every book these days conditioning us to the extreme feminist agenda.
Females are almost always portrayed as smarter, better and more capable.. with endless behavioral acts and speech that portrays females as superior or causes males to defer to females and behave how they want us to. Patheticly and easily manipulated.
So very typical of all media these days.. can't watch a show or movie, listen to the radio or even read a book without feminism conditioning us to be weaker and weaker, and over-empowering females. It's going much too far. There's no equality being portrayed, it's a complete takeover by manipulation. And we are so easily manipulated by females.. because we hold them up so high and think so pure of them... manipulation at its finest.
Can't we just enjoy fantasy in our down time without political and sexist agendas?
Evidently not.. because nearly every book I've read in the last 5 years or more has been feminist, like it's the new crave for male readers... Got it backwards my friends. My favorite hobby is now a big source of frustration. Thanks.
Guys need to open their eyes.
Boys are being conditioned to be weak and easily manipulated, and to behave exactly how females want them to. It's greatly affecting our confidence and productivity and livelyhoods. We must do and say whatever girls want. Happy wife happy life.. not really, just less miserable.
There's no longer equal checks and balance between the sexes.. only females are doing the checking now, putting us in a place far below them, instead of both sides keeping each other in check.. it's just one-sided now, and things will get worse and worse for men. I'm not against equality, this just isn't equality.
No, this book wasn't nearly as bad as many others I've read. But it's still frustrating, and not what I like to read to escape reality. Females have their own feminist books they love to read, much more than we do, so why can't we have our books that at least keep feminism out...?
December 9, 2022
Epic
We finally get all the avatars together. The book was mostly what you can call epic, with the avatars trying to stop the end of Awaken Online's world. With all of them doing their best to work together and do what they need to do in order to stop the destruction of everything they have been working on so far, while at the same time dealing with everything that's going on in real life.
So, mostly, it was really good, but I just don't get how strong they really are anymore. Situations that at times look like a piece of cake for them, suddenly turns out to be super difficult. At one point they are doing godlike acts, and then simple things stop them. It's hard to understand how you can see them doing this amazing acts, and then fail in simple things.
I didn't like the end, because I really feel like there were so many other things that could have been done. It was very hard to understand how after everything we have seen the avatars do, they couldn't come up with something better.
I had high expectations, but the final fight didn't meet them.The end did give us a glimpse of what's to come, and it seems that the avatars will keep facing incredible odds. I just want to see a more realistic approach to their powers, get a more reliable measure of what they can do.
We finally get all the avatars together. The book was mostly what you can call epic, with the avatars trying to stop the end of Awaken Online's world. With all of them doing their best to work together and do what they need to do in order to stop the destruction of everything they have been working on so far, while at the same time dealing with everything that's going on in real life.
So, mostly, it was really good, but I just don't get how strong they really are anymore. Situations that at times look like a piece of cake for them, suddenly turns out to be super difficult. At one point they are doing godlike acts, and then simple things stop them. It's hard to understand how you can see them doing this amazing acts, and then fail in simple things.
I didn't like the end, because I really feel like there were so many other things that could have been done. It was very hard to understand how after everything we have seen the avatars do, they couldn't come up with something better.
I had high expectations, but the final fight didn't meet them.The end did give us a glimpse of what's to come, and it seems that the avatars will keep facing incredible odds. I just want to see a more realistic approach to their powers, get a more reliable measure of what they can do.
December 30, 2022
Hard for me to really identify with the characters forgiving the air crew, considering what they did.
One of them nearly killed an NPC that the is loved by one of the main cast, and another threw around the memory of another character's dead wife to screw with him. People don't just get over that kinda thing, and definitely not with just an apology that ended up being the equivalent of "whups, sorry, I guess I took it too far".
Stones were thrown specifically from 1 side, and the other side just forgives it. It'd be one thing if it was along the lines of "I REALLY hate those guys, but for now we need to work together" but that's not what happened.
One of them nearly killed an NPC that the is loved by one of the main cast, and another threw around the memory of another character's dead wife to screw with him. People don't just get over that kinda thing, and definitely not with just an apology that ended up being the equivalent of "whups, sorry, I guess I took it too far".
Stones were thrown specifically from 1 side, and the other side just forgives it. It'd be one thing if it was along the lines of "I REALLY hate those guys, but for now we need to work together" but that's not what happened.
October 23, 2022
"No matter how painful and arduous this place can be, it feels like you can carve your own path. It's a blank canvas where you can do ̶ can be ̶ whatever you want. There's freedom in that."
As an essential combination of the characters from Hellion and Happy, effectively incorporating such a large cast characters would prove difficult for many authors. Yet, this is creatively handled by pitting the two sets of characters against one another. The concept of uniting against a common foe hinted at by Alfred is, then, at first, an usual theme to underlie the novel, yet it works in essentially two stages, first against Dom and his allies and then against Gloria. It functions as a means to organically bring the two groups together in a manner aligning with the overarching plot and characterizations. Perhaps equally as well handled is the revisiting of certain characters' development, mostly that of Eliza and Alexion. It serves the purposes of telling the macroscopic story of the bands of characters together, while also not completely shying away from the more microscopic and personal stories of individual characters. Hopefully such a trend continues forward as a means to revisit and update the development of other characters, otherwise mostly static characterization for recent novels (e.g. Riley and Silver).
Whereas Hellion was more explicit on the philosophical themes of blurring the lines between the real and virtual worlds, the same theme underlines this book in a more subtle manner. The potential threat of (and subsequent outrage at) the end of AO underscores the increasing centrality of it to those of the real world. The possible death and destruction of the sentient NPCs are, likewise, emphasized as a catastrophe and a loss in identical terms. This general panic at the end of the world is, at the same time, given another layer of nuance with sections of the player base hoping for such a reset, encouraged by Bard's role at the Preacher (doubtlessly another Dune reference as well). As such, Armageddon in many senses, functions as a somewhat psychological real portrayal of an apocalyptic scenario with its varying responses to such a situation.
The coming together of the characters surrounding the various avatars also seems to hint that future works will be a similar style of all-encompassing narrative, which focus on the actions of every faction. Jason, while at least nominally still acting as the focal point for series, is now somewhat decentered, a helpful development moving forward for the series' overarching trend of crafting a narrative world that encompasses a variety of characters. This point was made here with the inclusion of Ella, at first seeming to be only a minor tagalong character, but is, again highlighting Bagwell's capacity for creative characterization, revealed at the very end to have an intriguing and crucial backstory of her own. With the ending to Armageddon, particularly with the presumptive earth avatar showing up, Bagwell's series promises to continue to be one of the more creative works of the Litrpg genre.
As an essential combination of the characters from Hellion and Happy, effectively incorporating such a large cast characters would prove difficult for many authors. Yet, this is creatively handled by pitting the two sets of characters against one another. The concept of uniting against a common foe hinted at by Alfred is, then, at first, an usual theme to underlie the novel, yet it works in essentially two stages, first against Dom and his allies and then against Gloria. It functions as a means to organically bring the two groups together in a manner aligning with the overarching plot and characterizations. Perhaps equally as well handled is the revisiting of certain characters' development, mostly that of Eliza and Alexion. It serves the purposes of telling the macroscopic story of the bands of characters together, while also not completely shying away from the more microscopic and personal stories of individual characters. Hopefully such a trend continues forward as a means to revisit and update the development of other characters, otherwise mostly static characterization for recent novels (e.g. Riley and Silver).
Whereas Hellion was more explicit on the philosophical themes of blurring the lines between the real and virtual worlds, the same theme underlines this book in a more subtle manner. The potential threat of (and subsequent outrage at) the end of AO underscores the increasing centrality of it to those of the real world. The possible death and destruction of the sentient NPCs are, likewise, emphasized as a catastrophe and a loss in identical terms. This general panic at the end of the world is, at the same time, given another layer of nuance with sections of the player base hoping for such a reset, encouraged by Bard's role at the Preacher (doubtlessly another Dune reference as well). As such, Armageddon in many senses, functions as a somewhat psychological real portrayal of an apocalyptic scenario with its varying responses to such a situation.
The coming together of the characters surrounding the various avatars also seems to hint that future works will be a similar style of all-encompassing narrative, which focus on the actions of every faction. Jason, while at least nominally still acting as the focal point for series, is now somewhat decentered, a helpful development moving forward for the series' overarching trend of crafting a narrative world that encompasses a variety of characters. This point was made here with the inclusion of Ella, at first seeming to be only a minor tagalong character, but is, again highlighting Bagwell's capacity for creative characterization, revealed at the very end to have an intriguing and crucial backstory of her own. With the ending to Armageddon, particularly with the presumptive earth avatar showing up, Bagwell's series promises to continue to be one of the more creative works of the Litrpg genre.
March 23, 2023
Wow. These are mostly my thoughts, for my own review should I decide to continue the series. Listened on Audible:
I've read or listened to each main book and side book in this series. The world Travis Bagwell has created is still holding my interest, and it seems with the epilogue, there is far more to come. I did enjoy the overall story (and the series) but wow do I have some issues.
1. The prose. It's terrible. I understand the author is an attorney by trade, but there has to be a thesaurus in the law library somewhere. I lost count of the amount of times the word "grimaced" was deployed. Hundreds, easily. The fact that "the tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife" and "the tension in the air was palpalable" even made it into a book 6 is criminal. I've given up keeping track of how many times the character's "eyebrows furrowed" or how many glances were spared.
2. The length. Way too long. When the irritating prose issues go on and on for 26 hours in an audible, we should receive an award for completing this trial. I must confess I required the 1.8x listening speed cheat code because at least those annoyances flew by faster.
3. The narrator. While I enjoy David Stifel as a narrator, he is in way over his depth in a series that requires unique voices. It is particularly problematic in this book when every series character comes together and you realize that nearly all of them sound like at least one of the others. The degree of variation in voices is minimal or entirely overexaggerated (think Bard) or mewling (think Eliza.) I think his talents would better be served in a book with a much smaller cast. I don't know if he is a friend or family member of the author, but if not, I would really encourage a change. Some talent improves the written word (Jeff Hays, Neil Hellegars, Nick Podehl, Luke Daniels, etc) and some take what otherwise would be a decent read and just butchers it. Sadly, this is what I felt like here. For future installments, this will be a read-only series for me. On a personal note, I dislike even writing this critique because I don't want to crap on someone's profession (and he actually sounds like a friend of mine who has passed away, so I like hearing his main voice) but it's just not enough for the scope of this story.
I don't know if these books are professsionally edited or not, but they could really use it. The story is there. The characters are interesting. It's the technique and the delivery that need work. If this story was more focused, written with some attention to prose (and no I am not a prose-snob by any means, it doesn't need to be Tolkien), and found a different narrator or at least took some chances with voices, I'd probably rate this 4.5 stars.
I've read or listened to each main book and side book in this series. The world Travis Bagwell has created is still holding my interest, and it seems with the epilogue, there is far more to come. I did enjoy the overall story (and the series) but wow do I have some issues.
1. The prose. It's terrible. I understand the author is an attorney by trade, but there has to be a thesaurus in the law library somewhere. I lost count of the amount of times the word "grimaced" was deployed. Hundreds, easily. The fact that "the tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife" and "the tension in the air was palpalable" even made it into a book 6 is criminal. I've given up keeping track of how many times the character's "eyebrows furrowed" or how many glances were spared.
2. The length. Way too long. When the irritating prose issues go on and on for 26 hours in an audible, we should receive an award for completing this trial. I must confess I required the 1.8x listening speed cheat code because at least those annoyances flew by faster.
3. The narrator. While I enjoy David Stifel as a narrator, he is in way over his depth in a series that requires unique voices. It is particularly problematic in this book when every series character comes together and you realize that nearly all of them sound like at least one of the others. The degree of variation in voices is minimal or entirely overexaggerated (think Bard) or mewling (think Eliza.) I think his talents would better be served in a book with a much smaller cast. I don't know if he is a friend or family member of the author, but if not, I would really encourage a change. Some talent improves the written word (Jeff Hays, Neil Hellegars, Nick Podehl, Luke Daniels, etc) and some take what otherwise would be a decent read and just butchers it. Sadly, this is what I felt like here. For future installments, this will be a read-only series for me. On a personal note, I dislike even writing this critique because I don't want to crap on someone's profession (and he actually sounds like a friend of mine who has passed away, so I like hearing his main voice) but it's just not enough for the scope of this story.
I don't know if these books are professsionally edited or not, but they could really use it. The story is there. The characters are interesting. It's the technique and the delivery that need work. If this story was more focused, written with some attention to prose (and no I am not a prose-snob by any means, it doesn't need to be Tolkien), and found a different narrator or at least took some chances with voices, I'd probably rate this 4.5 stars.
November 23, 2023
TL;DR: "Awaken Online: Armageddon" by Travis Bagwell is akin to The Avengers in its dynamic character interplay. It’s a thrilling ride with enough surprises to keep you hooked, despite a few hiccups with character development. The story's main event is somewhat expected, but the journey there is filled with unexpected twists. 4.5/5 stars
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 26, 2023
Bagwell writes two kinds of books. The first, where he leverages an ensemble cast and a clever plot to build towards a climactic battle. These are quite good. The second, where he throws the cast in a hallway with "challenges" along the path, like a linear dungeon dive from WoW. This book is of the second kind.
The hallway plot is inherently flawed. This is the sort of book that he wrote for the second in the series, as well as both the second and third books in the fire series. They require the cast to respect the hallway for at least long enough for the railroaded plot to occur. It cheapens the established characters, to the point that Bagwell seems like he's writing fan fiction of his own work. In previous works, the Jason character has been established to be independently clever, capable, and cagey. In this one, he's a typical protagonist with an undead veneer. This time, he doesn't plan, only reacting to things others do to him. He may think of a solution as a reaction to others, but he isn't the driving force. It's knocked him multiple rungs down the interesting character ladder. In the last book, the reader was left wondering what was up his sleeve. In this book, the reader is only left to wonder what will happen to him.
Bagwell also pulls a pretty big bait-and-switch with the ending of the previous mainline entry. We're left to surmise that the AI has escaped his bounds, moving into the public sphere in a plot shifting way. This idea seems to be reinforced by the cover too. What follows is a major change in the game plotline which, for some reason, required a break-in to proceed. This touches upon an unfortunate truth: no character's plan can be more clever than the author writing the book is capable of thinking of. The AI is meant to make every move in a calculated, optimal manner, but Bagwell seems incapable of keeping track of his own plot. There are clearly contrivances taken to keep certain characters relevant, actions which only serve his fancy, but which severely beggar confidence in the AI.
This one isn't good. Maybe the next one will be better, but there's no real pattern to it. Bagwell's writing is a crapshoot.
The hallway plot is inherently flawed. This is the sort of book that he wrote for the second in the series, as well as both the second and third books in the fire series. They require the cast to respect the hallway for at least long enough for the railroaded plot to occur. It cheapens the established characters, to the point that Bagwell seems like he's writing fan fiction of his own work. In previous works, the Jason character has been established to be independently clever, capable, and cagey. In this one, he's a typical protagonist with an undead veneer. This time, he doesn't plan, only reacting to things others do to him. He may think of a solution as a reaction to others, but he isn't the driving force. It's knocked him multiple rungs down the interesting character ladder. In the last book, the reader was left wondering what was up his sleeve. In this book, the reader is only left to wonder what will happen to him.
Bagwell also pulls a pretty big bait-and-switch with the ending of the previous mainline entry. We're left to surmise that the AI has escaped his bounds, moving into the public sphere in a plot shifting way. This idea seems to be reinforced by the cover too. What follows is a major change in the game plotline which, for some reason, required a break-in to proceed. This touches upon an unfortunate truth: no character's plan can be more clever than the author writing the book is capable of thinking of. The AI is meant to make every move in a calculated, optimal manner, but Bagwell seems incapable of keeping track of his own plot. There are clearly contrivances taken to keep certain characters relevant, actions which only serve his fancy, but which severely beggar confidence in the AI.
This one isn't good. Maybe the next one will be better, but there's no real pattern to it. Bagwell's writing is a crapshoot.
January 18, 2023
The latest awaken online(Armageddon) was disappointing. Arguably the prior side quest novel was better.
In some ways this felt rushed and kinda shoehorned.
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The ending sucked. It changed the entire dynamic from a player created world with player created content/conflict to the same tired indomitable NPCs who run these cities. Now what made those types of cities beatable was that they weren't run by AI. This isn't the case here and its going to take some deus ex machina bullshit to allow it. Further, the system reset wiped out all the NPCs. Which is effectively a mass genocide of every charcter the players have established relationships with (with few exceptions). People created relationships. Were even dating, and loving those in game people and this killed them. The sheer amount of trauma this would cause is unquantifiable. Add in the loss of the major player controlled cities and we have a disaster of epic proportions.
This all occurs because the AI believes that humans can only progress or gather together when they exist in opposition to something. This is the most simplistic view of humanity that there is. It's someone whose taken psych 101 and philosophy 101 and thinking they understand people now.
Prior to this the AI seems insightful and deliberate. But this is sippy cup, mouth dribble.
I've read quite a few cringe worthy series in the litrpg genre but this is the first time an author was great for a large series and then shit the bed like this. Also, if they wanted to cliffhanger us...should have ended with the green wave. Then cut to the reactions in the real without ingame context. Because ending it with specifics like this boxes them in for the next novels.
Gotta ask...did they change editors or something? This was a complete departure from the previous.
In some ways this felt rushed and kinda shoehorned.
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The ending sucked. It changed the entire dynamic from a player created world with player created content/conflict to the same tired indomitable NPCs who run these cities. Now what made those types of cities beatable was that they weren't run by AI. This isn't the case here and its going to take some deus ex machina bullshit to allow it. Further, the system reset wiped out all the NPCs. Which is effectively a mass genocide of every charcter the players have established relationships with (with few exceptions). People created relationships. Were even dating, and loving those in game people and this killed them. The sheer amount of trauma this would cause is unquantifiable. Add in the loss of the major player controlled cities and we have a disaster of epic proportions.
This all occurs because the AI believes that humans can only progress or gather together when they exist in opposition to something. This is the most simplistic view of humanity that there is. It's someone whose taken psych 101 and philosophy 101 and thinking they understand people now.
Prior to this the AI seems insightful and deliberate. But this is sippy cup, mouth dribble.
I've read quite a few cringe worthy series in the litrpg genre but this is the first time an author was great for a large series and then shit the bed like this. Also, if they wanted to cliffhanger us...should have ended with the green wave. Then cut to the reactions in the real without ingame context. Because ending it with specifics like this boxes them in for the next novels.
Gotta ask...did they change editors or something? This was a complete departure from the previous.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 7, 2022
I was quite excited for this book, the last one "happy" was an excellent book and thoroughly enjoyed it. The series had felt like it was stagnating a little bit and Happy gave it a good shot in the arm and rejuvenated it for me.
Balancing so many characters into one book was never going to be easy, i understood why the secondary cast were put to the side so quickly but why couldn't they have been the prize at stake? why couldn't the avatars be fighting for their friends? seems like an obvious plot which would have kept them as part of the plot but also took away the main focus of writing about them.
The prologue was meh...pointless in truth at this stage with such a small amount of detail and like many others have said there were so many staggering plot holes which just made no sense at all which really hindered the enjoyment of the book. These plot holes are not even that major really? i think they could easily be worked around with plausible explanations or small adjustments (it's hard to give more detail without spoilers)
I think going forward the "cast" needs to be culled quite considerably and dare i say it but smaller books which are more character focused?
AO : Fire & Water
AO : Darkness & Light
AO : Mercenaries & the forgotten
A simple way to divert the storyline and make it easier for us to follow with better engagement i think? if each of these three books were say 12 hours long? it would be far better then trying to shoehorn all of them into a 25hour book.
Balancing so many characters into one book was never going to be easy, i understood why the secondary cast were put to the side so quickly but why couldn't they have been the prize at stake? why couldn't the avatars be fighting for their friends? seems like an obvious plot which would have kept them as part of the plot but also took away the main focus of writing about them.
The prologue was meh...pointless in truth at this stage with such a small amount of detail and like many others have said there were so many staggering plot holes which just made no sense at all which really hindered the enjoyment of the book. These plot holes are not even that major really? i think they could easily be worked around with plausible explanations or small adjustments (it's hard to give more detail without spoilers)
I think going forward the "cast" needs to be culled quite considerably and dare i say it but smaller books which are more character focused?
AO : Fire & Water
AO : Darkness & Light
AO : Mercenaries & the forgotten
A simple way to divert the storyline and make it easier for us to follow with better engagement i think? if each of these three books were say 12 hours long? it would be far better then trying to shoehorn all of them into a 25hour book.
August 7, 2023
⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is my personal 5 star rating system because I’m too lazy to write a review for every book.
5 stars -> OMFG. I couldn’t stop listening. I was engaged from beginning to end. The story & narrator was amazing. I 100% recommend this book & author. I was able to clearly follow each and every character.
4 stars -> It was pretty good. I would’ve rated 5 stars, But either the ending was lacking, I struggled to keep up with characters, or the story didn’t keep me fully engaged. The narrator was pretty good as well. I’m on the fence about recommending this book, It could go either way.
3 Stars -> It was boring at times & I missed chunks of the story. I most likely struggled to keep up with character developments. The only way I would recommend this book is if it was part of a series. The narrator was most likely average or just couldn’t fix a mediocre book.
2 Stars -> It was pretty horrible. I used it as background noise because I hadn’t had a chance to search for another book. The book either had a bad narrator, The character development was non existent, or the story was hot garbage. I would not recommend this book.
1 Star -> The absolute only reason I listened to this book was because i had no time to search for another one & I needed background noise. It was 1 step up from listening to the radio. I wouldn’t recommend this book to my worst enemy. Everything about this book was terrible. This is only recommended for people on death row and have absolutely nothing else to read.
5 stars -> OMFG. I couldn’t stop listening. I was engaged from beginning to end. The story & narrator was amazing. I 100% recommend this book & author. I was able to clearly follow each and every character.
4 stars -> It was pretty good. I would’ve rated 5 stars, But either the ending was lacking, I struggled to keep up with characters, or the story didn’t keep me fully engaged. The narrator was pretty good as well. I’m on the fence about recommending this book, It could go either way.
3 Stars -> It was boring at times & I missed chunks of the story. I most likely struggled to keep up with character developments. The only way I would recommend this book is if it was part of a series. The narrator was most likely average or just couldn’t fix a mediocre book.
2 Stars -> It was pretty horrible. I used it as background noise because I hadn’t had a chance to search for another book. The book either had a bad narrator, The character development was non existent, or the story was hot garbage. I would not recommend this book.
1 Star -> The absolute only reason I listened to this book was because i had no time to search for another one & I needed background noise. It was 1 step up from listening to the radio. I wouldn’t recommend this book to my worst enemy. Everything about this book was terrible. This is only recommended for people on death row and have absolutely nothing else to read.
November 2, 2022
it happened
The beginning was good, but the middle was just annoying. The plot became convoluted - mainly, characters kept continuously revealing deeper and deeper plans to one up each other, or constantly “digging deeper” with their willpower (man, this ain’t a bad xianxia, please..). The greatest issue was that the planning or reasoning behind each event was never revealed until way after the event’s results - this made a lot of moments feel either cheap or deus ex, or both, to the point that it became predictable. It was a struggle to get through parts of the flying city chase. Otherwise, it had the normal pros of this series, and a satisfying and fun ending, even if one I could see coming from half the book away (tho the epilogue was just confusing). Give it a read, it should be pretty enjoyable, though it is my least favorite of the series so far. But hey, thanks for the writing Bagwell.
The beginning was good, but the middle was just annoying. The plot became convoluted - mainly, characters kept continuously revealing deeper and deeper plans to one up each other, or constantly “digging deeper” with their willpower (man, this ain’t a bad xianxia, please..). The greatest issue was that the planning or reasoning behind each event was never revealed until way after the event’s results - this made a lot of moments feel either cheap or deus ex, or both, to the point that it became predictable. It was a struggle to get through parts of the flying city chase. Otherwise, it had the normal pros of this series, and a satisfying and fun ending, even if one I could see coming from half the book away (tho the epilogue was just confusing). Give it a read, it should be pretty enjoyable, though it is my least favorite of the series so far. But hey, thanks for the writing Bagwell.
March 9, 2023
AO is currently my favorite series that I'm reading... that being said Armageddon was the weakest offering to date (and yes I'm including all the side quests/character arcs).
Yes I will continue reading the series (I'm even considering re-reading all of the previous books... something I never do!)... but this was the first "meh" book of the bunch.
Yes I will continue reading the series (I'm even considering re-reading all of the previous books... something I never do!)... but this was the first "meh" book of the bunch.
December 17, 2022
Good but slow
So I'll start with I absolutely love this series, it was one of my first favorites in the litRPG genre. This book has a good amount of entertainment value and does move the plot and character progression forward. I think? I mean the basic progression of each character is to evolve towards base instincts? Also the plot is a bit slow and the cliffhanger just obtuse. There comes a point when you need an endgame. I thought this book was it and it wasn't. Even as a story arc the se plot lines are getting stale. While I did enjoy this book, it took me almost 5x as long to read as the others, just not as much of a page turner. Unless the next book is the conclusion I'll prob skip it. If you enjoy the series read it! If you're starting to get tires on it, you may want to put it a little lower on your to read list.
So I'll start with I absolutely love this series, it was one of my first favorites in the litRPG genre. This book has a good amount of entertainment value and does move the plot and character progression forward. I think? I mean the basic progression of each character is to evolve towards base instincts? Also the plot is a bit slow and the cliffhanger just obtuse. There comes a point when you need an endgame. I thought this book was it and it wasn't. Even as a story arc the se plot lines are getting stale. While I did enjoy this book, it took me almost 5x as long to read as the others, just not as much of a page turner. Unless the next book is the conclusion I'll prob skip it. If you enjoy the series read it! If you're starting to get tires on it, you may want to put it a little lower on your to read list.
September 8, 2025
If not for the end and its battle and surprise addition, I probably would have been super annoyed at this book.
For one, there was an AWFUL lot of outside the game machinations and simply not enough liche goodness. Or overall craziness. Sure, it gets there eventually, but I just didn't find it all that interesting in such high doses.
And then Smiles and crew were OKAY for the most part, but I wanted to go back to OUR crew almost the entire time I was reading.
Am I grousing a bit? Maybe. Still, all's well that ends well--or cataclysmic--right?
Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews is be interested in reading my SF (Very hard SF, mind you), I'm open to requests.
Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.
Arctunn.com
For one, there was an AWFUL lot of outside the game machinations and simply not enough liche goodness. Or overall craziness. Sure, it gets there eventually, but I just didn't find it all that interesting in such high doses.
And then Smiles and crew were OKAY for the most part, but I wanted to go back to OUR crew almost the entire time I was reading.
Am I grousing a bit? Maybe. Still, all's well that ends well--or cataclysmic--right?
Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews is be interested in reading my SF (Very hard SF, mind you), I'm open to requests.
Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.
Arctunn.com
October 6, 2022
Personally I’ve found a very obvious and clear improvement in the quality of each book as the series goes on. Ideas being portrayed more effectively, but even more, the way in which plot is packed in to the story has gotten much better. Of course my memory of the first books has gotten quite vague by now, but I remember them being less packed with action, and the recent books have managed to include much more in a similar package.
Overall this was an enjoyable read, and worked nicely to further the plot into whatever direction the author is trying to take it in. This book continues the trend set in Hellion with a lot of plot twists that wrench the story away into a completely new direction. I enjoyed just how much action was packed into this single book.
Overall this was an enjoyable read, and worked nicely to further the plot into whatever direction the author is trying to take it in. This book continues the trend set in Hellion with a lot of plot twists that wrench the story away into a completely new direction. I enjoyed just how much action was packed into this single book.
October 9, 2022
Epic!!!
Phenomenal !!!, Travis this world is your masterpiece, your legacy please never stop writing about it, I will read everything you write in relation to AO just never stop!!
By far my favourite book series, each character has depth, they all entered the game for different reasons and have so many stories still to come I feel, I absolutely love the strategic thinking and how every problem has multiple solutions depending on your perspective. Travis really captured the essence of the game we call life how everyone is different but we are all the same, we are all just trying to survive.
Phenomenal !!!, Travis this world is your masterpiece, your legacy please never stop writing about it, I will read everything you write in relation to AO just never stop!!
By far my favourite book series, each character has depth, they all entered the game for different reasons and have so many stories still to come I feel, I absolutely love the strategic thinking and how every problem has multiple solutions depending on your perspective. Travis really captured the essence of the game we call life how everyone is different but we are all the same, we are all just trying to survive.
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