Digital Divinity

Golden Girl Gamer #1

by Rachel Ford

A shadow hangs over Midgard. Malevolent forces stir in Asgard. Out of the chaos will rise… a grandmother?
Barbara Callaghan assumed she’d spend her retirement peacefully, playing bingo and babysitting her grandson. Not fighting giants and wrangling unruly gods.

But when she finds herself the victim of a digital scam, trapped as a barbarian brawler in a game world generated from old Earth mythologies, she knows she will either adapt or perish. And Barbara has never been a quitter.

To survive this harsh rendering of Midgard, Barbara must win the patronage of one of the Asgardian gods. With the help of her disloyal companion Carwyn, an elven NPC with more warrants out on him than coins in his purse, she seeks out Asgard.

She discovers a world in turmoil, with powerful gods at each other’s throats, rogue giants causing chaos at every turn, and dwarven craftsmen at war with one another.

A world that needs the practical, no-nonsense touch of a grandmother—and the occasional brute strength of a barbarian.

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 26, 2022

About the author

Rachel Ford lives in beautiful Central Wisconsin. She is a programmer, who works in everything from SQL to .NET to Cisco CVP and IVR. Her latest foray into new and exciting things has been developing custom Java plugins for CVP applications.
Rachel also enjoys recreating historically authentic jewelry, and mixing historical recreations with fantasy elements to create exciting new pieces.
When not designing jewelry or tinkering with computers, Rachel spends her time writing and reading science fiction and fantasy.

Reviews

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

book one

For me this missed the mark on both the grandmother and the video gameplay.
The game just didn’t feel much like a game I mean I just wasn’t any fun. The other characters we’re not people I’d wanna play much less meet.
The grandmother might’ve been better off, having a female character because then we the reader could’ve gotten to see her, relive her youth, so to speak and be how she’s not in real life. All in all of this could’ve been a much better book.
Others may enjoy it more than I did. I wish them luck and joy in reading.

5/10

[Roger]

Digital Divinity: A Wholesome LitRPG Adventure (Golden Girl Gamer Book 1), my forty=second highly enjoyable read from author Rachel Ford. No matter the genre a Rachel Ford book can be counted on to be entertaining & enjoyable. A Rachel Ford read is like a visit with an old friend. This one delves into the realm of LITRPG which I find really enjoyable and this one is great! “I received a free Kindle copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review." The gifting of this book did not affect my opinion of it. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 - July 24, 2018).

[Lana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though I am not usually a fan of the Old Gods of Asgard, I must admit I really loved this first book in the new series, probably because it is in one of my favourite genres LitRPG, as well as being so full of humour. Barbara Callaghan is a grandmother, so she has had her fair share of experiences in life, and was looking forward to her retirement, but was fed up of babysitting her grandson, who was a spoilt brat. She sought out a part time job, one that would give her some income, but got scammed and had her identity stolen and turned into a male barbarian warrior, and stuck in a virtual reality game. She knew, though it didn't feel like it to her, that she was now just code and that she could be wiped out of the game forever, so she decided to roll with it and adept. This grandmother was no quitter, so she set out to discover the world she was now part of, acquiring a side-kick, an elf by the name of Carwyn, who was such a pain in the arse, I don't know how she stuck with him. Midgard was in trouble, and she needed to get to Asgard, the realm of the Norse Gods for patronage. She arrived at Odin's hall and discovered a realm in turmoil, as all the gods were at each other's throats . So being the practical and no nonsense grandmother that she was, she decided to set them all to rights. She set out on quests the gods gave her in order to get their patronage, and at the end chose the God she favoured. I love where this series is going, it is a real thrill reading about Barbara and her quests, battling giants, serpents and trying to figure out the Gods. I loved Loki and feel there is more to him than just his pranks but cannot say I like Camryn at all, he is a liar, a thief and a betrayer but he is the side-kick we are lumbered with. Onward to book 2 of this very light hearted and fun series.

[Tory · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I were to take the reviewing system at face value I would have to give this a 2/5 for "it was okay" as those are my feelings on it, however the book itself isn't a bad book by any means it just didn't resonate with me personally, it wasn't what I was looking for. While listed as LitRPG There are no stat sheets and levels are only mentioned vague in the "I leveled up" sense, there wasn't any gear changing or items with stats throughout the entire first book and the only thing really game like about it after the beginning is the constant reminder that it's in a game and an occasional quest added to or updated on the quest log. I also found no real way to relate to the main character and it isn't because she's a grandmother as I've enjoyed at least 2 others with a grand mother main character and is more to do with how she was written, i didn't feel any character development. Personally to me the most interesting part of the book was the last few pages even if they came off as predictable and I'm not sure it's enough for me to read the next book.

TL;DR It's not a bad book and in fact the right audiance would enjoy it but it just missed the mark with me. I will not be posting this review to amazon as I don't want to hurt the book in the algorithm. My level of enjoyment was 2/5 but the book itself is a solid 4/5.

[Tsippi Jelingold · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book feels like playing a game, with the added bonus of a great cast of characters, both the PCs and the NPCs. The main character is a grandmother-turned-barbarian by some [spoiler, don't read the blurb] evil mean, who has to navigate Asgard and its Old Gods with the reluctant help of a rogue elf. Barbara the Barbarian is wonderful and the book is funny and enjoyable. Warmly recommended.