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The Rogue's Gambit #1
Shadow of the Rogue: A LitRPG Series
Life in 2036 sucks!
Hi, my name is Cassie James. I live with my parents in what's left of Seattle. For a twenty year old girl, I'm pretty typical. To pay for my gaming habit, I work at the local supermarket. While the job is really tedious, it's better than unemployment.
Most nights you can find me plugged in. That's when I can get a moments peace from my parents drunken bickering. Still, my life was fairly boring, until I decided to try Odyssey Online! I'm super addicted to leveling Kira Nightwind, my Shadow Thief!
However, something's gone terribly wrong!
You see, an epic level NPC has grown self-aware. And Grymme is not a dragon to be trifled with! He has mind-napped over five-hundred people. Leaving them trapped in the game. He's also launched a massive offensive to take over Odyssey Online, one kingdom at a time. The only way to stop him, is to locate three legendary items. Each one containing an unlock that makes us players more powerful. The problem being Grymme has agents everywhere. And they are willing to do anything to win!
If that weren't enough, I'm developing a serious girl crush on Shauna, a very cute Elf healer. With the help of Leonidas the Paladin, Cairngorm the Wizard, and Yvir the Barbarian, we might just defeat Grymme and win our freedom!
Hi, my name is Cassie James. I live with my parents in what's left of Seattle. For a twenty year old girl, I'm pretty typical. To pay for my gaming habit, I work at the local supermarket. While the job is really tedious, it's better than unemployment.
Most nights you can find me plugged in. That's when I can get a moments peace from my parents drunken bickering. Still, my life was fairly boring, until I decided to try Odyssey Online! I'm super addicted to leveling Kira Nightwind, my Shadow Thief!
However, something's gone terribly wrong!
You see, an epic level NPC has grown self-aware. And Grymme is not a dragon to be trifled with! He has mind-napped over five-hundred people. Leaving them trapped in the game. He's also launched a massive offensive to take over Odyssey Online, one kingdom at a time. The only way to stop him, is to locate three legendary items. Each one containing an unlock that makes us players more powerful. The problem being Grymme has agents everywhere. And they are willing to do anything to win!
If that weren't enough, I'm developing a serious girl crush on Shauna, a very cute Elf healer. With the help of Leonidas the Paladin, Cairngorm the Wizard, and Yvir the Barbarian, we might just defeat Grymme and win our freedom!
180 pages, Paperback
First published October 5, 2017
57 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
About the author
Quinn Dallas
5 books4 followersQuinn Dallas is the pen name of a part-time writer from Michigan. A lifelong fan of Sci-fi & Fantasy he's discovered a new favorite genre in LitRPG!
Quinn spent eighteen long years working as a Social Media Manager in the Bay Area tech scene. Tiring of the rat race, he returned to the Midwest for early retirement.
When he found the quiet life too boring, he started writing and publishing. Quinn lives in small town with his family. He enjoys bike riding, hiking, and spending time in nature. When the winter proves too cold, he fantasizes about Florida!
Quinn spent eighteen long years working as a Social Media Manager in the Bay Area tech scene. Tiring of the rat race, he returned to the Midwest for early retirement.
When he found the quiet life too boring, he started writing and publishing. Quinn lives in small town with his family. He enjoys bike riding, hiking, and spending time in nature. When the winter proves too cold, he fantasizes about Florida!
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 5, 2021
A different kind of book. You are in a virtual reality game which has gone rogue. While I am not a gamer myself having a front row seat was exciting and kept my attention. The four stars is for the pure entertainment value of the story. It is simply written and requires some editorial touches but I had fun reading it while watching some US Open Tennis.
July 21, 2018
I so wanted to like this one too. The cover is lovely for a start.
RPGs? Yes please. I say this even though the idea of turning the processes of an online game into a novel seems odd. Still, I am all for it if it works. Is it a potentially interesting story? Yes. The execution of the story? Not so much. I did finish it, but there are several issues which detracted from the story.
1. Needs editing and this is for a couple of reasons.
Typos. A fair few of them. I can normally ignore most instances, but there are several missing words, and several inappropriate ones, which are a pain.
Repetitions. By this I mean instances where something is described, and then a couple of paragraphs later the same thing is described again. This would be removed by a half decent editor.
Dialogue. Also suffers from repetition and although this could be ignored, "shaving of tons of hit points," for example, diminishes the story.
The book ends, I suspect at exactly the point where book two starts. But I donlt think I will continue.
RPGs? Yes please. I say this even though the idea of turning the processes of an online game into a novel seems odd. Still, I am all for it if it works. Is it a potentially interesting story? Yes. The execution of the story? Not so much. I did finish it, but there are several issues which detracted from the story.
1. Needs editing and this is for a couple of reasons.
Typos. A fair few of them. I can normally ignore most instances, but there are several missing words, and several inappropriate ones, which are a pain.
Repetitions. By this I mean instances where something is described, and then a couple of paragraphs later the same thing is described again. This would be removed by a half decent editor.
Dialogue. Also suffers from repetition and although this could be ignored, "shaving of tons of hit points," for example, diminishes the story.
The book ends, I suspect at exactly the point where book two starts. But I donlt think I will continue.
August 1, 2018
I rather liked this book. The pacing in the book was a bit fast, and I would have liked for it to be longer, but that's seriously my only real gripe with the book. There are a few typos here and there, but not enough to detract from the story. With that said, I love the main character and how level headed she is. She's not off the wall crazy, but at the same time, she does make noob mistakes as would anyone who's just learning the in's and out's of a game. With that said, this is a fun read, with some pretty interesting characters (the Paladin is such a ho and the half orc could get it) that are pretty much a nice spin on traditional characters. I'm looking forward to reading the next book.
Plot Summary:
Girl lives in dystopian future where humans have done what we do best. Totally f'd up the planet. The rich get richer and the poor escape life in VR games. MC finds a new game to play and when she goes to log in gets trapped because the new AI that just went live has decided that it wants to rule the VR world they live in. MC finds a group of people that like her are trying to get out, but the longer she is in the game the more she wonders if she wants to actually leave.
Plot Summary:
Girl lives in dystopian future where humans have done what we do best. Totally f'd up the planet. The rich get richer and the poor escape life in VR games. MC finds a new game to play and when she goes to log in gets trapped because the new AI that just went live has decided that it wants to rule the VR world they live in. MC finds a group of people that like her are trying to get out, but the longer she is in the game the more she wonders if she wants to actually leave.
June 27, 2018
I tried really hard to get through this book and I stopped at 57% of the way through the book. At about 32% of the way through the book the editing goes from bad to simply unreadable. Missing words, extra words, misspelled words. I can usually excuse a lot of editing because this is mostly independent writing but this was so bad I thought why should I care to finish it if the author rushed to publish. too many good books out there to waste on this.
June 24, 2018
Good read
Story is a bit different as it had a female MC. Story had some issues with how a thief would not use detect traps when picking locks.
Story is a bit different as it had a female MC. Story had some issues with how a thief would not use detect traps when picking locks.
June 25, 2019
I love litRPG! And I love the backstory/premise this book is set up on. Which is why this book is such a disappointment .
First of all, the book was done in a speech-to-text, this there are plenty of misspellings, punctuation errors, grammar problems, as well as sentence fragments, missing text and other problems.
In addition, after establishing the base rules for the world, the author then proceeds to immediately violate those rules. The MC can do things with her abilities that clearly violate the ability descriptions, with no justification given. The MC is also low level, but seems to defeat high-level enemies with surprising ease.
Finally, the stat system make zero sense. At level 8/9, the MC, a specialist thief, has all her stats at 50, except one that is 45, and her main stat, Agility, which is 55. WTF? If stats start in the 40s - 50s, how does 5 points make a big difference? And the author mentions that she has much higher agility than certain opponents. Huh? Did she have a lot more points to spend than most players? Or did she just spend her points to be a "generalist"? And if the latter, how is her agility higher than that of a high-level barbarian?
Great story idea. Great setup. Really bad execution.
First of all, the book was done in a speech-to-text, this there are plenty of misspellings, punctuation errors, grammar problems, as well as sentence fragments, missing text and other problems.
In addition, after establishing the base rules for the world, the author then proceeds to immediately violate those rules. The MC can do things with her abilities that clearly violate the ability descriptions, with no justification given. The MC is also low level, but seems to defeat high-level enemies with surprising ease.
Finally, the stat system make zero sense. At level 8/9, the MC, a specialist thief, has all her stats at 50, except one that is 45, and her main stat, Agility, which is 55. WTF? If stats start in the 40s - 50s, how does 5 points make a big difference? And the author mentions that she has much higher agility than certain opponents. Huh? Did she have a lot more points to spend than most players? Or did she just spend her points to be a "generalist"? And if the latter, how is her agility higher than that of a high-level barbarian?
Great story idea. Great setup. Really bad execution.
September 4, 2019
Another good story ruined by poor editing
"The Shadow of the Rogue" is the first installment in Quinn Dallas' series The Rogue's Gambit. A LitRPG tale of the exploits of Kira Nightwind. Kira is the online persona of Cassie. One night, something happens when Cassie logs into a VR game. One of the AI's has become sentient and seems to be taking over the game world. Trapped online as Kira, she and several players must complete a hidden quest to unlock the exit.
It is a fast paced story full of action, adventure, and a little romance.
I forced myself through this book. Mainly due to the very bad editing. Every page has at least one glaring error! Ms Dallas' writing is actually very good. She develops her characters well and you will come to root for Kira and her friends. Her action sequences are well thought out and make sense. The little romance is tastefully done. If the editing was better, I would wholeheartedly recommend this story. However, it is bad enough for me to give it only 3 stars.
"The Shadow of the Rogue" is the first installment in Quinn Dallas' series The Rogue's Gambit. A LitRPG tale of the exploits of Kira Nightwind. Kira is the online persona of Cassie. One night, something happens when Cassie logs into a VR game. One of the AI's has become sentient and seems to be taking over the game world. Trapped online as Kira, she and several players must complete a hidden quest to unlock the exit.
It is a fast paced story full of action, adventure, and a little romance.
I forced myself through this book. Mainly due to the very bad editing. Every page has at least one glaring error! Ms Dallas' writing is actually very good. She develops her characters well and you will come to root for Kira and her friends. Her action sequences are well thought out and make sense. The little romance is tastefully done. If the editing was better, I would wholeheartedly recommend this story. However, it is bad enough for me to give it only 3 stars.
June 6, 2019
Light and Easy
Light reading. No real plot twists. Generally if you want something to chill with. Will definitely read sequel. Fans of fantasy medical adventure will enjoy and definitely mmorpg gamers will enjoy.
Light reading. No real plot twists. Generally if you want something to chill with. Will definitely read sequel. Fans of fantasy medical adventure will enjoy and definitely mmorpg gamers will enjoy.
January 14, 2019
Not a bad story. I liked it. Will definitely read more in the series when I run across them.
July 28, 2019
Good book
I liked the book very much. I've always had a thing for books like this. Thank you for bringing back childhood memories.
I liked the book very much. I've always had a thing for books like this. Thank you for bringing back childhood memories.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews