What do you think?
Rate this book
A Glitch in the System
Zephaniah Kote is a gamer, coder, and hacker, but he is not a murder investigator. After completing his latest job, he is looking forward to flirting with his favorite barista while he waits for the release of the fantasy virtual reality game of the Fabula . Unfortunately, when he meets with the people of Riverlight Incorporated, the creators of the upcoming Fabula game, Zephaniah finds himself involved in the middle of a crisis. One person is dead and two of Riverlight Incorporated’s executives have become trapped in their own virtual reality game. And he's the person they want to solve the murder, before the game goes public. Forced to enter the Fabula, Zephaniah chooses a Ranger class as the most suitable for exploring the world. His search for the missing executives soon leads him to the medieval city of Altour, where he has to level up fast enough to be able to investigate even the toughest of those ruled by the Thieves Guild. Crime thriller meets fantasy LitRPG in this VRMMORPG
- GenresFantasyScience Fiction
450 pages, Paperback
Published August 29, 2022
6 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 25, 2022
I want to thank the author K.Y. Kark for providing me a free ebook ARC of A Glitch in the System to read. This review is my honest opinion, though I am willing to admit that, having been entertained by the author from the YouTube channel “A Kupel Books,” it’s possible I have some sense of unconscious bias that caused me to rate the book higher than I would have if it had been written by a different author.
It’s been a while since I read a work of LitRPG, combining the concepts of a roleplaying game with a literary story, but I think it’s a really fun genre. In this story, there’s an interesting mystery setup and the human relationship issues were also great. At the beginning of the story, the protagonist-narrator mostly just wants to date the local barista, and that was enough to get me to like the character. Later in the story, at times, the narrator became more arrogant and that caused me to end up liking him less.
The book cleverly name-drops Ready Player One, which is a proper pop culture reference to plant the seeds for where the story is taking the main character, though it seems a bit of a stretch of cosmic coincidence that the corporate character at the beginning of the story is named Sorrento (the same name as the villainous corporate character in Ready Player One). My other criticism would be that, at times, I felt like there was some over-explaining in the narrative.
Overall, I found the book to be a fun read and an interesting debut novel. I recommend the story to fans of the LitRPG genre and fans of stories that have an intriguing mystery at the heart of the story.
It’s been a while since I read a work of LitRPG, combining the concepts of a roleplaying game with a literary story, but I think it’s a really fun genre. In this story, there’s an interesting mystery setup and the human relationship issues were also great. At the beginning of the story, the protagonist-narrator mostly just wants to date the local barista, and that was enough to get me to like the character. Later in the story, at times, the narrator became more arrogant and that caused me to end up liking him less.
The book cleverly name-drops Ready Player One, which is a proper pop culture reference to plant the seeds for where the story is taking the main character, though it seems a bit of a stretch of cosmic coincidence that the corporate character at the beginning of the story is named Sorrento (the same name as the villainous corporate character in Ready Player One). My other criticism would be that, at times, I felt like there was some over-explaining in the narrative.
Overall, I found the book to be a fun read and an interesting debut novel. I recommend the story to fans of the LitRPG genre and fans of stories that have an intriguing mystery at the heart of the story.
September 2, 2022
What a great read! I loved the characters and the touch of romance... super recommend. My mother read this as well, she isn't usually a fantasy fan but she really enjoyed- says a lot coming from her! Awesome
September 4, 2022
A first in the exciting new LitRPG genre! Don't know what that is? Read on!!
This book sits at the forefront of the up and coming genre, LitRPG. Riveting and mysterious this book has you on the edge of your seat and provides some great laughs along the way! Get on board with this genre...there will, no doubt be more to come as this genre gains its footing and Kark's work is paving to road!
This book sits at the forefront of the up and coming genre, LitRPG. Riveting and mysterious this book has you on the edge of your seat and provides some great laughs along the way! Get on board with this genre...there will, no doubt be more to come as this genre gains its footing and Kark's work is paving to road!
August 29, 2022
Might be a bit biased as this is my book. However, I do believe that if you are a lover of LitRPG, fantasy, murder mysteries, and more then you will feel that this is a love letter to all those genres and the authors within them. The combination of these factors and characters that I pulled from real life made writing this book feel more like an observational text on these people's actions than a planned story. I hope you all will enjoy it.
August 31, 2022
A really fun, fast-paced murder mystery that incorporates the elements of authors from Agatha Christie to Brandon Sanderson. The characters, especially Kote and Iris, really shine center stage and invited me to continue the story. A surprising ending and a fun ride.
September 1, 2022
Creative and exciting, looking forward to reading more of Kark’s work!
September 5, 2022
A literary masterpiece! Highly recommended to all sci-fi or fantasy fans, this book will have you at the edge of your seat!
August 29, 2022
A really fun murder mystery that you don't even know is a murder mystery until you are already drawn into the story. Reminded me slightly of Ready Player One with the gaming concept. Really enjoyed it!
September 1, 2022
The characters were fun and realistic. I am kinda sad that this is a standalone. Would love to see what the gang all get up to next.
September 12, 2022
Okay, let's get started. Generally, I liked the book. I liked the concept alone and the game itself. However, I have things to say; this constructive criticism is not an attack.
Our main character is not as good as he should be. What I mean by that is that our main character is a game tester, meaning his job is to find and exploit games for bugs and/or glitches. Throughout the adventure, he neither exploited glitches nor found bugs while playing the game. He being a regular gamer with a shady past, could have worked fine. Besides that, our main character does an excellent job as a protagonist.
I saw in one review that this book desperately needs an editor. I couldn't agree more. There was a very obvious grammar error that could have been fixed in every chapter. Now, this being an Indie book, I expect there to be errors but not as many as there are in this book. It breaks the immersion, especially when I'm into a great scene.
The overall plot is fine. I think the murder and crime stuff was a bit lackluster. Though I know it is meant to bring more tension to the story, I honestly didn't care much about it. As fast as the game goes, it sounds like fun, but I would hate that leveling-up system. That system seems to take too long to level up. However, it does compensate for the skills leveling up fast. So, it's hard to say if that balances the game out, but I just thought I pointed that out. Also, I'm just saying if a gaming company says that they have been making a game for ten years and the only way to play it is through these unique chairs, I don't think it would be prevalent. The last thing is also the AI. If the AI played a much bigger role during the story, I think it could have been more impactful at the end. But since the AI only popped up three or two times, the ending and the agreement weren't that strong for me.
I still found this adventure enjoyable with all those problems within this book. I believe the author can write a better story next time. Next time, the author needs to FIND AN EDITOR and take their time. I believe if those steps are followed, there can be a much better story in the future.
Our main character is not as good as he should be. What I mean by that is that our main character is a game tester, meaning his job is to find and exploit games for bugs and/or glitches. Throughout the adventure, he neither exploited glitches nor found bugs while playing the game. He being a regular gamer with a shady past, could have worked fine. Besides that, our main character does an excellent job as a protagonist.
I saw in one review that this book desperately needs an editor. I couldn't agree more. There was a very obvious grammar error that could have been fixed in every chapter. Now, this being an Indie book, I expect there to be errors but not as many as there are in this book. It breaks the immersion, especially when I'm into a great scene.
The overall plot is fine. I think the murder and crime stuff was a bit lackluster. Though I know it is meant to bring more tension to the story, I honestly didn't care much about it. As fast as the game goes, it sounds like fun, but I would hate that leveling-up system. That system seems to take too long to level up. However, it does compensate for the skills leveling up fast. So, it's hard to say if that balances the game out, but I just thought I pointed that out. Also, I'm just saying if a gaming company says that they have been making a game for ten years and the only way to play it is through these unique chairs, I don't think it would be prevalent. The last thing is also the AI. If the AI played a much bigger role during the story, I think it could have been more impactful at the end. But since the AI only popped up three or two times, the ending and the agreement weren't that strong for me.
I still found this adventure enjoyable with all those problems within this book. I believe the author can write a better story next time. Next time, the author needs to FIND AN EDITOR and take their time. I believe if those steps are followed, there can be a much better story in the future.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 19, 2024
A Glitch in the System is a rather interesting story. It's of course, a game, and one run by an AI. The AI isn't consulted on what it wants, but one developer at the headquarters of the game maker takes it upon themselves to "free" the AI, and this leads to all kinds of trouble. The story is fairly well done, and most LitRPG fans should enjoy this one.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews