David lost his wife to an illness several years ago and has raised his children by himself for quite some time. It isn’t easy, but he makes it work somehow. A diagnosis of a brain tumor turns his world upside down yet again. The only parent his kids have left will be incapacitated for months in a coma. He doesn’t know what to do until he finds out that his wife was working on a secret project before she passed away. This project will allow his consciousness to live in a VR universe even while his physical body is trapped in a coma. His kids may be able to visit that consciousness and see him while he is stuck in the coma for several months. Since his wife created the world, she too may have uploaded her consciousness before her passing. Now, David has a purpose aside from simply existing again. He has the goal of finding the love of his life in the virtual reality she created.
I came into this book expecting more of a game-focused RPG universe. Maybe something more akin to Sword Art Online. I was expecting David to be thrown into this brand-new virtual game world (that of course would be slightly different from what was originally advertised) and group up with other people in the world to go on adventures. Instead, this seemed to be more of a traditional fantasy story that took place in a VR world. I didn’t see as many of the game mechanics being used, but I was still thrown into this sprawling fantasy world. The maps on the pages did help me track where the characters were in the story, which was a great help as the book took place over so much area.
The main thing that made this book difficult to get into was the sheer number of side stories going on. You had David, the main character whose wife created the game. Then you had Tommy, a person who was testing the game to get money and escape their real-world issues. Then there was John, a character who had worked in the military for several years and was testing the game so that his consciousness could be used as a VR trainer for military recruits in the future. Each of them was in this new VR universe, each of them for their own reasons. I don’t recall ever seeing their paths cross within the story, so it often felt as if I was trying to read 3 different stories simultaneously. I was highlighting the Kindle book frantically just to keep track of who was doing what. This was worsened by the fact that characters would have time gaps in their memory, seemingly “falling asleep” in one area and then “waking up” somewhere different. This was explained slightly in the story outside of the consciousness of the actual characters, but it did make reading from their POV even more confusing at times. I feel like focusing on David and only bringing these characters up in relation to how they interacted with David would have made for a more coherent story to follow.
One thing that I did enjoy in this story was how realistic all of the quests were. I have played several MMOs over the years, and these quests really reminded me of the old-school classic ones like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online. The quests really helped guide the different players along their various stories and forced them to solve little riddles and puzzles along the way.
Overall, while this book may not have been for me if you’re looking for a fantasy book with a wide variety of characters and a storyline with themes of secrecy and corruption and a sprawling world. This series could definitely turn a new leaf for book 2.
Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 books
