Review: Arcane Kingdom Online: The Chosen (J. Tanner)
I officially am now accepting any and all recommendations for more LitRPG books to read, because I love this genre now. I was instantly captivated by the premise of the book, since it had all the elements that I love in a novel. Apocalyptic virus? Check. Video games? Check. Awesome sword-swinging quests? Check, check, and check. This novel managed to blend all of these elements together seamlessly, without seeming forced or disjointed, causing me to stay up way later than I had planned last night/this morning powering through the pages.
Who needs sleep, right? Certainly not this bookworm!
Clay Hopewell is one of the unlucky ones, who has contracted the ZERO virus. With less than 24 hours to live, things aren't looking so great--until he is offered the opportunity to upload his mind into the virtual reality game Arcane Kingdom Online. There is no guarantee that he will survive the upload process, but the chance to gain immortality is definitely worth it. Or is it? Clay quickly realizes that Arcane Kingdom Online is no easy paradise, and that something strange is going on with the game. If he doesn't figure out what is wrong with the game quickly, he might just become the game's next victim.
I really loved the idea behind this book. LitRPGs have truly become some of my favorite new finds, and any book that manages to throw some apocalyptic elements within their storyline without completely derailing the original plot line goes up a couple ranks in my eyes. Arcane Kingdom Online: The Chosen manages to explore a quite poplar topic in recent times (i.e. how to preserve the human race if everything goes massively downhill) while adding its own unique twist. The gaming quests were massively fun, I loved the inclusion of all of the different starting races and background information, and it overall it just gave me a very Dungeons and Dragons feel, which was mentioned in the author's bio as an inspiration.
This is a pretty common complaint with me, but... I wanted more. This book is super short (232 pages), which meant that a lot of super interesting events had to be summarized, and it sometimes felt like there was no downtime in-between battles. I felt a little rushed, but I think this problem would have been alleviated by adding some length to the novel.
Overall, I can't wait for the next book in the series to come out. I want to know what happens after that darn cliffhanger!
3.5/5 Stars
Disclaimer: I was contacted by the author regarding a review, and was provided with a copy of the book to review. This has in no way influenced my review of, feelings towards, or opinion on this book.