A Wild Fey Has Appeared!: A Slice-of-Life LitRPG

Fantasia, Book 1

By: unice5656

Narrated by: Diana Richardson

Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

In the first book of this imaginative LitRPG series, a quirky young woman embarks on the adventure of a lifetime in a virtual-reality fantasy game.

Arwyn has just purchased Fantasia: Fantasy Life, an immersive virtual-reality game that allows sleeping players to dive into a world of sword and sorcery with 99% realism. In Fantasia, Arwyn is Fey E’lan, a moon elf of the magical Elvenwood, whose unorthodox approach to gameplay—from befriending local monsters to putting a bag of holding inside a bag of holding—leads to a variety of unusual adventures and hilarious mishaps.

Soon Fey is a Guardian of the Forest, with a small army of loyal pets by her side. And as her reputation grows, so do her accidental friendships with other players curious about the free-spirited gamer. Then an NPC, the celestial warrior-angel Leandriel, comes crashing (literally) into her life and Fey’s carefree attitude is severely shaken. Leandriel seems almost … human. Compared to the robotic AI populating most other VR games, that is.

But in a land where both fantasy conventions and physics are honored and upended in equal measure, and the definition of “realism” is pushed to the limits, Fey will discover it’s much more fun to play the game when you play by your own rules.

The first volume of the hit LitRPG fantasy series—with more than three million views on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

©2023 unice5656 (P)2023 Podium Audio

Good story but

Im not sure how the story made it through royal road with all the 4th wall breaking. It should have been edited away before publication. It really breaks immersion ruin the book because the rest of the story is great.

Laughed Out Loud at the Deadly Cuteness

I really enjoyed the cracks at the author and the characters thus far. Definitely following the author to make sure I know when they get the next book out.

Good but had a few problems.

The books a lot of fun and has a good story but the over use of # and forth wall breaks really take away from it. I do recommend it and I’m hopeful the next book we’ll be a little smoother. The person reading did pretty good but had a bad habit of raising the pitch of certain words to point that it is painful to be with headphones on.

Enjoyed the experience

I’m not good leaving reviews, if you want a light-hearted and funny audiobook this is it.

Entertaining, Quirky, and Steady Story.

This book follows the life of a gamer in a slice of life story that doesn't really feel like only a slice of life book. It presents a steady story with no large stress points and maintains easy and relaxing entertainment. The focus of the story is primarily on the main character and her experiences while playing a VRMMO of sorts and it adds another layer to the feel of the book. Through her gameplay, she makes the book feel a lot like a progression litRPG in a lot of ways while avoiding the epic plots from most of those types of stories. Overall, the story contains a lot of humor and is generally relaxing to listen to. The characters felt unique and were usually relatable, or at least understandable.

The only major issues I had were the sudden and jarring 4th wall breaks that happen. These are rare at first but get more common as the book progresses. They seem intended to add humor, and sometimes do, but always at the expense of being completely immersion breaking. This varied from being a little annoying to needing to stop listening to the book for a while.

The overall narration of the book was very well done. Richardson played all the characters well and gave them each a distinct feel. She made a strong effort to add in quirkiness and tone appropriate to all situations and it added a lot to atmosphere of the story.

Meh

Overall it had potential, but my biggest complaint was the author using the breaking of the 4th wall to essentially excuse their lack of planning of their own story. It could have been a fun part of the story, but more often than not was used to just explain away inconsistencies, which felt lazy. If you noticed your own errors, why not go back and rewrite to fix them? I could see doing it once, maybe twice, but the amount it was used was too much.
It also got repetitive with some of the gaming announcements. I understand it’s litRPG but when you have 9 creatures simultaneously leveling up, you can just tell us…..
there didn’t seem to be any real plot to the story either, which I have no issues with a story that’s just a vibe, but with what just felt like lazy writing, I don’t care enough to listen to the next book.

The narrator wasn’t bad. Overall I enjoyed them, but there were times were it just felt like they overacted more than a line called for.

absolutely loved

for me it was a 10 out of 10 great characters, great adventure great dialogue. I want more!

It's a good Slice of Life.

Over all i like this book, how ever the author use the i'm to lase/forgot excuse in funny way a little to much to explain away mistakes or laziness in the book, it can be funny/ cute in small doses but not to the extend it's used here.

When it comes the where the book stopped it fells a bit random to me and a bit cliffy.


A bit of a Spoiler below!
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I feel like Fey could have been a bit more romantically competent then she was.
The thing where Fey thinks the Angle is an NPC felt dragged out, I wish their relationship would have developed more than it did in book 1.
Would also have loved for the author not to have censored the book, but that is how i like my books.

Exactly what I wanted

Having read the web-novel I knew what I could and should expect. A quirky, irreverent, warm and cheerful story. it is all that and more, with the performer giving it an extra boost of joy.
To those coming here fresh: Yes there is constant interjection, fourth wall breaking and other silliness. It's what made the novel great and it's what makes this audio-adventure great.

Great concept… annoying execution

I loved the way this particular story was framed. Interesting characters, world, and rl/gaming transition - more effective than I’ve come across in other litrpgs.
That said, the constant, irritating, whiny-voiced interjections about the laziness of the author etc. actually made me dislike the author. The “narrator’s” voice was squeaky and annoying and the repeated pointing out of plot holes and skipping over details did not, in any way, lend to or enhance the story. I had to grit my teeth to ignore these aspects because I actually really did enjoy the story itself.
I’m curious to see where things go next, but not if I have to hear more about details being skipped because of author laziness. Sheesh.