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Chronicle, Book 1

By: Kevin Murphy

Narrated by: Nick Podehl

Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Corbin is an adventurer; he just hasn’t realized it. He was born in the wrong age - an era where the world has already grown tame.

With the advent of fully immersive virtual reality, however, that’s all going to change.

A revolutionary new game - Chronicle - makes much bolder claims than the competition. It offers a perfect simulation in a new world with quests, magic, monsters, and gods - but Chronicle’s biggest draw is something irresistible: While players are logged in, they have extra time to live.

In Corbin’s world, he may be average; he may work hard for no recognition; he may never catch a break and he may seem trapped - but a new world brings new opportunities, and extra time presents an extra chance. Perhaps he’ll find that he’s not so average after all.

©2017, 2018 Kevin Murphy (P)2018 Kevin Murphy

Good listen

This is far better than most LitRPG books. Well written! Interesting story line. And, Nicely narrated.

Good LitRPG without harem elements

As someone already a LitRPG fan, I found this book very enjoyable. Our main character is very flushed out. Sure he can seem a bit clueless for an experienced gamer at times, but that is kept fairly minimal. I like how we get to know his personality through hearing his thought processes/decision making. We start learning about the game world with him and get bits of lore thrown in. The adventure expectedly starts small here, but we get some huge that there's much more to come in the series. This also focuses on the game world, character development, and adventure, rather than any harem elements. Recommended for any who like the genre.

Narration is excellent. N.P. is one of the best. There's also some Soundbooth Theater style sound effects, which were well done.

Intelligent and enjoyable

There really isn’t anything bad to say about this book. Overall it is a great performance all around.

There isn’t much of an IRL story but that’s ok. The game mechanics are fairly typical, except for some highly unusual classes. The MC is likable and smart and leads one to believe the author is a good gamer. He’s not perfect though and is not over powered. A good balance. The book is very well written and thought out. Nick Podehl is at the top of his game.

There aren’t any plot holes in this one like so many LitRPG, and story flows well and steady. It is one that can probably be enjoyed when reading a second time. It’s not “overdone”, like most. You could say simple about some aspects, but that wouldn’t be justified in the big picture. It is an easy listen.

The book ends at a logical stopping point, leaving listener anticipating what will happen next, as a new threat is revealed, but it’s not a frustrating cliffhanger. With the special classes, divinities, and a late appearing antagonist, this series has lots of potential

A must listen for every LitRPG fan.

This One Hit All My Buttons!

Corbin is scraping by in real life, keeping his head down at work and earning just enough to pay for his basic needs. He's finally saved up enough to buy a ChronPod that allows him to play the massively popular virtual reality game Chronicle. He's a half year behind everyone else, or four years behind if you count the time compression in the game, and he has a lot to do to catch up.

I've read enough LitRPG to know exactly what I like, and this one hit all those buttons. This is an adventure style LitRPG with no harem or romance, no overpowered main character, and a game I'd love to play myself. I prefer stories that have the main character going back and forth from the game to real life, versus stuck in a game. Those glimpses of Corbin's real life allowed for more character development and showed just how Chronicle changed him.

I enjoyed the writing, it's vibrant and the gameplay is detailed as if I were watching it. The stats weren't repeated often enough to be intrusive and there were no massive info dumps, it had the perfect amount of description. Corbin was likable, if a little slow at times (why didn't he spend his six months reading up about Chronicle before jumping in?) All in all, a really good book and I'll definitely be adding this to my re-read pile.

If you've read a lot of LitRPG you've run into Nick Podehl before, he's really making a name for himself with this genre. He performs in a dramatic way with character voices and sound effects thrown in. I've always loved his range of character voices and his performance was excellent. I requested a copy of the audiobook, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Stand Out Among it’s Genre!

This book avoids so many mistakes that other LitRPG books fall into!

So many LitRPG books get caught up in their character endless stat sheets and items, the way they all work together, and as a result the book drags and drags after the first half is read.

So many books of this drama have their characters getting caught up in city building! They forsake the adventure and ACTUAL reason that people play games! To have fun and experience something outside of reality.

The main character inevitably gets tied down by “responsibilities” and the “weight of leadership” or the book turns into some kind of life-or-death struggle.

Because of these pitfalls many series lose sight of the creativity, novelty, and plain fun they can build into their game world.

As a well read fan of this genre I can tell you, prospective listener, that this book is an excellent listen and almost a must-read.

Here Kevin Murphy has written a book based on adventure, simple stat explanations that don’t drag on, and a vibrant thought-out world that keeps you interested and on edge to see what is around the next corner.

If your a gamer Drakkon’s friends and fellow players he meets in game feel realistic and will inevitably remind you of good old days in WoW or Runescape

This book is a great read and very well narrated by Nick. Excellent job guys.

Good story but long overly detailed stat sheets.

Other than the stat sheet of the main character literally taking more than 60secs to read off, because they get in to way to much deal. I’m mean if you like that kind of thing you will love those parts. However for me that is the least interesting part of most LitRPG books.

It’s a good story. With a few interesting twists to make it a little more interesting, and different than others LitRPG books, and a slightly different take on some of the characters and classes. I also like the story takes place in both the real world, and the game. Personally I look for books like that, because upload the mind kill the body, or the alien plot lines. Make them to much like other genres of books. The whole duel reality thing is what got me started on LitRPG books since I never really got into online gaming. However if we ever get full Immersion immersion virtual-reality like in the books. It would definitely give it a try.

What a great book can't wait for book two!

loved the book, it's not all laughs and everything working out, however it a great read and leaves you wondering what's next. there is also a new twist that I haven't seen before in an LITRPG, Love it!

Legit Awesome

Gobbled this book up as fast as I could and was bummed it was over. The story has a good pace, the characters are super, and the Narrator is the best in business. I know book two is out on paper but I want the audible version in my ears ASAP.

Amazing story and preformance!

Nick once again does a fantastic job with his preformance and bringing the story to life. taking it one step forward and adding sound effects to help paint a more vivid picture of the story and to show when time has passed in the story. The time has passed noise caught me off guard at first but i began to appreciate it the longer i listened!

The story itself is a very strong start to a future Giant in the LITRPG genre. The characters and quests are all fun and well developed, and it has the makings of a promising loot system in future installments. The MC is a bit powerful, but i believe that (without spoilers) that edge(lol) he seems to have at his current lower level in some of his confrontations will be severely lessened in the future installments. This book as almost every element of a good litrpg world and is well worth the buy and read. I am excited and waiting for book 2 on audible already!

not tooo bad

slow book but very well written and is as good as the lands...……….love the book and Nick Podehl did great job