Mistrunner 2: A Cyberpunk LitRPG

Mistrunner, Book 2

By: Nicholas Searcy

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani

Length: 26 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

A young-woman-turned-living-weapon is consumed by revenge, unleashing her fury on an unjust society, as this action-packed sci-fi adventure continues.

Nearly a century ago, the people of Earth surrendered their freedom to the aliens responsible for the cloud of nanites, known as the Mist, that transformed the planet's ecosystem: Landscapes became toxic. Animals morphed into monsters. Humans found themselves imbued with supernatural abilities and wielding technological wonders that changed the world's balance of power. Now, while ruthless entrepreneurs take advantage of their fellow man in order to accrue incalculable amounts of wealth, the aliens prepare to descend like a plague and drain Earth of its natural resources once and for all.

Mira Braddock's uncle was once the most powerful man in Nova City, and before his death, he empowered his niece with a Tier 7 Nexus Implant. Cybernetically enhanced and trained as a warrior, Mira is not only peerless on the battlefield but also possesses the ability to control the Mist that's pervaded every machine—and person—she encounters. Setting her vengeful sights on Nora Lancaster, the woman who betrayed her uncle and took over his empire, Mira wages a war against the city's competing overlords, tearing apart their fragile alliances and turning them against one another.

But with every victory Mira claims, innocents get caught in the crossfire. Struggling to regain her sense of compassion and empathy for others, Mira won't find peace until she's fulfilled her rage-fueled quest against Nora, an enemy whose endgame promises mass destruction on an unimaginable scale . . .

The second volume of the hit sci-fi LitRPG series—with more than 500,000 views on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

©2024 Nicholas Searcy (P)2024 Podium Audio

Very good read.

It was a very good book, good pacing. Good personal realizations for the main character and sub characters.

Thrilling.

Ok so this one took me a while to complete b/c although Mira is an amazingly fun and entertaining bad-ass she is also very emotional and somewhat of a sociopath so I needed processing time. Overall, the story was well thought out and very well written. The narration as always was superb. I can’t wait to find out what happens next. Bring on book three, I am ready!

I...think.... that i might hate it?

Alright fair warning if you read this review there will be spoilers, my feelings are just too complicated for me not to give examples for the reasons why i feel the way i do so.... SPOILER WARNING

Things i Liked.
The writing is quite good, focused and comprehensive. Which admittedly should be a given, but thanks to auto publishing has become something of a nice bonus to books rather than the expected standard. the action is well choregraphed and easy to follow while still being gritty and brutal. The world building is absolutely fascinating and leaves you wanting to know more and more. The system is great and always has you excited to see what is coming next. Finally i like that the "villains" of the story are as much real people as anyone else in the book.
Things i really didn't like.
There are really only two things that i found i hated about the book. 1. I hate the relationship between Mira and patric. At best it is a relationship of severe co dependency . Both using the other for their own emotional needs with no real care for the other outside of that. Or at worst and frankly the one that seems most likely Patric is little more than Mira's emotional support pet, a pet mind you that she is very neglective of until she needs reassurance that she is not the bad guy. A job that patric performs with all the simple minded sincerity his little dumb puppy heart can muster. There is very little actual chemistry between the two of them and a lot of Twilight level angst going on. Patric being Belle in this scenario and Mira being an even bigger emo evil bloodthirsty monster than Edward could ever manage, also if Twilight was stuck in middle school. seriously the difference between who Mira is when not around patric is super jarring. One minute she is sleeping with a guy to sabotage his career the next she is blushing like a sheltered school girl over holding patrics hand. Yes the author tries to explain the disconnect away, but it is just to big a leap. it feels like she is fostering a relationship with a literal child and it is pretty gross at times.
2. I. HATE. Loathe. Despise. Mira. She is the worst kind of evil, self righteous, self entitled, self centered, a bigot incapable of even the slightest bit of empathy for anyone other than herself. Yes she spends a lot of time agonizing over her actions with endless introspection, however actions speak louder than words, and her actions renders all her words insincere and false. She is a plague of death that cares not at all for those she destroys in her path. Hell being outside her path isn't exactly safe sense she often goes out of her way to render everyone's life worse. One could make the argument that she is a brainwashed child soldier, but her introspections make it very clear that she is fully aware of what her actions are. Yet when put to the test she will choose the worst possible outcome that hurts the greatest amount of people, because in the end she has zero empathy for those that are unfortunate enough to find themselves stuck living on HER world. She is a sociopath who can mimic humanity for fleeting moments, but ultimately fails the final test every time.

Overall? I have no idea, i honestly wanted to return this book and the first one as soon as i finished it, but so far I haven't pulled that trigger, even though i cannot see anyway in which Mira could possibly redeem herself after what she does in this book, i still want to.... hate read the next one. I ' am really glad it doesn't come out til August, i need time to recover after what this book did to me.

inner monologue

I really loved the story, the world, and the system. But the writing, the constant inner monologue, rehashing of the same thoughts about regret and determination and stubbornness and being a monster and everything else, made the book very tedious to get through. Especially for the audiobook. At least on the written side, it was easy to skim and Skip past the constant reflection and repetition of the skills that allowed her to survive whatever situation was happening. _PSI_

not to my taste

I got through book 1 and was excited for book 2, but I just can't stand the MC. Rich girl in a cyberpunk world who ran away from home (but not to hard). gets gifted Uber powerful relic and cybernetics and training to prepare against the incoming alien invasion. *spoiler from book one* uncle/crimelord/badass gets betrayed and killed along with a whole town. character immediately swears blood, death and vengeance. all well and good, but she just just keeps HARPING on it over and over and over. while fix review later, MCs lack of empathy and general give a fuck for collateral damage turned me off.

voice acting is excellent.