Raiya: Starter Zone

Archon's Chosen, Book 1

By: Russell Wilbinski

Narrated by: Michael David Axtell

Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Skree loved playing Massively Multiplayer online role-playing games. When he becomes the first player to reach level 100 in his favorite game, he is offered the chance to test a brand new game. Never one to read the fine print, he jumped at the chance to be the very first player to see the brand new game.

But some opportunities are just too good to be true.

Awaking to find himself trapped in a brand new world and struggling to survive, James must find a way to master the game and escape the world of Raiya. Angry wildlife, gargantuan monsters, and mysterious allies are not the only things he has to worry about. Will he have the backbone to do what is right and not what is easiest?

Will the carefree Skree find something worth fighting for? Something worth dying for?

©2018 Russell Wilbinski (P)2018 Podium Publishing

It was better than I expected

OK, there will be spoilers in this review.

So, our boy Skree (his name sounds like a squeaking bird) beats a forgettable game. Gets to the end and "does something out of the box" according to the prompts at least. I refuse to believe no one has tried sneaking past a monster. Anyway, Sharktooth, a god apperantly, is set free by him beating the game. Who put him there? How could he have been there for a 1000 years if it was somehow connected to a video game in the human world? Why does he want a human to 'Beta test' a new "game"? Why does he even have a "game" to test if he JUST got released from a 1000 year prison? I don't know, you won't know, but luckily it didn't really matter at all. It would have the same impact if the story started on the beach.

You'll save yourself a headache and skip the first 2-3 chapters. Believable motivations aside, or lack there of, once it actually dives into the world it does an OK job of keeping you interested. It goes from one encounter to another as the author trys to blow past normal human reactions and limitations. These are explained away by body altering Stat points, skill points that dump knowledge into his brain, and him being an unfulfilled desk drone with a miserable life.

Eventually they do address it a bit, and in a pretty good way, but I don't believe it's enough really. He kinda just breezes past killing sentient beings like he's a war vet or something. It makes no sence.

Now your probably wondering why I still gave this book 4 stars after all that ranting, well it's simple. This book was far more entertaining than it had any right to be. The jokes and references aren't ground breaking but the timing pacing, and emotional bits of this book were excellent. The voice actor did a wonderful job of bringing the characters to life, and carried solo scenes well. I expected this to be a generic litrpg, and I have listened to A LOT of litrpg, but it wasn't. The real drive of this story, what kept me listening wasn't the game mechanics(which are sub par at best), or the world building(we see 1/10 of and island, an underground Warren, a temple, and a boat. We also only hear about 2 places beyond the island), nor the whopping 4 different monsters we see(1 of which is a sentient race Skree interacts with, and another is a wolf that becomes a pet? Don't worry, it's so obvious it's going to happen its laughable). No, the real linch pin is the emotional connections the author seems to be able to will out of thin air. One after another I found myself liking character after character. The impact of the final few chapters hit me harder than I though it would, and that's saying something considering I've listens to over a 100 books with similar stories.

All and all, if your looking for an entertaining time killer, I'd give this book a chance.

Treasure Island fingers crossed

Good listen. been for a litrpg with Treasure Island themes. Hoping the next book continues this way.

Great book I loved the rpg elements

can't wait for the second book to come out . Definitely worth the credit any day or night

Not bad but nothing original

I enjoyed this story and will definitely keep up with the series, however it's very very similar to The Land chaos seed with less horribly cringy humor and no settlement building as of yet.

Picky About my LitRPG

I feel like I have to make a point of the fact that I don’t give unedited, poorly performed, superfluously bad-pornified (yes that is a word, damnit), GameLit audiobooks 5 star reviews. I, in fact, give them one star reviews but only because you can’t give an audiobook no stars.

All that is to say that giving this book 4 stars not only means that it is none of the things listed above but is actually fully worth your credits. My only complaint about this book was that the next installment hasn’t come out yet... shame on you Mr. Author-Man. Daddy needs more good LitRPG!

really not to bad

it wasn't what I was expecting but it was pretty dam good well worth lisening to I looking forward to the next one

Enjoyed it

I got to say after looking at some other reviews I had my doubts that I would like this story but I was pleasantly surprised. I think some reviewers really act like they are some professional reviewers trying to find fault with something while they are actually disproportionately criticizing the whole of the work. Try it and if it's not to your liking return it. Enough said.

Great book!

It definitely kept me interested the whole time. I'm looking forward to the next one coming out!

Wow this was really cool

I need to check out Kindle and see if book 2 is there. The warped to another world idea is still one that I love.

amazing

Great story and greatly done but the preformer definitely recommend for litRPG Fans filled with good content and the choices made by the character in game at times seems over the top but all in all it's a great start to a good series hopefully it keeps going.