The Guardian of the Dead

An NPC’s Path, Book 4

De: Pavel Kornev, Irene Woodhead - translator

Narrado por: Shawn Compton

Dying in virtual reality isn't fun, but facing bullets from real-world criminal overlords is really the pits. In such a desperate scenario, their demand to render them a service in VR doesn't sound like such a bad alternative. The problem is, the games played by spook agencies follow much harsher rules. For them, the absence of choice doesn't sound like a good excuse - not if you end up in the grindstones of their undercover schemes.

Still, it's not as if I ever had a choice. That's why the price tag for my freedom didn't sound too excessive. All I had to do was log in, become a necromancer, shake the malefic hunters off my tail, pass the elimination test, and locate one particular person. Which one? Why? And how was I supposed to do it?

Wrong questions. Instead, I had only to ask one: Why me? Why John Doe?

©2021 Pavel Kornev; English translation copyright 2021 by Irene and Neil P. Woodhead (P)2021 Tantor

Different but genuinely liked the slow pace

Unlike the previous three books, this picks up long after book 3 is over and we see our protagonist enter a new game and start a character from scratch. Honestly, I really liked the slow paced buildup of his necromancer character. Unlike other books where characters play necromancers, in this one we really get to see the nitty gritty of leveling up doing actual necromancer stuff like dissecting bodies, going through their organs, dealing with getting dead bodies to practice on, etc, along with the pitfalls of having to hide that aspect of a character from the rest of the players, since necromancers are considered evil characters that can be killed on site. All in all, I really enjoyed this book and I'm very much so looking forward to the next one. Plus we get to see some old lovable faces from the previous books!

Rating dropped from last books

Let’s start character creation all over again…..what’s this the second time? The third I really don’t remember. The great writing has me hooked but by this point I’ve learned not invest myself in the world the Mc really doesn’t so why should we readers. Still a good story and if it was listed as a separate series then the first two books I’d have a lot less disappointment.

Stupid

Stupid woke crap garbage. I mentioned before, and will again, the last book should have been the end of the series.