Unbound

A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Arcana Unlocked, Book 1)

De: Gregory Blackburn

Narrado por: Christian J. Gilliland

Duración: 14 h y 50 m

Resumen del Editor

A game too good to be true. A golden opportunity. A nightmare he can’t escape.

If Arthur Mallory plays one more steaming pile of garbage disguised as a virtual role-playing game, he might hang up his gaming hat for good. When he discovers the new “deep dive” game Worlds Unbound, he decides it might be worth a try. If it sucks, he'll just return it the next day and cancel the financing.

The game is everything he could have wanted, even without elves or dwarves or character creation. The magic system has him hooked.

He’s willing to overlook the mangled sleep schedule and crippling nightmares if it means feeling that power running through his veins. But when an accident leaves his headset broken, he realizes he might be cut off from the magic - and the game - for good.

He’s not going to let that happen.

©2021 Gregory Blackburn (P)2021 Mountaindale Press

Heavy

The starter disk was kind of hard to carry on with but as you get into it the book's not to speed up it's hard and dark I didn't find nothing really funny but I think I'm gonna go to the next book to see how it turns out

It tries to hard to make "inside jokes"

the main character is juvenile and half of what he says has almost is almost never relevant. That being said I really enjoyed the plot otherwise

An intense journey, in life of pure nightmares

It takes a little while to get past the tutorial and heavy exposition, but this book, once it gets up to speed, is VERY dark, but funny book, something that I haven't seen since reading the Drizzt DND books. The aspects of horror combined with LitRPG make for an experience akin to somebody playing Silent Hill in your head, but it doesn't get too scary so much that I'm uncomfortable continuing.

The writer's style is unusually explicit -- as in detailed, not as in implicit content, which leads to a style that sounds like a good dungeon master, which makes me wonder if a lot of lit RPG authors got their start with tabletop games. Eventually the main character's companion feels like an extension of the interface, which makes for large sections of content feel paranoia and isolation.

Christian Gilliland was an excellent narrator, and the audio effects were interesting, but not overused.

Without spoiling it, but the relationship between the main character and his first love interest is intense and dark. I loved the expansive universe.

Awesome.

Great start to a series, I can’t wait to see how it developed, Gilliland did a great performance aswell.

Unraveling storyline

Frankly the book could have started in the video store or taxi. The whole interpersonal garbage during between the pc and npc companions is dumb and completely derivative to the story. It was like the author was trying to make a coming of age side storyline for an adult gamer. Icky(not sex or attraction in general just the MC), awkward and strange. Very serial killer incel in training kind of vibes.
The main character is incredibly unconvincing. He can research Chakras and random stuff but doesn't spend time to review his own skills, items, attributes, and menus.
The narrator mispronounced so many common words it makes my brain hurt as to how it was possible.

Slow start good finish

The book has won me over. There are several times in the beginning that are a little cringey, but once you get past them to the in depth story with several paths for plot it is absolutely worth the read.

Only things that got old were the constant reminders of being "near future" and "the past was the worst". Sprinkled throughout the story are constant references to the ancient technologies of today. It really feels like it is trying too hard or has too little faith in the reader to remember something as simple as "this is set 30-50 years from now".

Audible only, book cannot be bound

Interesting new release from a new author to MDP.

Favorite quote from the book:

"Ari get over here, I am about to do something stupid"

"I am going to destroy this ring so fast it will make Frodo's head spin"

There are a ton of cultural references that make this book fun to listen to. Very creative and fun to read.

Minimal profanity
No sexual content
No drugs or alcohol

Wow just wow!

This book knocks it out of the park, and leaves it open to a whole new world of possibilities! The magic system is really really good! Narration is done well and draws you in. Looking forward to the next book!

Did not finish

This book was bland. I found it difficult to get invested in the plight of the character. The responses to the character actions were inconsistent with making a good story. Summary: MC has plot armor and the book reads as though he is one of those terrible youtubers with a selfie stick carelessly managing daily activities by guessing which will result in more followers.

Fantastic Start to a New Series by a New Author

First let me say that this is a fantastic first book from a first-time author. The language and writing style are incredible. You can tell there is a bit of esoterism going on with the author. Let’s break down the book a bit since I know it is critical for good reviews for a first-time author beyond just the “5 stars”. I’ll go through the wins and growth points of the story, the author, and the reader.

Story Wins
The main character Korrash/Arthur is a fun character to read/listen. He reminds me of every tabletop game I have ever played where a min-max character wants to do something absurd and then either fails or succeeds spectacularly. The interaction between Arthur and a few specific characters is fun and engaging but it is clear that this character is largely antisocial and that certainly comes through in his interactions. The undercurrent of the story is where the real intrigue is though. There is clearly something else afoot. Finally, the ‘darker’ parts of the story is where this book really shines, the “nightmare” was just awesome.

Story Growth Points
It was slower than it should have been in parts and took some turns that were a little clunky. Also, in the beginning the combat was a bit hard to follow which happens with ever new author ever. Finally, the system stuff was a little heavy for a listener. I am a guy who likes some stat dumps so it never really bothered me but I can see some redundancies. For example, when someone trips over a rug we can just go ahead and assume that they failed a roll, telling us that doesn’t help us progress the story. All that being said, it never once took away from my experience at all.

Author Wins
This author clearly loves the written word. Some of the best writing in the book is when he waxes a bit poetic (Interludes). Also as mentioned above the nightmare and dark fantasy aspects were fantastic. The magic system is a bit esoteric and as a long time gamer made me think about things along the way. I also loved the technical writing as much of it made actual sense and wasn’t ‘just’ a bunch of technojargon put on the page. Finally, I really liked the fun easter eggs that were speckled throughout the book.

Author Growth Points
Did I mention Esoteric? I mean that the system in question is crazy abstract. I saw one person say it was like Big Bang theory describing quantum physics without anyone there to reign it in. While this is very likely good for those of us who like that kind of thing, I also saw that there was a person who couldn’t even finish the book because she wasn’t smart enough to figure it out. This can be a good or bad thing and as a first-timer the author should consider these types of readers.

Reader Wins
Okay so Christian is a fantastic and engaging reader. His characterization is phenomenal and I really enjoyed the vocal changes for the computer.

Reader Growth Points
Some of the words the reader use put the emphasis on the wrong syllables. It just breaks me out of the story every time. Also Rapier…