Aether Knight

A LitRPG Light Novel

De: Tracy Gregory

Narrado por: Matt Jenkins

Aether Online sounded like Alex's dream. Now, it's his nightmare.

Cheating his way to the head of the line, Alex is one of the first to play Aether Online, the world’s first full-immersion VRMMO. Alex quickly learns that once you're in, you can't get out.

Trapped in the Aether Lands, Alex must become an Aether Knight to survive. Struggling in a world under siege, Alex must learn to fulfil his new role, hunting the deadly machine beasts known as Machina for parts. Every kill brings him new materials, new equipment to forge, each beast slain making Alex more powerful.

Hunting monsters is only the first step. Alex must gather allies and master the mysterious powers of the Aether if he ever hopes of getting home.

©2020 Tracy Gregory (P)2020 Tracy Gregory

Deca-Dence meets Monster Hunter

I enjoyed this one. The setting is like Deca-Dence and the game mechanics are like Monster Hunter. The writing is solid, descriptive, and engaging. The characters are rather undeveloped, being cardboard cutouts of "gamer" and "casual", but this didn't really bother me during the read. At only 5 hours, the strength of this book lies in its setting: a VRMMO set in a unique clockpunkish world where humanity takes shelter in a single bastion against the dangers of the encroaching wilds.

Different take on LitRPGs

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to the next book. The premise is interesting, as is the "leveling" system. I only docked it one star due to its length (an 8 hour minimum is my typical cutoff for a book).

A solid intro to a new Litrpg

~Disclaimer: I received a free audiobook copy of this book. ~

The narrator does a decent job and I didn’t hate any of the voices he used (although some of the female voices were a bit annoying).

One of the reasons I requested an audiobook of this book was litrpg with a male protagonist and no harems. I get tired of that particular wish fulfillment in litrpgs. Alex and Casey aren’t super fleshed out in this book, but because it is short and it has a lot of world-building I think that is to be expected. I did like both Alex and Casey and the other characters seem like they have potential.

I think this is a solid introduction to the world of Aether. I wish it wasn’t so short, but I suppose this way we can expect to get more releases quicker than if the author aimed for 300 pages per book. I did end up following the author's page on Amazon because I am intrigued enough to keep following along (plus I pay for kindle unlimited and I might as well find more authors who use it).

A decent take on LitRPG

Amost more of an Isekai but the items have stats and there's a sort of leveling up system within the guild. Good for people familiar with the subgenre but don't want to get bogged down in stat lists, or for people new to LitRPG looking to dip their toes.

The narrator was fine, but I found it a little difficult to distinguish between the two main characters sometimes. Since he was doing some different voices for minor characters it would have been nice if the two mains were a little more distinct.

Overall it wasn't amazing but I'll give book 2 a chance when it arrives.

I received this book for free.

Waiting for the next one

Loved it, reminded me of a Monster Hunter/Horizon Zero Dawn. I was sad by how short it was but can't wait to see whats next!