Prologue to Adventure: A LitRPG Adventure

Mycology, Book 1

De: Sir Nil

Narrado por: Kevin Shen

An intelligent young man embarks on an epic journey through a virtual world in the first volume of this near-future fantasy/adventure series.

Declan has never cared much for VRMMO games. No matter how many times his best friend, Matt, has urged him to get into the latest craze and escape the monotony of their broken-down reality, he always finds something about the build or the engine that drives him crazy. But when an AI hacks into his Somatic Implant and invites him into a secret virtual world, he can’t resist the chance to explore.

The lush, post-apocalyptic landscape of Gaia is unlike any simulation Declan has ever encountered, and it’s only the gateway to the even grander and more realistic world known as Indiri. Soon, Declan and Matt are going on wild quests as their avatars—Dustin the Magic Myconid and Noam the Tiefling Bard—navigating a world of travelers and fighters to make their way to Indiri’s high-fantasy lands.

But Declan’s journey isn’t always smooth. And as he encounters digital gods, dangerous guilds, and powerful forces attempting to use him as a pawn, he must learn to forge his own path . . . or risk becoming an NPC in his own life.

Prologue to Adventure is an explosive start to an intricately plotted fantasy series filled with heart-pounding adventure and enchanting characters.

The first volume of the hit LitRPG fantasy series—with more than 400,000 views on Royal Road—now available on Audible and wherever ebooks are sold!

©2022 Sir Nil (P)2022 Podium Audio

kinda

I enjoyed it for most part, but shoots off to random stuff as filler way too much

A tangential story

The plot keeps getting stuck in strange tangents, too many named characters with small parts. Lots of nice ideas run through, but could be more cohesive.

I really wanted to like it

The story is a bit hard to follow. Shoots off in many directions with a ton of small characters that it’s easy to get lost.

A Mind-Bending LitRPG Adventure: Surprising Depth

It’s kind of funny—I came across this book while searching for educational material on mushrooms! I'm very familiar with the LitRPG genre, which to me is very similar to Sword Art Online or Ready Player One. So, I had a good sense of what to expect, but honestly, this book blew my expectations out of the water the deeper I got into it.

The story covered so many themes and concepts I never thought I’d encounter in fiction. Some examples that really caught me off guard were complex ideas like Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, quantum computing, and Sir Nil's fascinating vision of the future based on current scientific knowledge. If you’re unfamiliar with quantum computers, I highly recommend checking out a video by Michio Kaku—it’s mind-blowing! All that being said, the story itself was fantastic. The relationship between Matt and Deckard was stronger than I anticipated—they really felt like two peas in a pod.

My only criticism is that the story didn’t last forever! I also wonder how the book would’ve felt if Matt’s backstory had been revealed earlier on. It really took me by surprise when things got so dark—it was almost like one of my Warhammer 40k books, which I didn’t see coming.

Overall, this has become one of my favorite books. While I personally loved it, I can see how some of the concepts might be hard to follow for certain readers. Fortunately, I felt like I was the perfect audience for it, so I rarely had to look up any terms. Five stars all the way from me!

Do not read. This book was terrible.

The book starts bad, then it gets slightly better, and then it gets terrible. I couldn't even finish it. I stopped three hours from the end. I should have asked for a refund when 30 minutes into the book I was dreading listening to more. If your friend recommends this book to you then they are not your friend. If they convince you to buy it that makes them an enemy for life.

The story is overall pretty boring. There is some action, but a lot of it is so over-the-top impossible I couldn't believe that two teenagers were supposed to be the main characters. They are new players with, apparently, thousands of hours of experience. In the first chapter the main character says he doesn't really like MMOs. Then near where I stopped listening there is a description (in detail) of how he singlehandedly led a top tier raiding guild to beat a supposedly impossible boss/raid. The story took 10 minutes to tell and detailed all the bosses abilities and how others failed. However, that boss wasn't in this game. It wasn't at all relevant to the action. I didn't need to know any of that and I didn't CARE. To be fair though it's hard to care about the main plot as well. The actual storyline (ignoring the way it is written and the details) might have been good, however this author dropped the ball. The story fails to engage the listener for more than a few moments at a time and eventually even that stops.

The 'performance' is very monotone most of the time. When it's not the voices are jarring because they don't make sense given the circumstances. For instance, near the beginning of the book all of the characters have neutral accents and then suddenly a new character is introduce who has a stereotypical 1800s southern prospector accent. There was no reason for this within the story. It was just the choice the performer made. The performer actually does an okay job in a (very) few places, but overall I was bored.

In summery, just don't buy this book. You can do better.