Desire: A LitRPG Adventure (Volume 1)

By: Cameron Milan

Narrated by: John Downey

Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

An all powerful entity bestows individuals with a powerful brand in the form of a tattoo. Using the system that is controlled by the tattoo, you can learn supernatural abilities, acquire knowledge unknown to man, and acquire objects that would only be found in fiction. The world is changing... and it has yet to be determined if it is for better or worse. 

Two friends who grew up together, Ace and Vincent, have been chosen. Ace lives for physical improvement. He loves the feeling of breaking his records and growing stronger. Unfortunately, he has plateaued in recent months, discouraging him greatly. 

Vincent is plagued by little to no desire in anything he does. Good grades? Successful life? He feels nothing. Except, perhaps, the feeling of pain and fear. Sadly for him, modern day society is a peaceful one. 

The arrival of the tattoo flipped their lives upside down. It granted them the ability to fulfill their desires. However... they weren't the only ones who were given the tattoo. 

©2018-2018 Cameron Milan (P)2018 Cameron Milan

I like your Tattoo, you should do a sleeve!

Ok, couple of things to go with here. First off, the cover looks awesome, but really has nothing to do with the story. This is clearly the effort of a new author, and so I've cut some slack, but I am going to be honest here and say that you can tell this is a newbie effort. It still has that new book smell. There are some errors in dialogue that you can't miss and some characters are little more than two dimensional constructs. If I had to guess, I would say that the book feels rushed. Again, the cover makes you think this is going to be a LITRPG dealing with Survival Horror. It is not. It takes place in an entirely different direction. What the book is actually about in terms of plot and story isn't bad, but if you are going to judge by the cover, then you will regret it.

As for the good, well as far as game system and world uniqueness Desire does a rather stunning job. I really liked the game mechanics, the aspects of leveling and the intriguing power sets really catch your attention and pull you into the book. Even if the characters are a little shallow of depth and the dialogue may be somewhat stilted the story carries it through.

John Downey is where the book falls flat. A great narrator can elevate a decent story into an amazing one, but he reads this with a minimum of enthusiasm. Kind of how you might read a newspaper outloud to someone else. Sometimes I wonder if his characterizations don't make the characters seem flat. At no point did he WOW me. He does an adequate job, but I was not blown away by his work.

As things go I think this is a great first effort, and with some time, and elbow grease, this series will turn into something grand. I have high hopes as the story does keep your attention, and you will want more from this world. Milan just needs to take a little more time to flesh things out a bit and he would have a powerful series on his hands.

Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. In fact, getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.

If this review helped, please press the YES below. Thank you immensely!!!

12 of 13 people found this review helpful

Finally! A LitRPG without the "Waxing poetic"

I'm a fan of LitRPG. I've gamed most of my life, so naturally, I'm rather partial to the genre. But, a lot of them, and I mean a lot, wax poetic on the great feelings and fear as if each extra elaborate word will force the emotion they want onto the reader. I mean, we are imaging the situation, the emotion is already there. As well as over-eager writers with comedic aspirations who drop a line after tiring line to bring humor to their tale... without much success. This all leaves a bare-bones story that should have been wrapped up stretching over 2 to 3 books when only 1 was needed... if that.

This book has none of that. It introduces a new gaming system, a host of characters and shows progress. Real progress... with action and a clear path that a real gamer can appreciate. True grinding... the veritable backbone of gaming, grinding is actually utilized! I was so happy I used a credit on this book. I'm just sad this is the only work so far by this writer.

If I had a grip, it would be that the performer is not great, but good. I wasn't hating every minute, I actually enjoyed my self. But, from listening to so many other great performers, the level between this performer and the greats is noticeable. If I have to vocalize the issue... it's in the subtleties. It sounded less conversational and a bit like someone reading a book report, if that makes sense. But, I have high hopes that he will develop even more if this series goes on.

12 of 13 people found this review helpful

Awesome!!!

Great story. I was immediately engaged right from the start. Made me stop and think about what I would do and the consequences of those decisions. Narration was perfect, easy to listen to. Looking closely at other people's tattoos now!

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Neat premise, but lacking in execution.

The narrator did his best, but comes off as a bit monotone for the majority.

The story's premise is neat, but the pacing is about ten times faster than what you'd expect. "weeks passed", "months passed" and "two years passed" were frighteningly frequent, leading to nearly zero character development at all.

Also, the writer frequently just tells you how to feel, instead of building a scene to actually make you feel anything other than jet-lag.

Sad to see such poor execution for a good premise.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

good listen

it was an enjoyable book. the narrator not the greatest . the voices were almost the same but different timming so you could tell them apart. It had the fill of a older brother or father telling a story just a avenge story teller. once you got used to the voice it was a ez listening experience. looking looking forward to the next book.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great story but with bad narrator

I loved the story, I really hit home but the narrator is really bad.
actually so bad I almost stopped listening multiple times. but if you manage to get passed this fact then you have a great story on your hands.

this book is one of the few books I've heard that is litrpg and does not have a lot of flowery language that is not necessary. the book lets you use much off your own fantasy to build the world they are in.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Lackluster Performance

The performance was bland and monotone. There was no variation between characters and emotionless. The story was average.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Painful

Story was ok. The fake laughter became steadily more grating as the story progressed. I'll get the sequel but probably use text to speech instead of the audible version.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Awesome concept, horrible narration!

The story is very creative with such a cool concept. The narrator however is one of the worst I’ve heard. He rarely would change his voice for different characters or emotions. The worst was his pronunciation, he would pronounce Chi as “key”. It wouldn’t be so bad except that word constantly comes up in the book. I sure hope they get a different narrator!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Narrator from hell

This is easily the worst narrator I have ever heard and I have been listening to audiobooks for many years. The tone of the guys voice and the monotonous way that he speaks is incredibly irritating and don’t even get me started on him trying to create voices. The story is actually fairly unique and enjoyable but the way the narrator read it basically kills the whole story. I would pass this up as an audiobook but pick it up as a normal book

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

One of the better ones.

It's one of the better novels for the novel franchise that is growing somewhat. I wouldn't say it would compare to a very "Well Written" book like Shakespeare and similar titles, so people looking for a grammatical, in-depth heaven probably won't find it here. But for the most part, it's relatively well done. The narrator though stale at times does do the job well, and I've heard worse than John Downey.

I think if you're not that familiar with similar titles you may struggle to connect very well with this book and I'd say save it for after you get a little more used to the genre so you can enjoy it more.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful