Dragon Seed

Archemi Online, Volume 1

By: James Osiris Baldwin

Narrated by: Justin Thomas James, Jeff Hays, Laurie Catherine Winkel

Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

What would you give to be a dragon rider?

Before being conscripted to fight in the Total War, Private Hector Park had a shattered family, a collection of old video games, and a promising career as a motorcycle stuntman. Now, he is dying from a virus threatening humankind with extinction. He has three days to live.

When Hector’s brother contacts him after years of hostile silence, Hector goes to try and make peace. But his brother has an offer even more unbelievable than reconciliation: the chance to cheat death by joining him in Archemi, a full-immersion fantasy VR-RPG video game. 

Determined to forge a life worth living, Hector undergoes the experimental upload process and chooses the difficult path of the Dragon Knight. To achieve his dream, he must prove himself worthy of imprinting a dragon, a being with whom he will share a telepathic bond more intimate than any human relationship.

But at what cost?

Join Hector on his first steps toward mastering the skies in Dragon Seed, the first audiobook in the Archemi Online LitRPG series!  

The Soundbooth Theater team for this production:  

• Justin Thomas James - narration, music, sound design 
• Jeff Hays - Steve, Skyr Arnaud, and other supporting characters 
• Laurie Cateherine Winkel - Rutha, Sergeant Blackman, and all other female characters 
• Griffin Malnar - proofing, editing, and mastering

©2018 James Baldwin (P)2018 James Baldwin

good story, well told

This story is exactly what it says it is. Dragons, knights, game mechanics, a hard magic system, what is not to love. The readers bring out the different characters with a really good, but not overdone, mixed media performance. By mixed media I mean some music or background sound effects at specific moments in the story (e.g. rain sounds during a flash back).

More than most litrpg I've read this book establishes the different characters' backgrounds and world without lengthy boring expose. It is a hard balance to strike but this story establishes background through dialogue and that works really well for it.

Overall I liked it and am looking forward to reading the next in the series.

heading required.

adding music and stuff is fine... but it should be limited on how loud it gets... muffled voices... I shouldn't actually struggle to hear what's being said.

overall I was pleased throughout.

The Gold Standard for LitRPG

This book.. No this production is probably the best if not close to the best experience I have had in the LitRPG genre. From the voice acting to the added effects and music everything is on point. I enjoyed myself thoroughly and am eagerly waiting for more. wondefully done.

Do yourself a favor and GET IT!

I'll be honest. When I was reading the summary of the book, I was not expecting much out of it. I figured it would be just another LITRPG where some guy gets stuck in a game. I guess the dragon riding thing hasn't been done yet, so why not?

Well, I can definitely say this book is AMAZING! There's so many references to games and little jokes I can relate to. It really let me know the author is a gamer like myself. But more than that, the story is superbly written and demands you come back for more. The protagonist is likable and one can easily relate to his circumstances and understand his actions. As a matter of fact, all the characters were superbly done. Big round of applause for the author.

It definitely doesn't hurt that this book was brought to life by the cast of Soundbooth Theater. Sound effects. Multiple cast members providing their amazing skills. Music. It is ALL there. It was a treat to listen to.

The only downside to this book is I wish there was more, but I mean that's how it always is when you have a good book in your hand right? Do yourself a favor and GET. THIS. BOOK!

just wonderful

I normally don't give reviews, but I figured that this would be a good time to actually give one. this was by far one of the best litrpg books that I've read in a while. I definitely give this a 10 out of 10, I just kind of wish that Jeff Hayes narrated the entire male cast, instead of just some of them. I definitely look forward to reading the next one, and any other books from this author

Story was okay, I kinda wished for no theme music

Decent story to get through the day, but the theme music and sfx is really cringe for me. I understand that the high quality narration game is going up but please leave it out as it throws me out of my own theater of mind.

Some good ideas, but really creepy "Incel" MC.

I'll keep this short. I liked the gameworld, having it as a "Alpha" made it interesting, with unexpected glitches etc. Overall, its a pretty dark theme, with some interesting characters. However......................

Mild Spoilers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


................the MC is completely unbelievable, Irl he is a "Stunt rider, soldier, walk into any bar and I know I am the most bad ass, blah blah" And that he is a virgin!!!! WTH? Then he loses his virginity in game and some of his inner thoughts around women are just sad and creepy.

I wont be getting book 2 (he would probably do something inappropriate with his dragon).

too much unecessary language

The story would be a great story if the author could avoid using the F word so frequently. the storyline itself was very engaging minus the language it would be an awesome story.

Ehh

An okay story...but there is way too much cursing. I did like the narrators, but the dragon part of the story didn't really start until the very end.

New Dispair

Short of the long: I was loving it until the plot and any attempt at immersion sort of disintegrated.

Long of the short:
Great narration, interesting world. But, my issue is with the author's goal, namely to continually pitch the reader into despair. Such a theme is sort of expected at the start of this sort of book, and at first the attempts at despair seemed natural. However, somewhere near the end of the book, in what felt like an attempt to compound despair upon despair, a whole truck load of coincidences start to pile up. In fact there are so many coincidences that the author has to bend and twist the situations so that things can progress. I had to just stop somewhere around CH40 because of a complete loss of cohesion.

How does the story end? Who knows? I do not.

Wow... Just wow; and not in a good way.

Other than the performance, this book is just really bad. In light of that, I'll just list of what I didn't like about the book, in no particular order.

1) The characters have no real characterization, the motives are convoluted, and the plot keeps changing. At the end of this book, I was more disappointed than anything else.

2) The author was trying too hard to be "cool". Like that one uncle that you have to invite for your family dinner, who is always talking about how he still gets around.

3) The main character might as well have a warning over head, stating that anyone with female genitalia, should be warned that he is around, as, females being females, will instantly fall in love with him. This wouldn't be bad, but the writing is so poor that I found it cringe worthy. (I actually did cringe a few times)

4) This maybe revealed in the later series, but the main bad guy was your typical jerk level villain. The way that he was written made me believe that he should be a side villain. His motives are unexplained (apart from him being a racist - but I want a little more depth than - he's racist ergo he's the bad guy. I'm sure there are more racist's in this world, that are of higher station, so why aren't they the main bad guy?)

5) SPOILERS - why did the betrayal happen? The book gives no real indication as to why this happens, but I am forced to believe it happens for some reason. Why? I have no idea.

6) Sometimes the internal monologue sounded really corny. Maybe that was what the author wanted, but as stated, it just came off as cringe worthy.

If you are into LitRPG novels, then maybe you will enjoy this, but not me.

Really, really good

This is probably the best audio book I have listened to in terms of the narration. I can’t describe how superb it was - granted that I enjoyed it more at 0.75x normal speed, but I have started doing that with most audio books now (I read somewhere that the human brain processes words more easily when they are spoken at around 130 words per minute, and most modern speakers and readers clock in at around 180).
It isn’t that this narration is particularly fast, and most wouldn’t even notice, so don’t be put off - I have just started slowing everything down, especially if I am listening before I go to sleep.

In short, the narration was excellent, the story was engrossing and I really liked the main character. I’m new to the
Litrpg genre, and was worried that I wouldn’t be gripped by it, but this book has a lot of depth and realism and I was surprised to be drawn so thoroughly in the world that by the end I really cared about what was happening.

I am really hoping that the second in the series will be available soon, and read by the same narrators.

I want more!!!!!!!!

I want more. What a great book / production. I can't wait for the next book / Audio book to come out, please hurry.

Exactly what you want

This was great. Hinestly, I thought it would be good but it was better. The story has all of the LitRPG fantasy that you'd want but with depth and twists that keep it addictive.

The performances are excellent, they are of the quality in which you don't really appreciate how good they are because you're absorbed - but that's exactly the point. Clear, varied and believable.

Right, onto book two!

Nothing good comes easy.

The title for this review is an apt synopsis of what Hector has to learn throughout this book. I am now and always have been an absolute sucker for anything dragon and I have no regrets listening to this book.

This book is a set up. It comes across like a prequel, The story showing how Hector came to be but also setting up perfectly to make us want to see more.
The story is a build up, driving us on with the promise of dragons while adding more mystery and plot threads that will no doubt lead to some future arcs.
Also one of the first real world references was a Blackadder reference... I was sold at that.

SBT and Justin have done an amazing job, the voice acting is on point and the sound events kick in to give an atmophere of playing a fantasy game or watching a film. Some parts giving me a nostalgic feel of Old School Runescape. The Final minutes of this book, while I wont spoil here shows just how good Justin is at injecting emotion into the truly meaningful scenes of his work.

Fantastic

If you like litrpg/gamelit and if you like dragons this is 100% the book for you.

The narration and sound production was fantastic as always by SBT

Excellent and innovative

Clever story premise beautifully narrated. The RPG elements enhance the story. I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes in the next book

Better than expected

Its not the best story I've listened so far, but the voice acting and sound effects makes is unique. I've never listened an audio book with sound effects 🤯

I hardly find something to like, but this audio book worth all money. I felt reluctant to start a new story after the amazing experience I've got from the ''He who fights with monsters" book, but I can assure you that you won't regret if you are in this kind of genre.

GREAT START TO WHAT HOPE'S TOBE ONE GREAT QUEST

I HOPE THAT THIS IS CONTINUES TO BE ONE IN A LIFETIME QUESTall AROUND HEROES AND DOOMED EVIL

An Enjoyable start

This has Dragons so thats 1 star straight away , however the problem with having Dragons is people expect amazing bonds.
I think this ends at the wrong bit as we don't get enough time with the experience ,but the premise is there.
So due to this and the SBT narration skills im giving this a bit extra due to what I forsee and there is 3 audios done with a fourth on the way. I expect this to improve as the main characters are good and i like how they have portrayed Hector as a good guy with Dyslexia and he has something to prove.