Endless Online: Oblivion's Blade

By: M. H. Johnson

Narrated by: Wayne Mitchell, Lisa Aust

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

Val had returned from his latest tour of duty scarred in body and soul. Barely able to walk and drugged to the gills for pain, he thought his killing days were finally behind him. He couldn't have been more wrong. 

Endless Online, a hyper futuristic game where players could truly live another life...

Val loved the idea of starting over in virtual reality. But when someone he cares about turns up missing after chasing that same dream, Val quickly learns that Endless is no simple game. 

And if Val can't figure out the dark secrets behind this realm of wizards, warriors, and intergalactic conquest, then it's game over. For everyone...

©2018 M.H. Johnson (P)2019 M.H. Johnson

Insert 16 Adjectives Here!

If you like knowing that the glass of water was cool, wet, refreshing, shimmering, quivering from the vibrations of holding it, in the hands of a potential individual prepared and ready to quench their unquenchable and ridiculous thirst... this book is for you.

If you like stories to tell themselves, with a narrator actually working their magic to do so, find another book.

The author clearly wanted to describe everything in such detail, the narrator was left with no choice but to read the book that feels like an assignment in middle school - where the word count had to be higher, and the only way was to simply add on more adjectives.

Ugh. I tried so hard, almost finished the book. I got infuriated after more than 8 hours in, and simply gave up.

Free form rpg

I like the book. It felt a bit wordy a points, too much description on what I felt were minor details that could have been lightly touched on instead of such intricate detail. But since this is the first book in the series, I thought the author was just trying to build up the foundation. The MC is very introspective insussing out past times in his life and feelings about himself vs. this new world he's in and that bogged the story down a bit for me.

Pretty good start

Although it seems like he forgot all about the friend that he wanted to save the story is pretty good. Game elements on a different world. I would have a better description of how the spells and abilities worked but it seems the mc doesn't even know so we learn along with him I guess. Overall a good story.

more MC's life experience than lit rpg

it's not bad, but the pace keeps being broken by character development in a fashion that felt like it took away from the story more, in some times, then it gave insight into the character. it has a lot of potential for a 2nd book but if the story keeps jumping to the past tense I'm probably going to just pass on this series. Update, the 2nd book in the series does make this a good read as the story picks up pace much better and is very enjoyable.

Yeah... uhhhhh.....no

Like...totally man

Over half- way through and no game has even started. Dark and depressing. Overuse of certain words, even in the same sentence. Shimmering, strange, confused. This is like listening to someone totally wasted, and without any education, trying to explain quantum physics.

I would’ve gone further to see where it goes, but the repetition of the same adjectives over and over became unbearable. Try another book.

needs work

The writing style is a little sloppy and inconsistent. But if you're bored this book is Not a total waste Of your time. My biggest complaint about this book is how inconsistent it is. it's like the author forgot what's going on in his own story.

The Metaphors and Descriptions are out of control,

I really wanted to like the story, but every other sentence being some crazy metaphor describing some useless fact was crazy. There is also a issue with how descriptive it gets about everything you almost lose whats even going on.

Good but annoying

the story was enjoyable but at times the forced eloquence on the wording kept rating on my nerves also the excessive focus on mysticism suddenly after focusing on Tech and lasers was really really jarring

interesting story

Narrator was excellent, and the idea of the story is nifty.
there are a lot of run-ons, and reiterations.
Not terrible, but without the run-ons and reiterations this book would probably be 4 hours long.
That's all I got, and hope it helps. I might metaphorically bite the bullet, and get the next book. If it doesn't have the same problems, it'll probably be exceptionally good.

Fun world, cool story, good MC but Gregor must die

*Mild Spoilers, though no specifics, contains some general things that happen* Its a fun world a pretty cool story and great take on litrpg. Like the MC a lot, dark and tortured soul which is the type of character I like. Really awesome world it plays in as well. I think you will really enjoy this story so long as you can look past a fe horrible personality traits of the crew. A character named Gregor is literally one of the least likely ass****s you will ever meet in a story that is supposed to be one of the good guys. I know a lot of this is a narrative tool of the author but its just really bad and very unpleasant to have to deal with. He constantly puts the MC down for reasons that are 95% irrational as the MC saves his and his the rest of his allies lives over and over. It's really gross and disturbing. The whole crew in fact seems to give him about 10% of the credit he deserves as he saves them. Constantly complaining and berating him for the methods he uses to save their lives. I mean literally no doubt they would have died 100% of the time, several times over without him. He pretty much single-handedly saves them, with them contributing nothing at all to their own survival and then they follow that by berating him for his methods and dehumanizing him, it's nuts! Awful stuff, and Gregor might be the worst person of all time. To me, the way they act is just lazy story telling, as no real people would ever act the way they do after being saved and it must just be a way for the author to victimize and create strive for the MC. Their combination of personality traits jsut don't make sense and don't really exist. Outside of that however, if you can stand being around Gregor, its a really fun romp. I must prob sound like I don't like the book but I actually did. I just hate the Gregor character and hope he is killed in the next books so he doesn't drive me insane with his ridiculous irrational abuse of the MC. So good story, I love the world, good litrpg system and I like the MC a lot but some of the side characters, most of all Gregor are very poorly written, which makes them pretty terribly unlikeable and incredibly frustrating people.

An incoherent mess!!!

The author fails to describe how the worlds connect to each other and adds bad chapters including stuff similar to

"floating in a endless cloud of black I see the face of... insert an irrelevant flash back...blah blah blah"

Then he ignores everything he wrote and carrys on the story which is rendered entirely pointless at the end of book 2 by the way.

He also talks about how much this is his new reality but turns it into a game again cause why not right?!?

MC losing his memory all the time is getting real old and resetting all progression cause why not right?!?!

Also making everyone from earth unable to read is kinda dumb like what that's the hold up not the ability to shoot flame or turn spaceship drives into explosives no its reading that confuses everyone from earth.

The pace is also quite slow at first but it does eventually drag itself into a semblance of a litrpg before end of book 2 ruins all of it again

Also in this book MC is inconsistent he's supposed to be some sort of black ops badass but as soon as he's transported someone tries to ENSLAVE him and he's just like sorry no bro but we good also we friends now cause why not right?!!? complete doormat.

The best way to describe this book is as follows
The author took crack before coming up with the overall plot and plan and did not sweat the small stuff like explanation or making sense. Then he took a kilogram of morphine during the actual writing making it slow but weirdly enjoyable.

The narration is good one of the best actually but nothing that saves the integrity of this overdose of a litrpg.

A unique story with memorable characters

I wasn't blown away at first but was interested. It reminds me of my first meeting David Tennant as Dr. Who. At first I was,"Meh," but then a few episodes in he had a dramatic scene and blew me away. I said, "OK, that's my Doctor!" The scene where the MC confronts his girlfriend's killer just floored me from both the script and the performance. Probably one of the best I've ever heard. It felt so believable and genuine. Just...damn.... The story gets you hooked as you try to figure out if he's actually in a game or teleported to some other world. I think he's in the game and everything leading up was just part of the game to decide what kind of character he was going to be. Idk. You don't find out. The MC is very engaging. The only character I would have shot in the face already was the gnome. He's a dick. I don't like him. Can't wait for the next one.

Some good, some bad.

Overall I'd say I enjoyed this book. I did have issues with the fact the MC seems to think like no-one I can think of being likely to think. This ends with us being subjected to long and overly melodramatic narratives of the MC's thoughts. Add in little laughable annoyances of the twenty-year-old boy calling a girl just short of eighteen a child and they start to add up to reasons to dislike it.

For me the ending was poor too. It seemed a dumb place to leave a book for me. Not sure if he was going for cliff-hanger ending, but for me it felt like stopping half way through a dungeon and logging out. Still, I will check out book two as maybe it will explain it more if they are stuck where they are for that whole book also.

Overall it is readable and it's quite possible the things that annoyed me won't affect others in the same way. So it is worth a chance of reading if you like litrpg books.

Slow to start but gets better

the beginning is slow and a little confusing as the author melds current time with the fantasy setting, once completed the story picks up and becomes enjoyable as the main character understands the world. Will be getting book 2 as I found it overall very enjoyable. Excellent narration

Detail creates great world detail but poor pacing

The story is a great take on the LitRPG genre with a definite DnD element laced into the Endless World with a level of detail that goes beyond most in the genre sometimes not for the better. The juxtaposition of storylines are incredibly detailed making you connect more with Valor's personality but sometimes poorly timed or make little sense which breaks the flow of combat in favour of enriching the main character.
As for the narrator in the second half of the book taking place in the endless world the 4 male characters have 2 distinct voices for Val and the Captain speaking as narrated and the other male characters having gruff voices that sound similar to each other as well so I had to work out who was speaking more based on context than sound breaking the immersion for me at times.

A wholly enjoyable way to spend my time

i enjoyed time I spent with this book. it is well written and enjoyable. my only complaint is that I enjoyed the flashbacks more than the current time action, which simply means that the Author knows what he is good at writing and makes sure to include it.
the characters have flaws and backstory that ensures they are more than 2 dimensional and make you care about them...
The LITrpg part is very light with little crunch, but it works in the setting, though might still be relevant to some.

Wayne and Lisa makes an fine pairing, which feels both competent and well worked.
their readings are so dynamic and fun that I wouldn't be surprised they did the readings in 1 booth just to play off of one another

a long of dark stuff

very well written but may defeat the purpose of an Lit rpg audio book because they usually upbeat new skills levels no here.

endless online

honesty you have to persist with this book for the first five chapters I felt like turned it off eventually it does turn into an l i p RPG but unlike most of them he keeps bringing you back to the real world see you cannot really get yourself immersed in this book but overall it is a good read

Litrpg at is Best!!!

What an amazing ride is this book I loved every second of it bring on the next one!!!!

great story. above average narration.

a solid litrpg, the narration is...good but could improve as it sort of grows on you, doesn't detract from the story, it's possible I've been spoiled by some of the greats