Gates of Thunder

Loner, Book 1

By: Alex Kosh, Zachary J. Lorang - translator

Narrated by: Zac Aleman

Arktania is a virtual game with a steampunk style. It's a place where magic spells, enchanted artifacts, steam-powered machines, firearms, and mechanical golems are a part of everyday life.

Gamer Andrew Falk begins his journey in a small village on the border of Orcish territory. The locals are the keepers of many secrets, but their behavior is too realistic for characters in a game; so realistic, in fact, that Andrew starts to treat them as if they were real people. Maybe because of the way he plays, or maybe just thanks to good luck, he becomes one of a mysterious class of people known as "sliders," allowing him to control electricity and earn the favor of Elenia, the goddess of fate.

But as he advances through levels, the pain threshold in his character settings gradually begins to drop, making the game increasingly more dangerous. Andrew is facing a hard choice: either to keep on playing, risking eventual death by pain shock, or to abandon his gamer pod altogether. Still, his digital adventures just won't let him go, immersing him ever deeper into VR . . .

©2021 Alex Kosh; English translation copyright 2021 by Zachary Lorang (P)2022 Tantor

best Russian based story I've read yet

I've read a number of Russian litrpgs and they've either had terrible translators so nothing makes sense, or by the second or third book everything becomes dull and stupid.
I have very high hopes for this one! (ok I have high hopes for every book I pick up, but I digress).

A litrpg that takes it time

I dont really understand why the reviews are so negative. I was hesitant after looking at them but after a while I started it and was not disappointed.
Some of the things don't line up perfectly to be quite honest but at the end of the day it makes sense. I really enjoyed this story and it was one I would go back too after reading countless litrpgs

good enough

choices made by MC are nonsensical, made no sense in the narrative story. it was a sun listen, but I felt like the main character made some really poor choices

MC's character choices

There is no explanation or thought put into why the main character chooses such a bad build. He acts like it's an important thing, finds problems he needs to overcome and then acts completely ignorant when it comes to making decisions. He CHOOSES not to pick up many skills, look for magic, or even ask about other skills once he has ONE OR TWO which he got at the very beginning. And why in a sea of dead and dying enemies, can he not could consider a change in tactics or even doubling down on his chosen stat and picking up a ranged weapon? It's a constant problem because you can easily see so many other choices that would be straight up better or at least improve his situation. The story does a poor job in trying to make it seem like he had no choice without taking much choice away from him. He under utilizes opportunities and heavily depends on plot armor to make sense of his choices. Its not a bad listen and the writing is smooth enough. It just comes off as the author having chosen a character build then written around what he already had in mind.

TLDR: If you like the idea of someone nonsensically using a cool weapon semi-badly, then congrats.