Pangea Online 2: Magic and Mayhem

A LitRPG Novel

By: S.L. Rowland

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

Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Fame. Fortune. Glory.

In the aftermath of the Developer’s Tournament, Esil has a new life filled with opportunity. He’s the first person to test out their most innovative technology, full-immersion gameplay, in a brand new, unexplored gameworld. Magic and mayhem collide in ways he never thought possible, and soon he finds himself caught in a quest that may alter the course of the game for years to come.

As Esil experiences the grandeur of full-immersion and the line blurs between reality and the gameworld, the NPCs he meets feel more like friends than data. Tasked with defending a small town from dark forces, he must learn to protect its citizens from impending doom or risk losing them forever.

©2018 S. L. Rowland (P)2022 S. L. Rowland

The game worlds abound.

I love the progression the story takes the MC through! The new game world and the connections he makes really sucker you into the feels for the life of kid from the boxes. He is still reeling from the first books ending and this one left me wanting more.
Makes me wish I could play along side him.

Great listening

A great continuation of a story worth listening to. If you like lit rpg then you should definitely know this author.

Pangea Online Visits the Matrix

In the second book of this series, things start to get "real", Matrix style. Feels like a side quest, but I liked the change in direction to keep things interesting. Like the first book, this one was also too short. Things move quick, and it leaves you wanting more. Which is not a bad thing, but it would be nice to have a longer story to build things out more. Only thing I did not care for was the sound effects; they were overly cheesy and broke the immersion for me, but that will be up to personal taste. Overall worth the read/listen, and looking forward to the next one!

Awesome light read

This book goes straight to the main points. Our MC is in a different state of life. He got everything going for him and he became the first human to try full immersion gaming. There are no big stakes like saving his friend's mother like in the first book; I think this is only the story to set the foundation for the main plot in the next books.  

As it's a short book, nothing really big happens except for the big battle in the end, and even that one is a short one. But the story is still very interesting and the action scenes are very good. The characters are still well written and act as you expect after knowing them for a bit. And the cherry on the top is the cool (new world) world building and magic system. I wonder where the author is going to take this.

4.5/5 I highly recommend this book as a light read when you just want something fun to escape to.

It's a setup!

I'll start by saying this is a very fun story. However, the MC turned into a bit of a SJW. It kind of makes sense given where he came from, but it felt heavy handed at times.

The main premise is playing in a game world that reacts and changes based on player input. Unfortunately, the main challenge is very predictable and mostly sets up the third book in the series.

Alpha testing Pangea

Esil’s life has changed drastically in the last few months. From working in the mines in Pangea Online to working for the company itself. He has agreed to be an Alpha tester for a new world that the are developing. They say that it can adapt to the way that you play.

This book has a different feel than the first. Rather than bounce from world to world, there is a focus on one world. He does visit different worlds in between though. There are new characters that are introduced and not all of the previous characters return. This is sad, but true to how MMORPGs are. A huge benefit is that there is a male and female narrator if you prefer audible.

Content warning: none

Placeholder

The whole second book feels like a placeholder for book 3. Where as the first one had a goal in mind this one is all about setup to number three.

Interesting Approach

Just look at this thing approach to the use of indecipherable audio/video feed to the brain, it is similar to the Matrix movies, Ready Player 2’s UNI headsets, and Dakota Krout’s Completionist Chronicles, it the way that the feelings were real. It was an amazing story.

Can't get enough

I want to go to Pangea online. The few hours I get listening to these stories isn't enough! The worlds to explore, the people to meet, the loot to get!

Rowland's characters truly come alive and sucked me right into their lives. Love it.

Great Series.

Good series that checks many boxes. Love post apocalyptic aspect. The access to many diferent worlds and the social rebuilding.