• Pixel Dust Omnibus: Books 1-3 in a GameLit Fantasy Adventure

  • By: D. Petrie
  • Narrated by: Travis Baldree
  • Length: 39 hrs and 31 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (433 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Pixel Dust Omnibus: Books 1-3 in a GameLit Fantasy Adventure  By  cover art

Pixel Dust Omnibus: Books 1-3 in a GameLit Fantasy Adventure

By: D. Petrie
Narrated by: Travis Baldree
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $29.95

Buy for $29.95

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Noctem is a dream come true. Dreams don’t last forever. Nightmares might.

The first three books in the Pixel Dust series, full of fantasy adventure!

Existing within a virtual world shared across millions of users while they sleep, the online game, Carpe Noctem, offers a life of magic and adventure. For a scruffy gunslinger like Max, and a snarky fairy like Kira, it’s home.

Unfortunately, Noctem’s creator, and unhinged genius, has been fired. On his way out, he slapped a doomsday button to bring the system crashing down and send the global economy into ruin.

To save their second home, Max and Kira will need to assemble a party of misfits to conquer a quest of nightmares, and discover the secrets that lurk within the game.

If they fail, they’ll lose more than they can imagine… but winning has its own price.

Buy the 3-book boxed set today to read David Petrie's Party Hard, Pyramid Game, and Auction of Souls!

©2020 D. Petrie (P)2024 Mountaindale Press

What listeners say about Pixel Dust Omnibus: Books 1-3 in a GameLit Fantasy Adventure

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    335
  • 4 Stars
    44
  • 3 Stars
    26
  • 2 Stars
    13
  • 1 Stars
    15
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    349
  • 4 Stars
    25
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    294
  • 4 Stars
    48
  • 3 Stars
    20
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    15

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

gross

The entire book is about sexuality and exploring that sexuality and different genders and having sex with a weird like murderer guy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Worth It

It takes some time for the characters to develop, but when they do, it's one of the more believable casts in LitRPG. No harems, thirsty MCs, or those weird female idealizations some authors vomit out. Seriously, I'm so glad there isn't an elf princess dropping their panties for another basement dweller turned ninja again. In fact, our main guy Max has a bald spot and follows an entirely believable romance side plot that I liked quite a bit. Nice. Also, side characters matter quite a bit, big plus.

David Petrie did a damn solid job making gay characters not some kind of political shoe-in. Sometimes bad LGBTQ pandering can mess a story up, but that's not the case here despite some larger plot points revolving around such topics. Petrie went all in with making characters feel human instead of like token gay cardboard cutouts. Really well done since that's hard to do in my opinion, and it's refreshing to see it done right for once.

I really liked how the third book finished out. There's some good complexity in the plot that has me wanting to know where this is going. There's probably more to be said, but suffice to say the read is worth it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Plenty to 💖! Great action-packed series ARC!

I picked up this book solely on the recommendation by Travis Baldree. I know a narrator makes a living off of the sales of his his/her books, but there are occasions when Travis makes a little more effort in promoting a book's release, and when he says that this book was one of his favorites to do, I believe him! And boy I'm glad I did as it's one of the best litRPG's that I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing!
You'll find that the entire series ARC is tightly written, fun, and it's full of action. And I'm sure you're gonna find plenty to L💖VE! Including Travis Baldree's wonderful voice performance...
If interested you'll find my reviews in Amazon and Goodreads under the individual titles... Party Hard, Pyramid Game, and Auction of Souls!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Barely any intensity in the book.

Alright, so, Travis Baldree is an amazing voice actor and he does great on all his work. This is why this book is presentable. If Travis Baldree was not on the same level of awesome as Jeff Hays, Nick Podehl, Andrea Parsneau, etc, this book would be a 1 star flat and all around. I do not write many reviews, as I typically get through one book to the next, I believe I finished the entirety of "defiance of the fall", all 5 books up to the date of writing this, in about a week. I have two accounts with over 80 books in total. I listen, to a lot of books. And let me tell you, the tensity, the tension, anything that gives the book depth... falls flat. Entirely. I have only gotten through the first 13 hours, because I don't quit. But I had to make this clear to anyone looking to purchase. I do not recommend this book, in any way, shape or form.

First of all, the stakes.

The stakes are that " the world is 'ending' because of the villains choices." But throughout the first third of this book, every single problem or obstacle the team faces is swiftly followed up with, "Well actually it won't be THAT bad... but it'll just make everyone sad." "The worlds ending, but not actually only a million people will lose their jobs. But companies are starting to rely on us!" Yeah, starting. No major world spanning corporations business model is based off of your game yet, friend. So the entirety of the book feels like... ya know. Hollow.

Next, the combat, fights, class system, and partial world building.

Nothing is explained. Nothing. Either that, or I spaced out on it. For example, what the hell is a coin? After the first three "nightmares" I finally pieced together that a coin is someone with a knife, and a grappling hook. But why is their purpose? Shield is a tank, Leaf is an archer (which we did not know until we saw the Leaf using a bow and arrow.) Venom and "Cauldron". There was an expression that they were " damage mages." and "Cauldron is to slow for damage." Based on that we can INFER, note that I said infer, that a Cauldron is an affliction type attacker with a slow start to then deal exponential damage. Continuing the rant on classes, yeah, A shield with a gauntlet as a shield not actual shield, a bow and arrow user, a person who uses a knife, a fairy that can heal, and a mage that afflicts poison, and next to all that there's a, pardonnéz mon français, f*cking cowboy from Texas with two guns. Sure that would be fine if the world was built around steampunk or techno magic being a thing, but no. Its all Gothic style rural European mythology. And even then, barely any world building. The way the world is built is by exposition and questions. Never the Author trying to give information or expression. "Omg we are going to the woods, why?" "Well the woods are actually a vast..." Almost a literal quote, there. Absolutely terrible. Anyways, I digress. The classes are all over the place and not fully explained, and are kind of silly. We also never hear an explanation of why Max chose the team that he did. So that's bugger as well. And finally on combat and class system, we are introduced to each of the characters doing something absolutely bad ass and super awesome showing why they are the top of their class. Then we actually get into the fights against nightmares, where here I will state, come with EVEN LESS tension in the fights. Why you may ask? Because, there is ZERO consequences for dying. They get logged out for like, 10 seconds, then show back up. No loss of items. No loss of levels. No penalty to health, stamina, mana, absolutely NOTHING. Then the main cast of characters, can literally fly a ship into an ACTIVE BOSS ZONE, WHERE ITEMS ARE DISABLED, AFTER DEATH, to then use a SHIP to blow up an enemy. Which speaking of, none of the nightmares except maybe, death, actually were killed due to the skill of the players? Famine? Killed by a ship that they got after dying with 0 consequences. Pestilence? They didn't figure to, I don't know, cut off the zombies legs so they couldn't chase you down, and the whole fight was solved by plugging into a stupid USB drive that was super obviously rigged. Death? The guy, known as Max Damage, who was shown to be able to hit shots dead center, EVEN WHEN HE IS NOT LOOKING, who is shown to be the "brains of the operation" doesn't think that the clearly most intelligent NPC that has been shown up to that point, would I don't know, disable the gun that ISN'T entirely unloaded? Then, the man who has "a reaction time and thought processes that is pushing the human limit on the brain" DROPS his gun, and doesn't use his FREE HAND to reach down and GRAB IT before it falls? Just to make a fake tension of the villain slowly moving his weapon down to give the hero anxiety?! God awful. I will express more about the WAR bosses here in a moment.

Now, character development and LGBT things.

Dear good golly GOODNESS. There is NONE. absolutely NONE. When there is any sort of reveal about a persons history, character, or reason why to fight, it has almost no weight. When explaining different characters backstory, there is no reason to connect with the character, there is no reason to really feel what they feel. There is no weight. When explaining how Max was bullied, and his father was hard on him, we had no indication of this, no hint, no mystery of this besides "he started to sound like his father and he didn't like it." I too, was bullied in school. I had groups of people telling me to end myself, and when the reveal of being bullied happened for the awkward and silly max, who is not unlike me, I felt NO connection to him. I felt NOTHING in that reveal, when I went through exactly what they were describing. There is absolutely NO REASON to actually care about their trauma. Because the author did not make a reason. Not to mention, each emotional moment is followed by a shitty joke just so that everyone forgets 5 minutes later and move on like nothing happened. Like the end of a pokémon episode.

Next, our main character, Kira. Okay. Let's start with, LGBT characters have a place in literature. They have a place in this world and can be represented in the right ways, as people. As people that are LGBT, and struggle with the same things that EVERYONE does. Maybe they go through their own struggle or unique issue because of their sexuality or preferences, but for the love of EVERYTHING, stop this DISRESPECTFUL WRITING of LGBT characters, where their entire obstacle, problem, or main emotional hangup, is that their LGBT. I will give an EXCELLENT example. "He Who Fights With Monsters", by Shirtaloon. Amazing characters. Very forward thinking and very accepting, and one in five characters, including non important characters and background characters, is some form of LGBT character. But there is no better example than Rufus. He is a black man, that is gay. Whenever questioned about a suitor, they start with " we can invite women?" 'No thank you.' "Oh, we can invite young gentlemen?" 'Thank you for the consideration but I am not looking for that right now.' An actual conversation. He falls in love with a very distinguished gentleman, who has an incredibly distinguished mustache. But Rufus' main conflict is that all of his friends are being killed by the main villains, and he believes himself not strong enough to be able to protect anyone he loves, so he begins to dedicate everything to tracking the monsters down and killing every single one of them to avenge his best friends. An amazing character, who goes through so much growth, development, and suffering, who is also gay. Who's entire personality and problems is not solely based on what type of person they are attracted to. Kira, is this. The author, threw in an entire part about how gross men are, how they make her feel uncomfortable and scared, how the venom feels ashamed of his gender and himself, about how she gets so many harassing people, how she can't say no to men because then it makes it worse. Let us dismantle this argument, right now.

1) You are in a game. There have been, and always will be ways to, gee, I dunno, block anyone besides someone in your immediate friends list from sending you ANY TYPE OF MESSAGE LET ALONE IMAGES.

2) Men are NOT gross, and MEN are NOT the problem. The individual toxic people that do such vile acts should be called as they are, abusers and harassers. It is not Men. If we are being extremely wild here, let's say this happens 1000 times to Kira since the launch of the game. Going back to about how a million people will lose their jobs due to the game world ending, we can assume easily that there is a population to employee ratio of anywhere between 10-1 or 100-1. That means there are 10 million, to 100 million players using at any given time. Though this is an extremely small estimate since apparently the weight of the system alone can effect the global economy in its entirety, but let's ignore that. That means there are 1000 people doing this probably to a lot of women, but out of 10 to 100 million players, that's anywhere between .1% to .01% of the population on the server. While Author would have you believe this is EVERYBODY doing this. Kira and real women's experience should not be lessened, but fellow men, we should not be ashamed of ourselves, but PROUD that we are NOT CONTRIBUTING TO THE TOXICITY!"

3) If the developers programmed a way for women to activate an invincible shield to stop sexual harassment, then there will most DEFINITELY BE A REPORT SEXUAL HARASSMENT BUTTON THAT SHOULD SUMMON A GM IMMEDIATELY. Having only one but not both would be a terrible design choice, which is incredibly unlikely, because the creators of the company are ya know, geniuses.

4) For not being able to say no, this tip applies to the real world. Bring. A. Self. Defense. Weapon. Tazer, Knife, Gun, whatever you got. Touch more than three times while being told no, or to stop, is immediately considered assault and legal self defense can be enacted. To that extent, in a video game, full of magic, and clearly anti harassment protocols, and the ability to create unique items, has absolutely NO WAY that someone hasn't figured out how to make a "no no stick" that has knockback 10,000 that you can smack someone in a safe zone to launch them away when being unwantedly harassed.

And FINALLY

5) Kira has a flirty personality, is playful with her body, shoving herself onto people many times, shaking her butt, sexualizing herself, etc. Her behavior like that is ENTIRELY contradicting with her problem of being touched like that. Her behavior by doing that makes the entire point of "I hate being touched" when she continuously throws herself onto people verbally and physically, just makes the entire impact of the confession about her feelings feel... hollow.

So essentially, the main character was used simply as a way to express political viewpoints to the readers in such a manner that had no meaning, and, was entirely contradictory of everything else said previously and after that in the story. Its. SO DUMB.

Continuing the rant about improper LGBT writing. I am not going to get on the whole debate or write my political opinion on this, but, do not present author, something that is entirely your opinion, as fact. Do not write a "smart character" to say "gender is not biological" to make it seem more "credible." That "the smartest man ever knows this, so other people who disagree are dumb." Author that is your opinion, and do not write it in such a condescending manner as well. goodness GRACIOUS.

So here's the all in all.

VA is good.

Terrible world building. Terrible story. Terrible tension. Terrible character development. Terrible class system. Terrible game system. Terrible lack of consequences. Ignorant writing. I probably will have more to write about when I get past the Terrible part of which I assume is the "first book." Hopefully it gets better, I will report back when I have finished.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Probably the Best

Genuinely one of my favorite series I have ever read. Lit-rpgs are filled with misogynistic male perspectives that objectify and over sexual women. What a breath of fresh air! The series had a beautiful blend of so many things and I can't wait for the 4th. Also thank you David for including our friendly neighborhood fairy. Her story made me yearn for a similar reality where I could do the same. It was a delight to dream of it while listening to a fantastic story :-) BUY THE BOOKS! IT'S AN INCREDIBLE DEAL!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic character- driven story

First, I got this book because of Travis Baldree. I don't know if anything else needs to be said about the narration.

Second, the story: I love a series that features a solid group of friends/ allies. The banter is fantastic and one of the best parts of the series.

The game that serves as the main setting had consistent rules, and even the parts that seemed inconsistent was used more like plot points. Even the "players take deaths too seriously considering its a game with respawn" critique of actually used for characterization and plot. Normally it makes me roll my eyes, but I actually really enjoyed how the author worked it in.

Also, unlike many Litrpgs, the game-speak seemed to fit in naturally.

All- in-all, this is a fantastic series that i can't recommend enough, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An amazing book for an amazing deal.

I've listened to about 2 audio books a week for about 6 years now, so believe me when I say I have seen the best and the worst the Literpg has to offer. This omnibus and hands down one of my favorite Literpg I've had the pleasure to listen to.

For starters the author tackles being in a VR system in a relatively rare way and comes back to that as being important to the plot. While the plot is certainly there, you'll find yourself not missing it when you listen to the character interactions. The humor in this is top notch, unlike most other literpgs where they stuff as much pop culture defenses as well for comedic effect. Each character is unique and independant (expect for one pair) of each other which allows them and their own stories to shine.

If you want to have several weeks of quality listening, I could not recommend this omnibus anymore if I tried.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Wasted time

Don't get me wrong, the first book started out great. Then it went down hill and became predictable. This entire series is predictable. Not worth the credit. I will not buy anymore books from this series. Wouldn't even download them if they were free.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Not so subtle coming out story

This is a horrible book for teens. The author normalizes sex workers, furry culture, and transgenderism. Worse the story elements were good without these topics needing to be a part of the story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

this is a waist of time...this is trash

I want my money back..
I'm sorry but the only good thing about this series is the guy reading it .
this book trilogy is God awful 😞 at best... I honestly can't keep up with the throw up in my mouth threw all the bullshit .. this trilogy is straight up a book to encourage trans genders and under age sex temptation..
and plus I'm pretty sure it's written by a teen at this point..

I listen to books every day..
it's what I do
I love a good book..
this is not a good book.. the only good thing about this book is the guy reading it.

everything else is trash..

don't buy this bs

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful