Death March

By: Phil Tucker

Narrated by: Vikas Adam

Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Narrator Vikas Adams pushes the boundaries of LitRPG to the next level, bringing this immersive VR gaming drama to nerve-jangling nirvana.

Pro-gamer and eighth grade teacher Chris is preoccupied by thoughts of how to save his brother when he gets an invitation he can't resist:

Want to play Euphoria for free?

The free pass brings him to a portal for the newest and most awesome game in the universe. Chris agrees to play Euphoria Online in Death March mode, a secret and deadly level of the game. The real-life consequences of the game mean that if Chris can emerge victorious from a virtual six-month battle with necromancers, ogres, and wyverns, his brother goes free. But if he loses, well, game over.

©2018 Phil Tucker (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Good stuff

Even though our protagonist finds himself jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire, moving from one crisis to the next, the pace of the book never feels frenetic. There are a few narrative oversights, but overall the world and characters are cohesive. The narration is solid, the story is fun and interesting, and most of the characters and relationships are well developed.

Some LitRPG go heavy on displaying the stat sheets, and this gets really tiresome in an audiobook. While stat sheets are present, they're light and infrequent enough to not be annoying.

Wow such a great story!

Wow just wow I had little fate in this series and only bought it because it was on sale, however now after listening to this book I can say I was wrong and I’m so glad I bought it!

Very well written.

So far this is one of the few LitRPG's that I have read where the character goes into a VR game, it stays a game, and could die in real life that has had a believable premise. The description doesn't really do it justice as just from that you don't understand how that would earn someone a pardon. The little hints at the overall world building outside of the game and the world building inside the game both paint an interesting picture despite this book only taking place in one zone of the world. The difficulties the player overcomes are handled in interesting non-standard ways and it's more entertaining that things don't always go according to plan. The skill set used by the main character is well developed and unique to this series as far as I'm aware. The supporting characters are on their way to being well developed and will probably be more fleshed out in the next book, but most importantly the motivation of the characters is believable and isn't crap. The pacing of the book is pretty well done and split up nicely. There aren't really any faults with the book itself though I listened to the audio book and honestly the narrators voice didn't feel like it matched up with the main character to me being gritty and hardened when the more you learn about the main character he is anything but, he's a teacher in the beginning of the book which doesn't really line up with the end of the book where he has spent his entire life as a Pro-gamer and only took the job to reinforce his savings from that, but it never clarifies when he took the time to get the education that entails, Either way as a Teacher and life long professional gamer the voice used just felt out of place. That being the only thing I can find fault with says volumes to the quality of the book. If you want a LitRPG with a believable life or death situation and non standard character development I highly recommend this one.

crazy awesome fun!

Fast Paced, fun, pulpy fantasy action! I will definitely get the next one as it delivered on what I was after.

short but great

very dnd based
takes less emphasis on stats and focuses on abilities

very much enjoyed

Welllll

If you read this and want humor with your LitRPG, just look elsewhere, it has none. What you will find is a MC pulling moves and shit from his collective butt to stay alive and a author not killing him within the first hour of the book. Because if it was a RPG, this cat would be deader than a rat on Tuesday.

casual DnD read

was pretty solid, narration was good. Writing was a bit weak at times. skills and world building were good. A bit too many real world references smacking down immersion. Probably doesn't need to have a few lines on how every woman Chris encounters is attractive. Will listen to next in series.

a smashing good time!

loved it all the way. interesting world, mechanics and characters. I really enjoyed the adventure and picked up the next two books in the series.

LIT RPG with real emotions

Unlike many new LIT RPG books, this one gets you really hooked into the plight of our hero as he does everything, even risking his life, for his brother. His motivation pushes him into what appears to be a weekend of immersive VR gaming, only to find everything has been shattered, and his plan for quick easy leveling quickly turns into life or death decisions at every step.

Once I started listening to this, I could hardly bare to stop! A really good book, and I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

Great Listen

The narration is amazing, easily makes the list for one of the best audiobooks for LitRPG fans