• Start the Game

  • Galactogon Series, Book 1
  • By: Vasily Mahanenko
  • Narrated by: Bill Lord
  • Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (516 ratings)

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Start the Game  By  cover art

Start the Game

By: Vasily Mahanenko
Narrated by: Bill Lord
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Publisher's summary

Twelve players set off through the online world of Galactogon, lured by the game owners' promise of an enormous payoff. The question is, who will survive to tell the tale? Which of the 12 is a potential hero - or a traitor in the making? Which of them will defend the weak, and who will become the ultimate evil overlord? A knight or a coward? Each of the 12 will have to choose his or her path. Each will keep a poker face. But if the billion-pound prize calls your name, you can't conceal your choice. And you will do everything to lay your hands on it.

©2015 V. Mahanenko; English translation copyright 2015 by Boris Smirnov (P)2017 Tantor

What listeners say about Start the Game

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    342
  • 4 Stars
    121
  • 3 Stars
    41
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
    6
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Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    306
  • 4 Stars
    117
  • 3 Stars
    37
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    4

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

great book

good story
didn't care for the narrator

spoiler
i hate cliffhanger hanger endings
don't see any point for them
if it's a good book I'll buy the next one if it's not I won't

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7 people found this helpful

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

Story started out slow and Narrator voice ruins.

Bill Lord was a terrible voice choice in my opinion. While he ABSOLUTELY sounds like someone who is mostly friendless and only socializes online. I also could not get into the characters or problems

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6 people found this helpful

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

Ready player one without the 1980's

i was hesitant to purchase this. I love The Way of the Shamen series and did not think the writing style would work with sic-fi. I should never have doubted, great start to a new series.If you're in to litrpg this will fall into the top 5.

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6 people found this helpful

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

Pretty good story. But many inconsistencies.

I liked the story overall and likely would rate a 4 without the inconsistencies I noticed. There were a few but one that was obvious was earlier in the book he talks about how if a player in game didn't eat after 4 hours they would start to get hungry, but you could log out and back in to reset. Later on though this in game food eating was completely different and was worried about dying on a remote planet from lack of food... I am like why not just log out to reset? But apparently the rule changed. The narrator annunciated well and I liked many voices, but I eventually got too annoyed with the loud swallowing and other noises that kept getting through to the reading.

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4 people found this helpful

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

Narrator doesn't get it

Here's a story about online games, gamer culture, and tongue-in-cheek fantasy & sci-fi. The protagonist is a professional gamer - clever, resourceful, and charismatic with a sarcastic gamer sense of humor.

The narrator completely ruins this first person story. Instead of the sarcastic gamer personality the text begs for, we get this god-awful affectation with heavy aspirations that's better suited for a smutty romance novel than a LitRPG.

I love Vasily Mahanenko's Way of the Shaman series which had great narration. But I really struggled to get past the narration in this one.

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4 people found this helpful

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

Great Performance horrible ending.

This story has been put on paper many time. you know it the main protagonist is vary lucky
And sum how find stuff no other player has come across in all the time the game has been played.-1 star to all category's
Still the characters are fun to listen to and the narrater put sum real life into the book. +1star to performance
However I really hate cliffhangers and find them childish a good story speaks for its self the ending doesn't have to leave you in the dark for you to buy the next book for example (Harry Potter) in which all the books end with sum semblance of closer.-1 star to story
Hope to read the next book and hope it has a real ending not the sub middling ending of this one.

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3 people found this helpful

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

Umm unexpected

It was different then the one about the weird shaman/dragon but somehow it reminded me off him cause of his damn stubbornness.

Now that I said that it really does a good job of making its own world of the events. Really started getting into a third in anyway worth a listen for sure.

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2 people found this helpful

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

Good

Not what I expected from the other reviews. Yes there is a cliffhanger kinda. Yes it's item levels instead of character levels. But the author does an excellent job filling in all the details I enjoy in litrpg. The story kept my attention throughout the entire story and the narrator's voices are distinct enough to tell one character from another. Overall very well done.

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1 person found this helpful

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

MUCH better than the usual trash

This was pretty good. It suffered the same "MC finds all of the super rare shit by complete accident" BS as many of the books in this genre, but it does a pretty good show of converting the genre to scyfy. I also liked how the MC got into the game, it wasn't desperate, the MC wasn't a NEET and his personality and reasons for pulling insane bullshit were totally believable for a player.

Only real problem is, I don't see how he's going to pull a full sequel out of this ending. He's basically at the goalpost and has just defeated the main antagonist.

Oh, and spoiler, he and the third string toon who's his love interest are about to die. Though that I expect will be handled by medical staff from the bodyguard unit. Maybe his hospital stay kills the last hour progress? eh, w/e.

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1 person found this helpful

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

whats next? im waiting eagerly

loved it from start to finish im only sad it endedso soon and have to wait for the next one.

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1 person found this helpful