Shadeslinger

The Ripple System, Book 1 (A Fantasy LitRPG Series)

By: Kyle Kirrin, Portal Books

Narrated by: Travis Baldree

Corporate flameout Ned Altimer dreams of leaving his world behind. So, when Earthblood Online splashes onto the VRMMO scene, he dives in and never looks back.

His advantages are twofold: exclusive access to the game’s three-day Head Start period, and a ridiculously handsome talking axe named Frank who has knowledge of the game’s deepest secrets...if the magnificent Frank ever feels like sharing them.

But those advantages also make Ned a target. Once the Head Start period ends, his fellow players will stop at nothing to rip that suave, violent, yet disarmingly charismatic axe right out of his hands.

In 72 hours, the greatest manhunt in gaming history is set to begin.

It’s gonna be a lot of fun.

©2021 Kyle Kirrin (P)2021 Portal Books

Best I've listened to in some time!

Where do I start? The descriptions of battles places etc. seem to just make you feel like you can see it, feel it and as a gamer understand it. The interaction of the characters just draws you in. If you like litfpg, you just have to get this book! I'm kinda dreading picking my next book from some other series because it may not stack up to this one. Hopefully, I'll get lucky.

short concise review

read lots of litrpg.
99% are trash.
this is great.
feels like author actually games and cares about systems.
must buy. so sad there arent more.

amazing first book

all I can say is this book is amazing I hope we get a lot more adventures with Ned and the amazing awesome bloodthirsty Frank

3.5 / 5

I always have a little bit of a harder time with some of the VMMO books in that they try to create a fully real world but the real world components always feel a bit awkward to me. I personally prefer the teleportation / reincarnation concepts.

About this book though, it was fine. I found a lot of the conflict that was in this book and set up for the future to be very forced and overall not really that realistic. The main character's backstory wasn't really believable for me and the amount of animosity he gets from essentially....... everyone felt forced and not all that realistic.

The MC comes off as kind of a whiney kid to me as well. I get where he comes from, I just didn't care for him and his attitude and issues because of it.

It was ok, not my favorite.

Loved it

one of my new favorite litRPG i have read in a long time with one of the best narrators out there

Great book

Loved the whole book! Frank is hilarious and keeps the book moving. You never know what will happen next which keeps me listening

definitely a must read and listen!

pulls you into the world and does not let you go. can not wait to read the next book!

great series.

the best narration in the business.
great story and a hilarious talking axe.
definitely gonna grab the next one.

best litrpg I have read in a while

was a ton of fun to listen to and the narration is great. can't wait for the next book!

Good start, Rich development of characters, solid start.

This book has an interesting new spin on the MC. In these books most MCs start with nothing, a hard life, or a great challenge. The MC starts with all the advantages but still comes across as vulnerable. He is also not the all powerful MC who is hard to root for because he has too many “lucky” advantages. This book is significantly longer than most Litrpg books. I like that because many books seem too unfinished with their start in an attempt to lure you into buying lots of books for incrementally small advancement of the story.
Travis does an excellent job narrating the book. He have a nice range of voices which distinguish themselves.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the genre.