Tides of Magic

By: James C. Williams

Narrated by: Austin Rising

Length: 27 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

When Hal Emden hears about a contest that offers winners the chance to test the newest game from his favorite designer on a cutting-edge, unprecedented virtual reality system, he has to try his luck.

Surprisingly, he wins. A full week, all expenses paid, to play the fully immersive game Tides of Magic Online.

He is now about to play at what might be the largest live gaming press event of all time, which is swarming with journalists, online personalities, and other contest winners. What could possibly go wrong? I mean, it's not like Elwin, the creator of the game and series, is an insane psychopath intent on trapping them in his virtual world for purposes unknown...right?

©2019 James C. Williams (P)2020 Podium Audio

I liked it

Yes it's might have started out as the basic get pumped into a game and got a really play it for real but I like the ending I really did 5 Stars

Ending?

So lots of unanswered questions. It still seems like an ending and I can't see another book coming. I did enjoy the story just hate the ending. I don't want to spoil anything so ill say this my view may not be your view. Read the book and make your own decision Its worth the credit.

wonderful!!

great story telling with a fulfilling ending. the cost was pretty good and the Narration was to notch. the only thing was the romance parts fell flat and felt unrealistic but that aside it was to notch.

Good, but long.

I enjoyed the book, the narrator was excellent, but I was ready for the end.

Awesome book

If you enjoy litrpg books every thing was good in this book the character’s weren’t over powered to begin with they had to earn every level and stat boost and he still made you want more I hope audible gets the rest of the series

Maybe the author heard about RPGs

I'm seriously convinced the author wrote a book he has no idea what he was writing about outside of a general understanding of the subject. The beginning was awful. Very slice of life for people trapped in a video game.

Halfway through, couldn’t handle any more

It just never got going! Halfway through and they seem to have stopped caring that their bodies are dying in the real world and they are happy to slowly play this slice of life game.

Sorely in need of an editor

All the characters are caricatures of their professions or have no personality at all. The engineer is the only one that could possibly understand anything science related. The accountant is the only one that could possible understand anything with numbers (unless those numbers happen to be science). A CIA agent is somehow also saluting and calling the protagonist (a civilian) sir. He immediately tries to take charge, but then concedes control when he is beaten in a fight because they sent him in with zero knowledge of how games work (that was really dumb). And they're all geniuses in their one area, but useless outside of it. There is a weird theme of gamers being misunderstood that is brought up an annoying amount (I say that as a gamer). The CIA agent is referred to as "the spook" what felt like constantly. I didn't know that was a word of CIA agent until this book and now I hope to never hear it again. All character interactions were cringey or unrealistic. Most of the time it was hard to listen to the love interests interact.

The overall story was interesting and the world I enjoyed. The characters were all written terribly. An editor was badly needed.

OP'd to the MAX!!

I don’t think I have ever read a book where everything just magically falls into the lead characters laps. I mean the book takes place over the course of a few years and Hal the leader only faces death once and even then he is saved?

Also, he basically turns all of his buddies into walking gods themselves. It is amazing to see how OP’d these guys got, to where after a few years they are ready to take on a demi-god and his army that numbers in the millions.

I would have rather read the story line on the party of players that got teamed wiped, probably would have been more entertaining.