Viridian Gate Online: Cataclysm

The Viridian Gate Archives, Book 1

By: James Hunter

Narrated by: Armen Taylor

Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

If the destruction of Earth and extinction of humanity were imminent, how far would you go to survive? Would you kill your body to save your mind?

Jack Mitchel is willing to risk everything to survive the apocalypse — including his essential humanity.

An EMT in 2042 San Diego, Jack knows he won't survive the impact of the massive asteroid hurtling towards Earth. After all, he's not one of the handful of lucky lottery winners scheduled for rescue. But he did luck into a NexGenVR capsule, which means Jack can risk a one-way trip to the virtual reality world of Viridan Gate Online, a completely immersive online multiplayer fantasy role-playing game, or RPG.

The transition to Viridian Gate Online (V.G.O.) is irreversible, and will kill Jack's corporeal form. And once players transition fully into the world of V.G.O., the risks aren't over — from cutthroat fellow players to greedy developers eager to replicate the wealth discrepancies of Earth in virtual reality, V.G.O. is just as dangerous as the 'real world' was. If Jack can’t game the system, he’s going to be trading in a quick death for a long, brutal one....

LitRPG books combine tropes and themes from role-playing games with sci-fi and fantasy elements to tell a unique story that's exciting and super-relevant to today's world. Jack's adventures in a cutthroat virtual reality fantasy world will grip fans of Ready Player One and The Stormlight Archive alike. With over 200,000 copies sold, this is one series you don't want to miss!

©2017 James A. Hunter and Shadow Alley Press, Inc. (P)2017 James A. Hunter and Shadow Alley Press, Inc.

Starts out rough, gets better

At first I was really irritated. The main character is a total "nice guy" at first (we don't know if he still is yet, guess we'll see in future books?) which is absolutely disgusting. I couldn't figure out if this was an intentional character flaw or a reflection of what the author actually thought romantic interaction looks like. Everything was incredibly predictable except for the occasional gaping plot hole. Right as I was about to give up and give this book a scathing review, however, it got good. Really good lol. Just suffer through it, I promise it's worth it. The narrator is really good too, every time a character yawned I yawned. Always a good sign, strangely enough lol. Means that I'm fully immersed

Bought more credits!

Great story! If you’re a fan of litRPG then this is a must try. I had to listen at 1.25x speed because the narrator is a tad slow for my liking.

Wow, wow, wow.

This is the first LitRPG book that uses a game realm as answer to a cataclysmic event on Earth. Brilliant writing, depth and detail of characters, backstory and just an all around exciting adventure.

One of the best!

seriously love this series. definitely won't regret it when you hit that download button.

A Better version of Ready Player One

Normally, I have a gripe about books. Not this one. With all the classic parts of fantasy, you forget that this is technically sci-fi. The world is explored by the protagonist and he feels real. All of his struggles and fears are appropriate, even down to how he handles the bad guys. Love where the story is, and I already downloaded the second book so I can continue learning about this fantastic apocalypse.

Very enjoyable, great premise

Daniel Thomas May did an AWESOME job with the voices. No mistaking who was who.
The overall idea was a good one. The actual story flowed well, but didn't seem to make the MC really grow. I know this is the first book of a series but I wish authors would write a complete book that COULD be expounded on, then add to the story with 2nd, 3rd or more books.

It's the end of the world and I feel fine

The Publishers Summary is fairly good: it's the end of the world. Except maybe for the rich in super bomb shelters.

As an aside, I used to work at NORAD, the most super of super bomb shelters. I've been in rooms stacked with enough MRE palettes to feed a small army for a decade. I've walked through massive, bomb-proof doors on a daily basis. A teensy part of the story involves computer servers and a few rich people that will survive a cataclysm.

99% of the story involves those that will not survive, but many of them have an option to try surviving online in those protected servers in a huge online game. This is a new litrpg twist, and I really liked it. The main character is a medic, and he leaps at the chance to survive online. I would to!

The fantasy world is well thought out and fun, and I liked the characters. Quite a few characters are helpful, and virtually all work for their own motivations. I don't recall any characters specifically created to give the main character in particular a hard time.

Highly recommended.

not a waste

it's good I was concerned because someone else's review and I got this in the included section but if if I paid for it I would be satisfied with my purchase.i heard it doesnt have a hook but that was incorrect.jack is no bad a. he works innovatively with every choice and boss he fights.he doesn't have any op skills or weapons and there is a diverse story line centered on the actual game they are stuck into.im happy with what I heard happened in the trl.its done so I dont need to know more what's keeps you hooked is the scandal created in vgo. give a try if your disappointed I don't think litrpgs are your style

Overall story is good, but...

The overall story is very gripping to me. I am not a LitRPG fan, picking this up instead because it was free. The performance should be 5 stars, except that the English accent for one of the main characters is god-awful. I'm not sure if it just gets better with every book or if I just got used to it, but it was BAAAADDD.

As for the story:

The plot is cool, and the worldbuilding is five stars, The problem is that it becomes glaringly obvious that this book doesn't have an editor, or at least not an editor who takes a lot of time doing the work. Listening to the audiobook, I almost always knew EXACTLY the words that were going to come next, because they were used all the time.

Even though some metaphors were quite good, the author uses them like they're going out of style (*hayuck*). I actually found myself being enthralled with paragraphs that didn't have metaphors. I think my critical piece of feedback is that this author clearly has room to grow in their descriptions, and part of that would be to stop using metaphors as crutches. A little goes a long way!

Plot-wise, there are some really obvious contradictions that become apparent. I think the author does a good job tying up most loose ends, but not all. Characters personalities don't seem to change in predictable or smooth ways, instead happening suddenly.

Finally, women in this series are... Underdeveloped as characters. The main female character's most interesting quality is that she curses a lot. Despite singlehandedly being the entire reason that any plot point progresses, she comfortably takes a back seat and seems to relish in following Jack's lead. She also gets really emotional and Jack needs to remind her that she's not a wallflower. Finally, although it only happened twice so far, the author seems to find it perfectly acceptable to describe men who are scared as "little girls". It's fairly cringeworthy, and if this series were more popular, I have no doubt that it would be eviscerated for its treatment of female gamers.

After all this - would I recommend this series? Yes. Probably. Despite its flaws, and despite the work the author needs to do to improve his skills, it is an interesting world he's developed. If you find yourself aggravated by writing styles, this probably won't be for you, but if you can get past that, and ignore some of the weird "strong but one-dimensional" gamer girl things that seem to just be a part of all nerd fantasy (think, Ready Player One), then it is probably worth pursuing this series further and supporting the author. Hopefully, in ten years' time, I will be able to proudly say that I was reading his work and it's gotten way better. I definitely think that's possible here.

solid start

I love this series overall . after coming from the illusionist, I feel Jack's character isn't as interesting up front, but a relatable everyman and is very clever in solving impossible situations. his class and party are also pretty interpreting.