Viridian Gate Online: Embers of Rebellion

A LitRPG Adventure (The Firebrand Series, Book 2)

By: J.D. Astra

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's Summary

A single spark begets an inferno.

The theft of the drug lord Carrera’s Faction Seal has set Osmark’s empire-to-be ablaze with the hunt for Abby and Otto’s heads, but her quest to discover the truth about the ultra-rare item won’t wait. There are only days left until Earth’s destruction, and the Faction Seal plays some role in Osmark’s plan to rule over Viridian Gate Online, the immersive VRMMO game turned humanity’s lifeboat. 

With nowhere left to turn in Harrowick, Abby and Otto have no choice but to flee to the rebel undergrounds of Alaunhylles - a fading light that was once a beacon of hope in the Imperial aligned city. They come seeking answers in the Grand Archives, but the rebels have their own problems, and their own priorities.... Priorities that might just get Abby and Otto killed before they can find the answers they need. 

The enterprising rebel Firebrand will have to dig deep to complete her quest or see all her hopes go up in flames in this next installment of the Firebrand series: Embers of Rebellion. 

From James A. Hunter - author of Viridian Gate Online, Rogue Dungeon, War God's Mantle, and the Yancy Lazarus Series - and author J.D. Astra, comes an epic new entry into the Expanded Universe of Viridian Gate Online that you won't want to pause!

©2019 Shadow Alley Press Inc (P)2019 Shadow Alley Press Inc

Good, BUT

MC is a caster & stupid: #1 brawls with melee/brawl types MANY TIMES & doesn't even TRY training. This game would let her get any BASIC skills, just like RL #2 lets people live & these people will torture her FOE EVER, crush her friends & ENJOY IT. Story moderate pace, but drags a bit: some action & magic. No romance. RL & humor minimal. MC wines & inner monologues TO MUCH. The world is ending & some make it into this brand new fantasy LitRPG world, so every one is scrambling to get a BIG piece. Each spell description has 3 parts & that's VERY irritating: 1st the name, 2nd the name + a simple description & 3rd the name + a description with stats or affects. Performance is pretty good, with many different voices & good inflections..

Good with really frustrating parts…

This isn’t so much of a spoiler so here goes… what the heck is MCs issue with thinking everything she’s looking at is just code?? I understand that’s how it started, but once she’s fully transitioned (see previous book so it’s not a spoiler) she’s just code herself! This is her life now… so where it started, like her npc backstory or any other game backstory, doesn’t matter because that’s her reality now.

I don’t have a problem with the narration, I’ve heard much worse and this was pretty good. But the MC is so whiny, and doesn’t say or do what would make sense for the character to do sometimes. Also a couple other characters seem hyper focused on some issues and yet reasonable the next minute. I won’t go into further detail because of spoilers, but the book left me frustrated a lot, and then it was really good at other times, and it was the frustrations that distracted me from what I liked in the story.

Chick flick

Too much emotion. You could definitely tell it was written by a women. A lot of parts I had to push thru

Not as Good as Book 1

In this things are from Abby’s perspective. I was surprised to find that the Abby presented here is nothing like the Abby was written briefly in book 1, and honestly, the main character isn’t very likable, and she’s self defeating to the point in any MRPG this character would have gotten herself and others massacred again and again, acting without thinking or considering much of anything. For book where the main character is the one doing all of the talking/thinking, she doesn’t seem to have much depth. Thankfully, this book is not full of a bunch of annoying and useless stats, but the constant self reflection is fairly annoying. I’m not sure what happened between book 1 and this book, but where I could get into and lose myself in book 1, I’m having a really tough time getting into this book.

Although the action in this book is thankfully immediately and continuous, (so I’m not sure why I dislike this book so much), I hate to say it, but maybe it’s the Narrator, who really seems only good at performing the main character, all the other characters are not remotely believable as ‘others’, so I guess that’s why I can’t lose myself in the adventure, that or it is simply the reading of it by the Narrator.

Regardless of the reason, this book isn’t very enjoyable for me. I’ll muddle through to the end, I’m sure, but that has more to do with my stubbornness and knowing the ‘end’, than it does the book. The story and plot is a good one I suppose, so, yeah, it has to be the Narrator’s reading.

This will be my last journey into this world by this author, if there is a next book and this Narrator is the Reader.

Good Luck to You all and hopefully, you’ll enjoy it far more than I did...

great story...but

Too much time is spent saying the same thing in most every scene. After the point is made I wish she would stop repeating herself. We can understand that she feels that she is the cause for other's troubles and that she doesn't want Otto to die.

Great story

Great story, and characters. I wanna see how the protagonists succeed. Abby is annoying though

Good but predictable

It is a good story but is somewhat predictable. The author got a bit annoying with a few stats that were repeated, but overall, it is a good read.

Abby is not the smartest.

i really like the author and series however the main character is not the smartest. if she was a bit smarter i would like it a lot more.

not a whimpering as 1st

This one was better than the first but not enough to spend the credit on the 3rd. sorry hope this helps.

what ever shall I do.

between the melodramatic reading and the mc constant internal monolog of self doubt and external bluster, I can not tell you why I finished this book.

Lost interest a bit

I’ve listened to all of the other books in the extensive Viridian Gate universe and found this to be the least interesting. I really struggled to keep listening to the end of this second book. I don’t think there was enough new and the storyline seemed to just be going through the paces. Maybe that’s unfair but I just wasn’t feeling it compared to the other amazing books.

Abbie is in Fire

Sorry i couldn't resist the headline but Abbie being such a great character ,and as her and Otto try to escape Imperials whilst making new friends on their route to investigate the mysterious faction seal.
Enjoying the books and after the first audio this was a lot easier to get into as Zeller narrates this very well if different to how she is done in the main VGO series.
Either way im a fan of the books and the audios so this is an easy 5 stars

Enjoyable sequel

This is a strong follow-up to the first book in this series with the author dramatically ramping things up for the heroes in an interesting and enjoyable manner that will definitely keep you listening if you enjoyed the first one and will also leave you eager for the next book too whenever that is due.

The author does a good job of increasing the size of the cast with some new additions that are both interesting in their own right, but at the same time add to the depth and backstories of the returning cast from the first book.

The narrator's performance is again a strong one that really helps the listener to enjoy the book even more.

Overall, a strong sequel with the main downside being that there's no book three yet.

[Note - I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.]