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..

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

where is book 3

I will have to invest in the rest of the series this was really good. a frustrating taste and Im impatient for more.

Good Story

I enjoyed the story. It was interesting seeing another story in the Viridan Gate Online world.

Parallel Story line with book 2

With many series you expect book 2 to be a hammock Segway to book 3 but in this parallel saga your actually preemptively excited since if you rest the Cataclysm series your aware of the ending.

The story was mostly new material surrounding the Abby character and it was great back story to line up the interactions.

A lot of this for people NOT listening to them back to back 3 days apart will be very helpful and informative back story as Jack and Cutter play a large part of the deeper story line.

Looking forward to listing to the 3rd. 👍🏼

Felt longer than it should

Overall a pretty decent story, it felt like it took way longer than it should have to finish, but of a slog but still held my interest to the end.

VGO strikes again with another great addition to its storyline

If you haven’t gotten into VGO yet then you need to now...go get book one in any of the series. Once you do that just keep buying till you have them all. This is the book two in the storyline focused on the character Abby and how she develops in VGO, her quest against Ozmark and Sandra and keeping VGO the sanctuary and great works it was destined to be. Awesome spells, leveling up stats, equipment, characters and battles. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher

Great character development

I really like seeing Abby’s side of the story. There are so many great characters in this book and all of these spin off books help with the character development. Emily Woo Zeller does a phenomenal job narrating.

couldn't stop listening!

Excellent story, with excellent narration.

I was hooked, hearing about Abby and Otto's adventures. There were great nail biting sections, and a few tears held back.

I'm really looking forward to the next in the series!

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.]