Viridian Gate Online: Side Quests: A litRPG Anthology

By: James Hunter, J.D. Astra, D.J. Bodden, N.H. Paxton, Raymond Johnson, Nicholas Reid

Narrated by: Jeff Hays, Justin Thomas James, Laurie Catherine Winkel, Annie Ellicott

Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

The End is Coming.

An extinction-level asteroid is cannonballing toward Earth. In humanity’s final hours, a lucky few earn a one-way ticket to the brand-new, ultra-immersive, fantasy-based VRMMORPG, Viridian Gate Online. Making that leap of faith might mean survival, but it comes with a steep price tag: “Travelers” will forever be stranded as digital avatars inside a fantastical world filled with vicious monsters, all-powerful AIs, and cutthroat players. Let the games begin....

Six amazing authors. Six incredible new tales. All set in the best-selling Viridian Gate Online Universe. Side Quests is an anthology for fans, by the fans!

Included in Side Quests:

"A Gentleman’s Work" by James A. Hunter - When an Imperial Inquisitor captures a Thieves Guild Operative, Cutter must undertake a deadly rescue mission while using every grift in the book to stay one step ahead of a Headsman’s Blade. And the prize for this extraordinary quest? Nothing short of the keys to the Rowanheath Thieves Guild. Deception, subterfuge, and heavy drinking - all in a day’s work for a Gentleman...

"The Funeral Parlor" by Raymond Johnson - A young spiderling is stranded in an alien land, surrounded by hostile creatures. Forced to fight for her life in a bid to find her way home, she must transform into the predator she is destined to become or die alone and forgotten, trapped in a dark world know as the Shadowverse.

"The Raiding of Rowanheath" by J.D. Astra - The Crimson Alliance has breached the walls of Rowanheath, inciting Aleixo Carrera’s rage. Now Abby and her rag-tag invasion crew must reach the keep’s Command Center before the defending troops mobilize and shut down the takeover, else they’ll lose the battle and the war for Eldgard’s freedom.

"The Ballad of Jaro Edgewalker" by N.H. Paxton - Jaro is an assassin, and he’s good at it. But when he finds a foe that is insurmountable by normal means and uncovers a plot to destroy everything he loves, Jaro has to balance his morality with his love for his friends and make an incredibly difficult decision.

"Buried Alive" by Nicholas Reid - Carlos Vega thinks he’s escaping certain death by entering the virtual world of V.G.O., but instead he’s swallowed alive by the deadly Barren Sands. He’ll have to overcome the riddles and horrors of a long-forgotten temple in order to escape, but can he do it before the evil sealed there centuries ago finds him?

"A Final Kindness" by D.J. Bodden - Alan Campbell was a talker, not a fighter, until someone murdered his girl. He’d almost given up on finding the killers; now he’s got a fresh lead, a trio of mercenaries who outclass him in every way but his wits. He’ll cheat, bluff, and steal to get his revenge, and as one of V.G.O.’s immortal travelers, he’s willing to die trying.

©2018 James Hunter (P)2019 James Hunter

Great Book, Okay Sound Effects

The book has great short stories that are thrilling and intriguing. Sound effects not necessary.

Side Stories

Yay, I’m caught up on what counts as the main series of James Hunter’s Viridian Gate Online. Why? Didn’t I do that a few days ago? Yes and no, you see they count the anthology even though it kind of isn’t a part of any of the series and has a couple short stories that more belong to the side ones.
Not a lot I can say that isn’t spoilers, because the whole book is just short compressed stories with pithy endings, so I’ll just say this. I have a love-hate relationship with anthologies. Conceptually, I really like the idea of a bunch of authors writing stories in the same universe. And even when it’s one author I like the change in prospective they can bring. But I have to admit that they often don’t feel like enough, like their just teasing me with concepts that will probably never return.
I’ll admit there was a bit of that here, but I still really liked it enough so I’d still recomend it… just only if you have a credit to kill. It’s not essencial in any way to the story of the main series and I doubt it will be essencial to the side series. It’s just a bit of content that nicely expands what’s already there and introduces a few new and extremely interesting concepts that are probably going to have limited use going forward.

Awesome

Awesome! This book was so good it would be cool for the stories to get there own books and saga.

Meh

This was all right I guess I probably personally didn’t care for it because of the changing of characters constantly

fantastic!!

Loved all the stories. Sound booth theater did a fantastic job. adding sound effect to make the book more immersive. I enjoyed it very so much I'm on my second listen.

More PLEASE

I cant get enough of the VGO universe every story that comes out makes me want more and more!

Great Start

This was a great way to introduce additional characters and stories into the VGO universe. I loved the combination of voice actors as well. Looking forward to the full stories of the new characters. Well done to all!

great stories from the background characters

This is a set of short stories that cover the background characters. These stories are very well thought out. I really enjoyed the expansion of the background.

Great detour!

All the stories were entertaining, but as usual the best was saved for last. Brilliantly written.

Surprisingly Good!

I wasn’t a huge fan of the Firebrand off shoot (it may have just been the writer) and the Osmark book was just okay, so I was wary to stray from main storyline again, but I thoroughly enjoyed all these stories (and finally loved the writing/performance for Abby and Otto in their short story- two characters I’ve wanted to like who were treated haphazardly in Firebrand). I really look forward to seeing some of these characters again in the main story, like Sheklak (sp) and the Illusionist.