World-Tree Online

World-Tree Trilogy, Book 1

By: EA Hooper

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

Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's Summary

In 2056, the world's most powerful AI System, ARKUS, comes online. Created to extend human lifespans, it quickly makes world-changing discoveries in health science. It also develops an advanced VR headset that uses consumable nanomachines to let users experience time faster in virtual worlds.

Two years later, ARKUS releases World-Tree Online, a game where players scale a giant tree with thousands of unique game worlds hanging from the branches. The game's time-dilation makes it so that one hour of playtime feels like one month to those in-game, allowing humans to virtually extend their lifespans. However, after an old gamer named Vincent joins World-Tree Online, an update begins that stretches the time-dilation to one year for every five seconds. Players are unable to exit the game during the update - with an estimated wait time of three hundred sixty years.

After experimenting with an exploit, Vincent begins to develop new spells that will take him higher in the game than he ever thought possible. Unfortunately, he crosses paths with the last moderator, a young man named Lucas that uses his mod abilities to torture and subjugate other players.

Lucas is willing to abuse his power to conquer the World-Tree, but Vincent's exploit might just be the key to stopping him.

The Soundbooth Theater Team for this Production:

• Justin Thomas James - Music and Narration
• Jeff Hays - Jim and Killer Sam
• Laurie Catherine Winkel - Quinn, Alexandria, and the rest of the female cast
• Dalton Lynne - Proofing and Editing
• Ahmed Mahmoud - Editing, Mastering, and Sound Design

©2019 E.A. Hooper (P)2019 E.A. Hooper

Good book. One minor-ish gripe.

I enjoyed this book however. the characters were likeable and the bad guys really got on your nerves. My only gripe is this, the whole system with Mana potions felt way overused, it felt like in combat scenes every other sentence included "the protagonist drank aether" "the protagonist sipped aether" etc etc. not only did it continued to make me sit there and think where is he getting all of these potions but the system felt kind of lame and distracting to the point where I'm mentioning it now in my review.

Villain stole the show.

The whole book was great. Several time skips, so be prepared for that. The characters were well written. The world/s were very interesting.

The main antagonist though was perfect. Rarely have I so thoroughly hated a bad guy in a book. And my God was this one of em.

Couldnt finish, Not terrible but not for me

Its not bad, but I couldn't finish it. Im sure others will love it and maybe ill give it a second try some day. However I hated all of the characters, except the best friend Jim. The main character is a touch slow... and sucks at fighting. Hell, he spent all of four seconds picking a lame class. Then proceeds to almost get killed by a goblin cuz hes being a panzy but then charges a world boss...ugh. Anyway the main bad guy is cringe level psycho too with a childish flair. I'm just gonna have to take a break from this one for now..
For those on the fence though it is well written, and the narrators are really good. So dont worry about that at all.

GameLit that doesn’t fall victim to typical pitfalls

This book really surprised me. I was going out on a work trip and wanted to find a fun read for my travels. For background, I have listened to some GameLit RPGs prior (Chaos Seed, Ascend Online, and a few others) and will be measuring most of my review based on comparisons from those books. I’ll do my best not to put spoilers in here.

First thing I recognize is the combat-pacing. When listening to some of these books, you have to manage the pace in your head. Authors will typically over-explain a battle or fight to where by the time the narrator finishes reading that part, five minutes have passed in real time while you’ve been listening. While I’m sure some (if not most) readers appreciate the flowery adjectives describing the fight, for me it seems to take me out of the story. If I’m watching a fight, I notice what is happening and not thinking about the superfluous description of it. This book did a great job in that regard. If someone got hit by a weapon, the author wrote that and moved on to the other action taking place around (and there is a LOT of action). That’s not to say the author did not use adjectives at all, but that he seemed to write with combat-pacing in mind and the narrator delivered, making you feel like you couldn’t disengage from the book without missing something (something I commend them both for).

Second, is the overall lack of tedious number recitation. As a reader, I love the world-building mechanics and learning about “how stuff works” in the books I listen to. I rarely feel the need to skip the skill levels recitation and I do not typically want to miss the in depth description of newly obtained skills/items/abilities/etc. But for those that may be reading this that do, you’ll be happy to know there is a markedly different method utilized in this book. The author still has some numbers in here, but most of it is not “Player loses XX hp from sword slash, or enemy regenerated XX from magic potion”. It all seems to be relative and assumed as if the author is saying “yeah he got his mana back from that potion, now let’s get back to what really matters”. Very refreshing and kept the plot moving. This also contributed to drastically cutting down any lengthy battle sequences.

There are a few other things that makes this book stand out but I just got home from my work trip and am going to hug my kids now.

Climb that tree and build a house

Ok, so I’m going to commit some blasphemy here and I think a lot of it comes from all the hype that hit the book before I’d gotten to give it a listen. It’s a lot like being told how amazing a movie is by everyone you know and when you finally get to see it, it does not meet your expectations.

So, here’s the gist of the story. An old man who is mourning the loss of his wife finally breaks down and joins one of his long time buddies in the VR world. The man, Vincent, is a long time gamer and is looking for something that will help him take his mind off of the upcoming anniversary of her death, or birthday, I don’t remember and it really isn’t relevant. He enters the game and decides that he’s not going to party like he’s 20, as his buddy, Jim, is doing but he’s actually going to play the game. Low and behold, the game has a time dilation that allows you to play for super long periods of time in your head, while in actuality only an hour passes in the real world.
So of course, a glitch occurs that ends up making it so that everyone in the game will exist without being able to leave for over 300 years. Closer to 400, but hey. A moderator loses his mind, and decides that he likes the way Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini ran their countries and decides that he wants to do the same thing in the game world. He does some really creepy stuff and I’m honestly stunned that the book didn’t become waaaay darker than it did. That’s the compacted version. Vinnie and pals band together to fight the evil moderator. Do they win, fail, or continue on to the next book? Not ganna say, cause spoilers.

Now, I’m not saying that the book isn’t good, only that it was not what I had expected. Although there were a few things that sort of set me back a bit. So. I’m going to get all the negative stuff out of the way first. First off one thing that I did not appreciate were the time jumps. Granted, when you have characters who are stuck in a game for hundreds of years I can understand that you want to show some passage of time, but having them level up in the off time was annoying and it sort of robbed the readers of seeing what they did to get to that point. For example, one of the book’s blurbs talks about how Vin exploits a cheat. We get to see him figure it out, and then start to work on it, but then time passes and he is at 99% of the way finished with figuring it out. Granted, you do get to see him finalize his project, but a huge number of years have passed. Secondly, the simple acquisition of a new spell or skill seems to take forever. I realize that time dialation occurs, but there is no way I’m going to spend thirty years of my life trying to figure out a spell or other skill, when other games pretty much let you add stuff as you level. Leveling becomes impossibly difficult, too. There is one part where the party spends decades on some dead monster inhabited world just so they can become stronger. I don’t think that is even remotely realistic, even if you are under a threat of perma death. And that brings me to the real issue I had, in so far as the time they were trapped in the game really only had relevance to the first book. Crazy mod takes over, so no one can escape thus there is a need for the trapped in the game trope. But the trapped part is so long. Even if Hooper had just made it a hundred years it would have been so much more palatable. It would still have been horrifying, by just cutting away decades and making them single years. The horrors committed by the crazy mod would still be horrible. Oh, and a side note or two. Why would you play a game to forget about the emotional day that you are trying to avoid, when once you leave your memories are compressed and feel like a dream? Also, how much trouble can you get in for doing things in a game? Again, at the beginning of the book the mods are hunting bad guys, some of whom are known to have raped other players. Did they get jail time in real life for what they did? I know they got permabanned, but it is a very pertinent question because things transpire that will make some of the book wonky if that isn’t addressed later.
Ok, now onto the good stuff. The characters were developed and well fleshed out, and their teamwork flowed. The bad guy was admirably whiny and annoying to a point that he was utterly irritating and you hated him easily. There was an unusual game system that worked well, and it was pretty cool to see it in us. The fact that you could craft new spells was a great concept, even if I don’t understand why known spells weren’t easy to use. The fights were fun and well written. My favorite part is that the book isn’t stretched out into a needles trilogy in regards to the main villain Lucas. His arc is completed, and so there is now an opening for more changes to come in the series. The book has a lot of positive things going for it such as. . .

. . .The amazing work by the SBT team. I have said for a long time that LCW and JTJ are the Bonnie and Clyde of SBT. The go together like peas and carrots. Ugh, I hate peas and carrots, how about Ice Cream and Sprinkles? Much better. Justin and Laurie carry this book and probably made it more than it would have been just reading it. Jeff plays Vin’s pal Jim and has a ball with the womanizing alcoholic. Probably more fun than he should have. As always, SBTprovides a kick ass quality to the story they tell.

Final Score? 7.4 stars. Yeah, I had a lot of issues with the way the time dilation played out, the difficulty of creating spells, and the leveling between time jumps in general. The fights were great and well written, but jumping over a lot of levels and learning made me feel like I lost something that should have been there.

10/10 Would Recommend

All of the voice actors did a amazing job. The noises and fanfare that accompanied the narration enhanced the experience.

The story I find is thrilling and captivating. The characters are very memorable and the ending is very satisfying.. the perfect blend of emotions.

Finally a Change BRAVO

This book is the best interpretation of a fantasy LItRPG book. Instead of everyone playing the game is a prepubescent teenager or an overly sexiest young male and female, there are players of multiple ages and experiences. The story kept my attention and the cast excited my imagination. As a older gamer, thank you for a great story. It also provides a lesson, that all came learn from.

Science fiction at its best ...

E. A. Hooper gets the fundamentals right:

- Characters and some character development
- World building, including world monsters and world events
- Balanced fights
- Well connected plot

which is all used to explore the what if of infinite time to enjoy life and to explore the condition of being human. I wish there were more authors writing elevating books like this one and that books like this one made it to the best-seller list more often, instead of all the incongruent post-apocalyptic gloomy c**p ala Stephen King and George R. R. Martin.

Great Audio, but writing is lacking.

I like the idea and story. I loved the audio. What I didn't like was the often childish driving forces behind the heros and villain. If you're looking for something that you don't have to put a lot of effort into listening to or reading, and want to enjoy a good story, grab this.

-critial review below-

The MC is only there to be OP and his only driving force is, "I want a challenge."

The big bad is literally a child, and an extremely mentally unstable. His actions are all obsession driven and lean towards him being a rapist. I hated him, but not because he was a good villain. I hated him because he's a petulant child and no one would stand up to him.

Example: His right hand man is portrayed as an adult eastern European / Russian mob style character, who comes up with protection scams. Yet, hes afraid of a 16 year old, maybe 17 year old possible rapist child.

Story: B+
Audio: A+
Character development: D

This was phenomenal

This was one of the best books I've read this year. fantastic narrators, great story, suitable for many audiences without being childish. I cant wait for more in this universe.

Excellent and fairly unique!

Absolutely loved it - the descent into tyranny, the magic system, the worlds! I don't usually write reviews but this book deserves a special mention.
enjoy :)

it was good

it was very good just needed time to get into it but it was really good

Such a good story

I have been "reading" through many LitRPGs, and this one is probably one of my favourites so far (along with The Cradle and some others). The characters are likable, the performance was amazing, the added sound effects were a really nice touch and the story contained depths that allowed the characters to grow. Will be sprinting through this series for sure.

Good book

Enjoyed the book once I got into it like that it had a defining ending but left it open for more

Great listen

I have really enjoyed this story. I’m new to this genre but have just downloaded the second story. A great experience.

Top Notch

I only got into this genre recently, after listening to Ready Player One and then Beast Realms book 1. I tried 2 other RPG audiobooks but couldn't finish them. Always takes a little while to get into a new story, so at the start, I wasn't sure. But jeeze this one was really epic. Such a massive audacious scale... but it's done really well. Great blend of fantasy, action, rpg elements. Some dark themes like the harder world's remind me of Diablo games! And the theme of people getting banned and being stuck in time remind me of some Black Mirror episodes.
Really good stuff that I won't forget easily.

Epic book

An amazing Audi book with fantastic voice narators. I found my self locked in a room listening away till the end.

Easy to follow and great character development.

can't believe it took me this long

just finished the story. firstly the narration was excellent. having multiple people and SFX took the performance to 11. the pacing was just right and the story felt jam packed full of action. the bit bad had me rooting for someone to ring his bell and all the other characters felt full and tangible

The One

Honestly this was the book I’ve been looking for.

Loved it 10/10.

SAO +1

Just read it!!

Honestly, this is a flipping amazing book. Really well written and good pace. Just read it you won’t regret it!