Quick-take: For fans of fantasy RPGs.

Dan's Review

Edward is somehow thrown in to a real life RPG. It has all the classic elements: critters, spell casting, and even internal stats with experience points. The RPG mechanics were certainly an interesting aspect. I was wondering how it'd work in a story. Basically, Edward is lost as I am. He must figure things out as the "game" moves along without the help of a tutorial mode. Also, we are assuming death is permanent.

Edward starts out weak and must level up his stats and skills. Thankfully, he starts in a weak area and quickly stumbles upon a couple other supporting characters. They basically join his clan within the first 10 min and helps him out of a bind. I thought that was a bit too convenient, but I'll let it pass.

Most RPGs I am familiar with has a tedious grinding aspect to it. Thankfully, there is no grinding. That'd make quite a boring story. Instead, the book can be thought of as a few side quests flowing together. As Edward moves along, he starts figuring out the RPG's lore.

The actual story surrounding this book was not that great. The part where Edward taps in to the game aspect of it was pretty interesting. For that alone, I bump this from a 3 to a 4. I appreciate trying something new. I am not entirely sure if the RPG aspect was enough to carry entire the story for a full novel, particularly when considering book 2. I thought too much story was tossed together at the end and was left confused after the big reveals.

For now, I am skipping book 2.