Disgardium Books Two Through Twelve by Dan Sugralinov

It's no longer very often I get carried away in a series and just can't put it down. I've gotten a bit jaded in my old age and being a book reviewer I try to skip around between authors and end up not coming back to a series I swore I was going to finish because not it's eight authors later and I've got a ninth to read and well...

You get the idea.

The fact remains that I love to get swept away by a series. I just spent an entire month reading Dan Sugralinov's Disgardium series. I loved every minute of it and I will get back into this one when the next books come out this su...

This s...

Thi...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

IT'S NOT FAAAAAAAAAAAAAIR!!!!

I thought that this was a twelve book series. It's supposed to be a twelve book series. It said it was a twelve book series. It almost is a twelve book series. But...

But...

Book Twelve, appropriately titled Unity, got too long and it got split into three parts and now I have to wait till this summer for parts thirteen and fourteen. I'm gonna freak out here. I can't wait that long to find out how this thing ends.

I mean, it's not like it's my first time here. I've been following David Weber's Honorverse since the reign of Bush the Younger and I've had some fairly significant waits there. Don't get me started on how long I had to wait for the end of Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children or what I had to say about the last book afterward. But dude...

I thought this thing was going to end at twelve. I was prepared for the big denouement and it didn't come. I feel like I just went on the most awesomest date in the history of ever, go the girl to her front door, leaned in for a kiss and she was like, "Totes wanna kiss you but I gotta pee. Hang out here for a sec." and then took off and left me holding her purse.  I mean, I know she'll be back but the suspense is killing me.

I reviewed the first book, Class A Threat, here.  An awful lot has happened since then and most of it is only good in the sense of how entertaining it is. The main character, Alex Sheppard AKA Scyth - his character in the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game known as Disgardium, is one tough kid. And yes, I do mean kid. He starts the story as a fourteen year old and by the end of the twelfth book is only sixteen. At that age though, Alex is hardcore.

He does battle against everyone and everything in the game world of Disgardium and that's a game where the players have in game pain transferred into their real life bodies. He also faces massive challenges in the real world both from people who wish him harm and from those who wish to bribe him. He's an honest man though, and he manages to not fall by the wayside. I like this kid. He could date my daughters. Well, maybe my oldest. My youngest is only twelve so she's still a bit young.

Alex, as the name of the first book Class A Threat implies is a Threat in the game of Disgardium, meaning that he has a highly imbalanced power that can change the whole game. How that works/what it means in precise terms is a spoiler. Go read the books if you want to know. What it also means is that he has to hide his status to protect himself from others in the game who would kill his character in order to collect a bounty. It also endangers him in real life, as players and the Snowstorm, the creators of the game, can control his character and how he uses his powers if they can control him.

Alex is not, however, afraid to use his abilities as a Threat to treat himself to acquire some benefits in the game. He gains levels - a measure of how powerful his character is- at a breakneck pace. He brings in unbelievable amounts of in game money (gold) in the process and that's a big deal. In Sugralinov's world, anyone who has reached the age of majority (sixteen) and passed their citizenship exams can take their gold out of the game and covert it to phoenixes - real world money - and some get extremely rich in the process. With Alex's in game wealth, he can do exactly that IF he takes and passes his citizenship exams. 

And I'm not going to tell you if he did or how it went if so. Read the books.

Alex also manages to use his in game wealth to hire a bunch of non-citizens to work for him in-game. Most of them are of legal age and can cash out a small amount of their gold monthly. For most of them, Disgardium is their only source of income. Alex does right by these people and does his best to take care of them both in and out of the game. He takes on more responsibility at the age of sixteen than most people do in their entire lives and he thrives while doing it. Of course, this causes problems in the real world as well. Not everyone can be trusted and not everyone who sells him out means him ill. The world is a big, confusing place for me at forty-seven and this is a kid with the weight of the world on his shoulders. The fact that he can keep moving forward says a lot about him as a person. The fact that I can keep reading and so easily suspend disbelief says a lot about Sugralinov as an author. 

The worldbuilding here is impressive and leaves me a bit confused about Sugralinov's politics. There is enough here to anger members of both parties in the United States, but that's part of what makes it good. I slide back and forth with my reactions to what his characters think and do but they are always believable. Sugralinov appears to be a political writer with his own agenda and no one else's. Also, he doesn't harp on the politics for the most part. 

The action sequences in the real world in the book are intense and fast paced. They make me wince at parts and at many points trying to figure out how Alex and friends were going to get out of what was thrown at them. At least one thing had me convinced that the rest of the stories were going to be written about ghosts but they got out of it alive and somewhat well-ish. At least alive. 

His in-game action sequences are what really got me worked up though. I've played World of Warcraft and Everquest and have literal years invested in game time played. My WoW main had over eighteen months online all by himself. I haven't played in awhile, but Disgardium almost has me back into it.

Alex/Scyth are involved in some of the most intense player versus player combat sequences imaginable. I've fought encounters in WoW and raided cities. I've never done anything that comes anywhere near what happens in these books. I'd love to just see something like this happen on Twitch or something and I don't even watch Twitch. Alex and friends also do multiple instances and down multiple bosses for the first time ever. This guy has a gaming career that most players three times his age can't even dream of. These are probably the best parts of what would be an awesome series without them.

Disgardium is my new favorite LitRPG series. I can't wait for the last two books. 

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Rainbow Crystals

Apostle of the Sleeping Gods, The Destroying Plague, Resistance, Holy War, Path of Spirit, The Demonic Games, Enemy of the Inferno, Glory to the Dominion!, Clear Threat, Out of Play, Unity
Dan Sugralinov
Magic Dome Books 2019-2023

Apostle of the Sleeping Gods: Book Two of Disgardium is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

Apostle of The Sleeping Gods

Dan Sugralinov's Class A Threat (Disgardium Book One)

 

Sometimes, a book just pushes all the right buttons in just the right order. If you're me then that book is Dan Sugralinov's Class A Threat. Seriously, this book was a real treat. I'll get to the whys and wherefores in a bit, but I don't go through books this quickly very often. I started reading Class A Threat right after finishing another book and I was "taking a quick break" before I started writing my review. I'm still going to review that book, it'll be up tomorrow, but WOW! Sugralinov rocked the dance floor with this one.

And nope, that's totally not a reference to any songs named Rock the Casbah and any mistaken lyrics on my part. Nope. Uh-uh! 

DUDE! 

You really should make at least an ATTEMPT at looking convinced. It's not good for my ego to get doubted and we all know my ego is, like, fragile and junk. So be nice and stop trying to harsh my mellow.

Or sumfin'

In a lot of ways, Class A Threat is very similar to another book I've read, only they turned that one into a movie. There's no Eighties nostalgia here, nor is there a group of Gunters out to solve the mystery, but the universe reminds me a lot of Ready Player One. There is a game where you can make real world money, pretty much everyone of at least fourteen years of age plays it or used to, and you can put real world money into it. Seriously, Disgardium is more popular than Candy Crush was in its heyday. This game is everywhere and it's required for kids from the age of fourteen to sixteen. Players that age are confined to areas called "sandboxes" and that's where main character Alex Sheppard starts.

There is also a dystopian society. The government runs everything. People are divided by class according to their ability to do good things for society. Alex lives on the good side of town as both of his parents are computer programmers who contribute to the game that he plays, but that may not last. See, they're going to get divorced and when they do, their social status will drop. Of course, they may be able to gain it back, but they used to work so well together...

Yeah, that and a lot of other teenage problems appear on the pages of Class A Threat. There's school, dating, etc. The thing I like though, is that this isn't Twilight. Alex isn't some whiny little punk starving for attention. He's the kind of kid who gets through what he has to get through in his own way (read: he's a geek) but he doesn't whine much. He does freak out a bit about things that will have an obvious effect on his future, but it's for logical reasons and he's not a mope. I like this kid. He reminds me of me in some ways.

Well, except for the part where he doesn't end up with the geeky chick. I can't fathom that. Apparently, the other girl is better looking and Alex doesn't understand the concept of a plus five to hotness if she's a geek. Seriously, brain power rocks, and this kid is thinking with his, uhh..

Well, you get the idea. Oh, and he drinks a bit which was something I didn't really do in high school, and I'm actually serious there. Ask anyone who knew me. The one time I did take a sip of beer by buddy Robbie passed out. It was scary, but I also laughed at him. Also, Bud Dry sucks. But I digress.

Something else I was very heavily reminded of while reading Class A Threat was my time spent playing World of Warcraft, except for the part where Alex doesn't like it at first. He has to play, so it sucks. But once  he gets into it, I'm reminded of my early days. He has no clue about the game, or the world it's played in but he's having a good time and finding a way to make his way in the game, and if he has a little adv...

Nevermind, spoilers.

If you've played WoW though, or really any Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, then you'll see a lot that you'll recognize here. "Gankers", rated Player Versus Player combat, dungeons/instances, raids, Non-Player Characters, different grades of loot drops denoted by colored text, I could go on for hours. Trust me when I tell you that it felt like old home week for a reformed WoWhead. That even goes down to the mounts, although Alex can't  afford one at first. Although I am one hundred percent certain, on every level except reality, that the name of the company that makes Disgardium, SnowStorm, was in no way inspired by Blizzard, the company that makes WoW. Yup. Totes coincidental. Totes.

Also like me, Alex manages to find himself a group of friends who actually know what they're doing and can help him in game. Out there somewhere is a woman named Edie, although she was known in game as Persifinee, who taught me how to gear up and how to raid. There's a guy named Dustin, aka Myronath, who taught me how to rep grind, level quickly and earn cool stuff in game. Later, he taught me a lot about how to run a guild. I mean, no one ever really taught me how to play a hunter with Growl turned off, but no system is perfect.  So yeah, that part reads true to me, except that I've never gotten to meet Myro or Persi in person and Alex is in the same sandbox his schoolmates are in and they all know each other in real life and actually get to hang out together. 

Something that LitRPG writers have to do well is create two worlds that work well together. Sugralinov has done a damn fine job of doing just that. It's very easy to track when Alex is in the real world and when he's in the game, but there's no discontinuity as he switches back and forth. As a matter of fact, Sugralinov does a better job of tracking the real world effects of too much gaming than pretty much any other LitRPG author I've read. This makes Class A Threat believable on a level that a lot of other LitRPG books just aren't. I've already started Book Two, but I'm not going to give the title because it's kind of spoliery for Book One. I'm enjoying it though.

It also kinds of bums me out that Class A Threat is too old to nominate for a Dragon Award, because I think it deserves one. Then again, since it's that old there's a ton of sequels to read so I guess I'll get over myself.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Boxes of Donuts

Class A Threat
Dan Sugralinov
Magic Dome Books, 2019

Class A Threat is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

Eric Ugland's Scamps & Scoundrels: The Bad Guys, Book One

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's too many hours spent playing World of Warcraft and Everquest. Maybe it's being a tabletop RPG player. Maybe it's just a general geekishness. But, whatever the reason, I sure do love me a good Lit RPG story. And Eric Ugland's Scamps & Scoundrels, The Bad Guys: Book One fits the bill. It's got the action. It's got the drama. It's got the clueless protagonist who doesn't seem to get the fact that the girl wants him. Okay, that last one isn't necessarily a requirement for good LitRPG but, if you're a geeky guy, you've probably been him at some point so it's easy to relate to. I love characters I can understand.

I did have to read the first chapter or so to get to the actual GameLit part of the story. At the beginning of the story, our hero (known in the game world as Clyde Hatchet but at the beginning as Ben) is burgling a house with its owners home. Someone tries to burn the house down while he is in it (God help the people who live there) and next thing you know, he's waking up in the hospital and can't move. Then he's offered a chance at another life...

Enter the game. This is when it gets fun. And maybe a little weird. See, in most LitRPG the main character immediately turns to hardcore leveling/acquistion/etc. It's like playing an MMORPG in the real world. Not so much with our buddy Clyde. He has a tendency to kind of loaf and just try to survive. He makes a friend, helps her out, gets a nice reward and...

Doesn't level much at all. Scamps and Scoundrels may be the first LitRPG I've read where the protagonist gets a job and just tries to function in society, at least for most of the story. I like it. I mean, he does a bit of fighting in his job and has a tendency to n00b it up (Seriously, who doesn't know that you can only fight a gargoyle with a magic weapon?) but it feels familiar in a way that some LitRPG just can't. 

And it's also weirdly awesome that Clyde takes a class (actually, makes a Choice. Apparently this game doesn't have Classes) that reflect what he did in the real world. It makes sense. He was a thief in the real world and now he's a Rogue, but gaming is usually about escaping what we do in the real world. He wants to continue with what he always has been. It's oddly satisfying. 

Another oddly satisfying thing about Scamps and Scoundrels is that the main character is a good dude in a lot of ways and that's key. Michael Corleone was a thief, a murderer and a racketeer but the man will do literally anything to protect his family. Tony Soprano is just as bad but, not only is he a dad and a husband, but he gives to charity and we he is going to counselling and trying to make himself a better person. 

Clyde is a similar type of guy. He gets hurt in the fire that kills him trying to rescue the family trapped inside. I won't say he does it in the most intelligent manner possible and it's entirely possible that he took risks that an actual fireman would not have, but he does it. He goes out of his way to help others through the whole story and yet he wants to make his living by stealing things. 

Clyde is also smart enough to know how dumb he is, and that's key. He finds help wherever he can. He gets training to be a thief. He gets training to use magic. (And yes, it's a bit weird that he's a magic casting rogue. So what? It's fun. I'd play that character.) He finds help in every form he knows that he needs to. I like that. If you've ever played an MMORPG, you've probably needed help starting out. (Thanks Persifinee, Myronath and Iinien!) Clyde needs help. Clyde gets help. And yes, Clyde blunders, but hey, who doesn't?

I cannot remember the name of the planet on which Scamps and Scoundrels takes place but it takes place in the city of Glatun, capital of the country of Glatun. Glatun is a weird place. In some ways, it's a typical medieval European town. But in other ways, it almost feels like the Coalition from Rifts. Magic is outlawed.  Elves (and Clyde is an elf) don't seem to be very popular. Danger abounds, and not all of it is human. 

On the other hand, Glatun does not equal the entire planet. There are a multitude of other nations and places. Clyde gets a peek at all of them when he's choosing his initial spawn point. I'm not convinced that he picked the right place. Don't get me wrong. It's a good story. But I'm hoping that at some point in the series (and this is book one of ten) I'm hoping we get to see more of it. Then again, worldbuilding is best done when starting small. So maybe, just possibly, Ugland knows what he is doing.

I’m not saying I’m in a big hurry to read the rest of this series. I’m just saying that when I got to the end of the book and left my tiny little “I’m too lazy to write a big review on Amazon using my phone keyboard, so I’ll do like thirty words” review (You guys all do that, right? It’s important!) that I dropped my phone trying to get the second one and it slid under my pillow (what, you don't read in bed?) and I panicked thinking my phone was about to get swallowed by, like the Sarlacc or the Jaberwocky or sumfin' that it took me a whole thirty seconds to fish the phone out (narrowly avoiding having it end up between the bed and the wall. THE TERROR!!!) and get the next one on Kindle Unlimited. It was a panic inducing experience. I survived it though, and the next book is already on my phone just waiting for me to get off of this computer and go read it. So that's what I'm going to do. In the words of the great philosopher Foley, "Have a Nice Day!"

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Bronze Short Swords

Scamps & Scoundrels: The Bad Guys, Book One
Eric Ugland
All Quote Publishing, 2019

Scamps & Scoundrels: The Bad Guys, Book One is available at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

The System Apocalypse Series by Tao Wong

 

It seems like every time I read a LitRPG book, I think about how I should read more LitRPG. I love it, but I guess it came to be too late in my life to be a default like Space Opera and Epic Fantasy.  Every once in awhile, though, something will gain my notice and I'll feel the need to check it out. That's precisely what happened with Tao Wong's series The System Apocalypse. I think I picked the first book, Life in the North, up because it was in my Facebook feed and it caught my eye. I had never heard of Mr. Wong so I was a bit cautious at first but The System Apocalypse grabbed my attention from page one.

The System Apocalypse starts with our hero, one John Lee, on vacation in Canada's Yukon Territory. It's cold, he's camping and a little blue box appears in his vision. From there the whole world changes literally (well, fictionally literally) instantly, not just for him but also for the rest of the human race and anything else that lives on planet Earth. Animals and plants begin to mutate, people start dying in job lot quantities (think nuclear war levels of casualties only there are no actual nukes launched. Then it gets worse.) and no one and nowhere is safe. And yes, I've played Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games in the past, but in The System Apocalypse, there are no respawns.

The series goes through a few different arcs, starting out with straight-up survival. First John has to survive long enough to find another human being, then he takes part in helping others to survive. It's not as easy as it should be, either. Even with help, he loses people and on many occasions almost loses himself. John is a ball of rage and he doesn't always use common sense but even when he does the wrong thing it's usually for the right reasons.

The cast of characters he gathers around himself is long and distinguished. Most are human. A few are alien. They are, for the most part, all honorable beings who want to do what is best for themselves and for others. It's well thought out though, and they all seem to have their own motivations, even if it's only leveling.

If you're familiar with roleplaying games, whether online in games like World of Warcraft, Everquest, Eve Online or City of Heroes, on old-school platforms ala Wizardry and Shining in the Darkness, or tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons, Heroes Unlimited, or Shadowrun, then you know how important leveling is. The higher a character's level, the more powerful they are. The more powerful they are, the better they can protect themselves against increasing threats. The more fighting they do, the higher their level gets. Well, for Combat Classers. The System also has classes in areas like crafting (artisans), growing (farmers), politics (duh) and even the media (one of my favorite side characters is a reporter named Harry). Everyone needs to level, but it is both easiest and most important for Combat Classers.

Also part of leveling, and one of the reasons it's easier to make/grow that new product or defeat that new monster, is gaining new abilities or spells or feats or...

Every game calls them something different and, in a lot of cases, there are different labels applied to different things in the same game. It can be a wee bit confusing until you get the hang of the game. The System is no different. There are a ton of abilities, skills, spells, affinities and probably some other thing that I forgot about. The System is actually pretty crunchy if you grok the term. If not, it just means there are a lot of rules and usually a lot of math.  It can be confusing to our heroes and definitely to the reader, at least at first. Just have patience and remember your first time playing your favorite roleplaying game. We were all confused and something Wong does well is have his characters share what they're learning with the rest of us.

Probably the most unusual thing about The System and it's leveling progression is the tier system. Most people start out with a basic class. That might be Farmer, or Construction Worker, but it might also be Soldier or Hunter or some other combat class. Fifty levels in a basic class opens up an advanced class. A Soldier might become a Sergeant. Fifty levels of and Advance Class opens up a Master Class. A Sergeant might become an Officer. Fifty levels of Master Class opens up a Heroic Class. An Officer might become a General. Fifty levels of a Heroic Class opens up a Legendary Class. That General might become an Emperor. It doesn't get any higher than Legendary, but few ever make it there.

Opening up new tiers is exciting as it leads to massive increases in abilities. One Advanced Classer could mow down an entire mob of low level Basic Classers fairly easily. A Heroic Classer might be able to take your planet over singlehandedly. Legendary Classers, especially if they're Combat Classers, probably run empires or command a bajillion troops and are not just deadly themselves, but make all of their followers even more effective. This is an amazingly well built system and I just hope I did a good enough job explaining it.

Speaking of leveling and Class Tiers, there is a moment in the series that almost made me quit reading it. I'm not going to go into details, but trust me when I say you'll know it when you see it. Wong promises to write what's missing in the Afterword and, while I believe we're still waiting, I trust him. But it did leave me seriously frustrated at the time. At the end of the day, I'm glad I kept reading because it is a truly awesome series, but I was more than a little bit shaken.

Once John learns how The System works at the most basic level and figures out how to survive and even thrive in the face of what his planet has turned into, we get into another arc. In this one, John and lots of others try to unite the Earth and elect a planetary ruler. It's not easy and the fact that there are aliens (John calls them "Galactics") all over the place just makes it harder. Then we get to watch John and Earth figure out their places in the universe. 

The final arc is probably my favorite, and not just because that's where all the fighting is. I love it because it is the struggle to find out what The System is and where it came from. Why does it exist? Is there a point to it or is it just there? I'll be honest, there is a lot of technical stuff here, but it all makes sense across a twelve book series in ways I can't begin to duplicate in a single review. 

The ending itself is satisfying in a way that I hadn't seen coming, even if it didn't give me quite everything I wanted. It works for the series and wraps things up in a way that leaves no loose ends. 

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Spirit Companions.

The System Apocalypse
Tao Wong
Starlit Publishing 2017-22

Life in the North: An Apocalyptic LitRPG (The System Apocalypse Book 1) is available at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

Life in the North: An Apocalyptic LitRPG 

M. Helbig's Team Newb: Sun and Shadow Online

Word to Mr. Helbig: Far be it from me to correct an awesome author such as yourself, and believe me your novel Team Newb, Sun and Shadow Online, makes me believe that you're an awesome author or, since this is the first of your works that I've read, at the very least an author who wrote an awesome book, but BRO...

 It's not Newb, it's N00b, and those aren't the letter "O" they're zeroes to show the whole wide world just how much value a n00b has.

 *SIGH*

 Ah well. I guess I'll get over it, because this was a REALLY good book. 

So what's got me so excited?

Usually when I read a LitRPG, the main character starts out with at least an idea of what the problem is and an idea of how the game works. Not so much this time. Our hero, Lucas, isn't even planning on entering a game. He starts out the book trying to get away from a game that his father designed (the titular Sun and Shadow Online) and then things take a turn for the dark side and he has no choice.

I like this main character though. He's got a high degree of mental toughness and enough brains to think himself through a problem. He doesn't give up even when all seems to be lost. He learns the game quickly (for a n00b) and levels somewhat quickly-ish. I mean, I feel like I probably could have out-leveled him playing WoW, but I've been playing for close to a decade and I know the game. I've played both sides and I know the starting areas and quests really well. He doesn't have that and if he kills more bunnies than he REALLY needs to, well he got a couple levels out of it.

Of course, one does not adventure alone if it is possible to avoid doing so. For the vast majority of hardcore vets out there (that didn't start a game during the beta or on launch day) there was someone who helped them figure things out. I did my first raid in WoW after a woman named Edie (in the guise of her toon Persifinee) helped me figure out where to go and what to do to level my character. In Lucas's (COUGH, I mean Horus, his in-game avatar) case, that happens to be a small group of friends named Alizia, Decronas and Olaf. 

They're all n00bs too, and he helps them as much as they help him (since he does have experience with other games) but as with any Massively Multiplayer Role Playing game (let alone one that's conducted in Virtual Reality) there is an awful lot to learn and Decronas in particular seems to have friends who know things. This is big because it enables the team to venture out into the world sooner and to be better equipped when they do it. 

I don't do spoilers, so I'll just say that there is a very good reason that all of the characters, but in particular Horus, need to make gold quickly. I find their "kill everything you can and loot everything you kill," type strategy to be the one that every single n00b ever has used to increase their bank balance. Seriously, even most Dungeons and Dragons campaigns start out with "Go over there and get rich" as the incentive to start adventuring. Gold and gear are the motivation to have a good time, but there is something I wonder about.

It would seem to me that Horus, at least, has played other games and would have a working knowledge of how craft skills work in general. And yes, I know that you won't get rich with beginning craft skills in any game that's more than a few months old, but I'd be starting out learning something. That's how I became a WoW millionaire (well that, and way too many solo runs of old raids to get cash quick) and you'd think he'd try it, but not so far. Then again, there is a sequel so maybe there? I dunno, I'd just like to see my boy doing something to help himself when he desperately needs it. You'd think Decrona would get it too, since she has all of those contacts feeding her information. That's just me whining though and sitting around crafting doesn't add a whole lot of action to a novel, so maybe that was a better way to go? Maybe?

Speaking of action, I love the way fights work. Team Newb is set in the future so the tech is a lot more advanced than what we have now. I love the thought of targeting specific vulnerable areas (tabletop RPG players would recognize this as a "called shot.") to maximize damage in an MMORPG. I love the creativity of the players as they figure out how to defeat some of the enemies they face. I've never seen an online setting where some of these strategies would be possible, but they work great and they make sense. The reader just has to keep in mind that Sun and Shadow Online is a game of the future. There are features that have been added over the last century.

Speaking of World of Warcraft, I have to wonder if Mr. Helbig hasn't had a max level character or sixty-three himself. I get the sneaking suspicition that he's seen the Horde trash Goldshire before moving on to an all out assault on Stormwind once or twice, or maybe died a couple of times defending it. And the way he uses quests as a primary way of leveling is very similar to that in WoW.

Then again, the way his bind points work looks more like Everquest as does the amount of downtime (he skips over it unless there is something going on during downtime) he includes. No EQ player will ever forget the frustration of FINALLY beating that freaking Goblin Whelp and then taking five minutes to get his HP back so he could fight a giant rat. Mark my words, it happened. A lot. Two words: Newbie Log. Everyone who ever played an Dark Elf in EQ just laughed. The rest of the EQ players are remembering seeing the words. "You are hungry. You are thirsty." pop up in their chat box while their HP wouldn't recover and wondering why. Yup, happens here.

And I guess that's really what makes Team Newb (N00b!) work: There's enough differences here to make it feel like a game you haven't played and just enough similarities to make it feel like a game you could play. I love that aspect of it.

I'm leaving out much of the meta-story and that's really the important part of Team Newb but I don't want to spoil too much and there's a lot there. Trust me though, anyone who has played an MMO knows that Real Life Comes First. There's always the guy who can't make raid because his wife is making him mow the lawn that night, or the woman who didn't manage to make the potions this week because she had to babysit, or the ranger who didn't have time to craft the good arrows and is stuck using the cheap vendor junk...

*SIGH*

Real life MMO playing is often about avoiding the meta-story, but trust me it's there. And it's in Team Newb too. Try it. You'll like it.

Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 Jerkins of Please Don't Kill me

Team Newb: Sun and Shadow Online
M.Helbig
Self Published, 2019

Team Newb: Sun and Shadow Online is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no cost to you.

Richard Hummel's Radioactive Evolution

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I like mashups. They make me happy. So, say, if someone were to cross some LitRPG with a bit of Post Apocalyptic Fiction and maybe toss in a medical technology angle, I think I'd probably enjoy that. Uhh..

Wait...

Richard Hummel already did that.

Radioactive Evolution is a successful mix of all of the above. I really enjoyed this one. And for more than one reason.

I'm a fan of zombie fiction (and I've got a review coming as part of my Memorial Day event that is exactly that) but sometimes I think that modern day authors have forgotten that it's possible to do PA Fic without zombies. I'm glad to note that Richard Hummel remembers.

The Earth of Radioactive Evolution is not a friendly place, even if Jared, our main character, is a pretty friendly dude when he can be. The fact remains that most of humanity lives in the ruins of what went before. Radiation is so pervasive that humans that live on the surface have to have regular boosters of nannites in order to protect themselves from the radiation. The good news here is that they energy provided by the nannites powers their bodies and they have no need for food as long as they're someplace with a high radiation count. I'd hate to be an unaugmented human there, but as long as a person gets the nannites they need, they're okay. Of course, it's not always easy to get the boosters...

So yeah, conflict happens and the people on the surface suffer. They people of the Cities, which are in the sky, appear to be much better off. People on the ground resent them, even though they're the ones who make the boosters. So far, we don't know much about the people of the Cities and they're kind of cardboard cutouts, but this is the first book in a series and I'm thinking that Hummel didn't want to give up all of his secrets in the initial volume. That makes sense. Keeping some things to reveal later is how an author keeps his readers interested. I approve.

Part of what really kept me in this book is the LitRPG angle. Players of just about any MMORPG will recognize the process of improving a character and gradually becoming immune to what were once deadly threats. It doesn't matter if we're talking about a Young Kodiak in the West Commons or a Gorilla in Stranglethorn Vale, at some point the deadly threat becomes chump change. That happens here. Radioactive Evolution is a story of survival. It is a story of character progression and accepting responsibility.

It is also, however, a story of RPG style progression and building a character through fighting and gaining experience. The book refers to the process as absorbing and assigning nannites, but that's basically how it works. I like the method of progression too. If you played World of Warcraft during Vanilla or Burning Crusade and can read Radioactive Evolution and not scream "OH MY GOD TALENT TREE" at least once you're either superhuman or not paying attention. New abilities get added as Jared and Scarlet level up. And get this: It's not an artifact that gets taken away at the end of the expansion either.

*SIGH*

Nope. Not bitter. Why are you asking?

I don't really like to do spoilers, but if I don't mention that Jared finds himself a dragon to bond with early in the story then I'm not doing my job here. Scarlet is just too much a part of the story to leave out of a review. She's more intelligent than a human. She can evolve using nannites as well and she does... a lot. She has this weird function, where she's the carrier of ancient lore, but also doesn't know much about humanity. She's Spock mixed with Kess, with a side of Worf and maybe just a touch of Odo.  (If you're not a Star Trek fan you don't get that. I feel bad for you.)

Fans of the Post Apocalyptic genre will be familiar with the Mad Max type thing where what's left of the world consists of only one type of environment. I'm happy to say that's not the case here. We see cityscapes, wilderness, military compounds, flight and even underground tunnels. There's a lot of variety in places and things. Jared and Scarlet are constantly moving and experiencing different things and different threats. The threats are great, but so are the rewards.

And there are most definitely threats. If you feel safe at just about any point in this story, you're not paying attention. Even some of the things that shouldn't be dangerous are. Jared and Scarlet can run. They can hide. They can fight. The one thing it never makes sense to do is relax. Something is always out there. Something is always watching. In the world of Radioactive Evolution, getting lazy means taking unnecessary risks.

It's fun to watch the two grow together too. They start off not knowing much about each other. They start off not knowing much about each others' species. By the end of the book, they're very much friends and, while they still don't understand each other perfectly, they're getting figuring things out between them. They're learning to relate to others better as well.  I can't wait to see how close they get in the future.

And there will be a future. Or, maybe it's closer to the truth to say there already IS a future. The next book is already out and, while I'm not real sure if I like the fact that the titles are so close together (I recently received a link to the book. It's called Radioactive Revolution and when I first looked at it, I thought it was the same book) I really am excited to read it. There is a lot of story left to be told. I'm guessing there will be more than one sequel, but I haven't read the new one yet so I can't say for sure.

Seriously folks, this one is worth your time and money (Although Kindle Unlimited users can get it for free as part of your subscription). I'd definitely encourage you all to check it out.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Nannite Boosters

Radioactive Evolution
Richard Hummel
Hummel Books, 2018

Radioactive Evolution is available for purchase at the following link: