The Chosen by Jakob Tanner

Quote of the Book

“Skren Bandit
Level 5
HP: 380
MP: 8

380 HP! Level 5 too. We were so dead. I called up my HUD and noticed a flashing buff under Shade’s status bars.

Feline Vision (Passive Racial Ability) (Level 4): The senses of a cat are strong in you. You can know your enemies sometimes better than they know themselves. Reveal the level,
HP, and MP of all enemies eight levels above or below you.

Wicked ability and because we were in a party now I got the benefit of the information as well.”

Blurb

Log-in or die.

Those are the only choices left for Clay Hopewell. Infected with the ZERO virus, he has less than twenty-four hours before he bites the dust. With no cure available, there’s only one option left: digitally reincarnate himself in the most advanced virtual reality game ever, the mysterious and newly released Arcane Kingdom Online.

But cheating death and gaining immortality isn’t that easy. If Clay survives the risky cognitive upload process, he’ll still have to contend with a fantasy world teetering on the brink of crisis. Worse, a quarter of the in-game population hates his starting race, he can’t unlock the mage class he wants, and a malevolent glitch threatens to upend the very existence of his new reality.

If Clay doesn’t learn the rules of his new surroundings quickly, his second chance at life will be a lot worse than his first.

Press play to start.

Disclaimer/Personal Note

Thank you to the author Jakob Tanner for generously supplying a e-copy of this novel.

Read for Bingo.

Song of the Book

A fun book needs a fun song and this is a great cover of Queen’s song by Under Pressure.

Jen’s Review

With no cure for the Zero virus in sight, Clay’s only option after contracting the virus is the online game Arcane Kingdom. If he can survive the fast-acting disease and the upload process long enough, his consciousness will become a part of the game, saving his being into this new world.

***

This was a super short and fast LitRPG, which admittedly I have read very few of, and though I had an idea what to expect this was more barebones than even what I thought it would be.

If you’re wondering about LitRPG: in the case of this book, it was like the book version of playing a game and everything – the talking, the quests, menus, the battles, is basically a novelized version of the whole kit and caboodle.

It even feels like a game when the little window pop-ups tell us different things, while our mc is exploring, for instance; if he joins a party, is poisoned, loses HP, or even get a splinter… it’s there to give him a status effect, which I thought was a nice touch.

Of course, this wouldn’t be much of a story if there wasn’t a bigger something going on behind the scenes and we start getting hints of that something almost immediately, as Clay gets settled into his new world, gains alliances and powers up his equipment and status. Though a lot of the hints of something bigger are just that – hints. It’s pretty obvious this bigger story is going to take a few books to complete but these are small page counts, and fast reads – not hard to digest the whole series in a short time.

This was really fast-paced, it’s entertaining and the POV character, Clay has a likeable voice which makes him easy to root for. I enjoyed how fun it was and all the nice touches that made it feel like an actual game.

The drawback for me was that I would have liked a little more character growth and background. Or maybe this isn’t a thing in LitRPG?  I’m not sure. My previous reads were more in the progression fantasy area and were very character orientated.

There wasn’t a lot to round out this character or anything to do with the outside world for that matter (other than a mention of his brother and a little about his past working in Paris) but there are possibilities of more character growth in the next book, as one of the other characters happens to be an acquaintance from school – this book was a lot of learning how the game worked and setting things up.

Other notes

I skipped over all the stats (I know, blasphemy for all die-hard gamers) a smart person could probably tally all the scores as you go, to get an idea where our boy Clay is as the game progresses.

I got some HAL (the computer from 2001) vibes at times, when the game world of Arcane Kingdom, felt like it was learning right a long along with Clay.

Total fun, all the hallmarks of playing an RPG, including stumbling upon monsters that are way harder than you and your level abilities.

Our Judgement