Shadeslinger by Kyle Kirrin
Narrated by Travis Baldree
Fun, Fun, FUN! Hooya!!!! Ned Altimer wants to get away from it all, and get a fresh start somewhere. So when Earthblood Online, a vrmmorpg is announced, Ned can hardly wait, in fact he purchases a premium 3 day head start, of which there are a very limited number (Ned ain’t short when it comes to “long-green”)… in fact he purchases all of ’em, which in turn doesn’t do Ned any favors with the “Dev” (the mastermind coder behind the game)!!! But wow 3 perfect days without any competition, and for the price of admission, he also receives a very Snarky AI in the form of a Bearded Axe, who happens to call himself Frank! An AI that immediately tries to keep Ned from making any good decisions about his character build, mostly by omission, leaving out selections that Ned needed to see!
I loved the conversations beyond Ned and Frank! Frank is so damn snarky and antagonistic, while Ned just wants to find his way and have fun in this online game! Frank’s manipulations lead Ned to use all of his skills as a negotiator, and some very wily ways to ferret much needed info out of Frank! This gives the tale a very fun, light-hearted touch. And, I haven’t even mentioned that there’s plenty enough action to keep me happy as a clam!
And look who’s narrating this one … None other than the Awesome Travis Baldree!!! Man, I just love Travis! He’s so damn good! ??
So grab the book and see what other tricks the Dev has in store for Ned Altimer…
One of my pet peeves is dialogue tags, especially when I’m listening to audio book… any reader/listener will be able to suss out who’s speaking. Too many tags break up an awesome conversation and tend to throw me out of sink with the story… Unfortunately too many good authors haven’t figured out yet and use dialogue tags like a crutch… sigh…