I’m half way through the book and I feel like I just finished the first chapter. It’s very slow, and while the concept is interesting, the story is a bit scattered. Theres two plots, the IRL plot and the game plot. The IRL plot gets dropped for the most part, though talking with people who have read the other books it does come back.
This is also a bit of a power fantasy designed to pull on the heart strings of people who think they’ve had a hard life. If you think life is unfair and you think you’ve had it hard, then this book is for you. It has over dramatic racist bullies, women that instantly fall in love with the hero for no reason, a main character that is disabled. even if it’s leading up to a reversal that questions the morals of these things, they would just be ragging on video game stories, not a super profound insight but Vidya bad.
Credit where credit is due, it’s got interesting concepts and a really cool magic system, and the writer is a good word smith, but the plot and pacing are just not good.