EverRealm is fun but flawed. Over the last year or so I have come to really enjoy LitRPG novels, and while this is billed as one I’m not sure I would actually call it one myself. Sure there is references to leveling and stats, but only superficially. That being said I still found EverRealm to be an enjoyable story, though I must say I had a few issue with the logic behind some of the story. The notion of escaping the zombie apocalypse by entering a VR world is pretty original. But I don’t get some of the choices they’ve made. The plan is to live forever in these VR worlds they’ve created. So if they planned on living forever why in the heck would they have programmed the worlds in a way that can actually kill them? Would have made more sense to have had some glitch remove safety protocols and put everyone in danger because I just don’t think that people who have been struggling to survive would just volunteer to put themselves into a situation where they can be easily killed. (Especially as I noted early they are planning to live forever) And what is the point of having ‘save points’? Sure we see that first save point as a type of ‘login’ to the game, but later on the main character makes sure to save. Save what? If you die you die, right? What’s the save even for? But like any good B-movie, which is kind of how I often view Jake’s book, logic isn’t always front and center. And given how enjoyable the story is I’m more than willing to overlook some sketchy logic. The characters are fun and the story, while a bit silly, kept me entertained the whole way through, and I ended up listening to the entire book in only 2 days. Like I said, EverRealm didn’t feel that much like a true LitRPG novel, but I can definitely recommend it to fans of lighthearted fantasy.
Like many of Jake Bible’s books, this one is narrated by Jeff Hays, and once again he delivers a stellar performance. And performance is definitely the way to describe his work. Not only does he give each character their own unique voice, he must also use some kind of vocal modulating equipment because he’ll give echo or reverb to some of the voices. He’s fast become one of my favorite narrators.
I received a copy of this audio title for free in exchange for an unbiased review