I couldn’t stop reading this book. The characters are compelling. Noramlly in LitRPG books you don’t get a personal character arc, so Lucas’s grief comes as a nice surprise, an element that shows up regularly in the book. His ability to relate to Keegan, an NPC he must fight, is well done.
In terms of the world itself, I really dig the notino of the plot itself, of creating content by gaming the system, and how the game generates quests organically.
Honestly, the only weakness of the book I felt was the end confrontation, the way it was handled (and how it was a clear parallel both in game and Liu’s real life situation perfectly) was a bit much. Also the confrontation was a bit too “He cast this I cast that cast cast”. Also, adding only two chapters from a different character’s POV was jarring; the epilogue being from Merric’s PoV wasn’t, that one made sense, but the sections about Bonnie’s friends felt awkward. Especially to give us too much info about Bonnie without sewing it up. Finally, the audiobook production was excellent as expected for Soundbooth Theater, but the sound effects were a bit much.
But seriously those are very minor points to an otherwise excellent book. I can’t wait for the next to come out. This is perhaps one of the best litrpg books I’ve read.