At first I thought this would be a slay’em/bathe in blood type of gamers account of some fictional adventure game where PvP is minimal and NPC overshadows all. WRONG! wrong on so many levels. This a thought provoking glimpse into the turmoil of MMO Player Character and NPC worldviews and asks the questions of living, alive and life after death in eloquent detail, masterfully narrated. The plot development along with the characters of Runner and his team is dealt with great insight. Issues of prejudice, race and class are debated at the hand of gaming terminology. Arand seems to have set a leisurely pace and full control of the plot and his characters and yet this book was a “i can’t put it down” type and I truly enjoyed the suspension of disbelief; the challenges to our ideas of what is artificial intelligence and shades of grey in the blurred lines between virtual reality and reality, exposure of the human dark underbelly that these type of games expose and the development of full relationships between our hero and his friends. The masterful development of Nadine is typical of what Arand and Hays have achieved in this book. The great theme of prejudice of real life vs virtual vs artificial intelligence challenges the 1st person perspective of “its just a game” and “she just an NPC” alone makes this a “will definitely reread” and occupies a place equal in my mind to Frank Herbert’s “The Lazarus Effect”. But the heroes in “Otherlife” are having much , much more fun. While I realized that this is bk1 0f 3, I was surprised at the complete and standalone format.