The more I listen to this the more I’m convinced the author has never played an RPG, MMO or otherwise, in his life. The main defeats impossibly strong foes and is then almost immediately defeated by others weaker than he is. The economy and gear make no sense whatsoever (one of the defeats comes from an extremely powerful crafted item, but how they developed the item has no feasible explanation). The author is telling a decent story but centering it in a game world is really taking away from it, he clearly doesn’t understand what he’s writing about. This is before you get to the weird conspiracy theory garbage that doesn’t make any sense, or GAI. I will likely finish it out of spite but I won’t waste my credits on any other Shemer novels. Manufacturing drama and suspense isn’t enough, the story has to be believable and make sense.