I thought the plot was unique, though pretty similar to Ready Player One in the MMO aspect. There are a few eye-rolling moments, but they don’t detract from the overall story.

My biggest issues with the writing were the repetitive descriptions and phrases. Maybe it’s because I listened to the book fairly quickly (I enjoyed the plot and was interested in what would happen next) or maybe it’s because I have previously listened to books by authors with vast vocabularies. But the good outweighs the bad. The battle descriptions and overall details were awesome and kept me intrigued the whole 16 hours. The tension was thick and palpable, especially when NPCs and other players were killed. I loved that this was never normalized in the characters committing the actions. At times, I forgot I was listening to characters in a game, which adds to the terror of how real things feel in the game.

The narrator was, perhaps, not the right choice. I think he falls short on delivering tones and voices of characters, and some speech seemed too robotic. But when he was describing events or detailing the landscapes, I think he did great! As much as I gripe about the narrator, it’s not enough to steer me away from listening to the rest of the series because I’m hooked.