Crucible

Awaken Online, Book 12

By: Travis Bagwell

Narrated by: David Stifel

Trust is a weapon. Power demands sacrifice. The crucible awaits.

The world of Awaken Online has been reborn. Ancient avatars and their cities have returned, unleashing chaos and armies from the game world's savage past. Jason and his allies are beset on all sides—by the original avatars, an unrelenting tide of travelers, and even their own secrets.

However, Jason is done playing defense; he’s done reacting. It’s time to take the fight to his enemies in both worlds. And that starts by using their own weapons against them, including the relics Jason stole from the ancient avatars.

Yet nothing comes for free. Jason has already sacrificed his body, but to unlock his relic—to succeed—he'll have to give up something more: his humanity.

This is Jason's crucible.

Either he'll shatter and break...

Or he'll reforge himself into something stronger than ever before.

The eighth book in the hit LitRPG Fantasy series with more than a million copies sold and now spanning 14 novels. Grab your copy of Awaken Online now and get ready to sink into some good old fashioned undead mayhem.

About the Series: A staple of the LitRPG genre and one of the most popular VRMMO LitRPGs ever written, with hundreds of thousands of copies sold. Follow the story of a young man—a loner and outcast—pushed to his limit... only to rise in AO as a force to be reckoned with. As a villain that can control the undead. Lots of skeletons. Lots of undead crafting. Lots of carnage.

©2026 Travis Bagwell (P)2026 Travis Bagwell

I can't even

I literally don't know what to say. That ending was masterful.

If you're reading this, get this book. Get the series.

All around greatness

Great story advancement

Great character development and great use of lesser known side characters!

I would go all 5 stars but for my dislike of reality television and Fortnite in general but the use in the story plot was not a total turnoff.

It is rare to see a series get better with each book.

It is rare to see a series get better with each book. This is a great example to show how that can be done!

Amazing overall

So, I really enjoyed this overall; it was a great way to tie all the events together, and it was extremely well written. My one small complaint is the ending—I'm not cool with a cliffhanger like that. But seriously, it's a good book and definitely worth checking out.

Worth the wait

So if youre reading this book, you should have already read the other 11 + side stories. This book took a bit to come out but the author never forgot where he started. I LOVED this book, even after the wait, cause the characters feel so natural and the humor just makes sense. Even when an Easter egg is mentioned, it relates to what's going on and I almost reread this whole series just to feel like im in this amazing world of AO. Im glad the "magic" is explained in a way that makes sense. I hope the ending (I'm looking at you Travis Bagwell) in this book is worth it cause I think I already predicted the plot for book 13.