Darklands Online

Darklands Online, Book 1

By: David Bushman

Narrated by: David Reimer, Jessica Weyman

It had been a number of years since Kurt had last played a video game. That all changed when his state wrestling bid was cut abruptly short. With nothing but time on his hands, Kurt relented to explore a VRMMO with his younger brother.

Having been transported to a world ruled by magic and the strength of a blade, Kurt now must call upon skills he has not used in years. As the lines between reality and the game begin to blur, Kurt must figure out just what is going on with Darklands Online.

©2020 David J. Bushman (P)2023 David J. Bushman

so good my man.

I personally loved it. David and Jessica knocked it out of the park. very excited to hear book 2 now! a slice of life story with some good laugh out loud moments.

a good start with some issues.

while this is a great YA for litrpg, there are no real twists outside of the usual hero tropes. Great intro story for a litrpg beginner, but nothing ground breaking.

Outstanding book

Hope the next episode is just as good. 😉😄 😄 😈😈😈😈 😈😈😈😈😈😈 😈😈😈😈😈😈 😈😈😈😈😈😈

My favorite LitRPG

I read plenty of LitRPG this year, but this book was my favorite in the genre.
I'm just not a big fan of real-world LitRPG where characters for some reason get a HUD and start leveling in reality. I'm more old school and prefer the roots of the genre, which are clearly set in VR.
As the title of this book reveals easily, the story is set in a digital world, the most advanced MMORPG the gaming world has ever seen - Darklands Online.
We follow Kurt and his brother Greg playing the game. It's Kurt's first time and his younger brother shows him the ropes. Similar to the concept of the Oasis in Ready Player One, if the player dies in Darklands Online, they lose all progress and everything they owned and have to restart from scratch.
So, this game is serious business and soon Kurt will find out that some players are taking it very seriously...
I really liked the game world the author has created. I was thinking many times: damn, I wanna play this game, too!
A land shrouded in eternal darkness, that's totally my jam.
But world-building isn't the only thing I liked so much about this book. I think the author also did a great job with the characters. Kurt and his brother are likable boys and with Carmen and Bae we also have two strong and cool female characters.
Interesting female characters are something the genre is lacking in most cases, where authors describe females as sex bunnies or damsels in distress with the occasional support role. It was very refreshing to read a LitRPG book that actually took the effort to flesh out the female characters and make them real people. Not to mention that the girls are kick-ass!
Way to go, let's hope more LitRPG authors go that way eventually.
I listened to the audio version and think the performance of the narrator duo was flawless. Both do a great job bringing the different characters to life and I really liked that the female voices were read by a woman.
I'm looking forward to book 2 and hope the author will write many more books in the future!

Great story so far

loved the idea of a hidden quest line that no one had found up till them