If you had to choose between your life and your dreams, would you ever wake up?Alan Campbell thought hed gotten his dream job working on a revolutionary VRMMORPG with Osmark Technologies, until the project was canceled. He has one weekend to dive into an untested world full of intrigue, violence, and corruption to prove that Viridian Gate Online works, but the AIs If you had to choose between your life and your dreams, would you ever wake up?Alan Campbell thought he’d gotten his dream job working on a revolutionary VRMMORPG with Osmark Technologies, until the project was canceled.
He has one weekend to dive into an untested world full of intrigue, violence, and corruption to prove that Viridian Gate Online works, but the AIs running the game have their own plans for his soul.Set a year before the events of “Viridian Gate Online: Cataclysm,” The Illusionist: Nomad Soul takes you back to when VGO was just a game, or so it seemed.From James A. Hunter—author of Viridian Gate Online, Rogue Dungeon, and War God's Mantle—and D.J. Bodden, author of The Black Year Series, comes an epic new entry into the Expanded Universe of Viridian Gate Online that you won't want to put down!
If You Only Read One LitRPG Book, This Should Be ItThe writing is smooth and top notch for this genre of book. Well edited.Does a good job of capturing something of the essence of the dichotomy between dispassionate business decisions and passionate artistic creation in a gaming company. The business guys are always in charge, of course.The harsh realities of fantasy technology such as nannites magically provide an alternative immersive reality are explored much better than any other book of If You Only Read One LitRPG Book, This Should Be ItThe writing is smooth and top notch for this genre of book. Well edited.Does a good job of capturing something of the essence of the dichotomy between dispassionate business decisions and passionate artistic creation in a gaming company. The business guys are always in charge, of course.The harsh realities of fantasy technology such as nannites magically provide an alternative immersive reality are explored much better than any other book of this genre I’ve ready to date. Testing an imperfect and dangerous nanotech to create the immersive experience, and dealing with a tester who isn’t.Does a very good job capturing the real-death of someone while they are immersed in the VR world, and the transition. The many who died and didn’t make the transition are only glossed over, could have been dealt with a little more, as its a challenging and tough part of the ground breaking developments the book describes.Sandra, Robert Osmark’s assistant, has subtle reveals of a possible background working with NSA or CIA, and a military background.
Called Omikron: The Nomad Soul in the US, this naturally abbreviates to the first word. And indeed this is how the game names itself from within. Which is a little confusing when the Euro version.
She starts to get interested in Alan, and the feeling is mutual, but it really hits home when Alan dies in real life.Jeff the PHD hardware engineer who is the last person packing up, ends up getting pulled into Alan’s plot to try Viridian Gate Online (VGO) on more time. As things progress Jeff’s background, family, struggles, and angst slowly get revealed.In game, Alan is a bit of a newb, but this allows showcasing of how much the world with its various guiding AIs revolves around the actions of the lone PC in their world.
The personification, and deification of the various overmind AIs is very well thought out and engaging.Alan befriends and gets guidance from Horace, the beggar who is much more than a beggar. He learns some non-violent ways to get what he wants and start to develop possible class paths. He is assisted and encouraged by a friendly cook who owns a food stall. Alan manages to stumble into rescuing the top generals son/newphew from an assassination, and through that gets pulled into a chain of events enabling him to skip the 2 years normally required for gaining full citizenship in the romanesque society.
The military and political structure is all Roman, which gets bit tedious of you aren’t interested in that era of history.Alan has the beginnings of a romantic interest in game with Thalia, a bar owner who also has a deep and complicated back story, and is the chief assassin for one of the AI/Gods. She ends up looking for the person who foiled the assassination attempt, while simultaneously developing feelings for Alan. Unfortunately she doesn’t stop to think when she finds out Alan is that guy, and she immediately goes into kill everyone craziness.The book ends kind of abruptly, as Alan gains the first Illusionist level while running from Thalia and the chaos of war. I've never read D.J. Bodden's work before.
In fact, I picked this book up because it's another addition to the Viridian Gate Online universe, and the chosen class at the center of the story interested me. That said, it did not disappoint in the slightest. The style of writing was.just.
different enough from the main story with Grim Jack so that it felt like a new character, but the book had the same kind of pacing, the same level of detail and immersion, and added so much new material to the I've never read D.J. Bodden's work before. In fact, I picked this book up because it's another addition to the Viridian Gate Online universe, and the chosen class at the center of the story interested me. That said, it did not disappoint in the slightest. The style of writing was.just. different enough from the main story with Grim Jack so that it felt like a new character, but the book had the same kind of pacing, the same level of detail and immersion, and added so much new material to the background of VGO that I can't help but wonder about what else is possible in this universe.
We get a deeper look at the workings of the Empire, and another angle to how classes are chosen.or maybe 'discovered' is a better way to say it. Either way, it was totally enjoyable and I immediately preordered Book 2 as soon as I could. Very well done! Nomad Soul is a great addition to the Viridian Gate Online world. This a book that you can totally read with absolutely no knowledge of VGO. You dont have to read the six other books in the series to understand what this one is about. If you like this book as much as I did, do yourself a favor and read the whole series.
You wont be disappointed.I was totally stoked about this story line. We get to see the re-introduction of Alan Campbell and learn more about his back story. This story predates Nomad Soul is a great addition to the Viridian Gate Online world. This a book that you can totally read with absolutely no knowledge of VGO. You don’t have to read the six other books in the series to understand what this one is about. If you like this book as much as I did, do yourself a favor and read the whole series. You won’t be disappointed.I was totally stoked about this story line.
We get to see the re-introduction of Alan Campbell and learn more about his back story. This story predates A Final Kindness from VGO Side Quests and fills out Allan’s Character well. The action, fighting and training scenes were extremely well written. I was really drawn in by the plot and developed a great affection for many of the characters. There were some unexpected plot twists that I am still pondering. This book left me with a ton of questions about the overminds and their motivations. Those questions are awesome food for thought and really make me want to know what happens next.