This is one of the best litRPG’s that I have picked up in recent memory, BY FAR, and an extra thumbs up on printing these in a hardcover format. I actually found Ascend Online on my morning commute because it is narrated by Luke Daniels, who is probably one of the best audio book narrators on the planet. Everything that man reads just takes it to the next level. I am also an avid fantasy and sci-fi reader/listener and this series is one of the few that I have purchased multiple times just so I could own a physical copy.
The series as of the date of this review is as follows:
1. Ascend Online
2. Ascend Online: Hell to Pay (Adventure Book 1)
3. Ascend Online: Legacy of the Fallen
It is best if you read them in the correct order. While Ascend Online: Hell to Pay could be considered its own story with its own characters, you really miss out on so much of the back story of the world if you skip it.
Anyways….. The story of Ascend Online is a world building litRPG set in a semi-dystopian 2047. The books center around the game Ascend Online, a state of the art “full immersion” virtual reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) experience that is taking the world by storm.
Legacy of the Fallen is the second book in the story, third book in the series, centering on the main protagonist Marcus, a.k.a Lyrian Rastler. The story picks immediately back up with Lyrain and his friends’ adventures in Aldford, a frontier town in the nation of Eberia. Lyrain and his guild, Virtus, must rally together to face threats that threaten not only their new found way of life but all of Eberia in an epic 700+ page adventure. The story not only stays true to the first book, but improves upon it by exploring deeper into the lore of the world and expanding upon the stories existing and new characters.
If I said anymore then I would need to list a spoiler alert, and that would really be doing you a disservice. Instead I will just do my good and bad list and hope you pick up and enjoy this story yourself because it really is worth the read.
The Good:
This is the best world building series I have ever read. I am so invested in the town of Aldford’s development. The details given in the construction and resource management are really doing it for me.
The characters are fleshed out very well and each has a unique personality. There is great inter-character dialog.
The story is engrossing and there is not a single dull moment.
The world feels enormous and throught-out with every new discovery seeming to fit its own unique place.
The crafting system, quest log, and character system while not unique is well done and fits into the story very well without being bothersome or distracting. I also love that there is also a lot of work that the characters put into it and that they have their own failures and successes along the way.
The writer has a Patreon setup where he posts chapters as he writes them and actively engages with the community there while writing the story. The community even gets to vote on the characters new skills, which is an awesome idea that I am completely in love with.
The Bad/‘Meh’:
I do not feel that there is anything for me to put here but there are some ‘Meh’ items that if I were going to be picky I will list. Now, I understand why the writer did these things, I think, but I really wish they were different.
Some of the characters, not naming names *Cain cough cough*, I felt needed so much more story written about them. I was invested in their story in Hell to Pay and certain characters feel like a side note in this story. There is so much character development in this story that when a character develops and I don’t get to see their skills and character sheet I feel like I am missing out. I also feel that going into greater detail would have taken away from the main story that was already 700+ pages. So take it as you will.
The chapters in this book feel a little episodic to me. There were also numerous time skips of varying lengths which I am not a fan of and the overall story telling pacing could be described as breakneck fast towards the last couple of chapters. It doesn’t take away from the overall story but it was noticeable. It also makes me worry about power creep.
A very few grammatical errors. I am not perfect and I do not expect anyone else to be, but there were one or two that broke my concentration while I was reading.
The next book isn’t out already for me to see what happens.
tl:dr; A litRPG book with world build components and a great story. Buy it, and read it. Thank me later.
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