Pretty interesting book, although it's kinda lacking a plot. I also expected there to be some real life segments given that there isn't a long term option for the immersion. It does treat the genre tropes differently, and it's on the lighter side of the crunch scale, but I recommend giving it a shot. It'll be interesting to see where the author goes from here now that the characters have all been introduced.
I just read 'The Battle Begins' which is the first book in bushido online, released at the end of August, start of September. I enjoyed it a lot, so much that I actually read it twice in a row, which is something I rarely do. The cliches are pretty well handled, and I really enjoy the way that the author manages to show differing gamer cultures through the lens of an outsider. It is very character driven, so the plot and pacing seem a bit odd, and it's clearly a first book, with some issues that spring from that. The lack of RL segments, and the total focus on the game itself seems jarring, but may be a conscious choice to represent how much focus the MC is giving to the game. Still, it's well written, engaging, and endearingly emotional. I'd recommend it to anyone. That said, I'm a little weirded out by the imprint. The author is listed as Nikita Thorn 'For litrpg freaks', and litrpg freaks holds the copyright. All my googlefu can't find any sort of presence on Nikita Thorn beyond a generic author page at amazon, and litrpgfreaks.com doesn't even list the book on it's unupdated, and barely together site. I'll be very disappointed if this series doesn't continue, and it's a shame to have such a good first book go unsupported and unpushed. Here's hoping that the imprint isn't as sketchy as the lack of website support makes it seem.
Yeah, litRPG Freaks is kinda like the EA of publishers. Don't worry about sequels though, if the author writes it they'll publish it.
