I can’t tell if this series is meant to be taken seriously or if it is some kind of parody à la Tom Holt. It reads like a 15yr old boy’s version of a cheesy fantasy romance novel. If you are a 15yr old boy, you will surely love it. If not, you may find it either amusing or offensive because it gets pretty ridiculous. Even more so than the first book. I found it mostly amusing but I’m not sure that was the author’s intention. The female characters are especially unbelievable. Either the author has never met a real female and has no idea how they would act and react or they are meant to be unbelievable because they are only NPCs and therefore not real. Who knows which. No amount of charisma would make this many females so stupid and I sincerely hope that no grown men would be so immature. The virtual reality part of the story line still kept me interested but since Runner can now turn off death in the game, why doesn’t he just do so? Wouldn’t that solve the biggest part of the problem immediately, giving him more time to figure out how to get everyone out? This is not explained. The saving grace here is the narrator, who is excellent. He gives these cartoonish characters a bit of life, giving each a unique voice and somehow keeping them all straight. He is quite good with both sexes, never sounding awkward. I suspect the narrator is the main reason I chose to listen the second book. I need to see what else he has done.
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