Description
Contains all three books of The Desert Sequence: Desert Runner, Desert Born, and Desert Storm, part of the Gamelit world of Puatera Online, an 8 books series.
Follow NPC Maddie on her journey of self-discovery, which takes her through the deadly desert plains to the inner programming that makes her who she is.
Rellim –
Audible. The entire 8 book series is available on KU, as is this trilogy. As of this review all the titles (including “box sets”) are available to whispersync at a discount. This is my first time listening to this author and narrator.
Starting with narrator, Andrea Parsneau. She is terrific. She does an excellent job with giving each character ~ even secondary, tertiary, and minute ones ~ their own unique voice/accent/cadence. I never had any issues figuring out who was talking at any given time. Parsneau is able to evoke a myriad of emotions and I will actually seek out her other works in the future.
This is my first experience with litRPG. As a competent gamer (mostly with my kids, but I’m familiar with and have played RPG/MMORPGs on a variety of platforms as well as having gamer fluency) and as an avid reader/listener of books in a lot of genres ~ I thought this would be really interesting. It is. The concept is really neat and some parts of pulled off incredibly well. I was sucked into the world fairly quickly and mostly enjoyed this trilogy. Maddie’s POV as a sentient NPC is an intriguing concept and I enjoyed getting to know her as well as following along on her adventures. It’s sort of like Mad Max meets Lara Croft.
I did have some issues:
* World-Building. Being in a game, there’s a vast world here but it’s rules/parameters/expectations weren’t consistently applied, or explained at all. In some respects, I thought it was the author relying on generic RPG concepts ~ but they were often violated and no real reason was given. At times, it felt like a sci-fi/fantasy novel that someone dropped bits of gaming lingo in to.
* The world isn’t described well. Some beings are described okay and I feel like I know what they look like ~ but others are almost completely nondescript. Like the “Hog”. I kept waiting to get an understanding of what this vehicle looks like and most of the info is about undefined modifications that Maddie made to it. With the exception of hair color – almost none of the characters are physically described.
* The Complete Trilogy. This makes it sound like it’s three books. The whole thing is about 9.5 hours long. The way it’s written is as a serial of 3 novellas or a single book broken into 3 parts.
Overall, I enjoyed it ~ but it didn’t wow me and it isn’t really something I’d listen to repeatedly. It’s also likely the the narrator made the book more enjoyable than if I’d just tried to read it myself.
I received a free copy of this audiobook and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Phillip –
I received free review copies of these books from Audiobooks Unleashed and am leaving a voluntary review.
Book 1
A conscious AI/NPC female desert runner accepts a job to transport a male player across the desert in her weaponized vehicle. Along the way, they experience challenges. She dislikes players but this one may be different. I liked the characters, enjoyed the romance, and found the world to be quite interesting. I recommend this series.
Book 2
If you liked the first book, I think you will enjoy this one too. There is more romance as well as new things to learn about the world. The main character interacts with additional characters. It is fascinating to see the world through the eyes of an “NPC”. More questions continue to be raised, which keeps the story and world fascinating.
Book 3
If you enjoyed the previous books, I recommend listening to this one too. In this book, Maddie continues learning about her past, her world, and Earth. There are further developments with her boyfriend, new revelations, she takes advantage of the system, and confronts her ex-boyfriend. Lots of things happening in a short book. I liked the book. It keeps you guessing about what the nature of the world is precisely and wanting to know more about Maddie’s origins.