Arcane Kingdom Online: The Chosen

LitRPG Adventure Series, Book 1

By: Jakob Tanner

Narrated by: Ryan Burke

Log-in or die.

Those are the only choices left for Clay Hopewell. Infected with the ZERO virus, he has less than 24 hours before he bites the dust. With no cure available, there's only one option left: digitally reincarnate himself in the most advanced virtual reality game ever, the mysterious and newly released Arcane Kingdom Online.

But cheating death and gaining immortality isn't that easy. If Clay survives the risky cognitive upload process, he'll still have to contend with a fantasy world teetering on the brink of crisis. Worse, a quarter of the in-game population hates his starting race, he can't unlock the mage class he wants, and a malevolent glitch threatens to upend the very existence of his new reality.

If Clay doesn't learn the rules of his new surroundings quickly, his second chance at life will be a lot worse than his first.

©2018 Jakob Tanner (P)2019 Tantor

Story was great but short

Enjoy the performance in the store overall if you’re going to buy this book just get the entire series in a pack instead of buying a piece by piece. It is too short!!

we will see with next book

post apocalyptic litrpg dash of romance, leveling is at for front voice acting is very decent.

well done

this is an amazing adventure story, it struggles a little bit as a lit story, backstory and world mechanics aren't the best flushed out. overall Great adventure though

Narrator almost ruins this being a decent story.

The plot is pretty much the same as the majority of other LITRPG books out there. And the narrator has good enough range.
What he does not have is ANY CLUE what video game terms mean!!
EVERYTHING IS READ BY INDIVIDUAL LETTER!!! Other reviewers have complained about this too.
I listened because I like the genre & it was free, BUT if I start book #2 and he's still saying H.U.D. Or A.T.C.K., H.P., M.P., etc. I'm done!
EDIT:
NARRATOR LEARNS GAMING TERMS IN BOOK #2!! HALLELUJAH!!!
There isn't anything so far that is so mindblowingly different from other books in this genre that I feel like I'll be missing out by DNF-ing this series!
Seriously, the author used the usual tropes: zombie virus, get sick IRL so you upload your conscious into video game, NPC's are clueless, find an actual friend from real life, computer system that runs the game/owner of company are corrupt & main character & allies have to save the day. It's the same story retold by a narrator with a really good voice but ZERO understanding of what he's narrating & it is VERY ANNOYING!!
Honestly, whenever he screws up a gaming term; my BP spikes & I'd really love to throat punch the guy. I'd be better off without all the negative feelings I get every time he messes up TBH...IJS

Interesting start.

Review for audiobook. Good story line especially during Covid times...anyways. Over all it has everything I enjoyed from these types of books.

The only Cons: The author failed to mention or explain the quest difficulty levels and item levels. For example: noob, rookie, novice, beginner, moderate, veteran, extreme, godlike, deathwish, etc...instead book uses a simplistic level difficulty system. Also, did not like how the audiobook literally read ATK every single time!! Just say attack....anyways, the ending was soooo gooood!! I am going to buy the rest of the series!!!!

Fantastic! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

My favorite LitRPG story thus far!

Pros:

- Likable mc and secondary characters
- Great backstory and world development
- Intriguing plot (kept me engaged from start to finish)
- Awesome writing style (creative word choice and no unnecessary details)
- Cool fight scenes
- Excellent voiceover

Cons:

- Honestly, none—and that’s saying something because I’m a critical reviewer.

Just downloaded the second book and am excited to see how the story continues! 😀

Interesting World and Story, but ehh.

I like the book and the story. it's not perfect, but it's definitely one of the better LitRPG series out there.

Honestly, my biggest issue is more with the narration and the way some of the "stats" and "exp" notifications are laid out.

1) I HATE that the narrator says H.U.D. like it's three individual letters. it's HUD. One word, not broken up. It's pronounced like HUD housing.

2) The individual exp notifications for each character bugs me. In any MMORPG, when you kill a group of enemies, you get a lumpsum exp notification, not individual pop-ups.

3) The stats are never really laid out and explained, which yeah, I know. Any gamer with any experience in the genre can intuit them. But it seems like a huge oversight to not ever go over each Stat and what each of them affect. Maybe it's just me, but I definitely think it's a detractor.

Great book so glad it’s free

The book has amazing detail and the lore fore the game. the virus is…kinda weird ,like it’s unexpected. Also the narrator is an idiot,get him out of here and never let him narrate again

eh...

The beginning plot is something i have seen in atleast 4 other lit's so nothing new there.

I thought I would enjoy it anyways but the plot armor is way to strong in this one, the moment he is about to die his companion kills a mob the very last moment and he levels up to full hp this happened several times.

then he blushes like a 12 year old seing something naked for the first time when talks to friend despite his personality beign nothing close to it so it just dosnt make sense that he blushes while the bookworm dosnt..

I got whiplash

Very fast paced for the wrong reasons.

You could tell the author couldn’t wait to jump into the game. I felt like I was getting whiplash going from the airport to a hangar to upload with his family right there at the facility where he is about to upload. Zero character development or tension is built up.

The narrator didn’t help. It felt like the pacing of the narrator was too fast which left me trying to keep up. I made it to chapter 6 before I gave up.

I don’t mind a trope if there is good storytelling involved. A good story is like a road trip for me.

It may be that both the author and the narrator get their footing once the story kicks in. I may never know.