City of Champions Online: Complete

By: Stuart Grosse

Narrated by: Lisa S. Ware

Having found the tragic truth that an art degree is worth less than the paper it is printed on, Jacquelyn Jones is frustrated with her dead end work as a graphic designer for a marketing firm, finding new ways to try and convince people that this week's 50 cent off sale is actually worth driving to the store. She's tried other VRMMORPGs, but they've all been fantasy-based, with a couple sci-fi games thrown in. But she wants something more, something Super.

Superhero VRMMOs have had a...subpar reception in the past, in part due to the fact that the nature of most MMOs makes for fairly unheroic tales. After the couple hundredth time blasting the same group of mooks from the same faction on the same street corner of the same city, using the same powerset as everyone else because you only have a few options, it is hard to think of yourself as a hero anymore.

But then she heard about City of Champions Online. For the first time, a developer partnered with a tabletop RPG maker to use their system to create a VRMMORPG, and it was one of the systems designed to be used with superhero games! And despite the name, there was no getting stuck in the same city as all the other players. The game world was a detailed replica of the real world, down to having some of the same shops and restaurants in town. She could be whoever she wanted, whatever she wanted.

Now, she just has to find a way to become the heroine she's always wanted to be.

The world of CoC is not a happy one, but it is not grimdark, either. It is like the world we live in, but with superheroes and game-like elements, where the ones regarded as heroes aren't always the most heroic amongst us. While the main characters in CoC are not as...extreme as those in my other stories, and at least try to be heroes, there is material some will find disturbing.

This is a compilation of Issues 1-5 of City of Champions Online.

©2019 Stuart Grosse (P)2019 Stuart Grosse

This is what Supherhero Litrpg is

The first book in this series is some of the best writing I have ever read. The second book is still solid 4 stars. After that is sadly felt more ahh 3 stars. However the first two books alone are worth a credit. I pray the author will have some more litrpg come out.

Team building and power point usage was great.

This unbiased review was left in trade for a free copy of the book.

Good book

The book was good, the only annoying thing in the book was all the “jabs” at trump. (I’m not American so I don’t care about your political views) Please keep real world politics out of fiction, no one read or listen to fiction to have to deal with real problems. But other than you forcing your political views on us the story an narration was really good.

Entertaining if Overpowered Superhero Story

This story was definitely entertaining as the author went full bore into the superhero genre with the idea of separating it out into issues that build on one another and the kinds of various heroes and villains that would inhabit a VRMMORPG kind of world. The story was pretty good, standard villain of the issue fair where the main character and her colleagues and allies find an evil which might have far reaching consequences if they succeed and then fight them over the course of the issue and win (though the wins are 100% and the villains remain a potential future threat which is interesting). The villains (or just bad guys) are an interesting mix of domestic terrorists, worldwide terrorists, supernatural threats, and in one case tradition and pride. At times the story is lacking a little, but it's made up for by some pretty great fight scenes and hero-villain banter which is awesome. The narration is great and definitely added to everything.

I received the review code for this audiobook at my request and am voluntarily leaving this honest review.

A different take on Superhero/LitRPG

I found this to be a pretty good read. Not quite a 5, but somewhere closer to a 4.5 than a 4. It was exciting and kept my attention from start to end. I enjoyed the episodic style of the book. The main characters are done well, and the story has a good flow. I am interested on seeing where the story goes from here. I have a feeling that the author is going to have significant issues with power creep going forward.

Disclaimer: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Lots of Action... Great Narrator

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

At over 18 hours, this audiobook offers a lot of content for a credit; much more than the average title in this genre. I found the story to be interesting, it reads like a series of short stories. It's an interesting concept, but some of the stories were less interesting to me; it was somewhat hit or miss. It is fast paced and absolutely funny at certain points, which I appreciated.

Narration was very strong, Lisa did a fantastic job and really made the story sing. I'd definitely recommend that folks seek out other projects that she's worked on. Funny, good accents, and did a great job establishing personalities for each of the characters.

Oddly original - amazing narration

This is an odd story that I totally recommend to listen in the audio version. It's really the best experience for this book series.
The common tread is the online game world, though there is also a real world mentions at some points.
Our heroine, a black vampire in the game, creates a group of vigilantes/heroes to "save" the game from players that want to bring back a new Reich on the first book.
This is a collection of 5 books each with a slightly different theme and sometimes recurrent enemies. Sex and rape themes are recurrent too.
This story as strong language so it's not for everybody, and not for young adults. It follows the line of films like the one of Joker's girlfriend, but with no crazy in the mix.
As I said the narration is the strong point here, so grab the audiobook if you intend to read this story.

Not a bad idea

I think this book was a good idea, and I think it could've been really great except for the emphasis consistently being put on race. I made it 3.5 hours into the book and had to stop because of how race keeps coming up in the story. If it hadn't been for that, I think I would've really enjoyed it.

*I requested this book and am voluntarily leaving this review

Don't waste your money

not super hero or vigilante just another merry sue who protects criminals from "Nazis" the story is the same kind of fail when progressives decide to preach politics over trying to entertain people like oceans 8, ghost busters 2016, marvel comics doing crazy shit like 6 failed runs of captain marvel. this racist and derisive garbage does have an audience if your looking for a echo chamber for your a racist and pro criminal are immature if things do not go your way and hate suspense and want the main characters to be safe all the time.

Main character is way to over powered.

The way this vampire is over powered is ridiculous she makes Goku look like a slacker. All her opponents are so one dimensional with no brains or idea how to fight. Not one fight is ever a challenge to he. She doesn’t have plot armor she has plot invulnerability. Basically feel like she is playing with nothing but hacks and cheat codes on.

The last book I'll ever try from Grosse

This is a bit better than Memoirs of a Supervillain, but only a bit. There is more cast diversity, even if the characters are thinly developed, there are at least recurring characters.

On the surface it appears this is a cast of strong female characters, but it is in actuality a disguised male gaze fantasy. The main character is hypersexualized from the go and just gets tiring, the other main cast are also over sexualized and constantly suffering "wardrobe malfunctions"

Grosse is obsessed with rape, if the protagonist he is writing isn't a rapist, every antogonist he writes is, they may be other things as well but every enemy encountered if rapist, He seems to think there is no way for a series involving women to be interesting if there isn't constant threat of imminent raping going on.

We also spend a lot of time being made aware of every male characters oversized cocks shortly before they are mutilated sometimes to regrow and then be mutilated again. If a fight occurs you can rest assured we are going to hear about a great deal genital strikes, no attack is to small or large to focus on the genitals.

Grosse's Puerile attempts at humor is obviously directed at teenagers, even though a great deal of the content should be for mature audiences,

There were some parts of the story that I liked, mostly the idea of this book being written by a better author, but some of the fight scenes, and the concepts around the character creation, and setting are quality ideas, if unfortunately being abused by this author.

The narrator was passably good except she continually mispronounced the gaming and anime pop culture references, If you are the target audience of this book you should know how to pronounce saiyan, freeza and yandere.

There is more to say about this book but I think that's enough.

** I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**