Soda Pop Soldier

Soda Pop Soldier, Book 1

By: Nick Cole

Narrated by: Guy Williams

Call of Duty meets Diablo in this fast-paced, action-packed LitRPG novel from the co-creator of Galaxy's Edge universe.

Gamer PerfectQuestion fights for ColaCorp in WarWorld, an online combat sport arena where megacorporations field entire armies in the battle for real world global advertising-space dominance. Within the immense virtual battlefield, players and bots are high-tech grunts, using drop-ships and state-of-the-art weaponry to wipe each other out.

But times are tough, and the rent is due, and when players need extra dough, there's always the Black, an illegal open source tournament where the sick and twisted desires of the future are given free rein in the Wastehavens, a Gothic dungeon fantasy world.

And all too soon, the real and virtual worlds collide when PerfectQuestion refuses to become the tool of a madman intent on hacking the global economy for himself.

©2018 Castalia House (P)2018 Podium Publishing

Loved it!

The description doesn’t do the plot justice - if I hadn’t loved Nick Cole’s Strange Company duo SO MUCH I probably wouldn’t have read Soda Pop Soldier based on the description alone. So glad I gave it a chance because it was great. I’m not sure (but will be looking into it) if Nick Cole hasn’t written many solo works or if Audible just hasn’t made them into audiobooks yet…. Most of the content on here with Cole is co-written with other authors. I like Nick Cole’s solo works better than the solo works of those co-writers and the co-written works too. If you enjoyed Soda Pop Soldier and haven’t checked out Strange Company and Strange Company: Voodoo Warfare make those 2 your next reads or listens. Gotta say, I love the names Cole comes up with for his books as much as the actual books. He has a talent for naming with flare. Taken on their own, how cool are the titles: Soda Pop Soldier, Strange Company and Voodoo Warfare ?!! all would make great band names

twisted plot

This book is a bit all over the place. Lots of separate plot points with only the mc in common. But if you can handle a topsy turvy tale or two, then you'll enjoy this book. No cliff hanger, even though there's a second book, so I'm pretty happy with it.

Happy to see Nick Cole is just as entertaining outside of his Strange Company and Galaxy’s Edge series’

While some of the twists were a little predictable, I still got that same giddy feeling from listening to the main protagonist fighting their way through a fallen dystopia. Can’t wait to start the second book!

great story

I really enjoyed this book.The world in this book is extremely intriguing. I loved every minute of it!

Thoroughly enjoyable read!

Good narration, great writing and a great story! i particularly like the poetic language used to describe the world, it makes for a beautiful and detailed mental picture.

Ready Player One For Call of Duty players

This was a more realistic verson of Ready Player One with a computer and not a VR rig. It fits in well with gaming tournments and gaming leagues. It is a cyberpunk gaming adventure that is a stone's throw away from reality.

Interesting & entertaining twist on one of...

SCI-FI's bread and butter themes, a dystopian future. This time around video games & advertizing that moves the world round. The author creates a context where who you are plays out in the real world & in the virtual with equal gravity. Anonymity is seemingly non existant yet participants are every bit as vicious as if they're if they're hidden behind a veil.
Most of the time the villian turns out to be the most interesting character in the story, but the hero who has flaws is far more riveting . The protagonist is the flawed hero who's humanity is on full display while he deals with doing things sideways or traversing "the [path] less traveled". Humanity seems to have equal capacity toward the light as the darkness & one cannot escape the pull of either.

I look forward to the second installment of this saga in "Warlord".

Keep going!

I almost gave up on the book when PerfectQuestion went into the oubliette and it started to seem like it was going to slip into an alternate lifestyle type of book, it’s just not my thing.

But then, the character’s strength of will prevailed. He was able to move beyond the temptations down there and became a likeable protagonist who grew immensely over the course of the book.

Strong performance by the narrator helped to bring the story along. Pick it up, get past the rough parts, and you’ll be glad that you did.

This Book Was Fun!

When the story started, it had me thinking in terms of Ender's Game. Boy was I wrong! The story went in fun and unexpected ways. I'm so glad I picked it out. I will be looking for more books from this author!

Virtual Reality in the future

Great story about a dystopian future with virtual reality and numerous power hungry corporations looking to advance their respective agendas.