The War Game: Basic Training

The War Game: A LitRPG Space Adventure, Book 1

By: August Aird

Narrated by: Rhys David, June Aaron

Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Carter Ash wakes up with no memories in a virtual basic training. All the recruits will die within the next six weeks. Lucky for them, they’ve all got three lives.

He’s assigned to a squad with his goofy friend and another captivating cadet, Iris. They have to keep each other alive as long as possible because when they die, they get assigned their permanent character class. And everyone in the squad wants a valuable class, ideally the kind where you don’t get killed immediately.

Boot camp is just the start, because around the corner is a terrifying galaxy-wide war filled with dangerous and sultry aliens. Carter must figure out how to survive and thrive in the War Game.

The War Game: Basic Training is a LitRPG novel for discerning adults, featuring unconventional relationships.

©2024 August Aird (P)2024 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

Awesome

Yeah I couldn't stop listening to this and now I'm definitely a fan of the author, honestly my only complaint would be how little spice there was but I get why that is but I hope there's way more on book two. the narration was amazing!

character development

I really enjoyed the character development and pacing. it is derivative of some other books and movies but not in an overt or heavy handed way. all in all well done

Excellent adventure, exciting, well written

This is an excellent story and the narration is first class. The hero isn't over powered and is extremely relatable.

Disappointing, But Still Arguably Good.

I very much enjoyed this book. At least up until the last 3ish hours.

Some "SPOILERS"
(Read at your own discretion)

My biggest issue is when the A..Hole bully shows up at the end of the book. I was more than a bit pissed that our MC didn't immediately kill the troublemaker. When lives are literally on the line why would you risk letting such a dangerous individual live anywhere within your proximity. And we all know that driving him away would only make the A..Hole more dangerous in the future when you aren't prepared to face him. There is only one way to deal with such people no matter how distasteful a person might find the act.

My other issues with the ending mostly revolve around the poor decisions that the team makes. All of which culminate in the deaths of almost everyone when in my opinion it could've been avoided(at least mostly). For instance, why does the MC's friend die to the giant croc. Honestly the way it was set up made no sense. Other than it was an excuse to get the MC alone with all of his female teammates. If tweeked slightly the whole thing could've worked, but instead it felt like the author was rushing to the conclusion.

My second biggest gripe is, why did they surrender the high ground without putting up a true fight to keep it. Even if the enemy has artillery it is still more advantageous to secure the high ground and hold it at all costs. Especially given the climate conditions of the situation. It certainly drove me up a wall when the team later talks about needing to retake their home base because they knew the location was so important. I nearly screamed at my phone, "of course it's important you idiots, isn't that why you risked it to take that base in the first place."

Then immediately after "losing" their home base rather than focus on the enemies who are killing you the group attacks a different powerful enemy force and of course are repeatedly ambushed by the original enemy. The whole premise of that portion of the story is just badly written in my opinion.

BIG SPOILER

The ending was somewhat predictable. I had hoped the reward would be more than what he got. Sure a Unique extra class is good but it hardly felt like enough. But the most cringeworthy part was the assigned class itself. Hero(in training). The other guy gets "Destroyer" and our MC gets the most boring, generic class type ever devised. While I personally was hoping he would receive something like "Harem Master", lol, due to his relationships with the many women surrounding him I honestly would've been fine with just about any other class title.

Overview.

So overall, I enjoyed this Audiobook far more than many of the other new authors I've listened to recently, but I thought it could've been alot better if a bit more work had been put in to more cleanly make the ending come together.