Unbound

A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Arcana Unlocked, Book 1)

By: Gregory Blackburn

Narrated by: Christian J. Gilliland

A game too good to be true. A golden opportunity. A nightmare he can’t escape.

If Arthur Mallory plays one more steaming pile of garbage disguised as a virtual role-playing game, he might hang up his gaming hat for good. When he discovers the new “deep dive” game Worlds Unbound, he decides it might be worth a try. If it sucks, he'll just return it the next day and cancel the financing.

The game is everything he could have wanted, even without elves or dwarves or character creation. The magic system has him hooked.

He’s willing to overlook the mangled sleep schedule and crippling nightmares if it means feeling that power running through his veins. But when an accident leaves his headset broken, he realizes he might be cut off from the magic - and the game - for good.

He’s not going to let that happen.

©2021 Gregory Blackburn (P)2021 Mountaindale Press

It tries to hard to make "inside jokes"

the main character is juvenile and half of what he says has almost is almost never relevant. That being said I really enjoyed the plot otherwise

Heavy

The starter disk was kind of hard to carry on with but as you get into it the book's not to speed up it's hard and dark I didn't find nothing really funny but I think I'm gonna go to the next book to see how it turns out

Continual Annoyances

I nearly refunded this book immediately due to the 'God did this and it was good' religious BS. I'm also not a fan of references to modern day items when it's 50+ years in the future. These annoyances regularly kept popping up throughout the book and every time it annoyed me and kicked me out of my immersion. Normally I don't mind status type messages, but it made the constant 'Action failed, but succeeded for reasons' type messages stand out in a bad way. I was never just listening.

If it weren't for these issues I would have actually enjoyed the book well enough. Not enough to continue the series, but I would have just thought it wasn't for me instead of writing this review.

So if these kinds of things don't bother you I say give it a chance. If you'd be as annoyed as I was, don't pick this one up.

An intense journey, in life of pure nightmares

It takes a little while to get past the tutorial and heavy exposition, but this book, once it gets up to speed, is VERY dark, but funny book, something that I haven't seen since reading the Drizzt DND books. The aspects of horror combined with LitRPG make for an experience akin to somebody playing Silent Hill in your head, but it doesn't get too scary so much that I'm uncomfortable continuing.

The writer's style is unusually explicit -- as in detailed, not as in implicit content, which leads to a style that sounds like a good dungeon master, which makes me wonder if a lot of lit RPG authors got their start with tabletop games. Eventually the main character's companion feels like an extension of the interface, which makes for large sections of content feel paranoia and isolation.

Christian Gilliland was an excellent narrator, and the audio effects were interesting, but not overused.

Without spoiling it, but the relationship between the main character and his first love interest is intense and dark. I loved the expansive universe.

Awesome.

Great start to a series, I can’t wait to see how it developed, Gilliland did a great performance aswell.

Unraveling storyline

Frankly the book could have started in the video store or taxi. The whole interpersonal garbage during between the pc and npc companions is dumb and completely derivative to the story. It was like the author was trying to make a coming of age side storyline for an adult gamer. Icky(not sex or attraction in general just the MC), awkward and strange. Very serial killer incel in training kind of vibes.
The main character is incredibly unconvincing. He can research Chakras and random stuff but doesn't spend time to review his own skills, items, attributes, and menus.
The narrator mispronounced so many common words it makes my brain hurt as to how it was possible.

Slow start good finish

The book has won me over. There are several times in the beginning that are a little cringey, but once you get past them to the in depth story with several paths for plot it is absolutely worth the read.

Only things that got old were the constant reminders of being "near future" and "the past was the worst". Sprinkled throughout the story are constant references to the ancient technologies of today. It really feels like it is trying too hard or has too little faith in the reader to remember something as simple as "this is set 30-50 years from now".

Audible only, book cannot be bound

Interesting new release from a new author to MDP.

Favorite quote from the book:

"Ari get over here, I am about to do something stupid"

"I am going to destroy this ring so fast it will make Frodo's head spin"

There are a ton of cultural references that make this book fun to listen to. Very creative and fun to read.

Minimal profanity
No sexual content
No drugs or alcohol

Wow just wow!

This book knocks it out of the park, and leaves it open to a whole new world of possibilities! The magic system is really really good! Narration is done well and draws you in. Looking forward to the next book!

Did not finish

This book was bland. I found it difficult to get invested in the plight of the character. The responses to the character actions were inconsistent with making a good story. Summary: MC has plot armor and the book reads as though he is one of those terrible youtubers with a selfie stick carelessly managing daily activities by guessing which will result in more followers.