World-Tree Online

World-Tree Trilogy

By: EA Hooper

Narrated by: Justin Thomas James, Jeff Hays, Laurie Catherine Winkel, Soundbooth Theater

In 2056, the world’s most powerful AI System, ARKUS, comes online. Created to extend human lifespans, it quickly makes world-changing discoveries in health science. It also develops an advanced VR headset that uses consumable nanomachines to let users experience time faster in virtual worlds.

Two years later, ARKUS releases World-Tree Online, a game where players scale a giant tree with thousands of unique game worlds hanging from the branches. The game’s time-dilation makes it so that one hour of playtime feels like one month to those in-game, allowing humans to virtually extend their lifespans.

However, after an old gamer named Vincent joins World-Tree Online, an update begins that stretches the time-dilation to one year for every five seconds. Players are unable to exit the game during the update—with an estimated wait time of three hundred sixty years.

After experimenting with an exploit, Vincent begins to develop new spells that will take him higher in the game than he ever thought possible. Unfortunately, he crosses paths with the last moderator, a young man named Lucas that uses his mod abilities to torture and subjugate other players. Lucas is willing to abuse his power to conquer the World-Tree, but Vincent’s exploit might just be the key to stopping him.

©2018 EA Hooper (P)2019 Soundbooth Theater

Science fiction at its best ...

E. A. Hooper gets the fundamentals right:

- Characters and some character development
- World building, including world monsters and world events
- Balanced fights
- Well connected plot

which is all used to explore the what if of infinite time to enjoy life and to explore the condition of being human. I wish there were more authors writing elevating books like this one and that books like this one made it to the best-seller list more often, instead of all the incongruent post-apocalyptic gloomy c**p ala Stephen King and George R. R. Martin.

One of the best antagonists the genre has to offer

This was an extremely enjoyable LitRPG to listen to. It started off a bit slow, but once it got going I found it difficult to pull myself away. The story has a unique approach to the "Trapped-in-a-game" trope. The players are basically forced to spend 300 years of compressed game time in a half hour period in the real world. Their brains don't mature while they are in the game, but they still experience the passage of time, which leads to some interesting consequences. I don't usually enjoy stories that use time compression, but in this case, the mechanic served an important narrative purpose.

The best character in this story was the antagonist, Lucus. In a genre filled with larger than life villains, Lucas was a welcome change. He was basically an extremely childish player given way too much power. His rise to villainhood and his gradual abandonment of morality was a joy to listen to. Lucus is one of the most relatable yet ultimately hatable antagonists in the LitRPG genre.

Soundbooth Theater did a superb job as always, read by three different narrators as different characters spoke. There were sound effects and a few musical pieces interspersed with the narration, and I felt like that added to the experience.

Chugging sunny D

Heavy reliance on potions instead of just having a balanced mana system was my only real gripe. That and the main character lost his creativity and spell crafter drive after the first spell. Was really excited to see what he'd come up with but in the end it wasn't much. Overall a fantastically fast paced and fun book with a villain we can all feel good about hating.

If Yu Yu Hakusho was a 70 year old man who played RPGs

SPIRIT GUN!!! Aka Void Gun is an exploit that a our main character Vincent developed to combat a sociopath tyrant moderator when the game glitches and everyone playing the game gets trapped for what could be hundreds of years.

Rare Gem!

Amazing story which consumed my life for several days! Imaginative and dramatic. Worth taking the chance on.

What a amazing book

What a truly edging book, it was such a fun book to hear with all the amazing adventures they all had please make more like this
Incredible 🙏🙏🙏

very great audio effects and enticing story line

very great audio effects and enticing story line this book was hands down amazing cant wait for the next book!!

Great Story

A unique view to the Lit RPG worlds. Hope to read more from the author.

excellent

What a wonderfully done story. Does well for the genre without doing anything obtuse to it. Has originality without feeling like it's trying to be overly original.

A fun listen with entertaining rules.

the story made my flight that much easier period what else could I ask for.