More Than a Game

Fayroll #1

by Andrey Vasilyev, Jared Firth (Translator)

Voted Book of the Year by Russian readers. At long last available in English. The future is already here, and Harry has been given a chance to experience it first-hand. He, of all people, knows that VR can become larger than life—and a computer game can be More Than a Game.
Being a society columnist means mixing with all elements of humanity—except that now, Harriton Nikiforov (a.k.a. Hagen the Warrior) is busy updating his day planner with the names of elves, orcs, goblins, and other out-of-this-world MMORPG characters. Instead of free champagne, this time around, he is given unlimited playtime in Fayroll, a virtual reality game.
He is also given explicit orders to write a series of fluff pieces on the game and its developers. He grudgingly accepts the assignment, but soon finds himself enthralled by the virtual fantasy world and its amazing quests, unpredictable challenges, and nearly endless possibilities. Will he still dare to claim that…it's all just a game? And will his real life ever be the same again?

Andrey Vasilyev is a pioneer and one of the top authors in the relatively new, yet insanely popular LitRPG genre and its blend of cyberpunk, classic sci-fi, and fantasy. More Than a Game is the first of twelve books in his bestselling Fayroll series, which has won rave reviews all over Russia, the post-Soviet states, and East Europe. The series is now available in English.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Adventure, Russia, Amazon

327 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

At times, I feel I was meant to be an innkeeper someplace on the outskirts of Bree in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. However, in real life, I am a much-celebrated Moscow-based author, as well as one of the originators of the relatively new, yet insanely popular, LitRPG genre that blends cyberpunk, classic sci-fi, and fantasy.

I started writing in my late 30’s and only “because there was nothing handy to read,” but after my first two books gained nearly instant acclaim, I had to give serious thought to changing my current banking career to that of a professional writer. Fortunately for my readers, who had voted his debut novel More Than a Game (link) the “Best Book of the Year 2014,” I never looked back after that.

Over the next few years, I continued work on the now-bestselling Fayroll series, maintained a blog, and participated in various multiple-author projects. I am also the author of The Raven’s Flock and The Arch series, which will soon be available in English.

Reviews

[Fabi NEEDS Email Notifications · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first LitRPG. I liked it! I like gaming, but I love reading so a story featuring characters in a game was a nice surprise.

Our MC is a journalist tasked with writing a series of articles on the new sim game taking the world by storm. He's given the technology and the time off to fully explore this game.

I liked our MCs voice. He was funny, sarcastic and self-deprecating. As he navigates the Fayroll world we are treated to many adventures and surprises. I wasn't at all expecting the ending.

This is a fun and interesting story!


Review ARC graciously provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Glen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is there really such a thing as good LitRpg?

A Russian journalist gets an assignment to enter an immersive game. He does, and it's the usual sort of high fantasy type of thing with side quests, and dwarves and elves and such. He randomly gets invited to a clan, and gets a quest that no other player has ever found.

It's okay, I guess, if you're into that kind of thing.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable lit-rpg adventure but there isn't any more to it, or not that we can see so far in this first section, which is a decent length. I've enjoyed another book much more, 'Warlords of Llantatis' by Dominic Green, but that had two differences; a much more evident sense of humour and an outside suspense tale enmeshed in the actions in the game world. Perhaps because the Fayroll world is written by a Russian, we don't get much humour, or if we do it's guarded under irony and understatement, and we don't get much of a look at Moscow life, just the protagonist's office, flat, an art gallery and shopping.

Hagen - the in-game name for our minor hero Harriton Nikiforov (who tells us Harry means ugly enforcer in Russian) starts off as a new player who gets killed a lot in an online fantasy game and respawns without his goods, until he gets better informed. The player is a junior journalist at the age of 36, divorced, given the job of checking out this immersive alternate reality game which comes with a sensory wraparound couch, so he can write up a few articles.

The game quest notifications come up in bold for us, as Hagen progresses, makes lucky friends and starts to find the game addictive, makes a few decisions unselfishly and gains quests. And that is it. Apart from making me homesick for Oblivion, the game didn't do a lot for me, because the character isn't ever in real danger. Nobody is. While other reviewers say the game has misogynistic or homophobic lines, there are only a few and I think Hagen is not responding to the NPCs, or being ironic in his response, or keeping his retort to himself. Maybe the translation doesn't cross to everyone. I didn't like that Hagen doesn't get a horse. And his 'tank' character is boring compared to a magic user. We get one glimpse of the outside world being affected by the game activities, but that is all. I need more, to make me want to read more.

I downloaded an ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.

[TinySalad · Rating 1 out of 5]

The protagonist is a journalist given the job to write a few articles on a popular game. The game, in classical litrpg fashion, has horrible game design and is for some reason filled up with assholes and psychos. Unlike the typical litrpg the only thing keeping him there is him needing to write articles and therefore we get to see his normal life with his abusive girlfriend too. There's not much of a story, he just kinda bumbles along without any goal doing a few quests and such.
There's not really much plot to speak of, the main character acts inconstantly and the world building is crap and the side characters aren't very good either. Not a good book unless you like flat out boring litrpgs.

[Kamila Komisarek · Rating 4 out of 5]

More Then a Game by Andrey Vasilyev is the first book in Fayroll series. It’s the literary genre called LitRPG short for Literary Role Playing Game which is basically combination of online gaming and fantasy/sci-fi fiction. It was my first opportunity to discover this genre (not counting Ready Player One) and a very pleasant one.

The main character Harriton Nikiforov is a journalist who has got a story to write about new, amazingly popular Virtual Gaming World of Fayroll. And it’s not just a normal computer game. He’d got some high tech equipment which enables him to immerse completely to virtual reality of the game. As you can expect, the job quickly becomes very pleasant experience.

We accompany our hero through his journey from zero in Noobland (how cool is that name?! ;D) to not exactly a hero, but a decent level player for sure. It’s a novel full of humour and for all the gamers it would bring all the memories from online gaming back to live. From the starting point, when you have literary nothing and have to kill all the rats to Player Killers who hunt poor low level souls. I was laughing a lot reading this book.

At some point I was thinking, that maybe I’ll soon get board of it. Go there, do the quest, take the loot and so on. But the author has a real gift to make all the simple task very interesting. There’s always some story and mystery looming somewhere in the background that make you want to read more and unravel more surprises.

When it comes to the main character, I’m not sure if I like him or not. He’s full of contrasts. He is very witty and sarcastic and it often gets him into troubles, but sometimes it’s a little bit too much and too rude for my taste. On the other hand, he always feels compelled to help those in need, weak and small - for which he got extra points. What I didn’t like was all his remarks about women. Yes, they supposed to be humorous and witty, but after ten times it become irritating. It’s showing all women as pretty, silly little things created just to please the man. Fortunately, there is one female character - Krolina who we get to know a little bit better and who is a real badass.

I was also positively surprise by ending. I was expecting just the finishing quest, but there was also a little surprise for the reader.

I really enjoyed the book and I was kind of sad when it was over. I would gladly read more about Fayroll’s world and adventures. Thank you Barbara from Litworld for a copy of this book so I could get to know this new genre and the author. If you had your share of online gaming I’m sure you’ll love this book! But even if you never played, I think it’s written in a way that you can enjoy it just as well.

[Enzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is the first book on another LitRPG series and I am hooked on them. Can't wait for this immersion games to really be true. On this one Harriton a reporter gets a new task from his editor. He is given a top immersion rig by the company that owns Fayroll. His task to give a real review from a non-gaming site. He knows his editor is getting money under the table but he is just happy to get a two week assignment that takes him out of his routine.
What he finds out is that Fayroll, is definitely "More than a Game". He plays different than most of the regular players and this leads to him getting one heck of a quest.
About the different quests, let me say something. This series has Harrinton and as I mentioned he is different.But his humor or comments about Fayroll are funny. He makes them as a non-player and his point of view is of the common folk not a true player only.

[Arin Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

LitRPG is a hard genre to do anything new or exciting in, so writing an ok book in this genre is technically amazing.

But all in all it was just ok. There was nothing that really drew me in or excited me, but I still read the entire book...

[GiGi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda repetitive and slow. So although I'd like to know what happens next, I'm still on the fence about reading the sequel

[Eva Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4

[Nealis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a review of series more than a single book, I have read up to book 8. This is probably the best Russian translated LITRPG series and I have read a lot of them. The quests are great, characters real world and virtual are interesting, and the real world/virtual world mesh is a slow drip of mystery. My first real taste of the LITRPG genre like a lot of people is the Chaos Seed series and while I love that series also, this series is so Russian in its inflection and outlook on life that it almost defies comparison to the Chaos Seed series. Not better or worse, but just different in a cool way.

Anyways with that said, the translation is done competently enough. There are of course cultural references that English reader will not know, but more often than not you can get the general idea by the context. The last thing I would like to note is that action sequences in this series is not its strong suit. It seems to be an afterthought most of the time b/c the main character often uses his guile to dispatch or run away from his components. This litrpg doesn't focus on character progression as many other litrpgs, it more about the quests and the connections the main character makes in his real life and virtual one leading to more interesting scenarios.

[Panda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Translated from a Russian litrpg novel please met Hagen (his avatar's name but that's who you'll be dealing with the most anyway). He's a 36 year old journalist in Moscow that's been given an assignment sponsored by the game developers of Fayroll, he is to to go into full immersion for a month and write-up a few nice articles about their game.

Ofcourse since he is the hero of our tale he stumbles into one rare quest after another and gets drool worthy ultra rare items just like that.

The Good

-The story has a relaxed pace as the main character is more of a casual player then someone desperate to get this or that. (watch as this grates on your nerves if you are a gamer yourself!)

- The writing style is vivid and creates a beautiful world with a "show don't tell" approach.

- In the kindle edition there are footnotes regarding the Russian terms and slang so I appreciated that.

The Bad

-The main character, you learn about the world and people around him but never about Hegan himself. His girlfriend is feisty so he does this, his dad is reserved and so he does this....etc but in 300+ pages not once does the protagonist do something because it's his nature, he simply has none and yet everyone rushes to him like moth to a flame.

- This is a very localized book, from Russian slang to street names they are liberally littered throughout the book, though most come with footnotes it takes away from the story for those unfamiliar with them.

The Ugly

- The translation needed a some revisions and proof reading, a ton of mistakes in the book, "If" is used when the author means "It", "A" and "The" missed here and there and so on.

- The book doesn't end so much as stops suddenly.

- The game's logic is twisted and lacks constancy, first of all due to fear of money laundering there is a $5000 spending cap per account, fair enough but a game that holds little financial and RL implications will not rattle people in RL over a trolling message in some forum. I think the author has never seen a "do not feed the trolls" post over those before as he treats them like an earth shattering event! People say that killing non-hostile NPCs is punishable yet the admins do nothing UNLESS there is video evidence? you know there was an programming code for that since the early 90's you don't NEED evidence!


Overall this is slow starter but enjoyable light read with some issues. if you like Litrpgs and curling up to a bubblegum book then check it out. 3.5 stars

[That Guy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Garbage.... The MC is super homophobic and the writer clearly thinks of women as lesser beings. I mean this is common with russian writers in this genre.. but this book really pushes it to the point of mentioning it on a regular basis... also there is no story... its just a series of events with no plot and no impact. I have read the vast majority of books in this genre and can overlook a lot of negative points... but this is one of the worst I have read so far.

[Rebecka · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really tried to finish this one, but the MC is just so very, very unlikeable. He is rude, condescending, bigoted and self-centered. Also, he has no redeeming qualities like kindness, humility, determination or ingenuity etc. Most of the book (that I read, about ~60-70%) was filled with the MC's opinions and reflections on the outside world, women, the game and gamers. If I somehow could have muted those parts and kept the small bits of interesting game progression I probably would have liked this book.

To each there own and all that, but if I'm being totally honest, I'm amazed and slightly horrified how many rated this book "it was amazing". I guess it's my turn to be bigoted! Maybe I just didn't get it?

[Luek · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow start

Not a bad piece of litrpg. The story starts off VERY slowly, but begins to pick up quite a nice place as it progresses. I also like the fact the main character doesn't develop godlike powers within the first book, and isn't some hardcore gamer that completely immerses himself to the exclusion of real life. So far there's also no major evil corporation or AI trying to trap players within itself, which is a refreshing change options pace in the genre.

[Mrgana Wyze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Funny

This story is very Russian, with everyone working all of the angles. it's very entertaining, a fast and fun read. The background story is very plausible, much more so than in other books of this genre.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is sexist and homophobic

[Danyel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little unsure of what to rate this at first. To be completely honest, this is my first LitRPG read and I wasn't sure how to officially take it, so I went into it like I was playing one of my mmorpg games and that made it easier. As at LitRPG it was a solid read, but my main areas of concern derived from these:

-there are a lot of Russian areas and names that I had to keep reading the footnotes to get used to and I wasn't told this was a translation at first so it took me off guard. It wasn't really the names that are the problem but rather the AMOUNT of names that you have to try and remember if you aren't familiar with Russian areas or names.

-Hegan lacked personality. I wasn't sure how to take the character or why people tended to flock toward him so much. When in Fayroll, he'd get into situations that would earn him really lucky and characters would flock toward him through some event. In real life, he forced himself to go places with his girlfriend even though he could be any less interesting. But there was never really a time where I got to know or understand this character. I know his boss got on his nerves, but there was a lot of "I did this, then I did this." Basically, there was a lot of telling and not enough show when it came to the main character.

-The RPG lacked a bit of consistency and there were times I had a hard time keeping up with it which is weird for me because I'm an epic RPG and MMORPG player so I definitely know what I'm looking for and what to understand.

-The dialogue was a little stale and needed more fluency to sound natural.

The best parts about this book:
-The imagery was vivid and world building was on point for me, but I was visualizing as a player myself and I'm not sure if this might be a problem for those who don't play.

-Because the main character Hegan is so relaxed and laid back, we get a casual-like stroll through with the book instead of an overly dramatic character development like a lot of novels today. That dramatic feature tends to get tiresome but because Hegan was so chill I got to focus on the story a lot more.

-I appreciate the footnotes to help me understand the Russian parts of the novel.

-I love the adventure throughout the game and it's continuous movement/pace even though I wish the ending of the book was more of an actual ending and not a sudden pause more so.

All in all, it was a decent first novel to start a series.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoever does the translations for these russian books really needs to take the time to realize that understand shouldn't always be written in the past tense. If something is understood, that's fine, but you can't tell folks that they have no understood of a concept, or that they don't understood something. Other minor errors make this book a bit of a trial to get through, but despite all that, I enjoyed the book anyway.
If there are more (I think there are), I will be happy to read them, since the story was pretty good, and I liked the way it turned out. Always nice to see a character do well, even in the face of moderate trouble. I also like this one, because it wasn't a story about always having the deck stacked against the main character, and that's good. I believe not every book has to be about one person overcoming rediculous odds just to get by, and this book handles that aspect of things fairly well.
I also liked that in this book, the main character acts like a regular player would, accepting quests that interest him, and ignoring ones he thought would be boring. I haven't seen a lot of that in books like this one. Basically, he's just your average gamer who gets into some situations, but for the most part, manages to get out of them. It's really not his fault that he stumbled onto a quest that the entire game world wants to find just because he was curious now is it?
I am a little puzzled why he didn't take the membership that only 75 other players have run across, and only 1 accepted. It was explained away that he didn't want to cramp his style of play, but since up to that point, that *was* his style of play, that particular decision just makes no sense to me, but what the heck, I guess if that's all I have to complain about as a reader, then it can't be all that bad. Recommended for folks who like their LitRPG for sure, and maybe even for those who enjoy adventure. It wasn't real heavy on the game mechanics, so if folks are looking for those kinds of things, this one might disappoint you, but otherwise, it will be a good read, and you should give it a shot. It definitely won't appeal to all, since it's not as action packed as some might want, and it's not heavy into mechanics as some might want, but other than that, it does a pretty good job of telling a story, and in the end, isn't that the whole point?

[Goth Gone Grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very engaging litRPG

When I can't actually play RPG's, I read about other people playing them. (Yes, I am that much of a geek).

This is a fine example of the genre. A journalist is asked to write a series of articles about Fayroll, a full-immersion RPG. There's a needed touch of the real world, but most of the novel is in game. (Full disclosure: there are definite homophobic and misogynistic moments both in game and out). As things progress, the narrator finds himself more drawn to the game, with the last game logon happening after his articles are complete.

The game screens are present as needed, but not irritatingly so. We only see full stat screens sometimes, though he informs us where points go each time they're distributed. Sly humor is throughout, and a few modern geek references, as well as fairy tales. It's a couple bags of Doritos away from being a rollicking all-weekend gaming session.

The book was a fun ride, I look forward to part 2. An example of the writing:

"You have a new quest offer:

Find Mary’s Little Lamb.
Task: Find and save Sean, Mary Sue’s lamb.
Reward: 300 experience
Accept?

That word “save” had me a bit worried, but I didn’t have much choice. The hopeful look Mary gave me saw to that…

The snow-white lamb wasn’t far away. Far from it. It was in the next field over—though it wasn’t alone. The lamb was there with five or so rabbits, if you could even call those creatures rabbits. They had red eyes, long ears, and nasty, whiskered faces, and they were Level 7. They kicked the lamb from one to the other.

I watched the spectacle and wondered what the developers must have been smoking to come up with that kind of surrealism."

[pela_reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

➡️Very funny and entertaining!
➡️Don't let the slow pace of the start let you down!
Reading the first book of the Fayroll Series, a LitRPG (=Literary Role Playing Game) fiction series, was definitely a great first experience of this genre!
Though the start was a bit slow and made me close the book a couple of times, it was a fun and funny ride along with Haggen or Harriton, the main protagonist of "More Than a Game".
He's just an ordinary journalist writing tabloid columns, already hooked with day-to-day life, when his boss assign him to a first-hand experience and review of the game called Fayroll. Being sponsored by the game developers, he receives his capsule to enter the virtual world of Fayroll and has one month to play and write a handful of articles for his column. Though what he didn't know was that when you don't follow the common path and you play to be entertained, you get lucky! The world that is laid in front of him isn't really what everyone is talking about. It's not always about leveling up or gaining more "gold" and Haggen is living by that rule. His gets rare quests that nobody else ever got simply because others didn't make the right choices; because others didn't choose to play the game however they wanted to.
That's why seeing how Haggen got through every adventure and obstacle was an awesome journey that I would love to go on again!
3.5 /5 ⭐

[BookParadisum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fayroll: More than a game by A. Vasilyev, is the first novel that I've read from the LitRPG genre.
The concept of the game is pretty amazing with the player being fully immersed in the virtual reality. The world building is impressive! There are a dozen forms of characters including soldiers, mages, witches, goblins, dwarves, dragons etc. and ancient cities. Most of the protagonist's real life events take place in his apartment and involve talking to his boss or his girlfriend. He seemed to be portrayed as a friendly, humorous and clever guy, especially within the game, and slightly arrogant at times. With each new quest that Nikiforov embarks on, the reader learns something new about the game. However, there is little suspense. I was expecting more plot twists. But instead, the book mostly focuses on exploring the game and its quests which is what really interested me. Details of the player's attributes and scores like the XP, Health, bonuses etc. are mentioned and highlighted using bold fonts, trying and succeeding in giving the reader a realistic RPG gameplay experience. Those of you who like video gaming, futuristic novels and books with great focus on world building, and are patient readers might want to check out this series! Venturing into the LitRPG genre with the Fayroll series was a really unique reading experience for me.

[Jamie Moesser · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I liked the premise of the book and the snarky style, there were several things that made this book much weaker than I thought it could have been. There were more than a few instances of telling (as opposed to showing) just in the first few chapters of the book: as in "'Ha! It's Beloomut!' That was my first reaction to the Fayroll world." (This would have been stronger if the author had not told the reader that that was his reaction, but instead perhaps followed the "Ha! It's Beloomut!" exclamation with some kind of description of his physical reaction.) And "She looked exhausted" would have been better perhaps as "She looked exhausted, with messy hair and dark circles under her eyes." And there is no description of Aegen when Hagen first enters it that enables the reader to get an idea/context of what it looks like; we're told it's "beautifully drawn" and "looked real," but is it modern? Medieval? Hard to say.

Along those same lines, I would have liked to see some kind of demonstration of how Fayroll was so popular earlier on in the story, some kind of scene maybe where Harriton physically sees or even goes to a release party for a new expansion pack or something. He/Hagen seemed like a pretty calloused character, which made him less pleasant for me to read and relate to.

All in all, it wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't my favorite.

[NiteHaze · Rating 1 out of 5]

I H A T E D THIS!
I can't even process the amount of misogyny and homophobia was in this novel.
The misogony is so casual that it boggled me and then 80% in the book the homophobic comments started to appear. It only got worse when 🤮An NPC female character describes how 4 NPC sailor men almost gang raped her but she used a powder to disorient them causing them to get lost in the forest. The MC responds to this by stating that the woman is a " little monster" and the men are "poor sailors" .....People gave this a 5 star...


At least in other litRPGs I can respect the game world that is created even if I hated the characters the story followed but even the game is bland and lazy.
There is even a point in the book where the author praises himself by describing his world to be better than Tolkien. I just do not believe that in this game where everyone can get the exact same quest that no one has accepted the option that is not a money or item.
The MC is trash and by the end of the book I hated him. He just wasn't someone that you wanted to follow. For example this is his first time in a fully immersive game and instead of appreciating the world and slowly learning about it he does one quest and then decides to leave the beginners town at lvl 4.

[Reinis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eh... atkal iekritu...
Kā nopietns literatūras cienītājs klausos Stīvena Kinga 'The Stand'. Otro nedēļu jau klausos. 99% procentu pasaules iedzīvotāju jau miruši, atlikušie, ieķērušies viens otram rīklē, cenšas atrisināt savas psiholoģiskās problēmas septītajā paaudzē.
Un te manās rokās nonāk LitRPG pārstāvis Fairolla. Un es sapratu, ka man, drūmās janvāra dienās, vajag pauzīti no Kinga. Kaut ko vieglu, ar piedzīvojumiem, ar humoru.

Par pašu grāmatu? Nu viss kā tipiskos Litrpg. Kvesti, leveli, intrigas utml.
Neliela atšķirība (pozitīvā ziņā) ir tā, ka te galvenais varonis ir žurnālists, kuram pret savu gribu nākas izpētīt, kas tad tās virtuālās spēlītes tādas ir. Līdz ar to darbība notiek arī ārpus virtuālās kapsulas. Nu un laba deva humora ir patīkams bonuss.

[Lesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an interesting concept, I was excited about it because I love MMORPGs. However, it read more like a walk through or a tutorial. I thought it might get better after the game was established for those that didn't live in the world of MMOs, but it kept the same feel throughout. It would have been better if more time was spent on the quest and less on which equipment was collected, how much he sold it for, and how many points he put in his abilities. I think the target audience would be people who already love MMORPGs and they don't need all that extra explanation. Great potential, but unfortunately it fell short for me.

[Chris Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Russian translated LitRPG. The setup for this one is slightly different, a reporter ordered to play to write articles, but very little is done with that premise and it very quickly becomes a standard Russian LitRPG. The translation isn't great but not the worst either. Really, the biggest condemnation of this book is it's just so average, it doesn't do anything unique or attention grabbing. To be fair, this is one of the first LitRPGs books and prototypes aren't going to be as complex as the more refined second and third generation stories.

Side note, the Russian mentality displayed through the variety of books I've read is very depressing.

[nifkinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first LitRPG that i read and i was pleassantly suprised. The book reads really smooth and is relatable as being a gamer myself. i think u really enjoyed it just cause the fact i play MMO’s myself. i can see that this book is not for everyone and feel it is mostly for people that play or have played videogames. 

the story starts pretty normal. A journalist gets an assignment to write a series of articles about a videogame, jumps in and starts having all kinds of adventures. I will definitly pick up the next books in the series to see where the story goes to. The first one feels more like an introduction to the characters and the world of Fayroll.

[Forrest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very Russian.

It's written by a Russian, for Russians, with Russian sensibilities and cultural references. Other than that, I enjoyed it and I am now reading the second book. A warning for those who are super sensitive to these things, the main character is a bit of a jerk and there are a number of homophobic & other politically incorrect moments. He also treats women pretty badly for all that he also puts up with them treating him badly. It is interesting to read a story by someone with such an obviously different world view.

[Monica Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm nor sure what this book was lacking. Maybe something got lost in translation. I struggled with a lot of the Russian references and metaphors I loved the premise. Enjoyed the story. Thought about the story even when I wasn't reading it. However it was not a page turner. I wasnt dying to pick up my kindle and see what happened next. Even though I am curious about the next installment the thought of reading 10 more books in this series sent me running to another book. Maybe I'll revisit this series, but probably not.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good i read all 11 books out, in 5 days

Review of books 1 thru 11

Magnificent
Great plot, lots of twists, in depth characters
Keeps you hooked on both game and real life story
Cant list all the pros for it is to long to list

Only 2 very minor issues
As a American reader some of the references that russian readers would get , i have to go to the back of book to understand

A hair bit light on character sheet updates, but not major because even with whats there the story is just to good

P.s. what happen to the item set he was working on