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Re-Start cover art

Re-Start

By: Dan Sugralinov, Irene Woodhead - translator, Neil P. Woodhead - translator
Narrated by: Ramon De Ocampo
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Publisher's Summary

At 30 years old, Phil is an unemployed gamer who struggles to make ends meet. His only source of income is freelance writing (when he feels inspired enough to add another article to his less-than-popular blog). His wife has just walked out on him, leaving him without money, purpose, or food in the fridge.  

On the day his wife dumps him, Phil receives a mysterious piece of wetware. A game interface seems to have been implanted in his brain, which allows him to see the world through the eyes of an RPG player.  

Now that Phil discovers his real-life stats, he can see they're far below average. With 4 pt. Agility, 6 pt. Strength, and 3 pt. Stamina, his most advanced life skill is predictably gaming.  

Luckily, real-life stats can be leveled up just like virtual ones. But will it help Phil get his wife back? Can he stop being such a couch potato? Would the new game help him become fitter? Or more successful? Can his gaming skills finally come in handy in real life? 

Last but not least, can he find out who could have uploaded the mysterious game to his brain? And how is he supposed to deal with this unknown but apparently omnipotent force?

©2018 Dan Sugralinov; English translation copyright 2018 by Irene and Neil P. Woodhead (P)2018 Tantor

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Not your average LitRPG.

This book is more of a parody of LitRPG books if anything, if you're looking for a story about a hero starting from a level 1 noob and turning into a level 100 wizard or warrior or something then this is NOT the book for you, though I'm not saying there's anything wrong with those books, I quite enjoy the average litrpg books, my three recommendations for litrpg are the Awaken Online, Tower of Babel and The Gam3 series.

Anyway, this is a book about a guy who spends his time playing video games, his wife being discontent with him and subsequently divorcing him, while this happens he gains the ability to see the stats of people, turning his into a rpg. He then begins to start treating real life like a videogame, no, not in the sense that he started going off on adventures, in the sense that he starts to slowly improve himself, no longer content with being a 30 yo smoker who spends all his time on videogames he begins to slowly and steadily to turn his life around. He doesn't suddenly become a CEO of a company, but he does make realistic progress towards becoming a person of worth.

There is a subplot that explains why he has been given this ability but it's a minor part of the story. It did make the story more interesting with a touch of mystery but also seemed a bit crammed in and dream like. There is a bit of cultural difference because the book is written by a Russian, one thing I picked up on was the phrase fog of war was used, but because of translation it was translated to fog of battle or something of the sort instead of fog of war, just something interesting :)

Overall I very much enjoyed this book, it was honestly quite motivational, it has a theme about how today's society is all about pleasure-seeking and there is not enough focus on improving yourself and helping out your fellow man, but this might just be my interpretation. You may be wondering how this book could be motivational, I would say it was motivational for me because the main character was someone like me, someone who spends a lot of their time unproductive on their computer playing video games, and they managed to overcome that and become someone reasonably successful, yes you could argue that they only accomplished this with the help of their new ability, which is true, but the book makes a point of pointing out every now and again that you could achieve the same feats just in a longer time, for example it takes him about three or four weeks to double his agility score from three to six, this was boosted from the ability he had been gifted, but he realises that he could have accomplished this same feat in about three months, yes longer, but not an impossible feat to accomplish by any stretch. He doesn't improve himself by some magical ability, he just does normal stuff that everyone can do, reading, walking, going for jogs, etc. Because of this all I would recommend this book for any guy or girl who spends too much time playing video games ;).

I also think this is a good book regardless but only get this book with the understanding that it isn't your normal LitRPG story.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Very much enjoyed

Book was a nice listen felt different from all the other litrpg’s ive listened to so far especially the no hella long stat pages that take a good 30s -1m to get through plan to get book 2

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  • Ian
  • 07-04-2019

A worthy purchase

I really liked this book. It was an easy listen with a positive progression. I liked the premise and will buy part 2

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well worth a listen to

Coming into this book I didn't really have any expectations as it was a free trilogy but after finishing the first book I'm bloody hooked. As it is a translation from a Russian book it has been really good to get an insight into Russian culture and the way of life with a leveling twist hahaha.
Started a bit slow and the leveling can be a little hard to follow but besides all that it is an amazing book and truthfully the author has done an amazing job.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Slice of Life

A wonderful story that does not do to much but just enough to turn around our hero's life and bring value to his life.

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different but enjoyable

i really liked this book. was a different take on the lit rpg i usually read. was an inspiring read. makes you think about your own life

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  • Ai
  • 31-03-2019

Great book!

I think it was an amazing book and left me with the need for more. But there were a few confusing parts and I believe that is from the translation from presumably Russian. Still a truly great book.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not your typical litrpg

This is not: a full on fantasy novel, no fighting (heroically) and its on earth.
This is a slice of life novel, it's nice, not the best not the worst. Interesting take on litrpg tho

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not for me

I could finish this book. For some reason it was just too boring and uncomfortable so i got a refund.

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