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Survival Quest

Way of the Shaman Series # 1

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Survival Quest

By: Vasily Mahanenko
Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
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About this listen

Barliona: a virtual world jam-packed with monsters, battles - and, predictably, players. Millions of them come to Barliona, looking forward to the things they can't get in real life: elves and magic, dragons and princesses, and unforgettable combat. The game has become so popular that players now choose to spend months online without returning home. In Barliona, anything goes: You can assault fellow players, level up, become a mythical hero, a wizard, or a legendary thief. The only rule that attempted to regulate the game demanded that no player be allowed to feel actual pain. But there's an exception to every rule. For a certain bunch of players, Barliona has become their personal hell. They are criminals sent to Barliona to serve their time. They aren't in it for the dragons' gold or the abundant loot. All they want is to survive the virtual inferno. They face the ultimate survival quest.

©2015 V. Mahanenko. English translation copyright 2015 by Natalia Nikitin (P)2016 Tantor Action & Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction Survival Game Magic Shamanism Dragons Video Game LitRPG Russia Computer Science Survival Psychology
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Vasily Mahanenko is a talented and skilled author I loved this book from start to finish the characters a well written and the world is very insightful the voice acting skills of Jonathan Yen make the characters and story come alive 12/10 stars....

Survival Quest book 1

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Immersed me, I enjoyed the limitations of a prison upon the character, I found the story much easier to follow and more exciting because I had well defined boundaries to align my expectations rather than open world litrpgs that I can struggle with.

brilliant

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This was an amazing inclusion in the subscription, I had doubts given it was a translation but I really loved it, have been binge listening through it all. Great character development, not an OP MC with limits and set backs. And a seemless melding of reality/game that a lot of the genre struggles with.

Amazing! Long! Great twists in the series

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The start of the book is slow and took me some time to warm up to it.
But once it got into it I slowly captured my full attention.
Good strong finish, just about to start book 2.

Slow, but good.

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I've read this book three times now, and each time forgotten that I'd read it before, only realizing toward the end. It's a decent read but the kind of thing you can just play and do other things to, not that worried if you miss a chapter or two.

The story is fine, but there's no real tension, just a tale about a dude that gets sent to a virtual mining camp. He works out how to game the system and... that's about it. The entire book feels very 'stuck in the starter zone.'

Grammatically, this book needs a good edit. Nothing that would cause you to put the book down, but the author mixes past and present tense every other paragraph.

Summary. A decent story but there's better out there (especially as it's reasonably short for a litrpg). Pick it up if you can get it cheap, or if you've read everything else out there.

Good but Forgettable

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This is an interesting take on the idea of playing MMOs and any MMO players would enjoy the story and challenges which the protagonist encounters. Looking forward to listening to the next book.

Different and entertaining

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*update, years later...
this was the first "litrpg" i had read(outside of Epic by Conor Kostick 15ish years ago) and to me, this, will always be in my top 3. Other than the last book, this series is GOAT and its what I wish games were, i love the world building and stories that could exist. tldr, read this one, its worth your time.

Old post - I quite enjoyed this journey.
It's not of epic proportions, it is a journey, what I imagine to be a real journey. Similar to a Journey in D&D at level 1.
It was beautifully told and I enjoyed the status updates despite what others may think.
if for everything else, it reminds of what Runescape was 20 years ago, before tutorial island and all kuffufle that has followed.
the simple enjoyment I got from levelling skills and mining and fishing for hours with friends.
I quit RS when it, like all other mmorpg became the same, about money.

I am now buying book two for this story, as I want to know where it goes and what happens next.

If you love an adventure and enjoy playing D&D for RP with fighting, then this is for you.

My only downside is, the narrator, it took me an hour before I really started to like his voice, but it was worth the wait, some times certain sentences would falter, but if you manage to listen to this in one sitting like myself, you will barely notice anything as your mind will just imagine you are there and forget the foibles.

For a Lover of Quests!

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an interesting perspective, but the plot is random and very linear. I don't think it's my cuppa tea

A bit boring

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You know that guy at a party who talks endlessly about the most trivial and inconsequential things? Listening to Survival Quest is like being trapped in his head. It is 90% pointlessly detailed explanation and thinking, and 10% events and discussion. I could only make it through the first 3 hours.

Slow and trivial

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The mc is beyond stupid and seems to believe he is a genius.The mc will decide to craft an item, then immediately find the perfect material to make the item and even notice that the material is the right size to make a part of the crafting, but will go into 15 minutes of internal dialog before realising he can make the item he was just thinking of making.
All of the choices made by the mc are obvious but require endless thinking over.
Combat manages to have 5 minutes of dialog between swings (it’s not turn based combat).
The game rules are inconsistent and change to fit the mc’s needs at the time.
Maybe it’s the translation....

Another Russian litrpg

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