An Old Man's Journey

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

NEWS: The majority story has be taken down in preparation to go to kindle. An Old Man's Journey originally started posting in October of 2019 and the final chapter of the draft was posted on June 21st, 2020.

At the end of his life, Charles was left with one question: What was it all for?After his tour of duty and an unremarkable post-Army business career, Charles spent his twilight years watching old movies and waiting for his grandkids to call. He'd lived a good life, been a decent man, but now that his wife was gone he was... Lonely.Until his old friend Bert introduced him to Crossroads, the new VR sensation. In this virtual world he can move without pain, explore new lands, and most importantly - see his family again. For as long as he can hold their interest, in this fast-paced modern world of instant gratification and VR thrills.The solution: Build a place his family wants to visit. Armed only with a magic stick with game-breaking powers that should be nerfed, Charles sets out on a journey to find a place to call his own. Along the way, he will be mistaken for an NPC quest giver, become the antagonist in epic questlines, and attempt to teach the next generation proper behavior - even if he has to beat it into them.This is the story of one man's search for belonging in his second virtual life. A search for a place to belong, and what it takes to get there. It's also a hilarious romp through online fantasy cliches that will appeal to fans of Ready Player One, The Wandering Inn, and slice-of-life comedies.Because at the end of a man's life: What's more important than family?

The following chapters are the draft format of Old Man's Journey. The complete, edited version is available on Amazon in ebook, paperback, and hard copy formats, and is part of Kindle Unlimited.

You can find it here:https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B09GP1ZHGR

This excellent cover image by artist Caleb Smith. The guy is a phenomenal artist.

http://calebsmithportfolio.com/

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2021
Author: Allanther

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.4/ 5.0
Followers: 1,106
Views: 8,843

Chapters(2 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

Acolyte_of_cthulhuRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Its soo hilarious imagining an old man hitting people with a walking stick.
SeadrakeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Your looking for something to read undoubtably.
You've read the greats of Royal Road, the greatly good and the greatly cringe worthy.
More importantly you hunger for something to fill the time between chapters of whatever you read.
This fits like a well made glove, a custom cobbled shoe, or that last piece of pie after thanksgiving.
Its funny, witty, and most importantly short.
I normally don't like short chapters, they leave me wanting. Here a short consise story lets me fill in the details, and laugh at the poor abused fools Charles gives quests to.
ArtNJRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'm sure this story will get old. That said, its at least as much fun as walking around aimlessly with a stick. On the negative side, a future where one gets too old to remember what to do with a submissive hot wolf girl is too horrible to contemplate.
It must be noted that the story currently ends shortly after a bowel movement. A cathartic release of the build up to be sure, but dissappointing that the author is reportedly uncertain whether he will continue.
GnarkRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Me like story, me put good review, happy times
The adventures of a teacher and his trusted cane, travelling far and wide to remote places educating the young folks on proper etiquette and mannerisms.
darn review must be 50 words long, Im old! Some red warning text ain't gonna tell me what to do!
.....dratz this thing still need some more of this old man's words
...........Huh?! What's that? Ohhhhh right the review, the review. ... ..... .......Huh?! What are you still doing here? This is already long enough.
ahhh this story does put a smile to my face.
O' weary traveler have a safe journey and remember, be polite whenever you can.
;3
HUNTER ROSSRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
The story is absolutely amazing I cant wait for more chapters like the old man is awsome not gonna spoil tho but he is amazing.
vasillaRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I finished chapter 45. I like how mc shares his worldview and stories of his marriage. The writing is easy to read. This story have tag comedy so I expected to laught at least once, but comedy elements is used to keep good natured atmosphere.
ArrowmanRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
An unusual and very interesting premise, with the MC's commentary being pure gold.
The grumpy old man with the out of context thinking is Funny as HELL!!
Overall I am loving this tale and am sorry for not saying more, but stretching this to 50 words was hard enough as it was.
magaoRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Have read up to chapter 10.
The writing is easy to read. There are some grammar and spelling issues, but nothing too egregious.
The story is fun, old man casually messing with other players and
Spoiler: Spoiler
incidentally creating world-level events.
I really like Bert
Spoiler: Spoiler
twinking him out, giving him so much defense he can be mistaken for an immortal NPC
(which of course is vital to the plot).
Might want to add the Short Story tag, and unless there's a major change in the last few chapters I'm not sure Villainous Lead is appropriate.
ReneeWolfRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
I like the character, even if he isn't the most exciting. I like how old he is (don't see many old people), and how that is convied, I like how you made him a person.
For the first book. 4star
The grammer doesn't have any glaring issues that caught my attention.
For the second book portion for a bit it was around 3 now that the pacing iszue seems to be en route to being fixed and some of the off the wall bits are turned down, I am going to say it's around 3.5. I might increase it again later but for now it's somewhat good. Though not sure how Not-Unicorn applies to the story.
Red_FauxRoyal Road
★ 0.5
Now, I'm a assuming the so called epilogue, is the end, even though this story is still labelled as ongoing.
It is beyond clear that the author got bored. Why? Because the ending comes completely out of nowhere, leaving so many loose plot threads it's genuinely infuriating.
Like, a character is introduced and the LITERAL next chapter is a half assed ending. And the author has the gall, the AUDACITY, to be like 'welp. That's the end. No more. Bye bye'.
Where did the rest of it go!?