Quietus - Penumbra Online
Self-Published
Community Rating
Description
After being diagnosed with a rare brain parasite, Christine agrees to a radical and intensive treatment. While the doctors remove her infected neural tissue and attempt to regrow it, her mind is uploaded into Penumbra for three months, possibly never to return.
Her goal is to lose herself in the adventure and freedom of this new world. One of the three most popular VRMMOs in the world, it offers those who wish a chance at finding a new and better life.
For a cost.
Information
- Status
- Hiatus
- Year
- 2022
- Author
- SJ Reaver
Royal Road Stats
- Rating
- 4.2/ 5.0
- Followers
- 193
- Views
- 17,080
Chapters(12 total)
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!
Community Reviews(4)
- RedcoatRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0It's no exaggeration to say that the concept of virtual reality is much more prominent in today's media than it ever was before. The idea of separating the mind from the body and putting it into a fantastical yet programmed world has appeared in hundreds of different stories, films, TV shows and webnovels, and yet it's often done without any regard for the questions that the very premise of virtual reality raises.
After all, if you unshackle the mind from the body and broadcast a programmed world into its senses, is there really any difference between that and the mind's own imagined dreams?
The protagonist of Quietus suffers from a rare and as yet incurable brain disease, one that has already partly removed her mind from reality. Her body was what grounded her, but when the connection between her mind and body is severed, replaced by a direct link to a virtual world, the boundaries between what's been programmed and what's the product of her own mind becomes hard to discern.
It means that this is a psychological thriller of a story, where the reader is never entirely certain whether or not what they're reading is supposed to happen, or even if it's actually happening. This is brought across wonderfully through the story's style - which blends detailed and realistic environments with obviously artificial game mechanics - and through its characters - who similarly straddle the line between viewing the world as a game and embracing it as all too real.
At this point, I feel like the story has a great many hidden depths left to explore, and I can't wait to see where the descent leads next. - aDragonRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0A solid story so far. There is a lot of cool imagery so far and very few numbers for a litRPG so gold star.
I've not read all her works, but Reaver has a certain style to her writing that stands out on RR and I'd say it's present here. The introductory chapter sets the tone with discussion of ego death and the frailty of our conciousness.
Still in the early stages of the story, but the story seems to be about Christine recovering from the damage inflicted by a brain parasite while exploring the hidden , often disturbing facets of Penumbra Online.
The grammar is fairly good. There's a few mistakes, but they're relatively minor and I've certainly trudged through worse on here. It would probably need an editor she wanted to publish the story in print, but sort of that it's fine. I've probably made about as many grammar mistakes in this review
So far there's only three or four characters that have been introduced and given more than a few lines and one of those is an AI with questionable motives so I'm happy.
Oh apparently this isn't 200 words? Guess I'll say I've two chapters behind since they were posted while I was asleep and I started writing this review before I saw them. Guess I'll go read those and report back.
edit: I read further and it's still good. Skimmed over the sex scene though, so no opinions on that. - huehueRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0By the way it would be highly uncharacteristic of toxoplasmosis to cause wedding or stranding in the gray matter. Multiple ring enhancing lesions would be more accurate. Not that that's going to knock anyone out of immersion, I just wanted to flex. So far the story has done a great job reeling me in and the World building is fantastic. Please keep the story going!!
- obranRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0There are a lot of little details that I'm enjoying. The concept of the Character Creation AI devouring unused avatars after they have been cast off, is an interesting detail though it does seem a bit superfluous if there isn't a deeper meaning. I kept wondering if there were different character creator AIs that served different purposes for the intro to the game. A raven like the MC. A Tree that slowly uses unused characters for fertilizer. A lich that rises avatars as undead. All of which have a deeper meaning in the game, but most players only see them as props.
Liked the scene with the prostitute. Don't like sex in books, but I do like breaking molds. And on this site, the main characters in the stories tend towards vanilla.
Liked the idea of a sanctuary. I'm doing something similar in something I'm working on currently. Not at all the same, but similar.
Don't care much about the brain worm except that it adds flavor. At least it isn't Truck-kun.
Overall good start. Bought the Patreon, but can't find any chapters of this fiction there. A lot of other stuff, that I'm not too interested in, but might give a shot since I've paid for them.