The Universe Game: Circle One
Self-Published
Community Rating
Description
Over the last three centuries, Earth has sent hundreds of their toughest soldiers to play the Universe Game. None of them have ever come back.
The Game was left behind by the Main, a mysterious super-civilization of almost unlimited power that disappeared thousands of years ago. No-one knows how the Game is played, or where it happens, or even what the prize is. And yet despite the odds, everycivilization from the present-day Cluster wants to play. If one civ gets access to advanced Main tech ahead of the others, it means dominance for them, and an end to the Cluster’s fragile balance of peace.
Now another human team is about to take on the Game, and this time around, Earth leadership is trying something different -- along with the usual elite warriors, they’re sending military academic Dr Arvic ‘Neb’ James, a specialist in Main xenoarchaeology. The other soldiers think he’s already as good as dead.
The team will need to learn the Game, navigate a hostile environment, survive other players, and grapple with the deepest secrets of the Main. At stake is not only their own survival, but the unstable balance of the Cluster and the future of Earth-born civilization.
The Universe Game is a GameLit / LitRPG adventure with levels, experience points, skills and progression. Book One is complete at about 95k words, posting new chapters every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Feedback, comments, sugggestion (and suggestions for other work I should read!) most welcome.
Information
- Status
- Hiatus
- Year
- 2023
- Author
- stephenf
Royal Road Stats
- Rating
- 4.4/ 5.0
- Followers
- 401
- Views
- 92,088
Chapters(44 total)
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!
Community Reviews(7)
- musashiohRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0This has been a non stop thrill of a ride. Each character has its own voice, which we are learning about as the story continues along with our main protagonist. The story itself is hard to explain in a few words, suffice it to say it is a roller coaster or mystery and action. And it is definitely worth a read.
- VickiLaRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0I highly recommend this story. I had a hard time putting this down once I started. It was a really fun read, pretty fast paced, so I never got bored. I love a free, well anything really, but this really needs to be published ! I really hope it becomes a multibook series. I can't wait for the next adventure !
- MagikerRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0Ok, I can't quite believe I haven't offered this author a review for this story yet. It's very entertaining and has been since the first chapter. I feel bad now for being so late to the party. But here goes.
MC: is smart and human so prone to assumptions and mistakes like the rest of us. Perhaps one or two ideas have occurred behind the scenes making for a less natural and more hand-waved feel to some solutions, but its not that bad. Overall, the decisions are organic and believable.
Party: the supporting cast is great. At least 2 supporting characters have become somewhat multi-dimensional as we approached the end of the First Circle, which is more progress in the supporting cast than most authors achieve. I'm looking forward to seeing how they progress. The chemistry, pro and con, is solid.
Plot: Very straight-forward game-like quest scenario. No massive surprises here, but a couple interesting twists.
Mechanics: I feel like the author has stayed true and provided consistency between outcomes in the story and the underlying mechanics. The only point of concern could be the MC's ability to survive some of these battles/injuries, and I'm wondering when the author is going to either fix it or hang that lampshade. We'll see. The power curve is very moderate which is great, because too many stories go way off the rails when the MC becomes god-like. Patience is key.
Grammar: no complaints here. nothing in the grammar or spelling department is jarring me out of this story.
Overall: I'm giving this one 5 stars. I'll update if it needs it down the road. - Polvane the EraserRoyal Road★★★★ 4.0I'm a fan of the movie Stargate. Thus I like The Universe Game. Has many of the same qualities and character archetypes that made Stargate good. No friendly natives, though.
Also it irritates me that Neb, the Main scholar who solves problems, isn't listened to by Buzz, the grizzled older military commander who is in charge, very much when it comes to strategy. Neb isn't listened to at all at first, but eventually he gets some respect from the soldiers and some agency.
It also irritates me that Neb doesn't argue with more conviction.
On the other hand, it makes a lot of sense that Neb obeys Buzz's orders even when he doesn't agree with them and only speaks up during actual meetings. Doing otherwise would have been disrespectful and possibly suicidal, given every other team member is career military.
So it's basically a good story. I'm enjoying it so far. - NahvisRoyal Road★★★★ 4.0Review re-written as of Chapter 39.
It isn't exactly my style, but I think there are a lot of people out there who are really to enjoy this story. This is definitely the academic nerd gets stuck with jar heads who don't appreciate him at first trope. While several of the main characters are military it isn't buried in a lot of military jargon.
The story has a pretty good start that is mostly linear, but not so much as to be boring. There are definitely a couple curve balls that may end up giving the reader something other than the obvious. My main issue with the story is that the MC keeps doing things that seem partially to keep the reader in suspense. (more in the character description below)
The grammar seems fine, very readable for a native english speaker. I have noticed a few random typos, but nothing too distracting.
If I have a complaint with the characters it is that the MC doesn't offer his leader all the information that he should. At first, the author does a good job showing that the rest of the team probably wouldn't trust his random guesses anyways, but overtime that doesn't really hold up.
After showing his worth, the commander regularly listens to his advice, but the MC keeps being secretive for no obvious reason. The rest of the team just seem to accept this kind of action without getting offended and even tell him how good of a job he did for saving their lives.
It seems like the purpose is either to prove everyone should be listening to him or for the big surprise to the readers. Either way, It is getting a bit ridiculous at this point. It definitely makes him seem like an untrustworth party member. Docked a star from the character score and half a star from the story for the MC's regular big reveals.
The rest of the characters are unique and individualistic, but seem to ignore or praise the MC's secrets because it saves their lives. Have a hard time believing there would be any trust or camaraderie after the third or fourth incident of it. - DreadFaeRoyal Road★★★★ 3.5I'll just make a couple points here.
The "System" in this story is poorly intergrated into the world and acts more as a series of roadblocks than any form of progression. The stats are essentially just who the already are and the abilities are very basic.
There are many points in the sotry where the MC or the team as a whole are in a life or death situation and the MC just stumbles on a solution. (Reads like the solutions to most of their problems are made from the plot and don't exist naturally.)
The MC also has horrible memory, for someone who is an expert on the "Main" he seriously lacks any knowlege on in. - PorsuMobsterRoyal Road★★★ 3.0Its fairly well written buut the way every conflict is resolve through literal last second revelations is grating and not revealing clearly important information to a commander just because...(the misterious pistol, the relocation tags...) yeah not realistic. those are the kind of things that pull me out of a novel.