The Warped Forest (Gamemakers Online Book One)

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Could you defeat the world's hardest immersive game?

Alexandria Duke must learn how to or risk losing everything.

When Alex joins Gamemakers Online, she finds there are no newbie areas, no tutorials, and nothing but vicious critters hunting her down. This seems like an impossible task but Alex is a veteran platinum achievement hunter who has solved previously unwinnable scenarios. She won't give up now.

But as she delves deeper into the game, she discovers it hides sinister secrets. If she can't survive the first year in Gamemakers Online then she'll lose more than her own life.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2025
Author: Thomas K Carpenter

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.4/ 5.0
Followers: 50
Views: 5,424

Reviews

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Community Reviews(2)

AshcheulRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I'm on chapter 7 (see update below to see review after I've finished reading this book), and the book seems pretty solid. That intangible aspect that is often called "quality" is there. It's a good or high quality (can't say for sure because difference between good and high lies in massive plot twists or gripping embience that usually rarely can be seen that early).
I do not regret reading so far.
Language is fluid, concepts are clear, some things are left dangling not completely explained but with enough data to get a reasonable models of events happening between the lines. Inner consistency is there; interactions and relations of initial two characters are pretty complex.
My opinion on the book might shift later, but so far it gave me good impression, and I'm willing to read more.
MC of story is... Ugh. I don't want to describe what she is and why she is because it'd spoil the reading of few initial chapters. There's no Big secrets, but details - her problems and dreams that make her human - are subtle. First two chapters will give you a bulk of perspective on her dreams, capabilities and circumstances. I liked what and why she is.
Setting is not big secret - so far it's on a technological level close to Earth but with magic being a thing. Urban industrial setting with alien monsters walking in a bad neighbourhood under the guise of men's clothes would not seem so impossible here. Same for eldritch entities and problems with sanity.
There's one educational center per planet that releases mages; without that education in that single establishment, self-taught mages go insane. Seems like you need to connect oneself to Patron of that faction to reduce burden on one's sanity. Mana is called faez, and by certain remarks, it seems Fey land is a thing, although I doubt it would be visited anytime soon though.
And it's not Magic Academy story so far.
I want to see where it goes.
/* update */
I've read the whole thing and after sleeping on it I decided to shift rating from
KoboldPatrolRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
(as of chapter 11, i.e. rather preliminary)
'the Warped Forest' follows the gamer girl Alex who gets the rare chance to enter a "special" full immersion VR game, before finding out that there is more to it than she thought: There are some unfortunate long-term implications from how the immersion process works and in the game surviving is difficult when you start out in a zone that's far above your capabilities as a skill-less and unarmed level one human.
Style: The story is told in third-person internal style from Alex' POV. The way of writing is okay but a bit bland, with too few descriptions of the surroundings. The amount of LitRPG elements (XP gain, skills) is okay so far, there are not overwhelmingly many notifications but you can see the progress.
Story: So far not much has happened except for a rough introduction to the story's "real world" and "in game" settings. Alex had to find out how the game works and fought her first enemies, earning some skills in the process. There have been some tiny hints to an overarching plot but the story is not far enough along to know more. The pacing seems to be neither too fast nor too slow.
Grammar: Very good, barely any errors
Characters: Alex is a successful gamer girl with a knack for finding exploits; as there is no tutorial for the new game world she couldn't do much yet but due to her gaming experience and intelligence she uses her opportunities well. There have been some hints about her other character traits but not many yet. The other characters have only been shown in short scenes, so far they are described pretty simple.
In total, 'the Warped Forest' is starting out very well for a LitRPG story. While not reaching the highest levels of literature, the author manages to avoid the common problems and red flags. You should give it a read.