The Land: Founding by Aleron Kong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In the age-old spirit of reading some of the easiest and most enjoyable popcorn fiction ever designed for old RPG gamers like myself, I've fallen off the wagon of anything normally regarded as "proper" fiction and now I'm wallowing like a pig in the mud.

I'm in heaven.

Okay, I've been reading LitRPG novels for some time now and I've loved them ever since I first turned on the TV back in the 80's. Do you remember that old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon? Yeah. That one. Let's get transported away into a wide world of adventure, dragging us out of our everyday slog. But most of all...

LET'S LEVEL UP!

I think that's the main draw for people like me. The stories in the games and in this book, in particular, are all boilerplate standard quest stuff, but who cares. The joy is in the challenge, the discovery, and the enhancement of our skills. If we get to destroy a tribe of goblins or get embroiled in deeper and darker intrigues, it's all bonus. :)

From Matthew Stover and Cline's Ready Player One I'm thrilled to see that this is now a thing. The fact that I've already read a few more along the pure popcorn lines of a whole new established genre just means that it's not a one-off.

I'm beginning to think that I can expect to enjoy this kind of thing forever! WOOO! And to think I once thought it would be trash. :) The quality of everything I've read, all the way up to this novel, has been quite good. I now can ignore dystopias, sparkly vampires, and all those other flavors of the day. I've got myself a new flavor. :)

*giddy dance*

And there's so much to choose from, too! They're all pretty much the same, of course, but that's okay. I'm not sick of it. 30 years of these games in RL has pretty much made me become an insta-fan. :)

And yes, I brought up a few authors and such in this review for a particular reason: I've come to the easy realization that Aleron Kong, the "Father" LitRPG is entirely sardonic and the unmitigated level of ego has got to be level 20. I can appreciate that. A woman as a father is pretty telling, after all. :) Go Aleron! :)

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