Luckbane Review

Luckbane (Otherworld #1) by Tony Breeden



Synopsis

In a dystopian future, online gaming is the ultimate escape… until one corporation gives a few lucky players the chance to play their favorite sword and sorcery game live and in person on a distant planet. In the inaugural Øtherworld campaign, the winners will face monsters, magic, warriors, dragons, and betrayal as they quest to find a weapon capable of stopping the dreaded Firelord and his armies.

For one lowly janitor-turned-alchemical adventurer, the stakes are much higher. Someone wants him very, very dead. And in a world where no one is who they seem to be, Jarrod Luckbane has no idea who he can trust.

Lisa's Review - 4.5 out of 5 stars

Have you ever been playing a computer game and thought 'I would love to really be in the game?' Well step into Luckbane's world! Set years in the future where playing a computer game doesn't just involve sitting in front of a television, book one in the Otherworld series is a fast paced, action filled, thrilling ride that takes you into a real life game.

Jarrod is a bored janitor, who spends a lot of his time playing a computer game, but when his character dies, his life doesn't look so great. After being caught playing at work, he loses his job, and his home. When a mysterious letter arrives and Jarrod finds out that GameComm are resurrecting his character, and he is offered the chance to go and play the game for real, things change quickly.

Step into Otherworld, the real life computer game. From then on this a story filled with amazing colourful characters, thieves, elves, goblyns, dwarves, magicians, plus the incredible creations that Tony Breedens wonderful imagination has dreamed up to try and take down the players.

The characters that Tony has come up with are amazing. Imagine chucking the characeters from Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Dungeons and Dragons and all the other games, books, films along those lines, chucking them in a blender, and seeing what you get. What you get, is Luckbane.

From the first page to the very last, there are no slow moments in this book. From epic battles, dragons, and hackers, it is all go, and the pace is as fast as a lightening bolt.
The visuals created as I read this book took me right into a video game myself, the descriptive way Tony rights is flawless and breath taking.

The only reason I knocked half a star off of my review was down to the fact that there were just so many characters! Throw into the mix half of those characters having 'real names' and game names too, I often found myself getting a little lost, especially when new characters were introduced into the fray. It took me a good while to work on remembering the main characters and their different names, I found it a little hectic at times to remember any new characters, too. I think as the series goes on these may be easier to keep track of but it was the one thing I struggled with with Luckbane, hence the knocking off of half a star.

This is the second of Tony's books I have read now, and his books are not my first choice of genre, in fact sci fi style books are usually pretty low on my list, but for the second time, I have really enjoyed Tony's book and his writing style, and usually I would pass these books over as more aimed at men, but again Tony has broadened my opinions and made me realise that sometimes if you give something different a try, you might find you were wrong in the first place.

Links

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18159847-luckbane

http://tonybreedenbooks.com/

Purchase Links

Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Luckbane-Otherworld-Tony-Breeden-ebook/dp/B00F81A2D6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388836946&sr=8-1&keywords=luckbane

Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Luckbane-Otherworld-Volume-Tony-Breeden/dp/1490559396/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388836922&sr=8-1&keywords=luckbane

B&N http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/luckbane-tony-breeden/1117532052?ean=9781490559391