The Land of the Undying: Dark Elf Chronicles Book One

This is a great novel that combines two seemingly disparate genres and does it well. The real life storyline is zombie survival. Mace lucked out getting into a secure facility, and even through he has running water, electricity,and a safe place to sleep, he’s alone. He plays a VR game so that he won’t go crazy from the loneliness. He still has to risk his life against the monsters outside to scavenge for food every couple weeks. Then one day he hears someone over the radio, Sheri, and two meet up so that they can work together to survive. Lots of great survivalist stuff in the real world story and a little romance.The game storyline, is mostly action, adventure MMO stuff. But something that the author is able to do, is make that game stuff relevant to the real world storyline. Mace wants to upload his mind to the game, giving him the possibility of living there as long as the electricity in their geothermal powered facility stays up, possibly centuries. But to do that, he needs to achieve a level of synchronicity with the game by training his mind to think of the game like it’s the real world. This gives the story the excuse to have both characters play the game. But what the author does that I think is interesting, is that he keeps the theme of survival in the game, at least for the drow storyline. In addition to that, the game itself notices that all the players have gone missing and tries to figure out how to adjust, even going so far as to give quests to Shari to bring players back to their world.Overall, I had a great time reading this. Though I’ll admit, I was already partial to the apocalypse survival genre.Score: 8 out of 10

A good story with a nice backdrop. There are some good fights and interesting characters. Sadly you soon find that many of them feels kind of the same. What makes the Ogre captain of Lakeside different from the leader of the Minotaurs? The introduction, since they have very little of the way of character to differentiate them, while they are support characters and don't need long development stories it would have been nice with a little more just to make them stand out. While the in-game world feels rather generic, it does it job and lays the foundation for the conflicts nicely.Our MC is the bog standard vanilla good guy without getting annoying. I do like the fact that he is slightly different in-game, as most of us are since we don't feel real danger while playing a game. He is more cautious and scared while in the real world.I like the apocalypse backdrop and could see it having worked as its own story without the gamelit parts.One of my big gripes with the books is the soul dagger. Its way to over powered and I think it take away from the fights since you know that Mace can simply one shot any foe they meet. Leading to the big conflict of the 3 first books being over in less than 5 pages.While book 1 and 2 is more in the vein of adventure, book 3 get more into city building.I recommend the series and while flawed (in my opinion) its still one of the better stories I've read recently.

This book has a solid story. It is a bit slower than I am used to and it ends a little oddly but all around it is worth a read.It takes place in the real world and in game at the end of the world. There is modest action but as I said it is a little slow to build and the climax of the book is ok at best.If you want a change of pace and want to start what might be a drawn out series, this is what you should read.Pros-The setting is pretty goodThe powers in game are niceThe potential of the series is definitely thereThe characters are likeableCons-The book is slow to buildThe danger in the real world is to the extreme..almost everything including the grass is infected. This is a little overboard in my opinionMost of the surrounding characters are very forgettable.

If you like neck beards and want a book from that point of view, look no further. Weak dialogue and poor story arc.

Finally got around to reading this. Of Dave's series I enjoyed this one the least. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book. Just his other work is better. That said my gripes. Looking exp when you die ok. Loosing a whole level plus is just stupid hardcore and should never be implemented. And why do authors insist on having the players save a stat point like they might need it latter. Seriously if you need one extra point in anything in a fight uour already dead. Saving stat points is ridiculous.

Extremely well written story, with good editing improving. The action is fast paced and well written with believable fight scenes. The main characters are well developed and have good depth. A very enjoyable block and I look forward to the next in series!

The start felt a bit slow but it picks up and does a good job on introducing you to the characters. One thing I definitely have to praise is the variety of characters. A lot of different species and types of characters but they didn't just feel like characters there to progress the plot. Anyone who is thinking of reading this should definitely consider giving it a shot.

It's a post apco story about two survivors mace and shari trying to live long enough to upload their minds in this VRMMO before zombies or lack of food gets them! If read any of this authors works i suggest this one as well even if it's not my fav of his works it's still well written and a fun read.

Amazing read, I think i like this book series over his original, it might be my new favorite series book series this year (so far)

Fantastic book. Another great read. Couldn’t put the book down when I started.