First book of a series; Told 3rd person mostly from one person's POV; Good writing; Fast paced; Computer games meet real life; Father searching for his daughter (not kidnapped).

I enjoyed this book though at times I was breathless from too much excitement and also the tension of always being in game. There's no pause button, no save game for later and then go watch TV, no these poor characters are stuck in this game. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The description of the book mentions the genre "LitRPG" which I first became aware of from GoodReads as some of my friends read books like that. I have not read a LitRPG book but I assume it's stories about people in RPG games. Not specific games like Final Fantasy but a generic dungeon crawler where you have a party of people who gain experience by beating monsters and level up, gain new abilities or magic spells, etc. Well there are aspects of that in this book but it's in the real world.

In this book everyone has an EVO, an implant in the brain that puts an overlay over your normal vision so that you don't see the bare walls of a cafe but see virtual pictures that can sometimes move, like a parrot outside on store. In real life you walk right through the parrot as if it were a hologram but it's something that you are seeing if you have your EVO turned on, which most people do.

The main POV character is the father of two adult girls, the older is a genius coder who abruptly goes missing. His younger daughter contacts him because she's worried and when they meet suddenly this program starts in the father's overlay saying "Welcome" and stuff like that. Unfortunately a group of violent bad guys are looking for the guy's older daughter stating that she stole some code from them and demanding that it be given back. The father puts up a hand to defend himself and his younger daughter when suddenly lightning comes out of his hands and strikes the bad guy. And the bad guy suddenly stops and seizes up as if he really had gotten struck by lightning. Thus begins the mad rush adventure of the father and younger daughter in a quest to find the older daughter.

They are given a map with a marker to head towards. But there's also skull markers out there and if they get in range of a skull, watch out. And of course there are also treasure chests with loot in them to help them defend themselves from the monsters. But as they are running through town and people are shouting "What game are you playing?!" as if they are just having fun and not running for their lives they notice that once in a while someone else can see what they see. Usually no one can see what's in your overlay vision unless you give them access so it's weird that suddenly this person sitting on a bench can suddenly see the monster.

The author does do a good job of pacing. It's not all run and gun (though they don't have guns, just magic). There's deep background about the guy's wife and mother of the two girls who died of cancer and how that negatively affected the whole family. The book is set several years after the death of the mother but the father is still mourning and we get occasional memories, flashbacks of scenes from the past. Although these are sad moments it's a nice break from running and fighting. You see when they get to a quest point there is a circle safe zone, so they can rest there for awhile.

And they are not only running from monsters but also the group of bad guys who want the code, and the police want them for questioning because a battle took place in the daughter's apartment.

I should stop before I give too much away. No spoilers. It was a fun read, though at times exhausting for my old brain. I'm sure young people will love it, especially gamers. I give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

I want to first say that there were a lot of good elements to this story, but I read it after some great books and it didn't live up to how great those books were so that affected my rating.

An exhilarating, fast paced and immersive lit rpg adventure which focuses on two main characters (a father called Michael) and his daughter along with Michaels harrowing journey to find his daughter once she goes missing in the system of the world.
The gaming elements in this story were extremely well written and the plot flowed from start to finish (definitely elements of Ready player One in a virtual game capacity).
In terms of the drawbacks, it would have been nice to have been shown more of this dystopian world by the author and the elements within it but all in all an interesting read.
Thankyou to both Netgalley as well as Victory Editing Co-Op for the ARC of this book and all opinions are my own.

Okay I want to preface this rating and review with that there were a lot of good parts to this story.

This is probably my first LitRPG book and I think it was a good introduction into the genre. I enjoyed the concept and could see how it could span multiple books. The dynamic between Michael and Rhea was quite authentic and Michael’s fatherly intuition was realistic, and I think it made the journey they embarked on more compelling. The action scenes were pretty well written too.

There was definitely a strong sense of tension running throughout the book and it brought to life Michael and Rhea’s anxiety and adrenaline at being thrown into this hectic situation. I especially liked the multimedia chapter titles which gave visual of what an Evo system looks like - that was so fun.

Rather than what could have been improved upon, I would like to rephrase it as what I wish I could have seen:
- I wish I could have had more time in this dystopian world and be fully immersed in the journey of Michael and Rhea. I think I would have felt more emotionally invested if I got to experience the arduous journey they had to take to learn about the changes to their system and improving their abilities
- I wish that there was more mystery established! There were some good questions about brought about but I wanted to have more time to settle into these questions and have the clues link more to uncovering these mysteries
- I wish there was more development with the side characters who played a role in the wider plot so I could feel the realness of the threat. There was one character who had some development and that was good to see so I was hopeful that the others would have the same

Overall, I think there is some really good content here and I think it’s got the potential to be a gripping series

Evoker by Josh Erikson is a LitRPG that immediately pulls you in. Michael Balder and his daughter Rhea are yanked into a fast passed adventure to help Laine, Michael’s daughter thwart a scorched earth plot,

Laine discovers the eco political group Prometheus have downloaded a program so they can hijack and control the virtual reality program EVO that controls all aspects of life. She creates a virus called Dyrnwyn 1.0 in order to save the world from the Prometheus group, and it is up to Michael and Rhea to help Laine save the population.

I was able to read and listen to the book side by side. The writing was great, and suitable for all ages. Erikson also does a great job with the narration keeping the listener engaged and with the capability to provide unique voice for all characters. It was a great pleasure reading/listing to this book and I strongly recommend it.

Thank you, Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ALC and eARC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 4 Stars
Print Pub Date:

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