The Copper Rose

Freedom Online #1

by David Lingard

When you enter your game pod to enter the world of Freedom Online, you have a year to be and do what you want. You can play the game in any way you like, fight, craft and grow. But what happens when the scales of balance are weighted against you, in favour of those deemed more important in the real world?Without rules and boundaries, the human race can be left craving a sense of limits, something to rebel or fight against and without those limits, the bar of what is acceptable is constantly moved - or in this case, removed.Anyone can be a friend or foe - and in an unlikely twist of events, especially for a gamer versed in MMO, role-playing and strategy games - Tandy manages to befriend a small goblin and begin the creation of his brand new settlement.The problem is, when the bad guys don’t get their way, they can be very persuasive. And when those bad guys are human? They feel just a little more entitled than others.So when you have to fight against the worst of humanity, why not team up with the best of the darker races? Sometimes you just have to flip the script and not every book should be judged by its cover.This story contains kingdom-building, stats, quests, combat stats, and everything you’d expect to see whilst playing a computer game. Also no Harems. Nobody wants a harem set in a goblin settlement.

297 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 12, 2019

Reviews

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book one

Mistakes: I counted ten errors throughout this book, but my biggest problem was with the levels earned by the MC seemingly going up and down, back and forth. The tables need to be redone so you don't get that yo-yo feeling. Also the lack of his allies seemingly being unable to level from doing their jobs bothers me. They should have been steadily growing along with the town.
Plot: This felt like parts of two different books that others have published where combined into one book. Just not as skillfully as the originals.I did enjoy the building aspect, but felt it got really rushed and cluttered towards the end.
The gaming company itself didn't come across as believable at all.
Characters: the MC while somewhat likable didn't really ring true because his growth rate didn't match everything he was doing.
5/10 I just feel like this book was very unbalanced.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it, although I will admit to skimming a lot of the detail on game mechanics as the book is very heavy on the resource/building aspects of gaming. If you're into that you'll really like this; if it makes you want to tear your eyes out you'd best look elsewhere. I'm capable of doing my own content editing (i.e. skimming stuff that bores me) to a certain extent as long as the basic story is good and the MC/s is/are reasonably engaging.

The book's online world and the IRL politics are interesting so it has potential for sequels, as long as the building details can be reeled in a bit.

[Someone S Name · Rating 4 out of 5]

Village building with action at times

A really decent addition to the base building genre. Lots of tables and quite a bit of action from start to finish. Certainly worth downloading on KU and reading it if you’re a fan of LITRPG.

Can’t wait for the sequel.

[jack pulford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun

I really like the progression and the settlement building as well as the story being told, highly recommended, can't wait to see more.

[Davidl Campbell'Sr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb!!

A long story with a happy ending the author did a great job in telling his story that kept you into his main characters

[Erik Sapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Idealistic

The main character is unrealistically idealistic. Things just work out too well for him. But that doesn’t matter. This book is just a fun read!