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Drone Rising #1
Drone Ensign
Humanity has moved far beyond the cradle of Earth, into the stars themselves. In the Collective, energy is limitless, travel and communication are nearly instantaneous, and every person's basic needs are fully met. Citizens are free to choose the lives they wish to lead, and the omnipresent Overnet tracks their strength, power, and accomplishments. Even death has been vanquished, and Citizens are effectively immortal, reborn anew after each death.
Benning Kidd is a Drone, the lowest class of humanity. She exists without memory, purpose, or more than the most basic awareness of herself and the world around her. An accident changes all that, and Benning becomes a Citizen of the Collective, the first Drone to do so in history. She is uniquely talented and unscrupulously driven, choosing a path of battle and glory that will take her from arena to arena and out among the stars themselves.
Benning's existence, though, is a threat to those in power, and forces move against her from the moment she steps out of the respawn chamber. As a starship officer, she's sworn to serve her new captain, but he might not be serving her in turn. She faces threats from without and within, and the only person she can trust is her personal AI, who guides her through the Collective.
Her only chance of survival is to be stronger, smarter, and more cunning than those who stand in her way. Her path is unique, and only she can forge it. She is the Drone Ensign, warrior and starship officer, and none will stop her from fulfilling her desires!
Benning Kidd is a Drone, the lowest class of humanity. She exists without memory, purpose, or more than the most basic awareness of herself and the world around her. An accident changes all that, and Benning becomes a Citizen of the Collective, the first Drone to do so in history. She is uniquely talented and unscrupulously driven, choosing a path of battle and glory that will take her from arena to arena and out among the stars themselves.
Benning's existence, though, is a threat to those in power, and forces move against her from the moment she steps out of the respawn chamber. As a starship officer, she's sworn to serve her new captain, but he might not be serving her in turn. She faces threats from without and within, and the only person she can trust is her personal AI, who guides her through the Collective.
Her only chance of survival is to be stronger, smarter, and more cunning than those who stand in her way. Her path is unique, and only she can forge it. She is the Drone Ensign, warrior and starship officer, and none will stop her from fulfilling her desires!
546 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 6, 2021
234 people are currently reading
174 people want to read
About the author
Kyle Johnson
31 books52 followersKyle Johnson is a kids gymnastics and martial arts instructor who teaches outside of Chicago. He's worked on cruise ships, traveled the world, climbed glaciers, ziplined between mountains, and even danced in the end of a rainbow.
Currently, his main hobbies include helping his wife raise their two kids, because after that, who's got time for hobbies?
Currently, his main hobbies include helping his wife raise their two kids, because after that, who's got time for hobbies?
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
January 1, 2025
This is an interesting take on the LitRPG genre. You have to give it the premise for it to work at all, but I didn't find that hard. Essentially humanity cracked both material and energy resource scarcity with magic plus created a super-computer that could span as far as you like and then got bored. So they created the foundation for a system with classes and stuff to give people purpose and growth within it. So the universe is essentially a gamified play-place sitting on a caste system. Which is great for a power fantasy story for a main character to romp around in.
The main character breaking out from the drone class doesn't play nearly as much a role as you'd think based on the title. The system gave her a false background to support her class choice on elevation to "citizen". This makes her super-special, sure, but doesn't really play into her psyche at all because that false background is all she remembers. Which is fine because she's an outright sociopath once let loose on the solar system with her newly forged class of "Stellar Corsair". She's evil in the sense that people only matter to her in a transactional sense. But she doesn't go out of her way to harm except in self-defense or in vengeance. So this might be a tough read if you're looking for a morality tale of smashing caste injustice or righting wrongs. But as an action adventure with a bit of piracy it works just fine.
I did have a hard time with the (mostly) behind-the-scenes antagonism of the "nobles" (the caste above citizen). Why they'd care about her elevating from a drone is beyond me. She's not likely to become a hero since it's not like anybody is advertising her good fortune (and she doesn't remember to do so herself). Plus, she's a sociopath. She isn't going to go on some crusade to free the drones. She's much more likely to exploit them as her own resource if anyone gives her the idea to do so. All the antagonism is going to do is give her a reason to turn her special brand of ruthless ingenuity on a new target. A target that is kind of stupid. Which is my problem with that "plot". People are irrational enough to do something stupid like target the elevated drone for persecution for no reason beyond spite. But that doesn't make them interesting antagonists in an adventure story. Stupid people with a win button aren't fun antagonists. At least not for me.
The author is reaching for a bit of hard sci-fi in the story as well. we get lots of "singularity" this and "neutrino" that and "grazers", "xlasers" and negtrino blah blah. They're still able pull interesting starship battles out of the mess, though, and that's not nothing. I kind of hated all the new names for stuff that already exists, though. Why am I reading "kim" for kilometer or "kig" for a kilogram? Worse was the meter and centimeter stand-ins. I had to translate all those into actual metric measurements before retranslating into freedom units and that got tiring fast. It's too bad because it made me dislike the perfectly reasonable "lecond" for light second and similar slang in the places where light speed was the relevant unit of measure.
Anyway, this is a nice 4½ star read that I'm happy to bounce to five stars. If you hear "power fantasy with a sociopath in a far-future LitRPG with hard sci-fi aspirations" and go, "that might be fun" then you are likely one of the few who fall into the natural audience for this fine story. If so, welcome to the party.
A note about Chaste: Relationships don't seem to exist in this story. At least, Benning doesn't run across any. There's no mention of love, though lust comes up now and then as a thing people can do. Like, with actual invitations to "share lust". We don't see any of that and there's no mention of intimacy of any kind. Which is just as well for this kind of story, frankly. So it's fairly chaste, but in a way that someone who values chaste as a virtue is unlikely to find comfortable.
The main character breaking out from the drone class doesn't play nearly as much a role as you'd think based on the title. The system gave her a false background to support her class choice on elevation to "citizen". This makes her super-special, sure, but doesn't really play into her psyche at all because that false background is all she remembers. Which is fine because she's an outright sociopath once let loose on the solar system with her newly forged class of "Stellar Corsair". She's evil in the sense that people only matter to her in a transactional sense. But she doesn't go out of her way to harm except in self-defense or in vengeance. So this might be a tough read if you're looking for a morality tale of smashing caste injustice or righting wrongs. But as an action adventure with a bit of piracy it works just fine.
I did have a hard time with the (mostly) behind-the-scenes antagonism of the "nobles" (the caste above citizen). Why they'd care about her elevating from a drone is beyond me. She's not likely to become a hero since it's not like anybody is advertising her good fortune (and she doesn't remember to do so herself). Plus, she's a sociopath. She isn't going to go on some crusade to free the drones. She's much more likely to exploit them as her own resource if anyone gives her the idea to do so. All the antagonism is going to do is give her a reason to turn her special brand of ruthless ingenuity on a new target. A target that is kind of stupid. Which is my problem with that "plot". People are irrational enough to do something stupid like target the elevated drone for persecution for no reason beyond spite. But that doesn't make them interesting antagonists in an adventure story. Stupid people with a win button aren't fun antagonists. At least not for me.
The author is reaching for a bit of hard sci-fi in the story as well. we get lots of "singularity" this and "neutrino" that and "grazers", "xlasers" and negtrino blah blah. They're still able pull interesting starship battles out of the mess, though, and that's not nothing. I kind of hated all the new names for stuff that already exists, though. Why am I reading "kim" for kilometer or "kig" for a kilogram? Worse was the meter and centimeter stand-ins. I had to translate all those into actual metric measurements before retranslating into freedom units and that got tiring fast. It's too bad because it made me dislike the perfectly reasonable "lecond" for light second and similar slang in the places where light speed was the relevant unit of measure.
Anyway, this is a nice 4½ star read that I'm happy to bounce to five stars. If you hear "power fantasy with a sociopath in a far-future LitRPG with hard sci-fi aspirations" and go, "that might be fun" then you are likely one of the few who fall into the natural audience for this fine story. If so, welcome to the party.
A note about Chaste: Relationships don't seem to exist in this story. At least, Benning doesn't run across any. There's no mention of love, though lust comes up now and then as a thing people can do. Like, with actual invitations to "share lust". We don't see any of that and there's no mention of intimacy of any kind. Which is just as well for this kind of story, frankly. So it's fairly chaste, but in a way that someone who values chaste as a virtue is unlikely to find comfortable.
September 16, 2021
A new and innovative approach to sci-fi LitRPG.
A new and refreshing take on "rise from nothing" trope with new dynamics of magic, levelling and approach to progression. I've never read anything like this before.
Prose is taut, plot moves at a brisk pace all through without any drags, the info dumps are tastefully done to not be a chore and overall likeable characters with enough shades thrown in to make them complex.
Nice read!
A new and refreshing take on "rise from nothing" trope with new dynamics of magic, levelling and approach to progression. I've never read anything like this before.
Prose is taut, plot moves at a brisk pace all through without any drags, the info dumps are tastefully done to not be a chore and overall likeable characters with enough shades thrown in to make them complex.
Nice read!
March 17, 2022
In the far-future there are quadrillions of people and those are stratified into sub-human: Drones, Workers, & Soldiers, and human: Citizens & Nobles. An all-encompassing AI manages human society.
Humans are "immortal" but their existence is made bearable by ensuring that non-permanent death is to be feared by the use of game mechanics. AI has genetically modified humanity and has incorporated game mechanics into their existence. Levels are sought, skills and attributes are gained. Death (which results in the loss of levels and skills) is avoided.
In this world, Benning Kidd is a drone whose only joy is gaming and only role is to clear the Warren's of mould. She often questions the need for her role since the machines around her seem more capable and she often questions her own existence. These philosophical questions, however, are not those of a drone and her cyber implant uses pain in the form of headaches to distract her from these non-drone-like thoughts.
Through a series of mistakes, Kidd gains full citizen status and acquires a personal AI, in the form of a goblin named Tiddly, to aid her transition. Thus begins Kidd's adventures in the Galaxy at large, initially signing on as an Ensign to a quick cargo hauler and arena gladiator as she pursues her citizen career as a Stellar Corsair.
The character sheet formatting was easy to read (this is sometimes a problem on my old kindle) and as always, it's fun to track a character's growth in this way.
The prose was enjoyable enough and the pacing was great. There were only a small number of errors - early on Tiddly called Kidd by an incorrect name (King) and there was an error of omission where a sentence was not completed. Other than those minor mistakes the immersion was great (note: LitRPG is rife with awful editing practices and writing errors abound in the genre so this was a joy to read in comparison to most).
I enjoyed watching Kidd grow into her career path (Stellar Corsair) and how she worked on improving her combat skills; both in the arena and in naval battles. I look forward to following her adventures in the next book in the series. I loved this story.
Loved it - 4 stars
Humans are "immortal" but their existence is made bearable by ensuring that non-permanent death is to be feared by the use of game mechanics. AI has genetically modified humanity and has incorporated game mechanics into their existence. Levels are sought, skills and attributes are gained. Death (which results in the loss of levels and skills) is avoided.
In this world, Benning Kidd is a drone whose only joy is gaming and only role is to clear the Warren's of mould. She often questions the need for her role since the machines around her seem more capable and she often questions her own existence. These philosophical questions, however, are not those of a drone and her cyber implant uses pain in the form of headaches to distract her from these non-drone-like thoughts.
Through a series of mistakes, Kidd gains full citizen status and acquires a personal AI, in the form of a goblin named Tiddly, to aid her transition. Thus begins Kidd's adventures in the Galaxy at large, initially signing on as an Ensign to a quick cargo hauler and arena gladiator as she pursues her citizen career as a Stellar Corsair.
The character sheet formatting was easy to read (this is sometimes a problem on my old kindle) and as always, it's fun to track a character's growth in this way.
The prose was enjoyable enough and the pacing was great. There were only a small number of errors - early on Tiddly called Kidd by an incorrect name (King) and there was an error of omission where a sentence was not completed. Other than those minor mistakes the immersion was great (note: LitRPG is rife with awful editing practices and writing errors abound in the genre so this was a joy to read in comparison to most).
I enjoyed watching Kidd grow into her career path (Stellar Corsair) and how she worked on improving her combat skills; both in the arena and in naval battles. I look forward to following her adventures in the next book in the series. I loved this story.
Loved it - 4 stars
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 9, 2021
I need more stars
Have you ever sat down and had one of those meals that was really filling and then when you got done took a step away from the table and said to yourself man I want just a little bit more. Next experience I got here.
Sci-fi fiction LITRPG. Where are used to having someone sucked into a computer system and they literally create a character from a blank slate well this character quite literally begins as a blank slate. There’s more backstory to it than that but I don’t wanna spoil anything. You find out that everything is not black-and-white either things can be gray and the story of growth makes you want to see where she is going and what is going to happen next. No I have to caution you the first few chapters do take time to develop the universe but there is a reason for that you desperately need to understand how this world works and the over arching way the system works. Don’t ask me why that’s a spoiler. Anyway superb writing I didn’t find any grammatical errors well one there was one point where a paragraph cut off and you could tell that there were three or four more words that needed to go there that was it. My only hope is that the author can quickly bring us the next book in the series.
I always argue with a book in this genre you can tell how good it is if you could actually take it off of its written pages and put it into different archetypes this book could easily be a season of a show on Netflix. This book could easily be turned into a 40 hour 50 hour RPG video game a good one mind you. The universe overall could actually make a good MMORPG. Now I know I’m using a lot of gaming terminology but I say that because I want you to know that the story is so good that I could go elsewhere in easily fit that’s how well written it is. Like I said I’m looking forward to the next book in the series I just hope we don’t have to wait a long time to get it.
Have you ever sat down and had one of those meals that was really filling and then when you got done took a step away from the table and said to yourself man I want just a little bit more. Next experience I got here.
Sci-fi fiction LITRPG. Where are used to having someone sucked into a computer system and they literally create a character from a blank slate well this character quite literally begins as a blank slate. There’s more backstory to it than that but I don’t wanna spoil anything. You find out that everything is not black-and-white either things can be gray and the story of growth makes you want to see where she is going and what is going to happen next. No I have to caution you the first few chapters do take time to develop the universe but there is a reason for that you desperately need to understand how this world works and the over arching way the system works. Don’t ask me why that’s a spoiler. Anyway superb writing I didn’t find any grammatical errors well one there was one point where a paragraph cut off and you could tell that there were three or four more words that needed to go there that was it. My only hope is that the author can quickly bring us the next book in the series.
I always argue with a book in this genre you can tell how good it is if you could actually take it off of its written pages and put it into different archetypes this book could easily be a season of a show on Netflix. This book could easily be turned into a 40 hour 50 hour RPG video game a good one mind you. The universe overall could actually make a good MMORPG. Now I know I’m using a lot of gaming terminology but I say that because I want you to know that the story is so good that I could go elsewhere in easily fit that’s how well written it is. Like I said I’m looking forward to the next book in the series I just hope we don’t have to wait a long time to get it.
June 1, 2025
It started out good and is getting better.
The writing is as good as everything else the author does.
I was at first confused with the world building. Not so much the overall concept, but there is a lot of techno-babble thrown at you. It's a bit overwhelming.
Plus, the character sheets (once they start) pop up a bit too much for my liking. But, of course, I can skim that, so it's not a huge deal. And occasionally I do find myself focusing on them. So it's a mixed reaction. What I've seen with other books is that this is presented (sometimes in an appendix), but then it gets summarized with just the important bits highlighted. The summation could be better.
I love the under-dog story so this fits perfectly.
Plus, there is a hint of a hidden something that may or may not lie underneath the whole concept behind "The System".
There is almost no character development here, so don't expect that. The secondary characters remain that.
The primary character, Benning, is an obvious sociopath, and she knows it. It's interesting how she struggles with the concepts of good and evil. Well done, Mr. Johnson! I don't think I've read a story with such a character before and it appears (to my non-sociopath eyes) that it's accurate. Pretty damn interesting, in any case.
As implied, I'm almost through book 2 as I write this, and I'm really glad there are at least 2 more books in this series. I'm really enjoying it.
The writing is as good as everything else the author does.
I was at first confused with the world building. Not so much the overall concept, but there is a lot of techno-babble thrown at you. It's a bit overwhelming.
Plus, the character sheets (once they start) pop up a bit too much for my liking. But, of course, I can skim that, so it's not a huge deal. And occasionally I do find myself focusing on them. So it's a mixed reaction. What I've seen with other books is that this is presented (sometimes in an appendix), but then it gets summarized with just the important bits highlighted. The summation could be better.
I love the under-dog story so this fits perfectly.
Plus, there is a hint of a hidden something that may or may not lie underneath the whole concept behind "The System".
There is almost no character development here, so don't expect that. The secondary characters remain that.
The primary character, Benning, is an obvious sociopath, and she knows it. It's interesting how she struggles with the concepts of good and evil. Well done, Mr. Johnson! I don't think I've read a story with such a character before and it appears (to my non-sociopath eyes) that it's accurate. Pretty damn interesting, in any case.
As implied, I'm almost through book 2 as I write this, and I'm really glad there are at least 2 more books in this series. I'm really enjoying it.
September 29, 2023
I like this author's work and was excited to see him give us a new sci-fi series. While I enjoyed this first book, it's not entirely without reservation because it struggled to make the MC fit sensibly within its own universe. With the degree of available technology, do Drones make sense? Does the effectiveness of level 1 hacking skills make sense? If it does, then why doesn't every criminal have them and why are the defences against them not commonplace? I struggle with plots where the success of the MC hinges on the incompetence of the rest of their universe, where the MC has pretty obvious ideas that quadrillions of literal immortals apparently never thought of.
My biggest reservations came from the last 20%, though, where everything just felt increasingly implausible, from how the MC went about acquiring her ship, how she convinced her first mate to join, to her eyerollingly innovative alpha strike in the subsequent fleet battle to, once again, the inexplicable effectiveness of her low-level hacking skills to win it.
I will carry on since I do like the universe and the MC is an interesting and believable character; someone who has never learned to have connections with, or empathy for, others and, while certainly displaying some sociopathic tendencies right now, may have room for development and growth. However, if the last 20% are representative of the next book then my journey will likely end there.
My biggest reservations came from the last 20%, though, where everything just felt increasingly implausible, from how the MC went about acquiring her ship, how she convinced her first mate to join, to her eyerollingly innovative alpha strike in the subsequent fleet battle to, once again, the inexplicable effectiveness of her low-level hacking skills to win it.
I will carry on since I do like the universe and the MC is an interesting and believable character; someone who has never learned to have connections with, or empathy for, others and, while certainly displaying some sociopathic tendencies right now, may have room for development and growth. However, if the last 20% are representative of the next book then my journey will likely end there.
November 25, 2022
Unexpected surprise!
The book itself was excellent, the story was exciting and enthralling, and the writing was pretty good as well. There only a couple of errors and typos, but other than that it was done well.
Two reasons that it didn't make 5 stars. The first and more concerning to me as a reader is how the book left off at the end. It spent less time wrapping things up and just kinda sped through it. Additionally the epilogue contained political scheming of powerful actors... Honestly it's just such a tired and worn out trope that the people on high actively hunt and hurt the little guys. It may be true, but the premise of that part of the plot is just so... Boring. Plus it wasn't really foreshadowing so much as blatantly stating what the ongoing drama was going to be about, again... Boring. It also kind of hurts the power fantasy the author has going for the MC. The last reason is strictly personal preference... Changing of swear words. In universe, yeah I get it, but as a convenience to the readers? I have mixed feelings about it. One side of it is novel, while the author is just obnoxious.
All that said, I'm looking forward to the next novel and will be downloading it after this review!
The book itself was excellent, the story was exciting and enthralling, and the writing was pretty good as well. There only a couple of errors and typos, but other than that it was done well.
Two reasons that it didn't make 5 stars. The first and more concerning to me as a reader is how the book left off at the end. It spent less time wrapping things up and just kinda sped through it. Additionally the epilogue contained political scheming of powerful actors... Honestly it's just such a tired and worn out trope that the people on high actively hunt and hurt the little guys. It may be true, but the premise of that part of the plot is just so... Boring. Plus it wasn't really foreshadowing so much as blatantly stating what the ongoing drama was going to be about, again... Boring. It also kind of hurts the power fantasy the author has going for the MC. The last reason is strictly personal preference... Changing of swear words. In universe, yeah I get it, but as a convenience to the readers? I have mixed feelings about it. One side of it is novel, while the author is just obnoxious.
All that said, I'm looking forward to the next novel and will be downloading it after this review!
January 21, 2023
The book starts with ‘Benning’ in the middle of a big SciFi battle, this was interesting, but the extensive descriptions of weapons, armour and devices didn’t fill me with confidence for the rest of the book. The next chapter was more promising and I started to enjoy the story.
Unfortunately, like many authors of this genre, he gets carried with description of stats, skills and abilities etc and I’m afraid I also found the pseudo science and technobabble became irritating quite quickly.
The ‘universe’ created by the author was at best improbable, but I suppose if you just regard it as a computer game it doesn’t really matter, at least there was enough going on, that it was fairly easy to ignore most, if not all of the problems.
I also had some issues with the main character, at times she was a bit of a sociopath, which made it a little difficult to like her. At the end of he book the author seems to acknowledge this in the epilogue, but I wonder why he did this?
However having said all that, I still actually enjoyed parts of the book, but it could have been so much better.
Unfortunately, like many authors of this genre, he gets carried with description of stats, skills and abilities etc and I’m afraid I also found the pseudo science and technobabble became irritating quite quickly.
The ‘universe’ created by the author was at best improbable, but I suppose if you just regard it as a computer game it doesn’t really matter, at least there was enough going on, that it was fairly easy to ignore most, if not all of the problems.
I also had some issues with the main character, at times she was a bit of a sociopath, which made it a little difficult to like her. At the end of he book the author seems to acknowledge this in the epilogue, but I wonder why he did this?
However having said all that, I still actually enjoyed parts of the book, but it could have been so much better.
August 9, 2022
Read the book, not my review. Much better use of time.
A very fun read about a very special person in a galaxy where humans have became so technologically advanced that they build a system that's akin to a god, and have also decided to become immortal with life itself being turned into a sandbox game where you can well do anything you want, and should you have the misfortune of dying you can simply respawn.
Though this is but the premise, the story is truly a very fun one and had me tied to my bed, or wherever I could sit/lay down to read for hours at a time, would habe been more but I tried very hard to do other things so I could savor the book longer for it was so entertaining to me.
So give it a try! I can assure you its at least 10^6 times as good as this pointless drivel I call a review. So might as well spend your time reading that instead of this.
A very fun read about a very special person in a galaxy where humans have became so technologically advanced that they build a system that's akin to a god, and have also decided to become immortal with life itself being turned into a sandbox game where you can well do anything you want, and should you have the misfortune of dying you can simply respawn.
Though this is but the premise, the story is truly a very fun one and had me tied to my bed, or wherever I could sit/lay down to read for hours at a time, would habe been more but I tried very hard to do other things so I could savor the book longer for it was so entertaining to me.
So give it a try! I can assure you its at least 10^6 times as good as this pointless drivel I call a review. So might as well spend your time reading that instead of this.
December 30, 2024
VERY Interesting
The "Drone Ensign" is my final read of 2024 and out of the nearly two hundred books I've somehow managed to read this year, it is definitely sitting in the top five.
From the speech patterns that echoed of "Demolition Man", to the division of the solar system that twinged on memories of "The Expanse", this book hit a lot of weird notes in the back of my mind. Kudos to the author for taking the LitRPG trope of 'gamification' and doing something truly interesting with it while thankfully keeping the hard science fiction approachable to the masses. My only gripe is towards the confusing linguistic bastardization of the metric system. If you think it's bad reading it visually, the assistive reader somehow made it worse.
Anywho, I'm looking forward to binging the rest of the series and then taking a crack at whatever else the author has.
The "Drone Ensign" is my final read of 2024 and out of the nearly two hundred books I've somehow managed to read this year, it is definitely sitting in the top five.
From the speech patterns that echoed of "Demolition Man", to the division of the solar system that twinged on memories of "The Expanse", this book hit a lot of weird notes in the back of my mind. Kudos to the author for taking the LitRPG trope of 'gamification' and doing something truly interesting with it while thankfully keeping the hard science fiction approachable to the masses. My only gripe is towards the confusing linguistic bastardization of the metric system. If you think it's bad reading it visually, the assistive reader somehow made it worse.
Anywho, I'm looking forward to binging the rest of the series and then taking a crack at whatever else the author has.
August 21, 2021
Wow . Excellent series start
So in this series the lowest tier of society is the drone. Mostly unknown by all the other tiers they are fodder for the citizens. This story is the start of change when a drone is elevated to citizen status. This of course is a problem for some and amusement for others. The MC and ex-drone must blaze her path through enemies she doesnt know exist. Excellent story and awesome battles as our sociopath heroine takes on all comers and comes out better for it. Oddly her enemies are simply giving her the experience she needs to defeat them by engaging her. Awesome series start and i look forward to the next book.
So in this series the lowest tier of society is the drone. Mostly unknown by all the other tiers they are fodder for the citizens. This story is the start of change when a drone is elevated to citizen status. This of course is a problem for some and amusement for others. The MC and ex-drone must blaze her path through enemies she doesnt know exist. Excellent story and awesome battles as our sociopath heroine takes on all comers and comes out better for it. Oddly her enemies are simply giving her the experience she needs to defeat them by engaging her. Awesome series start and i look forward to the next book.
May 5, 2025
7/5
Wow, this has everything I wished for in LitRPG:
- strong focus on growth over emotions
- the setting is the future rather than a medieval backwater like in most LitRPG
- the setting is a "real" world (although heavily gamified) rather than a game, making all actions seem more impactful. This part reminds a bit of the Culture series, except that this book is far more interesting
- strong rational woman as a main protagonist, rather than an emotional irrational character
- the book is long enough to really get into the story
My only fear for the sequels is how the series manages the escalation - LitRPG books have a weakness of accelerating from character-level concerns, through city-level concerns and up to universe-level concerns way too fast, locking the story into a very abstract "save the world or else" path (or else the author needs to do a hard reboot, which is not nice).
edit: the escalation was managed very well - looking forward to book 5.
Wow, this has everything I wished for in LitRPG:
- strong focus on growth over emotions
- the setting is the future rather than a medieval backwater like in most LitRPG
- the setting is a "real" world (although heavily gamified) rather than a game, making all actions seem more impactful. This part reminds a bit of the Culture series, except that this book is far more interesting
- strong rational woman as a main protagonist, rather than an emotional irrational character
- the book is long enough to really get into the story
My only fear for the sequels is how the series manages the escalation - LitRPG books have a weakness of accelerating from character-level concerns, through city-level concerns and up to universe-level concerns way too fast, locking the story into a very abstract "save the world or else" path (or else the author needs to do a hard reboot, which is not nice).
edit: the escalation was managed very well - looking forward to book 5.
October 23, 2021
Good Book
It's a good book. Well written no profanity. Has a very unique system. Great sifi.
The book has many adult situations And the main character is an anti hero. That's not usually the type of book I like but it kept me interested. Usually I like books where the hero is a real hero for the right reasons even if they have flaws. Who knows though. Maybe the main character will become a hero in time.
I'm looking forward to the next book
It's a good book. Well written no profanity. Has a very unique system. Great sifi.
The book has many adult situations And the main character is an anti hero. That's not usually the type of book I like but it kept me interested. Usually I like books where the hero is a real hero for the right reasons even if they have flaws. Who knows though. Maybe the main character will become a hero in time.
I'm looking forward to the next book
January 29, 2024
A sociopath as the good guy?
I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did, I even reread it a second time. Less morality and more practicality. Her memories are fake, but her decisions are her own. But is the system still manipulating her? What would you do if you were memory wiped and forced to pick an immortal career? I see the logic in the choices, but I wonder when the shoe will drop. I'm looking forward to the next book.
I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did, I even reread it a second time. Less morality and more practicality. Her memories are fake, but her decisions are her own. But is the system still manipulating her? What would you do if you were memory wiped and forced to pick an immortal career? I see the logic in the choices, but I wonder when the shoe will drop. I'm looking forward to the next book.
October 28, 2021
Interesting
Its a good story and the premise is fun there are some spelling issues and some of the sci-fi naming of stuff was kind of unnecessary an annoying such as Kim or Cim which I'm guessing was supposed to be kilometers and centimeters and is a persistent error but might not. Overall though it was fun and I hope to see a sequel
Its a good story and the premise is fun there are some spelling issues and some of the sci-fi naming of stuff was kind of unnecessary an annoying such as Kim or Cim which I'm guessing was supposed to be kilometers and centimeters and is a persistent error but might not. Overall though it was fun and I hope to see a sequel
July 27, 2022
Great sci-fi litrpg
This was a great storry! I find the society interesting, and how Benning Kidd fits into it was a fun ride. Its nice to see litrpg that isn't apocalyptic or isekai'd into generic fantasy. There is a little bit of OPness happening, but not overly so. I'm curious to see where this goes.
This was a great storry! I find the society interesting, and how Benning Kidd fits into it was a fun ride. Its nice to see litrpg that isn't apocalyptic or isekai'd into generic fantasy. There is a little bit of OPness happening, but not overly so. I'm curious to see where this goes.
August 11, 2021
Book one
Mistakes: I found one sentence that just suddenly cut off.
Plot: This is some good space litrpg. The world is well explained and interesting.
Characters: I really like the MC and look forward to more.
7/10 That missing half a sentence lost this book half a star.
Mistakes: I found one sentence that just suddenly cut off.
Plot: This is some good space litrpg. The world is well explained and interesting.
Characters: I really like the MC and look forward to more.
7/10 That missing half a sentence lost this book half a star.
August 12, 2021
A SciFi LitRPG
Truly SF. Lots of spaceships and missiles and lasers. Discussions of various FTL engines and exotic power sources. Armor and guns, with melee weapons on the side.
Also, quite crunchy. Classes and skills, level ups and abilities.
Truly SF. Lots of spaceships and missiles and lasers. Discussions of various FTL engines and exotic power sources. Armor and guns, with melee weapons on the side.
Also, quite crunchy. Classes and skills, level ups and abilities.
August 16, 2021
Fun dive into space litrpg
Nice variation from the usual D & D themes. Main character is interesting for number of reasons in that she threatens society as it stands and is a ticking time bomb although she doesn't know, yet. Look forward to more installments.
Nice variation from the usual D & D themes. Main character is interesting for number of reasons in that she threatens society as it stands and is a ticking time bomb although she doesn't know, yet. Look forward to more installments.
August 29, 2021
Unusual lit-rpg
Very good story that follows a drone getting a chance to become more than just a drone, and undermining the whole system… Hopefully she will keep evolving into someone that becomes more human, and hopefully more empathic.
Very good story that follows a drone getting a chance to become more than just a drone, and undermining the whole system… Hopefully she will keep evolving into someone that becomes more human, and hopefully more empathic.
February 21, 2022
Very good.
If you enjoy science fiction you have to read this. So much going on in terms of sci-fi. Tech and space flights and a little bit of Dollhouse elements to it, can't wait to start the next one.
If you enjoy science fiction you have to read this. So much going on in terms of sci-fi. Tech and space flights and a little bit of Dollhouse elements to it, can't wait to start the next one.
March 1, 2022
Enjoyed the book (and the sequel). It would have got five stars it it wasn't for the unnecessary changing of measurement names. Cims, Ems, Kims... What was the point? It was quite jarring to read and pulled me out of immersion every time. I know it's obvious what they're replacing but that's also why it's unnecessary.
If it's done just to be different/edgy/cool then I'm afraid it missed for me.
If it's supposed to show how language changes over time, I get it but it is still irritating and immersion-breaking.
It may have also confused the author at one point. One woman's uniform is described as having a "one em stripe of (colour) down it". How wide is she, that one metre of colour is considered a stripe?
Having written this length of review I can see that it may have bothered me more than I thought.
I still enjoyed the book and I like the author's other work, this is not intended to turn people off his work.
If it's done just to be different/edgy/cool then I'm afraid it missed for me.
If it's supposed to show how language changes over time, I get it but it is still irritating and immersion-breaking.
It may have also confused the author at one point. One woman's uniform is described as having a "one em stripe of (colour) down it". How wide is she, that one metre of colour is considered a stripe?
Having written this length of review I can see that it may have bothered me more than I thought.
I still enjoyed the book and I like the author's other work, this is not intended to turn people off his work.
June 5, 2022
unlikeable heroine
I wanted to like her. People did her wrong, and she deserved to be strong and never manipulated and abused ever again. Sadly, the author made her too much of an asshat. Disappointed.
I wanted to like her. People did her wrong, and she deserved to be strong and never manipulated and abused ever again. Sadly, the author made her too much of an asshat. Disappointed.
November 26, 2022
Fun story! Wasn’t sure what I’d think of this one at first; it was very different from my usual reads. But I enjoyed the story immensely. Very creative worldbuilding, strong characterization, and an interesting plot.
January 3, 2023
This is just grand!
It has a priceless main character that does whatever is needed. It is fast paced with a good blend of character types. The motivations and actions match up perfectly. This is just fun!
It has a priceless main character that does whatever is needed. It is fast paced with a good blend of character types. The motivations and actions match up perfectly. This is just fun!
July 15, 2023
Excellent Series
This story of a respawn fodder gaining Citizenship and becoming a Starship member and a Gladiator was absolutely fantastic. I’m not so sure how much Science is in this fiction, but most of this story is plausible.
This story of a respawn fodder gaining Citizenship and becoming a Starship member and a Gladiator was absolutely fantastic. I’m not so sure how much Science is in this fiction, but most of this story is plausible.
August 8, 2021
Great stuff!
It's very refreshing to read a sci-fi LitRPG, let alone a sci-fi LitRPG as compelling as this! Excellent stuff here!
It's very refreshing to read a sci-fi LitRPG, let alone a sci-fi LitRPG as compelling as this! Excellent stuff here!
August 20, 2021
Great read! Loved the strong female lead!
This was really interesting read. This novel take on syfi and litrpgs in general . 10\10 would definitely read again !
This was really interesting read. This novel take on syfi and litrpgs in general . 10\10 would definitely read again !
September 16, 2021
I got this book on a whim
And never had a lot of hope from the title but to my surprise it just got better and better so I can only say give it a go it is good
And never had a lot of hope from the title but to my surprise it just got better and better so I can only say give it a go it is good
September 18, 2021
Drone
The writing was good but the MC wasn’t engaging- I found myself rushing through the last quarter of the book.
Rating: 3/5
Cover: 2/5
Narration: NA
Favorite Line: MA
The writing was good but the MC wasn’t engaging- I found myself rushing through the last quarter of the book.
Rating: 3/5
Cover: 2/5
Narration: NA
Favorite Line: MA
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