Gates of Thunder

Loner Series #1

by Alex Kosh

Arktania is a virtual game with a steampunk style. It's a place where magic spells, enchanted artifacts, steam-powered machines, firearms and mechanical golems are a part of everyday life.

Gamer Andrew Falk begins his journey in a small village on the border of Orcish territory. The locals are the keepers of many secrets, but their behavior is too realistic for characters in a game; so realistic, in fact, that Andrew starts to treat them as if they were real people. Maybe because of the way he plays, or maybe just thanks to good luck, he becomes one of a mysterious class of people known as "sliders,” allowing him to control electricity and earn the favor of Elenia, the goddess of fate.

But as he advances through levels, the pain threshold in his character settings gradually begins to drop, making the game increasingly more dangerous. Andrew is facing a hard either to keep on playing, risking eventual death by pain shock, or to abandon his gamer pod altogether. Still, his digital adventures just won’t let him go, immersing him ever deeper into VR…

Genres: Litrpg, Fantasy, Audiobook

465 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

I was born and live in Moscow. For a long time worked as a programmer, I am now fully dedicate myself to books and sports. Acrobatics, street workout, taking part in long-distance races and competitions in powerlifting.

Reviews

[Russell Gray]

Maybe if this was 2017, I would have rated this 3 or maybe even 4 stars, but time and reader expectations have advanced. Even in a fledgling genre like litrpg, it's not acceptable to go 25% of a story (over 100 pages) without anything happening other than a bunch of infodumping.

The prose was full of proofreading errors and typos. I don't know how much of this is because of the translation, but it's way below genre standard, which is already below what you would expect from traditionally published writing. There wasn't a single chapter that didn't have at least one mistake.

The character also seemed idiotic, judgemental, and hypocritical. He avoided reading anything about the game he was going to play because he wanted to experience it all brand new to the point that he even randomized his character's backstory, but within a couple of hours, he went searching the forums for info...uh ok. Also players can only create avatars that match their own biological gender for 'obvious' reasons. Um...what obvious reasons? You can be an ogre or a dwarf, but a guy playing a female character, heaven forbid.

There was just nothing here for me. I just started reading Jake's Magic Market instead and the first 20 pages have already given me more than I got from over 100 pages of this book.

[NiteHaze]

I enjoyed the book but I feel the need to discuss Falk's obsessive nature towards a woman he only 'meets' once (and I mean 'meet' in the looses terms because they do not even have a conversation). He gets upset that she is already engaged, has an instant dislike to her fiancé, describes the woman as his 'dream girl', describes his feelings as a 'man in love', finds her social media and proceeds to go through her photos and comments.

This kind of behavior is scary and even if they MC and this woman gets together in the future the foundation of their relationship is creepy.

As for his life in the real world I understand why a lot of gamelit/litrpg has a 'trapped in the game' element to it because the MC in the real world is miserable. The only thing he really does is exercise 3 days a week.

Now lets talk about the game world.

I like player creation and I think that the backstory feature is an interesting part of the game but it also seems to lock the player into a certain path.

I LOVE 'cradles' (where new players go to acclimate to the game). I LOVE the thought that the game AI is so smart that NPCs act and are treated like real people. And I especially LOVE when the MC actually stays for a long time in the cradle and becomes part of the community. I expected his stay to be a month like it was hinted but it was just about over a week. I honestly would have preferred a month.

Maybe it is because I also play more relaxed games like Story of Seasons/ Rune Factory so I don't think that being confined to one area would bother me that much.

The game mechanics is a mixed bag for me. I like that low and high level monsters can reside in the same area. It reminds me of Xenoblade where a high level monster can be peaceful until you attack or having to be aware of a high lvl monster that will aggro at the sight of you.

I think the achievements were meant to be cute but I don't think that killing 50 or 100 of the same monster should unlock it. Especially such low lvl monsters that requires 100 pelts to make a coat.

Also I was not the biggest fan of how skills could be learned. Sometimes you actually have to do something to learn the skill but then the MC learned the skill of evasion through a conversation.

Mixed feelings overall but I still consider it a enjoyable read.

[Ivan]

Увидел эту книгу в каком-то из супермаркетов, на полочке с журналами о вышивке и танчиках. Взял полистать, крайне позабавил формат "текстового летсплея" - кажется, подобное было в ЛКИ или Навигаторе лет так 10 назад.
По поводу сюжета - всё довольно банально, если вы смотрели аниме типа .hack//SIGN или Sword Art Online, если нет - то тут про "попаданца", но слава богу не в тело Сталина, а в MMORPG с полным погружением, которые по замыслу автора появятся у нас с вами дома уже в недалёком будущем.
Читается легко, и наверное это главное достоинство подобной книги, а на большее я и не рассчитывал. Чтобы читать в метро по дороге на работу - сойдёт.

[Travis]

I received a review copy of this book.
I like this book. The world is interesting, and although it's one that bleeds over into the real world (as some LitRPG stories do), I found it's mechanics to be fairly straightforward, and the story enjoyable. There certainly is a brand of uniqueness to this one, which is hard to find these days. Highly recommended.

[Johnny]

Book one

I received an ARC of this book to check the translation from Russian to English. I'm sure I missed some things, but found what I could. I'm now working on the second book and to be honest I didn't remember this one at all and had to go through my notes to find it.
I seem to have found this book to be rather simplistic with the learning of skills to be way to easy.

5/10

[Roberto Flores]

Has potential, but is rough in several places.

Needs a better edit, there are numerous mistakes throughout. Nothing that hinders reading, just small errors. The story is a bit choppy which causes it to drag in several places.

[Michael Jackson]

Fantastic start

Well a very interesting start to this series some questions lead to answers but some just lead to more questions, if you like vr and litrpg then you will like this series well thought out and follows an interesting progression ark.

[Richin109]

Really like this book

It is a virtual reality / real-world book with some twists. The fact that the vr world is really hard core and the fact that almost all the quests are unique.

[Snowy]

I really loved this book. I have read a lot of LitRPGs, but there is something about this one you just really wand Falk to succeed. Being the little guy is rough in a world where money and friends matter.

[Jeff]

Great first first book

I liked the characters and the story was well done. There are a lot of things that can happen from here, it will be interesting to see where the story goes.

[Jace March]

Good read

It was a good read, interesting class and weapon for the main character. I will be getting the next one.

[Bruce]

Where's the next book?

Series never get written fast enough for me sigh. I really like the steampunk genre plus this book is great

[Ray Ritchey]

fun read

Nice fun LitRPG Russian flavored which I enjoyed reading a lot.

Hidden Story line hinted at has a lot of potential.

[Dias Kappassov]

Хорошо зайдет для тех кто когда либо играл игры жанра RPG, и использует геймификацию в жизни.

[Johnie C]

Great read

I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who likes LitRPG and progression type of books with lots of action.

[Crissy Moss]

Interesting new world. I like that the author doesn't power level the main character right away, instead he gives him subtle skills and abilities that he has to be smart to use in creative ways.

[Anthony Milton]

excellent read

I was very surprised by how I ended up enjoying everything from how the virtual reality was set up to character development and potential.

[Lundos]

I seem to like the Russian variants of LitRPG the most - on average. This is no exception. Nothing really groundbreaking but solid pace, progression, and setup.

[Youssef]

This is very much a run of the mill litrpg. Unless one is new to the genre, there is nothing new or innovative here. It would be mean of me to say that the author put together a number of stale tropes and called it a day, but it wouldn't be totally unfair. It's still enjoyable if one doesn't mind.

Now I have peeves I need pass to somebody else:

There are "obvious" reasons why a man can't play a female character? Not to me. Is that a Russian thing?

Apparently we don't know how thunder happens? Is this a conspiracy theory I'm not aware of?

Apparently just seeing a woman across a bar, once, is enough to be devastated upon learning she's engaged. MC is a creep.

MC is a doormat or there is a weird attitude to authority in Russia. Agrees to a high handed summon from a company of which he's a customer. Thinks having a card with all sensitive info like medical history is nifty. Gives said card to security guard, not even a policeman just a security guard, with no second thought. Lets the condescending guard who is now perusing his sensitive data talk shit about his name. Again the guard works for a company, and he's a customer. He has no reason to put up with this, yet he does. This is so weird to me.

He meets the company rep alone. There are no lawyers, no assistants, no other executives. This could never happen.

He is told that their product could lead to neurological injuries, even death. No lawyers or doctors are present. He isn't provided any documents, only told his contract is terminated. Yet said company did not disable his account the moment this life threatning problem was detected, not even after the summon and the interview. Is this plausible in Russia? I can't think it possible anywhere!

MC's reaction: to whine, and whine, then as soon as possible use the faulty, life threatening product.