Tedious

[Note: This book is, I gather, something of an origin story for characters populating another Maharenko series ('Way Of The Shaman'). I haven't read any of those books, so there's no nostalgic familiarity on my part.. just an honest review of 'The Renegades']:

There are certainly some original ideas at play in this Vasily Maharenko/Eugenia Dmitrieva story. A struggling musician enters the MMORPG World of 'Barliona' looking for songwriting inspiration. She winds up playing 'Lorelei', a fairly typical AD&D-styled Bard - but also a member of an imaginative sentient plant-like race known as the "Biota". Lorelei builds an adventuring party with some fellow Noobs, and grows in Experience & Power. She develops in the typical "Grind Skills, Learn Spells, Unlock Professions, Complete Quests" fashion of standard LitRPG - and the character progression is handled capably - but the plot gets bogged down in mundane worldbuilding and the action seems to be included merely as a means to illustrate gameplay mechanics. Add in the philosophical discussions (why girls don't play video games as much as boys, for example), too-frequent Gamer Slang & Acronyms in dialogue, and overdone pop-culture/literary references.. and I was often bored.

The juvenile reading performance from Andrea Emmes disappointed me as well. To be certain, she's a true professional (exhibiting crisp diction and an interested tone) - but she displays cartoonish voice-acting and has a natural timbre that sounds like an 8-year-old child.
The translation from the Russian by Boris Smirnov is commendable (the words 'Pedantic' and 'Tautology' are a little bit pretentious but used correctly, for example), but the verbosity is likewise mildly annoying.
I wasn't impressed with the overall presentation.

Altogether, this book is solidly aimed at existing Maharenko fans. As a mere GameLit reader unfamiliar with the 'Barliona' reality, I personally can't rate it any higher than 3 stars out of 10. There are much better options available to occupy your time. Even for free, non-WOTS fans should avoid this one.

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