Book Review: Immortal by Matthew Stenning

     Karingali is a fantastical medieval type game world where you design your characters, go on quests, and level up. But what happens to those characters when the users aren't around? Or if they quit the game entirely? These characters become known as ghosted or dispossessed and have to fend for themselves in the vain hope that one day their users will return for them. Except some are desperate for freedom from their users to do and say as they please. In the struggle for independence they have found a glitch into another world, but the Dynast which controls the game has no desire to be rid of that which it can control and these elves, humans, dwarves, and even a vampire must do everything in their power to stop the Dynast and regain their freedom. 

    I received this book from the publicist Henry Roi in exchange for an honest review. While I was initially thrilled at the prospect of the book as it started with a gaming character being sentient and trying to escape their user my desire soon dwindled. The story is great. Plot is intriguing and I genuinely wanted to know what happened in the story. 

    The biggest issue with this book isn't one that can easily be solved. The author simply tried too hard and instead of just writing the book and making it an entertaining read they spent so much time trying to use eloquent words that made the read tedious. If you overlook the fact that the writing style is beyond boring and how many times the author flops back and forth over the state of females dress the story is good. 

    As with any RPG male users will frequently cause their female characters to have large busts and barely any clothes. Keeping that in the story is completely fine because, hey, it's something that happens and really isn't an issue. But where one second they are user "possessed" and then when they are free they are still dressing like that and every time a male character is looking at them it is leering it quickly gets old. 

    Grimalkin is my favorite character since she is very unique. She is the only vampire and even that description of her is not traditional. She has hind hooves, grey skin, wings, claws, and fangs. I think because of her being different she became my favorite character. She is also the only one that doesn't need to be scantily clad at all times. That being said even that isn't consistent. One second she is in understandable clothes and then she's back in slutty clothes even though she isn't in Karingali anymore. Annoying, but not the character's fault. 

    I think this is the first LitRPG book that I haven't completely loved. While I understood the writing and many people from other reviews seemed to enjoy it I feel like it took away from the story itself. It felt like they were just trying too hard. 

    This book is available on Amazon for $2.99 by clicking here. This book is available on Kindle Unlimited.