Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Book Review: The Many Sins of Rein City by J. R. Plangman


     Sasha is a home-schooled high-schooler whose entire life is within the four walls of her house and the Net. Since her father had programmed their Toby to not allow her out of the house Sasha's favorite pass-time was low grade hacking with her friends online. Afterall, her body was wired with the needed cables to just load into the net like everyone else. Why not do a little coding and see what she could do. It was more exciting than Toby's lectures anyways. The worst she would get is a red mark on her account, which she could appeal to have removed. Things likely never would have progressed beyond that if her friend, Rei, hadn't mysteriously disappeared from the Net one day. Rei never would have just left without a word. Something must have happened and in her quest to find her friend Sasha will find more than she ever could have imagined. 

    I received a copy of this eBook from the author in exchange for an honest review. Ever since I discovered the VR and LitRPG genres I have been devouring anything I can find in them, be it traditionally published or Indie. Primarily Indie since that is a lot of what I read. When I received this request I was excited to begin it and the book held up it's end of the bargain. 

    As with a lot of the VR books I have read it is a teenager. However, this book isn't set entirely online as some books are. Instead it is set primarily in Rein City with multiple scenes in the net. I also see this book as a bit post-apocalyptic although I am not sure of any cataclysmic event that happened that lead to the way things are in this book. Such as mega cities surrounded by a wall to stop further expansion and you must have papers to enter or exit said city. I couldn't imagine that. I don't even like going to the next closest big city to me, Indianapolis. 

    Toby was my favorite character in this book, even though he is an AI. He has a lot of personality and independent thoughts. To a degree. It doesn't sit well with me that his personality was so easily altered in this book, but I understand and it did go with the flow of the story. It just seemed wrong to mess with something that was a part of him, even if it was something programmed into him at an earlier time. 

    There were things in this book that both surprised me and didn't. I expected something to be happening to the Chinese, but not quite what was. I suspected two of the people involved, but not to the extent. I didn't give a thought to the background of one of those people and the impact that had. Nor did I expect all the details that made up that character. They were definitely an interesting character and one that I loved to hate. It was simply too easy to hate them. What happened to Rei was a bit expected as well, although I am sorry it did. 

    I enjoyed this book from start to finish, even the expected parts. There was enough mystery in the pages to keep you reading and entertained till the very end. 

    This book is available on Kindle Unlimited or you can buy it on Amazon for $4.99 by clicking here

Books by this author:

The Endless War of Edward the Last

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